Many of you may begin with the thought; I am just a contractor.

I don’t want to be the business owner; I just want to do the work.

That is what is important. Yes, doing the work is important. Keeping track of your hard costs, soft costs, general expenses and overhead is the difference between making a profit or having a loss.

Ignoring the costs do not make them go away; it just avoids putting them on the tax return. Any missed expenses make your profit on the job look higher than it really is and causes you to pay more income taxes because all net profit is taxable.

All businesses need to keep track of their company expenses, including the material and much more. Contractors usually go from one extreme (doing nothing) to the other (trying to count every bean, every paperclip, all the nails and, the scraps of 2x4’s). The balance is somewhere in the middle.

Labor is the biggest cost you will face. As an owner / operator, you're entitled to the same wages your construction company would pay for having another construction worker on the payroll. Otherwise, why not go to work for someone else?

A person makes the decision to become a contractor. It’s easy. Now you are the boss; no one to tell you what to do, how to do it when to do it. Yes – It’s easy.  It’s Morning, Are you ready?

New Year’s Day is the day to make New Year’s Resolutions and a start fresh!

It is a reset button for every Contractor business on January 1st of every year!

The previous tax year ends on December 31st.

Final expenses for December will be coming in by email or US Mail.

What to focus on to make the New Year more prosperous than ever...

Happy New Year

It’s almost the end of the year and time to decide if your employees deserve a Bonus. You may call it a
Generic Employee Bonus, Christmas Bonus, Holiday Bonus or Year End Bonus

Giving An Employee Bonus Comes Down To Cash Flow

Merry Christmas To All!

Everyone celebrates the Holiday Season in his or her own way.
Even the “Bah Hum Bug” people get pleasure out of their “Bah Hum Bug”ness.  

Enjoy, Embrace, Be Glad, Be Joyful and maybe a Little Sad. No one is up and happy a 100% of the time. Do something nice for others. A smile is easy; it’s always with you, and it’s FREE. It can be a simple thing.

Accepting Credit Cards Can Immediately Increase Sales And Profits*

*We do not provide merchant services. We suggest you start by contacting you bank and doing your own research. I know from many years while we were contractors it paid off handsomely so I am simply passing on a mere "scrap of information" to help you get more cashflow and profit.

Unplanned Emergencies - Are stressful now add "how am I going to pay for this" to the mix and the anxiety increases exponentially! For most people cash in short supply which leaves using a credit card, getting a bank loan or selling something to raise cash as their best options?

For Example - Homeowner with leaking roof is going to get it fixed right away because rain water is damaging the interior of their home including some irreplaceable sentimental treasures including items passed down from parents and grandparents.

Who Will They Call? - You I hope! If you are their contractor and you are actively working and the contractor they like and trust.

"Everybody wins, your client gets roof fixed, they earn airline miles and other perks and you made a sale which you could have easily lost to a competitor that accepts credit cards.

Add On Sales - Will more than make up for any fees you pay to accept credit cards. Prove it to yourself by asking twenty contractors that accept credit cards why they do and then ask twenty that don't and make up your own mind. In our past construction businesses when we accepted credit cards the profits increased over 100% and if I told you how much I guarantee you would not believe it!

The time flies between each of the holidays. It is a time to reflect on the years so far and catch up.   
The magical time of year begins with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas then finally New Year’s Eve.

Picking A Get Me By Contractor’s Bookkeeping Solution in many cases is using an Excel Spreadsheet and a shoebox, file folders all dumped into a file box and looking at the Online Banking once in a while. This accounting method is the “I still got money so I must be okay.”

Contractor CFO’s Struggle To Achieve Good QuickBooks Reports

Contractor CFO’s are in a constant struggle between having all of the documents needed for data entry and providing the tools for the Office Manager | Bookkeeper need to do the job.

Owners want answers to the following questions

Am I making any money?

Where am I making any money?

Why isn’t there a report that at the push of the button gives me all the answers?

When Your Company Was New, The Answers Were Not As Important As They Are Now

You are a small contractor who needs an Admin Assistant to answer your phone, so you hire someone for your contracting company office.

Calls come in, and your Admin Assistant has some free time between calls, so you want to make use of that famous Standby Time, and you ask them to do a little more. Being nice; you give a new title of Office Manager.  

As the Office Manager; that person is in control of the bookkeeping, customer invoices, vendor payments and more. As the contractor, you are excited because you are handing off the responsibility for the day to day activities.

From your side; you have checked off the box called Office Manger DONE, phones DONE, bookkeeping DONE and material pickup and delivery person DONE. Everything is solved. Good now you can go back to work and start doing the work which is the part you are good at and like to do.  

Are you expecting Too Much from your Office Manager?