Going to be an interesting tax season

[bill_schubert]

I miss a lot of things about running a small business.  There are way more things I do not miss but to say I didn't get some joy out of it would be untrue.  Being a computer magician (which most of my customers thought I was) and having people be so grateful, when they were, was really nice.  This was especially true when I did on site residential.  Going into someone's house and fixing a problem and explaining how to do things and cleaning out their shoe box of crap tech CD's they don't need was all fun.  They were almost always falling all over themselves with gratitude.  People coming to pick up their PCs in the store were not quite so cheerful.  It was just a retail chore at best for the most part.  

One weird thing I really enjoyed was running the Quickbooks part of the business.  I did our own books and for a long time did our payroll through Quickbooks.  I spent a lot of hours learning it and then relearning the new version (I went from Pro to Enterprise and back) but I knew the business a lot better than most do as a result.  I knew in the back of my mind without looking how much money we had at any given time, whether we were making a profit, when payroll was due, what I had to move around to do it and who owed us money.  In my mind this was essential and, I think, why a lot of people go out of business.  They can't be bothered with the books.

Before I owned a business I kind of liked doing the taxes each year.  Once I had the business I gave that up.  In retrospect I maybe could have figured it out and learned a lot and saved a ton of money.  Since CPAs don't give advice, I'd have lost nothing but time.  

This year is my first since 2004 that I'll do my own taxes.  Just to make it more interesting I signed back up with the company that provides customer support for Turbo Tax and I'm going to do that.  I only obligated for 10 hours a week but if I like it I'll probably add more.  At worst I'll hate it and learn a lot more about Turbo Tax and taxes in general.  And I'll have some cash money to do something stupid with.

I'm pretty sure the issues I had with the last gig, not enough cheer leading bling in my demeanor and phraseology will not be an issue.  "Hey, enjoy your workout with Turbo Tax!!!".  Naah.  And I'll be dealing with the typical downtrodden tax payer, not the elitist exerciser.  

We'll see.  Now for something completely different. 

Comments

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I read a book many years ago that said that the problem with most businesses is that the person who started them was a technician (defined here as good at whatever service or product the business provided). Trouble is a business needs you to be good at everything else as well, something many people completely overlook. I've watched many businesses tank in the years since for precisely this reason.

[susandennis]

Very cool about the new gig.

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

I am giggling at the idea of a support person saying "hey, enjoy your workout with Turbo Tax!" Depending on how complicated your taxes are, it might be a mental workout :)

I do think it's great that you were so involved with the books, how better to have your finger on the pulse of what was going on with the business?