Hash Basis is back on the content train, and we are not stopping! I’ve been reflecting a lot on my Hash Basis journey and where our future lies. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do have conviction and excitement about what’s coming next. As I mentioned in a previous article, I was in the weeds of client work and “life stuff” for the last eight months or so, almost forgetting about the joys of being your own boss (i.e. flexibility, unlimited creativity, high agency, etc). But the fog has lifted and I have the space to think about what the last few years have meant and what I’ve learned. One thing is certain - I don’t think I’ll ever be an employee again. My brain has been irreversibly rewired, and I’d be a terrible employee at this point. 😀 The lessons below are a mix of philosophical and practical ones, gleaned over a few years of highs and lows. I may be older…but let’s see if I’m wiser. 🧘🏻‍♀️

• Trust your gut, period.
• If you have any inclination towards entrepreneurship, just try it - the worst that can happen is you fail and get a W-2 job
• Being honest and following through on your word are essential in a services business
• Service businesses cannot scale quickly without sacrificing quality and personality, which is why HB is going to be remain a boutique firm
• Marketing is probably the most important part of running a business. You have to constantly remind people that you exist and have value to give
• Just because you technically can work 10+ hours a day doesn’t mean you should, especially once you have solid business foundations
• Letting go of customers is healthy and necessary for the business to grow in the right direction
• Delegate, delegate, delegate → I wish I delegated and trained staff much earlier than I did
• Having a business gives you ultimate flexibility and agency - but then again, everything is on your shoulders and you don’t have that much free time unless you delegate effectively
• Grind as hard as you can in the beginning - and then chill out a bit
• Get business insurance, including errors and omission (E&O) and data breach insurance
  
  • Always use a VPN if you’re working in public
  • Overall, don’t take security lightly. If a data breach happens, your life is going to be stressful for a while.
• IRL marketing (i.e. events, conferences) are the highest leverage - it boils to down to simply talking to people
  
  • It’s not “selling” if you’re having a chill conversation with someone you genuinely like
• Hiring and finding the right talent is one of the hardest parts of running a business. If someone is good, fight to keep them (and if they’re bad, let them go)
• Life is too short to work with people you think are jerks.
• Learning international tax online is grueling. With most accounting and tax concepts, it’s doable to learn them using Perplexity or other AI tools. But there’s barely any decent resources for international tax, so I’m wondering who is actually doing it correctly.
• If your client is winding down a business, don’t forget that there are different tax return due dates for “short years” - the return is typically due within three months of the wind-down date, not on April 15th
  
  • I didn’t know this and my client got a penalty because of it (luckily they were able to get it abated though)
• You need a Power of Attorney (POA) to contact the IRS on behalf of your client. Overall, I’ve the found the IRS to be much more sympathetic and responsive to the actual business owner, not their persnickety accountant
• If you can’t be successful on a client project (for whatever reason), it’s best to part ways and find clients you’re able to shine on
• Get a Twitter and LinkedIn blocker so you’re social media sniped during the work-day (same goes for Netflix…there have too many times I’ve watched shows during lunch and it wrecked my productivity for the day)
• Remote work gets lonely - don’t become a bedroom hermit like I did (I’m trying to change that by attending more in-person events!)
• I heard someone say this once - there’s no such thing as an “accounting emergency.” We’re not doctors, no matter how righteous and important we think we are.

One interesting part about owning a business is that you can choose where your sources of stress come from (usually). The customers you take on, the type of work you do, your industry, etc - all of these are factors that you inevitably chose at some point. That’s why it feels so phony for me to complain about work. I have no one else to blame for being in a particular situation except myself, and that type of realization is priceless. You come face-to-face with who you really are, like a mirror reflecting a glassy lake.

Overall, I’m so grateful for Hash Basis and the freedom and flexibility it’s given me. I’ve been studying accounting or working in the industry since 2015 so I’ve had 10 years to marinate on one topic. Maybe it’s just my strong German heritage, but there’s nothing better than working hard and reaping what you sow. Or as my grandfather (we called him Opa) used to say, “Excellence or what the hell are you doing here.” And here at Hash Basis, excellence is what we strive towards.