My marketing team asked me to reflect on 2020 – and I finally sat down to share some thoughts. What are your thoughts as we close out this difficult year? Leave them in the comments of this blog, if you would like.
2020 has been one for the record books on many, many levels… We have learned a lot of new tricks, made some great new connections, and made many relationships even stronger! They say necessity is the mother of invention – I suppose that could be adopted to apply to how we adapt to the world around us. In the world of a CPA firm, change is not always a welcomed friend, so sometimes a strong shove in the right direction is indeed a necessity. At Osprey in 2020, we learned to be more flexible with how we serve our clients. Since meeting in person was not an option for many, we adopted new tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and DropBox in order to meet with clients and collect all of their necessary information.
Working Out of My Car
One of my favorite memories is meeting clients out of the back of my vehicle! It must have looked a bit suspicious at times, but hey, it’s 2020! I can definitely make a solid argument to the IRS that my vehicle is being used for business purposes…
The Losses
We’ve unfortunately seen some business clients close their doors this year, but we helped more businesses open new doors and seize new opportunities! As I mentioned, times such as these help to give us the nudge we need in order to take risks and make changes. This absolutely applies to entrepreneurship, and the number of new businesses we have helped this year is a testament to that.
Lessons, Always
We will take with us into 2021 many of the 2020 lessons we learned in order to better serve our clients, and these will help us to improve on some already great relationships we have developed! Hopefully we all will remember that we have a lot for which to be thankful, and that it is crucial to consider how we are treating everyone we encounter. Kindness and consideration are powerful tools, and they are very easy to use!
Changes
We are anticipating many changes for the upcoming 2020 tax season – not quite as extensive as the 2018 Tax Act, but there will no doubt be changes to tax reporting needed to reflect the different actions from our government in response to COVID-19 throughout 2020. We approach this tax season with open minds and, again, flexibility while expecting things to change as we go. Also, with a pending second stimulus package in the works from the federal government, this will hopefully bring much needed relief for many small businesses and individuals who are out of work.
Grateful, Always
I am sure like many of you this past year has found you whirling from loss but also overwhelmed with gratitude for what you had. We have cities nearby with many homeless, but we enjoy a warm family and a beautiful roof over our head. We enjoy many friends and work colleagues – so lucky we are.
All You Need is Love – The Beatles
At the risk of sounding cliché, love and good relationships is really all that matters. I think many rediscovered that principle, though simple, in this last season. Whether this finds you celebrating or resting, stressed or otherwise, we wish you the very best. If you don’t work with us yet, we would like to help more businesses in 2021, and to our current clients, thanks so much for your business.
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Bryan Lichau and the Osprey CPA Family
