How To Not Dread Tax Day

Here in the USA April 15th was the deadline
for filing and paying income tax. It got me
thinking back to how I used to dread Tax Day
in my first few years of business.

For starters, I really didn’t understand all the
ins-and-outs of small business finance,
deductions and bookkeeping. And since I
didn’t have any support or good systems in
place, it was a total headache getting all of
the necessary data together.

Then, when I finally got my taxes done, I
could not believe how small my bottom line
was. It was a good thing I was living in a
rent-controlled apartment back then!

Even though I felt like a pretty successful
coach – I was coaching an average of 10 -15
clients at $350/month – I began to realize that
just coaching individual clients was not going
to give me the income or lifestyle I wanted.

Can you relate?

Here are the two strategies that made all the
difference and why I no longer dread Tax Day:

1. Invest in setting up your financial and
bookkeeping systems and then get outside
support to keep things up-to-date. Unless you
love “doing the books,” having a bookkeeper
and account are two of the best services you
can invest in, even if you are just starting out.

2. Grow your business beyond the 1-1 coaching
model. You can run workshops or trainings,
develop information products, coach groups, run
a membership site… there are a lot of options, so
choose the one that feels right, get committed and
start taking action to make it a reality.

Yes, these can be big projects… and I can tell
you they are both totally worth it.

Here’s to you not dreading Tax Day in 2011!