Use Your Tax Refund To Grow Your Small Business

By Carla Freberg, Vendor Services Manager at Balboa Capital

Tax season is one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year for small business owners. It involves an immense amount of time and effort to get all of the necessary paperwork together. CNBC reported that half of small businesses in the United States will spend at least $5,000 to come to terms with their tax bills.

If you run a small business, the best thing you can do is present your accountant with organized financial statements, receipts, expense reports, etc. Doing so can help you maximize your tax deductions.

But now that Tax Day 2015 has passed, many small business owners are looking at tax refunds. If Uncle Sam is sending you a tax refund, you might want to use it to grow your small business.

This article looks at three ways you can invest in your company:

Mobile Technology.

Small businesses are using smartphones, tablets and other types of mobile technology to assist with a variety of functions. A recent survey conducted by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council reveals that 74% use it to manage social media marketing, 71% for email marketing, 34% for mobile websites and 18% to manage operations. Now is the time to embrace mobile technology, because it gives you and your employees the ability to manage things quickly, and with greater cost-efficiency. Popular mobile technologies in 2015 include point-of-sale (POS) software, mobile credit card processing, and customized small business apps.

Cloud-Based Technology.

Advances in cloud-based technology are changing the way small businesses operate. As you know, the cost to purchase and maintain office equipment such as computers, monitors, software, printers and servers can chip away at your bottom line. Moving software and certain IT functions to the cloud can reduce your expenses and enable you and your employees to work with more mobility. There are cloud-based services available for a whole host of small business tasks, such as data storage and document sharing, and they are scalable. You can easily upscale or downscale your cloud computing requirements based on your company’s needs.

Cybersecurity Solutions.

Just because you run a small business doesn’t mean you can hide from hackers who want to compromise your website. In today’s world, cyber thieves from all over the world scroll through the Internet looking for vulnerable websites. A cyberattack, computer virus, or internal security breach would turn your small business upside down and result in decreased productivity, lost revenues and frustrated customers. Investing in cybersecurity solutions can help protect your company’s online infrastructure from malware, spyware, worms and more. Commonly used solutions include data loss prevention (DLP) software, hardware firewalls, software firewalls and antivirus software.

Start Preparing for 2016.

If you manage your tax-related paperwork throughout the year, you won’t need to rush to get everything ready at the last minute, which can result in costly mistakes. All you need to do is establish an organized bookkeeping system with accurate records and receipts, and update it as needed. It’s a great way to prepare your company for a successful and stress-free 2016 tax season.

Carla Freberg leads the Vendor Services Group, which is composed of account executives, regional managers, franchise finance managers, program managers, and business development representatives. She is a graduate of Louisiana State University and has more than 12 years of professional experience in the equipment financing industry.