One of my biggest goals in starting my business was to help entrepreneurs and small business owners.
How? First, through optimization or creation of their email marketing efforts. Second, share my findings for how to build and scale my business.
You may find it odd that this first post has nothing to do with email marketing, but I love seeing friends and acquaintances grow in their careers while following their passion. In this Covid age (I had to mention it), we’ve all been pushed to take a closer look at our day-to-day and find ways to improve. There’s nothing I find more exciting than seeing people and their businesses grow.
In the last 6 months, I’m grateful to have launched a successful business — mostly on my own, but also with the help of some really great tools. In this time, I’ve learned a lot about what to do myself and what to trust others to do. These are the tools I’ve loved using that have changed my business for the better.
Collective
I’m a big fan of outsourcing work you don’t feel comfortable doing. I am NO tax or accounting expert, and I really have zero desire to be. The biggest hurdle to starting my business was navigating set up, tax filings, and how (and how much) to pay myself.
Collective offers creative solopreneurs a done-for-you tax solution that saves most around $9k a year in taxes.
I will admit, my first month in business was a tight one financially. So many people don’t talk about this part. Truth is, you can save up for years and still not feel financially prepared to start your own business. Although I felt very naked sharing all of my personal finance information with them, they walked me through each step and made the process as stress-free as possible. Working with their team not only empowered me, but gave me time back to focus on growing my business.
Today, months have passed, I’ve paid my first quarterly tax estimate and reached out to the Collective team several times(all via email) with questions I couldn’t count on Google to answer. I have loved working with their team and they recently rolled out a bookkeeping service that I am a HUGE fan of. If you know nothing about reconciling accounts, compliance, and filings of all sorts, this is for you. Oh, and if you have no desire to learn Quickbooks, this is also for you.
Shameless plug coming next — If you find it’s a fit and join using my code (MJ9790), we both get a month covered. Happy to answer any questions you may have if you’re on the fence about whether or not it’s right for you. They also offer consultation calls if you have specific questions for their team.
If you’re on the edge of scaling your business and not sure what steps are next, I highly recommend making the investment in Collective. It’s also a tax deduction… IYKYK. For me, it’s a no brainer and I’ve been really happy I made the decision to work with their team of tax and bookkeeping professionals.
Gusto
By way of Collective, I was introduced to Gusto. Both Gusto and Quickbooks online are included in your Collective subscription for $199/mo. Gusto is quick to set up, sends you reminders when it’s time to run payroll, and has an easy-to-navigate dashboard.
These two tools have cut down my administrative work significantly, and I’m so happy to have found them both. I am a customer for life.
The gusto platform is incredibly user friendly and very pleasing to the eyes. They also have a cute little pig in a scarf as their loading bar… It’s truly the little things. I also have a referral link if you want to check it out for your business! If it’s a fit for you, they’ll send you a $100 Visa gift card after your first payroll run.
Wethos
Wethos is genius. Granted I don’t use the platform to the full extent (they offer invoicing, splitting payments, team building tools, and more), I find Wethos to be a great resource for creative entrepreneurs. If you are taking more of an agency route, they also have tools for that.
One of the biggest resources within Wethos is project templates. I built my general terms agreement based off of a (totally free) template they offer on their site. I also built a few templates of my own that they purchased from me to add to their general library.
With The Great Resignation upon us, it’s clear that contract work is the absolute future for creatives. Wethos has been an incredible tool when it comes to protecting and sharing my work, estimating project costs, and creating agreements between myself and my clients.
I don’t have any special offer from Wethos to share with you, but it’s free to use and incredibly helpful. Check it out!
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Are you starting or growing a business of your own? I’d love to hear what you’re working on and what tools work for you.
