January 13, 2025 • 14 mins
Are you prepared for tax season? Get answers to the most common questions small business owners have from our guest, Kelly Phillips Erb, a recognized tax attorney and writer. We’ll dive into how to leverage an accountant’s expertise as a partnership, helping you from preparation to long-term planning. Listen in as we cover:
- [02:16] Tax preparation & what businesses can provide up front to their CPA
- [03:56] Most common mistakes that small businesses make during tax season
- [07:26] Common tax deductions or credits
- [10:06] Partnering with your CPA for long-term business goals
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- As a small business owner,
it's important to be preparedand properly file your taxes.
Staying up to date on rules
and regulations will help ensure
that you don't leaveany money on the table.
And we strongly recommend partnering
with a tax professional tohelp you with the process.
Welcome to HR{preneur}. I'm Jim Duffy.
From Main Street to your street,
the HR{preneur} podcast is centered
around helping smallbusinesses like yours gain
(00:21):
the knowledge you need,
from HR, payroll, and hiring,
to time, taxes, benefits, and insurance.
To help answer frequently asked questions
from small business owners,
we've invited Kelly PhillipsErb to come on the podcast.
Additionally, I'll also beturning the episode over
to my colleague, Heather Sperduto.
Heather is vice president ofsales operations here at ADP.
Heather supports the design and execution
(00:42):
of ADP's Accountant Program nationwide.
Heather, welcome to theshow, and take it away.
- Thank you, Jim.
I am thrilled that we are joined
by such an exciting guest.
Kelly Phillips Erb, welcome to the show.
- Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here toanswer some of the questions
that you've received fromsmall business owners.
(01:03):
- Well, listen, before we get started,
maybe we could take just a minute or so
to get to know you and your background.
Give us a glimpse as to who Kelly is.
- So I'm a tax attorney for my own firm,
which is The Erb Law Firm
in Greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
And I like to think that I helptaxpayers get out of trouble
and hopefully stay out of trouble.
(01:24):
I also write for Forbes.
My articles feature taxinformation, also financial crimes,
and again, kind of getting out trouble,
staying out of trouble,
and those issues thatimpact both individuals
and small business owners.
And then around the web,people may know me as Taxgirl.
- Taxgirl. Pretty impressive.
Well, Kelly, you are the perfect guest
(01:46):
for this conversation.
In order to help oursmall business listeners,
we partnered with ADP's Advisory Circle,
a community for the ADPsmall business clients
to find out what is top of mind for them.
And lately, there's alot of buzz out there
about tax season.
(02:07):
So if we're gonna jump intothis, looking for guidance,
one of the questions that we keep getting
into our advisory grouphere in this circle is,
can you explain taxpreparation and the process?
That if I'm a business owner,
is there anything I can do up front
to maybe ease the filingprocess with my accountant?
(02:30):
- Absolutely.
I think the very best thing
that you can do is make surethat you're in communication
with your provider.
One of the things that Iknow that is frustrating
for small business ownerswhen they're filing
is not understanding the timelines.
When do I have to give information?
What kind of informationdo I need to give you?
What do you already have?
So I really suggesthaving that conversation
(02:50):
as soon as you can in the tax season.
Most tax prep peoplealso have an organizer,
so they'll tell you what you need.
Pay attention to those emails.
I know during the busyseason it's really easy
to overlook that.
But they will often giveyou literally a checklist
of here are the thingsyou need to make sure
that you've submitted to us,
so that everything can get in on time.
(03:11):
And I would just also say, you know,
depending on the complexityof your business,
don't be alarmed if you'retax professional says to you
that they're gonna put you on extension.
I know a lot of people do, like,
a collective gasp when they hear that,
but there's no evidence tosuggest that getting an extension
is any kind of audit risk for you.
And we wanna make sure that, you know,
(03:33):
your return is accurate.
It's better to have a full
and complete return filed on extension,
which is still consideredtimely, then a rushed return.
So if you're kind offeeling a little frantic,
or you're looking at that organizer,
or you're thinking to yourself,
"There's no way this gets done,"
again, communicate with your professional,
say that you think you'regonna need an extension.
(03:53):
Gives you a little bit of breathing room.
- That's really good guidance,Kelly. How about mistakes?
Are there any common mistakes
that you see out there between the client
and the accountantrelationship during tax season?
- So I'm gonna say one I think
that might be a little surprising
for some small business owners.
Don't be afraid to claim expenses.
Don't be afraid to suggest deductions.
(04:13):
I think folks are soworried sometimes, you know,
that they're gonna get audited,
or that they might overdeduct.
Remember that your tax professional
is a professional, right?
So if you give them alist of the expenses,
this is what I've spenton my business this year,
explain why you spent it on your business,
they can identify the best expenses
(04:33):
to translate into deductions.
I think sometimes we self-edit,
because we're like, "Oh, I don't know.
What about my cell phone?Was it really an expense?"
If you don't know,
kind of goes back to whatwe were saying before.
Communication.
So don't be afraid to, youknow, have that conversation.
When you talk about mistakes,
I do think one of the biggest mistakes,
it would be missed deductions.
(04:54):
People kind of being fearfulthat maybe they're not,
you know, that they're kindof setting themselves up
for trouble.
And again, your professionalcould look at it and say,
"Okay, maybe not this deduction,
but absolutely this one."
So I would say make surethat you are, you know,
giving them all of the information,
not only that they ask for,
but that you think they might need.
'Cause I do think that that's a place
(05:15):
where folks get a little nervous.
And then the second thing Iwould say, in terms of mistakes.
And this is actually a year, you know,
as you go along kind of thing.
But, you know, make sure you pay yourself.
This is a problem that I seewith a lot of small businesses.
You're so worried about making sure
that you pay all of the billsthat you don't pay yourself,
and you don't pay yourself properly.
(05:35):
And that inevitably translates
into trouble during tax season, right?
Because either A, now you'regonna owe a lot of money
because you maybe took withdrawals out,
and you didn't pay taxes on those,
or your accountant'slooking at this, saying,
"You should have paid yourself a salary."
Instead, you've got drips
and drops coming out of the business.
So I would say make sureyou pay yourself as well.
And this was not at all planned,
(05:57):
and it wasn't intended to be a plug,
but I will say I highlybelieve in payroll companies,
especially for small businesses.
Because you're so busy tryingto get all of the work done
that you maybe don'tget all of the files in,
you don't quite understandwhat you're supposed
to be withholding.
The forms, W-4, these days arereally tricky to understand.
So having somebody lookover your shoulder and say,
(06:19):
"You know what, I'm notsure that you wanted
to take an extra $1,000out each pay period."
So highly recommend workingwith a team of professionals.
Not just your preparer,
but, you know, a team of professionals.
- We often hear from accountants that
as they expand their suite of services
into more of an advisory role,
when it comes to things like pay,
(06:39):
the opportunity to look at benchmarks
from a salary perspective,
to make sure that businessowner is paying in line
with what the market isindicating at that moment,
or even reasonable compensation.
And that's guidance that anaccountant could really give
to a business owner toput them in a great place
so that the filing seasonbecomes way much easier.
(07:01):
- And it's super important for compliance,
especially for S corporations.
And so many small businessesare S corporations.
And you're supposed to be paying yourself
a reasonable salary.
And as you kind of alluded to,
a lot of people don'tknow what that looks like.
So again, having somebody lookover your shoulder and say,
"You know what?
This is what you shouldbe paying yourself,
and let's look at everything else
and maybe work around that."
(07:22):
Because again, youknow, you've got to eat,
so you wanna get paid.
- Kelly, let me go back one minute here.
You did mention deductions several times.
Also tax credits.
Are there any specific deductions
or tax credits that you thinksometimes get overlooked
that we could bring to theattention of our listeners?
- Sure.
Well, I'll just mention acouple quick deductions,
'cause I did allude to that earlier.
(07:43):
I will say, on thedeductions side, you know,
anything that's ordinary and necessary
in your business can be deductible.
So again, don't be scaredto look at, you know,
do I have business cards?
Am I paying for a web service?
Am I paying a payroll provider?
You know, all of the ways thatyou're spending in business,
those are most likely deductions.
But credits are evenbetter than deductions,
(08:04):
because deductions aredollar-for-dollar reductions
in your income,
but credits are actuallydollar-for-dollar reductions
in your tax, which is even better.
So it eats away at whatyou owe much faster.
And there's a lot of credits out there,
depending on who you hire
and what kind of benefitsthat you're offering,
especially for small businesses.
So for certain kinds of benefits
(08:26):
that you're offering your employees
that maybe you're not required to offer.
So paid leave is a great example.
So small businesses aren't necessarily,
they might be under the minimums,
so they don't necessarily get hit
by some of the federal laws.
They may be subject to state rules.
One of the great things about
when they offer those benefits,if I wanna offer paid leave,
(08:47):
if I wanna offer sick leave,
if I wanna offer pensions to my employees,
you can get tax credits for those.
It also can make a difference
depending on who you're hiring.
The government givesyou lots of incentives
for hiring targeted groups.
So veterans, for example,persons with disabilities.
And in some instances,depending on where you live,
(09:08):
if you're in an opportunity zone,
hiring within that opportunityzone can actually, you know,
not only your normal deductions
for what you would getfor paying the employee,
but you also could get a creditfrom the federal government
for hiring those employees.
So again, goes back to communication.
Highly recommend you have
that conversation with your tax pro.
If they're not askingyou about your employees,
(09:29):
you need to say, "Hereare the people I'm hiring.
Am I entitled to any credits?
Here are the benefits that I'm paying.
Am I entitled to any credits?"
And then there's also a couple of ones
that I think we just heard about,
but we don't know thatthey apply to businesses.
One of those is the creditsfor EVs, so electric vehicles.
So there's all kinds ofcredits that might be available
to individuals thatmight also be available
(09:51):
in your small business.
So again, ask those questions.
So look at your statement and say,
"This is where I'm spending my money.
How can I benefit from this?"
- I'm sure our listenersare jotting down some
of these deductions andcredits that you're mentioning.
And as we're having thisconversation, Kelly,
what comes to mind for me
is it doesn't have to justbe around filing season.
(10:14):
It's not just the tax season.
If I'm a small business owner,
do you have any guidance aboutthat ongoing relationship
so that together,
the accountant and the smallbusiness owner can look ahead
and try to figure outhow they can help achieve
the long-term business goals together?
- I think, sometimes, andI'm a small business owner,
(10:35):
so I understand this questionmore than I can even say.
You know, sometimes,
especially when you'rea small business owner,
you get so wrapped up in the day-to-day
that you don't feel like youhave time to focus on growth.
But there's a lot of ways thatyou can address these issues
and have these conversations
without it being overly burdensome.
And I actually spoke with a bookkeeper,
(10:57):
her name is Jenny Groberg,she's out in Utah, last year.
And she gave me just some fantastic advice
along those lines.
One of the things she said was
to have your bookkeeperpull your last three years
of records and then look for outliers.
So you wanna look to see what is different
from year to year, and why is it?
Maybe it's really good stuff.
(11:18):
Like, all of the sudden, ourincome is much higher in a year
than it was before, and wethink that that's a trajectory.
And what do we need todo as a result of that?
Do we need to hire more employees?
Like, what do we need to do?
Sometimes it may be that you're looking
and you're thinking, "Why am I spending
so much money on the internet?
Like, what's gone wrong here?"
Maybe you haven't negotiatedyour internet contract
(11:40):
in a while.
And all of these things arerelated to your growth, right?
Because the more money
that you can keep inside your business,
the more money that you have
and the more resources that you have
to put towards growing your business.
And again, you know, Ithink sometimes people think
that planning has to be this really, like,
laborious process whereyou're all sitting around
(12:00):
and looking at spreadsheetsand oh my goodness.
But something like justlooking at outliers literally
is what is so much different.
You could pull that from software
that you have on your computer,
if you do your own in-house bookkeeping,
or, again, have that conversationwith your bookkeeper.
And just say, like,"What am I missing here?
What could I do if I wereto hire another employee?
(12:22):
How much more do I thinkmy income might increase,
based on the last three years?"
And I just think thatis such great advice,
and I think about that all the time
when I think about planning.
'Cause I do think peoplekind of get psyched out
about this idea of planning.
Like, that you're gonna haveto, like, look at your books,
and it's gonna be a month-to-month thing,
and oh my goodness.
And it doesn't have to be.
You could literally look atprofit and loss statements
for the last three years.
(12:43):
What looks different?
And, you know, what looksdifferent that's good,
that I wanna keep?
And what looks differentthat's a little shady,
that I need to think about?
You know, maybe I need to save money,
switch to a different provider.
Or maybe, you know, youneed to raise your prices.
Like, these are thingsthat you might not be able
to think about on a day-to-daybasis because you're so busy.
But, you know, taking once a quarter
(13:05):
to sit down with your tax professional
and think about what comes next,
it's just, I think, areally important move
for a lot of small business owners.
And I think it goes back tothe pay yourself thing, right?
Like, you have to decide
that your business is your priority.
And that can be hard becauseI think sometimes, again,
you get so, today was a long day,
and I was running all day,and I didn't have time.
(13:25):
So that's why you haveto schedule that in.
You say, "Every, you know,
the 15th of every thirdmonth, I'm gonna sit..."
Well, actually, I shouldn't say that,
because your tax providerwould probably not be thrilled
with the 15th.
But, you know, you pick, let's say,
the seventh of every third month or so,
and you sit down and you have a chat.
And you say, "You know, what am I missing?
What can I do to make my business grow?"
(13:47):
As you mentioned,
the advisory services areincreasingly important
in the tax and accounting world.
And people want to help.
You just have to be availableto make that happen.
- Well, Kelly, you havebrought a wealth of knowledge
to all of us listening to today's podcast.
We cannot thank you enough forbeing part of this episode.
- Thank you so much for having me.
(14:08):
- Well, this is presentedby ADP HR{preneur},
which focuses on entrepreneurs
and business drivers whoare shaping the growth
of their companies,
and positively impacting thelives of their employees.
With each episode, we'llbring the experts to you,
answer your questions,
and help you think beyond today,
so you can discover more success tomorrow.
(14:28):
As always, thanks forlistening to HR{preneur}.
Be well, and hope you'lljoin us again soon.
(upbeat music)
- As a small business owner,
it's important to be preparedand properly file your taxes.
Staying up to date on rules
and regulations will help ensure
that you don't leaveany money on the table.
And we strongly recommend partnering
with a tax professional tohelp you with the process.
Welcome to HR{preneur}. I'm Jim Duffy.
From Main Street to your street,
the HR{preneur} podcast is centered
around helping smallbusinesses like yours gain
(00:21):
the knowledge you need,
from HR, payroll, and hiring,
to time, taxes, benefits, and insurance.
To help answer frequently asked questions
from small business owners,
we've invited Kelly PhillipsErb to come on the podcast.
Additionally, I'll also beturning the episode over
to my colleague, Heather Sperduto.
Heather is vice president ofsales operations here at ADP.
Heather supports the design and execution
(00:42):
of ADP's Accountant Program nationwide.
Heather, welcome to theshow, and take it away.
- Thank you, Jim.
I am thrilled that we are joined
by such an exciting guest.
Kelly Phillips Erb, welcome to the show.
- Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here toanswer some of the questions
that you've received fromsmall business owners.
(01:03):
- Well, listen, before we get started,
maybe we could take just a minute or so
to get to know you and your background.
Give us a glimpse as to who Kelly is.
- So I'm a tax attorney for my own firm,
which is The Erb Law Firm
in Greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
And I like to think that I helptaxpayers get out of trouble
and hopefully stay out of trouble.
(01:24):
I also write for Forbes.
My articles feature taxinformation, also financial crimes,
and again, kind of getting out trouble,
staying out of trouble,
and those issues thatimpact both individuals
and small business owners.
And then around the web,people may know me as Taxgirl.
- Taxgirl. Pretty impressive.
Well, Kelly, you are the perfect guest
(01:46):
for this conversation.
In order to help oursmall business listeners,
we partnered with ADP's Advisory Circle,
a community for the ADPsmall business clients
to find out what is top of mind for them.
And lately, there's alot of buzz out there
about tax season.
(02:07):
So if we're gonna jump intothis, looking for guidance,
one of the questions that we keep getting
into our advisory grouphere in this circle is,
can you explain taxpreparation and the process?
That if I'm a business owner,
is there anything I can do up front
to maybe ease the filingprocess with my accountant?
(02:30):
- Absolutely.
I think the very best thing
that you can do is make surethat you're in communication
with your provider.
One of the things that Iknow that is frustrating
for small business ownerswhen they're filing
is not understanding the timelines.
When do I have to give information?
What kind of informationdo I need to give you?
What do you already have?
So I really suggesthaving that conversation
(02:50):
as soon as you can in the tax season.
Most tax prep peoplealso have an organizer,
so they'll tell you what you need.
Pay attention to those emails.
I know during the busyseason it's really easy
to overlook that.
But they will often giveyou literally a checklist
of here are the thingsyou need to make sure
that you've submitted to us,
so that everything can get in on time.
(03:11):
And I would just also say, you know,
depending on the complexityof your business,
don't be alarmed if you'retax professional says to you
that they're gonna put you on extension.
I know a lot of people do, like,
a collective gasp when they hear that,
but there's no evidence tosuggest that getting an extension
is any kind of audit risk for you.
And we wanna make sure that, you know,
(03:33):
your return is accurate.
It's better to have a full
and complete return filed on extension,
which is still consideredtimely, then a rushed return.
So if you're kind offeeling a little frantic,
or you're looking at that organizer,
or you're thinking to yourself,
"There's no way this gets done,"
again, communicate with your professional,
say that you think you'regonna need an extension.
(03:53):
Gives you a little bit of breathing room.
- That's really good guidance,Kelly. How about mistakes?
Are there any common mistakes
that you see out there between the client
and the accountantrelationship during tax season?
- So I'm gonna say one I think
that might be a little surprising
for some small business owners.
Don't be afraid to claim expenses.
Don't be afraid to suggest deductions.
(04:13):
I think folks are soworried sometimes, you know,
that they're gonna get audited,
or that they might overdeduct.
Remember that your tax professional
is a professional, right?
So if you give them alist of the expenses,
this is what I've spenton my business this year,
explain why you spent it on your business,
they can identify the best expenses
(04:33):
to translate into deductions.
I think sometimes we self-edit,
because we're like, "Oh, I don't know.
What about my cell phone?Was it really an expense?"
If you don't know,
kind of goes back to whatwe were saying before.
Communication.
So don't be afraid to, youknow, have that conversation.
When you talk about mistakes,
I do think one of the biggest mistakes,
it would be missed deductions.
(04:54):
People kind of being fearfulthat maybe they're not,
you know, that they're kindof setting themselves up
for trouble.
And again, your professionalcould look at it and say,
"Okay, maybe not this deduction,
but absolutely this one."
So I would say make surethat you are, you know,
giving them all of the information,
not only that they ask for,
but that you think they might need.
'Cause I do think that that's a place
(05:15):
where folks get a little nervous.
And then the second thing Iwould say, in terms of mistakes.
And this is actually a year, you know,
as you go along kind of thing.
But, you know, make sure you pay yourself.
This is a problem that I seewith a lot of small businesses.
You're so worried about making sure
that you pay all of the billsthat you don't pay yourself,
and you don't pay yourself properly.
(05:35):
And that inevitably translates
into trouble during tax season, right?
Because either A, now you'regonna owe a lot of money
because you maybe took withdrawals out,
and you didn't pay taxes on those,
or your accountant'slooking at this, saying,
"You should have paid yourself a salary."
Instead, you've got drips
and drops coming out of the business.
So I would say make sureyou pay yourself as well.
And this was not at all planned,
(05:57):
and it wasn't intended to be a plug,
but I will say I highlybelieve in payroll companies,
especially for small businesses.
Because you're so busy tryingto get all of the work done
that you maybe don'tget all of the files in,
you don't quite understandwhat you're supposed
to be withholding.
The forms, W-4, these days arereally tricky to understand.
So having somebody lookover your shoulder and say,
(06:19):
"You know what, I'm notsure that you wanted
to take an extra $1,000out each pay period."
So highly recommend workingwith a team of professionals.
Not just your preparer,
but, you know, a team of professionals.
- We often hear from accountants that
as they expand their suite of services
into more of an advisory role,
when it comes to things like pay,
(06:39):
the opportunity to look at benchmarks
from a salary perspective,
to make sure that businessowner is paying in line
with what the market isindicating at that moment,
or even reasonable compensation.
And that's guidance that anaccountant could really give
to a business owner toput them in a great place
so that the filing seasonbecomes way much easier.
(07:01):
- And it's super important for compliance,
especially for S corporations.
And so many small businessesare S corporations.
And you're supposed to be paying yourself
a reasonable salary.
And as you kind of alluded to,
a lot of people don'tknow what that looks like.
So again, having somebody lookover your shoulder and say,
"You know what?
This is what you shouldbe paying yourself,
and let's look at everything else
and maybe work around that."
(07:22):
Because again, youknow, you've got to eat,
so you wanna get paid.
- Kelly, let me go back one minute here.
You did mention deductions several times.
Also tax credits.
Are there any specific deductions
or tax credits that you thinksometimes get overlooked
that we could bring to theattention of our listeners?
- Sure.
Well, I'll just mention acouple quick deductions,
'cause I did allude to that earlier.
(07:43):
I will say, on thedeductions side, you know,
anything that's ordinary and necessary
in your business can be deductible.
So again, don't be scaredto look at, you know,
do I have business cards?
Am I paying for a web service?
Am I paying a payroll provider?
You know, all of the ways thatyou're spending in business,
those are most likely deductions.
But credits are evenbetter than deductions,
(08:04):
because deductions aredollar-for-dollar reductions
in your income,
but credits are actuallydollar-for-dollar reductions
in your tax, which is even better.
So it eats away at whatyou owe much faster.
And there's a lot of credits out there,
depending on who you hire
and what kind of benefitsthat you're offering,
especially for small businesses.
So for certain kinds of benefits
(08:26):
that you're offering your employees
that maybe you're not required to offer.
So paid leave is a great example.
So small businesses aren't necessarily,
they might be under the minimums,
so they don't necessarily get hit
by some of the federal laws.
They may be subject to state rules.
One of the great things about
when they offer those benefits,if I wanna offer paid leave,
(08:47):
if I wanna offer sick leave,
if I wanna offer pensions to my employees,
you can get tax credits for those.
It also can make a difference
depending on who you're hiring.
The government givesyou lots of incentives
for hiring targeted groups.
So veterans, for example,persons with disabilities.
And in some instances,depending on where you live,
(09:08):
if you're in an opportunity zone,
hiring within that opportunityzone can actually, you know,
not only your normal deductions
for what you would getfor paying the employee,
but you also could get a creditfrom the federal government
for hiring those employees.
So again, goes back to communication.
Highly recommend you have
that conversation with your tax pro.
If they're not askingyou about your employees,
(09:29):
you need to say, "Hereare the people I'm hiring.
Am I entitled to any credits?
Here are the benefits that I'm paying.
Am I entitled to any credits?"
And then there's also a couple of ones
that I think we just heard about,
but we don't know thatthey apply to businesses.
One of those is the creditsfor EVs, so electric vehicles.
So there's all kinds ofcredits that might be available
to individuals thatmight also be available
(09:51):
in your small business.
So again, ask those questions.
So look at your statement and say,
"This is where I'm spending my money.
How can I benefit from this?"
- I'm sure our listenersare jotting down some
of these deductions andcredits that you're mentioning.
And as we're having thisconversation, Kelly,
what comes to mind for me
is it doesn't have to justbe around filing season.
(10:14):
It's not just the tax season.
If I'm a small business owner,
do you have any guidance aboutthat ongoing relationship
so that together,
the accountant and the smallbusiness owner can look ahead
and try to figure outhow they can help achieve
the long-term business goals together?
- I think, sometimes, andI'm a small business owner,
(10:35):
so I understand this questionmore than I can even say.
You know, sometimes,
especially when you'rea small business owner,
you get so wrapped up in the day-to-day
that you don't feel like youhave time to focus on growth.
But there's a lot of ways thatyou can address these issues
and have these conversations
without it being overly burdensome.
And I actually spoke with a bookkeeper,
(10:57):
her name is Jenny Groberg,she's out in Utah, last year.
And she gave me just some fantastic advice
along those lines.
One of the things she said was
to have your bookkeeperpull your last three years
of records and then look for outliers.
So you wanna look to see what is different
from year to year, and why is it?
Maybe it's really good stuff.
(11:18):
Like, all of the sudden, ourincome is much higher in a year
than it was before, and wethink that that's a trajectory.
And what do we need todo as a result of that?
Do we need to hire more employees?
Like, what do we need to do?
Sometimes it may be that you're looking
and you're thinking, "Why am I spending
so much money on the internet?
Like, what's gone wrong here?"
Maybe you haven't negotiatedyour internet contract
(11:40):
in a while.
And all of these things arerelated to your growth, right?
Because the more money
that you can keep inside your business,
the more money that you have
and the more resources that you have
to put towards growing your business.
And again, you know, Ithink sometimes people think
that planning has to be this really, like,
laborious process whereyou're all sitting around
(12:00):
and looking at spreadsheetsand oh my goodness.
But something like justlooking at outliers literally
is what is so much different.
You could pull that from software
that you have on your computer,
if you do your own in-house bookkeeping,
or, again, have that conversationwith your bookkeeper.
And just say, like,"What am I missing here?
What could I do if I wereto hire another employee?
(12:22):
How much more do I thinkmy income might increase,
based on the last three years?"
And I just think thatis such great advice,
and I think about that all the time
when I think about planning.
'Cause I do think peoplekind of get psyched out
about this idea of planning.
Like, that you're gonna haveto, like, look at your books,
and it's gonna be a month-to-month thing,
and oh my goodness.
And it doesn't have to be.
You could literally look atprofit and loss statements
for the last three years.
(12:43):
What looks different?
And, you know, what looksdifferent that's good,
that I wanna keep?
And what looks differentthat's a little shady,
that I need to think about?
You know, maybe I need to save money,
switch to a different provider.
Or maybe, you know, youneed to raise your prices.
Like, these are thingsthat you might not be able
to think about on a day-to-daybasis because you're so busy.
But, you know, taking once a quarter
(13:05):
to sit down with your tax professional
and think about what comes next,
it's just, I think, areally important move
for a lot of small business owners.
And I think it goes back tothe pay yourself thing, right?
Like, you have to decide
that your business is your priority.
And that can be hard becauseI think sometimes, again,
you get so, today was a long day,
and I was running all day,and I didn't have time.
(13:25):
So that's why you haveto schedule that in.
You say, "Every, you know,
the 15th of every thirdmonth, I'm gonna sit..."
Well, actually, I shouldn't say that,
because your tax providerwould probably not be thrilled
with the 15th.
But, you know, you pick, let's say,
the seventh of every third month or so,
and you sit down and you have a chat.
And you say, "You know, what am I missing?
What can I do to make my business grow?"
(13:47):
As you mentioned,
the advisory services areincreasingly important
in the tax and accounting world.
And people want to help.
You just have to be availableto make that happen.
- Well, Kelly, you havebrought a wealth of knowledge
to all of us listening to today's podcast.
We cannot thank you enough forbeing part of this episode.
- Thank you so much for having me.
(14:08):
- Well, this is presentedby ADP HR{preneur},
which focuses on entrepreneurs
and business drivers whoare shaping the growth
of their companies,
and positively impacting thelives of their employees.
With each episode, we'llbring the experts to you,
answer your questions,
and help you think beyond today,
so you can discover more success tomorrow.
(14:28):
As always, thanks forlistening to HR{preneur}.
Be well, and hope you'lljoin us again soon.
(upbeat music)
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