I'm a Las Vegas CPA who just came out of a meeting with a bunch of students. They were down at a recruiting visit down in Southern Utah. And one of the things we told them when they're looking for an employer is to "find your fit". And that is an absolutely important tip I can give to any business owner as well: When you're looking for an advisor - your attorney, your insurance agent, your Las Vegas CPA - these are people you're going to have to trust an awful lot with the personal details of your life and with the success of your business in some case, and so you need to take the time to interview people and see whether you relate to them, and whether it's somebody that you can trust, someone you can get on the phone and talk to, and someone who shares your values.

Maybe they have a similar appetite for risk. You may not be as cutting edge as your CPA wants to be on taxes, and that may make you uncomfortable. Or, your CPA may be more conservative than you want to be. So it's very important that you spend the time on this relationship at the front, because it's much easier to spend it then, than to change CPAs every 2 or 3 years. So, "find your fit" when choosing a Las Vegas CPA.

One of the things my Las Vegas clients ask me often is, "How can you help me more with my tax planning?", and I think the best answer to that is "I need to talk to you". Whoever your Las Vegas CPA is, if you let them know what you're doing before March of the next year, they can often do a lot of things with entity structure, or just planning the deal to make it more tax efficient. Communication is the key with Las Vegas tax planning, but if you only talk to your CPA once a year, in March, you're missing the boat, and he or she isn't able to help you as much as they could.

For example: I had a client come to me once that was doing a land deal; they owned some land and they were going to build a building on it. And by talking with us, and letting us understand their particular tax situation, we were able to structure another entity, take the advantages between a partnership and a corporation, and capture most of that gain as long-term capital gain, instead of all as ordinary income. But it's one of those things that we couldn't have done if they had started construction and talked to us after the fact.

Make sure that your CPA understands your business and tax situation as early as possible. Give them any information that they might be able to use during the tax planning process, and make sure your Las Vegas accountant really gets to know your and your business.

One of the things that I love about talking with my business audit clients in Las Vegas is helping them to find their story. Everybody has a reason to do what they do. You didn't start off one day and decide to start a Las Vegas grocery store. It was in your blood; your dad did it, your uncle did it, your mom did it, or you were a stock clerk and loved the business. Whatever it was, you're passionate about whatever it is you chose to do, and I love find the root of that passion for my clients, and helping them re-discover what is was that made them love their job when they started before we help them with their business audit.

Often times, as businesses grow, they become harder to run. You have employees and levels of management and it's a long way from you in the CEO suite down to the person, the little old lady that used to come by and buy produce from you (in my grocery example). So by helping clients identify what they're passionate about, we can try to structure their business back to the activities that give them the most happiness. That's an exciting thing that any business owner should keep in mind: "What are you passionate about?". Try to find a way to do that in what you do every day. Your Las Vegas business should be more than finances, taxes, an audits - find your passion.