March 1, 2025 • 27 mins
Welcome to another episode of the Leap to Success Podcast! This is the show where we shine a spotlight on incredible women entrepreneurs who are taking bold leaps in business and life. Hosted by Mary Gaul, each episode delivers inspiring stories, expert insights, and actionable strategies to help you thrive as a solopreneur.
This week, Mary welcomes Dede Jacques, a dynamic entrepreneur and owner of Account on DeDe. DeDe made a major career leap, transitioning from being a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler to starting her own accounting and tax preparation business. DeDe’s story is one of resilience, self-discovery, and leveraging her lifelong love of learning.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello hello and welcome to another episode ofthe Leap to Success podcast.
The Leap to Success podcast where we highlightincredible women entrepreneurs who are taking
bold leaps in business and life.
I'm your host, Mary Gahl, and I believe thatsuccess is built through connection,
contribution, and celebration.
(00:22):
Each episode, we bring you inspiring stories,expert insights, and actionable strategies to
help you grow and thrive as a solopreneur.
Let's dive right into today's conversation.
I am excited to introduce you to our LeapCommunity member, Didi Jacques, owner of
Account on Didi.
(00:43):
Welcome to the show, Didi.
Thank you Mary!
Didi tell our listeners your story and a littlebit about what makes you so awesome.
So I say that I'm a Jill of all trades.
Nice!
I've done quite a bit.
(01:04):
I was an actual housewife for a while and thena stay at home mom.
I homeschooled my kids for many years and Ijumped into this career when I was 49.
Okay.
And I think what makes me so awesome really isthat I'm just kind of a lifelong learner.
(01:28):
I love to learn.
And so I'm always that helps with taxes becausethere's always a change in tax laws and I'm not
afraid to learn something new if a client hassomething different than I'm used to.
Yes, great.
I love that.
And so you kind of alluded to what you do, buttell us all about your business and what you
(01:50):
get to do to help clients every day.
Yeah, so I started my business two years ago.
I was 51.
Nice.
And I do accounting, taxes, payroll.
I help with business structure.
I just really kind of help with abouteverything.
I'm not a licensed CPA, but I am able to helpwith almost anything besides an official audit
(02:11):
or negotiating on behalf of the client with theIRS, but I even do IRS phone calls.
So I'm kind of a one stop shop for mostaccounting needs.
Nice.
Nice.
I love that you started a career at 49 andstarted your own business at 51.
You know, that's a big leap of faith, a leap aleap that you're having success now.
(02:35):
Right?
So we know when we take a leap, it doesn'talways immediately turn into success.
So what have been some of the challenges thatyou've had to overcome starting a business at
this stage of your life?
And how would you encourage our listeners totake that leap if they're thinking about that?
Some of the challenges sometimes are being ableto find people I can ask questions of when
(03:02):
there's something that I'm not familiar with.
I definitely would like to encourage people toget a mentor or even several mentors.
So I have several people, so I'm not drainingone of them, but just different people that I
can ask for different tips and help from,whether it's the entrepreneurship, I have a
great networking group that helps with that, orif it's tax or accounting related, then
(03:29):
obviously I have professionals in that field tobe able to ask for that kind of help.
I think one of the challenges too was that I'mnot licensed and at first I was a little
insecure about that until I found out that 47%of professional tax preparers are not licensed.
And I was like, oh, I'm in the minority, butnot by much.
(03:49):
Right, right.
Okay, good, good.
And what is your favorite type of client towork with?
My favorite is somebody that is brand new andneeds their books started, or somebody that's
coming over with perfect books.
(04:09):
That doesn't happen very often.
I think I just mostly like clients that areeasy to work with, that know that they're going
to get questions from me or one of mybookkeepers, and they're going to need to
answer those questions sooner rather than laterso that we can get their books worked on.
And ones that are also willing to learn maybehow to change bad habits they might have had
(04:33):
with their business expenses or things likethat.
Nice, nice.
And do you work with a particular size ofbusiness owner?
I work with a lot of micro businesses.
I'm not opposed to larger businesses, but I dohave a heart for the little guy because I'm
currently still the little guy, but also Idon't feel that sometimes my field is very
(04:57):
friendly to the really little guy.
Sometimes people have other people have aminimum that they charge and maybe somebody
can't meet that minimum.
And so then their books end up getting messedup because they couldn't afford for somebody to
do them.
So I do really like helping to take care of themicro businesses or solopreneurs that need
(05:20):
help, but they can't necessarily afford more.
So then I kind of tailor things to what theyneed, whether it's quarterly or just a little
less offerings, or sometimes I do training withQuickBooks or whatever, and we'll go through
different things that that they need, and I'lldo review of their books and stuff like that if
they're doing the books themselves.
(05:42):
Nice, nice.
I love that you give people a way to grow withyou, right?
So they can start out small with some verybasic things that you can offer them and then
grow into a more robust package.
Are, you know, according to the Small BusinessAdministration, are close to 33,000,000 small
businesses, and that means under 500 employees,right?
(06:03):
So that's in my opinion not a very smallbusiness, there are 22,000,000 average
solopreneurs in The United States alone.
There's a lot of people out there that needyour help, Didi.
And know, my help too.
I work with solopreneurs as well.
So let's go back to you kind of jumping intothis career.
(06:28):
You were a stay at home mom, homeschooling yourkids, which God bless you is a special skill
and talent that you have.
Right?
And then what was kind of that leap for you togo back into the workforce or decide to start
your own business?
Tell us a little bit about that experience.
Two different things.
(06:49):
One, getting back into the workforce was morebecause my kids were all starting college.
My kids are all a year apart.
I have three kids and so when they startcollege then it's kind of within two years all
three are in college.
Yeah.
So just trying to help pay for that.
And then starting my own business, I didn'tlike the commute.
(07:12):
I was kind of underpaid.
And so I kind of realized that, you know what,I either need to work closer to home or I kind
of like to try starting this on my own.
And so I did a little both at the same time.
I found a CPA that was closer to me that, I wasable to work for part time.
He wanted me full time, so that didn't lastvery long.
(07:35):
But in the meantime, I decided to start my ownbusiness and I started getting clients.
And so I was like, okay, this is just whatwe're gonna do.
Nice.
I've just been very blessed mostly byword-of-mouth honestly with a lot of my clients
spreading the word and each year my businessjust grows from that.
Great great that's the best way to grow abusiness obviously is through warm referrals or
(07:59):
referrals of clients or people that know youwell.
So what were some of the fears or self doubtsthat you had to overcome when you were taking
that leap into starting your own business?
Well one was the the licensure, the fact thatI'm not licensed.
But then, you know, there's always the fear ofthe unknown.
(08:21):
Mhmm.
So sometimes I can jump into things, and I'vehad businesses before, but and so I was like,
oh, yeah.
I've done businesses before.
I'm fine.
I jumped in this and like, oh, no.
I've always had product based businesses.
Is the first service based business.
That means I'm the product basically, you know,my service is the product.
(08:42):
And I was like, woah, I didn't think aboutthat.
Yeah, even sometimes with the fear of unknown,I even have a great group of local bookkeepers
that we meet together monthly for lunch, and wecan bounce ideas off of each other.
We're on Voxer together, and we can shareclients if somebody's not a good fit for us and
(09:04):
give a referral or if somebody does somethingthat we don't service.
And that's something that really kind of hashelped get through some of those fears of
unknown is being able to find other people thatcan help me with those questions that I might
have that aren't necessarily in a book.
Nice, nice.
I love that.
I love that.
(09:24):
And you know I'm all about community andbuilding community and connection with other
people.
And so I love that you have these groups thatyou can tap into for different areas.
We need groups that can help us with ourbusiness, like you said the entrepreneurship
piece, and then also people who can help uswith you know the tactical skills within our
(09:45):
business right or or somebody to refer clientsto it's a it's a great day in our business when
we get to say no to a client that we don't wantto work with or aren't a good fit for and you
have a resource for them that you can hand themoff to somebody else and feel really good about
that fit.
So how do you feel like your skill set thatyou've had through your whole career even as a
(10:11):
stay at home mom and a homeschooling mom, howdo you feel like those skills translate into
what you're doing now?
Well, with homeschooling, I definitely had tokeep learning things.
Mhmm.
So, I used to joke when my oldest kid sorryabout that grunt, I guess, if you hear that.
(10:35):
When my oldest kid was in first grade andsomebody was like, how do you have the ability
to homeschool him?
Said well so far I've passed first grade.
Nice, nice.
As I start getting into high school then I'mlike oh no this is a little beyond my bandwidth
to train for.
Then even in that, I found resources.
(10:57):
I started classes for homeschoolers that wereone day a week, and I found nurses that could
teach my kids biology labs and other sciencelabs things like that.
So I was constantly learning and growing andfinding resources and putting people together
and that's really a lot of what I do in mybusiness too.
Nice, I love that.
(11:17):
I love that.
And like you mentioned, you're a lifelonglearner, which I think as entrepreneurs we have
to constantly be learning new things andkeeping aware of what our competition is doing
and what's happening in our industries.
Especially in and bookkeeping there's thingschanging all the time every year at least, So
you have to stay on top of those things.
(11:38):
Okay, let's see.
You mentioned that you had a little bit of selfdoubt and fear around certifications and those
kind of things when you started, but how didyou kind of work your way through some of those
doubts when you were first starting out yourbusiness, especially in something, as you
(12:03):
mentioned, you had product businesses before,but now you have a service based business and
you're selling yourself.
So how how did you help yourself overcome someof those doubts?
Well there's probably a couple different ways.
One would be that I started realizing that I'mnot the only non licensed person out there.
(12:28):
There are a lot of people that aren't licensedand I have the knowledge that I need for this.
And so another one is people would come to mefrom licensed people who had kind of failed
them, responding to them.
Honestly, what I find a lot of my clientsactually want is somebody who responds to
(12:52):
calls, texts, or emails, and somebody also whohelps to educate them about what's going on
with their numbers and doesn't withhold thatinformation.
And those are things I'm actually strong in.
So my tagline is where you can count on us.
And so that's one of the main things that I tryto help provide is just being reliable to
(13:17):
people because that kind of actually makes upfor anything that I do end up lacking, at least
at the onset of when they meet me.
Yeah, great, great.
Yes, it's a sad state of affairs that justreplying to somebody's email sets us above the
pack for customer service, right?
(13:38):
But that's so important, especially when itcomes to people's numbers.
They want to know that they're getting theaccurate numbers and that they have them when
they need them.
So if they have to pull a profit and loss forsomething that they know it's up to date, it's
accurate, and that you're going get back tothem in that information.
And I'm sure your skills as a teacher come intoplay when you're educating the clients about
(14:05):
their numbers.
So what are a couple of the most frequentlyasked questions that you get, Didi, by your
clients about their numbers?
I'm not quite sure if there's so much asquestions or rather misunderstandings that I
(14:26):
have to clear up.
Okay.
So some people don't quite understand how theyuse their vehicle, whether it's mileage actual
expenses, and that it's still always based ontheir mileage.
So even if they claim actual, at the end of theyear, we have to know their mileage to know
what percentage of the business of the vehicleusage was business.
(14:46):
Mhmm.
Some of them don't oh, well, they don'tunderstand, first of all, not to use their
business card for personal expenses and theother way around.
So, and then even, like, home office expensesor something, know, questions around that and
(15:07):
how to use those
for their business.
Nice.
Nice.
So we're recording this podcast in earlyFebruary of twenty twenty five.
So we've just gotten through the October phaseof tax season, right, for small business
owners.
And I'm sure you answered a lot of questionsaround that.
Is that something you help small businessowners do?
(15:30):
Yes.
I do.
Okay.
Yeah.
And what a lot of people don't realize is ifyou pay somebody, like, as a contractor six
hundred dollars or more for the year, then youneed to issue them a $10.99.
And I always, always, always recommend peopleget their contractors to fill out a W-nine the
first day before they even pay them.
Even if you think you're only gonna pay them ahundred bucks and you're never gonna work with
(15:53):
them again, you never know.
You may end liking them.
You may lose another contractor and need to goback to that person.
And I think it's only fair to go ahead and getthem to fill out a w nine before you pay
because then it doesn't throw them off inJanuary when you're asking them to fill it out
and they know they're going get a $10.29 if youpaid them enough.
(16:14):
The other thing is people will say, well, Ican't get him to fill out the W-nine.
I said, if you don't pay him until he fills itout, he will fill it out.
Yes.
There is a way to still get that done, butthat's probably a misconception a lot of people
have is they don't realize that they need to dothat $10.99 for those contractors.
(16:35):
And you also need to make sure that they areactually a contractor, not an employee.
The IRS has a website for that.
You can just Google it and and pick the IRSwebsite for contractor versus employee, and
that's gonna be a big one because at somepoint, the IRS says they're gonna crack down on
small businesses who are paying people'scontractors who are really employees.
Wow, yes I know.
(16:57):
They've been saying that for a long timebecause I remember when I was running the law
firm, I used to talk about that with thelawyers all the time.
It's like this person you can't really tellthem when to be in the office and what to do
when they're in the office and if they're acontractor.
Yes, it's important to know are the people thatyou're working with that you're hiring for your
(17:18):
business are they technically employees or arethey they ten ninety nine's?
And I love the fact that you say get the w-nineup front so that way there's just no question
whether you pay them over $600 or not.
Then you just have it in the background and youknow that you've got all that information.
So we're in February, so tax day is in April,right?
(17:41):
As far as we still know that could change, Butright now it's still in April.
And so what are other things that smallbusiness owners need to be thinking about and
looking for to get prepped to do their taxreturns?
Well, first of all, some small business ownersare s corp owners, and those taxes are due
(18:04):
March 15.
They're always due, a month before.
Our partnerships, are due a month beforebecause they have a form that flows to the
personal, so you give that month notice to beable to flow it to the personal return.
(18:25):
As tax payments can make so are profiting inyour business then you really should be looking
to see if you need to make quarterly estimatedpayments because I always tell people that you
owe taxes in the year you earn the income andif you're making estimated tax payments you owe
them in the quarter you earn the income.
(18:46):
Yeah, to know.
Good to know.
And if our listeners are hearing me say thisand they're like, I have no idea what she's
talking about, then that's a perfect time togive Didi a call and just tell her what's going
on with your business.
And Didi is one of those people, as we'vementioned, she loves to educate people and is
(19:07):
not going to make you feel stupid for notknowing all of these things.
There's so much to learn as a business owner.
And if you jumped into your business just tofollow your passion, and now it's kind of
turned into this booming business.
You don't know what you don't know, right?
And so that's why talking to an expert likeDidi can really help you to make sure you stay
(19:30):
out of trouble with the IRS, right?
That you know what's happening in yourbusiness.
Yes, yeah and a lot of the people that arefollowing their passion especially the more
creatives are not that great with numbers andso I always say let me do what I'm good at so
you can keep doing what you're good at.
Love that, I love that yes and the other thingis that there's so much changing all the time,
(19:57):
especially this year in 2025.
There's so much happening within rules andregulations and things like that, You really do
need somebody who's paying attention andstaying on top of all that stuff because
there's just no way as an entrepreneur that ifthat's not your field of expertise that you can
stay on top of all those changes.
What do you do, Didi, to stay kind of up onthings that are happening and the changes that
(20:24):
might be happening?
So I do have continuing education that I haveto fulfill every year to keep my, it's called a
PTEN, Professional Tax Prepare IdentificationNumber active.
I also participate in the annual filing seasonprogram and that's extra education.
(20:45):
And then I get regular emails from the IRS andArizona State, especially for, with just
different updates of things that are going onwise or whatever.
Good.
Good.
So again, we as entrepreneurs, we're notkeeping up with all those things, but Didi is
on our behalf.
(21:05):
So another reason to reach out and just have aconversation with her.
You mentioned Arizona.
I know you live in Arizona.
I'm in Colorado.
Can you help clients in any state or do youhave to be licensed in the states that you
support people?
It depends on the state.
So a lot of states don't require anything fromme.
(21:29):
I do some tax returns for New York state.
And for New York, I do have to have acertification number.
Since I produce less than 10 tax returns forNew York, then I don't have to fulfill any of
the education requirements for New York.
If I did more than 10, I would have to do a lotmore.
(21:49):
So it just really depends on the state.
I actually have clients in Colorado, Illinois,Nebraska, South Carolina, California, all over.
I just look up what that state's requirementsare when I do it.
Great, wonderful, wonderful.
(22:11):
So really if you're a small business owneranywhere that you're listening to this, if
you're in The United States, then you needDuties help to make sure your books are
maintained and in compliance with what you needto be doing right because that's another big
piece is that again there's these rules andthere's these deadlines that you know maybe we
(22:34):
need to be filing quarterly this year or wedidn't have to do that in the past, So you've
made enough money and then all you have tostart doing that.
So it's good to have somebody who can walk youthrough that process and understand what's
happening in your business.
How do you help business owners to use thenumbers that you come up with?
(22:56):
Most business owners know profit and lossstatement basic accounting.
Here's the money that came in, here's myexpenses, this is what's left is the profit.
Hopefully that number is growing, but yourexpenses could also be growing and your cost of
doing business, those kind of things.
So how do you help your clients understandtheir numbers?
(23:17):
Again, it goes back to education.
For example, a lot of times they'll be payingoff a loan and they'll think that's an expense,
and it's not an expense to the business.
The interest is, but the loan's not becausewhen you brought in the loan, you didn't claim
that as income.
So I always try to relate it that way.
So so the loan goes on the balance sheet, butthe interest is deductible.
(23:44):
There are just a lot of different things likethat to help them understand what's going on
with their books.
A lot of times they will see the net profitthat they have and they will go, that's not
what's in my
Exactly yeah.
And the amount that's in their bank usually ison the balance sheet because sometimes they
withdrew money, you know, a draw for themselvesor they bought things for personal use which
(24:07):
then gets considered as a draw as well.
Yeah, so the balance sheet and the statement ofcash flows those kind of reports I think are
very underutilized for business owners to beable to understand what's really happening in
their business.
Profit and loss is a good one to start with ifyou're only looking at one report each month.
(24:29):
That's a great one to start with because youcan see what's happening, but I agree a lot of
business owners I work with look at that profitand loss and are like, Well, that's not the
amount that's in my bank account.
Where's all that money?
Where'd that money go?
It's like, Well, some of it's in your expenses,but some of it's probably on your balance sheet
too.
Making sure you understand those numbers helpsyou make better decisions.
(24:50):
And having a clean set of books can help you ifyou are going to try and expand in 2025 and you
want to go out and get funding or seekingoutside funds from a bank or from other
sources.
You need to have a good solid set of books sothat you can have accurate numbers to represent
yourself.
So, please make sure you reach out to to Didi.
(25:14):
We will have all of Didi's contact information,and and Didi, if somebody does want to have a
conversation with you, do you offer a freeconsultation?
Yes I offer free usually about forty fiveminute consultation.
Great.
Yeah.
Wonderful.
So yeah we'll have a link for that to book acall with Didi in the show notes again wherever
(25:35):
you're listening.
So Dee Dee, thank you again for being a gueston the podcast, Leap to Success podcast, and
for being a member of the LEAP community.
Yeah.
Sure.
And I also have an offering for anyone in theLEAP community that comes to me.
Wonderful.
Through my website, there is a place that theycan put in a coupon code of LEAP25 and they can
(26:01):
get a discount on any service of 100 or more.
Nice.
I love that.
Thank you for being able to offer that to ourLEAP community.
We'll make sure and get that in the show notesas well.
If you're listening and you're a LEAP communitymember, use that code.
So that is a wrap on today's episode of theLEAP to Success podcast.
(26:21):
Hope you're listening and you foundinspiration, motivation, and maybe a few golden
nuggets to take with you on your journey.
If you loved this conversation, be sure tosubscribe so that you never miss an episode.
If today's guest, Didi, resonated with you,please give them some love by sharing this
episode with your community online.
(26:42):
Remember you can find all of Didi's contactinformation in the show notes wherever you're
listening or watching this podcast.
If you want to go deeper and join the LEAPcommunity where you'll find even more resources
connections and opportunities to show up andgrow your business visit
successmagnified.com/leapforladies to learnmore.
(27:04):
And until next time keep taking bold leapscontributing your gifts and celebrating your
successes
Hello hello and welcome to another episode ofthe Leap to Success podcast.
The Leap to Success podcast where we highlightincredible women entrepreneurs who are taking
bold leaps in business and life.
I'm your host, Mary Gahl, and I believe thatsuccess is built through connection,
contribution, and celebration.
(00:22):
Each episode, we bring you inspiring stories,expert insights, and actionable strategies to
help you grow and thrive as a solopreneur.
Let's dive right into today's conversation.
I am excited to introduce you to our LeapCommunity member, Didi Jacques, owner of
Account on Didi.
(00:43):
Welcome to the show, Didi.
Thank you Mary!
Didi tell our listeners your story and a littlebit about what makes you so awesome.
So I say that I'm a Jill of all trades.
Nice!
I've done quite a bit.
(01:04):
I was an actual housewife for a while and thena stay at home mom.
I homeschooled my kids for many years and Ijumped into this career when I was 49.
Okay.
And I think what makes me so awesome really isthat I'm just kind of a lifelong learner.
(01:28):
I love to learn.
And so I'm always that helps with taxes becausethere's always a change in tax laws and I'm not
afraid to learn something new if a client hassomething different than I'm used to.
Yes, great.
I love that.
And so you kind of alluded to what you do, buttell us all about your business and what you
(01:50):
get to do to help clients every day.
Yeah, so I started my business two years ago.
I was 51.
Nice.
And I do accounting, taxes, payroll.
I help with business structure.
I just really kind of help with abouteverything.
I'm not a licensed CPA, but I am able to helpwith almost anything besides an official audit
(02:11):
or negotiating on behalf of the client with theIRS, but I even do IRS phone calls.
So I'm kind of a one stop shop for mostaccounting needs.
Nice.
Nice.
I love that you started a career at 49 andstarted your own business at 51.
You know, that's a big leap of faith, a leap aleap that you're having success now.
(02:35):
Right?
So we know when we take a leap, it doesn'talways immediately turn into success.
So what have been some of the challenges thatyou've had to overcome starting a business at
this stage of your life?
And how would you encourage our listeners totake that leap if they're thinking about that?
Some of the challenges sometimes are being ableto find people I can ask questions of when
(03:02):
there's something that I'm not familiar with.
I definitely would like to encourage people toget a mentor or even several mentors.
So I have several people, so I'm not drainingone of them, but just different people that I
can ask for different tips and help from,whether it's the entrepreneurship, I have a
great networking group that helps with that, orif it's tax or accounting related, then
(03:29):
obviously I have professionals in that field tobe able to ask for that kind of help.
I think one of the challenges too was that I'mnot licensed and at first I was a little
insecure about that until I found out that 47%of professional tax preparers are not licensed.
And I was like, oh, I'm in the minority, butnot by much.
(03:49):
Right, right.
Okay, good, good.
And what is your favorite type of client towork with?
My favorite is somebody that is brand new andneeds their books started, or somebody that's
coming over with perfect books.
(04:09):
That doesn't happen very often.
I think I just mostly like clients that areeasy to work with, that know that they're going
to get questions from me or one of mybookkeepers, and they're going to need to
answer those questions sooner rather than laterso that we can get their books worked on.
And ones that are also willing to learn maybehow to change bad habits they might have had
(04:33):
with their business expenses or things likethat.
Nice, nice.
And do you work with a particular size ofbusiness owner?
I work with a lot of micro businesses.
I'm not opposed to larger businesses, but I dohave a heart for the little guy because I'm
currently still the little guy, but also Idon't feel that sometimes my field is very
(04:57):
friendly to the really little guy.
Sometimes people have other people have aminimum that they charge and maybe somebody
can't meet that minimum.
And so then their books end up getting messedup because they couldn't afford for somebody to
do them.
So I do really like helping to take care of themicro businesses or solopreneurs that need
(05:20):
help, but they can't necessarily afford more.
So then I kind of tailor things to what theyneed, whether it's quarterly or just a little
less offerings, or sometimes I do training withQuickBooks or whatever, and we'll go through
different things that that they need, and I'lldo review of their books and stuff like that if
they're doing the books themselves.
(05:42):
Nice, nice.
I love that you give people a way to grow withyou, right?
So they can start out small with some verybasic things that you can offer them and then
grow into a more robust package.
Are, you know, according to the Small BusinessAdministration, are close to 33,000,000 small
businesses, and that means under 500 employees,right?
(06:03):
So that's in my opinion not a very smallbusiness, there are 22,000,000 average
solopreneurs in The United States alone.
There's a lot of people out there that needyour help, Didi.
And know, my help too.
I work with solopreneurs as well.
So let's go back to you kind of jumping intothis career.
(06:28):
You were a stay at home mom, homeschooling yourkids, which God bless you is a special skill
and talent that you have.
Right?
And then what was kind of that leap for you togo back into the workforce or decide to start
your own business?
Tell us a little bit about that experience.
Two different things.
(06:49):
One, getting back into the workforce was morebecause my kids were all starting college.
My kids are all a year apart.
I have three kids and so when they startcollege then it's kind of within two years all
three are in college.
Yeah.
So just trying to help pay for that.
And then starting my own business, I didn'tlike the commute.
(07:12):
I was kind of underpaid.
And so I kind of realized that, you know what,I either need to work closer to home or I kind
of like to try starting this on my own.
And so I did a little both at the same time.
I found a CPA that was closer to me that, I wasable to work for part time.
He wanted me full time, so that didn't lastvery long.
(07:35):
But in the meantime, I decided to start my ownbusiness and I started getting clients.
And so I was like, okay, this is just whatwe're gonna do.
Nice.
I've just been very blessed mostly byword-of-mouth honestly with a lot of my clients
spreading the word and each year my businessjust grows from that.
Great great that's the best way to grow abusiness obviously is through warm referrals or
(07:59):
referrals of clients or people that know youwell.
So what were some of the fears or self doubtsthat you had to overcome when you were taking
that leap into starting your own business?
Well one was the the licensure, the fact thatI'm not licensed.
But then, you know, there's always the fear ofthe unknown.
(08:21):
Mhmm.
So sometimes I can jump into things, and I'vehad businesses before, but and so I was like,
oh, yeah.
I've done businesses before.
I'm fine.
I jumped in this and like, oh, no.
I've always had product based businesses.
Is the first service based business.
That means I'm the product basically, you know,my service is the product.
(08:42):
And I was like, woah, I didn't think aboutthat.
Yeah, even sometimes with the fear of unknown,I even have a great group of local bookkeepers
that we meet together monthly for lunch, and wecan bounce ideas off of each other.
We're on Voxer together, and we can shareclients if somebody's not a good fit for us and
(09:04):
give a referral or if somebody does somethingthat we don't service.
And that's something that really kind of hashelped get through some of those fears of
unknown is being able to find other people thatcan help me with those questions that I might
have that aren't necessarily in a book.
Nice, nice.
I love that.
I love that.
(09:24):
And you know I'm all about community andbuilding community and connection with other
people.
And so I love that you have these groups thatyou can tap into for different areas.
We need groups that can help us with ourbusiness, like you said the entrepreneurship
piece, and then also people who can help uswith you know the tactical skills within our
(09:45):
business right or or somebody to refer clientsto it's a it's a great day in our business when
we get to say no to a client that we don't wantto work with or aren't a good fit for and you
have a resource for them that you can hand themoff to somebody else and feel really good about
that fit.
So how do you feel like your skill set thatyou've had through your whole career even as a
(10:11):
stay at home mom and a homeschooling mom, howdo you feel like those skills translate into
what you're doing now?
Well, with homeschooling, I definitely had tokeep learning things.
Mhmm.
So, I used to joke when my oldest kid sorryabout that grunt, I guess, if you hear that.
(10:35):
When my oldest kid was in first grade andsomebody was like, how do you have the ability
to homeschool him?
Said well so far I've passed first grade.
Nice, nice.
As I start getting into high school then I'mlike oh no this is a little beyond my bandwidth
to train for.
Then even in that, I found resources.
(10:57):
I started classes for homeschoolers that wereone day a week, and I found nurses that could
teach my kids biology labs and other sciencelabs things like that.
So I was constantly learning and growing andfinding resources and putting people together
and that's really a lot of what I do in mybusiness too.
Nice, I love that.
(11:17):
I love that.
And like you mentioned, you're a lifelonglearner, which I think as entrepreneurs we have
to constantly be learning new things andkeeping aware of what our competition is doing
and what's happening in our industries.
Especially in and bookkeeping there's thingschanging all the time every year at least, So
you have to stay on top of those things.
(11:38):
Okay, let's see.
You mentioned that you had a little bit of selfdoubt and fear around certifications and those
kind of things when you started, but how didyou kind of work your way through some of those
doubts when you were first starting out yourbusiness, especially in something, as you
(12:03):
mentioned, you had product businesses before,but now you have a service based business and
you're selling yourself.
So how how did you help yourself overcome someof those doubts?
Well there's probably a couple different ways.
One would be that I started realizing that I'mnot the only non licensed person out there.
(12:28):
There are a lot of people that aren't licensedand I have the knowledge that I need for this.
And so another one is people would come to mefrom licensed people who had kind of failed
them, responding to them.
Honestly, what I find a lot of my clientsactually want is somebody who responds to
(12:52):
calls, texts, or emails, and somebody also whohelps to educate them about what's going on
with their numbers and doesn't withhold thatinformation.
And those are things I'm actually strong in.
So my tagline is where you can count on us.
And so that's one of the main things that I tryto help provide is just being reliable to
(13:17):
people because that kind of actually makes upfor anything that I do end up lacking, at least
at the onset of when they meet me.
Yeah, great, great.
Yes, it's a sad state of affairs that justreplying to somebody's email sets us above the
pack for customer service, right?
(13:38):
But that's so important, especially when itcomes to people's numbers.
They want to know that they're getting theaccurate numbers and that they have them when
they need them.
So if they have to pull a profit and loss forsomething that they know it's up to date, it's
accurate, and that you're going get back tothem in that information.
And I'm sure your skills as a teacher come intoplay when you're educating the clients about
(14:05):
their numbers.
So what are a couple of the most frequentlyasked questions that you get, Didi, by your
clients about their numbers?
I'm not quite sure if there's so much asquestions or rather misunderstandings that I
(14:26):
have to clear up.
Okay.
So some people don't quite understand how theyuse their vehicle, whether it's mileage actual
expenses, and that it's still always based ontheir mileage.
So even if they claim actual, at the end of theyear, we have to know their mileage to know
what percentage of the business of the vehicleusage was business.
(14:46):
Mhmm.
Some of them don't oh, well, they don'tunderstand, first of all, not to use their
business card for personal expenses and theother way around.
So, and then even, like, home office expensesor something, know, questions around that and
(15:07):
how to use those
for their business.
Nice.
Nice.
So we're recording this podcast in earlyFebruary of twenty twenty five.
So we've just gotten through the October phaseof tax season, right, for small business
owners.
And I'm sure you answered a lot of questionsaround that.
Is that something you help small businessowners do?
(15:30):
Yes.
I do.
Okay.
Yeah.
And what a lot of people don't realize is ifyou pay somebody, like, as a contractor six
hundred dollars or more for the year, then youneed to issue them a $10.99.
And I always, always, always recommend peopleget their contractors to fill out a W-nine the
first day before they even pay them.
Even if you think you're only gonna pay them ahundred bucks and you're never gonna work with
(15:53):
them again, you never know.
You may end liking them.
You may lose another contractor and need to goback to that person.
And I think it's only fair to go ahead and getthem to fill out a w nine before you pay
because then it doesn't throw them off inJanuary when you're asking them to fill it out
and they know they're going get a $10.29 if youpaid them enough.
(16:14):
The other thing is people will say, well, Ican't get him to fill out the W-nine.
I said, if you don't pay him until he fills itout, he will fill it out.
Yes.
There is a way to still get that done, butthat's probably a misconception a lot of people
have is they don't realize that they need to dothat $10.99 for those contractors.
(16:35):
And you also need to make sure that they areactually a contractor, not an employee.
The IRS has a website for that.
You can just Google it and and pick the IRSwebsite for contractor versus employee, and
that's gonna be a big one because at somepoint, the IRS says they're gonna crack down on
small businesses who are paying people'scontractors who are really employees.
Wow, yes I know.
(16:57):
They've been saying that for a long timebecause I remember when I was running the law
firm, I used to talk about that with thelawyers all the time.
It's like this person you can't really tellthem when to be in the office and what to do
when they're in the office and if they're acontractor.
Yes, it's important to know are the people thatyou're working with that you're hiring for your
(17:18):
business are they technically employees or arethey they ten ninety nine's?
And I love the fact that you say get the w-nineup front so that way there's just no question
whether you pay them over $600 or not.
Then you just have it in the background and youknow that you've got all that information.
So we're in February, so tax day is in April,right?
(17:41):
As far as we still know that could change, Butright now it's still in April.
And so what are other things that smallbusiness owners need to be thinking about and
looking for to get prepped to do their taxreturns?
Well, first of all, some small business ownersare s corp owners, and those taxes are due
(18:04):
March 15.
They're always due, a month before.
Our partnerships, are due a month beforebecause they have a form that flows to the
personal, so you give that month notice to beable to flow it to the personal return.
(18:25):
As tax payments can make so are profiting inyour business then you really should be looking
to see if you need to make quarterly estimatedpayments because I always tell people that you
owe taxes in the year you earn the income andif you're making estimated tax payments you owe
them in the quarter you earn the income.
(18:46):
Yeah, to know.
Good to know.
And if our listeners are hearing me say thisand they're like, I have no idea what she's
talking about, then that's a perfect time togive Didi a call and just tell her what's going
on with your business.
And Didi is one of those people, as we'vementioned, she loves to educate people and is
(19:07):
not going to make you feel stupid for notknowing all of these things.
There's so much to learn as a business owner.
And if you jumped into your business just tofollow your passion, and now it's kind of
turned into this booming business.
You don't know what you don't know, right?
And so that's why talking to an expert likeDidi can really help you to make sure you stay
(19:30):
out of trouble with the IRS, right?
That you know what's happening in yourbusiness.
Yes, yeah and a lot of the people that arefollowing their passion especially the more
creatives are not that great with numbers andso I always say let me do what I'm good at so
you can keep doing what you're good at.
Love that, I love that yes and the other thingis that there's so much changing all the time,
(19:57):
especially this year in 2025.
There's so much happening within rules andregulations and things like that, You really do
need somebody who's paying attention andstaying on top of all that stuff because
there's just no way as an entrepreneur that ifthat's not your field of expertise that you can
stay on top of all those changes.
What do you do, Didi, to stay kind of up onthings that are happening and the changes that
(20:24):
might be happening?
So I do have continuing education that I haveto fulfill every year to keep my, it's called a
PTEN, Professional Tax Prepare IdentificationNumber active.
I also participate in the annual filing seasonprogram and that's extra education.
(20:45):
And then I get regular emails from the IRS andArizona State, especially for, with just
different updates of things that are going onwise or whatever.
Good.
Good.
So again, we as entrepreneurs, we're notkeeping up with all those things, but Didi is
on our behalf.
(21:05):
So another reason to reach out and just have aconversation with her.
You mentioned Arizona.
I know you live in Arizona.
I'm in Colorado.
Can you help clients in any state or do youhave to be licensed in the states that you
support people?
It depends on the state.
So a lot of states don't require anything fromme.
(21:29):
I do some tax returns for New York state.
And for New York, I do have to have acertification number.
Since I produce less than 10 tax returns forNew York, then I don't have to fulfill any of
the education requirements for New York.
If I did more than 10, I would have to do a lotmore.
(21:49):
So it just really depends on the state.
I actually have clients in Colorado, Illinois,Nebraska, South Carolina, California, all over.
I just look up what that state's requirementsare when I do it.
Great, wonderful, wonderful.
(22:11):
So really if you're a small business owneranywhere that you're listening to this, if
you're in The United States, then you needDuties help to make sure your books are
maintained and in compliance with what you needto be doing right because that's another big
piece is that again there's these rules andthere's these deadlines that you know maybe we
(22:34):
need to be filing quarterly this year or wedidn't have to do that in the past, So you've
made enough money and then all you have tostart doing that.
So it's good to have somebody who can walk youthrough that process and understand what's
happening in your business.
How do you help business owners to use thenumbers that you come up with?
(22:56):
Most business owners know profit and lossstatement basic accounting.
Here's the money that came in, here's myexpenses, this is what's left is the profit.
Hopefully that number is growing, but yourexpenses could also be growing and your cost of
doing business, those kind of things.
So how do you help your clients understandtheir numbers?
(23:17):
Again, it goes back to education.
For example, a lot of times they'll be payingoff a loan and they'll think that's an expense,
and it's not an expense to the business.
The interest is, but the loan's not becausewhen you brought in the loan, you didn't claim
that as income.
So I always try to relate it that way.
So so the loan goes on the balance sheet, butthe interest is deductible.
(23:44):
There are just a lot of different things likethat to help them understand what's going on
with their books.
A lot of times they will see the net profitthat they have and they will go, that's not
what's in my
Exactly yeah.
And the amount that's in their bank usually ison the balance sheet because sometimes they
withdrew money, you know, a draw for themselvesor they bought things for personal use which
(24:07):
then gets considered as a draw as well.
Yeah, so the balance sheet and the statement ofcash flows those kind of reports I think are
very underutilized for business owners to beable to understand what's really happening in
their business.
Profit and loss is a good one to start with ifyou're only looking at one report each month.
(24:29):
That's a great one to start with because youcan see what's happening, but I agree a lot of
business owners I work with look at that profitand loss and are like, Well, that's not the
amount that's in my bank account.
Where's all that money?
Where'd that money go?
It's like, Well, some of it's in your expenses,but some of it's probably on your balance sheet
too.
Making sure you understand those numbers helpsyou make better decisions.
(24:50):
And having a clean set of books can help you ifyou are going to try and expand in 2025 and you
want to go out and get funding or seekingoutside funds from a bank or from other
sources.
You need to have a good solid set of books sothat you can have accurate numbers to represent
yourself.
So, please make sure you reach out to to Didi.
(25:14):
We will have all of Didi's contact information,and and Didi, if somebody does want to have a
conversation with you, do you offer a freeconsultation?
Yes I offer free usually about forty fiveminute consultation.
Great.
Yeah.
Wonderful.
So yeah we'll have a link for that to book acall with Didi in the show notes again wherever
(25:35):
you're listening.
So Dee Dee, thank you again for being a gueston the podcast, Leap to Success podcast, and
for being a member of the LEAP community.
Yeah.
Sure.
And I also have an offering for anyone in theLEAP community that comes to me.
Wonderful.
Through my website, there is a place that theycan put in a coupon code of LEAP25 and they can
(26:01):
get a discount on any service of 100 or more.
Nice.
I love that.
Thank you for being able to offer that to ourLEAP community.
We'll make sure and get that in the show notesas well.
If you're listening and you're a LEAP communitymember, use that code.
So that is a wrap on today's episode of theLEAP to Success podcast.
(26:21):
Hope you're listening and you foundinspiration, motivation, and maybe a few golden
nuggets to take with you on your journey.
If you loved this conversation, be sure tosubscribe so that you never miss an episode.
If today's guest, Didi, resonated with you,please give them some love by sharing this
episode with your community online.
(26:42):
Remember you can find all of Didi's contactinformation in the show notes wherever you're
listening or watching this podcast.
If you want to go deeper and join the LEAPcommunity where you'll find even more resources
connections and opportunities to show up andgrow your business visit
successmagnified.com/leapforladies to learnmore.
(27:04):
And until next time keep taking bold leapscontributing your gifts and celebrating your
successes
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