Starting a business can be rewarding and satisfying, but as any entrepreneur (successful or otherwise) will tell you, it’s not without it’s challenges.
Some advantages you may already have noticed include swapping the Northern Line commute for the 30 second walk between your bed and the desk in your home office. Not having an infuriating boss to report to may be another. But one of the biggest difficulties for new entrepreneurs can be mastering the role of jack-of-all trades.
To reap any significant reward from your labours, you’ll need to be financially savvy and understand how accounts work. Key to your business’s successful growth, this is a skill that comes naturally to some, but by no means all entrepreneurs.
When you’re knee-deep in marketing proposals and sales strategies is can be hugely frustrating to have to break away from planning your business’ future to sort out a balance sheet or spend a day thinking about cashflow.
One of the most common things I hear from entrepreneurs is what a tedious process it is to keep accounts in order and keeping abreast with the ever-changing financial legislation filtering down from Whitehall is a full-time job on its own.
No wonder I’m always hearing about companies looking to ‘immigrate’ to Ireland to benefit from a lower and simpler tax process. It’s for precisely this reason it’s worth investing some time in a decent accountancy software package. Get it right from the outset and it’ll save you more than just time going forward.
Stuart Lynn heads up the research and development (engineering) department for Sage’s UK small business division.
