February 27, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode of Peace Luv Biz, hosts Steve, the Connector-In-Chief, and Mary, Ms in the Boardroom, dive into a common but avoidable problem for business owners... Financial “Emergencies.” The truth? Most accounting crises aren’t real emergencies; they’re just the result of poor planning.
Steve and Mary break down why last-minute tax surprises, cash flow shortages, and payroll panic are symptoms of reactive financial management. They’ll share practical strategies for staying ahead of the game, from implementing a structured bookkeeping system to planning taxes in advance and creating cash flow buffers. Plus, they’ll discuss the long-term benefits of proactive financial planning and how it keeps your business running smoothly, even in uncertain times.
Key takeaways:
✅ Accounting “emergencies” are preventable with the right systems in place.
✅ Tax season shouldn’t be a stressful scramble, proper planning makes it easy.
✅ Budgeting and cash flow forecasting help eliminate last-minute financial surprises.
✅ A proactive approach to finances allows for smarter decision-making and business growth.
Be sure to subscribe and visit www.peaceluvbiz.com to schedule a free consultation and get expert guidance on setting up a financial strategy that keeps your business stress-free. Until next time, plan ahead and grow your business with peace and love! 💜💼
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hey guys, welcome to Peace Love Biz, this is Steve Higgins, your host, with the most.
Today I'm the Connector-in-Chief because I've spent all my day networking about, what,five hours worth essentially in the end.
yeah, been talking to people all day, so figured we'd come and talk to Mary.
(00:24):
How are you doing, man?
I'm doing awesome.
I'm in the boardroom today, missing the boardroom because I'm not playing in the sandbox.
We're adults, we're adulting.
That's what we're doing.
Amen to that.
It's busy time of year with tax season.
We're in the heart of it.
We try to keep these things, you you can listen to them any time of year, butrealistically, we're going to have a few times where real life happens and tax season's
(00:52):
going.
Are you surviving tax season, Mary?
I mean, I know you've already been dreaming about taxes.
I am.
surviving slowly, little by little, but I'm getting there.
So I don't think we'll have many extensions this year, which that makes me really happy.
So that's a good thing.
We only like extensions if we really have to do them.
(01:14):
We don't like to do that because then you're just prolonging tax season.
You're turning it into next year.
So.
Yeah, but I mean, let's face it.
This is this is like the playoffs right now for you You dream you We haven't toldeverybody this yet, but you've literally dream about filing taxes when it comes to tax
(01:36):
season and you've gone a little early this year
I have, usually, usually tax season, I start dreaming about three days before March 15thdeadline and April 15th deadline because March 15th is the corporate deadline.
And this year I started two weeks ago dreaming that I've missed deadlines and I wake up ina panic because I dreamed so deep I can't tell what's reality and what's not.
(02:06):
So I wake up freaking out.
which is always nice for the person that's in the same bed as me, as I'm having ananeurysm, because I missed tax deadline, but yeah.
So.
You have got the flip side of that where there's the realisation, wait that wasn't real,I'm good.
So, you've got the flip side of it at least.
(02:30):
So really the first thing I thought it might make some sense to talk about is the factthat there are no such things as an emergency in accounting.
And that goes for taxes, whatever it is.
Nobody's on fire.
Wait.
you don't die, you don't die due to accounting or taxes.
(02:54):
Well, I think trusting your accountant and your tax preparer is a big thing.
But for people that are just starting out, say they've just started a business, how is itbest to work with an accountant like yourself or somebody similar where it's like, how do
(03:16):
I give those reigns over and feel okay with it?
Yeah, mean, it kind of reminds me of when I used to teach accounting.
And you walk in and, you know, regardless of the class, you just have to instantly trustthe professor and the student has to trust the professor.
(03:37):
I mean, that's kind of it.
It's find what's a good fit.
When we, on where people, when we meet with potential new clients, we literally do it likewe're setting up a first date.
Like, let's see if there's chemistry, let's see if there's commitment.
Before you start your business, I would go look for an accountant because guess what?
(03:58):
You need to know how to set it up.
And if you don't know how to set it up, you could set that up wrong.
People think they have S-corps and they have single member LLCs.
People think they have partnerships.
They have an S-corp and they have literally no idea what's going on.
I've had people change themselves from an S corp to a C corp because they talk tosomebody.
(04:23):
And they incurred, they literally incurred a $50,000 tax bill by doing that change.
So, I mean, talk to an accountant first, interview accountants, get to know them.
And then, you you do need to turn it over.
Just like with us, I don't, I stay in my lane, you know?
Stay in your lane, do what you're good at.
(04:44):
I turn your stuff is your stuff.
I don't even try to mess with
Yeah, 100 % and realistically like when you look at some financial emergencies it's mainlydown to poor planning whether it's cash flow, whether it's a high tax bill or something
like that, payroll issues where you you might have to be Venmoing or PayPaling into an ADPor something randomly just to cover yourself.
(05:12):
It's down to poor planning isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, no, dies from accounting.
And we say that because listen, you're not dying, if you're three minutes away from deathand can be saved, let's do something about it.
Otherwise, take a deep breath, it's gonna be okay, and walk through the process.
Because freaking yourself out, stressing yourself out about the situation isn't resolvinganything.
(05:37):
I think the number one, the number one thing that stresses people out,
and I am not one of them, but they get a letter from the IRS.
I literally, mean, thank God we have a corporate number versus my personal, and that's whyI don't give out my personal, because I get text messages at three o'clock in the morning
(05:57):
because of time differences, et cetera, or just three o'clock in the morning, they're justgetting to their mail or whatever.
my God, I got a letter from the IRS.
my God, my God, did you open it?
Like, let's start with opening it first.
That could be your IP pin that you need.
I mean, that could be anything.
It's okay.
It's okay.
(06:19):
Yeah, well, and you know, you can deal with the situation, you can react to it.
It's then a case of how do you either avoid the situation moving forward or what can youput in place?
Yeah, I you have to have a plan, right?
So that's, we've said it countless times to people, you're either gonna pay in the frontor you're gonna pay at the end.
(06:44):
And people that, and we've had many clients like this, that they onboard with us and thefirst question when we're talking to them is, when's the last time you filed taxes?
I'm, and you know the answer is bad.
The answer is worse when it's I have no idea.
(07:06):
I mean, you're paying.
but good for the accountant when they say that.
Yeah, I mean, I've heard people go, why do you charge so much?
You haven't filed taxes in five years.
You've been running your business for five years.
I mean, why do I charge so much?
We charge market rate and we're fair and we provide stellar service.
(07:30):
So it's like, I'm not really charging all that much considering the amount of work thatwe're doing and fixing and keeping you out of jail that part.
Yeah.
Well considering you've got people out of jail and you've also put people in jail, thenyeah, it's pretty prevalent.
Like, people...
(07:52):
God, it's like going and you don't get your oil changed, then all of a sudden you've gotan engine failure and you need a new car.
It's like, why am I buying a new car now?
Like, you're not going to say that.
You know that you haven't taken care of it.
It reminds me of Big Bang Theory Penny when Sheldon's in her car and she has the red lightgoing on.
(08:19):
the, like, I think the entire series the red light was on.
Never got it fixed.
At some point that car is not gonna work anymore.
The lights aren't there just for entertainment value.
They mean something.
Yeah, I remember talking to my mechanic friend and he's like, you know, when the dashboardis like Christmas lights, that's when you need to bring it to me.
(08:44):
Like, let me take care of it before you no longer have a Christmas tree.
So...
But like, that's it.
Like, you do need to face the consequences of not dealing with things.
But you also have to understand that if you have put it off for so long that you're goingto end up paying for it.
(09:09):
You're essentially paying for five years worth of accounting at that point.
However long it is.
Just like somebody who is doing their own books, for example.
They do their own bookkeeping.
We hear this all the time.
90 % of the time the classifications are wrong.
It's not done right.
(09:33):
You know, then it comes to time and it's like, okay, now why do you mean you have to cleaneverything up?
Well, there's so many inaccuracies, it's not right, like...
You go to a doctor and get checked up, you're not gonna complain to the doctor that thedoctor's wrong.
Right, mean, if he says take the pill, well why?
Well, because your blood pressure's to the roof, so now you're on blood pressure pills.
(09:57):
I think one thing that's great is when we go through this, I make sure that I have aseparate document open and I literally put down everything wrong.
As soon as someone says, I do my own books, that's why when you said it I was like, notthis.
I hear it so often and we just look at each other like, wow, there's some cleanup we'regonna have to do.
(10:21):
Yeah, and it's opportunity cost as well.
It's like, what is the benefit for that person?
What is the benefit to them doing it?
It's really just the money.
Like you either pay somebody else to do it or you do it yourself.
Realistically, you're better off spending two or three hours doing what you're good at andhanding that off.
(10:45):
Like there's no real benefit.
exactly, you're actually, and you're losing money on it because like we had said, like Ihad said last week, you know, you have a, everybody has a dollar value to what, for their
profession.
So why would you do three hours of bookkeeping that I literally can probably do in anhour, 30 minutes, and it's, and it's gonna be right.
(11:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
if you like played in...
You probably could do three Mario levels, like, on a Nintendo or something.
I mean, but why would you, why would you invest three hours at not being right, but insiston that you're going to keep doing it?
mean, that, that literally again, chaos.
(11:36):
I'm really big on the whole chaos thing and it's inefficient.
Why would you do it?
You're just going to drive yourself mad.
Well, so obviously bookkeepers get somebody doing the books that knows what they're doingis a good starting point.
What do you think some other things that people can do to avoid the emergency situation?
(12:00):
I mean, I would get, know, we do a lot of CFO services.
We have, you know, a number of monthly recurring clients, but look for somebody that doesthat.
Look for somebody that you can trust that can look at your stuff and go, hey, this iswrong, this isn't right, this isn't right, we need to fix this.
(12:20):
This is the reason why.
Somebody that will explain to you, you know, why.
your car payment is not an auto expense.
It's a payment towards a loan.
That's not the same thing.
Look for someone that's gonna help you understand what you're doing because providing theunderstanding only assists that business owner takes less, they worry less, they have more
(12:45):
confidence than in you.
And then they're able to work in and on their business because they have someone theytrust.
Mm-hmm.
you know, whether it's us, which, you we love our clients, whether it's us or somebodyelse, find someone that fits that niche.
Because then you have tax time come up.
And what do we have right now?
(13:05):
I mean, we love what we do, but we have endless amounts of people coming to us.
They haven't touched their books.
They haven't even filed 23 taxes.
So, you know, and then they're mind blown.
Well, you have one or two or three owners.
Some have filed their taxes, some haven't, the business hasn't, they've commingled or theyhaven't, regardless, they have no system, they have an Excel sheet, God help me, doing
(13:35):
their books.
I mean, there's no organization.
And how are you gonna show a P &L when you need a loan?
You're not gonna walk into a bank and go, well, I have a Google sheet.
I mean, they're gonna laugh, they're gonna outright laugh at you.
And you can't build business credit.
You can't build that business to the point that it should be because you have nothing tosubstantiate it.
(14:00):
was talking to a mortgage lender earlier and he was talking about the exact same thing,working with self-employed people, it's like they don't understand what goes into getting
financials ready and it's huge and you know once you get cleaned up, once you file taxesthere's so many strategies you can put in place to save on a tax bill but it's it's I've
(14:24):
said it before not on the podcast but
The government doesn't want people to know about them.
Because the less people know about tax strategies, then the more that they get paid.
Which, that's their deal.
What we want to do is make sure you keep your money.
Like, so...
Legally, of course, yeah.
(14:46):
nobody likes that, you know, the current person in charge of the United States had such alow tax bill, but it was all legal.
The tax filing was not illegal.
It was completely legal.
(15:21):
Yeah.
And don't, the other thing is honestly, don't try to BS it.
At the end of the day, I see everything that you spend money on.
Like I can't, I don't know how many times I've literally had to remind people.
They're like, I can't afford it.
Or, I, it's really, I can't afford it.
(15:44):
Or I don't have the money for, you know, to pivot or change my business or do this.
And I go, we actually, do.
Cause I...
I can see your bank account, can see your revenues, I see where you spend all your money.
Yeah.
I can see you spending, you know, 60 grand on Versace, whatever it is.
(16:08):
you know, yeah.
But you, but you can't afford an accountant.
But you can't afford not to.
And that's what I usually say.
You can't afford not to.
It cuts somewhere else, so.
Well, and not to be dismissive, but bookkeeping to some people is the idea of hard workand, you know, like really grinding and, I'm working on my business, I'm doing everything
(16:38):
I can do.
There's the idea of hard work and then the smart work.
So when you look at that, like...
How do you find that smart financial management can reduce unnecessary work?
Like budgeting, things like that, statements.
(17:02):
Well, I mean, we have several people that are clients that they inundate themselves withbusy work.
All busy work is doing is taking away the time that you have for your own business.
So if you're a chef and you love cooking and that's your passion, I want you to go cook.
(17:24):
Send me your bills, send me the stuff.
We set it up, we put it on autopay.
You tell us when to pay it.
Why would you be sitting there writing checks when you have an accountant there that takescharge of that?
know, I don't, I mean the podcast, I show up and I'm snarky.
That's what I do.
(17:44):
You do everything else.
Why am I gonna do it?
I don't have a clue how any of this works.
I just know I show up and I be myself.
You know, so why would I mess with something that you're proficient in?
You're proficient in it.
I you don't come in and try to do your taxes.
I do your taxes.
So I mean, hello?
Yeah.
(18:05):
And that's the difference between...
I hate the idea of smart...
hard work versus smart work as well, because I think hard work is also smart work.
think lazy work is the opposite of smart work.
Yeah, I really like, and yeah, I work, I guess I work smart and hard, but honestly, I putin my AirPods and I crank up music and I just jam for eight, 12 hours doing taxes and a
(18:35):
QuickBooks.
I I'll be working for another eight hours till midnight tonight, but, I love it.
You know, I just do my thing and jam and, you know, get into committing yourself to yourbusiness.
You want...
You want a different path, you want a certain lifestyle, you gotta work for it.
Doesn't mean you're gonna have to work forever, but it does mean you're gonna have tocommit to it.
(18:58):
I was just about to ask, do you think that it really is, are they trying to show off thatthey're working or are they trying to actually work at that point?
You know, I don't know.
mean, I can honestly say I have this much work because it's the season.
I mean, this is like retailers at Christmas.
(19:20):
And also, you know, we have because you and I have taken all of what we've done for somany years and invested it back into our company.
We now have the fruits of our labor.
But with that, I know I have a ton of clients to catch work up on.
And we've also onboarded and grown our team, which is great.
(19:44):
So there's training.
So, you know, if it's being productive, that's awesome.
If it's making you more efficient, that's awesome.
But the end of the day, I want to have Sundays off.
That's my goal, is to have Sundays off during tax season.
That's a lofty goal, but you know, that's my goal in doing all this.
(20:04):
Yeah.
Well, and I think part of it is realizing that you are doing not wasteful activities, buthaving those bad habits where it's like, I'm going to spend so much time doing this stuff
where I don't need to be.
Setting up systems, you know, all these kinds of different things that you can do.
(20:30):
You used to use motion.
Now obviously a lot of Google Calendar with focus time and stuff like that.
What do you think are other ideas that people can use to avoid that?
got me onto Trello.
Love Trello.
I have probably like seven different cards now, because as Stephen has learned, I'm superOCD.
(20:57):
I have three unread emails right now, and I am losing my mind to not be able to read andfile those.
So don't become like me, but maybe learn a little bit from me.
There's a time and place.
It's like everything, right?
So I literally have my to-do lists, which you've seen that as well, running every day.
(21:22):
But what I do is I have the times that I feel like tired and I know I'm slowing down.
That's when I do the, what I call it, no brain activity work.
Like it takes no thought for me to do it.
So I save those tasks for then when I'm.
shutting down, I'm getting tired, I can just sit and do those.
(21:42):
But other times when I'm high functioning, I definitely drill down and do the harder work.
I'm curious what low functioning activities are, because I haven't found any.
Like, for me, I feel like I'm constantly having to work way too hard with my brain andlike be so creative and all that stuff.
Maybe that's why I call people.
(22:04):
Like, I think I talk to people and use that time to decompress a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
is, mean, granted, we all know my brain is very special in that type of sense.
Not in like, she's amazing, but I mean, my downtime is sorting through downloads and doingQuickBooks.
(22:31):
Yeah.
If anybody knows any therapists that can help us with this, then that'd be great.
Just email into the pod or something.
Yeah, I will I will say though everything I know we're getting close to time But I willsay that I really think everything comes down to you really have to believe in yourself
(22:52):
You really the confidence?
I can always everybody can always be better but as long as I'm functioning at the bestversion of myself at that moment that is what
drives me and I think that drive and I think you're the same way I have to push you alittle bit because you have had you've gotten beat up verbally so badly by toxic employers
(23:20):
but not this one but lately but I mean I have my moments but I mean you gotta believe inyourself you've got a you gotta love loving you loving you has to be first
If you can't love yourself, you can't love anybody else, can't love your business, can'tgrow your business, you're, Stop and go do data entry.
(23:47):
think that's a pretty good place to start because I think that we really want to dive intothe belief and the confidence side of things probably on the next one or down the line
because there's a lot to go over that we're finding way too many people are dealing withthat and you know like you said I have dealt with that and continue to deal with that so
(24:11):
in the meantime
We are in tax season so if people need help with their taxes, look into actually filingtheir taxes this year.
If you're one those people, don't be ashamed, just say hey I need help filing all of mytaxes.
If you know anybody, more than happy to help them.
The best way to reach us is go to the website peacelovebiz.com.
(24:36):
That's peace l-u-v-b-i-z dot com.
Send a form in, we'll take care of you.
meet with you, you'll see both of our faces and we'll get you through tax season andbeyond.
In the meantime, have a wonderful and have a peaceful day.
Have a peaceful one.
Thank you, Stephen, as always.
(24:58):
Extraordinary.
Thanks.
Hey guys, welcome to Peace Love Biz, this is Steve Higgins, your host, with the most.
Today I'm the Connector-in-Chief because I've spent all my day networking about, what,five hours worth essentially in the end.
yeah, been talking to people all day, so figured we'd come and talk to Mary.
(00:24):
How are you doing, man?
I'm doing awesome.
I'm in the boardroom today, missing the boardroom because I'm not playing in the sandbox.
We're adults, we're adulting.
That's what we're doing.
Amen to that.
It's busy time of year with tax season.
We're in the heart of it.
We try to keep these things, you you can listen to them any time of year, butrealistically, we're going to have a few times where real life happens and tax season's
(00:52):
going.
Are you surviving tax season, Mary?
I mean, I know you've already been dreaming about taxes.
I am.
surviving slowly, little by little, but I'm getting there.
So I don't think we'll have many extensions this year, which that makes me really happy.
So that's a good thing.
We only like extensions if we really have to do them.
(01:14):
We don't like to do that because then you're just prolonging tax season.
You're turning it into next year.
So.
Yeah, but I mean, let's face it.
This is this is like the playoffs right now for you You dream you We haven't toldeverybody this yet, but you've literally dream about filing taxes when it comes to tax
(01:36):
season and you've gone a little early this year
I have, usually, usually tax season, I start dreaming about three days before March 15thdeadline and April 15th deadline because March 15th is the corporate deadline.
And this year I started two weeks ago dreaming that I've missed deadlines and I wake up ina panic because I dreamed so deep I can't tell what's reality and what's not.
(02:06):
So I wake up freaking out.
which is always nice for the person that's in the same bed as me, as I'm having ananeurysm, because I missed tax deadline, but yeah.
So.
You have got the flip side of that where there's the realisation, wait that wasn't real,I'm good.
So, you've got the flip side of it at least.
(02:30):
So really the first thing I thought it might make some sense to talk about is the factthat there are no such things as an emergency in accounting.
And that goes for taxes, whatever it is.
Nobody's on fire.
Wait.
you don't die, you don't die due to accounting or taxes.
(02:54):
Well, I think trusting your accountant and your tax preparer is a big thing.
But for people that are just starting out, say they've just started a business, how is itbest to work with an accountant like yourself or somebody similar where it's like, how do
(03:16):
I give those reigns over and feel okay with it?
Yeah, mean, it kind of reminds me of when I used to teach accounting.
And you walk in and, you know, regardless of the class, you just have to instantly trustthe professor and the student has to trust the professor.
(03:37):
I mean, that's kind of it.
It's find what's a good fit.
When we, on where people, when we meet with potential new clients, we literally do it likewe're setting up a first date.
Like, let's see if there's chemistry, let's see if there's commitment.
Before you start your business, I would go look for an accountant because guess what?
(03:58):
You need to know how to set it up.
And if you don't know how to set it up, you could set that up wrong.
People think they have S-corps and they have single member LLCs.
People think they have partnerships.
They have an S-corp and they have literally no idea what's going on.
I've had people change themselves from an S corp to a C corp because they talk tosomebody.
(04:23):
And they incurred, they literally incurred a $50,000 tax bill by doing that change.
So, I mean, talk to an accountant first, interview accountants, get to know them.
And then, you you do need to turn it over.
Just like with us, I don't, I stay in my lane, you know?
Stay in your lane, do what you're good at.
(04:44):
I turn your stuff is your stuff.
I don't even try to mess with
Yeah, 100 % and realistically like when you look at some financial emergencies it's mainlydown to poor planning whether it's cash flow, whether it's a high tax bill or something
like that, payroll issues where you you might have to be Venmoing or PayPaling into an ADPor something randomly just to cover yourself.
(05:12):
It's down to poor planning isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, no, dies from accounting.
And we say that because listen, you're not dying, if you're three minutes away from deathand can be saved, let's do something about it.
Otherwise, take a deep breath, it's gonna be okay, and walk through the process.
Because freaking yourself out, stressing yourself out about the situation isn't resolvinganything.
(05:37):
I think the number one, the number one thing that stresses people out,
and I am not one of them, but they get a letter from the IRS.
I literally, mean, thank God we have a corporate number versus my personal, and that's whyI don't give out my personal, because I get text messages at three o'clock in the morning
(05:57):
because of time differences, et cetera, or just three o'clock in the morning, they're justgetting to their mail or whatever.
my God, I got a letter from the IRS.
my God, my God, did you open it?
Like, let's start with opening it first.
That could be your IP pin that you need.
I mean, that could be anything.
It's okay.
It's okay.
(06:19):
Yeah, well, and you know, you can deal with the situation, you can react to it.
It's then a case of how do you either avoid the situation moving forward or what can youput in place?
Yeah, I you have to have a plan, right?
So that's, we've said it countless times to people, you're either gonna pay in the frontor you're gonna pay at the end.
(06:44):
And people that, and we've had many clients like this, that they onboard with us and thefirst question when we're talking to them is, when's the last time you filed taxes?
I'm, and you know the answer is bad.
The answer is worse when it's I have no idea.
(07:06):
I mean, you're paying.
but good for the accountant when they say that.
Yeah, I mean, I've heard people go, why do you charge so much?
You haven't filed taxes in five years.
You've been running your business for five years.
I mean, why do I charge so much?
We charge market rate and we're fair and we provide stellar service.
(07:30):
So it's like, I'm not really charging all that much considering the amount of work thatwe're doing and fixing and keeping you out of jail that part.
Yeah.
Well considering you've got people out of jail and you've also put people in jail, thenyeah, it's pretty prevalent.
Like, people...
(07:52):
God, it's like going and you don't get your oil changed, then all of a sudden you've gotan engine failure and you need a new car.
It's like, why am I buying a new car now?
Like, you're not going to say that.
You know that you haven't taken care of it.
It reminds me of Big Bang Theory Penny when Sheldon's in her car and she has the red lightgoing on.
(08:19):
the, like, I think the entire series the red light was on.
Never got it fixed.
At some point that car is not gonna work anymore.
The lights aren't there just for entertainment value.
They mean something.
Yeah, I remember talking to my mechanic friend and he's like, you know, when the dashboardis like Christmas lights, that's when you need to bring it to me.
(08:44):
Like, let me take care of it before you no longer have a Christmas tree.
So...
But like, that's it.
Like, you do need to face the consequences of not dealing with things.
But you also have to understand that if you have put it off for so long that you're goingto end up paying for it.
(09:09):
You're essentially paying for five years worth of accounting at that point.
However long it is.
Just like somebody who is doing their own books, for example.
They do their own bookkeeping.
We hear this all the time.
90 % of the time the classifications are wrong.
It's not done right.
(09:33):
You know, then it comes to time and it's like, okay, now why do you mean you have to cleaneverything up?
Well, there's so many inaccuracies, it's not right, like...
You go to a doctor and get checked up, you're not gonna complain to the doctor that thedoctor's wrong.
Right, mean, if he says take the pill, well why?
Well, because your blood pressure's to the roof, so now you're on blood pressure pills.
(09:57):
I think one thing that's great is when we go through this, I make sure that I have aseparate document open and I literally put down everything wrong.
As soon as someone says, I do my own books, that's why when you said it I was like, notthis.
I hear it so often and we just look at each other like, wow, there's some cleanup we'regonna have to do.
(10:21):
Yeah, and it's opportunity cost as well.
It's like, what is the benefit for that person?
What is the benefit to them doing it?
It's really just the money.
Like you either pay somebody else to do it or you do it yourself.
Realistically, you're better off spending two or three hours doing what you're good at andhanding that off.
(10:45):
Like there's no real benefit.
exactly, you're actually, and you're losing money on it because like we had said, like Ihad said last week, you know, you have a, everybody has a dollar value to what, for their
profession.
So why would you do three hours of bookkeeping that I literally can probably do in anhour, 30 minutes, and it's, and it's gonna be right.
(11:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
if you like played in...
You probably could do three Mario levels, like, on a Nintendo or something.
I mean, but why would you, why would you invest three hours at not being right, but insiston that you're going to keep doing it?
mean, that, that literally again, chaos.
(11:36):
I'm really big on the whole chaos thing and it's inefficient.
Why would you do it?
You're just going to drive yourself mad.
Well, so obviously bookkeepers get somebody doing the books that knows what they're doingis a good starting point.
What do you think some other things that people can do to avoid the emergency situation?
(12:00):
I mean, I would get, know, we do a lot of CFO services.
We have, you know, a number of monthly recurring clients, but look for somebody that doesthat.
Look for somebody that you can trust that can look at your stuff and go, hey, this iswrong, this isn't right, this isn't right, we need to fix this.
(12:20):
This is the reason why.
Somebody that will explain to you, you know, why.
your car payment is not an auto expense.
It's a payment towards a loan.
That's not the same thing.
Look for someone that's gonna help you understand what you're doing because providing theunderstanding only assists that business owner takes less, they worry less, they have more
(12:45):
confidence than in you.
And then they're able to work in and on their business because they have someone theytrust.
Mm-hmm.
you know, whether it's us, which, you we love our clients, whether it's us or somebodyelse, find someone that fits that niche.
Because then you have tax time come up.
And what do we have right now?
(13:05):
I mean, we love what we do, but we have endless amounts of people coming to us.
They haven't touched their books.
They haven't even filed 23 taxes.
So, you know, and then they're mind blown.
Well, you have one or two or three owners.
Some have filed their taxes, some haven't, the business hasn't, they've commingled or theyhaven't, regardless, they have no system, they have an Excel sheet, God help me, doing
(13:35):
their books.
I mean, there's no organization.
And how are you gonna show a P &L when you need a loan?
You're not gonna walk into a bank and go, well, I have a Google sheet.
I mean, they're gonna laugh, they're gonna outright laugh at you.
And you can't build business credit.
You can't build that business to the point that it should be because you have nothing tosubstantiate it.
(14:00):
was talking to a mortgage lender earlier and he was talking about the exact same thing,working with self-employed people, it's like they don't understand what goes into getting
financials ready and it's huge and you know once you get cleaned up, once you file taxesthere's so many strategies you can put in place to save on a tax bill but it's it's I've
(14:24):
said it before not on the podcast but
The government doesn't want people to know about them.
Because the less people know about tax strategies, then the more that they get paid.
Which, that's their deal.
What we want to do is make sure you keep your money.
Like, so...
Legally, of course, yeah.
(14:46):
nobody likes that, you know, the current person in charge of the United States had such alow tax bill, but it was all legal.
The tax filing was not illegal.
It was completely legal.
(15:21):
Yeah.
And don't, the other thing is honestly, don't try to BS it.
At the end of the day, I see everything that you spend money on.
Like I can't, I don't know how many times I've literally had to remind people.
They're like, I can't afford it.
Or, I, it's really, I can't afford it.
(15:44):
Or I don't have the money for, you know, to pivot or change my business or do this.
And I go, we actually, do.
Cause I...
I can see your bank account, can see your revenues, I see where you spend all your money.
Yeah.
I can see you spending, you know, 60 grand on Versace, whatever it is.
(16:08):
you know, yeah.
But you, but you can't afford an accountant.
But you can't afford not to.
And that's what I usually say.
You can't afford not to.
It cuts somewhere else, so.
Well, and not to be dismissive, but bookkeeping to some people is the idea of hard workand, you know, like really grinding and, I'm working on my business, I'm doing everything
(16:38):
I can do.
There's the idea of hard work and then the smart work.
So when you look at that, like...
How do you find that smart financial management can reduce unnecessary work?
Like budgeting, things like that, statements.
(17:02):
Well, I mean, we have several people that are clients that they inundate themselves withbusy work.
All busy work is doing is taking away the time that you have for your own business.
So if you're a chef and you love cooking and that's your passion, I want you to go cook.
(17:24):
Send me your bills, send me the stuff.
We set it up, we put it on autopay.
You tell us when to pay it.
Why would you be sitting there writing checks when you have an accountant there that takescharge of that?
know, I don't, I mean the podcast, I show up and I'm snarky.
That's what I do.
(17:44):
You do everything else.
Why am I gonna do it?
I don't have a clue how any of this works.
I just know I show up and I be myself.
You know, so why would I mess with something that you're proficient in?
You're proficient in it.
I you don't come in and try to do your taxes.
I do your taxes.
So I mean, hello?
Yeah.
(18:05):
And that's the difference between...
I hate the idea of smart...
hard work versus smart work as well, because I think hard work is also smart work.
think lazy work is the opposite of smart work.
Yeah, I really like, and yeah, I work, I guess I work smart and hard, but honestly, I putin my AirPods and I crank up music and I just jam for eight, 12 hours doing taxes and a
(18:35):
QuickBooks.
I I'll be working for another eight hours till midnight tonight, but, I love it.
You know, I just do my thing and jam and, you know, get into committing yourself to yourbusiness.
You want...
You want a different path, you want a certain lifestyle, you gotta work for it.
Doesn't mean you're gonna have to work forever, but it does mean you're gonna have tocommit to it.
(18:58):
I was just about to ask, do you think that it really is, are they trying to show off thatthey're working or are they trying to actually work at that point?
You know, I don't know.
mean, I can honestly say I have this much work because it's the season.
I mean, this is like retailers at Christmas.
(19:20):
And also, you know, we have because you and I have taken all of what we've done for somany years and invested it back into our company.
We now have the fruits of our labor.
But with that, I know I have a ton of clients to catch work up on.
And we've also onboarded and grown our team, which is great.
(19:44):
So there's training.
So, you know, if it's being productive, that's awesome.
If it's making you more efficient, that's awesome.
But the end of the day, I want to have Sundays off.
That's my goal, is to have Sundays off during tax season.
That's a lofty goal, but you know, that's my goal in doing all this.
(20:04):
Yeah.
Well, and I think part of it is realizing that you are doing not wasteful activities, buthaving those bad habits where it's like, I'm going to spend so much time doing this stuff
where I don't need to be.
Setting up systems, you know, all these kinds of different things that you can do.
(20:30):
You used to use motion.
Now obviously a lot of Google Calendar with focus time and stuff like that.
What do you think are other ideas that people can use to avoid that?
got me onto Trello.
Love Trello.
I have probably like seven different cards now, because as Stephen has learned, I'm superOCD.
(20:57):
I have three unread emails right now, and I am losing my mind to not be able to read andfile those.
So don't become like me, but maybe learn a little bit from me.
There's a time and place.
It's like everything, right?
So I literally have my to-do lists, which you've seen that as well, running every day.
(21:22):
But what I do is I have the times that I feel like tired and I know I'm slowing down.
That's when I do the, what I call it, no brain activity work.
Like it takes no thought for me to do it.
So I save those tasks for then when I'm.
shutting down, I'm getting tired, I can just sit and do those.
(21:42):
But other times when I'm high functioning, I definitely drill down and do the harder work.
I'm curious what low functioning activities are, because I haven't found any.
Like, for me, I feel like I'm constantly having to work way too hard with my brain andlike be so creative and all that stuff.
Maybe that's why I call people.
(22:04):
Like, I think I talk to people and use that time to decompress a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
is, mean, granted, we all know my brain is very special in that type of sense.
Not in like, she's amazing, but I mean, my downtime is sorting through downloads and doingQuickBooks.
(22:31):
Yeah.
If anybody knows any therapists that can help us with this, then that'd be great.
Just email into the pod or something.
Yeah, I will I will say though everything I know we're getting close to time But I willsay that I really think everything comes down to you really have to believe in yourself
(22:52):
You really the confidence?
I can always everybody can always be better but as long as I'm functioning at the bestversion of myself at that moment that is what
drives me and I think that drive and I think you're the same way I have to push you alittle bit because you have had you've gotten beat up verbally so badly by toxic employers
(23:20):
but not this one but lately but I mean I have my moments but I mean you gotta believe inyourself you've got a you gotta love loving you loving you has to be first
If you can't love yourself, you can't love anybody else, can't love your business, can'tgrow your business, you're, Stop and go do data entry.
(23:47):
think that's a pretty good place to start because I think that we really want to dive intothe belief and the confidence side of things probably on the next one or down the line
because there's a lot to go over that we're finding way too many people are dealing withthat and you know like you said I have dealt with that and continue to deal with that so
(24:11):
in the meantime
We are in tax season so if people need help with their taxes, look into actually filingtheir taxes this year.
If you're one those people, don't be ashamed, just say hey I need help filing all of mytaxes.
If you know anybody, more than happy to help them.
The best way to reach us is go to the website peacelovebiz.com.
(24:36):
That's peace l-u-v-b-i-z dot com.
Send a form in, we'll take care of you.
meet with you, you'll see both of our faces and we'll get you through tax season andbeyond.
In the meantime, have a wonderful and have a peaceful day.
Have a peaceful one.
Thank you, Stephen, as always.
(24:58):
Extraordinary.
Thanks.
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