For small business owners, managing their books and finances can be time-consuming and stressful. Recent surveys have shown that 80% of American small business owners experience stress related to their taxes. A key part of being prepared for tax time is having a clean and organized set of books to give your tax accountant at the end of the year. Breakaway can help with that!

Some people just work better on their own. And others enjoy the flexibility of being their own boss. Over the last decade, we’ve seen a jolt in self-employed businesses, with 16 million workers who identify as self-employed in the United States. Across all industries, professionals have seen the benefits of becoming entrepreneurs.

Running a small business requires the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome—now more than ever. Over the past couple of years, it has become more important than ever for business owners to be able to find expert advice, stay on top of changing information, and adapt quickly to new insights. Having a knowledgeable advisor on your side has never been more important to ensuring that you are able to focus on building and scaling your business with confidence.

Whether you want to own a business, get ahead in your career, or start a side hustle, having the mindset of an entrepreneur can help you embrace challenges, own mistakes, and reframe failures as opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Learning to have an entrepreneurial mindset is increasingly valued in college courses, online learning, and networking. But what exactly is it, and how can it make you better at marketing yourself or your business?

When you look at your bookkeeping from a holistic standpoint, you may notice some gaps. Maybe your books are closing late every month, or maybe your business has innovated faster than your bookkeeping methods. No matter where you are in your holistic bookkeeping journey, you’ll be able to benefit from sitting down and organizing your monthly bookkeeping routine. That way, if and when you choose to work with a fractional CFO to improve your business’s finances, your new partner will have accurate, well-organized information from which to work.

Your business finances don’t have to be overwhelming for you and your bookkeeping team. Even if you have no team and you’re on your own taking care of the books for your small business, it’s time to consider investing in these five finance tools. As a scaling, efficient bookkeeping team, we’ve tried nearly every bookkeeping software solution available—but you don’t have to. Here are the five we depend on most to organize, share, and protect our clients’ business finances (and our own) every day.

I distinctly remember the thrill of opening my first credit card. At a department store, where I was spending more money than I probably should have been, the sales associate at the cash register offered me the opportunity to open a store card extolling the benefits of using their card– including a 20% discount on my purchase that day. I signed up immediately. It didn’t take long to regret the decision. I’ve never been one to act so impulsively when it came to my personal finances and couldn’t believe how easily I took the bait.

If you’re reading this, I would like to thank you for being a part of the Breakaway story. Every one of our colleagues, clients, friends, believers has had an important part of building this amazing community that supports small businesses and brings JOY to accounting, for both our clients and our advisors.

The topic of credit scores is highly debated. Some people say that credit scores don’t matter and that there are other ways to secure financing with either low scores or no credit history. But I’m here to say they do matter. And they are one of the best tools that a person has to have some control over their financial future.

Twenty twenty-one is boom time. Everyone is getting back out in the world and having a good time. People who were stuck at home all last year are now traveling and seeing friends and family… But in between those BBQs and vacations, it’s time we should all spend a few minutes focused on our finances. After all, now that it feels like the world hit the “reset” button, there’s no better time to check in and see where you stand, by the numbers.