Episode #52 - Macen Krauter-Navigating Financial Waters in the Cleaning Biz: Bookkeeping Insights & Finding Your Money Pro
Mar 16, 2024Season 2024Episode 52
Shannon Miller
Have you ever confused bookkeeping with the complexities of a CPA's duties?
We've all been there, and this episode is your lifesaver, especially if you're navigating the financial tides of the cleaning industry. With tax season lurking just around the corner, I recount the breath of relief I drew upon when I hired a bookkeeper, and we're joined by an expert who morphed his passion for personal finance, spread sheets and just numbers in general, into a successful bookkeeping business.
We bring you Macen Krauter- Owner of www.chekbooks.com!!!! He unveils the nitty-gritty of tailoring bookkeeping services, while Kimberly and I explore the possibility of it being more than just a side hustle. It's an eye-opening chat that might just spur you to hunt for a bookkeeper who's a whiz with cleaning biz specifics. And we all know how hard it is to find anyone who cater's to just Cleaning.
When it's time to pick a financial guru, do you know which questions will lead you to your perfect match?
This episode guides you through the interview maze to secure an Enrolled Agent who may be cheaper and of course that can to taxes, who ticks all the boxes , for tax resolution or tax strategy or a digital on-line Master of both numbers and Bookkeeping like Macen.
Getting lightning-fast responses to deep dives into business returns. I'll share a tale of a costly mix-up I had with financial professionals and why I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping your business and personal finances as far apart as peanut butter and jelly in a sandwich.
Find out how the right bookkeeping company/person can turn your financial fog into crystal clear insights for your cleaning business expansion. There are book keepers in every niche. So look you may be surprised!!
Let's chat about the delicate dance of mixing business with pleasure, as I open up about a past joint venture with a best friend that taught me a financial lesson or two. It's a candid conversation about maintaining harmony in business partnerships, especially with those dear to us.
But it's not all serious business; we'll share some laughs over the quirks of the cleaning world and leave you feeling like part of the family, eager to join us for a coffee catch-up on future endeavors.
Tune in for an episode that's as much about forging connections as it is about financial finesse.
Have you ever confused bookkeeping with the complexities of a CPA's duties?
We've all been there, and this episode is your lifesaver, especially if you're navigating the financial tides of the cleaning industry. With tax season lurking just around the corner, I recount the breath of relief I drew upon when I hired a bookkeeper, and we're joined by an expert who morphed his passion for personal finance, spread sheets and just numbers in general, into a successful bookkeeping business.
We bring you Macen Krauter- Owner of www.chekbooks.com!!!! He unveils the nitty-gritty of tailoring bookkeeping services, while Kimberly and I explore the possibility of it being more than just a side hustle. It's an eye-opening chat that might just spur you to hunt for a bookkeeper who's a whiz with cleaning biz specifics. And we all know how hard it is to find anyone who cater's to just Cleaning.
When it's time to pick a financial guru, do you know which questions will lead you to your perfect match?
This episode guides you through the interview maze to secure an Enrolled Agent who may be cheaper and of course that can to taxes, who ticks all the boxes , for tax resolution or tax strategy or a digital on-line Master of both numbers and Bookkeeping like Macen.
Getting lightning-fast responses to deep dives into business returns. I'll share a tale of a costly mix-up I had with financial professionals and why I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping your business and personal finances as far apart as peanut butter and jelly in a sandwich.
Find out how the right bookkeeping company/person can turn your financial fog into crystal clear insights for your cleaning business expansion. There are book keepers in every niche. So look you may be surprised!!
Let's chat about the delicate dance of mixing business with pleasure, as I open up about a past joint venture with a best friend that taught me a financial lesson or two. It's a candid conversation about maintaining harmony in business partnerships, especially with those dear to us.
But it's not all serious business; we'll share some laughs over the quirks of the cleaning world and leave you feeling like part of the family, eager to join us for a coffee catch-up on future endeavors.
Tune in for an episode that's as much about forging connections as it is about financial finesse.
To order All-Natural Cleaning Products: www.PÜREvergreen.com See Shannon's latest courses: www.KleanFreaksUnversity.com
Shannon Miller:
Welcome to Cleaning Business Life. My name is Shannon Miller and I am your host and founding member of Klean Freaks University. This show is sponsored by the Structure, Scale and Profit Cleaning Business Academy, my signature program. I'm also joined by my co-host, Kimberly Gonzalez, inventor extraordinaire of Pure, Evergreen Cleaning Products. Kim, take it away, Hello my beautiful cleaning friends.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Welcome back to Cleaning Business Life. We are so glad you guys are here with us Today. We have a special guest, shannon. Would you like to introduce him?
Shannon Miller:
Drumroll Kimberly Excellent, extraordinaire. I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Macen Krauter:
Thank you guys.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Tell us, I guess just tell us a little bit about how long you've been bookkeeping on your own. You specialize with bookkeeping and we wanted to bring somebody on, especially right about now, because everybody's doing their taxes and maybe their business is growing. Maybe they've put money aside to start hiring somebody to do bookkeeping. I think it's a great idea. I know for me. When I first started my cleaning business, I was like I don't want to touch this stuff, I don't want to deal with it. I had to keep her right off the bat because I knew that I wanted to have everything organized. Then, when I switched over to my new company, I was like I already had that in place and it's been a dream. I have a folder and I literally just shove everything in that folder and say bye-bye and send it away.
Macen Krauter:
Yep, yeah, totally.
Kimberly Gonzales:
But is how long it is. Huh, do you have a full service bookkeeper? Me, yeah, but she's also my bookkeeper back slash CPA. Oh, okay, got it. Then Ellie, my daughter, she's 17. She's going to be 18 in October. She's taking classes right now and courses to become a certified bookkeeper by the time she's 18.
Macen Krauter:
Oh nice, that's awesome.
Kimberly Gonzales:
She wants to make some money.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's an awesome little side hustle when you're starting out and then you can turn into a full-time thing, but that's really cool.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Yeah, tell us how long have you been bookkeeping on your own?
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, I've always been a numbers guy, personal finance nerd since I was a teenager, just trying to manage my own money. It was just my thing. When I was growing up Then I started going to school for accounting. Covid hit so I dropped out of school because I couldn't afford it anymore. Then I started, went and did sales. But I always was helping out my family with their businesses, doing the bookkeeping and stuff.
Macen Krauter:
Because, like I said, I've always just kind of been a little bit more inclined to play with the numbers and just being spreadsheets and stuff like that. So it's been about like five or six years that I've been doing accounting and bookkeeping in general. But as far as like my business, I started my business back in 2021. At the end of 2021, I basically saw a Facebook ad like showing you how to set up a bookkeeping business, because I didn't really know that was a thing I'd heard of like accounting firms and all that stuff, but I didn't know you could do a bookkeeping only firm and you didn't have to have a CPA license to do it. I already kind of knew how to do the accounting and the bookkeeping and I like doing the detail-oriented stuff, just making sure everything's kind of put together. I saw, yeah.
Macen Krauter:
Me yeah seriously, yeah, and that's how my parents are too, so they're always like, hey, can you put a spreadsheet together or something, or just like, put our stuff together. And I was like, yeah, I'll look at it. But yeah, I took the course. They kind of showed me how to set up the bookkeeping business side of things, so like getting clients, putting agreements in place and then having a good client experience. So it's not like communicating with your clients every once, every two weeks, because I feel like that's what a lot of the accounting industry is kind of known for is the lack of communication. But yeah, they just kind of showed you how to set up a really good business side of things. And then I kind of hit the ground running, just slowly gain clients, and then kind of found myself working with a lot of cleaning services, power washing services, just kind of home service companies and stuff. But I always like the cleaning companies because they're pretty laid back and fun to work with and but yeah, that's pretty much.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, totally.
Kimberly Gonzales:
And it's a great niche to be in because I know a lot of cleaning companies. They always ask for specific bookkeeping or CPAs that specialize in it, so they know how to write off stuff. So that's good that you, like, have focused on the cleaning side of it.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, for sure, and it's always good to like in any industry because there's bookkeepers in every niche. If you can find someone that works with a majority of those kind of clients in your industry, they don't have to niche specifically in there, because I don't niche specifically in cleaning industry. In the cleaning industry, either, I work with all kinds of service companies, but a majority of my clients are cleaning companies. But yeah, if you can find someone that knows your industry, they know kind of you know the softwares associated with the industry, just like not only QuickBooks, you know using like Jobber, housecall Pro, market, zenmade, bookingquala, all those. It really kind of gives you someone to brainstorm with when it comes to connecting those things, because the integrations can kind of be a pain in the butt sometimes.
Macen Krauter:
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm dealing with that right now with like three cleanups. They integrate with Housecall Pro. It messed up the integration and then you have to have someone who knows both of the softwares to go back in, fix the deposits, fix and deposit funds, all that fun back end stuff. But yeah, if you are a cleaning business owner and you can find someone that you know knows the industry really well, then I would highly suggest going with them. But yeah, it's always good to have someone you know who knows your industry. As far as the bookkeeping side goes, Nice.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So I'm curious, like I know a lot of people are curious. So what is the difference between, like, bookkeeping versus a CPA? Because I think there's a big. You know there's a difference and I learned that you know early on in my business, to know the difference.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah for sure. So usually when people ask me that, I kind of describe it as like a doctor and a nurse relationship. So bookkeepers are yeah. So bookkeepers are more like the nurses and they, you know, check your blood pressure, do the daily activities, kind of make sure your overall general health is okay and then when there, when it is time to give you like a specific diagnosis, you go to like a specialty doctor right to get your diagnosis or for a CPA to file a tax return or help you with tax resolution or tax planning and all that stuff.
Macen Krauter:
And fun fact, you don't always have to go to a CPA to get a really good tax professional.
Macen Krauter:
So that's kind of one of the misconceptions I see a lot is that a lot of business owners and just people in general they hear CPA and they automatically think they do everything when it comes to accounting. A lot of CPAs I talked to actually have been transitioning into you know some. Some have been starting bookkeeping businesses. Some do tax resolution only, some do accounting only, some do audit only. So and some CPAs don't even mess with tax like a lot of CPAs in the corporate world. They go into the audit side of things for corporate and they don't really mess with the tax side of things. So if you are looking someone to specifically help you out with taxes, I would make sure to make sure that they specialize in tax specifically either tax resolution or tax planning or tax strategy. And if you don't necessarily, you don't necessarily have to go with the CPA, because you can also go with a tax professional like an EA and enrolled agent, and there's tons of enrolled agents out there.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So where does the enrolled agent do, Like what is their?
Macen Krauter:
They're basically licensed to practice under the IRS and they can, you know, do tax resolution, they can file tax returns and all that stuff. It's basically another licensed professional that can handle your taxes for you and a lot of people don't know that they can go that route.
Kimberly Gonzales:
They automatically just know that I didn't either. I learned something new Awesome.
Macen Krauter:
Awesome, yeah, and a lot of the times, if you do go with an EA, they most of the time are a little bit cheaper too, because they don't have the three letters behind their name. So you're not paying that premium and you can still get a really, really good result and develop a really, really good relationship with somebody who's going to take care of you properly, because it's so. One of the statistics statistics that I've heard of lately is that 70% of CPAs in the next I think seven or 10 years are going to be retiring, so a lot of them are on their way out. So if you can find a really good EA or a new CPA, a lot of people aren't getting as much into the accounting profession because it's just it's hard to get licensed, there's a lot of school, it's expensive and generally, when you think of accounting you think of boring but not a fair number is in a spreadsheet kind of a person you don't find it boring, yeah.
Macen Krauter:
Exactly, exactly. Like myself. I love like, if you give me a spreadsheet and something to track, I'm like, I'm a happy camper, I'll be good. Like I don't know, I don't like that stuff. I like kind of planning things out and all the theory on that side of things. But I just like business in general. So but yeah, if you can find like an EA or someone who is just starting out in the tax side of things, a lot of the times are going to be more tech savvy. They're going to, you know, be a little bit more easier to communicate with. They're not going to have as many clients, so the communication side of things will probably be better and, like I said, the tax or the tech side of things is also going to be a little bit easier for you because some of the older guys and gals getting out of the profession or they like to do things manually and sometimes it can be a little bit harder on the client.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So I'm curious, like when you are trying to look for an EA, what are some things that you should ask? Like when looking for an EA, like, what kind of things should they ask?
Macen Krauter:
Um, I would ask their response time if they, if they guarantee a response time. So I don't know. In my firm I always guarantee a 48 hour response, besides weekends, just so the client knows that they're not going to send you a message and it's going to get left in the inbox for like three weeks when you need to get your returns done or you need to get a loan or whatever the case may be. So I would ask response time. I would ask what industry, um, most of the time, most of the time, they work with. And then, if you are a business owner, I would ask how many businesses they deal with and how many business tax returns they do.
Macen Krauter:
Um, because some EAs and CPAs and tax professionals they don't, they won't file certain types of returns. So some don't deal with partnerships, some don't deal with S corpse, some don't deal with business tax returns at all. So I would just make sure yeah, those are probably the three main things. So, industry response time and then, um, what types of returns they deal with business or personal majority, just so you know they have experience with it. They're not going to, you know, let something go to the wayside because they don't know how to handle it or whatever.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Very good info. We'll learn something new today.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, awesome, I'm glad I was able to help a little bit.
Shannon Miller:
Yeah, it is, it's awesome. I had no idea that an EA even existed. It wasn't on my radar. Um, I did share a little bit about my first accounting experiences. Um, when I first got an accountant, I didn't know the difference between a bookkeeper or an accountant. So I picked someone who was going to help me file my my tax forms. And the person who was going to do that that very first year he ended up having a massive heart attack on tax day and his wife tried to step into his place and um kept doing the draws on my account and never filed any of the paperwork. So it took a long time and a lot of money to fix it. She didn't call me and say by the way, you know, mike has died and blah, blah, blah. She just kept doing the draws because she was, you know, scrambling around trying to. You know, I get it, she'd got house payments and everything else, but I'm like it was a very expensive blunder, that is for sure. So sure.
Shannon Miller:
Uh, and not every experience is going to be like what I just mentioned. Um, the industry, um, as Mason has um suggested, is changing, which is awesome, and it'll be nice to have fresh eyes and people who can deal with the integration with software, because that's usually what does it for a lot of people is the integration with software. I have to learn new stuff all of the time and just like mm, and you can't always YouTube it right. Yep, yeah.
Macen Krauter:
I mean, youtube university is always awesome to go to if you're like struggling with something a little, but yeah, definitely when it comes to like the integrations with QuickBooks and all the different softwares, if you don't know the debits and the credits and like the accounting side of things, it can get really really messy. Um, and that's I mean honestly, that's a majority of my clients. They try and deal with it themselves first and then they YouTube it and then they're just like all right, I can't do this. It's like it's too much. Yeah, it's too time consuming, too Like you can't put that that time back into building a team. You can't like go find new jobs. You can't find new work. It's yeah, it can take a lot of time, but yeah, most of my clients are just like want to take it off my plate. I want to focus on growing my business. Um, it's.
Macen Krauter:
I always kind of refer to bookie being kind of as like Wi-Fi. It's like you don't notice it's there until it's not, and then you're like, oh crap, I need to do something about this really quick, or it's. I can't really move in in online business, especially like mine. It's it's. It can be a little a little hard to move forward if you don't have Wi-Fi in your business. Same thing with bookkeeping it's hard to know where you're going to go. If you don't have accurate financials, you don't know what you're spending money on, you don't know what you're making.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Right, that's so important it is. And I know one of the main like I get this question a lot from different people in our group. But, um, one of them is like cause they asked me and they kind of mixed their personal stuff with their business, so they use their personal debit card to buy business stuff, so what are some tips that you and I know we're kind of going off our question- Shannon.
Kimberly Gonzales:
I wanted to tie this in because I see this question a lot and I know. For me, when I started my business, I made sure it was 100% separate, like I had my LLC, I got my bank set up, I got my credit cards, I got my you know debit card all separate. So what are some things that companies can do when they're getting ready to hire a bookkeeper slash, you know, or CPA or an EA? What are some things that they need to do to have in place to make your job easier?
Macen Krauter:
Yeah. So first thing I tell clients oh yeah, no worries. First thing I tell clients is to separate that stuff as soon as you can. If you don't, if you're not able to get a separate bank account or business bank account set up, then I would just make sure you keep track of those things. I would keep the receipts either put them in like a spreadsheet or something, just showing the date, what you paid for, where it was from, what it was for and the amount, before you get those things set up.
Macen Krauter:
Once you get those things set up, make sure to keep those things separate. So your personal and business you always want to be separate. There's always going to be times where you use the wrong card on accident. I've done it plenty of times. It's not a big deal, but when you keep doing it it becomes a habit. That's when it can get really messy. That's when it's going to cost you a little bit more for accounting, because when you go to do your business taxes you're going to know what your business made and what you personally made. So keeping those things separate is super, super vital when it comes to the bookkeeping, accounting side of things.
Shannon Miller:
So no commingling of funds.
Macen Krauter:
Exactly no commingling.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So you recommend just from your expertise when they get their business set up, do they need to have an LLC to get their business bank account open?
Macen Krauter:
As far as business bank accounts, I'm pretty sure you do have to have an EIN to get your business bank account set up.
Macen Krauter:
But if you don't have an EIN and you're just starting out and you're just a sole proprietorship, you can just open a separate checking account and just run things through there. As long as things are separate and you have a separate set of statements, you can connect that bank account to QuickBooks and use that as your business kind of accounting software set up. Just as long as everything's separate and you're not running business expenses through the personal account and vice versa, you should be good. But yeah, I always recommend people just to separate things out as soon as possible and, like I said, you don't have to have a business bank account per se. You can just get like a open and new personal checking account under your name if you're a sole proprietorship. But yeah, setting up an LLC and getting a business bank account is probably going to be the easiest route, just to keep everything separated and not give you a headache when it comes to tax time.
Shannon Miller:
As far as the LLC, I think it depends on the state that you reside in, because some states require that you have an actual official LLC to register you at the state, and then other states you don't have to have an LLC, like when I had Castlekeeper Cleaning, I was a sole proprietor and it wasn't until I paid cash for my house and then I was like, okay, I need to have an LLC because I want to protect my asset, right, yeah? So I think it gravely not gravely I think it depends on what state you do reside in, that you're doing business in.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, and always check, like your local and state kind of regulations and stuff when it comes to taxes. And that's really when I recommend people go to someone local, because there are tax repairs and tax prep companies that can help you throughout the US and I don't want to knock any of them. I'm sure some of them do a really, really good job in other states. But it is always kind of nice to have someone a little bit more personal, someone that knows your local legislation a little bit better in regulations when it comes to like payroll taxes, federal state all that stuff. Having someone local is a little bit nicer on the tax side of things, especially with payroll too, because things are changing constantly.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Oh my gosh, it's crazy. Yes, they are. I know my CJ was like oh, this changed. And now we have. I know Colorado passed a new law that once I'm like, because I'm switching over to payroll, now I'm going to be switching over to payroll, so there's a new law like I can only have up to a certain amount of employees before I have to start paying. You know time. Like what was it? I'm thinking I'm going to bring for PTO or something like that. No, it's family leave.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, the family.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So it's like I'm always asking my CPA. I'm like because I have a really good she's kind of like my bookkeeper slash CPA and so I love that. I like she keeps me in the loop for things.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, biggest thing is communication, Like if you're, if you don't hear from your tax person, at least if you're paying for the service, at least once a quarter I mean, talking to them once a quarter is always a really good idea just so you have a kind of foundation of like where you're going to be at when it comes time to pay taxes.
Shannon Miller:
You don't have any surprises, yeah exactly Nothing worth thinking a big surprise.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, and making sure you're setting aside money throughout the year. Having those quarterly meetings or having a monthly meeting with your bookkeeper is always. Just. It kind of forces you to pay a little bit more attention to it, because it can get left to the wayside super easy when you're, you know, got to run payroll and you got to hire people and you got to find new clients and you got to do all that stuff. So it can definitely get kicked the curve pretty easy, but making sure to stay on top of it is going to save you a ton of stress, time and money during tax season. So having those meetings and just having that open line of communication with your tax professional or your bookkeeper is super important.
Shannon Miller:
So one time a month, or at least once a quarter, for all of those who are considering maybe giving Mason a call, I think that's awesome. So you had mentioned that you do a little bit of work for your parents and they are entrepreneurs, correct?
Macen Krauter:
Yeah.
Shannon Miller:
What industry are they? And, if you don't mind us knowing, a little bit of information.
Macen Krauter:
So my dad has been a photographer. He was self-employed for I mean, the majority of my life growing up. My mom she works as a speech therapist. Well, she worked as a speech therapist in like the skill nursing setting, so she was doing that for about 10 years while my dad was a photographer, self-employed, doing his own thing, and he always used fresh books. I would always give him crap about it to switch over to QuickBooks and he's like, yeah, I know I need to, I can help you if you want. But yeah, he was a photographer and she was. Well, she is a speech therapist and they recently opened up a residential assisted living facility here in Colorado.
Shannon Miller:
That's awesome.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, it's really cool. It's like I'm so proud of them. It's been so cool to see because they found this amazing house. It's like a ranch style out like in the country. It's got an amazing view. It's in Lone Tree, colorado. It's called the Haven Home. Yeah, if anyone wants to check it out or they are in Colorado and looking for someone that's or some way that's not a big box of facility for their elderly parents, I would highly recommend it. They're, they have daycare, they do adult daycare for seniors and stuff, and they also just got licensed for long term assisted living, so like living people.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Lone Tree is pretty. I like Lone Tree.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, it's incredible. I don't know if you've heard of MacArthur Ranch, but it's kind of backed up to some hills and stuff and it's just like it's an amazing view, it's an amazing setting and they've put in a ton of work for the past like two years to get it up and up and ready and up the regulation and just like create a really amazing experience for all their residents. But yeah, as far as the bookkeeping side of things go, like, they made sure to get everything separated out as quick as possible and it's been, I mean, there's been countless times because they have a partner. They have a partner with it. It's another couple and the it's one of my mom's best friends and she's a speech therapist as well and she did a little bit of work in the skilled nursing setting as well as like little kids and infants and stuff, helping them develop their speech and stuff.
Macen Krauter:
But yeah, them being partners has made the bookkeeping really complicated. So there's been yeah, so making sure like, if you are a partnership or you have a partner, definitely getting an accounting software set up just so you can see what everyone's getting paid, what everyone's contributing and all that kind of stuff, because it can get really muddy really fast, especially with your, if you're putting money into the business and trying to pay your bills with the money from the business. Having that side of things to figure it out has saved a ton of arguments and stress Just being able to see everything on paper, knowing it's accurate and up to date, and you're not. You know where's my money going, you know where exactly it's going, where you're spending money on and all that kind of stuff.
Shannon Miller:
Yes, I had a business with my best friend we're no longer best friends from it, but 30 years ago and we decided to open up a business together and she had different financial responsibilities and I did, and arguments ensued and it basically ruined our friendship. We still talk today but we're not like. We used to be really close. I mean, it was awful to watch and it was unnecessary and you know, when you have to give back a $10,000 check, it sucks.
Macen Krauter:
Yep, for sure. Yeah, that's the one thing I've learned Just from the stress it puts on the relationship with that person, just from seeing like my parents go through it, because it's like my mom's best friend. I won't dive too deep into it, but if you are thinking about getting into a partnership with a friend or a family member, make sure your values are aligned. Make sure you're on the same page. About the finances, everything is on the table. From what I've seen, it's like it's basically getting married to that person for an extended period of time until you either sell the business or you know you hire an operator, so you guys don't have to deal with a day today. But right, yeah, I would definitely make sure to Make sure you're aligned with them. Make sure you guys have everything on the table and you know what's going on, because it can definitely get muddy.
Shannon Miller:
So yes, it got muddy, but it just it was. It was very. It was unnecessarily complicated over, you know, finishing work on time and following schedules. And then Expenses where, like her expenses for brand new jeans, where I had expenses for paper clips, right. Yeah different values.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah.
Shannon Miller:
So, yeah, learn from my experience for sure, and I'm excited the adventure that your parents have taken on. I think it's gonna be a very successful Adventure for both of them, so that that's really awesome. I just love it.
Macen Krauter:
It's been really cool to watch much success for it.
Shannon Miller:
And then it's out that you can. You can tell our listeners about you and your business and where they can reach you, and all that good stuff.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, if you do need help with your books or you just want to have a consultation to see where you're at and get some free, some free ideas or brainstorm with me about how to get things organized, anyone can reach out to me. You can go to my website. It's checkbookscom. Chek Books calm and spelled a little bit funny, so I always have to like I always have to tell people the spelling there's no C and check. But. But yeah, I'm always open to you know, help people out if they're struggling with keeping things organized.
Macen Krauter:
I know it can get extremely overwhelming, really, really quickly, especially if you are using an accounting software already or you just don't know where to start. It's it can really help to talk, to talk to someone, even if it's not me. But yeah, I mean I'm always happy to help anyone that needs help. It's that's kind of. My main goal is to alleviate that stress, because I know it gets to. It can be a ton of breaks on your back, especially when you're running the business, trying to hire people and, you know, using that money to pay your bills too. So know where it's going is probably pretty, pretty important.
Kimberly Gonzales:
We're at the investment. You guys, let me just tell you that and I am not a spreadsheet lover I have my VA do spreadsheets and I have a friend that we do the farmers market, where the Directors of the farmers market and she's nice sheets, because spreadsheets just give me anxiety. I'll draw it out for her and then I'm like this is where I want it to go in the things and like we work good together Because those things, yeah, it's worth the investment. That's what I have to say.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, in the time investment, to like the amount of time it takes to Figure it out on your own, especially if you don't know the software or you don't know debits and credits or accounting and stuff, because QuickBooks is an accounting software so you have to have a little bit of technical knowledge to kind of navigate it. And that's kind of one of the things that bugs me about QuickBooks is they advertise it to all these business owners is like so easy to use, just set it up, just let it just set and forget it, and then People just let it go and it turns into a big mess and they use those numbers to file their taxes and stuff and you can Oversay your income or miss out on expenses. It's it happens all the time. But but yeah, the time investment is huge to all. My clients only spend about like 45 minutes to an hour per month On their entire bookkeeping. Some of some of the times it's only like 15 to 30 minutes because we don't even have a call that includes like their monthly review call.
Macen Krauter:
But yeah, I mean knowing where you're at, knowing what you can afford, is really huge, especially in the cleaning industry, since you are service-based, knowing if you can bring on another cleaner, or how much money you need to make an addition to bring on another cleaner or hire something out. Or if you just want to put a little bit more money in your pocket, you can do that a lot easier by eliminating Expenses rather than going out and finding additional work. Because I mean, if you're running it like a 20% profit margin, then you'd have to go out and find an additional thousand dollars worth of work to get that extra two hundred dollars, whereas you can, if you wanted to, you can go in and look at your P&L, see what you're spending money on. Oh, I'm spending two hundred dollars a month in credit card interest expense. Let me pay that off and then that's an extra two hundred dollars in my pocket, instead of having to put the time and effort into finding Additional clients on top of all that stuff.
Kimberly Gonzales:
So Thanks so much, forán, on Melissa's picture. So pretty black packet, it's internet.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, that was cool, that's passionate. And on my instagram, I don't know if there's any thinking about search, I think that's good Good info today. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot, awesome. Yeah, if anyone has questions or anything, feel free to reach out to me on.
Kimberly Gonzales:
I like business nerds.
Macen Krauter:
Yeah, they're, it's fun. It's kind of like a game for me, so that's fun.
Shannon Miller:
I would actually like to and I'm just going to throw this out there and you can think about it I'd like to actually have you come on as a guest every quarter and talk about what they can anticipate for the next quarter. I think that would be really beneficial to all of our listeners out there. And if you can physically send me all your information so I can include that in the show notes.
Macen Krauter:
For sure.
Shannon Miller:
So that way they can just click on the link and get right over to you. That would be awesome.
Macen Krauter:
Totally.
Shannon Miller:
Um any other questions for us.
Macen Krauter:
Um, what are you guys doing the rest of the day?
Shannon Miller:
We have one more zoom and then we have meetings after this. So fun stuff, yep, I feel you on that.
Macen Krauter:
I'm in the same boat. But yeah, thank you guys. So much for having me on. It was an awesome talk. You guys are great to talk to. It was super fun.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Thank you so much. I'm not to come down that way again.
Macen Krauter:
It's been a while since I've been down that way, so yeah, for sure, let me know when we'll grab a coffee or something and we can chat business.
Kimberly Gonzales:
That's Coloradans.
Macen Krauter:
Yep, yep, exactly.
Kimberly Gonzales:
Thank you so much, me too. Have a good day.
Macen Krauter:
Absolutely, you guys too.
Kimberly Gonzales:
See you guys. Bye everybody.
Shannon Miller:
Take care. Cleaning business life is sponsored by Pure Evergreen Cleaning Products, that's P-U-R-E-V-E-R-G-R-E-E-N dot com. Pure Evergreen Cleaning Products.