New businesses have a lot on their plate--everything from forming a legal entity, opening business bank accounts, getting the proper licenses and insurance, and purchasing equipment and supplies. And that's on top of figuring out a marketing plan so that they can get new customers to pay for all of it!
Given that most new business owners don't have a lot of experience in any of the areas listed above, it's no wonder that about 30% of new businesses will fail by the end of their second year.
That's why Cooke, Lavender, Massey & Company P.C. offers a package of services specifically for new business owners. We want to help them make it to profitability as quickly as possible. Not only does that help the local economy, it also benefits us by giving us another long-term client. In short, everybody wins when a new small business succeeds.
Our package of services for new businesses is available to any business within their first 24 months of operation. It includes a free startup consultation, discounted tax return preparation, and a free month of bookkeeping or payroll services.
Free Startup Consultation
One of the biggest challenges for new business owners is getting good advice from highly qualified professionals. These sought-after professionals tend to be busy people who--justifiably--charge a premium for their time. That's money that new businesses just don't have, and sometimes that means they end up getting bad advice that ends up costing them money and potentially even dooming their business.
That's why we offer a free, no-obligation startup consultation to new business owners to make sure they get started on the right foot. Our startup consultation covers the following areas:
- Legal entity selection: We help you decide what type of legal entity (LLC, corporation, etc.) to form for your business based on your industry, number of employees, and many other factors.
- Chart of Accounts set-up: We will review with you a suggested set-up for your chart of accounts (how you track your expenses and income). This is critical to making sure that you don't pay more taxes than you need to at the end of the year (or, just as bad, end up owing far more in taxes than you expected).
- Payroll Registration: If you expect to hire employees (or already have), payroll is another very important area to set up correctly right from the start to avoid potentially costly mistakes.
- Marketing: Although we are not marketing experts, we can help you determine what your marketing budget should be based on your industry, competition, and goals. We can also point you in the right direction to get affordable and effective marketing assistance.
Discounted Tax Return Preparation
Filing a business tax return (for a corporation) or filing a Schedule C with a personal tax return (for pass-through business entities) is much more complicated than filing a 1040-EZ. It's something that most business don't even attempt to do without the help of a CPA, and we firmly believe the cost of professional assistance with this process more than pays for itself in the time and money you will save.
That being said, we also know that new business often have a small budget for professional services (or anything else, for that matter). For that reason, we offer discounted tax return preparation to businesses in their first 24 months of operation.
Free month of bookkeeping or payroll services
We believe that just about every small business would be better off outsourcing both their bookkeeping and payroll services to professionals rather than trying to do it themselves. However, many new businesses try to do both of these tasks themselves in order to save money--not realizing that their time would be far better spent working on other areas of their business.
In order to help new businesses experience what life is like when they don't have to worry about bookkeeping or payroll, we offer a free month of either service to businesses in their first 24 months of operation. That way, they can make a more informed decision about whether or not they want to outsource this important responsibility.