Why hire a Business Analyst?

We are all in business together. We work overtime to make our businesses the best they can be. While providing a first-rate package for your customers and clients is demanding, running a profitable business can be even more so. Every day it seems as if there's a new challenge that tests your problem-solving skills. Naturally your problem solving skills are well developed or your business wouldn't be as successful as it is, but no on can maintain superior quality working alone. One day you will face a problem for which you have no ready solution. When that day comes, contact Madeline Bailey for help.

You didn't go into business to manage a business, but a business analyst did. You may be brilliant at what you do, but even the most successful entrepreneur does not have skills to solve every problem. That's where a business analyst like Madeline Bailey comes in to play. Ms. Bailey has a B.A. in Management, plus 28 years of PC and business management expertise. She can provide you with the following:

• QuickBooks Software Expertise
• Senior Accounting Services
• Organizational Workflow & Filing Systems
• PC Technology for Small Businesses
• Small Business Analsysis

Even business owners who are business experts benefit from having an accountant who's a business analyst. Most CPAs provides accounting and tax filing services, but rarely enlighten you about the hundreds of ways you could improve profitability. It simply isn't their focus. Big accounting firms offer services comparable to ours but individual clients are assigned to the junior staff. Madeline Bailey is the "missing link", answering the call for a creative approach to improving profitability and preserving wealth.

You'll benefit from Madeline's collaborative, holistic approach. Madeline takes the time to listen and truly understand your business problems before recommending a possible solution or referring you to a qualified resource. Often she'll help you clarify the problem with better financial information, which lights up the solution.

Business analysts create efficient, top-down structural systems. As a private accountant, Madeline Bailey does anything and everything. Whether it's rolling out a filing system or fixing back tax problems, her holistic talents come into play. You can focus on your expertise and trust her to manage your business accounting.

Business analysts know business terminology. A business analyst is more familiar with the world of business than your typical accountant. Whether you want to understand how the IRS "thinks", negotiate with vendors, or write your first dunning letter to collect on customer debt, Madeline will help you. Due to her business education and real-world experience, she is uniquely qualified to help you find ways to save money without changing the way you conduct business. For example, she knows if you are being overcharged by financial institutions. She will even call for you to negotiate a better deal. Routinely, Madeline has helped clients make thousands of dollars more in profit than they would have made on their own. To learn more about business terminology, here is a list of books that Madeline recommends on business, accounting, money, success, and investments. Many books did not make the cut, and every book title includes a short review, so that you can select the ones of interest to you. To download to PDF, click on this link. Radically Simple Accounting Recommended Business Books.

A business analysts provides expert collaboration. One client complained about her lack of profit. After creating more accurate financials, Madeline noticed that her Accounts Receivables were inordinately high. A/R affects cash flow which affects profit. So Madeline focused on the "Open Invoice Report" and showed the client how to get ratios for A/R to Income, Income to Profit, and A/R to Profit. The client came up with the idea of accepting credit cards. Madeline helped her get a merchant account with Intuit so that payments could be processed within QuickBooks for faster bookkeeping. Customers started paying faster, A/R was greatly reduced, and profitabilty improved. While the client told everyone that, "Madeline is brilliant", clearly, the problem was solved collaboratively.

Madeline knows how to leverage small business technology. As technology is at the core of every successful business, Madeline routinely helps clients with the following technical problems:

• Install QuickBooks over a network.
• Organize the QuickBooks data and backup files across the network and external devices.
• Create a new QuickBooks database for the new year. (Please see Page 77 of Radically Simple Accounting for some pros and cons.)
• Provide informed recommendations about Intuit's subscription services such as QuickBooks Online, Merchant Account, Go Mobile, Field Service Manager, Intuit Statement Writer, Intuit Data Protect, Apple iPhone QuickBooks access, as well as various Payroll service subscriptions.

You can benefit from "Cloud" computing. Cloud computing is location-independent computing. A business analyst is well-equiped to work with clients all over the US, and clients who live overseas but have a nexus in WA state. Here are some options for working remotely:

• Webex attended dial-in (you must be present to allow access to your computer). Ideal for training and consulting sessions.
• Remote Desktop Connection where you assign one computer to allow dial in by your accountant, or yourself when on the road, at will.
• Hosted QuickBooks where your destop QuickBooks is hosted remotely and users can dial in at will.
• QuickBooks Online Edition, which you are familiar with.

A business analyst helps you create a better future for your business. Many business owners neglect installing a backup system for critical data. This is a common oversight, but a dangerous one. What would happen if overnight all the data you've been maintaining became inaccessible? It happens more often than you imagine.

• 1 in 4 computer users will suffer a critical data loss this year.
• Most data loss is outside your control. For example, a hard drive crashes every 15 seconds. Over 2,000 laptops are stolen or lost every day.
• Out of all companies that lose their data in a disaster, over 90% are out of business within two years.(1)

"At QC Computing, the backup solution we use now is daily backups of mission-critical files onto a USB memory key, and monthly backups of the entire computer onto an external hard disk. We're also testing Intuit's new Online Data Protection Service. We also have a second computer with the same configuration, so when the primary computer fails, we can continue to operate the business. The last computer crash was a blip on the radar of our business problems."

Your concerns are our concerns. If you want, Madeline Bailey will work with you to analyze the total health of your infrastructure and make strategic suggestions for improvement. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then your business can become 93.75% more profitable in certain areas, and first rate in every way!