As a seasoned entrepreneur who’d been running a company with more than 50 employees, Steve Schmidt knew the importance of keeping his financial records in order.
However, when an important merger fell through, leaving him a year behind on his bookkeeping, Steve found himself struggling to get back on track. To make matters worse, tax season was looming and his former employees couldn't access the forms they needed to file. With all his cloud-based bookkeeping data lost in the merger, Steve needed help fast.
Fortunately, he found Bench Accounting.
“I was thinking, this is going to be so much work," Steve recounts. “But in about a month, they’d almost got it all done.”
When he knew he needed back taxes completed as well, he figured he’d see if that was something Bench could handle. “
It was one of those things where I was literally asking, ‘Hey, you guys don’t by chance do back taxes too?’ I’d thought I was going to have to whip out 10 grand for somebody to do this last minute.”
That, of course, wasn’t the case, and Bench was able to quickly complete those for Steve, as well.
“I just don’t worry about [bookkeeping] anymore,” he says. “Because I know if it’s something I need to be thinking about, I’ll be contacted by the Bench team. And I don’t worry about whether I did something right or not, because if I did it wrong, the team will let me know.”
Now Steve is embarking on a new chapter as the founder and CEO of MAGNETIC, a content-led sales consulting firm that works with other founders and CEOs to create original, non-AI-based content.
“I grew my previous company from zero to eight and a half million in just 18 months, all off LinkedIn posting and organic content,” he says. “I believe content should be the focus of everything with sales.”
MAGNETIC is helping early and mid-stage service companies adopt that approach to their sales efforts, so they show up in their prospects’ feeds each and every day. He’s also continuing his partnership with Bench so he doesn’t have to add bookkeeping to his already long to-do list each month.
“I just don’t worry about [bookkeeping] anymore,” he says. “Because I know if it’s something I need to be thinking about, I’ll be contacted by the Bench team. And I don’t worry about whether I did something right or not, because if I did it wrong, the team will let me know.”
That relief of knowing his finances are in order frees up Steve to focus on what he’s really interested in right now, which is growing his client list and scaling his business.
As an entrepreneur, it's easy to feel like you're alone in the financial aspects of running a business, but professional bookkeeping services like Bench Accounting can be a game-changer.
Signs it might be time to seek professional bookkeeping services:
- You're consistently behind on bookkeeping tasks
- You're not sure how to handle specific financial situations
- You're making errors or experiencing discrepancies in your financial records
- You're overwhelmed by the financial aspect of running your business
When you partner with Bench, you can connect all your financial accounts—bank accounts, credit cards, and vendor accounts—to our platform, and the information will update in real time. That way, both you and your bookkeeping team know exactly where your finances stand. If your bookkeepers need more information or have a question about an expense, they’ll reach out to you right away.
Steve’s advice for other entrepreneurs is to take advantage of services like Bench that take care of the business functions you’re not expert in.
“Trust that somebody else can give you the financial advice you need, unless you're a financial advisor. Outsource it just like you would if you were hiring somebody—you’d hire somebody else who is better than you at what you need them to do.”
