Unfortunately, a math teacher in high school discouraged me so much that I became inept with numbers. I can hardly remember my own phone number and my children’s birthdays. Dealing with money scares me… I know… Shame on me (and shame on him). Today numbers are my worst enemies. Can’t remember them, work with them, feel at ease doing any admin task related to them. It may sound absurd but is true: I hate numbers so much that for some time I thought I’d never become a good business manager and should not even try it because dealing with numbers (and money) is inevitable and necessary.

And then… One beautiful day, someone told me about a free online billing service that solved all my problems!

It provides me with services that make my life super easy. Now managing my company administration is a piece of cake. To my big relief, this program also prepares statements for my accountant and forwards them automatically. I don’t even have to send her anything: as soon as I prepare an invoice and finalize it, all data are automatically transferred to her when I hit the Enter button. The program even reminds me (and my accountant) if a tax statement is due, generates automated emails, and sends attached invoices to my clients, helps me in every possible way. Without it, I’d feel lost and desperate, but with this program, I am happy and efficient.

I do not need any tax advisor or administrator, and I stopped worrying about my clumsiness with numbers.

Now, my story may be irrelevant to you if your operation is more complex than my relatively small translation business. If you feel that you need some serious support, like a tax advisor, talk to your peers. Probably you will find one among them, maybe someone who is a starter like yourself, whose business service is exactly what you need. Forget about the large advisories: you can’t afford them, and they are too slow to catch up with you anyway. There must be much cheaper and more user-friendly solutions that will do the job for you. Reach out for the low-hanging fruit and keep your spending under control.

If you have tips that others may be useful to read, share them with us in a comment.