After being all excited and getting over the fact that I could actually say “I, Pat Flynn, own my own business” (I can’t wait for my 10 year reunion), I soon realized that this is really serious stuff. There’s much more to it than just filing papers with the Secretary of State and having a really cool stamp thingy that has my company name on it.

Last week, I met with a CPA to help me with the finances of my business. I learned so much in that hour, but the most important thing I learned was that in order for a business to function properly, AND in order to maintain the protection of my personal assets (which is the main point of starting my LLC), I must separate my business finances from my personal finances. Click to continue…

Today I had my first meeting with a Certified Public Accountant. For those of you who aren’t too sure, a CPA is a person who has passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination whose primary function is to provide assurance services, or public accounting. In addition, they can help with business consulting, financial and estate planning, tax prep, and so on.

I had a financial planner once before who was actually very helpful in educating me about my future relating to retirement and larger purchases in my near future, such as a car and a house. However today, the CPA (let’s call him Dave) was pretty much focused on Flynndustries, LLC (my business), and my personal income with regards to taxes – something I am pretty clueless about. Remember, this is a learning process for me and if I tried to know and understand everything before diving into it, I would never have started my business in the first place. Click to continue…