Why You Need a Business Bank Account
When you first start out as a Virtual Assistant there are a few housekeeping details to take care of immediately. One of the most important is to open a business bank account.
In this episode of The RocketGirl Show, I'll talk about why you need a business bank account.
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Belinda Wasser, also known as RocketGirl, and in today's RocketGirl show we're going to talk about why you need a business bank account.
When first starting out as a virtual assistant, there are few housekeeping tasks that you need to take care of. One of them is getting a business bank account. Today, we're going to talk about why that's important.
When you have a business bank account, it allows you to track your expenses. So can you imagine having your personal account and you've got your software applications subscription, your office supplies, and all of that in your personal account, that would be difficult to track? So, having a completely separate account, where you put all of your VA money in and track all of your expenses makes it much easier.
It also makes doing your taxes much easier because it's all in one place.
Now, let's talk about the IRS. If you were working in the United States, you want to send a very clear signal to the IRS that you're in business for real. Especially when the numbers are low in the beginning. So, if you're paying for applications or office supplies, part of your cellphone, whatever it is, you want to make sure that by having a separate bank account you're letting the IRS know that you're in business for real.
You have an accurate financial picture. You can look at your bank account balance and know that you have any money. That's important to do in the beginning as well so that we really know where we stand in our business.
Alright, we have a comment. It's Isabelle, we love Isabelle.
Before you get a business bank account, before you go to the bank, give them a call. And I'll tell you why. We're going to need some kind of documentation, it's either going to be something from your town or your city or your state. So just call the bank. Every time I open a business bank account, what's happened is they've known what I needed and they could tell me exactly where to go to get it. They want to make it as simple as possible for you.
Then, every time you have a business expense you use that your debit card or write a check. Keep it with you at all times because you never know what's going to happen and also keep the receipts. Deposit all the money you make as a VA into this account. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't take money out. To this point, a lot of people think that having another account is really complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth. What happens is, I pay all my expenses for my business out of this account and then if I need money, I have my account at the same bank. What I do is I just transfer the money over with a couple of clicks and so that becomes on my owner's draw.
It doesn't matter if you're a corporation, or a sole proprietor, or any other partnership, LLC, you need a business bank account. So, go out there and get one. It's really easy and it also doesn't have to cost any extra money, sometimes people think you have more fees. But I have found it doesn't have to be the case at all.
I want to invite you all over to my free online classroom, The Virtual Assistant Connection where an online professional community committed to educating and connecting VAs all over the world. We have 47 countries represented and over 5,000 members. It's really a happy place. We'd love to have you over there whether you're just thinking of being a VA or you've been one for a while. So, I'll see you in the Facebook group.
This is RocketGirl signing off, until next time, bye-bye.
