Bay Area Businesses

Alleviating Cash Flow Management Pains for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

ranjan.254 / June 19, 2025

[1] Because we’re talking cash flow management today… with a recession looming on the horizon and the effects of inflation being felt so hard in everyday life, it’s difficult not to freak out over what lies ahead for your San Francisco Bay Area small business. But, some think a recession might not be all that bad for small businesses… even helpful. While that remains to be seen, one thing I can say is, don’t panic. There is a way forward – when you have a plan and good advice along the way. If you’re not able to see the path forward through the muck of it all, or you just need a little more support and guidance — I suggest grabbing a time with us and our team. That’s what we’re here for.Patti (408) 775-7790 Gale 408-775-7800 Now, one thing that you want to pay extra close attention to when lows strike is what’s happening within your cash flow. Knowing where it’s at, plus figuring out how to make it last, especially if you’re in a seasonal business (we understand that kind of reality), well, this sometimes takes some specially-devoted effort and planning. Many business owners avoid this and prefer to “wing it” … and occasionally to disastrous results. So that’s what I want to jump into today… Alleviating Cash Flow Management Pains for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses“Standards are always out of date. That’s what makes them standards.” – Alan Bennett You love your business and you love when cash flow management goes smoothly. Who doesn’t? But if your company is seasonable, a steady income can be hard to come by. Boy, we hear you. We’re accountants, and the weeks after Tax Day can be slow. I remember feeling horrible that my family suffered so much because my industry happened to trail off for a while after people finished filing their taxes. As a San Francisco Bay Area business owner, financial lows usually hit you the most. You probably dig into your profit and take-home pay to make sure your employees and operations don’t hurt (especially these days). That’s only natural – and responsible of you. But you can fight the unpredictability of seasonal cash flow, smoothing out those highs and lows. We can help you ease the pain. Here’s how. Your initial questions Cash flow management is all about details. You know more about tackling this problem than you think. You’ve got three good tools right off: your company’s records, your experience in your industry, and your common sense. Even if you don’t have an official profit-and-loss statement, you probably have a trove of recorded info about your business. Look at your past few seasonable ups and downs. Any stand out? What happened in those periods? That could give you a good idea of what to repeat – or avoid. What are the cycles of your company and industry? What factors like weather or the local economy impact your business? What can you predict is coming down the pike? This can give you a better idea of how much to budget and how far out to plan. Are your income sources sustainable? During your busy season, make sure you get paid as fast as possible: Send double-checked invoices to clients as soon as you’ve completed the work, don’t be shy about reminders, and give them a clear deadline for payment – smoothing year-round cash flow is one thing, but you don’t want customers’ unpaid bills spilling into your off-season. Look at your expenses, too. Are your biggest ones justified? Are there ways to reduce them? Regarding biz real estate, some landlords might be open to you paying more rent in the busy season and less in the slow times. If you own your business property, can you rent it out during the off-season? Year-round strategies We all know about saving for a rainy day. Your off-season isn’t rainy, exactly, but it’s close enough. Set aside a percentage of your high-season profits for the downtimes – and be disciplined about it. (We’d be happy to talk you through more details of this idea.) Try off-season work that dovetails with your primary business. Accountants offer financial advising, for example, during those months when people aren’t filing tax returns. Let’s say you’re a landscaper or a pool maintenance company working hard in the warm months. Consider snow removal or a similar winter business to bring in a little cash and keep your name in front of customers. While we’re on the subject, smart and constant marketing is the best way to keep the pipeline flowing. Do your competitors hibernate off-season? Then market when they don’t. Work up a list of your anchor clients and pitch them with deals for early registration for your high-season services. Offer them this year’s price on a few items if they register early for next year – in the middle of our terrible inflation, they’re sure to notice that. Upsell them on other items if you have to, and constantly ask for referrals. In accounting, we use social media and e-newsletters off-season a lot. Give us a buzz and we can talk about this strategy. Prep work A lot of businesses would love to have a slow time to work carefully on improving their operation and bottom line. This breather has landed in your lap. Go over those budgeting items we mentioned, then go over them again. Take time to study your business and the money that makes it go. What procedures have you always wanted to improve? Satisfied that you take all the payment methods you need (these evolve all the time, you know …)? One huge part of prepping for your busy season is finding the right workers (some accounting firms start looking for tax-time help the fallbefore). You’ve got time to look for the right people – again, don’t forget referrals – and to fine-tune or expand your training. If you’ve got a solid bank of temporary staffers from the previous season, think about honing them. Who deserves a

Business Growth

The Word on Payment Methods for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

ranjan.254 / June 19, 2025

…payment methods! Try to come up with one thing that’s more important to your San Francisco Bay Area business than taking in revenue smoothly. Yeah, I couldn’t, either. And making sure that revenue is coming in becomes almost an obsession when you’re feeling the squeeze of inflation on your profit margins. Though talk of recession is hanging in the air, it doesn’t mean you have to passively wait for its effects. You can make a plan to survive it and even give your profit margins a boost. Want help planning for the future of your business? That’s why my team at ONeill & Bergado is here. Schedule a time with us to get the ball rolling:Patti (408) 775-7790 408-775-7800 When it comes to getting paid, opening every channel seems like the best plan. But make sure you know what each channel involves before you do – like fees, rules, taxes. Let’s take a look… The Word on Payment Methods for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses“Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid.” – Albert Schweitzer There are more ways than ever for your company to get paid with each choice having good points and bad for convenience, speed, and security. Let’s look at the options and see if you’re using the best payment methods for you. Is cash king? Maybe, maybe not. You get your payment on the spot, there are no sneaky fees (as with many other payment methods), and with diligent recordkeeping, you won’t get into tax trouble. If you sell relatively inexpensive items or services from a brick-and-mortar store, cash might be best. Yet you might be surprised how many people don’t carry cash anymore, and your customers aren’t likely to make a major purchase with cash. And a lot of cash on your premises, frankly, can make you a target. Did we mention diligent recordkeeping to avoid tax trouble? We mean really diligent. You have to make a special report to the IRS if any transaction involves more than 10 grand in cash. (Reach out to us with any questions about this.) Give yourself credit Credit cards (which consumers seem to prefer more than debit cards) can make a smooth transaction on both sides of the checkout. Taking card payments can expand your pool of customers and, via deposits right to your bank, streamline your revenue without you keeping a lot of cash on hand. They’ve also been shown to increase impulse purchases. This convenience comes at a price for you in the form of multiple fees (such as per-transaction and monthly) or special equipment such as card readers (which can cost up to a grand or so). Note that fees for debit card transactions are capped but credit card companies set the fees for their cards’ transactions. And with a cash purchase, the buyer has to show up and plead their case to get their money back. Chargebacks for returns from unhappy credit card customers can ding your account without warning. Some banks also hold merchants responsible for credit card fraud, a potentially expensive liability especially if you can’t process more-secure chip cards. The quaint paper check is about as far as you can get from microchip technology. Yet some older customers prefer writing checks, and some businesses still take them – all you need is a business bank account and a smart acceptance policy. Best to take only checks from well-known or in-state banks or to use a third party to verify the quality of the check. Electronic processing of checks can come with a service fee. Customers can stop payment on a check. And of course, checks can bounce. Not only does this sometimes nick you with a fee from your own bank but getting your money can then become an especially long process. And it could go all the way to small claims court or end with you hiring a collection agency. Other payment methods Mobile: Probably as many people own smartphones as hold credit cards – maybe more – and payments are usually fast and convenient, but you may have to worry about security, frequent app updates, and compatibility issues, especially if customers don’t have iPhones or Androids. Electronic payments: Again, it’s fast and easy, especially if you have international customers. These are also pretty much indispensable if you sell online; they’ll calculate the sales tax for you. Fees tend to be higher here than with other methods. Autopay: Customers often find this the best way to pay for subscription services, and you get your money regularly without having to send more than maybe an annual reminder to re-up. That can also produce problems for you, such as overdraft charges when your customer can’t make the payment and after-the-fact (sometimes angry) cancellations and demands for refunds. Email invoicing: Good if you provide a service. Your bill goes out fast, which can produce a faster payment. It also makes your bookkeeping and accounting easier because it’s electronic, and you won’t have to track down paperwork. It doesn’t always work as well for retail, though, and there’s always the chance your bill will wind up overlooked in a customer’s spam folder. Some vendors Here are a few household names that offer options, just to get you started. (We can recommend others that might be better for you.) Paypal: Mobile, online and in-person payment. An online transaction fee of about 3.5%, about 2% for in-person payments using a QR code. Various fees for other services such as credit and debit card payments. Venmo: No set-up fee, a seller transaction fee of about 2%, no monthly fees. “Profile” needed. Other fees for such features as electronic withdrawals. Quickbooks Payment: No monthly or set-up fees. Rates from 1% for ACH transactions to 2.4% to 3.4%, depending on how the transaction is processed. In this day, setting up a plethora of payment methods is probably a good call. And you especially want to consider advancing your options as the world evolves and new methods hit the scene. Even with this list of pros and cons, we understand if you still need

Business Growth

A Cutting Expenses How-to for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

ranjan.254 / June 19, 2025

As a small business owner, you’re battling on a lot of different fronts right now. You’re doing your best to keep employees happy, raise prices without driving away customers, pivot to alternative supply options as your current ones dry up, adjust for changing tax laws, etc, etc, etc. We small business owners always seem to bear the brunt during economic downturns. And because we’re the backbone of our economy, it matters that we not only survive but, you know, THRIVE. And MY San Francisco Bay Area small business is about helping YOUR San Francisco Bay Area small business find its way to solid ground – even if just by helping you to know that you’re not alone (but, ahem, we can do so much more). So if you need some time to just talk over a specific financial decision, or navigate your future tax liability (i.e. REDUCE it), that’s quite literally what we’re here for:Patti (408) 775-7790 Gale 408-775-7800 Now, there is something you can do … now. While I almost always advise my clients to work on raising the topline revenue before cutting expenses (simply for morale and psychological reasons), as ol’ Dickens said: These are the times that try men’s souls. It might be necessary to cut sometimes. But there are some FAR superior ways to do this than by firing an employee or chopping necessary overhead (though there are ways to work through that too). So let’s jump into what I mean, shall we? A Cutting Expenses How-to for San Francisco Bay Area Small Businesses“Spare no expense to make everything as economical as possible.” – Samuel Goldwyn Every expense of your small business is one more drain on your bottom line. The good news: Every expense might also be a way to save money. This next article in our inflation series looks at how you can cut a variety of expenses as inflation now runs hotter than any time in the past 41 years. The starting point for cutting expenses: The costliest items Your major biz expenses are probably payroll, rent/lease, and equipment. If you’re a new business, you’ve probably also shelled out a lot for inventory and marketing, and startups report being surprised by their first business tax bills, as well as by the price tags of insurance and tech. Your ax has a lot of potential targets. Where to start? Let’s get right to the big one on many minds: Payroll. Compensation usually makes up more than a quarter of your expenses – sometimes more – and like everything else these days, it’s only going up. You want to avoid pay cuts and layoffs (both can hurt you in the long run) but at least make sure your new hires aren’t using a tight labor market to talk you into overpaying. You probably already have a firm idea of what your profession pays, and there are lots of sites out there, such as Glassdoor, where you can compare salaries before you make an offer. It’s also easier – and usually cheaper – to keep the people you have rather than hire new ones. The replacement cost of an employee can be 150% of their annual salary or more. Big reasons for resignation include low pay, bad working conditions, bad management, and being forced to return to the office after working remotely. Younger workers appear to be leading the charge for the door. Talk to your employees to see what would keep them happy. Flexible paid time off seems to head most lists. Your cheaper options for workers? Freelancers and independent contractors tend to be more expensive upfront but you don’t pay health insurance and other perks or payroll taxes. Note: Tax authorities are tightening the definition of “independent contractor” and you can’t just slap the label on a worker without agreeing to other conditions. Check with us if you have any questions. Your local college may be able to set you up to hire interns, who in exchange for little or no pay will receive college credit. This can also be a great recruiting avenue for you but, again, you must use care to set this up legitimately. The second place to look when cutting expenses: Your lease Your office space is probably your next biggest expense. First and most obviously, do you still need all that space? Are more workers remote and everybody’s grown comfortable with that? (Some companies have estimated that for every five workers going forward they’ll only need three desks …) That’s a lot of square footage saved. Can you tinker with your lease? Many commercial leases are long-term but you might have wiggle room to negotiate as your business changes. Assuming you’ve been a good tenant, work with your current landlord first. If you’re looking at a new commercial lease, look for the length of the lease, see how the rent stacks up against others in the area and watch for details like future rent hikes. A good rule for dealing with landlords also applies to vendors, contractors and others who provide services where you might be able to save money: Many are open to negotiating. There’s never any harm in asking, especially if you only use their services occasionally. Other areas to examine when cutting expenses Recurring costs. Rather than utilities and other necessities, these are your subscription services that get renewed automatically, usually every month. As time goes on and your memory gets foggier, they can be a tremendous and useless drain of money. Review them frequently. Marketing. Watch your ROI. There are a lot of options now that may be cheaper than an ad in the local paper, such as online and social media. Get somebody involved (maybe part-time) who understands how to get a message across on these platforms. Supplies. Once they do the math, many biz owners are surprised at how much their office supplies cost. Track your usage and you’ll find a lot of items you can eliminate or cut back on. Shop around, of course, and buy in volume where you can. Insurance. This is a

Business Growth

San Francisco Bay Area Businesses choosing to live out of a place of gratitude

ranjan.254 / June 19, 2025

This week is an opportunity. To comfort ourselves away from the noise of our clamoring-for-attention society with good food and (mostly?) good company … for sure. But also, to pause. There’s not many opportunities for that as a San Francisco Bay Area business owner (without falling behind on the 983 conversations you’re part of on a daily basis). Between the inflation crisis, rumors of supply chain woes, the upcoming holiday season, the stress that Q4 often brings with it… let’s just say, owning a business involves a lot of moving parts and a wide range of emotions connected to this time of year. But it’s expected that you should pause this week, so let’s not miss it. In fact, maybe we can actually savor this momentary respite from the craziness by remembering to be thankful for REAL things in our lives — things (or people) that we can actually name… not just some abstract idea of “being thankful” that doesn’t hold any meaning in our daily lives. No matter what you or your family (or your business) may be facing this year, no matter if the news portrays the world as spinning out of control… we can control our mindsets and choose to live out of a place of gratitude. It sounds cliche, but it really does wonders for our hearts and minds. So as we prepare to rest this week over here at ONeill & Bergado, I’ve been thinking about those concrete, real things in my life that I have gratitude for. First among them are the amazing clients I get to work with. Somewhere along the journey, you chose to trust us with your business. That is no small choice, and we don’t take it lightly. Owning a business comes with so many risks — I still remember the exhilarating-but-nerve-wracking experience of going out “on my own.” I’m grateful for the friends and other business owners who helped me along the way. No one wants to go at it alone — especially when dealing with the murky waters of the IRS and the economy. That’s why I’m here. In the midst of the crazy, I get to be (I hope) a steady, reliable source for you. And that’s why I’m proud of what we’ve been able to create around here at ONeill & Bergado. I was once the ambitious business owner hoping to pursue my dream. Now, I get to be the one helping people like you pursue YOUR dreams. So before I gather with friends and family this week, I wanted to take a moment — as a business owner… and hopefully, as your friend — to say THANK YOU for trusting us with your business and the honor of serving you year after year. It’s a joy. What are some of those tangible things (or people) in your life that you find yourself grateful for? Feel free to reach out and let me know your thoughts. Let’s encourage each other this week, as we take some time to slow down and reflect. Warmly, Patti ONeill and Gale Bergado

Alleviating Cash Flow Management Pains for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

The Word on Payment Methods for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

A Cutting Expenses How-to for San Francisco Bay Area Businesses

San Francisco Bay Area Businesses choosing to live out of a place of gratitude

Get Directions

(408) 241-4100

Contact Details

Our Most Requested Services

Quick Links

Importaint Link