I'm currently reading The Outsiders: 8 Unconventional CEOs ๐ - a book that was on Warren Buffett's must read list in 2012. One of the points it makes early on is about the need for CEOs to be good investors ๐ at heart. They are stewards of capital and so constantly analyze inputs to make the best decision for shareholders and the business. The same holds for small business, with one tiny wrinkle: a drastically smaller finance team. ๐ค Until your business gets to $10 million in revenue, it's...
11 days agoย โขย 3 min read
CPAs and tax preparers (shout out to all my EA friends) get a bad wrap for adding zero value to their clients. So when we have a chance, we have to be ready to lay the pipe and bring it. ๐ช One of the best ways I've done this for my real estate (and small business) clients is through a good scrub of their operating agreement (OA) - with practical suggestions and changes. If you are the client, this is an incredible way you can bring value to your LPs as well as save yourself some tax - by...
18 days agoย โขย 4 min read
I'm asked this question probably 100 times every year: "Should I be a S-Corp?" ๐คทโ๏ธ A tiny fraction of the answers do I ever get paid for - family, friends, new client prospects. Most of the time they get talked out of it or don't get the confirmation they were looking for it and we never talk again. So I spent some time thinking it through and shared a full blown "Pass-through Entity Selection Decision Tree" last ๐ week. If you can't find it, it's right above the degenerate Twitter Posts at...
about 1 month agoย โขย 5 min read
Tax meetings are stressful to plan for. As advisors, we only have a few deliverables each year and planning / strategy meetings are a big one. So early in my career when the client told me during one of these meetings that, "this was the biggest waste of time I've had in a while" - it's one I took home and really thought about. Why It Sucked For starters, I didn't appreciate where I fit in as a tax advisor in the finance team - and I think most CPAs still don't. ๐ But let me lay the...
about 2 months agoย โขย 4 min read
Saving small business and real estate owners on tax is one the best ways I fulfill my personal mission - which is lowering the cost of capital for decision makers. Today, we're going back to school ๐ with the 5 biggest tools SMB and RE owners should be using to do just that ๐ An S-Corp Somewhere ยง469 Aggregation Cost Segregation 199A QBI Optimization Operating Agreement Planning But first... ๐จ The Plug is now on YouTube! ๐จ I'd appreciate a like, comment, and follow over there if you're into...
about 2 months agoย โขย 4 min read
Ask your accountant, and they'll tell you "It depends." Ask your attorney, and you'll get a novel of an email and a $1,000 invoice. But all you really want is someone to tell you how to set up your business to get started without stepping on a landmine. ๐ฅ If you feel this, today is your day. We're going into the structure I advise in a lot of entity structuring and planning calls I have (if you want one customized, just reply to this email to get set-up). This design includes the best parts...
2 months agoย โขย 4 min read
More unnecessary tax is paid from bad accounting than bad tax planning. ๐ซณ๐ค Bad structures or missed elections can cost a few percentage points on the tax paid on the income. But bad accounting can create phantom income or missed deductions that become unrecoverable - it's something no level of tax planning can help you with. ๐คท To illustrate - today we're digging into a few real life examples I've seen over the years: Losing Money on Real Estate Owned When you build or improve assets yourself,...
2 months agoย โขย 5 min read
Just. Start. Doing. It. That's the best advice for any small business owner who feels like they don't know what's going on in the finances of their business. ๐ซจ When scaling a business, an owner usually obsesses on the following in this order: Sales Quality of Delivery Hiring Anything else Accounting While new sales, quality, and hiring will get you a nice paying self-employed living - good accounting will always hold you back from breaking through and building a business. And good accounting...
2 months agoย โขย 8 min read
Growing a business with acquisitions of competitors (horizontally) is additive โ - increasing profit through increasing market share and sharing costs. But growing a business through acquisitions of customers or vendors (vertically) is multiplicative โ๏ธ - it collapses gross profit making every dollar spent on sales that much more valuable. Today, we're talking about how business owners use the tax code to do the same thing - turn expenses into assets or tax deductions and lower their overall...
3 months agoย โขย 4 min read