Monthly Progress – January

Alright, January was a crazy month, not only getting ready for tax season, but I have quite a few new projects going.

I took the CPA test and am confident that I passed. I will find out the results on the 8th of Feb.

I took a part time job with an attorney in sacramento. It is exactly what I was looking for. A way to earn a few extra bucks, but not be bogged down by a 9-5 job.

I also picked up 3 new Research Credit clients. They are fairly big, and because of the recurring nature of the R&D credit, year over year, I will be pretty much set for income. It will be a lot of work to get them all set up for the first time though. I am confident that I can provide a better service than most large firms offer.

As far as tax work, I helped represent two people in audits at $50 an hour, so that is good. I have been booking a lot of appointments for tax clients early, I guess they all want their refunds. I feel like I may have lost about 5-8 clients to turbo tax because their tax returns were so simple, but I have gained 20-30 new clients from marketing and networking.

My financials for the month of January:

• Tax Return & Consulting Income: $600
• Bookkeeping Income: $0
• Tax Compliance Income: $1890
• Payroll Income (net): $30
• Tax Credit Income: $0

Total: $2490

I expect to be pretty busy in Feb, and I also expect to easily triple that number too. Lets hope so!

Monthly Progress – December

• Tax Return & Consulting Income: $1,146
• Bookkeeping Income: $320
• Tax Compliance Income: $20
• Payroll Income (net): $300
• Tax Credit Income: $0

Total Income for October: $1786

Total Hours Worked* in October: 16

Hourly Wage: $112 per hour

*Hours worked is hours physically works, doesnt include marketing, driving, and activities used to build the business. To me those should not be included.

Monthly Progress – October

Well, october came a went pretty quick! A few of my biggest accomplishments were re-taking the two hardest CPA exams. I studied my ass off, and I think I passed them, I wont know for sure until the 5th or 6th of november when they release the scores.

Other than that, I had quite a few tax returns to do because of extensions.

Seeing as how no-one really reads this blog anyway, I’m going to be doing something a little different with my monthly progress reports. I’m going to copy Pat over at Smart Passive Income and post a breakdown of dollar amounts earned. I think this will allow me to be more accountable for building the business and starting new projects.

I will be using an accrual system, by stating the income earned rather than cash received.

• Tax Return Income: $1,958
• Bookkeeping Income: $0
• Tax Compliance Income: $60
• Payroll Income: $30
• Tax Credit Income: $0

Total Income for October: $2048

Total Hours Worked in October: 18

Hourly Wage: $114 per hour

Now, I have to remind you that this is pretty typical, I usually make the majority of my income during the tax season months. November and December should be pretty dismal too, but once January hits, things should start rolling again. The hourly wage is really good, and I am happy that I can keep it that high, it really shows that I am efficient in what I do.

Some projects I have lined up once I am done with the CPA Exams at the end of this month:

• Writing an Enrolled Agent Exam Review
• Joining a networking Group – Le-tip and Metro-chamber
• Read Spin Selling by Neil Rackham
• Market to CPAs and Tax preparers in the area for tax incentives

Monthly Progress – September

So I was thinking about doing this for a while now. Coming up with a progress report that can make me accountable to grow my business, work on start-ups and improve on myself. What better way than to let the world know! This way I can be accountable for what I do.

I am starting this now, but I dont think you will see any major changes over the next two months because pretty much all of my energy is being devoted to my current contract work and passing the CPA exams.

Regardless, here it is (the format may change drastically as well):

My Tax Business

• Current Tax Clients: 38
• Current Bookkeeping Clients: 0
• Current Payroll Clients: 1
• Current Tax Incentive Clients: 0

Contract Work = ~$26k per year (this will change throughout the year as a yearly average)

Current Start-up projects: 0 (I will post details on these as they are created)

Book Pages written: 0

Skill Levels:

C++ Programming: 0

Golf: 5 (I like golf, and want to be good at it, this metric may change to handicap eventually)

I may edit this and flesh it out as time goes on.