Want to run your business more effectively? Discover how accounting blogs can help entrepreneurs and freelancers like you with day-to-day operations and long-term growth.
Why Read Accounting Blogs as a Business Owner or Freelancer
Entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals generally know how to run their businesses. However, not all of them can always get expert advice and information on accounting. Unless they’re already working with an accountant, the best way to do so is through accounting blogs.
There are many accounting-focused websites on the Internet. Nowadays, most accounting firms publish blogs to educate their clients, provide them with crucial information, promote their niche, and showcase their expertise. And for business owners and self-starters like you, it’s a good gauge of how client-oriented they can be.
When you’re searching for an accounting firm, make it a point to check if they have blogs—it’s an indication that they’re willing to help by providing free knowledge. For example, Sterlinx Global has a couple of blogs that are helpful to e-commerce sellers, company owners, tradespeople, and freelancers.
If you’re still on the fence about adding accounting blogs to your reading list, here are six reasons that might convince you to bookmark them.
1. Understand Accounting Concepts and Principles
Most accounting blogs tackle fundamental concepts and principles to help readers understand what accounting is before topics can progress into more serious, in-depth discussions.
In simple terms, accounting is the recording of financial information of economic entities like businesses and organisations. A few common accounting activities include:
- Recording financial transactions
- Summarising accounts and consolidating transactions into financial statements
- Settling the correct tax obligations
- Preparing tax returns
- Ensuring a business’s financial records are accurate and comply with the law
When you’re an entrepreneur or freelancer, being familiar with financial accounting is a critical skill. It helps you to understand your business better, determine its financial health, and make strategic decisions.
2. Manage Finances More Effectively
Many business owners and self-employed individuals do not possess a basic understanding of accounting. Often, they measure success based on what comes in as earnings without realising they are spending more to generate sales or service income.
For instance, an Amazon seller is happy that store sales are picking up—from £200 to £2,000. However, to achieve that, their expenses ballooned to £1,800 due to aggressive marketing campaigns like PPC ads and discounts. Given this situation, it seems they’re not in a better financial position than before.
But if you frequently read accounting blogs, you can steer clear of these pitfalls to improve the financial condition of your business. Their usual tip of keeping track of your income and expenses is a helpful reminder for entrepreneurs and freelancers to always work within a budget.
Sterlinx Global often has posts about business expenses you can deduct from your income to reduce your tax liabilities effectively and legally. If you’re a restaurant owner, expenses like rent, vehicle costs, and wages can ease your burden come tax season.
3. Help Identify Pain Points and Address Them
Accounting blogs are not just excellent sources of information—they offer invaluable insights and actionable content that can only be derived from experts’ years of experience in the industry.
Some well-written posts discuss the many challenges entrepreneurs and freelancers may encounter in running their operations. Pain points often run a gamut of possibilities, from keeping records and bank reconciliations to spotting discrepancies and areas of concern.
Moreover, accounting-related blogs also give practical advice on overcoming these roadblocks through tips and guides. For example, you can find articles on best practices in collections and payables to manage your cash flow more efficiently.
A good example is Sterlinx Global’s numerous blogs on lowering tax obligations applicable to specific businesses. They also have one that details the most common record-keeping practices to reduce a UK company’s tax liabilities.
4. Make Better Strategic Decisions
Entrepreneurs, tradespeople, and freelancers can benefit from reading accounting blogs to understand their businesses’ financials and key metrics. When they’re financially literate, they can plan, strategise, and make critical decisions for their business.
Although periodic financial statements generated by accountants may be part of compliance with specific regulations, they can also serve as guides in running a successful operation.
Without the right insight into how your business is performing based on timely and accurate financial information, your forecasts may be off-target. It will cause you to implement the wrong strategies, resulting in failed, often costly, endeavours.
Learn to analyse your financial statements. Also, keep track of metrics like ROS, profit margins, and leverage ratios—they should be your starting point when making projections and targets for attainable growth and expansion strategies.
Suppose you have plans to bulk up your inventory for the projected increase in demand for the holiday season. You plan to fund the additional purchase through borrowing, which you can repay through higher sales.
But if you didn’t look at your financial health before obtaining the loan, you might end up straining your cash flow when you missed the tell-tale signs of impending trouble.
5. Keep Abreast of Latest Advisories
Today’s business environment changes at a fast pace—regulations, laws, and policies are constantly updated to address pressing matters and keep up with the times. So it’s only expected that complying with these new or revised rules can be confusing, and non-compliance often has costly repercussions.
Educate yourself on the latest advisories concerning your business and related industries through accounting blogs. Most provide an in-depth discussion on these topics to give readers the necessary information in one go. A good read is Sterlinx Global’s take on UK’s fiscal tax bill.
6. Learn from Past and Current Events
Accounting-focused blogs do not always focus on concepts and principles as professional resources—they also tackle relevant current events that can impact businesses. Some also offer commentary, advice, and valuable insights that matter to readers like you.
When you subscribe to these sites, you get updated on the latest happenings. Knowing these things lets you take a closer look at your operations and pinpoint areas for improvement or concern. For example, implementing best practices on cybersecurity keeps your business’s sensitive information safe and secure.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Are accounting blogs a replacement for hiring an accountant?
No, they are not. While blogs are great educational resources, they cannot replace the expert advice of an accountant. An accounting professional will give recommendations and take steps based on your financials per se. Since they’re working closely with you, they can assess your business’s financial health better than a self-diagnosis.
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Can accounting be self-taught?
Yes, you can study accounting yourself. To begin, read books or blogs on accounting, familiarise yourself with the terms and concepts, and practice basic skills like setting up books and recording debits and credits.
Once you’re confident to create your financial statements, you can compute the ratios and metrics to gauge business performance.
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Which is the best site to learn accounting?
There are numerous websites that could teach you about accounting, so there is no one best site for it. But if you want to narrow down your reading list to the essentials, look for accounting blogs that are engaging, informative, and easy to read—not everyone can easily understand the jargon.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or tradesperson, reading accounting blogs is a great way to improve your operations. Accounting-focused sites like Sterlinx Global offer free content, so take advantage of such resources to educate yourself and make better, timely decisions for your business. You can read blogs in Sterlinx Global, here.
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