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Ep. 131 - Top 6 overlooked tax write off categories= more cash in the bank - Hayden Danielle
110 Plays1 year ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays.
I have Danielle Hayden Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Accounting in the HECK YES house. There is one major question you must ask yourself to get empowered today. You will have to tune in to find out what that question is.
She reminds us that you owe it to yourself and your business and your clients to know your numbers. Danielle's Woo Factor is that she's coming from a genuine place. Her team and her all jump out of bed in the morning and are excited to help business owners understand their numbers. They care deeply about their clients and want to be a resource for them to help them, no judgment, open dialogue.
Hot topic: Photographers + Top 6 overlooked tax write off categories= more cash in the bank.
- Knowledge on how to optimize tax saving strategies and deductions of the top 6 overlooked tax write offs categories (think advertising & marketing, operating expenses, payroll, and other business fees).
-Business and personal finances shouldn’t be mixed.
-Tax savings on on-going investment options, such as retirement and health insurance.
Danielle Hayden is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. a bookkeeping and accounting firm that is on a mission to coach six figure (+ beyond) female entrepreneurs so they can better understand their numbers through bookkeeping, financial analysis, and support so they can grow profitable, sustainable and enjoyable businesses.
With over 15 years experience in the world of finance, Danielle has worked her way from accounting firm intern to the Co-Founder of Kickstart Accounting. She understands how complex business finances can be, and she knows that entrepreneurs need more than just a bookkeeper; they need real financial analysis and support in order to get the confidence required to create the sustainable wealth they deserve. Danielle brings a unique perspective when it comes to providing business owners with “the total package” as it relates to their finances.
Connect with Danielle
https://www.instagram.com/kickstartaccounting/
Connect with Carissa
Recommended
Transcript
The Power of Understanding Numbers
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Boo Wednesdays. Today, Danielle from Kickstart Accounting makes numbers super fun. Seriously, she does. This conversation is so powerful for all you wedding pros. It can totally change the trajectory of your business completely because guess what? You don't have to do much except ask yourself one simple question and then get some help. You will find out what that question is in the conversation.
Sales Breakthrough Insights
00:00:25
Speaker
But before we begin, I still have the sales breakthrough system going on. It's only $50 with code HECKYES. I've been doing them all week and it's so fire. You answer a bunch of questions for me and then I send you back a 45-minute
00:00:42
Speaker
video telling you exactly what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong and some encouragement and some tips and tricks on how to get on the preferred venue vendor list, how to get more bookings, how to get bookings today, how to get leads, how to increase your sales, and a whole lot more. Hop on it. But enjoy this episode. You are going to love it.
Creative Journey and Podcast Goals
00:01:09
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:38
Speaker
Time-hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:01
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your girl, Carissa Wu. I have a very special guest today. Her name is Danielle Hayden, and she is the co-founder and CEO of Kickstart Accounting Inc., a bookkeeping and accounting firm that is on a mission to coach six figure plus female entrepreneurs so they could be better at their financials and numbers and kick ass.
00:02:28
Speaker
I put that in myself. But welcome, Daniel. How are you doing? Thank you so much for having. And yes, like part of it is kicking us because that knowing our numbers allows us to show up really, really confident in our business and to be able to do more.
Empowering Female Entrepreneurs with Finance
00:02:41
Speaker
So yes, and we were chatting a little bit before we started recording our fellow podcasters. You have a podcast called business
00:02:49
Speaker
by the book, tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I love podcasting. Business by the Books is a podcast really just dedicated to how to use your numbers to manage your business and make better business decisions. You know, what it cuts in hearing in the entrepreneur space is that there's this talk about, air quote, know your numbers. And then our clients will get on the phone with us or a financial review call or like, what does that mean?
00:03:18
Speaker
Like, what's the secret? Like, what am I supposed to do with the numbers? Like, I don't know where to, like, I don't even know what to do with this. So we're taking the bookkeeping that my team and I are doing for our clients, and we're adding the next level, right? So even if you're doing your own bookkeeping or you have another bookkeeper, you can listen to the podcast and get the information of what do I do with this information so I can make better business decisions and minimize your taxes.
00:03:46
Speaker
That's a good way to put it. It's like, know your numbers, look at them. Now what? Okay, what do I do?
00:03:55
Speaker
Cool. Well, I want to know about you, Danielle. Tell me a little bit about you growing up, what you're like as a kid, any hobbies and anything you want to tell the audience, but more about you, not about business. Yeah. So about me, gosh, I, um, I'm always like, I should double check with my mom to get her. Right. Like what does my mom think? Um,
00:04:17
Speaker
You know, as a kid, I grew up with I had a bunch of boys on my my street. I am from Ohio, so Midwest town. And I grew up in this development where we played outside until the street lights came on. And I had a group of boys up and down my street that I hung out with playing hockey and
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, straight hockey and running around in the woods and I had this really amazing carefree childhood. Yeah, like I can't say enough about like my parents moved us to a really safe, supportive community. I had amazing friends. The nine girls who I was close with in grade school, I still live pretty close to them and could call them anytime. So I think that's very, very unique.
00:05:13
Speaker
And then as I grew up, I went to school to be a hairstylist. So I have the creative mind as well as the accounting brain. So I went to school to be a hairstylist and love that creative side. And it really is where I realized what numbers could do for us as people. I had no idea. It's kind of funny because I wasn't good at math.
00:05:43
Speaker
I wasn't this natural math person because I think when we think accountants and CPAs were like, oh, they were definitely, you know, straight-aged students, nerds as a kid. I was not. I wasn't actually a very good student when I was growing up. I'd rather be outside playing than studying.
00:06:05
Speaker
But it was later in my life that I realized that numbers made sense and I could kind of marry the creative side with the analytical side of my brain.
From Hair to Finance: An Unconventional Path
00:06:15
Speaker
Oh, I love that. Did you have your own hairstylist business or did you work for someone else? So I worked for somebody else and actually one of the things that I love doing at the hair salon was teaching the other girls how to read their paycheck because they didn't understand their commission structure and they didn't understand how to make money.
00:06:36
Speaker
And I had came in as this young girl and I was killing it. And they're like, I don't understand how you're doing that. And I was like, well, I just am putting together the numbers so I can play the system, right? Like if you hit these numbers, you get more in commission. And they didn't understand what I was talking about. So I started helping these other girls in the hair salon understand their paycheck. Well, guess what? The owners did not appreciate.
00:07:01
Speaker
I mean, we were all doing well, so I guess maybe we did appreciate it, right? Because it wasn't like we were all bringing in more money, so the owners made more money too. Yeah. I guess they did probably appreciate it. But I did not own my own. It's funny, I went back to school because I wanted to own my own hair salon. And I decided that I needed to have some classes in business and marketing. And then once I had that,
00:07:26
Speaker
foundation, I would go open up my own hair salon. Well, along the way, I fell into a company. I ended up changing my major. I took this class and I was like, oh my gosh.
00:07:39
Speaker
The world makes sense here in accounting, like things add together, rules, when you follow the rules, it all works out to this perfect equation and it all clicked for me. So I actually changed my major to accounting and that's when I pivoted off to the right.
00:08:00
Speaker
What's a good, I mean, we're not talking about the hot talk a bit, but I'm just curious, what's a good book to kind of get your feet wet into the finance world, like an easy one? For somebody who's totally new to finance. Yeah. I know there's like Profit First is popular.
Strategic Finance and Business Growth
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, I actually would not suggest doing profit first. Profit first is great for cash management. So I have kind of a different spin on how I approach accounting and business owners. So here's my thoughts on it.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think as a business owner, it's your job not to do the bookkeeping, but to understand how to use the financials to play the game of business. Business is a game, right? Like we're all playing this game. There's no winners or losers. It's an infinite game, but we're all playing this infinite game of business.
00:08:57
Speaker
accounting helps you earn more points, right? That's what understanding accounting does. But you as a business owner, you don't need to know the bookkeeping. Profit first, I think, makes things very difficult because you're trying to move things around to all these different accounts. He has percentages that are very unobtainable for people. They get very overwhelmed and defeated that they can't actually
00:09:20
Speaker
hit those percentages so they get very, you know, it's, it's like a self fulfilling prophecy. So I love Mike Michalowicz. I think he's, he's great. However, I don't want anyone to read that book and then think, Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't move the percentages. Yeah.
00:09:37
Speaker
Um, Vern Harnesh is actually one of my favorite authors and he's not a popular author. Um, so he's not like your New York times best seller. And I think maybe that what makes me love him a little bit more. But he has a really approachable way for small business owners to look at their numbers at a higher level concepts so that you know how to
00:10:00
Speaker
actually use the numbers. And in his book, Scaling Up, he actually talks about there's four principles, cash, people, execution,
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm blanking on the fourth one, but it's more than just cash, right? Yeah. It's cash, and then how do you use the people in your business to help you hit your goals? How do you execute on your business? So it's not all about the money. It's about the whole picture of the business. Oh, that's so cool.
00:10:36
Speaker
When you started, like you found accounting, it could have been, you know, you're planting seeds at the hairstylist because you're like, you know, on the commission rates and like the numbers. And then when you found out about it was like, it was like, I have to do this. It's for me. It makes sense. And you just kind of like dove super deep into it. What was like the story behind that? Yeah, so I didn't realize it at the time. But what I loved about the numbers
00:11:06
Speaker
was not that I had learned how to play the game at the salon. It was that I was helping the other ladies at the salon play the game and helping them have these light bulb moments. Like when they looked at their paycheck and they were like,
00:11:22
Speaker
Oh my God, why am I not hitting those goals? Why am I not getting the next commission structure up? Helping them get to the next level and helping them make sense of it all. That is what made me feel so good. So when I went into accounting, I went through a long corporate
00:11:43
Speaker
corporate trajectory, roller coaster ride that landed me back at entrepreneurship. But I went into corporate and what I realized was that my job during that time was to help the board of directors and the investors, my CEO, the management team,
00:12:00
Speaker
use the numbers to make business decisions, right? So it was the same thing. I was helping them take the numbers and play the game, right? Like they were just playing the game at a different scale. But my CEO, he didn't know how to read the numbers. He didn't know what to do with them.
00:12:17
Speaker
The board of directors, yeah, they knew what to do with the numbers, but I needed to actually bring them the numbers and interpret it for them so that they can then go make better business decisions. So I realized, wow, what I really enjoy about numbers is the way it allows me
00:12:36
Speaker
to help other people do more of what their purpose is. And that's why we do what we do now is because now we can take that whole bookkeeping and help people make better businesses, right? Like, so it's all about the people.
The Triple Threat for Wedding Pros
00:12:51
Speaker
It's all about helping other people.
00:12:52
Speaker
Oh my god, that's so cool. I mean, I know you say you're not good at math, like when you're little, but I do think you have like a beautiful mind. Thank you. I think a lot of people are so scared to even look maybe. And I think working there like really empowered you to actually like take a look because I think people just almost like
00:13:12
Speaker
They're so scared to look and maybe shame, but you're telling us it could empower you tremendously. I call it the report card effect. What I call that is the report card effect. I don't know about you, but I wasn't the best student growing up. I'm true entrepreneur through and through.
00:13:33
Speaker
Always talked too much. I was always getting in trouble. I was daydreaming. I mean, every notebook I had like scribbles everywhere and report cards would come. And I don't know what my parents thought grounding me was going to do. Like what? Because I'm grounded. Now I'm going to go to school tomorrow and I'm going to pay attention and stop talking. Like it didn't make sense.
00:13:54
Speaker
However, what I realized is I tried to play the same game with my son. So my son, he's 14 now, but when he was younger, I was trying to play the same game. He'd come out with report cards and I'm trying to ground him because we're getting a grade now.
00:14:10
Speaker
What is that doing to all of us? We get these report cards at the end of the quarter and we're told you passed or failed. Like you passed or failed. So now as a business owner, you didn't step out of school and forget everything that you went through. You take all those stories.
00:14:27
Speaker
with you, like that whole mindset and you take it with you. So now your bookkeeper, your accountant or your DIY bookkeeper, you go to look at your numbers and you're like, Oh my God, I feel shameful. I didn't pass. I didn't air quote pass. I didn't do enough. I didn't make enough. I didn't create enough profit. I'm scared of what it's going to tell me. So you shame yourself because you're supposed to. Wow. You're going deep.
00:14:56
Speaker
I just went to some manifestation live event on Sunday with like spiritual activator. So it's like never about like.
00:15:05
Speaker
this, like what you want. It's like that root of like what's stopping you. And it is like the stories that we're telling ourselves that like really shame us. And one of the stories I'm telling myself was like, I'm so scared to like that my coaching program is going to fail that I like started like manifesting some bad things happening to me. And like I would cause myself getting like anxiety or putting more work on my plate, you know,
00:15:31
Speaker
And or like think trying to do something something different and hoping like making sure like it won't fail so I got like a big epiphany from that live event. So it's interesting you you went so deep with that so fast.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of power to our minds. And so if you are telling your brain, I'm not a numbers person. I'm not good with numbers. I can't manage money. Well, then you're not, right? If you're telling your brain, I can learn this. This might not be easy today, but I can take the steps and find the people around me to help me.
00:16:11
Speaker
Um, I'm capable of doing it. It doesn't all have to make perfect sense today, but I can work towards it. Right? Like just the way that we reframe our thoughts can be so powerful. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Just like little steps like me downloading like rocket money app and like looking at my, um, subscriptions, you know, it's like a big step, but we could go so deep into the mindset of money, but let's talk about like your business now and what it is today.
00:16:39
Speaker
Pardon this short interruption, but guess what? I have a new program. It's for all wedding professionals. It's called The Triple Threat. We redo your brand messaging, the homepage of your website. Part two is we do all your marketing.
00:16:56
Speaker
create a beautiful brochure so you could start getting on Prefer venue vendor list and we do all your sales so we actually make you a sales presentation leading your client to the heck yes so you get paid. I have a free 20 minute demo training. It's only 20 minutes. Go to my Instagram at Carissa Woo.
00:17:19
Speaker
and DM me the word DEMO. I will send it right over. It's how to get 10 to 15 quality leads in your inbox per month. Enjoy, guys. Krista Wu is a LA-based wedding photographer who's actually turning business coach. She helped me grow and change, and I'm so proud to call you coach.
00:17:42
Speaker
tell us how you're feeling. Like, I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. Yeah, it's beautiful. And you're, you're awesome. It's beautiful. I'm speechless. I just like the fact that it feels like myself. I can I feel myself when I see this. Oh, man. Well, you got me pumped and excited for this. Carissa, thank you.
00:18:03
Speaker
So today we use bookkeeping as a vehicle to help business owners understand their numbers. It's interesting. So I started the business nine years ago. I left corporate and I said, I want to take all the same tools that I used at the hair salon, all the same tools that I used in corporate, and I want to bring them to entrepreneurship, especially women.
Bookkeeping for Strategic Growth
00:18:27
Speaker
to help them not feel so much shame, right? Like when we work with our clients, there's no judgment. It's a space where you could ask any question that you want, where you can feel like big mama bear hug, we got you because we do, right? But when I started, I thought that we could do like budgeting and planning and strategic support, but you can't
00:18:57
Speaker
create a budget without knowing where you've been. You can't look forward unless you can look back. And so we realized that everything starts with bookkeeping. You want to build a budget, you have to have correct bookkeeping first. You want to follow your tax return, you have to have bookkeeping first. Right? You want to make better business decisions and hire somebody, you have to have bookkeeping first. And so we use bookkeeping as the vehicle to then arm our clients
00:19:26
Speaker
with the financial information that they need. So we send all of our clients a monthly financial snapshot. It's an easy to read PDF document that allows business owners to stay at a really high level. Like imagine never having to sign into QuickBooks again.
00:19:41
Speaker
Like how beautiful is that, right? We do all the QuickBooks management and then we send our clients this beautiful report, charts and graphs, very creative and visual. And they never have to log in again because they have all the information that they need to then be able to ask themselves those strategic level questions to then go like just kill it in business. Wow. That sounds so refreshing. It is for a business owner for sure.
00:20:06
Speaker
That's such a good elevator pitch, too, because people are like, sign me up, dude. Oh my god. OK, so that is amazing. And who do you love to work with the most? So we primarily work with women business owners. And not to say we don't work with men, but we find that we can make the biggest impact with our ladies.
00:20:28
Speaker
And we have packages that fit our clients where they're at. So our pricing packages start at about $100,000 a year in revenue. So we find that we have the best impact with clients who they know that they have a business, they are growing, they have a growth mindset, and they're looking to get to the next level in their business. They're looking to start hiring
00:20:53
Speaker
contractors because they know they can't do it all. They might be thinking about hiring an employee in the next few years. So around that $100,000 a year in revenue and up really most importantly, a growth mindset that you know, you can't do everything yourself. Oh, I love that. I love that. Cool. Okay. And then one more question before hot topic, but what is your best heck yes technique or anything heck yes related. So I, um,
00:21:21
Speaker
There was a Peloton instructor, Robin Arzon, who I fell in love with the Peloton bike before it even got popular. So I was an early adopter. And she used to say, if it's not a hell yeah, then it's a hell no.
00:21:40
Speaker
Right? Because we have to show up really excited and energized and we only get one opportunity at this, this life. And so for me, it's being super, super clear, right? Like I get very, very clear at the beginning of each year, quarter, day to always make sure I know
00:22:02
Speaker
Who am I? What
Aligning Opportunities with Goals
00:22:04
Speaker
are my goals? And who am I here to serve? And so I'm so glad you asked all those questions because that is what gives me a heck yeah. Because it's so easy for me to say yes to being in this conversation with you because I'm so crystal clear about who I am and how I can serve you and your audience.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, it feels very natural. I mean, you talked before recording that, like, we get to podcasts and we're just like smitten about it because we're in our purpose and doing what we love. So that's so special. And I do love Robin too. So I have the Peloton. So okay, good. Yes, I know. I like I love that reference. And I never heard that before, actually, on the podcast. So pretty cool answer. Let's get into it. What is your hot topic? And why is it so near and dear to your heart?
00:22:49
Speaker
Obviously we know why. So I think one thing that's really interesting for business owners is that we think that we need to spend less. So all these client calls and financial review calls that I get on with our clients, people say to me all the time,
00:23:14
Speaker
Tell me where I have to cut back. I'm like, cut back? What are you talking about? I'm telling you that you're not spending enough. If somebody says to me, I'm not hitting my revenue goals, I can say, all right, show me your P&L. Show me your profit and loss statement. I can tell you why you're not hitting your goals. Because we think that we aren't enough to spend money, that we aren't big enough, that we haven't made it yet, that we're scared.
00:23:43
Speaker
that we're not going to have enough. And so we don't spend money to hit our goals. And we stay small. Maybe we need to find a the right healthy balance of spending so that we can hit our goals as a business.
00:23:59
Speaker
Okay, let's unravel this because I never heard this before so I'm just assuming but it doesn't have something to do with like being like free flowing with money like receiving and giving and
00:24:14
Speaker
Is it something to do with that? More cashflow? Is it more mindset? Tell me more. I'm pretty analytical. You can think of it as energy. I need to put into the world what I want back. I think if you are somebody who is a little bit more spiritual, that answer is going to feel really good for you.
00:24:39
Speaker
I'm going to put this energy into the world, and the more energy I put out, the more I'm going to receive. I'm pretty analytical. So for me, when I look at it, I'm thinking very tactically. If I want to grow my revenue, then I need to spend money in advertising and marketing. I'm going to tell you about one of my clients, and I think that this will help you see how we've implemented it.
00:25:06
Speaker
I had my client Jenna come to me a few years ago and she said to me, Danielle, I need you to teach me how to run my business at a loss. I'll take it. What are we doing? So we did what we call a catch up. We brought in all of her transactions into the system.
00:25:24
Speaker
but we did this catch up and then we were holding a financial review call with her afterwards. And I said, all right, Jenna, I got good news and bad news. The good news is they don't have to teach you how to run your business at a loss because you have a profit. The bad news is that it's November and you waited all year to call me and said, now you have to pay taxes on this profit. Here's what happened is that Jenna didn't realize every time she took out owner's draws or personal expenses that it was affecting her cash of her business, but not her profit.
00:25:53
Speaker
Here's the really cool part is that Jenna realized that at that moment she had considered herself a freelancer She was calling herself a freelancer not a business owner And because I told her that she was actually generating a profit her entire mindset shift. She was okay. I Can write a business? So she said I am gonna grow the revenue of this business. I am growing this thing and so she spent a
00:26:22
Speaker
so much money that year. She went to live conferences. She joined coaching programs. She held live networking events. She went to live networking events. She signed up to speak and podcast. She was on Facebook lines every day. She put so much money and energy into growing the top line of her business. And oh my gosh, she had so much growth in her sales. The next year, she said,
00:26:52
Speaker
I really need to buy a house. I know what my mom is aging. I might have to care for my mom. I need to save some money so I could save for a house. So we had to pivot. We had to pivot the way that we spent money in the business. She had to grow a team.
00:27:09
Speaker
Right? So she changed. She had to pivot the way she spent. She had to take home her profits. She had to get super lean. So she wasn't spending as much money on advertising and marketing. She wasn't spending as much money so that she can take home that profit so that she could save. She got to buy a house.
00:27:27
Speaker
Right? Because she cut back. She cut back on the expenses because she knew what her goal was for that year. Her mom did end up getting sick and living with her. And during that year, her expenses skyrocketed. Wow. It was really difficult for her to see how much money she was paying in her team. But she knew that she needed her team in order to serve her clients and her business. So she wasn't as profitable that year.
00:27:54
Speaker
but she had a team and so she had very high expenses so a lot of her sales were going to her payroll.
00:28:04
Speaker
And every year the shifts, right? So you have to think about what is your goal right now? What is your goal? And are you spending enough money, right? Are you spending enough money on building a team? Are you spending enough money in advertising and marketing? Are you spending enough money? Are you saving enough money to take home those owner straws to invest in a home for yourself? What is your goal? And then how do you change your spending behavior to align with your bigger purpose?
Strategic Spending and Success Stories
00:28:31
Speaker
Um, it's very, um, mindset shift, like purpose driven. So I love that because even, you know, if she had a bad year with like her mom's sick and spending a lot, not being able to work as much, like maybe the next year, like it could double because she trained that team or, but her purpose is still there. Is that correct? Oh, her purpose is there. Like she gets super clear about what she needs. Um, I don't
00:29:01
Speaker
I love vision boards and I love setting a budget and all that, but I just believe in intentionality, right? So if we just know what our intention is for this year, if my intention is rapid growth, then I need to be putting all of my, my yes, my guess. I need to put all that into revenue generating activities. If, if I, if I'm trying to take home a profit this year, cause I need to do something personally, then I need to say no.
00:29:29
Speaker
to the things that don't serve me. Maybe I'm not traveling that year. Maybe I have to change my behavior and my spending. And yes, I love that. She did end up keeping her whole team. After her mom passed, she came back to work. And she kept her team in place. And she's like, I'm going to redouble down in growth. She invested money in advertising and marketing and events and traveling.
00:29:55
Speaker
And now she has a big team and she's in growth mode again. What did you do by the way? I'm just curious.
Missed Tax Write-offs and Tips
00:30:02
Speaker
What was that? What did she do by the way? I'm just curious. She has a mastermind in coaching. Okay. Freaking coaches, scalable. It is scalable. Cool. Okay. So I guess hot topic two is top six overlooked tax write-offs. Um, mostly wedding, wedding professionals listening today.
00:30:25
Speaker
So more cash in the bank. So I guess you have a couple of tips and tricks for us today. I'm excited to share with you all about our first Get A Heck Yes sponsor, Seventeen Hats. I've been using this CRM company for over a decade and I've been referring them to all my frienders for all this time. I always know when I'm going to get paid and most importantly, I get paid. So here is a question. What is holding you back?
00:30:53
Speaker
What's keeping you from finding success as a small business person? It's not passion. The fact that you're listening to my podcast shows that you're eager to learn and get better. Know what holds you back.
00:31:04
Speaker
is all the chaos of business, paperwork, mailed invoices, and no system to handle at all. That's where Seventeen Hats comes in. Seventeen Hats is a better way to manage your small business. It's an all-in-one platform that streamlines everything from lead capture to client communication to clicking your done automated invoices. Seventeen Hats paves a way for success you deserve.
00:31:30
Speaker
by giving you back hours in your day. Find what success looks like for you with 17 hats. Get started for free at 17hats.com and use my code, heck yes, and it's gonna give you guys 50% off your first annual membership. How amazing is that? Back to the show.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. So for the top six write-offs, I want you to think about the way that you spend money and question every single time you spend money. Is this for business? Okay. Or is this for personal? Okay.
00:32:11
Speaker
Now, I could go through the income statement and give you very, very specific things, but I think you'll get more value out of thinking about the small things. Okay. So when you go to Target and you're checking out, a lot of people say, I'm putting this all on my personal card because it's easier. I'm like, but all those things are business expenses.
00:32:36
Speaker
Right. So we're missing the small things and being intentional about what we're putting our business card and what we're putting on our, on our personal card. Okay. Okay. So it's the little things. So one is mileage.
00:32:51
Speaker
Are you tracking mileage every time that you're traveling for work? Do you track mileage? Yeah. There's all different types of apps and ways to do this. I love mileage IQ. I find that this is one where people say, it's so hard for me to track. I don't feel like it.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah. And we miss out on our mileage. So that's one, our mileage. All of our equipment and small expenses. So every time you need to buy a small expense for your business, that is one of the biggest write-offs. I know it sounds silly, right? Because it's small. The small things accumulate over time and they make a big impact.
00:33:37
Speaker
I mean, we have things that you like buy from Target, like, like those stationary pads or, you know, the paper clips. They all add up, they all add up. And then we have our home office. So our home office is something that we, again, we think, I don't feel like adding up.
00:34:06
Speaker
the square footage. I don't feel like adding that up. I don't want to do the research to find out how much I'm renting this space for. We did a whole tax series on the Business by the Books podcast. So if you want to go listen to the whole episode so we can sit here and talk for 45 minutes about home office deductions. Go, you can listen to the whole episode. So that's the next one is our home office deduction. So mileage, our small expenses.
00:34:35
Speaker
our home office deduction, equipment. Yes. Making sure that all of our equipment is put as a business expense. Yes. You're going to love this one. Our professional development. Oh, yes. Right? As business owners, we need coaches. Yeah. We need professional development, and we have to be investing back into ourselves. I can't tell you how many times business owners will say to me, I feel like that might be personal. I'm like,
00:35:04
Speaker
because you're benefiting from it? Absolutely not. Yeah, I went on Sunday, the event like that's a write off for sure. Because I know mindset part like I need to manifest good things. It is a business expense.
00:35:20
Speaker
Nice. Okay. Go to Nyoko. Go to Nyoko. You're crushing it. Okay. So these are all exciting because I have to send my husband. He's a police, but he told me to give me his P&L today. So I'm like just jotting everything down. There you go. There you go. And then the last one is to get help. Not all profit is created equal. So as a business owner,
00:35:50
Speaker
You are running your business and you might be somebody who you're really proud when you look at your P&L because you are profitable. Trying to spend money to avoid paying taxes, but we're not doing that with intentionality. Where in your business do you need help and support?
00:36:09
Speaker
where you need an expert or you need admin support or you need professional development and coaching, where do you need support in your business?
Getting Help to Focus on Growth
00:36:18
Speaker
Because it is a tax write off. And when we find support in our business, we can grow and do more. I love it. I mean, I could tell you just so better in it because you you really speak to the heart and the mindset first before you even get to anything nitty gritty because
00:36:37
Speaker
I think that it overwhelms people when they see a spreadsheet or they see Intuit or just looking at it. But I think you are so experienced that you could just have someone breathe. It's OK.
00:36:58
Speaker
You know, it's okay. Like, you know, we got you. So I feel very empowered by this conversation. Any other text write ups that you want to mention? Or is that pretty much it?
00:37:11
Speaker
I think that's it. My big shout out to every business owner is to take off the superhero cape. Like literally I want you to take off the superhero cape and start to get help in your business. You don't have to do everything yourself. You don't have to do it alone. Get the support that you need. You don't need to be an expert in everything. I mean, there's so many things that I don't do in my business because I'm not the expert in and I think that
00:37:38
Speaker
I can use QuickBooks and bookkeeping as an example of something that most people shouldn't be doing, but there's so many of them. I use that as an example, but there's so many things. Maybe you will love going into QuickBooks, so maybe that's not the right idea of support for you, but take off your superhero cape because when you get support in your business,
00:37:57
Speaker
it is a business deduction.
Kickstart Accounting Services and Resources
00:38:00
Speaker
It is a write off. It alleviates your time and energy and it allows you to be passionate and in love with your business. Yeah, that's so special. Can I ask you a little bit more about your program and like maybe
00:38:14
Speaker
the price point just because I feel like people are going to just want to sign up with you already. Yeah. So our prices match where you are at in business. So if you're making $50,000 a year in revenue, then there's a package offering for you and it starts at $100 per month.
00:38:34
Speaker
If you're bringing in about $100,000 a year in revenue, then packages start at $200 per month. That's so good. Yeah. Yeah. So it is obtainable for a small business owner. And then as you grow, your transaction volume grows, and so our packages grow alongside. When we work with our clients, all of our pricing is done on a flat rate monthly basis. So there is no like your attorney. Like I had to call my attorney today, and I'm like, great.
00:39:02
Speaker
Don't ask me how I'm doing because I don't want you to charge me for me to tell you that story. So flat rate monthly pricing. So you're charged the same amount every single month because we want to be a part of your budget. And in that fee is all of your bookkeeping costs where we go in, we do all of your bookkeeping.
00:39:23
Speaker
We apply our strategic framework to your QuickBooks file, meaning that we, or we set up a QuickBooks file for you if you don't have one. Just means that we set up QuickBooks in a way that's going to actually make sense. QuickBooks is not very good at this, and either is most bookkeepers. So we set things up in a way that's going to make the numbers usable moving forward. And then we're your team.
00:39:44
Speaker
Like you have a team to be able to call and say, Hey, I have a question. This doesn't make sense to me. I heard this on a podcast. Is it true? There's so many tax gurus out there. And I'm like, when they're talking, I'm like, Oh my God, I please pray to God. Nobody actually listens to them. That is an IRS red flag. So to be able to have a team that you know, will support you and always has your best interest in heart. And then at the end of each month, we send every single one of our clients, we work with hundreds of business owners,
00:40:14
Speaker
Every single client gets their financial statements and what we call the snapshot. That easy to read PDF document that allows you to understand your numbers easily and go back out into your business and make business decisions. And then you can book a call, you have a team, you have this amazing team of people. I always say that we pick out the unicorns in the accounting field.
00:40:35
Speaker
We train and mentor the team so that we can create this culture and atmosphere for our clients that's patient and accepting and loving because we know how difficult money can be.
00:40:48
Speaker
Danielle, you're a really beautiful person and helping a lot of people. It's very powerful. And you're not just an accountant, you're like a coach, you know? Oh, yeah, I love I love this. And I want I really want to make sure your business coach, your business coach truly. That's really cool. So I guess everyone tell everyone where to find you and Instagram handle where to how to
00:41:13
Speaker
I don't know, set up a call with you or anything that you want to offer to our guest listeners, but this is an awesome conversation. Yeah, kickstartacountyinc.com. If you go to kickstartacountyinc.com slash gift, you can download the tax write offs that we were talking about today. So there's a full checklist for you. So go to kickstartacountyinc.com slash gift and download the tax write offs and then business by the books on the podcast. If you are afraid of your numbers, come listen to business by the books and we can get you comfortable.
00:41:44
Speaker
Thank you. I feel like I still want to talk, but this is the end. This is so good. I'm like, I definitely want to talk about numbers. This is crazy. I got you. Yeah, you got us.
00:42:00
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros!