Finances Are A Mystery To Many

Having a business of my own, I am required to know a great deal about finances. So, I hang out in tax classes, CPA offices, breakfast meetings...and let me tell you, even some company proprietors don’t completely comprehend finances. We use QuickBooks Pro for our accounting system, and no, I don’t make a commission on selling it or anything, but I was surfing the Q&A on shareholder distribution and shocked that a business owner didn’t know that they were supposed to take a paycheck or a distribution. This woman was actually writing checks FROM her company checking account to pay for her groceries. Wow! How do you go into business and not understand that these kinds of transactions are "red flags" for IRS audits? It’s a mystery to me. Finances Can Be Really Boring I’ll take you back to 1998 when I took my first accounting class and I just wanted to fall asleep. Say it with me "BORING"! I could not wait until I was done with that class and it sure is a good thing that it was fairly short. The BEST and most HELPFUL class, if you want to call it that, was my interactions with my very first CPA. His name is Vern, nice guy, but that man could talk your ear off. Seriously though, he taught me a lot more than my accounting course ever did. He probably got off the phone with me each time laughing about my dumb questions, but I finally got it. To this day, all these many years later I am grateful for the accounting coaching for our many different businesses. Despite the fact that I have an accounting program do almost everything for me, I still need to have the training that I received. If you have a company I advise going through a elementary accounting class, but listen up when you talk to your accountant. You will learn a lot. Why Do You Need To Know About Finances? Speaking with other business owners in my networking endeavors, I learned that they think that it’s the CPA’s job to handle everything and not know about "all of that stuff". I don’t get that mentality at all! I think it’s irresponsible not to educate yourself in the area of your own company AND your personal finances. Other stories that I have heard are of the embezzlement nature. Can you imagine not knowing enough about a Profit and Loss (P&L) that you can’t even see that your business partner is stealing money from you? I heard this story a couple of months ago. This along with other stories are my inspiration for writing this article. These are obviously business owners doing it all and can’t take the time to mess with getting trained. I get it! I’m swamped with work too, but you must make your finances a priority. Personal Finances Out Of Balance? All this discussion about business finances and no mention of how unfamiliar personal finances can be to people these days. Actually, I’m a little confused how people can go into debt and live beyond their resources and not realize that it will cause a problem some day. I was brought up in a rather poor home...indeed we had meat only once a month and I never had milk EVER. So, having money means making use of it wisely and investing it for the long run. I've got friends who place trips to family member's on their charge cards then compound the problem by going all out at Christmas time. I don’t understand how they can do this in the first place, but continuing their lifestyle and not paying back the credit card before interest accrues is simply not good financial responsibility. If you’re in debt like this and plan to see grandma once a year then you had better alter your expenses and start saving. I understand that the media brainwashes people to assume that they can have it all. Why don’t people get financial training for their personal life? Honestly, it would make their quality of life a lot better if they would. You know that you aren’t going to get anything else from The Prosperous Lady, right? That’s all I do, help folks to become prosperous. To your success, The Prosperous Lady

Finances are a mystery to many folks...especially those starting a small business. Visit Sharon Prosperity at The Prosperity People Blog for more online marketing resources from an industry expert!