Sales Dashboard for UNFI, KeHE, and Whole Foods
Free Sales Dashboard for UNFI, KeHE, and Whole Foods to measure sales, velocity, and inventory.
We’re in a bustling era of business-building. Yelp’s recent Business Openings Report shows 637,590 new businesses opened across America in 2022, a 12 percent increase from 2019.
New business openings exceeded pre-pandemic levels in nearly every US state. There was a particular boom in home and local services business openings, alongside huge upticks in new hotel and travel businesses in metro regions.
Are you among this batch of business builders? Then it’s important you avoid one of the most common mistakes new entrepreneurs make: keeping your personal and business finances together. Does one or more of these situations sound familiar?
These situations are understandable. Many businesses are opened almost by accident. And then they become successes through your intentional efforts, commitment, and drive.
When the business starts to feel real — and grow — is around the same time you need to get serious about separating your personal and business finances. Above all, it will help you stay sane as you manage the complexities of your financial responsibilities at home, and at work. More specifically, it will help you ensure:
By keeping your personal and business finances apart, you ultimately ensure you’re not borrowing from tomorrow, to pay for today.
You can take some fairly simple steps to divide your business and personal finances into equally manageable areas. Here’s what we suggest.
You don’t need to register your business as a limited liability company (LLC) to open a business bank account. In some states, you may need a registered trade name or a ‘Doing Business As’ (DBA) name. The Small Business Administration explains these terms and your options here. But you will need a federal tax identification number to open your business bank account. It’s relatively easy to get one. Head over to the IRS to see how.
Once you have these details, you can head to the bank, or fintech, of your choice. Aion provides business banking accounts that are federally insured up to $250,000 through Cross River Bank, multi-factor authentication, and account monitoring to protect your funds. We have no monthly bank account fees, or fees for automated clearing house (ACH) transfers or mobile check deposits.
Organize your accounting system at the same time too. You have a couple of choices here. You can purchase some useful accounting software, like QuickBooks, and handle the books yourself. Or you can hire a bookkeeper and accountant to manage your tax affairs for you. We highly recommend you use some accounting software.
Recent American University research shows 37 percent of small businesses and gig workers surveyed struggle with feelings of anxiety and confusion about taxes. A third of small businesses surveyed didn’t know whether they had to pay estimated taxes, while a quarter (25 percent) did not know how to file their taxes.
This is why it’s a pretty good idea to get some outside help. You can connect one or more of your Aion banking accounts to QuickBooks to start automatically recording, so your business has no need to manually enter each transaction.
Separating your personal and business finances may feel like extra work at first. But it will save you weeks and months of difficult admin down the track, if you do it early on. Dividing your finances ultimately gives you a clearer picture of both your personal and business financial health. And that’s a great foundation to build on.
Would you like assistance in getting started?
Free Sales Dashboard for UNFI, KeHE, and Whole Foods to measure sales, velocity, and inventory.
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