Can an accountant help me start a business?

An accountant can do a lot of things for your company. One of the most important parts of what he does will come early in the process of starting a business. In fact one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make when they are starting a business is not involving an accountant early enough. Ideally you should have an accountant involved right from the start; he is an excellent source of advice on how to structure your business and how to get funding for it. These days an accountant is more of a consultant than he is a guy who keeps the books. Since most new business owners can use all the expert advice they can get it is a very good idea to have an accountant help you start your business.

There are a number of ways that an accountant can help you to start a business. The first thing he can do is to help you make the decision about how your business should be structured. You can set it up as a sole proprietorship, as a partnership or as a corporation. There are advantages and disadvantage to all of these options and the accountant can help you to go through them all. He will be able to help you to decide on the best way to structure your company for your situation.

An accountant will also be able to help you prepare your business plan. The biggest part of your business plan is going to be the financial projections. This is also the most difficult for most people to come up with since they often have no idea what these should be based on. Your accountant will be able to go through this with you and help you to come up with the financial projections that you need to create your business plan. Without a good business plan you won’t be able to get funding for your business so this is an important part of what your accountant can do.

Your accountant will also be able to help you to get funding for your business. In addition to helping create your business plan he will likely be a good source of information on where you can get funding. He will also be able to advise you on the best option for funding. In some cases it may be a loan from a bank for others it may be investors. Your accountant will also be able to help make sure that you are getting a good deal on the funding. The last thing that you want is for your investors to take over the company in exchange for their investment.

Once you have funding there are still all kinds of decisions that will need to be made, should you buy or lease equipment? How are you going to set up your accounting system? There is a lot of work for your accountant and you will likely find that he is one of your most important assets when you are starting a business.