Hiring vs. Learning

**ltn1dr** · 08-01-2006, 09:46 PM

Recently I made a post on my blog about where or not you should hire someone to do something such as accounting and forming legal entities or learn how to do it yourself, and I'd like some input.

I made a post about this on my blog.

**FriedBob** · 08-02-2006, 01:52 AM

I have 2 posts on my own blog (see sig) which I feel are good responses to this. One I wrote tonight, and the other I wrote last weekend before I even joined this forum. The titles, oldest first, are "Quicken Will Not Replace Reason, Let Alone Accountants" and "Time + Reading Material = Professional?"

The basic idea of the newer post is that reading a book won't give you the same level of expertise as a CPA (or lawyer, for that matter) has. You have to have 150+ credit hours, a BS or BA in accounting, and generally a year plus relevant work experience before you can even sit to take the CPA exams.

Just my $0.02, I'm not claiming to give legal or financial advice. I can only tell you what I've learned in class and what I would probably do in a given situation. It's ultimately your call what you do, and you will be the one to live with the results be they good or bad. The goal is for the good to be more than the bad.

**stevel** · 08-02-2006, 03:16 AM

Do what your good at. You do not make money from accounting. Leave that to the professionals and spend your time on your skill sets.

If you want to grow your business there is only so much of you to go around.

**Plugin-Developer** · 08-02-2006, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevel

Do what your good at. You do not make money from accounting. Leave that to the professionals and spend your time on your skill sets.

If you want to grow your business there is only so much of you to go around.

I completely agree with you on this point. I left a comment on the blog post saying something similar.

-Nick

**Shpigford** · 08-02-2006, 10:01 AM

Like others have hinted at, running your own business is hard enough work, you don't need to sit around worrying if you've done your accounting correctly. CPA's are generally fairly affordable and are definitely worth it just from the stand point of you not having to spend time hacking all your numbers together and hoping it comes out correctly.

**ltn1dr** · 08-02-2006, 11:11 AM

Yeah, I wasn't really talking about accounting as that gets pretty tough, (but I've been doing ours for the LLC and personal anyways, because thats what I'm probably gonna study in college). I was talking more like filing LLCs, running them, finding out what forms to fill out, etc. And all other things in general

**Shpigford** · 08-02-2006, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltn1dr

Yeah, I wasn't really talking about accounting as that gets pretty tough, (but I've been doing ours for the LLC and personal anyways, because thats what I'm probably gonna study in college). I was talking more like filing LLCs, running them, finding out what forms to fill out, etc. And all other things in general

Ahhh, well in that case...it depends. Some states have really complicated processes for filing that sort of thing. Here in Colorado, filing for LLC took all of about 30 minutes of my time and was done online...super simple.

**Tran** · 08-02-2006, 11:39 AM

I personally would learn how to do al of that.. Like the saying

Quote:

give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he'll eat for a lifetime

**stevel** · 08-02-2006, 09:57 PM

Teach a man to fish is good.

But should we teach a man the complex mating patterens of West Coast Salmon.

It may be beneficial or give a good overall picture, but he doesn't need to know that to catch the fish.

For registering a corp or LLC use an online service, they are ususally pretty cheap and you get a lot, as they are going for BULK.

**ltn1dr** · 08-02-2006, 11:07 PM

Lol.

Registering an LLC online would have cost me at least 3 times as much as it did to do it myself, and I now have the knowledge of how to do it, the satisfaction of having done it all myself, and two books on running/managing them.

It took me all of 5 minutes to file my LLC after reading for like 2 hours.

**imported_Max** · 08-02-2006, 11:45 PM

I have to disagree. Maybe at the 'entry level' but you will find later on that a CPA is going to be a requirement.

**ltn1dr** · 08-03-2006, 12:41 AM

Well I guess then its only good for me to know because I plan on doing something related in the future

**Shpigford** · 08-04-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltn1dr

Lol.

Registering an LLC online would have cost me at least 3 times as much as it did to do it myself, and I now have the knowledge of how to do it, the satisfaction of having done it all myself, and two books on running/managing them.

It took me all of 5 minutes to file my LLC after reading for like 2 hours.

Well depends on what you mean...my state has online registration. So I did that and that was actually the cheapest route.

**againes** · 08-04-2006, 02:05 PM

I done a accounting course at college on a night, learnt the basics. What I do is put all my accounts together and let the accountant check it over. This saves the accountants time and lowers his fee.

**imported_DaveTurnbull** · 08-04-2006, 07:58 PM

I always try to learn stuff myself, seeing as I hate parting with money :P
Haven't spent a dime of what I've earned from adsense this year.

**RayChaney** · 08-14-2006, 04:36 PM

Depends, too, on your priorities and focus. Plus, there's the school of thought that a disinterested third party to represent you can be a positive, as in that old saying, "A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client." Even though my dentist can do his own root canals, he farms them out to a dentist who does nothing but root canals - do I want a guy who does one a month or one who does four or five every day? I'm opting for the expert (realizing that expertise is relative).