Bridge The Gap Accounting Services Ltd.

As much as I realize the importance of having a web presence, days and days go by where I think about how I need to get a blog out there, yet it never seems to happen.  I wonder if this is similar to what the small business owner goes through when he or she thinks about their paper work and getting a handle on their business Financial Statements.

My concern with blogging is that I will be misunderstood and unknowingly breach confidentiality commitments.   We all know how easy it is to miscommunicate when we’re chatting with some-one face to face and we have all kinds of tools like eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice etc. Removing all these tools increases the chances of being misunderstood, dramatically.  I think I need to come to terms with the idea that writing a blog is not having a conversation.  It’s just about shareing  my knowledge either by way of technical writing or telling a story.  I also need to trust that if I say something that someone finds offensive, that, that some-one will contact me to clarify before jumping to unhealthy conclusions.  If they don’t, it probably doesn’t matter that I’ve offended of them.  I guess I need to just be brave and live from the heart, knowing I’m all about doing the right thing no matter what others see.

…feel the fear and do it anyway.  If you are fearing that mound of paper accumulating in your home and in your vehicle, you may want to feel the fear and check out what I can do to help by visiting www.btgaccounting.com.  If you like what you see we could have a conversation about how I can help you get a better handle on your numbers.

Cheers

I have three clients who have committed to a monthly schedule of submitting their packages for my company to transform into financial statements, who have not showed up – not even a phone call.  Could I possibly blame it on Stampede Week?  I’d like to, that way the answer would be easy, they will almost definitely come to the table next week.  In all honesty, I don’t think it’s Stampede week.  These clients struggle with the importance of monthly financial statements and I may have to reconsider my marketing strategies to target those that do.  I know that the services my company provides are vital for the success of a small business, the reality is many don’t see it that way.   They are ok with not knowing, as stressful as it is, it is their comfort zone.  When will I stop trying to help people who don’t want it?

Do you sense the frustration I’m struggling with?  If any of you small business owners have coping tips for me, I’d love to hear from you.  I know I’m not alone.  I know there are many of us who are passionate about what we do, take the entrepreneurial leap and then struggle with attracting clients who feel what we do is as important as we think it is.

Happy Stampeding!

This is the day to remember how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing country.  It helps that summer seems to have arrived in Calgary, and is expected to remain for at least the next few days – great incentive for me to get down to business so I can free my time to go play outdoors.

I feel very fortunate to have been born into a Canadian family.  My Canadian farming and religious roots have set me up for an appreciation of good work ethic and seeing beyond the surface…qualities that I benefit from everyday as I strive to maintain work- life balance while building Bridge The Gap Accounting Services.

My heart goes out to people who leave their home countries to come to the “promised land”.  I am passionate about welcoming them to our beautiful country and giving them a chance to get on their feet by providing meaningful employment in a respectful work environment.  We all benefit from this.  The new immigrant is able to get Canadian work experience while settling in to the new way of living.  The Small Business Owner get’s top quality bookkeeping services and I feel fulfilled as I set us all up for success by  “bridging the gap” between the two.

If you are part of the Calgary small business community and interested in participating in this circle of success, give me a call at 403-453-1208.

Cheers

I think I have enough day-light to squeeze in a blog before the jog…man you’d think I’m a poet…the way I’ve been cold calling lately, you’d think I’m a sales guru…according to those certificates hanging on the wall and staring me in the face, apparently I’m an Accountant. Am I going through an entity crises?…absolutely not. I am so thrilled to finally know who I am and where I’m going and what I’m going to do when I get there. The beauty of this all, is I’m well grounded and well rounded and strategically positioned to serve the Calgary and area small business community by helping business owners understand their numbers and by sharing my general business knowledge as we review financial statements together. After all, a person does gain some street smarts by spending 20 years in various accounting and Controller positions in a variety of industries.

It’s always a sad day for a small business owner to lose a major client. I had one of those days today. The first such experience since I launched my company a year and a half ago. To top it off, this client was my very first one. It was seeing the relief on his face when I presented him with clean financial records and statements he could understand, that inspired me to take the leap into the world of entrepreneurialism. Sadly, he lost sight of the value. He felt his monthly bill was just too high. I could panic and decrease the rates. As a true entrepreneur, I know better. I know the value-added service I offer is competitively priced and there is an abundance of small business owners that appreciate the value. I can’t stay sad about those that don’t. I just hope my client doesn’t find himself in the same mess he was in when we first crossed paths. I sincerely wish him the best!

It’s jog time…until next time…cheers.

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with Blair Gallant of AO Shirley Memorial Foundation. Interestingly, Blair and I sat on the Riverbend Community Association board together about 10 years ago and we “coincidentally” crossed paths a few weeks ago when one of my clients invited us both to a personal development session. Of course, my client had no idea Blair and I knew each other, in fact, it took Blair and me a few minutes to make the connection.

I arrived at Blair’s office, a neat historic warehouse style building on main street Inglewood, only to find the door locked. Of course, my first reaction was to check that I had the right address. After confirming that I did, I wondered into the next door to discover a man on his hands and news, hammering at some boards in a whole in the floor. I decided to approach the many to ask if he knew a guy named Blair, and to my surprise, it was Blair! Since I was expecting to see a guy in a suit, my first question was, “What is the vision, Blair?…Where are you going with this warehouse that is clearly undergoing a major renovation?” He quickly and passionately described his vision of a meeting place for social entrepreneurs. I was immediately intrigued as I had first heard about social entrepreneurs a few days early while reading the book titled Everything I Needed to Know About Business…I Learned From a Canadian by Leonard Brody & David Raffa.

I’m sure there are many definitions of what it means to be a social entrepreneur. Basically what it means to me, based on what I’ve read and what I’ve experienced, is an individual in business who is taking a more noble approach to business as opposed to the traditional approach that focuses purely on bottom line. I first came up with this idea when I was meandering through Australia a few years ago, reflecting on my experiences in the corporate world over the past 15 years, and asking myself the following questions over and over: What am I a passionate about and how will I make a living doing what I’m passionate about? One of the things that came to mind is my desire to approach business with a sense of humanity. I had discovered my ability to inspire people to be the best that they can be and experienced huge personal satisfaction by doing just that, only to discover this approach was not acceptable in companies where the focus is purely on bottom line. I realized the owners and executive of these companies want puppets to blindly follow their direction to execute their plan of accumulating material wealth for themselves. It was this realization that inspired me to launch Bridge The Gap Accounting Services Ltd., a vehicle with which I can inspire small business owners to significantly increase their chances of business success by helping them understand their numbers. It is also a vehicle with which I can provide meaningful employment to newcomers to Canada and a solid training ground for aspiring accountants.

Back to my lunch with Blair and the book I mentioned…it is so good to know that my conviction to social entrepreneurialism, which was so brutally rejected in the corporate world, is embraced in the Calgary small business community. I am grateful to have found a community in which I feel at home!

Based on my experiences and books and blurbs I’ve read along the way, value is created when something that is useless, or even harmful in its natural state, is transformed into something useful and adds value to the quality of our lives.

At Bridge The Gap Accounting Services Ltd, we transform those stacks of paper that are lurking in your home office, or on your bedroom dresser or in your truck, into monthly financial reporting. We then transform the monthly financial reporting, which is likely “greek” to you (because after-all, your are an entrepreneur, not an accountant) into information that makes sense to you and is useful in making sound business decisions.

I sense the need for monthly, accurate and useful financial reporting within in the Alberta small business community – which I recently learned from an affluent entrepreneur who has done business over all the world, is the best place to be when you’re an entrepreneur – has far out-weighed the supply. I am excited to join the world of entrepreneurialism by providing this much needed service.

One of the secrets of success for an aspiring, high-achieving entrepreneur like myself, and many others, is to know when and how to take a break.  I just had one of those…2 fantastic days at the acreage.  It’s not like I sat on my laurels and did nothing…that’s just not my nature…

The first day, my ex-boyfriend/roommate and I accomplished some much needed tree trimming.  Sadly we had to take three beautiful trees right down to the trunk.  I have such a love for life and all living things, it always saddens me to do the dirty deed, even when I know it’s for the greater good.  These tress had to go, and be reduced to ashes, in order to prevent the further spread of a very deadly and contagious tree disease.

I spent most of yesterday on my horse’s back, riding along with a very dear friend, and her horse, too, of course.  My horse and I shared a few moments of true connection, where she wilfully did what she didn’t want to do, just because I asked and persisted.  This is an amazing connection…as we move forward we will have many more of these moments.  The day had many highlights:  the smiles and bright eyes of many children and some parents, as we rode through the local campground and invited the children to pet the horses;   sitting on the side of a hill, with an amazing view of the foothills, munching on apples and peanuts, watching our horses indulge in some fresh green grass and having a good old girl chat about life.

Now, here I am, in my amazing new office space in the happening  city of Calgary, pumped and ready to work on my baby’s, Bridge The Gap Accounting Services, budget.  The company is at an exciting stage of investing in infrastructure and marketing, in order to launch what one day, will be an empire.  An empire that will put a footprint in the world of business by being very lucrative, at the same time as being strongly rooted in a values system based on creating win-win situations and treating EVERYONE with utmost respect.

Until next time…have a great day!

I’ve recently realized that with growing up on the farm, in the swamp north of Winnipeg, where  either the ground was too wet, or too dry, or the growing season too short, or the geese ate the crops…and the list goes on, financial resources were always very limited.  As a kid, I absorbed and took on the belief that money is scarce.  I now see within myself and many others around me, that by hanging on to this belief  money will always be scarce… no matter how hard we work, how many hours we work, how ambitious we are, how we’re doing all the right things with good intentions.  I am determined to turn this debilitating  deep rooted belief into something more productive,  and my understanding of the numbers is helping me go there. 

I am currently in a phase of my business that many of you can relate too…significant personal investments in hopes of building a successful business.  As I watch my personal savings deplete, I have this deep down fear that I’m going to run short..that’s just that crazy belief rearing its ugly head and messing with my mind…after all, my budget, which I thought through very carefully as I created it, says it’s all going to work and I’ve always had enough money – even when I earned $5,000  during the summer to take me through the fall and winter semesters at University.

As founder of Bridge The Gap Accounting Services, I am passionate about helping small business  owners understand their  numbers so they too can reach for the stars  by taking  inspired and calculated financial risks.

When we are employees we don’t have to think about that mystery called “Accounting”. We simply get a T4 and complete our tax returns in minutes and are done…life goes on…simply.

Then we get this idea that we would be better off working as a contractor…more money, more flexibility, ability to work in our area of technical expertise without the pressure of moving to management…sounds great! Let’s do it, why not?…and then we’re faced with this monster called “Accounting”; a concept that is way out of our comfort zone. We start asking questions and people start giving us all kinds of crazy answers, with no two being the same, about things like: do I incorporate?… what does incorporation even mean?…what is a “write-off”?…what receipts do I need to save?…and on and on. Many of us become over-whelmed and sadly limit ourselves by staying in our “employee” comfort zone over something that really isn’t as complicated as it seems.

Here are a few basic tips:

• Even though this all seems complicated, have the attitude that you have what it takes to figure it out…after all, many others go down this path every day.
• If you’re not sure that contracting is a long term solution, do not unnecessarily invest the time and money required to create a Corporation.
• Complete the Canada Revenue Agency “Request For A Business Number” form located at www.cra.gc.ca
• Open a personal bank account and use it for all, and only for, business transactions.
• Designate a personal credit card to be used only for business transactions.
• Save all receipts for any purchases necessary for you to conduct your business. Organize these receipts first by the payment method, and then by month. Payment method will be one of the following: business bank account, credit card designated for business use and “other”.
• During your first year, have your business pay you only as much as you need to maintain your life style. This is done by a simple bank transfer, for the amount you need, as you need it, from your business to your personal bank account. Don’t worry about payroll implications for now. Just be sure to leave as much money as you can, in either your business or personal bank accounts for the April 30^th tax bill.

Good luck with your adventure, and most importantly, align yourself with a personal and professional support group. Consider relying on the team at Bridge The Gap Accounting Services Ltd. to help you understand your numbers and prepare your records in such a way that your tax return and year-end Financial Statements can be completed painlessly.

Did you, as a small business owner, realize that the accuracy of your Financial Statements depends on the extent to which your accountant understands your business? The only way any accountant can understand your business is if they ask you questions.  Your business is not something we learn during those years of hanging out with textbooks.  In fact, there is little we learn about the real world by hanging out with text books.  The most valuable lessons, even in the world of accounting, are learned through experience.

In the past few months, as I have worked with my clients at Bridge The Gap Accounting Services, I have seen obvious errors on Financial Statements submitted with corporate tax returns and used by potential lenders to make lending decisions.  Why are the errors obvious to me?   - because I ask questions.  “Does it make sense that you owe your corporation $60K?”  The answer was no, and then we realized the tax preparer had reported amounts owed to the Corporation by the Corporation’s customers as an amount due by the shareholder.  What are the potential consequences?  A knock on the door by Canada Revenue Agency,  looking for income tax and penalties from my client for the the $60K, which according to the tax return, he withdrew from the corporation and never did.  Yes, the tax return can be re-stated, but what a hassle, pain in the b…, waste of energy when the error could have been avoided by working with an accountant who makes sure the numbers make sense to you before sending them off to the feds.

Remember, like anything and anybody else in life, there are three types of accountants:  the good, bad and the ugly.  If you are not looking at, let alone, understanding your numbers, chances are you’re dealing with the ugly….life is too short , especially when there are accountants out there, like myself,  who are passionate about helping you understand your numbers.