Banking with a Credit Union vs a Large Bank
Your Bank Should Work With You — Not Just Hold Your Money I used Navy Federal for my business for a while. Honestly, it was fine — until it wasn't. Someone got into my account and started sending money out. That's when I found out just how unprepared they were to handle something like that. Every person I talked to had a different answer. No clear process, no consistent protocol — just whoever picked up that day making it up as they went. The security stuff alone was wild. I went in to do a wire transfer and nobody asked for secondary ID. Went back another time — different employee — and suddenly it was required. Which is it? If your own staff doesn't know the rules, the rules aren't actually protecting anyone. Then to top it off, an employee talked me into doing a cashier's check instead of a wire because he said it would be faster. I took it to my new bank and they put a 7-day hold on it. A week of frozen money because someone gave me bad advice. That whole experience made me realize credit unions — at least the ones I've dealt with — are basically just holding your money. And for a personal account, maybe that's enough. For a business, it's not. What Big Banks Actually Offer That Credit Unions Don't After that mess, I looked into Chase and US Bank. The difference in what they offer for business accounts is significant. ACH verification. You can set up filters so only specific, pre-approved companies can pull from your account. If something unexpected tries to come through, it gets blocked. Navy Federal had nothing like this. Check verification (Positive Pay). You upload the checks you've issued. If a check comes through that doesn't match, the bank flags it before it clears. Simple concept, big protection. Wire transfer controls. Large banks have actual multi-step verification for wires — callbacks, dual authorization on large amounts, confirmation steps that make it hard to accidentally send money somewhere wrong. Not "ask for ID sometimes." Business credit. This is a big one. Credit unions tend to have low limits, limited products, and not much flexibility. Big banks have dedicated business credit cards, lines of credit, SBA loans, equipment financing — actual tools to help your business grow. If you ever need capital, a credit union is going to hit a ceiling fast. Online banking built for business. Multiple users with different permission levels, QuickBooks and Xero integrations, real-time alerts, the works. A lot of credit unions are running systems that feel like they were built for a personal savings account. 24/7 support. Something goes wrong Friday night — you need help Friday night. Big banks have business banking lines around the clock. Credit unions are often a Monday morning call back.
How to Calculate Your True Hourly Rate?
Hi all, just wanted to mention that we realized in our first year scraping by that we weren't covering our costs of doing business. Even though we run our business out of our home, we jave insurance and licensing, vehicle expenses etc. That are part of our overhead. Finally we took all those expenses and added them up, divided by the normal number of business hours per month and made sure to build that into our hourly charge. Now we are able to set aside the money we need to come up with every 6 mo ths or annually and don't have to woory about spreading ourselves too thin when the expenses arrive. What are some shifts you made to build a sustainable business?When is it time to hire an accountant?
I am wondering at what point some of you guys have hired an accountant? Did you hire one to grow? To maintain what you have? Or are you simply using one to file taxes at the end of the year? I am thinking about hiring an accountant to manage my finances for me and see where things go, but wondering when is the right time.How can I create an invoice for the deposit?
When doing certain commercial work the client will ask us to send them an invoice for the deposit. This isn't typically how Jobber works as the invoice isn't created until the job is closed usually. What is the best way to send a customer an invoice before having the quote signed, deposit paid, or the job completed? Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance!How Much Should You Really Be Charging?
The number one question I receive is tied directly to the fact, most contractors are still guessing when it comes to pricing. Overhead. Profit. Labor rate. Trip fees. They think just because they throw a number they hear their competitors use, thats all that they need. It may work, but how and what do you divide these funds is just as important for your business health. If you don’t know how to do the math, you’re not building a business. You’re surviving check to check and think you need more work, when you do not. So here’s the plan: This Tuesday & Thursday on IG, I’m walking you through our Contractor Price Builder Worksheet FREE on instagram live. We will cover: - How to calculate your real hourly rate - The difference between markup and margin - Why profit is a non-negotiable - And how to price with confidence Join the session. Bring your numbers.
Financial Dashboarding
Hello! Thought I would share a useful tool our landscaping irrigation company started using recently. I am one of the co-owners of our business and handle all the accounting. Being in the industry for a while, I have found that many small companies struggle making financially-informed business decisions. I think the cause is that business owners may feel lost when looking at their books/margins/KPIs. I recently stumbled upon a tool called Reach Reporting which does financial dashboarding. You can connect it to Quickbooks or other major accounting softwares. It pulls all relevant financial data from your books and then gives you the ability to create your own financial dashboard or even has templates already made. It has been incredibly helpful for us to see our financials beyond a Balance Sheet and P&L. It slices, dices, graphs, and plots anything you want it to. This has helped other owners or managers in our company who do not have a financial background to understand our financials more clearly than ever before. This is just one of many examples. Hope you find it useful!
