Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Tax Season. There’s nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, I really can’t give you any personal tax tips or tax advice on this one…sorry.

I’m not a tax advisor. I’m not a tax expert. Never will be–don’t want to be!

In fact, I have a confession about my personal taxes. I spent several years of my professional and entrepreneurial career paying all sorts of tax penalties and extra fees because I kept messing up my taxes.

I finally got smart and stopped trying to decipher the mysteries of the IRS and handed it over to a tax expert. Imagine that! Trust me, the fees I pay for tax expertise far outweighs the ridiculous fees I incurred trying to go solo for all of those years.

Here are some useful tax season resources that provide far better tax advice than I am qualified to offer.

These resources offer Tax Tips for Entrepreneurs, some General Tax Tips and the Top 5 Missed Business Deductions.

On second thought, I suppose I can offer just a little bit of personal tax advice:

It’s ok to hate taxes and the tax season. Just don’t hate it so much that you forget to pay them.

I have the opportunity to hear the business challenges and success stories of entrepreneurs every single day. Most of what I hear has to do with the business challenges, because most companies are struggling with challenges in their business.

So, we have discussions about how these business challenges can be addressed. During these discussions there’s a recurring comment that falls from the lips of almost every struggling entrepreneur: “I just need money. If I could just raise business capital, we would be absolutely golden.”

The reality is that in most cases, having more money isn’t always the best solution. That’s because the real problem isn’t about having more money to spend, the problem is that the business model isn’t sound or the management team isn’t operating effectively.

The fact of the matter is that thousands and thousands venture capital financed companies end up in failure despite their (temporarily) deep pockets.

Trust me, I really do understand the temptation to believe that money in the bank is the ultimate solution to every problem. I’ve said it before, “…Oh, the things we could do with a little more money!”

That kind of thinking is a dangerous trap.

Here’s my bullet-point lecture on changing that kind of thinking:

• If your business model is really worthwhile and there is true demand, then you will either grow naturally with very little capital or when you talk to investors they will immediately want to give you money.
• If your business model was working before; you still have customers, you still have revenue, you still have a viable product or service, then there are still multiple solutions that are better than raising capital–start by slashing costs.
• If very few people are interested in buying your product, or worse, if only your family says what you are doing is wonderful; then get over it, let go, and move on.
• Forget about the stories of the guys who come up with a neat idea, raise gazillions in a couple months, and sell out for billions in 3 years. That really can’t be planned and aiming for that will hinder the perspective that you need as a successful entrepreneur.
• The best early stage companies are able to show real proof of concept without spending much money at all.
• If you can prove through modest, shoe-string testing, that your business model really works, then you will have no problem raising money–if you need it.
• If you are seeking business capital to solve a problem but you still haven’t worked many days all through the night to find a solution…you’re not deserving of investment capital anyway.