The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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Join us every week as we celebrate the unsung heroes of our local business community and explore the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship in our area. Tune in to The Alimond Show and get ready to be inspired, informed, and motivated to support and nurture the businesses that make our community thrive.
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The Alimond Show
Michelle Hecker - From Reluctant Accountant to CPA Partner: Mastering Tax Strategies, Financial Planning, and Work-Life Balance for Small Businesses
Unlock the secrets of successful tax planning with our special guest, Michelle Hecker, partner at SKCPAs and Business Advisors. Michelle shares her fascinating journey from initial reluctance to a thriving career in public accounting, revealing how her firm transforms small businesses through innovative tax strategies and comprehensive financial support. Discover how her passion for taxes has helped countless entrepreneurs make smarter financial decisions, and gain insights into her firm’s dynamic marketing and community engagement efforts.
Choosing the right business entity structure is critical for achieving financial success, and Michelle breaks down this complex topic into easy-to-understand strategies. Learn how specific tax optimization tactics, like employing family members and leveraging state credits, can significantly enhance your financial health. Michelle also highlights her firm's tech-forward approach, ensuring seamless communication and personalized solutions that empower business owners to reach their financial goals efficiently.
Balancing work and life is essential for long-term success, and Michelle offers practical advice on maintaining this equilibrium. From engaging in team-building activities and personal hobbies to fostering a positive mindset, she emphasizes the importance of taking care of both business and personal well-being. Tune in to hear inspiring stories and actionable tips that will not only help you grow your business but also enrich your personal life.
My name is Michelle Hecker and the name of my company is SKCPAs and Business Advisors, and we are located in Chantilly, Virginia, and the services, the type of services, that we provide are business advisory services for small businesses, for real estate investors, for folks that need some help with their taxes. As far as advisory as well as what we like to call compliance, which would be tax returns, financial statements, things of that nature- Okay, and you also specialize in helping small businesses as well.
Speaker 2:Is that correct? It is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is we. Our niche is really small business and helping the business owner kind of navigate the waters of business ownership tax planning as well as all the way to exit planning, exit strategies for the business owner that might be considering selling their business or retiring from their business and wanting to get some equity out of it. And we kind of will do everything from do your full outsourced accounting to help you with budgets to help you maybe put your kids on payroll. You know all those kind of tips and tricks that we navigate. With all the tax law changes we've had over the last few years, there's been a lot of opportunity for our business owners to save on their taxes, as well as lots of tax credits available out there. With all of the new tax laws we've gotten, yeah, no, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of budding entrepreneurs and business owners are definitely going to want to tune into this one, because you're going to have a lot of insight for us. I would like to start off with your background. How did you get started in your industry? What led you here? Tell?
Speaker 1:me about that. That's an interesting story. I always said for the longest time I'll never work for a CPA firm, I'll never be in a CPA firm, I'll never be in public accounting, I'm always going to be in private. So I have been an assistant controller or controller. So my background in accounting was very much business oriented. So it's a natural fit for me to help small business owners now. But instead of being on payroll and helping one corporation now I get to help lots of corporations and lots of business owners and lots of industries and services and stuff like that. So it's great.
Speaker 1:But the one of the partners I have partners at the firm I met him as when I was working for another company and he said if you're ever looking for a job, you know, call me. And uh, so I've been working with him for over 15 years and been a partner for seven. Yeah, so, um, it's been great and I I really never thought I would enjoy it and I didn't really know what I was missing. I know it sounds geeky or whatever, but I love taxes.
Speaker 1:And I always thought you know, it's just one of those things that you don't know what you don't know. And then, once I started working with him and realized how great it is that I get to meet with so many different people and get to apply so many different types of strategies whether it's within accounting, whether it's with their books, whether it's with taxes keeps me on my toes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it sounds like it, look, and I also love. I just want to say that every time I ask, like an entrepreneur who is a guest here, like how do they get started? It is never linear. Very few people are just like, well, I wanted to be this and I became that A lot of people want to go one way, but then they end up another, and it just goes to show that the universe has things in store for you that you may not even know about. So I think that's awesome that you found your way through. That, it's true. So I think that's awesome that you found your way through that.
Speaker 1:It's true, I actually I always thought I would be an attorney and most of my family and friends would probably say the same thing. You know it would be a corporate attorney because I don't think I could do like domestic, so I feel like that's so emotional divorces and custody and all that. But I always thought I would do some type of corporate law. But my, my natural gifts, I guess, if you will, or my logical brain was was just drawn towards accounting and taxes and so ever. And once I started down that road, I you know, I really found out that that was really kind of more of my calling, even though I think I could still consider being a lawyer one day. You never know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never know Exactly, Exactly. Maybe all of this is leading you up to that moment.
Speaker 1:We don't know, you never know You're never too late, right yeah?
Speaker 2:exactly. I would like to know what you are doing currently to market yourself and the branding, all that good stuff. Are you online? Are to market yourself and the branding, all that good stuff. Are you online? Are you more of a word of mouth type of gal? Tell me what you're doing to get what you're doing and what your team is doing out there.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, so we're accountants by trade? Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:So I would say marketing and advertising and all of those kind of more, what I would consider soft skills are probably not, you know, our number one skill that we have. So we actually have a firm that we work with that helps us with our marketing, helps us with our online presence. We are undergoing, we're revamping, our website. Currently we are on social media but we have other people that help us kind of get our ads and our blog posts, and so we have a lot of really good information and we have a team of folks that help us try to get that information out via our website or on facebook.
Speaker 1:Or we all attend lots of chamber events, so the loudon chamber as well as the dullest chamber, and we try to go to as many events as we can network, give back to the community. We're very, very big on giving back to our community. Our community has been so, so great for us loudoun county, fairfax county. Really we've been the firm's been around for over 30 years, so it's been a long time and we have been in this area the entire time. So we we like to give back, whether it's to an event, a social you know, a social collectives event for charity, or if it's a golf event, the guys play golf for one of the Dallas Chambers or for one of the nonprofits in the area. That kind of stuff we also do annually. We do a top golf event or a charity event that we do for paws of honor, which are for the service dogs that you know. They retire from being in service and they have to live out their lives and have caretakers take care of all those pups.
Speaker 1:So, yes, yeah, I love there's, yeah, and they bring the dogs so you can pet them I know love on Love on them. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So we so we try to raise money with that, yeah. And then we do other events for our clients as well as advise. We do some advisory events and just really trying to educate our clients as well as a lot of our events are open to the public. We do a shredder event every year where we shred. You know, you can bring all your docs and shred them and have a beer.
Speaker 2:We have that coming up, I believe, in October this year, that is awesome that's what I want to touch on a little bit is that how every different entrepreneur has different things. Like, for example, you're an attorney, your stuff is not posting on social media, but that is okay. You don't have to stress about posting that. You can get somebody else to help you and your business get the word out there. Maybe you can provide them ideas or posts on what they can post about or information. So I like asking that and having other people know like social media is not your key focus, but being aware of that that you don't have to be. You can get some help so you can focus on the more nitty gritty stuff, right? So I think that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think some people are are great at marketing. You know, that's what they do, that's what they're really great at. I see posts all the time and I think, man, how did they think of that? Or how did they do that? Because my brain is not, you know, creative. That way it's more logical.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give you the data you know I'm going to give you the data, give you the numbers, tell you you know how does that calculate, which would be a super boring marketing piece, I'm sure, except for everybody who's like.
Speaker 2:I want the numbers now. Oh, she knows right, yeah. You got to just find your balance and what works best. All right, so my next question is about tax planning. What are some tax savings strategies that small business often overlook?
Speaker 1:Well, there are quite a few tax savings out there. I think I'll start kind of at the beginning. That's a loaded question, sorry. You know the number one thing is understanding what type of entity are you, what is your business structure and are you the correct business structure for what you're trying to achieve? What are your goals and what are you trying to achieve and what's going to enable you to save the most money on your taxes? So that's one of the things that we'll evaluate for you right away make sure that you're in the correct type of entity structure for us to be able to move forward and put your plan in place. And we'll come up with a plan of action, whether it's, you know, for the next six months, next year, the next five years, so on and so forth, and help you. One of the things we like to do is help business owners reach their goal. So, whether their goal is to bring on five new employees or increase revenue, or increase cash flow or increase their you know net profit, whatever the case may be, we're going to give them tools and try to help them along the way to get there. Yeah, so as far as you know, things that people miss, that's a big one.
Speaker 1:People a lot of times are the wrong entity structure for what they're trying to do, and sometimes things like the you know Frank recently Frank is one of the partners with the firm recently put out a blog post about you know I went to my attorney and he's you know I set up a C corp with you know, a sub C and three partnerships and an LLC and an S corp and by the time you get down to the nitty gritty of what the client is actually doing, sometimes you are getting yourself stuck in the minutia of all of that where really that may not work for you and that may not be the correct structure for you. It might be that may not work for you and that may not be the correct structure for you. It might be when you're up and running five years from now, that might be a structure that would work for you. However, that's kind of the very first thing and then from there we're going to look at your financials and we're going to help you determine where we can help you save further, whether it's do you have kids, do we need to put your kids on payroll? If we put your kids on payroll, can we use that payroll now to fund your 529 plan? Can we use that payroll to fund a Roth IRA for your child? Do you want to do 529 plans? Have you looked at the state conservation credit?
Speaker 1:I mean, there are lots and lots of ways that we can help you with your taxes, and a lot of times it can be just as basic as record keeping. Are you keeping adequate records? If you're an escort, do you know that you need to have an accountable plan if you want to write off your home office? I mean, there's a lot of things that people don't know and I don't expect you to know. That's my job to know that.
Speaker 1:And so what we do is we evaluate. Everybody is different and every situation is different, and then we like to educate our clients so they know what's available, and I always say that I will give you lots of ideas and you take from it which ones work for you now, but I don't ever want you to come to me and say, hey, michelle, you never told me about this or you never told me about that. We try to make sure that you're fully educated on everything that's available to you. One of the biggest things I see that business owners are missing out on is the PTET credit, which are for pass-through entities, which is a new law that Virginia passed a couple of years ago. So people are still missing out on that or not being educated about it. So it's something that you know right away. We can review your prior year returns or your current situation and, generally speaking, try to save you. You know, a few thousand dollars, if not more, right off the bat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, it really sounds like if you aren't aware of this as a business owner or entrepreneur definitely sounds like a CPA is a pretty important person, especially for a business owner, to help them thrive and get the best out of their business as they possibly can. And it sounds like you guys are like a partnership. You're looking out for their best interests and that is such an important role. Tell me a little bit about what it's like working with you and your team. Are you guys very like how do I say this? Team oriented, very people oriented? Are you more by the book? How? What's the style like working with you guys?
Speaker 1:I would say all of the above. We're definitely by the book as far as that goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a question for me to ask. We're definitely by the book as far as that goes. Yeah, what a question for me to ask. You're not by the book, hey.
Speaker 1:What? We have a great team. So we have an amazing culture at the firm. We have a great team. We have a great team environment. If I'm not available and you need an answer right away, somebody in the office can help. You can help find that answer for you. So you're not just engaging with one person and then, if I'm on vacation, you know you need something that you can't get the answer that you need. We also have a fantastic front office staff. They are amazing. I mean they keep us all in line. They make the place run quite honestly, without them. You know they are so good that if you need something I'm not there Nine times out of 10, they can help you or they can direct you to somebody else in the firm that can help you.
Speaker 1:We're also very tech forward. So we have an online custom portal that we use for our clients, but it's not a typical portal where you just drop documents, for example. It's interactive, so you can we can, you know talk back and forth through there. You can see your prior year projects, prior year tax returns, that kind of stuff. So it's really and all the software that we use is very tech forward. We really and all the software that we use is very tech forward. We do a lot of evaluating. Every year. We evaluate okay, this software worked great, this software didn't. What are we going to improve upon, how can we make the client experience better, how can we make it smoother, and all of those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:And we're also very proactive. So if you were to be a client, a business owner, and come on board, you're not chasing me, you're not coming after us to say, hey, what do I do next or what's going on. We have a coordinator that reaches out to you and make sure that all of your appointments are booked and on the calendar, that you know all the dates, that you're meeting with us, that we're meeting with you monthly or quarterly to go over your financials, and everything is pre-scheduled. So you know about it, not to say you can't if you have a question. Obviously you send a question, but you know. So you're not kind of wondering do I need, am I supposed to have a meeting this month?
Speaker 2:You're not left in the dark.
Speaker 1:Right, you're not left in the dark. And then, anytime there's a new tax law change, we'll be very proactive to let you know about it if it affects you. And one of the big things right now is the beneficial ownership, which is a lot of clients are reaching out, so we've been proactive in letting our clients know how it works and what they need to do and all those kind of things. No, I love that.
Speaker 2:Productive is so good, like I love when they're like you're not always having to chase them, like oh, my appointment, I didn't get a confirmation call. Is it still, did I get? I love that. No, I just love that you guys are so mindful of that and want to make sure that your clients feel that way too. So I think that is five star, five-star characteristics right there, ma'am. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I'd like to know how can a CPA help a small business assess and improve its financial health? So there are a lot of different metrics that we can use to see what type of industry you're in and we can compare you against your peers number one to see how you're performing. And we can also help you evaluate different areas of your business and we can help you determine which areas are profitable and which areas are not as profitable. We can help you understand your cash flow. Maybe you need to streamline your billing. Maybe you need to help somebody with your accounts receivable make calls to collect money. Maybe you simply aren't charging enough.
Speaker 1:You know, and we will evaluate that definitely if you need that help and say this is what you know, even if you were at the peak of productivity right now, you would still be breaking even or losing money because you're not charging enough, and maybe that's good information that you didn't think about, you know.
Speaker 1:Or we'll say you have to cut costs One of the two or we have to increase prices One of the two. But we would evaluate that and help you understand the numbers. Yeah, yeah, the you know financial statements and a lot of people will run to, let's say, the income statement or the profit and loss and say, oh, here's my net income, but I don't have any money. I don't have any money, uh, and they're not considering the balance sheet. And so a lot of times it's just an education on understanding why you may be in the situation you're in and how have you compared to either your peers or prior years, prior periods, and then we try to come up with a plan to help you dig out of it or do better or simply understand that you can't offer this service anymore because it's not making you any money. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Is that often sometimes a little bit shocking or hard for certain business owners to hear, and how do you guys find a way to like implement that? Because maybe some people I understand the numbers but I just I can't, I don't know, or they're like, like you said, shocked or scared. How do you guys deal with that together? How do you find like little methods or strategies that can help ease that for them?
Speaker 1:Well, I think we all are part therapist. No, yeah, sometimes it's just, you know, giving them the hard truth but trying to tell them in a way that is very understanding. We're all business owners. I'm a business owner, so I understand the challenges of you know. One of the things we've gone through over the last few years since the pandemic is labor. You know, labor is either short there's a shortage of good labor or if you find good labor, it's super expensive. So sometimes we have to look at what's happening in the economy also to understand and understanding the trends. And understanding what's going on is kind of like the first step, right? I say that's kind of like when you're an alcoholic First admitting there's a problem, right? So the first step is figuring out what the trends are and where the issues are, where the holes are, and then trying to plug them up, you know, and figuring out strategies to do that. Whether it's you know, because I have clients that will come to me and say things like you know hey, michelle, you know I'm going to, I would like to buy a Tesla. Is that smart? Is that not smart? Is that good? Do I have enough money for that? What's going on with that? We Mart, is that good? Do I have enough money for that? What's going on with that?
Speaker 1:We can advise, but you know clients will do at the end of the day what they'd like to do one way or another. So we, what we like to do is help you just kind of just understand the numbers and then from there it's. Sometimes it is tough conversations because business owners you know we have it tough. You know whether it's talking to employees and saying, hey, you know you're not producing enough, you need to produce more. Or hey, I'm sorry, I can't afford you, I have to lay you off. Or trying to find maybe other avenues that can help, and so we usually just try to talk it out with them. I have lots of different resources available that I can help people either, whether it's financial planners or other staffing agencies or different legal assistance, whatever the case may be. So we try to just come up with a plan depending on the situation, and we have lots of different clients. So I always try to refer to my clients if I can, and refer business to them. For some of them. That, yeah, depending on what your connector.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, just trying to connect everybody together to help a business owner succeed. So sometimes it is just, you know, it is saying hey, we need to add a product, add a service, we need to take one away, we need to. Hey, we need to add a product, add a service, we need to take one away, we need to streamline one. We need to have a client right now that just bought a new business and right now we're trying to streamline their billing, because the way the billing is done is just kind of old school. That's all just needs to be updated and needs to be computerized, and so they have multiple employees handling that right now, when really it probably should be just one person. So once we can get that automated and going well, then they can have their staff doing other things that make them money versus working on overhead items.
Speaker 2:I love how you just mentioned that that's such a small thing, but it can change so many things. Instead of having five people working on one person, now you can maximize the productivity or maybe be like okay, we don't even need these five people here, or maybe three of them can go do this where these are other areas that need tending to.
Speaker 2:That is amazing, this is why you need a CPA guys, an agent that's looking out for you and your business. I have to ask like maybe this is a dumb question, Forgive me, if it is a CPA or do you like handle?
Speaker 1:it yourself. Like what? How does that work? You're so good Like you don't even need someone to help you.
Speaker 1:You've got this girl. Well, luckily for me, I don't do it by myself. I have partners and we do. For example, for our business. We have partner meetings and we do. We do exactly the things that I tell clients to do. We do it ourself. We have our partner meeting. We look at our financials, we look at our balance sheet. We compare it to last year. We have our goals set right, so we know where we're trying to go and how are we going to get there. And we do all those planning items. We follow along.
Speaker 1:Have you ever heard of the book traction? I have not. So it's the entrepreneur operating system. So we use that and we employ that in our day to day operating of our business. Yeah, so we meet and we meet quarterly, and we we do everything from let's talk to our marketing folks. We this is the area we want to market, this is what we want to talk about. These are the areas that we can help people area we want to market. This is what we want to talk about. These are the areas that we can help people. Let's make sure we're getting blog posts out about these items. We talk about staffing. We talk about our financial health. Are we hitting our goals? Are where? Where are we spending more money? Where you know. For example, one of the things that has really hit us hard this year are our software costs have gone up dramatically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, since they're being, I guess, implemented more than they were previously, and in what other ways?
Speaker 1:Just the economy, it's just the. You know the software vendors are just hiking up the prices and they kind of hold you captive somewhat that you, you know you need the software, you need the tax software, you need the, you know accounting software, so on and so forth. So we talk about that and we talk about you know how much is that going up? And what else is going up? It is going up. You know overhead costs across the board are going up. And then we evaluate do we need to increase our prices? Are our prices Good? Are we in line?
Speaker 1:What do we look like, you know, compared to our neighbors, for example, or who we consider our competition, if you will, although in this area there's plenty of work to go around for everybody Lots of entrepreneurs in this area, lots of great business owners, lots of government contractors, lots of service-based businesses. So we do so, we do so, we do so, we do we. We follow our own advice, which a lot of CPA firms I think are the, you know are the same as a regular business owner. We are business owners, where they don't always take the time to do that, yeah, so we've worked really hard to do that, so that you know we are walking the walk, if you will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's awesome. Yeah, I just didn't know how that works, like wait, they have this help too, or they're good Like I don't know. But no, I'm so glad I know the answer to that. Now, forgive me with that question, no it's a valid question.
Speaker 1:I would say there's probably lots of firms out there no-transcript, and we understand that for ourselves as well as we'll preach it to our clients. You know, if you want to be successful, you have to work on the business, and we understand that for ourselves as well as we'll preach it to our clients. You know you want to be successful, you have to put on your business owner hat. You are really really good at what you do, whether it's you know it consulting, or hair and makeup or whatever the the line of business you're in, but you need to work on your business also.
Speaker 2:Okay, you are a very busy woman and keeping up with all of the like, the changing, updated laws and all of that, I have to ask how do you maintain a work life balance as a small business owner? What tips can you share for managing the demands of running a small business company? Loaded question again. So sorry.
Speaker 1:I know Well, it's hard because I don't have a great answer. I know what the answer probably should be.
Speaker 2:But I don't know that.
Speaker 1:I do it. That's okay, is the would be more of? We in my industry we have a distinct busy season, so we work extremely busy from January to the end of April and then, of course, all the stragglers after you know, maybe into May and then as and that's, that's really that entire time. That's me working in the business, right? So then we work on the business in the off season as well, as we have September 15, and October 15 deadlines for all of our extensions. So we have quite a few deadlines, that kind of dictate. You know our workload and what we're doing a little bit, and so for me I really try my best to scale back during off-season. We do half-day Fridays where we leave a little earlier on Fridays to make up for working the weekends during tax season.
Speaker 2:That's only fair Stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we try to do happy hours. We do lots of team-building activities with the company, do things like go to a winery or go zip lining oh whoa that adventurous. Oh, we do all that. We do all that yeah get all that adrenaline out yeah, we go to top golf, we play golf, we do.
Speaker 2:We did a murder mystery dinner last year get over there with you guys and hang out that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1:We do so. We try to play just as hard, you know, as hard as we work and, you know, give back to our staff. We appreciate them so much. You know they're amazing and so, as we try to have fun together as a group as well, as you know, blow off some steam and, you know, and enjoy the rest of the year as much as possible. From a business owner perspective, it's a little bit more difficult because I don't think I I'm very rarely not thinking about the business, so even I'm an empty nester now. So it was a lot different when my kids were younger. But now that it's just. You know, I say it's just but it's my husband and I, so we do things together on the weekends, stuff like that, but I'll still.
Speaker 1:Well, we like to bowl, so we're bowlers, okay.
Speaker 2:Bowl America. Over here we're bowlers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really yeah. So it's Bolero now. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, they bought out. So we love to bowl and the whole family likes to bowl. So I come from a whole my whole life, you know. Of course, I thought when I was younger, right, I thought my gosh, my dad is such a dork, I can't believe.
Speaker 2:And now look at you babe. No, I'm just kidding. And now it's not dorky, it's so cool, it's so cute. I can never get the whole.
Speaker 1:What is it called when you do all of them? A 300 game, a turkey A strike? Oh my gosh, I didn't even know these.
Speaker 2:Calm down. Wait One at a time, please.
Speaker 1:I'm like wait these words.
Speaker 2:My heart. She really is passionate y'all. Yeah, no, that's amazing, Like yeah, we do so.
Speaker 1:We do that and we so we like to practice and, you know, get new balls and we bowl in league and do all that kind of stuff. So we do that for fun, and but I always usually end up, even when I'm off, I'll log in, I'll work on something. You know, I had an idea about something for the business. Or I had an idea about something I want to run by the other partners. Or I read an article about something and I want to research it to see. You know how many clients do I know that it would apply to. Is it something that we need to address to? Is it something that we need to address? I want to demo software, I want to test software.
Speaker 2:So I mean, it's hard for me to as a business owner talk about balance, because I probably don't have enough balance.
Speaker 1:It's different for everybody. It's different for everybody, but I do try. I do try to, and I have a Peloton, so I'd love to ride my Peloton. Perfect, put on some tunes, yeah, um, and I think you know that's about it and then spend time with our kids when you know when they're around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, that's so awesome. I like hearing everybody's different ways of how they like to unwind, if they can, because sometimes they're so busy. It's just where you are in your life and with your business. Like you know, in the beginning for some entrepreneurs it's like, yes, take that call every time, every moment of the day. But once you get to a point where, like, you have more clients and you can kind of pick and choose a little bit, it's with life. So I like to hear everybody's takes and their different methods and strategies that they're using to help their mental health and so they don't burn out. So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:And I try to schedule everything.
Speaker 1:You know that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:So I have, as I said before, I'm really really lucky that I have great staff that control my calendar for me and kind of keep me insulated, if you will, so that I can get work done number one and also not be a crazy person.
Speaker 1:You know, because it's very difficult and I do feel for entrepreneurs when they're first starting out because they're wearing so many hats, they're trying to answer the phone and they're trying to answer all the emails and they're trying to do the appointments and then at some point the work's got to get done. So it's, it's definitely a lot. So anything we can do to help lower the burden on them is kind of our goal in general. So I always am happy when I meet with a client and they leave and they say, oh, my God, I feel so much better. Oh, thank you, because I think you know you just get nervous. You know you're nervous about, you know, understanding your business, navigating all the tax laws and all the state laws and the county laws and where do I have to get licensed and what do I have to do and what do I have to file.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so okay, kudos to all the entrepreneurs out there. This is why we do this podcast to help you guys a little bit in any way we can, and you and give you this is just incredible thing. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, there's just just so many things you don't think about and an entrepreneur is not just a nine to five job. It's definitely like 365 all the time. It's like your baby, it is.
Speaker 1:It really is. And then just understanding your brand and trying to. So we're trying to get better about doing that, about branding ourselves and understanding what our niche is and understanding that we're not going to be for everybody, so you may come along and have.
Speaker 1:That's exactly and that's okay, and I'm going to try to help you find a spot that is good for you. So if you were to come to me and have a situation that really is not, you know, up my alley, I'm going to try to refer you to someone who can really help you, because I still want you to get the help that you need, but it just may not be something that you know I specialize in.
Speaker 2:And I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything maybe that I have not touched on that you want our listeners to know? It can be in regards about your business, taxes, an entrepreneur, family life, anything an entrepreneur family life, anything Just that.
Speaker 1:Keep an eye out, for we are on Facebook as well as our website. We do events, free events. Sometimes they are invitation only for our business clients, exclusive For seminars, and we do. We offer seminars. So we've done social security seminars, we've done. What small business entity should you be seminars? So we've done social security seminars, we've done. What small business entity should you be seminars?
Speaker 1:We have one coming up that is exit planning. So if you're a business owner and you know you maybe are not exiting the business for five to 10 years, that's okay. But maybe you want to start thinking about it now and how will you exit and what is your plan for that? Or maybe you're trying to exit next year and how can we help you exit? Either A selling to an outside person, maybe selling to an employee, maybe you have a family member who's gonna take over, maybe you're just gonna close up shop. Just really depends on what your exit plan is and what does that mean for you tax-wise, as far as cashflow, know, cash flow wise, so on and so forth. So we offer a lot of different seminars and also we have lots of blog posts that we put out. So we try to put out really good quality information and not, you know, kind of just spam you with random stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I would just like everyone to remember that the current tax laws we're under right now they are set to sunset and expire the end of next year, so make sure that you are doing your tax planning accordingly and that you're paying attention. We all know we have an important election coming up, so that will more than likely change the tax landscape once again. We've changed our tax laws many times over the last 10 years, more than, I think, the 25 years prior combined. That's how many new tax laws we've had in the last 10 years.
Speaker 1:Kudos to you guys, my hat's off to you. I mean it's been crazy. And then you heard about the mass exodus of people from the accounting profession during COVID. Did you hear about that? I did not. So, yeah, I guess people just decided enough of this, I'm out of here. Oh, my goodness, Just like that, that's it. And I think probably people that were maybe solopreneurs or you know two or three-man shops that were close to retirement or thinking about it, it's just what put them over the edge.
Speaker 1:And they said, yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to learn more new, different, I'm just going to. And COVID was, you know, extremely stressful to lots of business owners, not just so. The accounting profession right now has changed quite a bit. It's a lot different than I think. What, if you come to a CPA firm? What it used to be back in the day?
Speaker 1:It was very traditional, very I'm going to bring you my stuff, you're going to do my tax return and that's going to be kind of the end of it. And now it's much more of an advisory, consultative type of approach where we're building a relationship to help you in all areas of your business and your life to, you know, kind of create more profitable, less taxing lives for our clients is really what it boils down to. And you can't really do that if I only see it once a year. Yeah, it's not gonna. I can't do that many things after the fact. Some things we can do, but usually it's better for us to plan ahead and get everything in place before the end of the year and everybody be on the same page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, there you go again with that proactivity.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:Thinking ahead, making sure, like you're ahead, of your next two steps, getting ready and being prepared. I love that so much. My final question hopefully it's not a tricky one, but it's one that I like to ask all kinds of people and everything it's do you have a mantra, a motto or a saying that you like to live your life by and use as inspiration?
Speaker 1:And, if you do, could you share that with our listeners? A mantra I mean there are so many different things that come to mind when I think of that. I don't have one specific one that a mantra per se. But I do believe in what you put out into the universe will come back to you. So I do kind of believe in doing good and having will come back to you. So I do kind of believe in doing good and having good come back to you. Or if you do bad, bad will come back to you. That's right.
Speaker 1:So I just generally feel that way in life in general, business as well as personal, and that just, you know, trying to be positive, and I'm extremely, I'm an extremely optimistic type of person. So I'm always looking for the positive in everything and I'm still a realist too. So I'm not, I'm not heading the clouds, but I am more. I would say I would err on the side of optimism and so I just try to every day is a new day just to do better and just get a little bit better than we were yesterday.
Speaker 2:I agree with that. I love it. Thank you so, so much for being on the podcast and giving us so many little tidbits and tips and tricks.
Speaker 1:We so appreciate you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.