Best of 2025 SO FAR: Top Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Best of the Best: Essential Business & Life Lessons from Our Top Episodes (Jan–May)

 

This power-packed episode brings you the greatest hits—the most insightful, practical, and transformative advice—from every conversation we had between January and May. If you’re an entrepreneur striving for more than just profits, this one's your goldmine. 💰💡

 

We dive deep into what actually works for business owners who want both financial success and personal freedom. From daily financial habits to high-level strategy, you’ll hear highlights on:

• Why ditching the rigid budget mindset could save your business

• How Profit First and Bank On Yourself can create real momentum

• What most entrepreneurs overlook when planning their financial future

• Stories of burnout, breakthrough, and bold transformation

 

Whether you're scaling, stabilizing, or starting over, these curated moments will help you work smarter, live better, and lead with intention.

 

🔑 Key Takeaways Include:

• Budgeting strategies that adapt to real-life business needs

• Tax-smart planning, bonus benefits, and succession strategies

• Protecting your business and your sanity with key insurance tools

• Daily financial disciplines that build long-term wealth

• True-life stories that prove: when your business aligns with your values, everything changes

 

00:00 Introduction

00:04 How to Create a Small Business Budget That Actually Works

03:42 Financial Systems for 7-Figure Business Growth

07:10 Business Owner's Guide to Cash Flow Management

10:36 Setting Financial Goals: A Framework for Entrepreneurs

14:09 How to Hire: The Financial Foundation First Approach

19:11 Building Company Culture In Small Business

22:22 Employee Benefits That Won't Break the Bank

26:00 Securing Your Business's Future: The Key Person Strategy

29:13 Tax Strategies for Business Owners Under $1 Million

32:30 Small Business Tax Mistakes

36:33 Bookkeeping Systems for Busy Entrepreneurs

40:21 Business Owner's Guide to Life-Long Tax Planning

43:30 Discover How To Work Less And Earn More Money

47:15 Small Business Owners Must Set Boundaries To Achieve Success

50:48 Delegation Strategies for Control-Freak Entrepreneurs

54:22 Work-Life Integration for Business Owners

58:02 The Million-Dollar Mindset: 3 Mental Shifts Before Scaling

01:01:33 Streamline or Struggle: Financial Systems That Unlock Growth

01:05:24 Sustainable Scaling: Growing Your Business Without Burning Out

01:09:14 Plateau to Profitability: Breaking Free When 7-Figures Still Feels Like Struggling

 

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CzUbpiJE3Tg 

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Consider it this way whenyou get to December, 2025.
Do you want to be proud of a stickingto numbers your January self set up no
matter what happened in the business, orB, adapting to fit circumstances as the
year changed to B in a better spot thanyour January self thought was possible?

(00:32):
If you're an entrepreneur at heart,we believe that you'd pick B.
So why budget as if A is what you want?
This is so weird, but seriously.
Like, would you let, let,let's go back over that.
Like so you don't get distracted.

(00:53):
Would you rather set numbers now andbe really proud in December that you
stuck to them no matter what happensor be able to adapt and changes the
year changes to try to get into abetter spot than maybe you thought
your current self thought possible?
And we believe if you're an entrepreneurheart, you're hands down picking the
ladder, you're picking, you know,I wanna be able to adapt and change

(01:16):
so I can get to a better place.
You're a Captain Kirk, right?
Not a Spock like we've talkedabout in previous episodes.
So why budget as if you aregonna be so rigid about it?
Let's conclude here with some, uh, solike, bringing it all together, the
key to a working budget that helpsincrease profits isn't perfection.

(01:38):
It is not about strictly adhering topreconceived expectations for your year.
Business.
Budgeting that actually works is aboutother ps, progress, patience, persistence.
Yep.
If you want more profit, you canhave perfection, but you can have
progress, patience, and persistence.

(01:59):
You can take this mindset that we'resharing here and use YAPS four rules.
Use the Profit First system together forwherever you're starting at right now,
whether in early stage growth, stageexit planning, or everywhere in between.
When we know this system works.
Brandon's gonna recap the keys.
Keys.
So the keys are, allocate the money youalready have, not money you don't have.

(02:23):
Adjust with no guilt or shame.
Embrace non monthly expenses, move moneyto the hold account and to the vault.
Does that seem too simple?
If you just did those fourthings, you're like, really?
That's it.
Good.
The best things in life are simple andbut they also have this depth to them that

(02:45):
you can spend a lifetime getting to know.
We've been using Wine A since 2014and started some profit first concepts
somewhere around 2013, but it could havebeen 2015, I don't remember exactly.
Um, we for sure started usingbacon and yourself back in 2013.
These truly are concepts, right?
We're 10 plus years later nowthat we believe can carry us

(03:08):
for the next 10 to 30 years.
And the more we see aboutthem, the more there is to see.
And we believe that could be for you too.
So don't discount thisbecause it's simple.
Believe it, because it's simple.
And I think it's way past 30 yearsactually, but you know, right, right.
So is 2025 your year to implementsound money practices for your business

(03:33):
that work for you as the entrepreneur?
Are you ready to work with yourhuman nature rather than have
to become a robotic accountantto control your cash flow
and make sure that you have abookkeeper that's doing the heavy
lifting before the meeting and you'renot spending any time during this, uh,

(03:55):
semi-monthly meeting, um, updating,uh, QuickBooks or Zero or whatever you
might use, or even YN if you're, youadopted that from our last episode?
Make sure it's all ready to go.
30 minute check-in, move on.
Uh, I kind of think about this inclose to like date night, right?
So for us, uh, I remember when we ranour first business, we were running like

(04:19):
crazy, uh, really, really busy, right?
And, and we didn't havetime for, uh, date nights.
And so at one point wehad a, a challenge, right?
'cause business was hard, life was hard,and we needed to schedule date night.
Now it seems like it was pointless, right?

(04:40):
Like, what are we doing?
We're just like not talking aboutwork, not doing any of this.
But by putting that on the calendar, wewere able to, uh, make sure that we put
what was a priority first, you know,uh, for us, uh, course as a marriage.
But, um, what you wanna make sure of islike, your finances should be a priority.
So you want to make sure that youput that there, uh, as a priority.

(05:04):
Not just say it's apriority, but not really.
Put it on the calendar.
Yeah.
Great.
The second objection we oftenhear is, my business isn't big
enough for all these meetings.
Like what?
Like this seems pointless.
Um, the, the cool thing is, is thatwe're talking about systems that are
scalable and if you can put them in,get used to doing them, they become

(05:25):
habitual while you're small, you'llgrow into them and you'll actually
maybe even grow faster becauseyou're actually doing these things.
Um, it's e way easier to implementthese types of, um, meetings and
checkpoints before you need them,because as your business grows, if you
don't have these in there, they're gonnaget crowded out by even more things.
Right.
Um, so the habits you build nowwill support your growth later and

(05:48):
they'll actually like support yourgrowth now too, rather than saying,
well, I can, I'll do that whenmy business is big enough for it.
Yeah, I think, uh, again, youstart it, it's kinda like the gym.
You start going to the gymand, and eventually you just
add extra things, right?
Extra routines, but you needto start going to the gym.
Yep.

(06:09):
And then, um, final objection islike, why involve all these people?
I can just handle this myself, right?
Why do I need a bookkeeper, a taxpro, a financial planner, and involve
them in these meetings, right?
Or even my businesspartners or key personnels.
Maybe you're a solo entrepreneurlistening to this, and even if you
sit down and do this yourself, good,but if you can bring more people in

(06:33):
and have those structured reviews andconversations with a team, like Three
Minds are better than one, right?
Yeah.
And especially when you know thatteam are people that think about money
40 hours or more per week, right?
Bookkeepers, they're alwaysthinking about money.
CPAs, tax Pros, they're always keepingup to date with tax developments,
financial planners, right?
Learning about all the lawsand regulations, those things

(06:56):
constantly change, right?
Congress is always updating this or that.
So let your financial professionals keepyou up to date on what's applicable to you
so you can focus on growing your businessand not get caught by, oh, I didn't know
about, well, you know, this or that.
The fourth one is the unexpectedopportunity challenge.

(07:18):
This is when a golden opportunityappears, but requires immediate cash.
Um, the best opportunities often comewithout warning, and you're like,
oh, this is a great opportunity.
Where am I gonna find the money for it?
And this is where maintaining anopportunity fund separate from your
emergency savings can become really handy.
This is where having some ofthose pre-approved financing

(07:39):
options ready might be good.
Or, um, having a strong bankingrelationship before you need it.
Particularly with a local creditunion, they're often the ones doing
the investments in local businesses.
Um, and even better yet, stashingup your vaults where you can
be your own source of financingwithout having to rely on others.
Go back to episodes if you needa refresher of what that is, or

(08:00):
all of our episodes, most of them,I think we talk about, you know.
Using the system, the bank and yourselfsystem, uh, often, and this is how
we've been able to take advantageof some great opportunities and
unfortunately deal with challenges too.
Yeah.
And then my favorite thing besideshaving the money available for this,
is to have a quick decision frameworkfor evaluating opportunities.

(08:24):
'cause when a golden opportunitycomes to your way, you have to
decide really quickly whether it'struly golden or if it's fool's gold.
Um, this is like pre-deciding whatopportunities fit with you and
what opportunities don't, so thatyou don't rush ahead too quickly.
You just have to get theframework out and use it.
Right.
Oh, I got a golden opportunity potential.

(08:44):
I'm gonna get out my framework.
I'm gonna see how it does with myframework before deciding to move forward.
Now.
Don't go be like one of those, uh,characters from a movie that is trying
to find their soulmate and they havea list of a hundred qualities no
other human being could ever reach.
Right?
The best frameworks in this, youknow, decision making framework,

(09:07):
um, have about 10 or less criteria.
Um, and when you come up with agolden opportunity, you want them to
match a minimum of say, 50% or more.
Um, for that criti, for that to, you know,satisfy whether you move forward or not.
Do not make a prince charming list andexpect every opportunity to match a
hundred percent in order to move forward.

(09:28):
Um, 'cause then you probably won'thave any opportunities, just like
that person that has that liststay single for their lives, right?
But once they get more clarity onwhat is really true, what's really
effective, then you can make sureyou've got the money set aside for
it or the, you know, the financingavailable or whatever it might be.
And then you've got the framework and.
Like they say, those who have themoney, um, opportunities, find them.

(09:51):
And on the flip side, I do wannamake sure there is a lot of fools
gold out there, uh, a lot more.
And so, um, making sure, trustingbut verifying, doing the due
diligence, um, you know, havingthat list a again, is helpful.

(10:11):
You, you can't have it like so long,but making sure you're not gonna
get in some kind of Bernie Madoffsituation or some other crazy thing
because there's a lot out there.
So, um, talking to somebody likeus or or other people that, uh,
trust you, trust to vet the idea.
'cause sometimes we go in therewith those rose colored glasses

(10:34):
saying, oh, this is gonna be great.
Now I can hear some of you thinking,isn't this just setting myself up
for disappointment or what's thepoint of setting an outrageous goal?
I probably won't hit, and again, I talkto PE business owners all the time,

(10:55):
and they just keep doing the thing,but they don't actually set goals.
Yeah.
So let's address some ofthese common concerns.
One, multiple goals seems overwhelming.
I can let alone, you know, one goal.
Why?
Why three?
Well, this MTO frameworkactually reduces pressure.
You hit your minimum, it's a win, right?
Um, everything abovethat is bonus territory.

(11:17):
You're not failing if youdon't hit that outrageous goal.
This is, we used to set only theoutrageous goal, then we get mad
at ourselves if we didn't hit it.
And then we started, you know,okay, let's, let's reduce
and maybe just have a target.
Um, but then we, we'd lose some ofthat growth mindset of going after the
outrageous, and we'd also beat ourselvesup, but we didn't hit the target because
it was, you know, it still was a stretchand it doesn't mean we're gonna get it.

(11:40):
But having this, this minimum actuallyhelps us with that mindset that we keep.
It's a win If we hit the minimum, right?
We're not losers.
We hit our minimum, we're winning, andwe're even better at winning, right?
We get the cherry on top if we'regoing toward the target or to the
outrageous, but we still get the cakeand we get to have the cake and icing.
If we have the minimum, we get thecherry on top or you know, whatever

(12:01):
analogy you wanna use if we'regoing after target or outrageous.
So it's not overwhelming.
It's actually goodpositive growth mindset.
Without, without like beating yourself up.
And I would say as, uh, we've worked backand forth and going back to the previous,
um, meetings that, or podcasts that wedid, um, having those conversations of

(12:22):
saying, man, this seems a bit high for me.
Um, it's helped me to at least look atthe m and feel okay and not deflated
because we didn't reach a hundred thousandin a month or something like that.
You know, not that we do, but, um,it, it is helpful to feel not a

(12:46):
failure if we only did half of that.
Right?
The next, uh, comment objection ispreferring to focus on one clear target.
Now we're big fans of focus, right?
One course of until success follow it.
Good thing.
And, but single targets can bedemotivating if you fall behind.
MTO instead providesmultiple reference points.

(13:08):
It's like you've got your eyes onthe outrageous, but you can have
a reference of here's the minimumand the target along the way.
And this helps maintain motivationacross the different business cycles.
Keeps you growing even if youdon't hit every single mark.
So you still have the clear target.
Um, maybe that's your target, right?
That's your clear target, butminimum helps you see, okay, here's

(13:29):
how I'm progressing toward it.
And outrageous is to help keepyou seen beyond the target.
Anything to add there?
Um, I think, again, some of it is, uh,as we're going for winning the game
or whatever that is, to be able to seewhere we need to make some extra work,
extra groundwork or, or other thingsto be able to see and to be able to

(13:52):
say, all right, I want to be growing.
I wanna have a, a businessthat is 10 x in 10 years.
How do we do that?
And so again, sometimes it's justus doing our part, but also allowing
for the unexplainable to happen.

(14:13):
Now, you might be thinking, butwhat if I can't wait three months?
My business is bursting at the seams.
And you're right, sometimes thecost of waiting is higher than
the cost of imperfect timing.
I recently worked with a client,we'll call them Sarah, who runs a
successful graphic design business.
Let's say.
Um, Sarah was drowning in work,turning away clients because

(14:37):
they couldn't handle it, right?
Yep.
And Sarah didn't have her fullfinancial system in place.
And so together we ran the numbersand realized she was losing more money
by not hiring than she would risk byhiring before her systems were perfect.
So we looked through it and shemoved forward with the hiring.
It was a really great decision.

(14:58):
'cause now she actually hassome of that time freed up.
They're not turning away clientsand she can instead spend some time
setting up those systems that shecould have never set up because
her, um, schedule is just two full.
I think that's, again, as a businessowner, having that thinking time
or having the guides there tohelp you make that decision.
And sometimes we're toobusy running around.

(15:21):
We feel like we don't have the time.
But by stopping, having thatthinking time, having that
time probably with you Yeah.
Uh, allowed her to movein the right direction.
Yeah.
So the key here is to understandthe difference between essential
preparation and optional optimization.
In our very humble opinions, we think thatessential is really only a couple things.

(15:44):
So.
Three things actually withthree, three is a great number.
Um, a clear understanding of yourcash flow, even if you don't have
profit first fully implemented.
You know, like here's abouthow much it comes in, right?
Here's how much hook comes out.
You've got a basic understanding.
Two, at least one monthof payroll in reserve.
If you're turning away clientslike Sarah was, you should
have enough in the bank, right?

(16:04):
Yeah.
Or in a vault where, you know, youcould cover payroll for a month
in case all those clients andpotential clients just disappear.
And then you need a basicpayroll system, right?
You need a way to pay them to collecttheir identity, uh, information, to make
sure they're eligible to work for you.
You know, anything like that,that, anything else, right?
Everything else otherthan those three things.
Clear understanding of cash flow,at least one month of payroll

(16:27):
and a basic payroll system.
Everything else can beoptimized as you go.
Uh, can I add something that I wasthinking about here is, you know,
there's the Rocket Fuel Book by GinaWickman, uh, and that having that.
Visionary and the integrator, some ofthose things, maybe your first person

(16:47):
that you hire is maybe an integrator.
They might help you develop those systems.
So you might not, that might belike, oh, I'm overwhelmed by it.
But, um, that's an important thing tomake sure that as you build mm-hmm.
Your business, uh, an integratorrole or something that Yeah.
Helps to take that minutiae off.

(17:10):
Yeah.
So you can imagine, Sarah, in ourexample, might sit down and say,
do I wanna be doing more graphicdesign or continue what I'm doing?
Mm-hmm.
Um, and hire an integrator, or do I wannashift from doing so much graphic design
to do some of that integration myself?
Is that in my skillset?
Is that what I really wanna be doing?
And I need to hire a bunch of graphicdesigners to take on more of this?

(17:31):
Yeah, great.
I think that's an important thing.
Okay.
And then there's one more alternativewe'd be remiss not to mention.
If you simply can't wait and youneed someone before you've got
all those foundations set, youdon't have to hire an employee.
You could hire a VA at 10 99from a third party or directly.
We did this with administrativehelp before we went on with

(17:52):
hiring full-time W2 admin help.
It was tremendously helpful.
One tip here, if you're gonna go thatroute, is have that 10 99 admin help.
Write down those processes that they'relearning, that you're teaching them.
Create some of those standardoperating procedures, SOPs, insights
to make training that W2 admin eveneasier when you get to that point.

(18:13):
Very legitimate, um, often used path totake and one that we found really helpful.
Yeah, and if you want, uh, otherresources for VAs, uh, we have several
that, uh, reach out to us and we can,uh, point you in a few places that
have helped us and that, you know, we.
We could share, um, our groupgroups that we're a part of.

(18:35):
Yeah.
Okay.
So the path to hiring isn't always linear.
Well, having profit first setup, testing your payroll capacity
through your vault, those are ideal.
The most important thing is ensuringthat you can sustainably cover
payroll and basic benefits and stillpay yourself and still have profit.
Right?
Not just pay yourself alittle bit, but pay yourself.

(18:58):
Yeah.
Like for real.
Yeah.
Start with the essentials.
Test what you can and be preparedto learn and adjust as you go.
No one does this perfectly.
Embrace the imperfection, embracethe mess, but also keep your
future bigger than your past.
Yep.
Yep.
Okay.
Now we get to the, um, extra special part.

(19:22):
You ready for this?
If you've zoned out,zoned out, come back here.
I. One of our favorite approachesis what we call the Profit
First Participation plan.
And here's how it works.
You set aside a small percentage ofyour quarterly profit distribution.
You're doing those right?
If you're Profit First,yeah, you should be.
And if you don't know about ProfitFirst, uh, reach out to us 'cause
we'll help you understand it.

(19:44):
Um, then creating clear criteriafor how it's shared could be equal.
Splits could be based ontenure or role, right?
You gotta, you gottacreate that clear criteria.
Say that 10 times fast, create theclear criteria, um, and then make
it a teaching opportunity aboutbusiness and personal finances.
So, for example, these business, thesebonuses could fund a bank in yourself

(20:06):
type policy with a cash value thatthe staff can use, um, while they're,
you know, still employed with youand, you know, buy that next car, pay
off that debt, whatever it might be.
And the money still grows to createfunds that supplement their retirement.
They, and they can refill thatmoney on their own schedule.
How different and more awesome ofa. Uh, profit sharing plan is that

(20:27):
versus, you know, 401k that theycan't touch and, you know, or have
lots of fees and different things.
And we help build those for, um,business owners and clients all the time.
Yeah.
And then as your profitability grows,you can just continue to share those
rewards and continue to expand theprofit first participation plan.
There you go.
That's just one.
I mean, there's so many kinds of plansyou can build, uh, you know, and ways

(20:51):
to make sure that the culture is notjust talked about, but it's actually
implemented through strategies and tools.
Yeah.
And you can make sure that thetypes of profit sharing that
you do match your culture ratherthan distract from your culture.
Yeah.
And this is where we would, um,go into lots of technical jargon.

(21:13):
So we're gonna wrap up nowinstead and hope that you'll, um,
reach out to us to learn more.
Actually, we've got away for you to do that.
But first, let's recap.
So remember.
Culture isn't built overnight.
Mm-hmm.
It's a result of consistent actionsthat align with your values.
So start with getting profitable,then focus on sharing that prosperity

(21:35):
in ways that make sense for yourteam and your business, and continue
to go in that consistent direction.
I kind of think about that like a gym.
You gotta actually showup to the gym, right?
And, and, uh, that's theprofitability part of, of a business.
Yeah.
And then you're consistent andthen you add on to little things.

(21:55):
Yeah.
And then a profitable businesswith a strong culture actually
becomes self-reinforcing.
Kind of like work out at the gym, yourmuscles become stronger, it's easier
to work out the next time and Right.
Um, but in this case,you've got happy employees.
They provide better service, betterservice leads to more satisfied customers.
We wrote in our very first businessplan, how we treat our team is how

(22:16):
our team will treat our customers.
Like if you want a bettercustomer experience, you gotta
have a better team experience.
Now, you might be thinking,this all sounds great, but
I'm running a small business.
I can't compete withcorporate benefit packages.
We know that.
We can feel that sometimes, andhere's where creativity comes in.

(22:40):
What we wanna share with you today iswhat's called the section 1 62 bonus plan.
Sometimes just easily called anexecutive bonus plan, but don't
let that executive word scareyou away despite that fancy name.
It's actually quite simple and quiteaccessible for small businesses.
We got a few points here.
It's a way that you can provide additionalbenefits to key employees using life

(23:03):
insurance, but you can use life insurance.
You can use life insurance, yeah.
Oh, so the business pays thepremium and gets a tax deduction.
Yay.
For the business.
The employee owns the policyand can access its value.
Yes.
We're using a. Cash value type of lifeinsurance and the employee can access
that value to become their own banker.

(23:23):
Yep.
The employee has the option tocontribute additional premiums
themselves if they want.
The cash value can be accessedtax free through policy loans.
All the awesome things about becomingyour own banker and banking and
yourself that they're able to do itcan be designed to encourage long-term
retention with vesting schedules.
Just like, you know, 4 0 1Ks have vesting schedules.
These can too, there's minimaladministrative burden compared to

(23:48):
those other traditional benefits.
Like 401k is not a lot ofpaperwork, not a lot of fees.
So great that way.
Yeah.
If you're a business owner and you'vebeen down that road, you know how.
Crazy that is sometimes, yeah.
It can also be customized for differentemployees based on their role and tenure.
So let's say you only wanna havethis bonus plan for people who have

(24:10):
reached a certain level or a certainsalary pay or something like that.
You can customize it and it's whatI, my favorite thing is you're giving
a long-term financial planning toolto this employee that helps with
their financial literacy, helpsthem, you know, get through the
things that come up in their lives.
They've got, you know,emergency funds, they can tap
into all those kind of things.

(24:31):
Um, and it's also a long-termbenefit for the company as well.
Now there are a lot of creative waysto structure these, uh, bonus plans.
These section 1 62 bonus plans.
You can tie the benefitto company performance.
You can create a graduatedscale based on years of service.
You can add a vesting schedule, um,of those com company contributions,

(24:52):
and you can just include it as part ofan overall financial wellness program
that lots of small businesses areable to offer that the big businesses
wouldn't even take their time to offer.
Yep.
Anything else you'd shareabout the Section 1 62?
I mean, again, I think a lot of times inour financial world we tend to ignore it
or wait, or we just listen to everybodyshould do a 401k 'cause that's what is.

(25:18):
Right.
And so as a business owner thinkingoutside the box, just like we do all the
time as think outside the box for thebenefits for your employees, what are
things that you can do that will helpthem, uh, and their families, right?
And so that's something also the reasonI love this is we're not just locking

(25:39):
it up until they're 59 and a half.
They might be able touse it for an emergency.
Most of your staff, maybe sometimes theydon't even, they're not budgeting and they
don't have that $400 emergency fund, butthis is gonna allow them to overcome the
hurdle so they can do work for you morebecause they don't have to worry about the
stress of the blown tire or whatever it's

(26:06):
now you might be thinking, isn'tkey person insurance just another
expense I can't afford right now.
Let's break down why this thinking couldbe costly to you, the business owner.
Yeah.
So first, let's understand howkey person insurance works.
One, it's life and or disabilityinsurance policy owned by your business.

(26:28):
The business plays the premium,which is often tax deductible, and if
something happens to that key person,the business receives the benefit.
And then those funds can be used forcovering loss revenue, hiring temporary
help, recruiting and retrainingreplacements, managing debt obligations,
providing stability during thetransition, all those kinds of things.

(26:49):
But here's where it gets interesting.
Key person insurance can bestructured to do way more.
Then just protect your business.
It becomes a powerful retention tool.
You can have split dollar arrangementswhere the business and the key
employees share the benefits.
Uh, this creates those golden handcuffsthat we mentioned that encourage loyalty
for them to stay with you and providesretirement benefits for that key employee

(27:12):
Later, let's say they stick with youfor a long time, they can actually
turn this into a retirement benefit.
Another idea is executive bonus plans,like we talked about in our last
episode, where the business pays thatpremium as additional compensation.
The employee owns the policy, still taxdeductible for the business, but lots
of benefits that the employee can beusing throughout the rest of their lives.

(27:34):
And then finally, you can usethis for buy sell funding.
Let's say you have a key personwho you believe one day could
buy the business from you.
What a powerful way to ensure smoothownership transition protects both
the business and the key person'sfamily and creates this clear exit
strategy, often giving that employeethe funds they need to buy the

(27:55):
business from you and your family.
I think those are key play thingsthat help us as business owners to be
thinking long range, be able to figureout, 'cause I, again, I talk to business
owners all the time that their planis to eventually when they retire,
they're just gonna sell the business.
And they haven't thought about any of theother pieces that could go alongside that.

(28:20):
Mm-hmm.
Um, I, I had one that's, I think 70and literally, um, doesn't have an exit
strategy or any of those things in place.
'cause he never thoughtabout it for 30 years.
He's in growth mode for 30 years or more.
And so by thinking and spending thattime developing the people, having

(28:41):
the tools in place that then help you.
Go out whenever it'stime, if that's the case.
Yeah.
So remember Marcus from our opening story.
After Sarah's Health scare, heimplemented this key person protection
for all of his senior staff.
He structured it as a split dollararrangement where the business got
protection against unexpected loss.

(29:03):
Each key person got valuablelife insurance coverage.
The policies build a cash value thatcould be accessed for emergencies.
The arrangement created aretirement benefit that encouraged
retention and so on and so forth.
Um, so let's talk about why havingmultiple tax treatments gives you more

(29:24):
flexibility later on in life, in quoteunquote retirement or financial freedom.
Most people believe their income inretirement is gonna be lower, but
considering the following for you aresmall business owner, the tax deductions,
you might lose all those business expensesthat you currently deduct, or the children
who are your favorite tax deductions.

(29:45):
Um, you might not have those in30 years, um, particularly, right?
Like you might have to pay yourown cell phone bill, and that's a
personal expense at that point, right?
All those kind of things.
Well, and then also, uh, again, ifwe're a retirement, there's a. As we
are aging, one of us if we're married,is going to, um, maybe retire to heaven

(30:05):
and then that increases taxes too.
'cause you're now single.
Yeah, single tax brackets are wayhigher than married Tax brackets.
Absolutely.
Also consider the retirementlifestyle you want.
Do you want to have a lowerincome in retirement or do
you want a much higher one?
And continue to have that growth mindset.
Yep.
Especially with inflation.
And then also remember there canbe changes to the tax law and you

(30:26):
might lose some benefits like thecubit that we discussed earlier.
As we have learned a lot thattaxes can be changed and things
can be different in the future.
And so we wanna plan now, but also, uh,be prepared for the future, but also know,
again, who knows what's gonna happen.
And again, the tax codeis bigger than the Bible.

(30:46):
It wasn't always that way.
Uh, there's always beenadded and changed over time.
Yeah.
So the, if you have these threedifferent buckets, those different
tax treatments let you control morewhat your taxable income's gonna be.
No matter how Congress changes thetax code, tax rates go up, you can
pull more from tax-free accounts.
Um, if they go down, youcan use your pre-tax money.

(31:09):
If there's a high standard deduction, youcan take that from your pre-tax money.
All kinds of fun things like that.
Having money in these different bucketsalso can help you manage things like
required minimum distributions, um,have more flexibility with your social
security benefits, your Medicare premiums,if those things exist at that point.
Um, and you can just better controlyour tax bracket by choosing which

(31:30):
bucket you pull from each year.
So having options gives you more controlover the tax impact in your heirs.
And we're gonna talk more about this alsoin a future episode this month, so be
sure to subscribe so you don't miss that.
Yeah, I mean, I, I do wanna say I wasjust literally talking to a, a friend
of mine, uh, just now about his, um,I. Dad who is in the seventies and

(31:53):
saying, oh, wait, I made a lot of money.
I'm doing good.
Um, now I need to start thinkingabout, um, this whole RMD thing,
taxes and, and planning on that.
And he's like, I did notrealize all of these things.
I did so good of work.
And his, his son is gonna inherit,uh, a blessing, maybe even a mess.
And so thinking about this before you're72, uh, is really important when you're

(32:18):
40, when you're 20, start thinkingand building those foundations now.
And if you're like, um, no, I don't wannado that, that sounds too complicated and
expensive and I've got more importantthings to do, stay tuned after the break.
Now let's talk about some deductionsthat got Tony in trouble often because

(32:39):
people claim them but shouldn't.
Yeah, again, we see these often.
Yeah.
The, there's the, the home office myth.
How many times have wewatched videos on this?
Right?
I mean, I, I seen a lot.
Uh, so there's the home office mat.
Yes.
Tell us about that.
Amanda.
The big thing is you need a spacethat's used exclusively for business.

(33:01):
This means no guest bed in the corner,no personal desk items, no kids
doing their homework after hours.
This is one of Tony's biggest mistakes,mixing business and personal use.
Now that being said, an IRS agentdoes show up at your house looking
to expect your home office.
I hope you'll do what my tax protold me to do unless they have a

(33:22):
search warrant, which IRS agentsdon't really get search warrants.
You can say no.
Give them your tax pros contactinformation and that's it.
Don't say anything more.
Don't offer them a cup of tea on yourliving room and tell them your life story.
Just say no and give themyour tax Pros, professionals.
This is why tax professionalsare worth some of their costs

(33:42):
with the right credentials.
They are able to represent you infront of the IRS so that you only need
to talk to the IRS agent with yourtax pro present and only as needed.
So follow all the rulesfor the home office myth.
Don't fall into the, uh, home office myth.
Follow the rules exclusively for business.
Nothing else there.

(34:02):
But also don't let an IRS agent inspectit unless they've got a warrant and your
tax pro present and all those things.
And watch Young Sheldon, I thinkhe had some episodes on being
audited, uh, himself, right?
Oh, that was a greatepisode from Young Sheldon.
The second, um, one that got Tony intotrouble is the business clothing trap.
You can't have the businesspay for your close unless.

(34:25):
It's a required uniform or protectivegear looking professional isn't enough.
Even if so, I can't do that with these.
No, no.
Even if you only wear itfor work, it doesn't count.
If you could wear it elsewhere,it's probably not deductible.
Just like you can't put a logo in yourcar and then deduct every single car
expense, you can't simply put a logoin a polo to get a tax deduction.

(34:49):
The so for Tony, those weddingonly outfits, not deductible.
As Tony discovered.
That's, again, one of thosethings that I've seen.
And then there's thebusiness meal mistake.
I mean, this is, again, another onethat they're like, I'm gonna just put
it on the, the account and deduct it.
Eating a loan at your deskisn't a business meal.

(35:12):
I know you're thinking,why is he saying that?
Because people have done it.
Uh, eating alone at yourdesk isn't a business meal.
Working through lunchdoesn't make a deductible.
You need documented business purposeand who you met with, which must
include some kind of businessdiscussion, not just networking.

(35:34):
Now, um, I looked into some of the reallynerdy case law and case notes about
people getting in trouble with InternalRevenue Service specifically for this
meal mistake, and the IRS has this.
Business expense substantiationrequirement, which is a fancy way of
saying you need documentation of themeeting purpose at the time of the meeting

(35:57):
and what was discussed, who was there.
All the things.
Doesn't mean you need formal meetingminutes, but you know how people keep
like a journal in their car to writedown their mileage and different car
expenses, put their receipts in there,or they have an app that tracks it.
You could have something likethat for your meetings too.
When you have a meeting,you keep a meeting log.
What was the purpose of the meeting?
What was discussed there?

(36:17):
Who was there?
That's a great idea to make sure anybusiness meals have this business
expense substantiation tied to them.
Tony learned that editing photos whileeating doesn't make a lunch deductible.
Now you might be thinking, buteverybody else is doing these things.

(36:39):
Step one.
Open your banking app to see what's there.
Log into your account,open the app on your phone.
Most business owners are already doingthis daily, if not more than once a day.
So just do it in the morning once.
Well, yeah, that preferably Step one,open your bank account, see what's there.
Step two, look for any transactionsthat need documentation.

(37:01):
For instance, you might take a photoof any paper receipts and store them
in a receipt folder in your cloud,or, you know, a folder in your
phone, um, in your photo app, right?
Receipts all go there.
You might send a note to yourbookkeeper or log into your
accounting software to add informationabout any weird transactions
while they're fresh on your mind.
Like we talked about in the lastepisode, you might record your

(37:23):
business meeting that this me,you know, you paid for the meal.
You'd record, um, the meeting related, uh,information, like who you met with, what
was discussed, uh, that sort of thing.
So step one is open the account.
Step two, look for any transactionsthat need documentation,
do the docu documenting.
And step three, there isno step three, that's it.

(37:45):
Five minutes, 15 minutes tops ifyou allot the day before or maybe on
Monday to, you know, track everythingfrom the weekend that, you know,
all hits your account on Monday.
Things like that.
I mean, I think that's the similarkind of concept in tracking meetings
or doing the, the dailies, right?
So we want to do those daily habitsand the more we do that, then we

(38:08):
can go back and not go back a monthlater and say, what was that again?
Who, who was that that I met?
I forgot the, you know, all the things,you know, uh, my memory is very bad.
Uh, she knows.
Uh, so remembering fourdays ago is hard enough.
Um, I.
So doing that five minutes really helps.
Yeah.
So set a daily reminder whenyou're most likely to do this.

(38:29):
For many, they just make it part of theirroutine, like their morning routine.
Maybe think when are you logging intoyour account already and how could
you make sure you got a little bit ofextra time to make this documentation,
take photos of receipts, write downwho the meeting was with and what the
business purpose was, things like that.
Now notice we did not say, go back andcatch up on the days, weeks, months,

(38:53):
or even years when you didn't do this.
Sure, you could do that, butI mean, literally you need
to schedule a lot more time.
Uh, not 15 minutes to catch up.
Start the daily five minute thingnow, and then you're gonna be in
a better position and, you know.
Yeah.
And don't let any kind of guilt orshame about not doing it previously.

(39:14):
Get in your way.
Now let's talk about sometools to make this super easy.
There's some basic tools everybody needs.
Like a separate bankaccount for your business.
Yeah.
Easy, non-negotiable.
Uh, two, maybe some kind ofreceipt scanning app on your phone
or a folder in your photo app.
Um, I know, um, QuickBooks andother softwares have like an app

(39:36):
you can have on your phone to takephotos of receipts or No, the notes
app even has a scanner option.
That's true.
Yeah.
Um, some kind of simple bookkeepingsystem like QuickBooks or
Zero, maybe even a spreadsheet.
And then set times to check in on yourmoney, which if you are like, I got
this daily five minute check-in going.
Go back to the episode that we releasedJanuary 15th, 2025, called Financial

(39:58):
Systems for Seven Figure BusinessGrowth That builds on the, uh, twice
monthly, the quarterly, and the annualthings that you can use to build on
top of the five minute daily check-in.
Yeah, those, those little thingsthen add up to the big things.
It's the little rocks andbig rocks idea, right?
Yep.
And then there's some nice to have tools.

(40:18):
Um, I love having a central spacewhere all the bank and credit card
feeds come into automatically.
So let's talk about three keyareas of long-term planning
that most business owners miss.
And we're gonna talk firstabout planning for a business
sale, um, and the taxes there.

(40:39):
The second, uh, we're gonna talk about is.
Plating for passing on your business toyour children, um, or other beneficiaries.
And then, uh, the third one is planningfor when you get to quote unquote retire
from your business, but still own it.
One quick reminder.
First, I'm not a tax professional.
This episode is meant to empoweryou with knowledge to bring

(41:01):
to your tax professionals notgiving anybody individual advice.
We're just sharing some greatinformation that we think will help
you have better conversations and makebetter decisions as you collaborate
and work with your tax pro, whichyou've got a collaborative tax pro.
Right?
Okay, good.
So first, let's dive intoplanning for a business sale.
And the tax is there.
First, you wanna to understandhow the sale will be taxed.

(41:25):
Are you setting up for anasset sale or a stock sale?
Each asset category in an assetsale has different tax treatments.
And an asset sale is when a buyer purchasepurchases individual business assets.
So if they're purchasing yourequipment and inventory, that
might be taxes, ordinary income.
If they're buying a building,then you might have a 25% rate

(41:47):
on depreciation recapture.
If they're buying goodwill and otherintangibles like copyrights, then
you might get capital gains ratesin terms of the taxations there.
And, um, usually buyers prefer, um, to doan asset sale for better tax treatments.
For themselves, you know, long term.
Um, and, but it can resultin higher taxes for sellers.

(42:09):
Due to that, especiallythat depreciation recapture.
If you're doing a stock sell,this is where the buyer purchases
the actual business entity.
This is usually better for sellers'cause you get one tax rate on the entire
sale, but it's harder to get buyersto agree to, partially because there's
some liability they take on from pastbusiness practices that they have no

(42:30):
control over what happened in the past.
This is also more importantfor corporations than LLCs.
Um, so part of this with the assetsale versus the entity sale is that
buyers and sellers are just gonna havecompeting interest and your taxation
might be one of your interests.
And of course, the buyers eventualtaxation, if they resell it, is

(42:52):
gonna be one of their big intereststhat they're looking out for.
So there's some structures thatspread taxes over multiple tax years.
So you could do an installmentsale that lets you pay your
taxes as you receive payments.
You can do earnouts that spreadyour income over several years.
You might even set up an employeestock ownership plan and ESOP that

(43:12):
can afford the taxes until youwant or need to use the, the funds.
So even as you get into the buyer'spart, right, you can have some tax
advantages that you have more controlover, and maybe they're open to an
installment sale and earn out or an esop.
So before you even get though tothe negotiating table, there's some
steps you can take before the sale.

(43:37):
This doesn't mean though thatyou work during family time.
Yeah, yeah.
Um, not what he meansby winning in all areas.
Um, but this also reminds me of Lisa,who we introduced at the very beginning.
Lemme tell you a littlebit more about her story.
I. Which is what we'regonna focus on today.
She runs a digital marketing agencyand at one point she got to the place
where she was completely burned out.

(43:59):
During one of our conversations, her phonerang four times all client emergencies,
which if you're listening to thepodcast version of this, that there was
totally air quotes around emergencies.
When I asked about her profit margins,she laughed and said, what profit?
Despite working 70 plus hours aweekly with a team of three, she was

(44:20):
paying herself less than her employeesuntil she reached a breaking point.
And that's what brought her to me,that she got to this breaking point.
It was missing her daughter's birthdayparty in order to go to a client
crisis, right, and go handle that.
Be, you know, superwoman forthat client while missing out on
her daughter's birthday party,only to have the very next day.

(44:42):
The client haggle over the invoice.
I would say a lot of times this happens.
I mean, again, this is herstory, but you know, you can
put yourself in this situation.
We put ourself in thatsituation with our coffee shop.
Lisa's story is one we've seencountless times, but what makes her

(45:04):
journey remarkable is how quicklythings turned around once she imple
implemented three key changes.
Yeah, so first, Lisa met Robert, abusiness owner in our network who
had implemented profit first twoyears earlier, Robert shared how
he had gone from constant cash flowstress to making regular profit

(45:26):
distributions by simply changing howmoney flowed through his business.
The concept was simple.
Whenever money came in immediately,he'd set aside percentages for
profit owners pay and taxes beforelooking at operating expenses.
Now Lisa was skeptical,but she was desperate.
And sometimes when you're desperate,that's when you actually change.

(45:48):
So she started small, just taking1% for profit and 5% for her
personal pay from every deposit.
Within three months,something remarkable happened.
Not only did she manage to runthe business on less, but seeing
actual profits accumulated, evensmall amounts, shifted her mindset

(46:10):
about what her time was worth.
And that is the biggest change.
It wasn't in her checkbook andall that, it was in her head.
Yeah.
And the value of her time pin inthat we're gonna come back to it.
Um, the, but this new confidencethen led to her second breakthrough.
Through another businessowner in our community.
Lisa learned about bank andyourself a strategy using properly

(46:33):
structured whole life insurance tocreate a personal banking system.
What appealed to Lisa wasn't justthe guaranteed growth and tax
advantages under current law and withall the right, you know, companies
and all those fabulous things.
The thing that appealed to her mostwas the emotional security of building
assets that no one could take away.
Not clients, not market downturns.

(46:55):
This felt, uh, very safe to her.
She was ready to move forward.
She had started a modest policy directinga portion of her newly, uh, consistent
personal pay into it each month.
Having the growing financialfoundation gave her something
she'd been missing for years.
The power to say no, not yes.

(47:17):
Right.
What's your business'smost valuable resource?
You, the business owner, right?
Um, boundary setting is aboutmaking sure you can be your
best self within your business.
Uh, I think that, again, we often forgetabout this, um, when it comes to what
we do with the Profit First system,when it comes to the banking yourself

(47:41):
and infinite banking system is, Iwant to think about you first, right?
And, and that's important.
You are your greatest asset.
That's why we ensure thegreatest asset, right?
And so that time you need to respectyour own time and values as well.
Okay, so let's wrap up here.

(48:02):
The data's clear.
Businesses with strong boundaries, outlastand outperform those without them, right?
You think of some of the bestbusinesses that you admire,
particularly small businessesthat are growing and doing well.
They're focused, they have strongboundaries, and they are more profitable
because they charge appropriately.
Don't give away free workand all those kind of things.

(48:23):
They're more innovative becausetheir owners have the mental space
for strategic thinking and they'remore sustainable because they don't
burn through their human capital.
The energy and creativity of theirfounders and their team members.
Um, I've been reading recently simplifiedthan, um, by Richard Kosh he talked about.
Yeah.
Um, when they're looking at a businessthat they wanna invest in or see

(48:46):
if it's doing well, they wanna seespace time, you know, little bit of
water cooler chat, things like that.
That's, there's energy and creativityin those kind of firms when everybody's
rush, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, hurry.
Do, do, do that.
That's not a sign of ahealthy, thriving business.
Yeah.
And that was Ray Dalio.
Ray Dalio, thank you.
Yeah.

(49:07):
And then we have financial boundariesin particular, those can be strengthened
through systematic approaches, uh, likeProfit First or the Bank Yourself Systems.
These systems create automatic guardrailsthat protect business owners from
the financial depletion that oftenleads to closure, or sometimes it's

(49:27):
even protecting themselves, right?
Uh, a business owner.
Who implements Profit First, forinstance, ensures they're paying
themselves and setting aside profits fromday one, creating immediate financial
boundaries that grow stronger over time.
And again, we've been implementingthis for years and it, it is

(49:51):
so, um, powerful to have that.
If you'd like to learn more aboutProfit First or banking yourself,
reach out to us and we'd love to helppeople learn more about this without
any, uh, obligations, no stringsattached to show up to the meeting.
If you're gonna, if you're gonna schedule,show up to the meeting, do the time thing.
But we would love to serve and helpyou, uh, share our story of how

(50:14):
it's implemented and worked for us.
So remember.
And final wrap up here.
Implementing boundariesdoesn't happen overnight.
It requires deliberate decisionsabout what you will do and
won't do in your business.
It means sometimes saying no toopportunities that don't align with your
values or your business model, and itrequires clear communication with clients

(50:36):
and team members about your expectation.
Every successful long-termbusiness has boundaries.
They're not an obstacle to growth.
Mm-hmm.
They're the framework that makesgrowth possible without collapse.
Now here's the thing, before we move on.

(50:58):
If you never delegate, if you don'tfigure out how to free up your time,
you stay in the professional box untilyou're forced to retire and you often
end up back in the unemployed box.
Right?
Because you haven't figured out how to,um, increase the time available and you
haven't figured out how to make, youknow, save money, have money available

(51:21):
for when you do have that time freedom.
So if you're in that professionalbox and you look toward, if you wanna
like put a dot there and pretend likeyou're moving to financial freedom.
Yeah.
What's the thing that changes?
It's not the money that changes,although, yeah, let's try to
get you more money, right?
Let's have that be at an angle,not just flat across, but the thing

(51:42):
that's changing the most is what?
Time?
Time.
Yeah.
Right?
You're freeing up your time.
This is why we delegate, right?
The most powerful insight comes when werealize delegation isn't about finding
people who work exactly like you do.
It's not about finding people toexcel at things that you don't.
It's about creating a strongerbusiness and it's about freeing
up your work to do more life.

(52:04):
Yeah.
To have financial freedom.
And the thing that most people that keepsthem from doing this is our identities.
We identify by all the things we'redoing if we have nothing to do.
Right.
If we're getting to, I've delegatedall the things that took a lot of
time and brought in a lot of money.
Um, you know, whatever thatis in your business, you

(52:25):
feel like, what do I do next?
Right?
That's the thing that I builtthis business on, all the things
I sold, all the products, I made,all the services I rendered.
If I delegate all those thingsto do my unique ability and my
leadership, who am I anymore?
That's when you're abusiness owner, right?
That's when you get to lean into strategicvision, relationship building, the ability
to see opportunities that others miss.

(52:47):
These are the true areas whereyou become irreplaceable.
I think that's also, as we gothrough some of this and seeing
like the professional, sometimes wego back down to the student level.
Uh, 'cause we're like, oh, butI want financial freedom, so
I'm gonna go back to school.
And then we never get out of that becausewe eventually become the professional.

(53:10):
And oftentimes we, most people don'tactually have financial freedom.
Uh, and again, having more time and moremoney to do what we want when we want.
Yeah.
And don't miss that, that the differencebetween the professional and the
financial freedom often isn't money.
It's time.
Mm-hmm.
And a final reminder why you shoulddelegate many things, and I'm gonna

(53:33):
say this again, never delegate.
Understanding your business,finances and your profitability.
I know I said that before,but it mean needs to be said.
And again, don't delegateunderstanding your business.
Finances and your profitability.
'cause that's what bringsthat financial freedom, right?

(53:54):
So you need to have clarity on of yournumbers to make sound strategic decisions.
And this doesn't mean doingall the bookkeeping yourself.
Again, I said that before.
It doesn't mean regular reviewingfinancial reports and maintaining ultimate
responsibility for financial decisions.
It does mean I didn't it, but it doesmean regularly reviewing financial reports

(54:19):
and maintaining ultimate responsibilityfor your financial decisions.
What if instead of trying tofind a balance with work and
life as competing priorities, weintegrated them as complimentary
parts of a fulfilling existence.

(54:41):
That sounds awesome.
Amazing work life integration doesn'tmean being available for work 24 7,
like I think that's not very good.
Rather, it's about designing yourbusiness and personal life so they
support rather than sabotage each other.
Yeah.
This approach recognizesthree fundamental truths about

(55:03):
entrepreneurship and business ownership.
First, passion for your workis a feature, not a bug.
Be passionate.
That's great.
Many entrepreneurs, business owners, wegenerally love what we do and artificially
separating it from our life createsthis unnecessary guilt and conflict.
You don't need that.

(55:24):
I think about this a lotwhenever we ask, you know, what
does retirement mean for you?
And if you're a business owner, oftentimesyou're like, I'm gonna work till I'm dead.
Like we, we love itbecause we love it so much.
Not because we're poor, right?
Yeah.
Because we just want to.
And I, and I think thatthat's okay, right?
You don't, you don't have to stopworking because the man told you

(55:47):
to, even though you're maybe.
The, the man or woman.
Um, anyway, yeah.
The, the other thing is, um, thatwe have to like break down that is
true for business owners, not maybetrue for everybody else, is your
business demands different amountsof attention at different times.
Some seasons require an intensefocus while others allow more

(56:07):
space for personal pursuits.
Integration embraces this naturalrhythm instead of forcing a rigid
balance every day or every week.
Yeah.
I think also it's just not just seasonsin the year, but seasons of the business.
You know, the first three yearsof a business are a challenge.
You're building the systems,you're building all kinds of stuff.

(56:28):
So it might be a little more focus,but, but as we are building and
looking at other people, don'tcompare yourself to a business that's
30 years old and you're only five.
And you're saying, why am I not there?
Well, because they're 30years old and you're five.
Right.
Um, now this third one.

(56:49):
I have to go back and tell you thefirst time I heard the words work-life
balance or probably 2006, 2007.
Um, and it was really great.
I was an employee at a nonprofit.
Amazing.
But times have changed and we're in a muchdifferent digital world than we were then.
And you know, having your brand andhaving that be on the internet, on
your personal social media, right?

(57:10):
Especially as a business owner that kindof naturally blurs the lines between
work time and personal time and fighting.
This reality just causes more stress,where if you thoughtfully manage
it, it can create a lot of freedom.
Yeah.
Uh, someone told me as well, likethis, this idea of I wanna make
money while I'm sleeping, right?

(57:32):
And that, that maybe, um, with thedigital world is, is you can, right?
But the same time you don't want to besleeping, having to deal with things.
Now we get to the question, how,how do we create this integration
in very practical terms?
And what we've identified are fivecore practices that successful

(57:54):
business owners use to achievemeaningful work life integration.
So we're gonna cover thesefive, their purpose, identity,
energy, technology, and money.
So another story.
I remember sitting across fromRachel, a talented consultant who

(58:14):
had built a $500,000 practice.
When I suggested she needed some of thesemindset shifts, she just laughed at me.
She's like, huh, that soundsgreat in theory, but you
don't understand my situation.
I'm working 60 hours a week justto keep up with my client demands.
I don't have the luxury of steppingback to think about mindset.
Six months later, Rachel called me.

(58:35):
Her voice is a little differentthis time, more tired.
I'm in the same place.
She admitted, still working60 hours a week, still making
roughly the same revenue.
Nothing has changed.
That's when I told her somethingand it finally clicked.
I said, the hamster wheel is never gonnaget you to the next level unless you

(58:56):
step off of it and change your approach.
You can kind of picturethis in your head right now.
Picture a hamster on awheel is in the cage.
There's two levels to the cage.
The wheel's on the bottom just keep going.
The wheel's on the bottom of the cage andthe hamster just continue to go, go, go.
How does the hamster get to thesecond level of the ca cage?
They get off the hamster wheel.
They look around, they find the ladder orthe stairs or whatever it is that's there.

(59:19):
They have to change their approach.
So Rachel started small.
She blocked off just two hours everyMonday morning for strategic thinking.
Those two hours, she was offthe hamster wheel looking for
the different approach, right?
She opened a separate profitaccount, started transferring
just 2% of that revenue into it.
She identified one small clientproject she could delegate to her

(59:39):
most trusted associate, and she haskept going two hours every Monday
morning, finding small shifts to make.
And a year later, Rachel's businesshad grown to 750,000, but more
importantly, she was only working40 hours a week instead of 60,
and her profit margin had doubled.
So remember that every successful businessowner once stood where you are now.

(01:00:02):
The difference is they realized theycouldn't scale their business until
they scaled their thinking first.
You have to scale your thinking firstbefore you can scale all the other things.
So this is the same thing thathappened to us in our business.
We're talking from experience here.
We were a couple years in, we werestarting to get burned out and we started

(01:00:23):
just taking one evening off every week.
No phones, no email, just us somefood, maybe a card game, a movie.
The number one rule wasno talking about business.
That's, it was really hardto do because, you know, um,
business was everything for us.
Yeah.
Then we started adding a morning ofstrategic thinking, uh, where I would
have a morning, Brenda would have adifferent morning where we just have some

(01:00:45):
time to do some thinking about whateverproblem we were trying to solve and
come up with, you know, the alternateapproach to, to, to make it happen.
Um, a short time later, we adopted bankon yourself and started building a,
an asset separate from the business.
I think if we hadn't done thosefirst two things, the one night
off and the two hours of strategicthinking, we, we wouldn't have been
ready to hear about bank on yourself.

(01:01:06):
Yeah.
Right.
Um, it's kind of funny how that worked.
Then we adopted Profit First and startedtaking our personal pay seriously.
Hearing about profit first afterbanking yourself, I think made us ready,
more ready to start Profit first too.
Um, your order might be different,but for us it's how it went.
And then over the next few years,it just started to snowball in
a really good way and ultimatelyhelped us sell our business.

(01:01:29):
Yeah, I think those things, um, again,thinking about the mindset, having
that time to think was really important
for Eliza.
This meant three major shifts.
First, she implemented whatwe call strategic elimination.
Instead of asking how can I do everythingon my plate more efficiently, she asked

(01:01:52):
a more powerful question, what's on myplate that doesn't need to be done at all.
Eliza realized she was producing detailedweekly reports that clients rarely read.
Attending internal meetings that could behanded through asynchronous updates and
personally managing client projects thather team was fully capable of handling.

(01:02:16):
By eliminating these tasks entirely,she immediately reclaimed five
hours per week without any negativeimpact on her business at all.
Okay, so that's the first thing.
Eliza did.
Strategic elimination of someof the energy neutrals and
some of the energy vampires.
The second shift was aligned delegation.

(01:02:39):
Most entrepreneurs try to delegatetasks they dislike or aren't
good at, some of those energyvampires, but this is backwards.
The key is to delegate based onyour unique value to the business.
We identified the 20% of activities thatEliza delivered, unique, exceptional value
that no one else can match her uniqueability zone and everything outside that

(01:03:00):
zone became a candidate for delegation.
Even tasks she enjoyed or excelledat some energy creators were actually
things she also needed to delegate.
This wasn't easy.
Eliza loves some of the creativeaspects of client work and was reluctant
to hand them off, but she came torealize that her highest value to
the business wasn't in production.
It's about client strategy and businessdevelopment where she got way more

(01:03:24):
energy from, 'cause even energycreators, there's some that create
more energy and less energy, right?
So by delegating 80% of her previousresponsibilities and focusing almost
exclusively on her unique abilityzone, something remarkable happened.
Revenue actually increased by22% over the next six months
while her working hours dropped.

(01:03:44):
Now, the third shift that was implementedis, is what I call rhythmic renewal.
Eliza, like most entrepreneurshave been operating in perpetual.
Sprint mode working flat out untilexhaustion forced her to crash, then
getting up and doing it all again.
But she had no running capability, right?

(01:04:06):
She replaced this with a sustainablerhythm that included a strict no
work policy after 5:00 PM and onweekends, she had quarterly two day
retreats for strategic thinking andplanning a daily 30 minute energy
renewal break in the mid-afternoon.
Her previous low energy points,monthly innovative plays where she

(01:04:29):
stepped away from operations to thinkcreatively about the business, right?
And this wasn't about working less, thoughher hours did decrease significantly.
It was about working in harmonywith her natural energy cycles
rather than against them.
Yeah, so six months after implementingthese three shifts, Eliza's business had

(01:04:51):
grown to 1.1 million in annual revenue.
More importantly, she was working42 hours a week instead of 80.
She hadn't missed a single one of herdaughter's soccer games and the panic
attacks that had once been routine haddisappeared entirely for the first time.
She told me, I feel like my business isworking for me, not the other way around.

(01:05:12):
This is what sustainablescaling looks like.
It's not about grinding yourselfin the pursuit of a number.
It's about building a businessthat grows without consuming
your health, your relationships,and your joy in the process.
For Eliza, this meant three major shifts.

(01:05:33):
First.
She implemented what wecall strategic elimination.
Instead of asking, how can I do everythingon my plate more efficiently, she asked
a more powerful question, what's on myplate that doesn't need to be done at all.
Eliza realized she was producing detailedweekly reports that clients rarely read,

(01:05:56):
attending internal meetings that could behanded through asynchronous updates and
personally managing client projects thather team was fully capable of handling.
By eliminating these tasks entirely,she immediately reclaimed five
hours per week without any negativeimpact on her business at all.

(01:06:17):
Okay, so that's the first thing Eliza did.
Strategic elimination of someof the energy neutrals and
some of the energy vampires.
The second shift was aligned delegation.
Most entrepreneurs try to delegatetasks they dislike or aren't good at.
Some of those energy vampires,but this is backwards.
The key is to delegate based onyour unique value to the business.

(01:06:40):
We identified the 20% of activities thatEliza delivered, unique, exceptional value
that no one else can match her uniqueability zone, and everything outside that
zone became a candidate for delegation.
Even task she enjoyed or excelled atsome energy creators were actually
things she also needed to delegate.

(01:07:00):
This wasn't easy.
Eliza loved some of the creativeaspects of client work and was reluctant
to hand them off, but she came torealize that her highest value to
the business wasn't in production.
It's about client strategy and businessdevelopment where she got way more
energy from, 'cause even energycreators, there's some that create
more energy and less energy, right?
So by delegating 80% of her previousresponsibilities and focusing almost

(01:07:24):
exclusively on her unique abilityzone, something remarkable happened.
Revenue actually increased by22% over the next six months
while her working hours dropped.
Now, the third shift that was implementedis, is what I call rhythmic renewal.
Eliza, like most entrepreneurshad been operating in perpetual.

(01:07:46):
Sprint mode working flat out untilexhaustion forced her to crash, then
getting up and doing it all again.
But she had no running capability, right?
She replaced this with a sustainablerhythm that included a strict no
work policy after 5:00 PM and onweekends, she had quarterly two day

(01:08:07):
retreats for strategic thinking andplanning a daily 30 minute energy
renewal break in the mid-afternoon.
Her previous low energy points,monthly innovative plays where she
stepped away from operations to thinkcreatively about the business, right?
And this wasn't about working less, thoughher hours did decrease significantly.

(01:08:30):
It was about working in harmonywith her natural energy cycles
rather than against them.
Yeah, so six months after implementingthese three shifts, Eliza's business had
grown to 1.1 million in annual revenue.
More importantly, she was working42 hours a week instead of 80.
She hadn't missed a single one of herdaughter's soccer games and the panic

(01:08:52):
attacks that had once been routine haddisappeared entirely for the first time.
She told me, I feel like my business isworking for me, not the other way around.
This is what sustainablescaling looks like.
It's not about grinding yourselfin the pursuit of a number.
It's about building a businessthat grows without consuming
your health, your relationships,and your joy in the process.

(01:09:20):
What does that mean?
Well, this is where weaddress the a painful truth.
Many seven figure businessowners have built companies that
enrich everyone but themselves.
They pay competitivesalaries to their team.
They deliver great value to their clients.
They treat their own compensation,though as an afterthought.
Yep.
Whatever happens to be left over wheneveryone else is paid, and then they

(01:09:44):
reinvest everything over and over andover again and and say it'll happen.
Eventually.
Sam was the lowest paid member of hisleadership team on a per hour basis.
His personal financial security wasactually decreasing as the business grew,
creating sub subconscious resistance tofurther scaling His company redesigned

(01:10:06):
his personal compensation structurebased on three core principles.
So don't want you to miss this becauseSam was focused on everyone else.
Maybe like hoping I'll sellthe business one day, right.
And maybe make some money thenhoping a dream and a prayer, right?
Which ha like lots of businessesthat try to sell don't, right?
It's very small.
Less than half.

(01:10:26):
I think it's like a third.
Yeah.
Business that's maybe even less.
So then as the business grew, his personalfinancial security actually decreased.
Um, he was getting less and lessfinancially secure, wishing, you
know, counting more and more onthat hope, dream and prayer that
one day the business would sell.
So here's what we did.
First, we put his owner compensation.

(01:10:47):
First, same would now receivea substantial base salary,
competitive of what he would earnas an executive in someone else's
company, paid before other expenses.
Second, we put profit actuallyeven before owner's compensation.
Instead of hoping for leftover profit atyear end, the profit would automatically
be distributed to Sam quarterly.

(01:11:09):
This wasn't a bonus or a dividend.
It was a structural commitment to hisfinancial prosperity, his reward for all
the risk he was taking in his business.
And then third, we helped him then startto create wealth beyond his income.
We created a systematic processfor the business to fund Sam's
long-term investments and wealthbuilding vehicles every single month,

(01:11:32):
regardless of cashflow fluctuations.
And this wasn't about greedor taking value from others.
It was about creating alignmentbetween the business success
and its founder's wellbeing.
When Sam's financial security wasguaranteed by design rather than by
accident, something unexpected happened.

(01:11:53):
He became more generous, morestrategic, and more committed to
the company's long-term success.
So the company grew?
Yeah, because now when the companygrew, his wellbeing and wealth grew too.
And within 10 months of implementing.
The three sides of the triangle here,and implementing these ways that
he would make sure he was paid, um,accurately and on time and everything.

(01:12:15):
Sam's business haddramatically transformed.
Revenue had grown modestly to 2.1million, but profited more than tripled.
His team was more autonomous andeffective than ever before, reporting
way more, um, satisfaction in theirjobs, during their performance reviews,
and most importantly, his personalincome had increased by 127% while his

(01:12:37):
working hours had decreased by 40%.
For the first time.
He told me, I feel like mybusiness is working for me
instead of the other way around.
We're more focused, more profitable,and happier than we've ever been.
You might already be thinking, butme and my business are different.
It's not gonna happen with me.