Free Financial Consulting for Small Startups – Your help needed for details
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OK, this is going to be an open discussion, all of your readers who have been reading silently and have a start up I request all of you to speak up for the greater benefit.
There is some one who runs a financial consulting organization, has a lot of experience in Accounts and finance of IT setups, who has kindly agreed to provide Financial consulting to budding entrepreneurs.
There is how ever one thing that need to be ironed out and I need your help in finding those small details so this friend of mine does not end up doing every thing and step back from his pledge.
First few things to note the help is initially for 6 months (to see if this even works out and he can spare time to actually help those) I am sure he would extend this period if we don’t take un due advantage and either pay him when the venture becomes profitable or get permanent accounts guys if not and let other get some help.
So what do I need your help on this is to determine what kind of financial consulting or advice entreprenuers need in their ealry days.
Few things I can identify at start is
- Figuring out tax for employees and organization.
- Help in filing for exemption if any applicable to your industry
- Making sure your accounting procedures and documents are in order for any audit you need down the road.
These are few of the things that came to my mind, but I know there will be other problematic areas to highlight.
Again this discussion is for helping startups if you hold back it will be loss for all of us so help me out in getting these crazy entreprenuers some free help.
10:17 pm
A few areas that i can come up with are actual financial planning for the organization. Developing realistic assumptions for financial models for the business that would be highly relevant when these budding entrepreneurs go out to potential investors.
I too am willing to help in these efforts, by guiding entrepreneurs develop their financial models etc.
10:18 pm
I didn’t really understand the need for this post.
Who is this “friend” of yours and why should “startups” be interested in getting him to help them?
11:21 pm
Obaid thanx for stopping by. My friend is a CEO of a financial comsulting firm providing services to companies.
When I was involved in a startup the basic thing we did not know were how muc tax to cut from salaries how and when to file returns etc these are the things this person can guide them on. Because at that early stage no body can hire an accountant. But not keeping the books in order can later lead to bigger problems when you have to clean it up before growing.
I just talked to him if he would be interested in helping these startups and he agreed. I wanted some input on
1. Even if such thing is required
2. What the areas we can identify
Since this is where a lot of local startup read I thought getting an input from people who have gone through can give insight and the newer ones can identify areas
11:37 pm
Do you mean that i can call up this person and get free payroll calculations and tax filing advise?
Cuz, i received a letter from the tax department asking me to pay advance tax under section 147 (or something) i went to the tax office a few times and they still insist that i hav to pay this amount. they also say that if this amount is not correct, than i still have to pay and once paid than i can claim an adjustment or refund.
Could also use a little help with payroll tax calcualtion and EOBI and Social Security calcualtions.
is this person willing to helpout on teh above?
11:59 pm
Fariha yes this is the exact type of help he has agreed to provide.
I just wanted to see if there was even a need and if there are other potential area we can get his help on.
12:00 am
Also, what happens if you a few months of unpaid EOBI of your employees? are there penalties?
1:23 am
Fariha
Drop me an email fromyour frequently used email address at
Q A Z I at R U N B O X dot C O M
(This is open for others too who want to send email for queries)
I will get you through to this person and he can guide you as this is not my area of expertise
1:25 am
I think freelancers and small entrepreneurs would really find this useful since it’s not the first thing we have on our mind.
There should be more info available so that once we start to grow, we know what to expect and have a good foundation to work on.
1:39 am
@Qazi Thanks for proposing the idea.
It’s always good to know the go-to guys (like your friend) in the local entrepreneur community who are willing to volunteer their time or expertise to help others. Hats off to you guys for putting up the offer
Effective financial management is very important for any business, small or large, but given that the startup ecosystem is nearly non-existent at the moment, what size/style of startup do you see as the target benefactor of this initiative?
Also, the idea seems a bit odd coming from the GnW platform which focuses primarily on early-stage startups, which don’t often need to worry about tax regulations and accounting procedures for audits at that stage.
Cash flow management is critical from the get-go, so you might want to add it to your list. Key financial indicators that affect business valuations might also be useful to keep in mind for founders looking for a lucrative exit.
1:43 am
Interesting
One very important thing would be to help the entrepreneurs automate the reporting of key financial meters for their business… As a start the basic things investors like to see when guaging financial strength
That would help keep on top of their cash flows
8:12 am
This is great that someone wants to help and volunteer time helping out startups. I concur with what Osama that help with key financial matters and ratios is important. Expanding on the idea, if the person willing to consult has IT industry experience, he/she can help companies with a framework to ensure that companies remain on a solid footing on a day to day basis. Examples: If you are a services company, your payroll should only be a certain %age of your revenue. You should be setting aside a %age of revenue for the day when you have unbillable employees but don’t want to loose the talent (and you can use this fund to pay their salaries) etc. etc. So tax advice and all that is great and probably can be summarized in a newsletter or something (or a blog if your friend is willing to do that). Help with financial aspects of running the day to day operations is also very important.
Another important area where your friend can help is templates for negotiating financial contracts/obligations, for example rent agreements, services contracts. All these have a financial bearing on a company and certain things should be done and others avoided. Help with these kind of matters would be very useful.
My two rupees worth of advice is that your friend can perhaps (with your help) start a blog and post some of the generic information there. It also has the benefit for your friend that he could get referral work later when companies are successful and looking for paid advice.
9:40 am
Qazi,
There is a need for such services.
My company provides financial support (grants) to entrepreneurs / start-ups, who HIRE experts to solve their problems.
Kamran
1:46 pm
Thank you every one for your comments,
Osama, I guess automation is some thing some IT startup will have to do it them selves, this person can tell them the guidlines.
Zia, regarding the news letter blog, the Income Tax rules changes every year, also all the info needed by these people is easily available but its hard to decipher, we can help create an easier to understand and specific guide for all but again questions like Fariha asked above (If EOBI is not paid whats the panelty) will require some one to look at the situation briefly and advice.
4:04 pm
Qazi – this post by Brad Feld should help
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/03/daily-data.html
12:45 pm
Thats a great effort. I will certainly send you an email in a while as I really have the need for help in this area!
9:35 am
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4:27 pm
Hey I emailed you but never got a reply
9:02 am
Waqas I am really sorry i don’t seem to find it in my inbox, can you send again I think it might have landed in spam