“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on…”
– Hal Borland
It’s hard to believe, but once again, another year is coming to an end!
Like Hal Borland said, the changing of the calendar represents a division of time, but also, a continuation of time. While we recognize accomplishments of the past year, we realize that we still have goals to achieve. The goals we haven’t yet reached can be carried forward. God willing, we will be given another opportunity to meet them in 2022.
As we pause to reflect on 2021, we think of our clients, our team, and how we lived out our company values. This year brought new challenges and opportunities for Multi Business Solutions.
Our Clients
We are most proud of continuing to support our ongoing clients over the past year.
While we slogged through the ongoing pandemic, we assisted our qualifying clients in need by applying for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding. We also helped qualifying clients by applying for several local and state grants. In addition, we secured Restaurant Revitalization Funds and Employee Retention Credits.
As usual, we provided solid financial data by keeping our clients’ QuickBooks up-to-date. We continued our virtual format of QuickBooks training classes in order to equip individuals to better manage their QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online files.
Our Team
Megan provided prudent insights and financial analysis through her role as ad-hoc Chief Financial Officer for some of our largest clients. As the human resource consultant for public and private organizations, Natalie created employee handbooks, assisted with hiring needs, addressed employee concerns, and negotiated union contracts.
Together, Megan and Natalie presented classes on employee topics and collaborated on a Mastermind seminar. They also handled one-time projects to clean up and setup QuicksBooks files to position businesses for future bookkeeping success.
Paris, Melanie, and Jazmine continued as part-time employees. Their knowledge and dependability was critical to our operations this year.
We also added two full-time employees this past year. Andrea and Breanna bring diverse skills and experience to the team. We are so excited to have them along on our journey!
In-Person Meetings
Since our team mostly works remotely, we realize the importance of meeting face-to-face throughout the year. Therefore, we make it a priority each quarter.
The MBS team got together for the first company retreat at The Lodge on Lake Detroit at the end of the summer. It was a great time to set goals, review progress on objectives, bond, eat, and laugh. We decided we might need to make it an annual event!
At the beginning of December, we gathered in Fergus Falls for a Christmas Party. We also used this opportunity of being together to update our professional company photos.
If working remotely was new for your team in the last couple of years, be sure and check out our previous article and video with tips and guidance on this subject.
Community Events
As a team, we participated in the Color Run for Otter Cove Children’s Museum in Fergus Falls in May. We took part in the Fergus Falls Chamber of Commerce Golf Scramble in August.
Living the MBS Values
We have four core values at MBS that we strive to live out everyday:
- Reliable – Consistent attention to detail. Solid information.
- Growth – Encouraged for companies and individuals alike. Continuous improvement.
- People Focused – All the time. Every time.
- Leadership – Courage to take the initiative. A guide for the journey.
Over the past year, Megan channeled many of our company values by joining other like-minded entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurs Organization Accelerator (EOA) program. The group meets monthly in the Twin Cities, along with having quarterly learning days to advance business growth and provide accountability for meeting goals. She’s been inspired to learn and share with a cohort of 35 talented entrepreneurs.
In addition, we continue to apply the lessons learned last year from the Scaling Up course with the Growth Institute.
As we move through December and into January, we know that our clients rely on us to aid with year-end tasks and prepare for the coming year. We will help our clients apply for PPP forgiveness, prepare files for tax purposes, send out forms W-2, 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC, and help set goals and objectives for the future.
If you need direction on how your business can prepare for year end, check out our Year-end Accounting & Human Resource Tips.
Looking ahead, you may find your business could benefit from an extra set of hands for some of your bookkeeping or human resource tasks. Give us a call! We find great joy in partnering with our clients as trusted advisors and coming alongside them as they continue to grow and evolve in their business endeavors.
For 2022, we will continue to live out our core values and fulfill our company’s purpose: