There’s an old saying that reminds us “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Whoever coined that phrase was talking about the world of small business accounting whether they realized it or not.

Financial and tax literacy aren’t just an important part of running a business. They’re literally the foundation upon which everything else is built. Tax literacy helps to make sure that you’re not only taking care of your obligations but that you’re not paying more money than you should ultimately have to. Financial literacy helps to avoid problems like cash flow issues which could cause even a seemingly successful business to close prematurely.

Obviously, the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a major challenge for all of us since it kicked into high gear in March of 2020. In the months since, millions of people have found themselves out of a job and the ones that remained were suddenly faced with working remotely for the foreseeable future.

Even though a vaccine is in the process of being rolled out and a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel seems to finally be in sight, there’s no denying that the impact of the pandemic will continue to be felt for quite some time. Case in point: according to one recent study conducted by the Mortgage Brokers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America, about five million Americans were unable to make their rent or mortgage payments on December of 2020. To put this into context, that number translates to more than 5% of all renters and mortgage holders in the country.