You've read all the books and followed the gurus, Profit First, Dave Ramsey, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich... you could go on.  Which method is for you?  You're more confused now than ever.  While you certainly have a higher understanding of how some people run their businesses is this something you should be implementing in yours?

You're not sure what you need to be paying for taxes.  What are estimated taxes?  And how do you estimate them?  John down the street told you that being a S Corporation is the way to go.  So you Googled S Corporations and you found some advice to form one immediately, others say to wait.  You tried to determine exactly what a S Corporation is, but you couldn't find anything concrete.  

Susie in your entrepreneurial group says anyone who pays taxes is just not doing them right.  Her CPA has her paying in $0.  You ask her how, curious to know if she has a secret that has eluded other business owners for years.  She gives you the name of her CPA, but you're hesitant.  Is this even legal?  You don't want to pay taxes, but you also don't want to break the law.  You put the business card in your wallet and forget about it.

You've looked into CPAs, bookkeepers, other accounting professionals.  But what do you even need for your business?  You've priced out a few sets of services and you aren't even sure what you legally have to do and what is optional.  You're not sure why these services are priced so different.  And honestly you're not sure if you can even afford those services.  What happens if you spend the money to get your business organized only to have that be the tipping point for your business going under?

Every business owner you talk to paints a cheery picture about their business.  They have more freedom, they can afford a house they never thought was possible.  They seem to be rolling in money.  Is that the way small businesses are supposed to work?  You know that most small businesses go under after a few years, but nobody seems to want to talk about that possibly happening in their business.

Can I be honest with you?  You're like most small business owners in the U.S.  Most people who are in business for themselves are scared.  They don't know where their money is going, they don't know what sort of compliance requirements they have with the IRS and other tax authorities, and they feel like they are drowning in their business.  Their financial systems are not organized and they're just hoping that an employee doesn't take advantage of their business or the IRS doesn't come knocking.  

So why don't you hear about it?  Why don't entrepreneurs talk about it?  Honestly they're embarrassed.  I hear about it as their accountant, but even though it's my job to help them organize their business I often don't even get down to the full story until a few meetings in with my clients.  And I'm here to tell you... 

You are not alone.   

You might feel like it, but you are not alone.  Fear of the IRS is not irrational, most small businesses undergo an audit of some form in their lifetime.  One in forty small business returns are audited every year.  This is increased substantially from one in every one hundred individual returns.  A recent court case confirmed the confusing tax world that small business owners have to navigate.  The judge ruled that taxpayers "rely on IRS guidance at their own peril" (Bobrow, TC Memo 2014-21).  Those IRS publications that are laid out all over the website as guides to help taxpayers do not hold up in court, the actual Internal Revenue Code along with court cases, and a few other sources are the only things that taxpayers can rely on to uphold their position on a tax matter.  And what small business owner reads and relies on the actual tax code?  Not many.

Small businesses are more susceptible to certain types of fraud and theft due to their inability to implement ideal internal controls because of their size and lack of resources.  

So if small business owners cannot rely on the IRS publications and they cannot rely on the information being provided by other entrepreneurs where do they turn?  The traditional answer has been to find a knowledgeable CPA to help you with your compliance needs.

Here's the thing.  Most CPAs are focused on compliance only.  That means that they will get your taxes filed on time, they will give you estimated tax payment amounts, and outside of that they will tell you how much profit you made and send you on your way to see you the following year.  If they handle your bookkeeping you'll maybe get a monthly set of financials emailed to you and the expectation that you'll know what to do with them.  

If you do not understand where your money is going, you don't know how to read your financial statements and you don't know what to do with your reports how are you supposed to grow profitably?  How are you supposed to protect your business from theft and/or fraud?  How are you supposed to determine how healthy your business is?  And the answer is most small business owners can't.  

So we set out to solve this issue.  We opened up an accounting firm that provided these holistic services.  We focused on not just the compliance part of our client's businesses, but also the health of the business.  Teaching our clients how to read financials.  Partaking in comprehensive tax planning.  But those services are time consuming for us to provide and as a result they are not necessarily affordable for many small business owners.

The question became, How can we help small business owners who are in the position where they cannot afford a full comprehensive set of financial services?