September 11, 2024 • 25 mins
Curious about the secrets to stress-free potty training and successful business partnerships? Join us as we chat with Sarah Mechling, the brilliant mind behind Tinkle and Toot, a potty training support business for parents.
We discuss the complexities of business partnerships and Sarah's previous experiences. She opens up about the importance of setting up proper legal agreements and the steps new entrepreneurs should take to protect their ventures. From obtaining an EIN to forming an LLC, Sarah shares lessons learned the hard way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For a while it did feel very aligned, but I think
there were just other thingsthat weren't covered in those
conversations that ultimatelyled to just having differences
that didn't feel like they weregoing to be resolvable.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to what your CPA Wants you To Know.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Tax and accounting help can be expensive, so we've
created this podcast to helpguide you through it all and
make you feel like you have aCPA in your back pocket.
I'm Carson Sands and I'm TarynSands.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm a CPA with over 10 years of experience helping
people start and grow theirbusinesses.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
And I'm an MBA with a specialization in marketing and
entrepreneurship.
Taxes suck and we want to makesure you don't pay more than
your fair share.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We're here to share everything your CPA wants you to
know in a fun and easy tounderstand way.
Let's get started.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Let's do it Today.
I have Sarah Meckling joiningme, from Tinkle and Toot.
She is a potty training expertand her business provides
support for parents pottytraining their children, so
thank you so much for joining metoday, sarah.
Thanks for having me.
(01:20):
Taryn, of course I can't laughwhen I say your can't not laugh
when I say your business name,which is actually really good
and catchy, so I love that.
Please introduce yourself, yourbusiness and everything to our
audience and tell us all aboutTinkle and Toot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yes, so, as you said, my name is Sarah.
I have been potty trainingsince 2010.
I'm a board certified behavioranalyst.
That's kind of where myexperience started, and it was
mostly with kids with autism.
I still dabble in that, but Ihave ventured into helping
parents of all kids with pottytraining, and Tinklin2 was born
(02:01):
after some experiences in thebusiness world and really
finding where my passions lie.
I love potty training and Ireally want to be able to bring
this support and resources toparents everywhere so that they
don't have to feel like pottytraining is like the most
stressful experience of theirlife.
It might not be their favorite,but it doesn't have to be the
(02:22):
worst.
That's what Tingle N2 is allabout Awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I love it and, as a mom of three, I wish I would
have known you before I pottytrained all of my kids, because,
yes, I do think it's one of theworst things that you have to
do as a parent, along withteaching them other things that
they definitely don't reallycare to learn Right?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I always tell parents I'm like, why would your child
think that they should not peeand poop in their diaper?
That's all they know.
And you're telling them nowthat they have to pee and poop
in a hole.
I'm like, why would they thinkthat they should do that?
We have to convince them thatit's a good idea.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It is hard and they lead you to believe that you can
do it in three days and it canbe so easy.
And I know my grandma was likeoh yeah, I potty trained at 18
months and you're just gettingall kinds of like different
stories and I remember at thetime I was just like so
frustrated with trying to getpoop in the potty I would have
(03:18):
paid any amount for someone tohelp me.
Like I just felt like I wasdoing it all wrong, and so I'm
so glad that there's businesseslike this that support that now,
because it's so easy to dovirtually and just have somebody
that's an expert help youtroubleshoot so that you feel
like, okay, at least I'm tryingto do what I should be doing and
I'm moving in the rightdirection.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Exactly.
I aim to make it as simple aspossible for parents so that
when they're in it they're likeokay, at least I know exactly
what I'm supposed to do, what toexpect, like is my kid going to
pee or poop on the floor today?
Obviously I can't predict thefuture, but to kind of give them
those realistic expectations oflike what the experience should
even be like.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, exactly, I love that, yeah yeah.
So before this episode, sarahand I were just talking about
what direction we wanted to goand what we wanted to focus on,
and we decided to talk aboutpartnerships.
So Sarah will give you all thedetails.
But she was in a partnershipbefore Tinkle and Toot and it
(04:20):
ultimately ended.
And you know, if you listen toour podcast Carson has said it
many times the partnership isthe only ship that won't float.
So it is kind of funny, but italso is kind of true.
We see a lot of partnershipsthat are formed just don't make
it within, like, the year mark,and there's a lot of reasons for
(04:42):
that and there's also a lot ofbenefits to partnerships.
But the thing that we alwaystell people is that we can't
just simply set you up an LLCfor your partnership, which we
could but the reason we won't isbecause you need to make sure
that you really set up all ofyour agreements like your
partnership agreement, youroperating agreement, all of
(05:03):
those things with an attorney.
So sometimes, when that happensand you decide to part ways, you
have no idea what to do becauseyou have none of these
agreements set up from the start.
So I think that this is such agood thing to discuss because a
lot of people don't talk aboutit, right, they just kind of
(05:24):
sweep it under the rug and theydon't want't talk about it.
Right, they just kind of sweepit under the rug and they don't
want to talk about it, which Iunderstand.
So thank you so much for beingwilling to just open up a little
bit about this topic and shareyour story, and hopefully that
will help somebody else ifthey're starting a partnership,
do the right things and take theright steps or learn from your
advice.
Sure, so can you tell us allabout the partnership that you
(05:47):
had started and all the detailsabout what ultimately happened
with that?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Sure.
So about two and a half yearsago a little bit over than that
I decided I wanted to takemyself on this entrepreneurial
journey and I knew I wanted todo something with potty training
.
But originally I wasn't quiteready to do it on my own.
So I did some independentcontracting for a little bit
through another company.
And then I had a friend who wasalso interested in starting a
(06:15):
company for potty training, sowe decided to start a company
together.
That previous company was apartnership.
Despite lots of advice from afamily member who's actually a
business attorney and some othersources my accountant I did not
get an operating agreement.
So we did not start out ourcompany with an operating
(06:38):
agreement.
We were kind of excited friends, trusting I am a optimist,
toxic positivity, all that stuffso I was very excited to get
started and thought it will befine, I don't need this
operating agreement.
At some point we went to open abank account and we needed an
operating agreement.
(06:58):
So we did get one, but it was avery generic from one of those
websites that it just has likewho knows what information, the
basics, yeah, yeah.
So we never really discussedwhat happens if this issue
arises, or this issue or one ofus wants to part ways, or both
of us decide we want to partways, or any of the details.
To be honest, I don't even knowwhat would be in an operating
(07:22):
agreement that covers all bases.
We didn't have thoseconversations.
We didn't have any of that inwriting.
So when it came time to partways, just due to differences in
where we saw the company goingand how we wanted the company to
be run, nothing major, nothinggrand happened.
There was no big fight orargument.
It just was not working out andwe didn't have anything in
(07:46):
place to decide to guide us inhow to move forward from there.
So from that point we tried tofigure it out on our own.
That wasn't working out, so wedid have to seek legal counsel
to guide us through that process, which of course costs money.
So the money that wepotentially could have spent up
front for an operating agreementthat would have more easily
(08:07):
helped us part ways would havesaved us money in the long run
on attorney fees and all of thatstuff that comes along with
that.
So that's kind of the gist.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And I think that you hit the nail on the head there.
It's that people don't want topay that extra money.
So just to give you an examplein our office we charge $425 to
set up a new LLC and that couldbe a partnership.
But then we direct these peopleto the attorney and you're also
paying into the state of Texas$300 extra to Texas just to set
(08:42):
this up.
So you're already out almost athousand dollars just setting it
up and we're like no, you needto go to this attorney and it's
going to be more, probablycloser to $2,000.
But the good thing is they knowexactly what to ask you guys.
Sitting down.
They're like well, if thishappens, what will you guys do?
What about this part of thebusiness?
(09:04):
What if this happens?
What do you guys do?
What about this part of thebusiness?
What if this happens?
What do you guys do?
So it really gives you time tothink through each of those
things and decide right then andthere.
So I do think that usuallymoney in the beginning, like you
said, you're so excited to getstarted and then you just kind
of avoided that step.
A lot of people do that Very,very common.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Right and I had the advice at the time to do it and
I was just so hopeful and notworried about it.
I guess at the time that I waslike it's okay, it'll be fine
and of course, like you know,everything is still fine.
But I lost a friend along theway, I lost a business that I
had worked hard at, and that'sobviously very sad.
(09:46):
And if those things could havebeen avoided by having legal
counsel in the beginning toguide us into how to make the
decisions should they get tothat point, that would have, I
think, saved a lot of heartache,headache, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And a lot of stress.
I know it was a very stressfulsituation there for a while.
I'm glad that you kind ofworked through that, but for a
while it was very stressfulbecause you need to know what
you're going to do to moveforward in your business.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, it is definitely stressful.
There was a lot of questions,things left up in the air for a
bit, and that was hard.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So I think it's pretty clear that you didn't
anticipate any of this happening.
So I think it's pretty clearthat you didn't anticipate any
of this happening, obviously,like you said, but did you two
ever have a conversation aboutissues arising or if one of you
needed to go in a differentdirection?
Were there any of thoseconversations during your
business together?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I think there were some surface level
conversations about reallyfiguring out whose role was what
we see the company going.
Those conversations were hadand for a while it did feel very
(11:08):
aligned.
But I think there were justother things that weren't
covered in those conversationsthat ultimately led to just
having differences that didn'tfeel like they were going to be
resolvable are you ready tostart your new business, but
(11:33):
you're just not sure what isneeded to get your business
started legally.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Like all the paperwork, your ein, your llc,
all of that.
You may have a brilliantbusiness idea, but there is so
much more to starting andrunning a new business that no
one tells you about but everysingle person has to do, no
matter what type of businessthey're starting.
To make this very frustratingprocess simple, we created a
step-by-step checklist to helpyou get started so you know what
(11:59):
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LLC, your bookkeeping, savingfor taxes.
If you want to make sure thatyou're doing everything
correctly and you're movingforward, knowing all about those
important due dates and filingsand all of the tax things that
you really should know beforeyou just jump into
(12:19):
entrepreneurship, this newbusiness starter kit is exactly
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We designed this to helpsimplify the complicated process
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Our new business starter kithelps you file the necessary
(12:41):
paperwork and set up therequired processes to start a
new business step-by-step.
If you want to grab a copy ofthis today.
Just check out the link in theshow notes.
Now back to the show.
So, moving forward, what areyou doing differently with your
(13:03):
new business and is there anyadvice that you would give
everyone listening?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Loaded questions.
Taryn, I'm just kidding.
So what am I doing differently?
So my new company is a singleowner, llc I'm not sure if
that's the right way to say it,but it is.
Yeah, okay, I got it right.
Cool, good job.
So I am doing this solo.
I am really excited.
I am doing a few thingsdifferent, I am Okay.
(13:32):
So I'm starting a YouTubechannel.
That's really exciting.
By the time this episode airs,that will be live.
I am really looking for morespeaking engagements like
podcasts.
I would love to just get infront of more audiences so that
I can help more people.
I really love talking and Ilove talking about potty
(13:53):
training.
Anybody that will listen.
I'm going to tell themsomething that they probably
weren't even really interestedin.
So it's really hard.
On Instagram and stories orreels it's really hard.
Or even posts, it's onInstagram and stories or reels
it's really hard.
Or, you know, even posts.
It's hard to filter myself to15 seconds, 30 seconds, it's so
difficult.
So I'm excited to be able tohave a little bit more long form
(14:13):
content that's going to be ableto more like I'll be able to
explain things further andreally dive into the subjects.
So those are some things thatI'm doing differently this time
around.
I am refining resources, I'mcreating a course that will also
be available, probably by thetime this podcast airs.
I'm trying to get all theinformation that's in my brain
(14:34):
out in the world so that all thefamilies that have access to it
can have a Smith-Potty trainingexperience.
That's my main goal.
I want people to just get pastthis part of parenting so that
they can enjoy their life.
Yes, yeah, so I I'm just tryingto get creative with how I can
do that.
So I think that's some of themain ways that I'm kind of doing
(14:55):
things differently.
Okay, so do I have any advice?
I definitely do.
I would say, if somebody isthinking about going to a
partnership, the advice that Igot that I didn't listen to.
So, of course, like we talkedabout the operating agreement,
even though it might seem like alot of money upfront in the
beginning of starting a business, I really think it's pretty
important.
So that's definitely a piece ofadvice.
(15:17):
I also got advice that whengoing into a partnership and of
course, I don't know everythingabout partnerships, I'm by no
means an expert in this, but theadvice that I got was, when you
go into a partnership, youshould really be bringing
different things to the tablethat are going to help your
business grow and support yourbusiness in different ways,
because your skills andpersonalities and experiences
(15:38):
are going to complement eachother with growing this company
and the goals of the company,each other with growing this
company and the goals of thecompany.
So I really think that that isan important piece, that I
didn't think deep enough when itcame to a partnership and I
would do differently if I wereto ever think about doing
something like that again.
And then my third thing, Iguess, would be following your
(16:01):
gut and your intuition.
I think oftentimes we don'tlisten to our gut because
there's other chatter whetherit's our own chatter in our head
or other people's opinions andthoughts, or maybe, like me,
someone's like too optimisticabout life and wants to say yes
to everybody but reallylistening to that gut feeling or
(16:22):
thought or you know what's kindof like on our heart and trying
to figure out how that can helpguide us versus all the other
noise.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yes, I love that and I think you can correct me if
I'm wrong, but I feel likesometimes people jump into a
partnership because they're alittle scared to do it
themselves.
They're a little scared to doit themselves and, like you said
, it's really important ifyou're forming a partnership
that both partners are bringingsomething really big to the
table.
So maybe you're really good atthe business side of things and
(16:53):
you're going to run that, or youknow someone else is going to
be like the face of the businessand you have those specific
jobs, but a lot of times it ispeople just like well, if we
both go into it together, thenif we fail, it's not just me.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I think that I absolutely agree.
For me, I think it was in partthe idea that it would be fun to
do it with a friend, it wouldbe fun to have somebody to, like
you know, to do all the things.
And I'm such a talker, like Iwas saying, that I like to
bounce ideas off of other people.
I like to, you know, I kind ofquestion before I put something
(17:30):
out into the world.
And I think, since you know,about two years ago, when I
started that partnership, to whoI am now, I've learned to like
back to trusting that instinct.
I don't necessarily need tobounce every single idea off of
my husband, my friend, my mom,you know my business friends.
Like you, taryn, like I don'tneed to ask every single person,
(17:51):
every question.
And I got to that point throughsome great coaching from one of
our friends who challenged meto ask myself, before I ask
other people, their opinion ortheir advice or whatever like,
can I answer this questionmyself?
And it's been life-changing.
I'm not even kidding.
I'm like, wait, I don't need toask this.
Like with my YouTube editor, Iwas like I can't make this
(18:13):
decision.
You just mentioned it for mewhen I could have just made this
decision, like I'm stillworking on it, but we really do
just need to trust our gut.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think more often than we let ourselves do just
need to trust our gut, I think,more often than we let ourselves
.
That's so true, and I can justhear from this you talking about
your new business, that you'rekind of lighting up, doing the
things that you wanted to do allalong, which I think sometimes
in a partnership, obviously youhave this whole other person and
their opinions and you can'treally run it the way you want
(18:43):
to without that other personagreeing to everything.
But now it seems like you knowyou're just taking what you want
to do and you're just doing it,and that has to be a really
good feeling now, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I feel like it's just .
I've grown as a person and itis.
It's hard to have to check, youknow it's.
It's like a marriage, you know,and when we go into a marriage,
we are making this like raisingkids.
You're, you are.
That other person has a say andhas and that's important to you
, but you date that person.
(19:14):
You think really hard aboutmarrying them.
Like, of course, we have thatgut intuition, like this is a
person I'm going to marry, butyou still are making decisions
together and going into apartnership.
You're making tons of importantdecisions together.
You have goals that aretogether and if those things
aren't aligned, it doesn'talways feel right and that's
(19:35):
hard.
Like it feels like a divorce,it does.
You know?
Deleting that Instagram made mystomach churn.
Sending in the letter to thestate that says you know this
company is closing it's hard.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, and I don't think that you went into that
all the way, but you didultimately just decide that you
guys wanted to shut it down, andwhich is why you basically had
to start over everything fromscratch, which is so hard, when
you've put so much blood, sweatand tears into a business, to
have to start over Now.
(20:09):
Obviously, you have yourexperience and all of that, but,
yeah, just having to redoeverything is, like you said,
like getting a divorce.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've never been divorced, so I
don't know exactly how thatfeels, but it felt.
You know, it's very, it's avery big decision to be in the
partnership.
It didn't seem as big at thetime of starting as it did
ending, and I think that'ssomething that I wish I would
have known more.
(20:37):
I don't.
You know, every less, everylife lesson like life experience
is a lesson, um, but yeah, Idon't think you think about that
.
When you're excited in thebeginning stages, you're like
let's just do this, and thepeople who have been there are
like, okay, but don't forgetabout that operating agreement,
and you're like it's cool, it'sfine, but maybe it would have
been helpful in the end.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I do think that it also kind of forces you into
that state of mind, because alot of times when people start a
business, they're like this isfun, we'll just see how this
goes.
We don't know if we'll make thatmuch profit in the first year.
It's just kind of a passion.
But the minute you sit in frontof that attorney and they're
saying, okay, we need to decideall of these things and assign
(21:25):
people jobs and all of this andhow you're going to pay everyone
, it really does make you treatit like a business from the
start.
And that's one of the adviceswe give to everyone, not just
partnerships you need to treatyour business like a business
from the very beginning, becausevery likely this is going to be
a very serious business andgenerating income for your
(21:46):
family and you want to make surethat you're you're having a
good foundation from the start.
And lots of people don't dothat.
Even if it's just themselves,you know they don't file the
right paperwork, they don'tstart bookkeeping, they don't
set aside money for taxes.
So this is just one of those,those things that we always
suggest people do for thatreally good foundation.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, and I think kind of back to your question
what am I doing differently?
That's something that I knownow.
So every month I'm doing my P&L, my profits and losses
spreadsheet, I'm filling thatout, I'm keeping track, I'm
talking to my accountant to makesure, from the start, what do I
need?
What do you need, like, how dowe make sure we're dotting our
I's and crossing our T's,whatever that phrase is?
So, yeah, there's lots ofthings I know now that are going
(22:34):
to hopefully help me grow thisbusiness to where I see it going
.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, I love it.
I love that you didn't justgive up and say this is too hard
, no, that's not an option.
Giving up is not an option.
I love it, which tells me thatyou're like.
We've learned about pivoting,just the power of the pivot, yep
, which means you are 100% anentrepreneur.
If you say, no, I'm justpivoting, I'm not giving up, yes
(23:01):
, it's just a pivot.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing with us
today.
Sarah, I know this is kind of ahard topic for you to talk
about.
It would be for me if I hadgone through this, because
you're just like woulda, coulda,shoulda who cares, but I do
think this is really goodinformation that so many people
will listen to and use.
(23:22):
So thank you for being able toshare that.
You're welcome.
Also, if you could just telleverybody where they can find
you, where they can follow youon social she has a really great
free potty training content allover her social and where will
they find you most?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Sure.
So I enjoy popping over ontoInstagram.
I'm there pretty much every day.
You can find me on Instagram atTinkle and Toot, and you can
also find me on YouTube, andthat is my first and last name.
So that's at Sarah S-A-R-A-HMeckling, which I'm sure Karen
(24:02):
will put in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yes, I will put both of those in the show notes.
Like you said, you arereleasing a course soon, so it
should be either already live,or yeah, it's going to be a
course.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
It's going to be a course.
So, yes, it's going to be acourse, with a membership option
for some support Awesome.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Well, I will put all of those in the show notes.
If you are a parent and needsome potty training support,
sarah is definitely your girl.
So until next time.
Thank you so much for listeningto what your CPA Wants you To
Know.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
This podcast is intended to provide accounting
and tax information foreducational purposes only.
All tax situations are uniqueand should be handled with the
assistance of a tax professional.
For a while it did feel very aligned, but I think
there were just other thingsthat weren't covered in those
conversations that ultimatelyled to just having differences
that didn't feel like they weregoing to be resolvable.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to what your CPA Wants you To Know.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Tax and accounting help can be expensive, so we've
created this podcast to helpguide you through it all and
make you feel like you have aCPA in your back pocket.
I'm Carson Sands and I'm TarynSands.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm a CPA with over 10 years of experience helping
people start and grow theirbusinesses.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
And I'm an MBA with a specialization in marketing and
entrepreneurship.
Taxes suck and we want to makesure you don't pay more than
your fair share.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We're here to share everything your CPA wants you to
know in a fun and easy tounderstand way.
Let's get started.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Let's do it Today.
I have Sarah Meckling joiningme, from Tinkle and Toot.
She is a potty training expertand her business provides
support for parents pottytraining their children, so
thank you so much for joining metoday, sarah.
Thanks for having me.
(01:20):
Taryn, of course I can't laughwhen I say your can't not laugh
when I say your business name,which is actually really good
and catchy, so I love that.
Please introduce yourself, yourbusiness and everything to our
audience and tell us all aboutTinkle and Toot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yes, so, as you said, my name is Sarah.
I have been potty trainingsince 2010.
I'm a board certified behavioranalyst.
That's kind of where myexperience started, and it was
mostly with kids with autism.
I still dabble in that, but Ihave ventured into helping
parents of all kids with pottytraining, and Tinklin2 was born
(02:01):
after some experiences in thebusiness world and really
finding where my passions lie.
I love potty training and Ireally want to be able to bring
this support and resources toparents everywhere so that they
don't have to feel like pottytraining is like the most
stressful experience of theirlife.
It might not be their favorite,but it doesn't have to be the
(02:22):
worst.
That's what Tingle N2 is allabout Awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I love it and, as a mom of three, I wish I would
have known you before I pottytrained all of my kids, because,
yes, I do think it's one of theworst things that you have to
do as a parent, along withteaching them other things that
they definitely don't reallycare to learn Right?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I always tell parents I'm like, why would your child
think that they should not peeand poop in their diaper?
That's all they know.
And you're telling them nowthat they have to pee and poop
in a hole.
I'm like, why would they thinkthat they should do that?
We have to convince them thatit's a good idea.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It is hard and they lead you to believe that you can
do it in three days and it canbe so easy.
And I know my grandma was likeoh yeah, I potty trained at 18
months and you're just gettingall kinds of like different
stories and I remember at thetime I was just like so
frustrated with trying to getpoop in the potty I would have
(03:18):
paid any amount for someone tohelp me.
Like I just felt like I wasdoing it all wrong, and so I'm
so glad that there's businesseslike this that support that now,
because it's so easy to dovirtually and just have somebody
that's an expert help youtroubleshoot so that you feel
like, okay, at least I'm tryingto do what I should be doing and
I'm moving in the rightdirection.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Exactly.
I aim to make it as simple aspossible for parents so that
when they're in it they're likeokay, at least I know exactly
what I'm supposed to do, what toexpect, like is my kid going to
pee or poop on the floor today?
Obviously I can't predict thefuture, but to kind of give them
those realistic expectations oflike what the experience should
even be like.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, exactly, I love that, yeah yeah.
So before this episode, sarahand I were just talking about
what direction we wanted to goand what we wanted to focus on,
and we decided to talk aboutpartnerships.
So Sarah will give you all thedetails.
But she was in a partnershipbefore Tinkle and Toot and it
(04:20):
ultimately ended.
And you know, if you listen toour podcast Carson has said it
many times the partnership isthe only ship that won't float.
So it is kind of funny, but italso is kind of true.
We see a lot of partnershipsthat are formed just don't make
it within, like, the year mark,and there's a lot of reasons for
(04:42):
that and there's also a lot ofbenefits to partnerships.
But the thing that we alwaystell people is that we can't
just simply set you up an LLCfor your partnership, which we
could but the reason we won't isbecause you need to make sure
that you really set up all ofyour agreements like your
partnership agreement, youroperating agreement, all of
(05:03):
those things with an attorney.
So sometimes, when that happensand you decide to part ways, you
have no idea what to do becauseyou have none of these
agreements set up from the start.
So I think that this is such agood thing to discuss because a
lot of people don't talk aboutit, right, they just kind of
(05:24):
sweep it under the rug and theydon't want't talk about it.
Right, they just kind of sweepit under the rug and they don't
want to talk about it, which Iunderstand.
So thank you so much for beingwilling to just open up a little
bit about this topic and shareyour story, and hopefully that
will help somebody else ifthey're starting a partnership,
do the right things and take theright steps or learn from your
advice.
Sure, so can you tell us allabout the partnership that you
(05:47):
had started and all the detailsabout what ultimately happened
with that?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Sure.
So about two and a half yearsago a little bit over than that
I decided I wanted to takemyself on this entrepreneurial
journey and I knew I wanted todo something with potty training
.
But originally I wasn't quiteready to do it on my own.
So I did some independentcontracting for a little bit
through another company.
And then I had a friend who wasalso interested in starting a
(06:15):
company for potty training, sowe decided to start a company
together.
That previous company was apartnership.
Despite lots of advice from afamily member who's actually a
business attorney and some othersources my accountant I did not
get an operating agreement.
So we did not start out ourcompany with an operating
(06:38):
agreement.
We were kind of excited friends, trusting I am a optimist,
toxic positivity, all that stuffso I was very excited to get
started and thought it will befine, I don't need this
operating agreement.
At some point we went to open abank account and we needed an
operating agreement.
(06:58):
So we did get one, but it was avery generic from one of those
websites that it just has likewho knows what information, the
basics, yeah, yeah.
So we never really discussedwhat happens if this issue
arises, or this issue or one ofus wants to part ways, or both
of us decide we want to partways, or any of the details.
To be honest, I don't even knowwhat would be in an operating
(07:22):
agreement that covers all bases.
We didn't have thoseconversations.
We didn't have any of that inwriting.
So when it came time to partways, just due to differences in
where we saw the company goingand how we wanted the company to
be run, nothing major, nothinggrand happened.
There was no big fight orargument.
It just was not working out andwe didn't have anything in
(07:46):
place to decide to guide us inhow to move forward from there.
So from that point we tried tofigure it out on our own.
That wasn't working out, so wedid have to seek legal counsel
to guide us through that process, which of course costs money.
So the money that wepotentially could have spent up
front for an operating agreementthat would have more easily
(08:07):
helped us part ways would havesaved us money in the long run
on attorney fees and all of thatstuff that comes along with
that.
So that's kind of the gist.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And I think that you hit the nail on the head there.
It's that people don't want topay that extra money.
So just to give you an examplein our office we charge $425 to
set up a new LLC and that couldbe a partnership.
But then we direct these peopleto the attorney and you're also
paying into the state of Texas$300 extra to Texas just to set
(08:42):
this up.
So you're already out almost athousand dollars just setting it
up and we're like no, you needto go to this attorney and it's
going to be more, probablycloser to $2,000.
But the good thing is they knowexactly what to ask you guys.
Sitting down.
They're like well, if thishappens, what will you guys do?
What about this part of thebusiness?
(09:04):
What if this happens?
What do you guys do?
What about this part of thebusiness?
What if this happens?
What do you guys do?
So it really gives you time tothink through each of those
things and decide right then andthere.
So I do think that usuallymoney in the beginning, like you
said, you're so excited to getstarted and then you just kind
of avoided that step.
A lot of people do that Very,very common.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Right and I had the advice at the time to do it and
I was just so hopeful and notworried about it.
I guess at the time that I waslike it's okay, it'll be fine
and of course, like you know,everything is still fine.
But I lost a friend along theway, I lost a business that I
had worked hard at, and that'sobviously very sad.
(09:46):
And if those things could havebeen avoided by having legal
counsel in the beginning toguide us into how to make the
decisions should they get tothat point, that would have, I
think, saved a lot of heartache,headache, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And a lot of stress.
I know it was a very stressfulsituation there for a while.
I'm glad that you kind ofworked through that, but for a
while it was very stressfulbecause you need to know what
you're going to do to moveforward in your business.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, it is definitely stressful.
There was a lot of questions,things left up in the air for a
bit, and that was hard.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So I think it's pretty clear that you didn't
anticipate any of this happening.
So I think it's pretty clearthat you didn't anticipate any
of this happening, obviously,like you said, but did you two
ever have a conversation aboutissues arising or if one of you
needed to go in a differentdirection?
Were there any of thoseconversations during your
business together?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I think there were some surface level
conversations about reallyfiguring out whose role was what
we see the company going.
Those conversations were hadand for a while it did feel very
(11:08):
aligned.
But I think there were justother things that weren't
covered in those conversationsthat ultimately led to just
having differences that didn'tfeel like they were going to be
resolvable are you ready tostart your new business, but
(11:33):
you're just not sure what isneeded to get your business
started legally.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Like all the paperwork, your ein, your llc,
all of that.
You may have a brilliantbusiness idea, but there is so
much more to starting andrunning a new business that no
one tells you about but everysingle person has to do, no
matter what type of businessthey're starting.
To make this very frustratingprocess simple, we created a
step-by-step checklist to helpyou get started so you know what
(11:59):
you need to do legally to startyour business your EIN, your
LLC, your bookkeeping, savingfor taxes.
If you want to make sure thatyou're doing everything
correctly and you're movingforward, knowing all about those
important due dates and filingsand all of the tax things that
you really should know beforeyou just jump into
(12:19):
entrepreneurship, this newbusiness starter kit is exactly
what you need.
We designed this to helpsimplify the complicated process
of the paperwork and thefilings at the very beginning,
and most entrepreneurs don'thave extra hours to research all
of these steps.
Our new business starter kithelps you file the necessary
(12:41):
paperwork and set up therequired processes to start a
new business step-by-step.
If you want to grab a copy ofthis today.
Just check out the link in theshow notes.
Now back to the show.
So, moving forward, what areyou doing differently with your
(13:03):
new business and is there anyadvice that you would give
everyone listening?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Loaded questions.
Taryn, I'm just kidding.
So what am I doing differently?
So my new company is a singleowner, llc I'm not sure if
that's the right way to say it,but it is.
Yeah, okay, I got it right.
Cool, good job.
So I am doing this solo.
I am really excited.
I am doing a few thingsdifferent, I am Okay.
(13:32):
So I'm starting a YouTubechannel.
That's really exciting.
By the time this episode airs,that will be live.
I am really looking for morespeaking engagements like
podcasts.
I would love to just get infront of more audiences so that
I can help more people.
I really love talking and Ilove talking about potty
(13:53):
training.
Anybody that will listen.
I'm going to tell themsomething that they probably
weren't even really interestedin.
So it's really hard.
On Instagram and stories orreels it's really hard.
Or even posts, it's onInstagram and stories or reels
it's really hard.
Or, you know, even posts.
It's hard to filter myself to15 seconds, 30 seconds, it's so
difficult.
So I'm excited to be able tohave a little bit more long form
(14:13):
content that's going to be ableto more like I'll be able to
explain things further andreally dive into the subjects.
So those are some things thatI'm doing differently this time
around.
I am refining resources, I'mcreating a course that will also
be available, probably by thetime this podcast airs.
I'm trying to get all theinformation that's in my brain
(14:34):
out in the world so that all thefamilies that have access to it
can have a Smith-Potty trainingexperience.
That's my main goal.
I want people to just get pastthis part of parenting so that
they can enjoy their life.
Yes, yeah, so I I'm just tryingto get creative with how I can
do that.
So I think that's some of themain ways that I'm kind of doing
(14:55):
things differently.
Okay, so do I have any advice?
I definitely do.
I would say, if somebody isthinking about going to a
partnership, the advice that Igot that I didn't listen to.
So, of course, like we talkedabout the operating agreement,
even though it might seem like alot of money upfront in the
beginning of starting a business, I really think it's pretty
important.
So that's definitely a piece ofadvice.
(15:17):
I also got advice that whengoing into a partnership and of
course, I don't know everythingabout partnerships, I'm by no
means an expert in this, but theadvice that I got was, when you
go into a partnership, youshould really be bringing
different things to the tablethat are going to help your
business grow and support yourbusiness in different ways,
because your skills andpersonalities and experiences
(15:38):
are going to complement eachother with growing this company
and the goals of the company,each other with growing this
company and the goals of thecompany.
So I really think that that isan important piece, that I
didn't think deep enough when itcame to a partnership and I
would do differently if I wereto ever think about doing
something like that again.
And then my third thing, Iguess, would be following your
(16:01):
gut and your intuition.
I think oftentimes we don'tlisten to our gut because
there's other chatter whetherit's our own chatter in our head
or other people's opinions andthoughts, or maybe, like me,
someone's like too optimisticabout life and wants to say yes
to everybody but reallylistening to that gut feeling or
(16:22):
thought or you know what's kindof like on our heart and trying
to figure out how that can helpguide us versus all the other
noise.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yes, I love that and I think you can correct me if
I'm wrong, but I feel likesometimes people jump into a
partnership because they're alittle scared to do it
themselves.
They're a little scared to doit themselves and, like you said
, it's really important ifyou're forming a partnership
that both partners are bringingsomething really big to the
table.
So maybe you're really good atthe business side of things and
(16:53):
you're going to run that, or youknow someone else is going to
be like the face of the businessand you have those specific
jobs, but a lot of times it ispeople just like well, if we
both go into it together, thenif we fail, it's not just me.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I think that I absolutely agree.
For me, I think it was in partthe idea that it would be fun to
do it with a friend, it wouldbe fun to have somebody to, like
you know, to do all the things.
And I'm such a talker, like Iwas saying, that I like to
bounce ideas off of other people.
I like to, you know, I kind ofquestion before I put something
(17:30):
out into the world.
And I think, since you know,about two years ago, when I
started that partnership, to whoI am now, I've learned to like
back to trusting that instinct.
I don't necessarily need tobounce every single idea off of
my husband, my friend, my mom,you know my business friends.
Like you, taryn, like I don'tneed to ask every single person,
(17:51):
every question.
And I got to that point throughsome great coaching from one of
our friends who challenged meto ask myself, before I ask
other people, their opinion ortheir advice or whatever like,
can I answer this questionmyself?
And it's been life-changing.
I'm not even kidding.
I'm like, wait, I don't need toask this.
Like with my YouTube editor, Iwas like I can't make this
(18:13):
decision.
You just mentioned it for mewhen I could have just made this
decision, like I'm stillworking on it, but we really do
just need to trust our gut.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think more often than we let ourselves do just
need to trust our gut, I think,more often than we let ourselves
.
That's so true, and I can justhear from this you talking about
your new business, that you'rekind of lighting up, doing the
things that you wanted to do allalong, which I think sometimes
in a partnership, obviously youhave this whole other person and
their opinions and you can'treally run it the way you want
(18:43):
to without that other personagreeing to everything.
But now it seems like you knowyou're just taking what you want
to do and you're just doing it,and that has to be a really
good feeling now, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I feel like it's just .
I've grown as a person and itis.
It's hard to have to check, youknow it's.
It's like a marriage, you know,and when we go into a marriage,
we are making this like raisingkids.
You're, you are.
That other person has a say andhas and that's important to you
, but you date that person.
(19:14):
You think really hard aboutmarrying them.
Like, of course, we have thatgut intuition, like this is a
person I'm going to marry, butyou still are making decisions
together and going into apartnership.
You're making tons of importantdecisions together.
You have goals that aretogether and if those things
aren't aligned, it doesn'talways feel right and that's
(19:35):
hard.
Like it feels like a divorce,it does.
You know?
Deleting that Instagram made mystomach churn.
Sending in the letter to thestate that says you know this
company is closing it's hard.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, and I don't think that you went into that
all the way, but you didultimately just decide that you
guys wanted to shut it down, andwhich is why you basically had
to start over everything fromscratch, which is so hard, when
you've put so much blood, sweatand tears into a business, to
have to start over Now.
(20:09):
Obviously, you have yourexperience and all of that, but,
yeah, just having to redoeverything is, like you said,
like getting a divorce.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've never been divorced, so I
don't know exactly how thatfeels, but it felt.
You know, it's very, it's avery big decision to be in the
partnership.
It didn't seem as big at thetime of starting as it did
ending, and I think that'ssomething that I wish I would
have known more.
(20:37):
I don't.
You know, every less, everylife lesson like life experience
is a lesson, um, but yeah, Idon't think you think about that
.
When you're excited in thebeginning stages, you're like
let's just do this, and thepeople who have been there are
like, okay, but don't forgetabout that operating agreement,
and you're like it's cool, it'sfine, but maybe it would have
been helpful in the end.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I do think that it also kind of forces you into
that state of mind, because alot of times when people start a
business, they're like this isfun, we'll just see how this
goes.
We don't know if we'll make thatmuch profit in the first year.
It's just kind of a passion.
But the minute you sit in frontof that attorney and they're
saying, okay, we need to decideall of these things and assign
(21:25):
people jobs and all of this andhow you're going to pay everyone
, it really does make you treatit like a business from the
start.
And that's one of the adviceswe give to everyone, not just
partnerships you need to treatyour business like a business
from the very beginning, becausevery likely this is going to be
a very serious business andgenerating income for your
(21:46):
family and you want to make surethat you're you're having a
good foundation from the start.
And lots of people don't dothat.
Even if it's just themselves,you know they don't file the
right paperwork, they don'tstart bookkeeping, they don't
set aside money for taxes.
So this is just one of those,those things that we always
suggest people do for thatreally good foundation.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, and I think kind of back to your question
what am I doing differently?
That's something that I knownow.
So every month I'm doing my P&L, my profits and losses
spreadsheet, I'm filling thatout, I'm keeping track, I'm
talking to my accountant to makesure, from the start, what do I
need?
What do you need, like, how dowe make sure we're dotting our
I's and crossing our T's,whatever that phrase is?
So, yeah, there's lots ofthings I know now that are going
(22:34):
to hopefully help me grow thisbusiness to where I see it going
.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, I love it.
I love that you didn't justgive up and say this is too hard
, no, that's not an option.
Giving up is not an option.
I love it, which tells me thatyou're like.
We've learned about pivoting,just the power of the pivot, yep
, which means you are 100% anentrepreneur.
If you say, no, I'm justpivoting, I'm not giving up, yes
(23:01):
, it's just a pivot.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing with us
today.
Sarah, I know this is kind of ahard topic for you to talk
about.
It would be for me if I hadgone through this, because
you're just like woulda, coulda,shoulda who cares, but I do
think this is really goodinformation that so many people
will listen to and use.
(23:22):
So thank you for being able toshare that.
You're welcome.
Also, if you could just telleverybody where they can find
you, where they can follow youon social she has a really great
free potty training content allover her social and where will
they find you most?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Sure.
So I enjoy popping over ontoInstagram.
I'm there pretty much every day.
You can find me on Instagram atTinkle and Toot, and you can
also find me on YouTube, andthat is my first and last name.
So that's at Sarah S-A-R-A-HMeckling, which I'm sure Karen
(24:02):
will put in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yes, I will put both of those in the show notes.
Like you said, you arereleasing a course soon, so it
should be either already live,or yeah, it's going to be a
course.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
It's going to be a course.
So, yes, it's going to be acourse, with a membership option
for some support Awesome.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Well, I will put all of those in the show notes.
If you are a parent and needsome potty training support,
sarah is definitely your girl.
So until next time.
Thank you so much for listeningto what your CPA Wants you To
Know.
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
This podcast is intended to provide accounting
and tax information foreducational purposes only.
All tax situations are uniqueand should be handled with the
assistance of a tax professional.
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