Here’s How We Help Our Clients Manage Their Creative Businesses / March 29, 2024 by Paco de Leon

A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption. Our main character, Scrooge, starts as a cranky old man who hoards his wealth, treats his employees like garbage, and bums people out with his bad vibes and lack of generosity. Throughout the story, we bear witness to Scrooge’s transformation. He is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and what is yet to come. These spirit guides help Scrooge slowly gain clarity on who he has been and wants to become.

Through these visions, Scrooge recognizes the error of his ways, and by the end, old Ebenezer finds the willingness to change. If you haven’t read Charles Dickens's novella, I’m sure you’ve seen some version of it. Some old 90’s sitcoms have used this same framework to help the hero of a story emerge on the other side a better, more aware version of themselves.

Weirdly, the work we do at Hell Yeah Bookkeeping is a bit like this story. Thankfully, our clients aren’t cranky old misers. Instead, they tend to be insightful, creative business owners. And they need our help to become better, more aware captains of their company. In perfect conditions, we take our clients through a similar, but less dire, Scoorge-like journey where the ghost of business-past, business-present, and business-future all help our heroes have clarity and inspire a change to be better business owners.

What My Clients Taught Me About Pricing and Building a Sustainable Business / March 1, 2024 by Paco de Leon

Here are all the lessons I’ve learned from all the business owners with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working. They helped me build my sustainable business first by being paying customers, but I’ve also had the unique viewpoint of watching them grow their businesses from the inside out. Watching and playing a tiny, supporting role in other people’s success has been really fun.

What Is In Store For 2024? My Predictions and Outlook On Creative Businesses In the New Year / February 2, 2024 by Paco de Leon

Here are my predictions for what’s in store in 2024 and what that means for creative businesses. They’re a result of reflecting on the last year, observing larger trends and chatting with folks across various creative industries, from creators who make money on social media to to small business owners, artists, and folks in the podcasting industry. A lot of this may be anecdotal, but some of these patterns are worth paying attention to. Let’s dig in.

What Playing in a Band Taught Me About Making Money / September 5, 2023 by Paco de Leon

I spent most of my young adulthood and late teenage years playing in bands with my friends. But it all started with a simple question.

One day, a classmate who eventually became one of my best friends casually asked, “Do you want to start a band?” Surprised and intrigued, I asked her what instrument she played. She said something about taking piano lessons as a kid.

“Well, do you want to learn how to play the bass?” I thought about the cheap, $ 40, midnight blue electric bass guitar I begged my dad to buy earlier that year from a stranger selling it on Craigslist. “I have one you could use.”

“Yes,” she said with the kind of confidence reserved for youth, “Definitely,”

I took the bass to school the next day. As I handed it to my friend, not realizing how this little action would seal our fates and friendship for decades, we agreed to have our first practice later that week on the last day of our junior year of high school.

We’ve played together for years. On and off. And in different projects. We still tinker around to this day. Throughout all the years playing together, we learned our instruments, made lots of mistakes, and even more memories – like the great tequila embargo of 2014.

As the years accumulated, I wondered how playing hundreds of shows and writing countless songs would fit into the bigger picture of my life. Starting a band is a lot like starting a business.

Even though my constitution will always require playing and making music for the sake of silly art and self-expression, I also learned many invaluable business lessons along the way. Here they are in no particular order.

How Much Does It Cost Your Business to Earn Each Dollar? / September 7, 2021 by Paco de Leon

Do you know how much it costs your business to earn each dollar it makes? Unlike traditional employees, when you're a self-employed service provider, every dollar you earn has a cost beyond your time and energy. How much do you need to pay for employee payroll, taxes, operating costs like marketing and insurance, profit, and personal pay?

Even if you’re a one-person freelance practice, understanding how much it costs you to earn each dollar in your company is a valuable shift in perspective that can help you build a sustainable, efficient business.

Here's What Tax Season Looks Like with Hell Yeah, Bookkeeping / March 10, 2021 by Paco de Leon

What makes tax season so stressful for most small business owners and freelancers? I think it can be chalked up to a few things. First, if you haven’t kept up with your bookkeeping, then you’re facing a year’s worth of accounting homework with a fast-approaching due date. If you don’t know how much you’ve made, you can’t know how much you’ll owe in taxes - you’re flying blind and that’s scary.

Everything You Need to Know About Small Business Taxes / February 26, 2020 by Paco de Leon

Disclaimer: The following is not tax advice. It's a guide to help business owners and the self-employed understand their tax obligations.

Small businesses and their owners have a plethora of ways they can and may be required to pay taxes. From Federal to local taxes, once you start to wrap your head around the American tax system, you'll realize it's kind of a hodgepodge of laws and rules put together over time. Think of it as an ugly collage of regulations, but it's much worse because percentage math is involved. Another frustrating aspect is that the laws may change. We saw this most recently in 2019 with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although a good accountant will help you navigate through the ever-changing tax code, as a business owner or freelancer, it's your responsibility to get a foundational understanding of the world of business taxes.

This guide is to help business owners and the self-employed understand their tax obligations. Once you can wrap your head around how small business taxes work, you'll be able to use this knowledge to make better decisions and to ask your tax advisor (your accountant) better questions.

Here Are The Seven Most Common DIY Bookkeeping Mistakes / October 22, 2019 by Paco de Leon

If you're a small business owner that does your business bookkeeping, I have a lot of respect for you. You're probably one of those curious people who enjoy learning how things work. Or maybe you find it valuable to understand the process.

Anyone who has ventured outside of their lane of expertise has probably felt a tinge of fear that unbeknownst to them, they're doing something wrong. And if their error were to reveal itself, would it be a quick-and-easy fix, or will course correction come at a colossal cost?

Accounting errors can end up being costly if you don't catch them right away. And if you gloss over them, you run the risk of filing incorrect tax returns, which, if uncovered in an audit can cost you a lot in time and money.

Here are the seven most common bookkeeping mistakes I see clients make.

Twelve Small Truths About Running a Business / February 27, 2019 by Paco de Leon

It’s been over 4 years since I’ve gone off my own and I’ve learned more about the world and myself in this short amount of time than I think I’ve learned in my whole life - at least it feels that way. Now that my business is no longer a sketchy house of cards that could fall down at any moment, it’s a lot of fun making things exist in the world to help people.

Here are twelve small truths that I’ve learned while forging my own path.

How To Make Money: Get Over Your Hate of Selling / February 20, 2019 by Paco de Leon

When you’re at a bar at 1am; you’re not drunk, but not not sober, surrounded by a bunch of friends, the last thing you want to do is load several heavy, oddly shaped items into a car only to have to unload them shortly after. This is the worst part about playing in a local band; you have to do everything yourself… but it’s just part of it. It comes with the territory.

To my freelancer friends and small business buddies who hate selling or pitching or talking about the money part of things. I get it, it sucks, but too bad. It’s the trade off for being able to spend your working life building something you believe in. It’s the cost of mostly being in charge of your life. Talking about money doesn’t have to suck. You can stop hating it, but you have to do some work to change your own perspective on it.

Here are some ways I think about selling. I hope some of it will light up your brain and help you power past some of your limiting beliefs around selling and talking to customers about money.