Bookkeeping Tips

What is Always up to date?

Always up to date is a series of videos that we publish every Wednesday at 7:00 PM MST to provide bookkeeping tips, small business management advice, and tax advice to entrepreneurs to help small business owners succeed. In our videos, we start with a quote, a statistic, and answer questions for the topic we picked.

What is the purpose for these videos?

At Always Bookkeeping, we believe that small business owners should be “always up to date and always ready to make business decisions”. In order to make this happen, entrepreneurs should have the right tools to make effective decisions. We started creating these videos to provide business owners with proven strategies that we have learned while starting our own small business. Although most small business owners are skilled in their chosen industries, most entrepreneurs run into problems with managing the financial end of their own small business. It is our hope that our videos will reach the struggling entrepreneurs and provide some free answers that they would otherwise have to pay for.

Who are the people talking in these videos?

Most of our videos will have the co-owners, Denise Mitra and Yahweh Matuguinas, answering questions on the chosen topic. We have gained valuable experience during our time in public practice and while managing our own small business. We believe that our duty to the business world does not stop at providing bookkeeping services. As such, it was decided that we would try help business owners through these videos.

Where do you get the contents for these videos? 

The information we provide on our videos is based on combined real-life experiences and formal education. We have received training from schools, seminars, and other events that contribute to our knowledge in managing not only other businesses, but also our own. Not only are we co-owners of Always Bookkeeping, but we also have experience in public practice and have seen most of the strategies being implemented in a variety of different industries. Learning does not really stop there. We are still learning from our new clients and colleagues and we are very grateful to share this information to small business owners like ourselves!

Why would you provide information for free? 

Information is not always available for small business owners and when it is, most of the time you have to pay for it. Given that new entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have the resources to pay for information that may be crucial to their business’s survival, a lot of businesses fail in the first few years after they open. CB Insights reviewed essays from failed entrepreneurs who listed running out of cash as one of the most common reasons for failure. We find this unacceptable as local small businesses are the backbone of our economy.

As small business owners ourselves, we believe that everyone benefits from a stronger economy so we have to do what we can to contribute to the business world. We want to build a stronger economy with successful business owners making the right decisions.

Aren’t you worried that your competitors will use this information to their advantage? 

The tips and strategies that we provide in our videos are techniques that we have been using even before we started. We are not worried that our competitors will use our strategies as we are already ahead of the competition. Also, if we are to give strategies to our clients or non-clients using these videos, it will be harder for competition to implement these strategies as they will first have to learn the logic behind our decisions.

Can I still watch the videos and not hire a bookkeeper?

These videos are free and provide necessary information that business owners can benefit from. A lot of new entrepreneurs usually do their own bookkeeping themselves as resources usually prevent them from hiring help. Although these videos are helpful, the real bookkeeping work and the interpretation of the financial statements may require a lot of education and practice in order for them to be done right. You can watch a lot of surgical procedures on YouTube, but you wouldn’t perform surgery on your family – at least we hope not! Besides, the biggest limiting factor for all business owners is time. We believe that the business owner’s time should be spent on generating sales and improving the product and services they offer. As such, it is always recommended that you hire a professional bookkeeper as soon as you can so you can focus on growing your business.

Should I still watch the videos if I’m already a client?

We believe that business owners should never stop learning. Although Always Bookkeeping will help you and your business with strategy and implementation, watching these videos will help speed up the process. Also, a better understanding of these strategies allows our clients to customize our recommendations based on their changing circumstances. We find that clients who use our video content along with other resources have a higher chance of accelerating their growth.

Why didn’t you hire professionals to make these videos? 

Most of the speakers in the videos are the owners, employees, and other local business owners. Although we are awkward speakers sometimes, we find that this is the best way to introduce our team to our potential clients. Also, we try to speak from experience. We believe that other small business owners value information that comes from real-life experience. It is harder to connect the business theories to real-life situations sometimes because most resources will reference medium to large corporate scenarios. Small businesses are more unique in a sense that we all start from different backgrounds. So, why not learn from each other?

I would like you to discuss a certain business topic.

You are welcome to suggest any topic you have in mind! Feel free to comment on the videos and we will do our best to cover the topic you suggested. We also welcome any feedback you have regarding these videos. Our main focus is to share our knowledge with small business owners, and we would like to know how we can help you better. If you are another entrepreneur, we can even invite you to be on the video with us!