Owning a small business can be really challenging -- especially if you're still in the "wearing a lot of hats" phase, which some businesses never leave.  You might find yourself in the same boat, handling all kinds of tasks, including your own bookkeeping and accounting. There’s not a lot to it, but it still must be done. 

One of the smartest moves you can me as a business owner is getting a small business checking account, even if you’re a solopreneur. A lot of solos don't bother, they just use their personal accounts for everything and spare themselves the minimal monthly fees.

There’s a lot of value in having a dedicated business account, or even a set of them, though. Here are three top reasons that everyone with a small business should invest in a single small business checking account, at minimum.

You may not think you'll ever need small business services through your bank, but what happens if you do, and you can't access them because you've never had a small business account? Well, that's what happened to a lot of people during 2020 and 2021, when the Paycheck Protection Program was in full swing. Companies that never needed a small business loan before were struggling and even going under for lack of income.

But here's the real kick in the pants: If they didn't have access to small business services through their bank, they also couldn't access PPP loan money very easily.  Many small business owners were distressed when they saw how many of their fellow writers couldn’t get a hand when they needed it because they didn't qualify as small businesses through their banks. They could apply, of course, but they had to do it through other channels and risk being put on the back burner.

You could get your funds almost immediately if you had a small business relationship with your bank in the form of small business checking -- and this can be invaluable in times of need.

If you're a solopreneur, you're probably also doing a lot of your own accounting, or at least your bookkeeping. If you don't collect sales tax, it's not super complicated. One way to make this job a lot easier on yourself is to have a small business checking account.

Not only can you use the small business checking account to bring all your income through one door, so at the end of the year you only have one account to scour for income that you might not have gotten a form from a client about, but you only have one account for outgoing funds, too. Some people have two small business checking accounts for this -- an account payable and an accounts receivable. But if you don't have a lot of transactions, just one business account is enough. 

Either way, with small business checking, you can pay your vendors, and yes, even the IRS, out of your small business account, and not have to worry about your personal account accidentally being overdrawn if you make an accounting error while shuffling between both sides of your life.

We all want to be taken seriously in our business pursuits -- and there are certainly ways to look more legitimate. Uniforms for our staff members, fancy business cards, and even a really well put together digital presence are vital, but the appearance of legitimacy a business checking account can provide cannot be overstated.

With a business checking account and business checks, every paper payment (and some electronic ones) says, "I am a regular, normal business, I am not just a person hiding in the bushes pretending to work." As shallow as it is to say the appearance of legitimacy matters as much to your business as actually being a legitimate business does.

These days, it’s hard to know who is for real and who isn’t – scammers are everywhere. But with a dedicated business checking account, people can contact your bank, check that your account is real, and further build up your reputation when they discover that yes, you are the genuine article. Word does get around.

Having a business checking account is a way to simplify your accounting, to give yourself more legitimacy, and, yes, even provide access to business services you may have never considered you might need.

Ready to take the next step for your business? Check out BankUnited’s business banking services today to see how they can support your growth and simplify your financial management.