Angels Den Blog

One of the most difficult aspects of opening the doors to a new business – aside from the marketing, developing your product or service, interviewing employees, small business funding, and ensuring that business regulations are being met and followed – is finding a good accountant. Starting a new business is never easy, and to have someone by your side, even if the task is outsourced, who can point you in the right financial direction is essential to the success of your venture.

So here are our Top 5 reasons why you should spend time finding just the right financial expert for your business:

1. Cash flow is king!
Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. Many great ideas have died on the vine owing to poor cash management. A good accountant will ensure that more money is coming in than going out, and if profits are not high enough they can identify how to get your business back on track. An accountant should be sufficiently distant from the business to not let anything other than the bottom line affect their judgement and decisions. When your cash flow demands it, they will also be able to advise you on the best methods of attaining small business funding.

2. An accountant can keep you organised.
Opening a new business creates a mountain of paperwork, and tracking receipts on top of inventory orders, Companies House submissions and those HM Revenue & Customs brown envelopes that just keep popping through the door can be a daunting task. An accountant can organise and complete much of this paperwork for you, lining up who owes you and who you owe. Keeping up to date with your finances can help you to tell whether you’re following the schedule that you laid out in your business plan. It will tell you how your venture is really doing and whether you have the funds to move your business forward.

3. It’s more than just the balance sheet.
While you can’t expect them to be experts in all areas, most accountants have more than a passing knowledge of tax codes, rules and regulations, small business funding, and many other financial matters that you may not be aware of. They can keep the numbers straight and keep overeager business owners from accidentally getting into trouble. They can also identify potential financial stumbling blocks on the horizon and work with the owner to create a plan to overcome those hurdles. If the business owner wants to expand a product line, but cash flow is such that it won’t allow it, an accountant can work with the owner to make adjustments to meet that goal. Sometimes this means adjusting the business plan; sometimes it involves seeking additional finances from small business funding sources such as banks, venture capitalists or Angel investors.

4. There is strength in numbers.
The majority of first-time small businesses are one-man (or one-woman) operations, and without a track record it is sometimes difficult to secure additional small business funding to move your venture forward, employ staff, develop new products and services or promote your business. Small business owners wear multiple hats, doing the work of many people in a traditional office, and therefore it is all too easy to get too close to a project. Even if they don’t work in the office, an accountant can give your business the sense that it is a much larger company; they can offer advice on the condition of the company’s finances and ways to improve profits, and can identify where decisions may be affecting the profitability of a venture. So rather than just controlling cash flow and crunching numbers, a good accountant can take some of the strain off your one-man/woman band.

5. They can present you in the best light
Finally, if you do decide to seek some form of small or new business finance, an accountant can help you to prepare your business to present it in the best light and so increase your likelihood of attracting the interest of small business funding investors.

Time and time again we at Angels Den see good ideas failing to achieve the small business finances that they need because of poor financial planning and presentation. A good accountant is essential right from the earliest stages of a business to help you to create and stick to your financial plans, to gain small business funding and to develop your venture into a growing business. If you’re interested in finding out more about small business funding, come to our website at www.angelsden.co.uk. An accountant will be able to show you how to present your finances for greatest impact, but if you would like a little help improving the impact of your presentation to our Angel investors, why not check out our presentation master classes.