It should go without saying that maintaining a steady, positive cash flow is critical to keeping your business afloat. After all, if you don’t have the cash, you can’t pay your bills. And, if you can’t pay your bills, you won’t be able to stay in business for long.

As a business owner, you may consider distributing bonuses to employees as a show of appreciation for their passion and dedication to the business and/or to reward employees for exceptional performance and/or achievements. It’s important to remember that bonuses should be treated as taxable income and reported accordingly.

Remember those movies where one of the principal characters is dealing with some financial crisis and pulls out a box filled with scraps of paper receipts. Don’t do that!

As a business owner, receivables (accounts receivable or A/R) are a vital part of your business. If you are not billing or invoicing clients and subsequently, collecting those receivables in a timely fashion, your business will be unable to sustain itself.

When you make the shift from being an employee to a business owner, you’ll want to gain an understanding of how compensation and health insurance will differ as a business owner versus that of an employee, as well as familiarize yourself with something called imputed income.

As a business owner, it’s vital to stay away from using monies from your business to pay for personal expenses even if you intend to reimburse the company later. You run the risk of piercing the corporate veil and getting into serious trouble with the IRS and other tax agencies should you and/or your business undergo an audit (ex: claiming business deductions for non-legitimate business expenses, failure to report and pay taxes on taxable income).

Working from home isn’t a new concept. Some people work from home all the time; but, since the COVID-19 pandemic more people who can work from home have been doing so and will likely continue to do so in the future. While working from home can be an easy adjustment for some, it’s not always the case for others.

Customer service is a core part of many businesses. When customers reach out to or for customer service, quite often it’s about a problem or an issue that requires a resolution. Customers are typically looking for someone who is going to listen to and understand the issue at hand. They are looking for someone who understands that there is a sense of urgency, the issue needs to be treated with a level of priority and that it will be addressed in a timely manner.

A business credit or charge card can be helpful for business owners when it comes to making purchases and paying expenses on behalf of your business. However, it’s extremely important to develop best practices when it comes to managing and using these cards.

If you run a business, you may need to keep some petty cash on hand to cover small business expenses.

If you are planning to establish a legal business entity (ex: Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Corporation) or have an existing legal business entity in New York and are considering a sub-chapter S election, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.

Ok, perhaps I’m being a bit dramatic with the term “vultures” or maybe I’m not. In case you were unaware, New York is one of only three states that still require newly formed Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) to publish a notice related to the formation of the LLC in newspapers.

If you decide to go into business for yourself, you’ll eventually want to form a legal business entity. A common type of entity structure for startups and small businesses is the Limited Liability Company or LLC. LLCs are established at the state level and are generally easy to form and don’t have as many requirements as Corporations.

Once your business is on track to “go live” and commence business operations, you’ll need to find a good bank and open a business bank account. To start off, you’ll probably only need one business bank account - typically, a business checking account but as the business needs and requirements change, opening additional accounts may be warranted.

As you get started with your new business, there may come a time when you will need to seek professional counsel from a good business law firm and/or CPA firm. Even if your circumstances may not warrant professional counsel at the onset of your new business, you may eventually need to seek counsel as your business grows.

Now that you’re ready and committed to starting a business, you need to put together a game plan. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to starting a business so it’s important to be organized, detail-oriented and have all your ducks lined up. You’ll first want to take a “view from 10,000 feet” and then drill-down into the specific details.

So why do you want to start your own business? Time for a REALITY CHECK!

Part of starting, owning and running a business is LEARNING and rest assured, there will be a lot of learning! Look, you’re not going to know everything on day one.