Should Your Team Return to the Office or Keep Working from Home?

Pandemic lesson #589 (too many to count!): We learned we can work virtually. Some employees are thriving in this environment while others can’t wait to get back to the office. If you are trying to decide if you should keep your workforce at home, bring them back, or try a hybrid approach, here are some points to consider to help you maintain culture and productivity:

1. Can your team find the balance between working and home life? Do they feel like they are working all the time? 

When you’re working from home, it’s easy to just sit on the couch and work after business hours. If you do this regularly, it can feel like you work all the time and start to resent your work. Even though this feels irrational since we often make the choice to work these additional hours, it’s an issue that should still be addressed.


You can minimize after-hours work by setting clear expectations. What are the working hours you expect your team to be available? We ask our team to be available for four core hours during the day for meeting internally and with clients. 


What tasks should be completed and what are the due dates? If your team has a clear idea of what they are supposed to do and when work is due, they can manage their time accordingly.

2. Do they feel connected to team members in the office or others who are also remote?

Managers will need to develop new management skills to keep those who are remotely connected to the team in-house and other remote workers. It’s easy to forget those who are able to or who want to work remotely if you regularly see others in the office. It will require discipline and additional communication on the manager’s part to keep the team on a level playing field. 


There are apps that can help keep everyone informed about events, meetings, and other news from the office. Check out the app Turnout, an employee engagement platform dedicated to keeping everyone engaged in the new remote environment. 

3. Do people on your team need to see coworkers in person to feel connected? Do they need a space outside their home to work productively?

Social interaction can be minimal when working remotely, and it can feel even more isolating as more people are getting out. Some members of your team will need to be in the office. These people are usually easy to recognize—they’re the ones who have been asking since March 2020 when the office will reopen. Or they might be embarrassed to speak up about their desire to be back in the office, especially if most of the team wants to remain remote. 


If you decide to have the team continue working remotely but you have employees who need to get out of their homes to work effectively, you can try shared workspaces like Tigerlabs. The space is considerably less expensive than renting an entire office, and it can be used at the employee’s convenience. Leadership teams will need to recognize what environment their teams need to be most productive. 


There’s no one-size-fits-all environment that will make your teams happy and productive. The pandemic has taught us we can accommodate our employees’ needs while still providing superior customer service and products to our customers.

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Accounting for Small Business Owners: 5 Red Flags That Your Books are Broken (And How to Fix Them)

By Alisa McCabe • February 9, 2026
1. Your Financial Reports Never Match Reality If statements show healthy margins, but the bank balance feels tight, something is off. This disconnect often points to missing entries, timing issues, or misclassified transactions. Start by reconciling accounts monthly. Compare statements against source documents such as invoices, receipts, and bank activity. Consistency creates trust in the numbers and reduces surprises when reviewing performance. 2. You Are Always Behind on Updates When records lag weeks or months behind, visibility disappears. Decisions become guesses rather than informed choices. Create a recurring schedule for updates. Weekly or biweekly check-ins keep information current and manageable. Smaller intervals also make it easier to catch errors early, before they compound into larger issues. 3. Expense Categories Keep Changing Frequent shifts in how costs are labeled make trends impossible to track. Without consistency, comparing periods lose meaning. Establish a clear chart of categories and stick to it. Adjust only when operations evolve in a meaningful way. Stable classifications help reveal spending patterns and support better planning. 4. You Rely on Your Bank Balance Alone Checking available cash may feel sufficient, but it only tells part of the story. Outstanding invoices, upcoming obligations, and recurring commitments are invisible without proper reporting. Use cash flow summaries to understand timing. Seeing inflows and outflows together provides clarity and reduces stress during slower periods. Awareness supports proactive choices instead of reactive ones. 5. Corrections Happen Only During Year-End Waiting until the end of the year to clean up records can feel efficient, yet it often creates confusion and rushed fixes. Important insights are lost along the way. Build in periodic reviews. Quarterly assessments allow adjustments while details are still fresh. This habit improves accuracy and reduces the burden of large-scale corrections later. Turning Clarity Into Confidence Addressing these red flags takes time and discipline, but the payoff is control. Reliable records support smarter pricing, steadier cash management, and calmer leadership. First Steps Financial partners with organizations that want clarity without adding internal strain. Through fractional bookkeeping and financial consultation, our team helps bring structure, consistency, and insight to financial systems so leaders can focus on running their operations with confidence. If you are ready to replace uncertainty with clarity, let’s connect .

Business Savings Emergency Fund: How Much Should You Keep in Cash Reserves?

By Alisa McCabe • January 27, 2026
Why an Emergency Fund Is a Financial Anchor An emergency reserve exists to protect daily operations when income timing shifts or expenses spike. Unlike growth capital, this money is not meant for expansion, hiring, or upgrades. Its purpose is continuity. Having accessible business savings allows payroll, vendor obligations, and essential overhead to continue even during short-term stress. That breathing room preserves relationships and credibility, which can be difficult to rebuild once damaged. Just as important, it reduces emotional decision-making. Leaders with a cushion can pause, assess options, and choose the most strategic path forward rather than acting out of urgency. How to Calculate the Right Reserve Size There is no universal number that fits every company, but a common benchmark is three to six months of core operating costs for business savings. Start by identifying predictable outflows such as compensation, rent, utilities, software subscriptions, and insurance. Next, evaluate revenue reliability. Organizations with steady contracts may lean toward the lower end of the range. Those with seasonal income or client concentration often benefit from a larger buffer. Also consider access to external funding. If credit lines are limited or expensive, holding more liquidity internally can provide flexibility when timing gaps appear. Where to Keep Your Cash Reserves An emergency fund should be easy to access and separate from daily transaction accounts. Mixing reserve money with operating cash increases the temptation to use it for nonessential purposes. Many companies choose high-yield business savings or money market accounts that preserve principal while earning modest returns. The goal is safety and availability, not aggressive growth. Clear labeling and internal guidelines help reinforce the purpose of the fund so it remains untouched unless a true disruption occurs. Common Mistakes to Avoid One frequent misstep is building business savings but never revisiting the amount. As operations scale, expenses rise, and your client mix changes, the business budget should be adjusted accordingly. Another issue is using the fund as a convenience account. Tapping reserves for planned purchases defeats its protective role and can leave the organization exposed when an actual emergency arises. Finally, some owners delay building reserves entirely because margins feel tight. Starting small and contributing consistently is far more effective than waiting for a perfect moment. Building Confidence With the Right Financial Guide Determining the appropriate reserve level and maintaining it over time requires visibility into cash flow patterns and expense behavior. This is where First Steps Financial can serve as a steady guide. Through fractional bookkeeping and financial consultation, our team helps organizations understand real operating needs, set realistic reserve targets, and monitor progress without adding internal complexity. If you want clarity around cash reserves and long-term financial resilience, let’s connect.

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Financial Decision Making: Data vs Gut Instinct

By Alisa McCabe • January 15, 2026
The Case for Data-Driven Decisions Numbers don't lie, but they do require interpretation. Data-driven financial decision making provides entrepreneurs with objective insights that remove emotional bias from the equation. When you're considering a major investment, expanding your team, or entering a new market, hard data gives you a foundation that gut feelings simply can't match. Consider these advantages of analytics-based approaches: Predictive accuracy: Historical financial data reveals patterns that help forecast future performance with reasonable confidence Risk quantification: Metrics like cash flow projections and break-even analysis transform abstract risks into measurable variables Stakeholder confidence: Investors and partners respond more favorably to decisions backed by solid numbers and research Performance tracking: Data creates benchmarks that allow you to measure whether your decisions actually delivered results The most successful entrepreneurs treat their businesses like laboratories. They A/B test pricing strategies, analyze customer acquisition costs, and constantly refine their approach based on what the metrics tell them. When Intuition Matters Most Yet data alone won't build a visionary company. Some of history's most transformative business moves happened because someone trusted their instincts against conventional wisdom. Steve Jobs famously said that customers don't know what they want until you show them, and no amount of market research would have predicted the iPhone's success. Gut instinct becomes invaluable in scenarios where data is incomplete, misleading, or unavailable. Early-stage ventures often lack sufficient historical information to make purely analytical choices. In these situations, financial decision making must incorporate the entrepreneur's deep understanding of their market, customers, and competitive landscape. Your intuition draws on pattern recognition that your conscious mind hasn't fully processed. Years of industry experience create an internal compass that can sense opportunities or threats before they appear in the spreadsheets. This is particularly true when evaluating people, assessing cultural fit, or making rapid decisions under uncertainty. Finding the Balance The most effective approach to financial decision making combines both methodologies. Start with data as your baseline, then apply intuitive judgment to interpret what those numbers mean in context. Ask yourself whether the quantitative analysis captures all relevant factors, or whether qualitative elements might tip the scales. Create a framework for different decision types. Routine operational choices should be heavily data-driven, while strategic pivots might require more intuitive weight. Always document your reasoning, whether analytical or instinctive, so you can learn from outcomes over time. When data and gut feeling conflict, that's your signal to dig deeper. Perhaps your instincts are detecting risks that aren't yet visible in the numbers, or maybe emotional attachment is clouding your judgment. This tension is actually valuable because it forces more thorough examination. Moving Forward Strong financial decision making isn't about choosing between spreadsheets and instinct. It's about developing both capabilities and knowing when each should take the lead. The entrepreneurs who thrive are those who can read a balance sheet with precision while also trusting the subtle signals their experience provides. Ready to sharpen your financial strategy? At First Steps Financial, we help entrepreneurs build robust decision-making frameworks that leverage both data analytics and strategic insight. Whether you're scaling rapidly or navigating uncertainty, we'll work with you to make smarter financial choices that drive sustainable growth. Schedule your consultation today and discover how the right guidance can transform your business trajectory.

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