An accountant does much more than prepare your financial records. An accountant like Randall Dang is a trusted advisor who helps you make smart financial decisions in your business and personal life. Here are four things to consider before choosing an accountant.

References

Before hiring an accountant, you should always check their references. You will trust your accountant with sensitive information, so you need someone who is both trustworthy and responsive. Ask the accountant to provide references who you can contact. Also check out online reviews to learn more about the accountant’s reputation.

Expertise

Randall Dang says your accountant should be knowledgeable of the financial metrics, systems and processes that will lead you to success. Therefore, you should consider the accountant’s specialty or niche. One accountant may specialize in small businesses and nonprofits, while another might focus on medical practices.

Advice

You should be able to think of your accountant as a financial advisor— not just someone who crunches the numbers for you. Your accountant should be able to offer advice that will improve your financial reports and operations. Don’t settle for someone who doesn’t offer valuable feedback.

Cost

Cost is often an influential factor when choosing an accountant. When picking an accountant, keep in mind the value they’ll deliver to your business. Some accountants charge a fixed rate for each task, while others charge by the minute or hour.

As a small business owner, you’ve been successful in managing your money. However, as your business and revenue grows, finding the time to manage your finances, and ensuring they are correct, can become difficult. With so many different aspects of finances to pay attention to, it can feel impossible to manage your business and keep your money in check.

Experienced accountant Randall Dang understands the struggle business owner’s encounter. Let’s face it – accounting is hard, and as a business owner your main focus is on ensuring your business is successful.

But if you’re still on the fence about hiring an accountant, these six signs may convince you otherwise.

1. You Owe the Government Money Each Year
   Taxes certainly become complicated when you own and operate your own business. But if you come to find on several occasions that when you file your taxes each year that you owe the state and federal government money, you’re doing something wrong. An accountant can help you determine the cause of this and what to do to ensure you don’t owe money each year.
2. You’re Concerned You’re Missing Big Deductions
   Although hiring an accountant takes money, hiring one can also save you money. Missed deductions can cost you a boat load of money each year. CPA Randall Dang can prepare your annual income tax returns to ensure that you are not missing out on any important deductions for your business.
3. It Takes (What Feels Like) Forever to Complete Your Taxes
   Filing your own taxes isn’t necessarily easy, but it shouldn’t take you what feels like forever to do them, either. An accountant can accurately file your taxes and in a much shorter time. This way you can focus your time and attention on your business.
4. Your Business is Growing Rapidly
   While it’s great that your business is growing since it means you’re making more money, as you expand, it may become too much for you to manage. As you expand, you will have more customers to serve, need to hire more employees, take on additional vendors, and much more.
5. Revenue is Up but Profit Isn’t
   You may be selling a ton of products, but you aren’t seeing an increase in profit. An accountant can look at your overhead costs and spot areas where you can cut costs or make necessary adjustments to increase your profit.
6. You Want to Expand Your Business
   If you want to open a new location or distribute products in a new state, an accountant can help ensure you are compliant with regional sales, income and payroll tax reporting requirements.

When it comes down to it, our memories are ultimately what define us. World-renown French photographer, Marc Riboud, is famous for saying “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” Wherever you go, there is a potential fantastic shot available. Randall Dang, an accountant from Vancouver, understands this and takes his camera wherever he goes on his travels. You never know when you’re going to find that amazing shot. With that in mind, here are several tips for capturing the perfect picture when you travel:

Practice: You’re never going to get that perfect shot if you don’t carry your camera with you. Get in the habit of going out there with your camera and getting used to recording moments that inspire you. It might feel awkward at first, but, over time, you’ll learn to be less self-conscious and stay in the moment as you aim for that perfect shot.

Autofocus Is Just Fine in Most Cases: If you are just starting out, don’t worry about playing around with the focus features too much. The technology in cameras today is highly advanced, and autofocus is not nearly as bad as it maybe once was. Once you get the hang of it, you can try framing your shots at other angles to get a different perspective.

Be in the Moment but Be Prepared Too: The perfect shot may not be a spontaneous moment. In many cases, it won’t be actually. Instead, you’ll need to scout your location a bit and look around to see where you can get the best picture. It will be worth taking five minutes or so when you get a shot you may have not otherwise if you just aimed and shot.

The Sky Is Your Friend: Do you want to get a mesmerizing shot? Always point your camera slightly north to incorporate a blue sky n your frame whenever possible. You’ll be amazed by how much better the picture turns out.

You don’t have to be a famous photographer to take a great picture. Randall Dang is an accountant, not a photographer, but he still goes out there with his camera and so can you. Try it out the next time you go out and see where the camera takes you.