Welcome & Introduction
Our January blog features information on what to do at the end of a business year, stories on women power, a continuation on our conversation about abortions, and of course DEI articles for you.
What’s going on with S4SB?
Happy New Year!!
It’s the end of a business year for most of us - what do we do now?
Unless you’re on a fiscal year, it’s time to wrap up your books and meet with your tax preparer (online, of course). We’ve been working diligently to tie up loose ends and get everything looking pretty for them. If you haven’t already, you can go ahead and schedule an appointment for mid to late January, and let us know the date so that we can make sure you’re all set. If we’re doing your books, you’re on QuickBooks Online, and your tax professional can be made a user and access everything they need right there.
We highly recommend that you meet with one of us, either in preparation for your tax meeting, or any time you want to know more about the inner workings of your business. We can review your financials with you and help you get the information you need to make business decisions.
One of the biggest advantages of working with a professional bookkeeping service is that you don’t have to spend hours sifting through receipts at this time of year or walk into your CPA’s office with a bunch of spreadsheets. After we’re done reconciling your December bank statement, you’re ready to go, and your CPA will love to hear from you this early in the year. They’ll start to feel overwhelmed by mid-February, when they’re starting to work on corporate tax returns (due March 15th), so if you can get your tax return out of the way before that, they’ll be happy, and you won’t have to think about it anymore until next year. It’s a great way to start the New Year.
Woman Power
Being a woman-owned, woman-run business, we thought we’d share some stories that made us feel powerful… or made us giggle. Here are a few thoughts:
Kiani:
Last night was kind of cold - the wind coming down from the snowy mountain always makes it a little chilly. Grant [Kiani’s partner] was in the kitchen wearing basketball shorts and he says “man it’s cold, I need to put on warmer shorts” - I thought he meant he was gonna put on pants, but he comes out of the room wearing sweat shorts - that’s winter in Hawaii with all the windows open for you!
Katie:
Saturday, my daughter and I took the chainsaw, pruning shears, and ladder and spent four hours pruning back big trees and getting our winter treetop for inside (Grand Fir, the whole house smells like heaven), and when we were done getting it all set up in the big room, her playlist was on a cover of Leonard Cohen‘s hallelujah. We both sang along to it, sitting next to each other in front of the fire. I will never forget that day, and I have to say I needed the woman's energy. I love my son, but I was out there with Miriam and I could feel how good it is to be a woman and I needed that.
Katherine:
I never meant for this to be an all-woman operation, and it could change at any time, but there don’t seem to be a lot of male bookkeepers out there. If there’s any reading this post, or if you identify as any other gender, and you want to work with us, hit me up! But it has been an amazing experience working with all women. When I hear about how women have been affected by Covid, with many mothers having to give up careers, etc, I am very grateful to offer at least a few women an opportunity to have a good job that they can do from home and work around pandemics and child care and pregnancy. Did we mention that Kiani is pregnant? Talk about woman energy!!
Charlie:
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about identifying as a woman is yoga. Although yoga doesn’t have any association with gender, it makes me feel connected to my inner self, which happens to contain female energy. I started my practice roughly two years ago during my time at Humboldt State when I had strep throat 6 times in a row (yes, you read that correctly!). The specialist I went to told me I needed to get strep throat once more within the year to qualify to get my
tonsils removed, but the cost of this would be a hard recovery from surgery and possibly further complications. The antibiotic treatments were not stopping the cycle either, and I was so frustrated that I decided to take matters into my own hands. I became vegetarian, cut out alcohol for about a year, and began to dive deeper into my yoga practice through certification. I became a YTT 200 Hour in March of 2021 and started teaching in a small studio shortly after we moved to Colorado in May. I haven’t had strep throat since (knock on wood). In the future, I hope to provide classes to all genders, bodies, levels of income, to provide access to everyone. In the meantime, I teach once a week in studios, and I am offering yoga classes via Zoom for small groups or individuals. If you or someone you know is interested, feel free to reach out to me at crm101@humboldt.edu and I’d love to teach you! Namaste.
PS from Katherine - I’ve taken one of her classes - she’s a great teacher!
DEI Discussions & Community Opportunities
More on abortion (Katherine)
Here’s a follow-up on my last post, in which I wrote about my two abortions. I was meeting with my diversity group, and someone mentioned my story and we got to talking about the topic. Two of the men in the group gave me a whole different perspective on it. One was 16 when he got a woman pregnant, and he’s grateful that she was able to get an abortion, and that they agreed on that difficult decision. Women often talk about the unfairness of men being able to walk away if a woman gets pregnant, but of course, there are a lot of men, like my friend, who would never dream of doing such a thing. Men’s lives are affected by pregnancy and abortion too, and this man felt that his life would have been a lot harder if he’d had to become a father at 16 when he didn't have the skills or resources needed to responsibly parent. He and the woman eventually married and had two children.
The other man told a similar story, only he was a little older at the time and wanted to have the baby and begin a family with his partner. His partner was not ready for children, and the impacts a child would have on their young lives. He respected his partner’s wishes, and she (they) got an abortion. He often thinks about that, especially since he did not have children with his marriage partner.
You might think that story is an argument against abortion, but really, I’m not making an argument at all. I just want to acknowledge the fact that this is a really big issue, and it’s complicated. And it should be up to each individual to make the decision that’s best for them.
This blog included our individual stories on woman power, and although we’ve come a long way with women’s rights, it is also important to understand that women and men are still not treated equally to this day. This article gives 23 ways women still aren’t equal to men: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a15652/gender-inequality-stats/
I encourage you to read it.
As we conclude this article, we also want to mention that this blog is not intended to exclude other genders than women and men, but rather provide insight into what it means to be female in today’s society and our thoughts.
Thank you for reading our blog and supporting S4SB. Make sure to enter your Full Name and Email to subscribe and receive a monthly email to notify you when our blogs come out on the 1st of each month. If you’d like to submit something to add to our blog, please email crm101@humboldt.edu. Feel free to reach out with questions, concerns, or other ways to support our community.