Take an accounting course? Or just hire a accountant?

[Tajinder Kandola]

Hi there everyone was wondering if I should take a 3 month accounting course to gain knowledge or just hire an Professional CGA once a get into real estate investing? Is it worth it?

[Brandon Hall]

@Tajinder Kandola I agree with @Mike Delprete.

I'm not sure what a CGA must do to qualify, but in the U.S. it's four years of schooling plus a year of studying for the exam plus a year of experience. 

As a business owner, you need to focus on the tasks that you are good at an can extract the most value from. Teaching yourself accounting so that you can maintain your books and prepare your own taxes will set your business growth back.

I think it's important to learn accounting as it's essentially the business language, but you should focus on learning as you go, ideally with a CGA as a business advisor.

Case in point - I'm having a website developed. I could have taught myself to code or hire a developer for a couple thousand. I decided to hire a developer because every minute that I'm spending learning how to code is a minute I'm losing selling. Coding is a low value task for me but a high value task for my developer.

Accounting is a low value task for you but a high value task for the CGA.