The One With Write-Offs
The ability to run certain expenses through your business is a pretty powerful financial tool. I thought I’d tell y’all examples of some of the things that show up in the expenses section of my Income Statement.
Admittedly, I am super conservative and cautious in my business, so this will likely sound very light-weight to some of you seasoned business owners and you hard core tax-savings people. I also generally try to spend very little money in my business, so I don’t have a lot that I’m even wanting to purchase. I am just proud I have these tax write-offs that I do have over the years.
Employees never get to reduce their taxable income for any of these things on this list.
Oh, and let me insert the traditional Cover-My-Butt Disclaimer: This is not tax advice.
Advertising- this past weekend I “bought” (donated) a not-cheap table sponsorship for our school's fundraising gala. I invited 3 other couples to sit with us. My business logo was plastered on all the slides and the looping slide show and in so many emails leading up to the event. I felt like pretty big cheese, y’all.
Office supplies- I make YouTube videos for two different channels (Bookkeeping Side Hustle and Fix Your FreshBooks). All my client leads come from my FreshBooks channel. I am a legitimate YouTuber, by golly! So when we moved to our new town last fall, everything I bought for the office/studio was a business expense. Everything that could possibly be seen in my videos. Paint, curtains, shelves, etc.
Business meals - I have a goal of having 52 lunches with people in my new town in 2024. Many of those are paid for with business funds.
Professional services- After I made my S-corp election, l hired a tax pro to do my taxes. But he does ALL our taxes, not just my business return. But I consider what he does “tax planning” which obviously includes looking at our personal picture, too.
Travel - I gave a keynote address at a bookkeeping conference (BKX) in 2022 in Orlando. Orlando is at the bottom of my list in terms of vacation destinations (sorry all you Dis-Nerds!), but I very much wanted my children to see me on stage. I didn’t really care about the Disney part as much as I thought they were juuuust old enough to be able to remember and hopefully be inspired by that memory of me. So, that meant family vacation to Disney in conjunction with my conference. And so, momma’s biz also paid for a couple of those vacation hotel nights, some of our groceries for those overlapping days, and airport parking, and rental car, etc. When my husband retires from the Navy, he will almost certainly work for me in some capacity (He will be called my Operations Officer!). I imagine many of our vacations will be piggybacks on work travel.
Computer - I have purchased two computers during my time in biz.
Wages - My 12 year old is my only other W-2 employee besides myself. He gets paid a very small amount so far (because he doesn't do much work yet), but we set up an auto-draft where half of his pay automatically goes to a Roth IRA. Very modest wealth transfer so far, but it feels pretty powerful to get a legitimate expense on my P&L that is helping my son start building wealth. I have this dream that he could use the First-Time Home Buyer rule to use the Roth as a downpayment on a starter house when he is in college.
Again, this list is hardly earth shattering to some of you. “Oh, Kate, aren’t you cute with your little sweet write-offs.”
But it took me a long time to realize the benefit of some “life expenses” also qualifying as “business expenses”. Now I kind of look for things that bring that double-benefit. I think that is a shift in my MIND.. Just one of the ways I’ve changed because I became a business owner.
One of the best ways to alter your MIND is to be around the people that you want to be like. The more I’m around other business owners, the more I understand how to be a business owner.
Our sponsor Nerd Entreprises’ MasterMIND Group is a brain-changer. It is a place where people in our industry go to get beyond just the technical bookkeeping software know-how (though Seth David certainly is one of the best technical teachers of QBO out there and his group members certainly benefit from his QBO resources). You get 2 zoom meetings per week available to you, a private community, and access to all his “Process and Workflow Design” courses. Check out his program. 👇
Deals Deals Deals
💰 Veronica Wasek’s training arm, 5MB Academy, is having a spring sale*. 12% off all courses and templates until April 30th. Check out the library today and don’t miss this sale!
💰 The QBO Gym is the best place I know of to get hands on practice with real simulations in QBO. It is more than hands on “practice”. It is hands on “doing”. They just released an evergreen 5-day challenge*. Takes about 45 minutes a day. Totally free. And you’ll get a discount if you end up purchasing the program.
💰 XeroCon will be in Nashville, TN, August 14-15. You can use code XCNASH24-first-access for $150 off your ticket to XeroCon through April 30. Hurry! Prices go up May 1! If you are interested in becoming an Xero expert - you should consider this event.
Please always send me any news of deals that you hear of that others might benefit from.
Be There or Be Square
📅 +April 29 & May 6: Co-working Hour. Join me for the Monday morning BSH Co-working Hour. and get your week started by crossing off your most tedious tasks (that’s what I do). RSVP to the FB event so you get a reminder and get those tasks done: April 29 & May 6
📅 +May 2: Keeper Demo. Learn about the 2024 updates in Keeper from Co-founder & CEO Ben Stein. RSVP in the Facebook group to get reminders and grab the link to watch.
📅 May 15-17: The CFO Accelerator Live conference in Dallas*. I know a few people coming - make sure we know if you will be there, too.
📅 +May 21: Accounting Nomads. Come here the pros and cons of running your business from anywhere in the world. RSVP in the Facebook group so you don’t miss this!
Featured Posts
🌶️ Ryan K. shared some frustrations about growing a business. Got real. Shared all he had done to market himself, but it has only lead to 1 client. I hope Ryan can take these tips folks shared and find success! However, he might not. But by making himself vulnerable and getting help, he is probably increasing his chances. It is important to me to share the “other side” of bookkeeping entrepreneurship because there is a lot of messaging out there that makes this line of work seem like easy money.
🌶️ Joanna L. is always one to share the updates we need to know. Did you see this one about the FDC banning non-competes? Do your own due diligence here. Make sure you are aware of the laws surrounding this if you an employee AND if you are an employer! Many of you will eventually try to hire help and might need to consider what happens when an employee could take your clients.
Help You Hustle
💪 Homeschool Bookkeepers panel was all I was hoping that it would be and more. Even if you don’t plan to ever homeschool, these guests will demonstrate to you that the accounting industry really is a place where you can build the life that you dream of. Knowing the Debits & Credits and being an expert in a bookkeeping software gives you a bonafide super power. Anything is possible.
💪 Last newsletter edition I forgot to include a link to my Sharpening Your Excel Skills For Bookkeepers live stream with Steve Chase. But you should still watch it. Need proof? Here is what Elizabeth P. said I'm a comment on the video. 👇
OH MY! THIS IS EVER SO NEEDED. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A VIDEO LIKE THIS ALL OF MY BOOKKEEPING JOURNEY!!! FINALLY.... IT ... IS .. HERE! THANK YOU BOTH!
Be sure to check out Steve’s Excel Bootcamps this summer. He is offering 3 of them.
💪 MediaBooks shared a podcast, “How Much Should Accounting Firms Spend On Marketing”, that is definitely worth a listen. Great tips from Kristin Corey.
💪 The Accounting Cornerstone Foundation released it scholarship highlight reel. If you are curious about how you might win a scholarship to an accounting conference, this 4 minute video will tell you all that you need to know.
💪 Mega-mega drama all over the internet about the Intuit announcement this week about the QuickBooks Live Expert Assist service offering. This thread in our community had 59 comments in a day! There is a variety of opinions. I think that Veronica Wasek gave a great 10 minute synopsis and rebuttal to all of the people who are crying “foul” about how this directly competes with what ProAdvisors do.
Accounting pros need to understand what Intuit is doing, and form our business plans to be better and different. I do have empathy for those ProAdvisors who are feeling so scared right now. It is paralyzing to some people to think that this will take away their livelihood. But entrepreneurship is risky, y’all. That is a basic Econ 101 concept (more accounting pros need to understand economic principles!). You cannot expect to reap rewards (earn a living and build wealth) without taking risks (like constantly adapting your business to the competitive landscape).
For Fun
😹 Enter Relay’s Spring Tax Season Giveaway by April 30th for a chance to win fun prizes! And P.S. - don’t forget if you ever want to open your own bank account with Relay, you can use the BSH community referral link HERE*. Thanks so much.
Jobs
💼 Check out the BSH Job Opp Google sheet. Click HERE to see the list and go apply!. Be sure to use #jobopp when posting about jobs!
Also, I’ve been hearing rumors about the QuickBooks Live jobs and that they could be offshoring some of those. I hate to be a rumor-monger, but I’d love for anyone with insight to let me know if their hiring practices are vastly changing. I consider those jobs a pretty great launching pad and/or safety net for folks building their own business. Are they very different from what they started out as?
My Family Circus
New section of this newsletter for 2024. Completely non-bookkeeping related.
🎪 Untested idea we just recently implemented in the last month. See if it inspires you to riff on it in some way to fit your family. It connects sushi and Newbery Award Winning Books.
🐟 We all like sushi in my house. Getting a full belly on sushi is expensive.
📚Reading is a huge priority for me as a parent. My kids do read, quite a lot actually (which happens when you don’t have devices in your house). But they read a LOT of trash books. The intellectual equivalent of eating a spoonful of sugar.
So…we just came up with a system to let us feel good about having the occasional expensive dinner out AND get good books into our hearts and minds. We created a spreadsheet of all the Newbery Award Books. There is a column for each person (mom and dad included). When all 5 of us check off that we have read one of these books, Team Johnson has earned the right to spend the money to go out and eat that tasty and pricey raw fish that we all love. AND we’ll bring the particular book and discuss it while dining. I’ll feel better about the bill when I think of it as the “cost of parenting”.
Kate Builds In Public
🎢 I talk to lots of clients because I do a lot of live Freshbooks training. That lets me make tailored recommendations to them when I hear about their bookkeeping woes. So, in the last 2 weeks alone, I have sent 3 referral invites to clients to open a bank account with Relay, my bank. 2 of those have accepted. 1 is still pending. I feel pretty confident about my process for suggesting they take a look at Relay and taking 1 minute to send them the invite while I’m on the zoom call. Each of these should be residual income for me. Haven't figured out how lucrative the payouts are yet, but it helps take the pain away of my 1-to-1 business model (me training a client directly and trading my time for money) which I know is not scalable. One day I will tell you how much money I make from referring clients to Relay. (that means you need to keep reading my newsletter).
Learn about the Relay Partner Program for accountants and bookkeepers here. Free to join.
🎢 I officially have a formal job offer to be a substitute teacher in my children's school. And I do mean formal! Yeesh, this application process was intense! ✅ Resume (thanks ChatGPT plus LinkedIn!...because I didn't have a resume), ✅ Letter of Recommendation (asked the secretary of our old school back in Virginia), ✅ fingerprints (huge headache)! The requirements to apply and to complete onboarding almost made me quit the process. But I put on my grownup pants and pushed through and remembered that I should be grateful that the school wants to keep my kids safe. And now I can execute on my plan to be a substitute once per month in our school. See, these big public schools are on lockdown these days! Like a fortress. But I want to be very involved in my children’s education. I want to meet their classmates. I want to understand how the school is run. I want to develop relationships with their teachers. I want to understand what is being taught. I want to get a glimpse of the school culture. The actual job sounds a bit terrifying and uncomfortable. I’m not a “kid person”. But I’m a “my own kids” person. The job pays $16 per hour. 🙃
🎢 Not a full update of my recent client income, but I wanted to share I have gotten a $1500 and $1400 clean up projects (both ~1-year jobs) and 3 new FreshBooks office hours members.
From The Vault
⚡ There were 2 different posts about getting bookkeepers together in person - one was just a one time meet-up in Wisconsin, and the other was looking for bookkeepers in Northern California to get together regularly. This video is about starting your own mastermind. Find some like-minded people (in-person or virtually) to team up with!
Letters To The Editor
✉️ It is always nice to get encouraging words!
Kate, you are totally inspirational. I have had a LOT to drink today (football - proper football, not the American kind) but I always think this when I read your emails. So I thought I'd say it.
Keep up the amazing work.
Classifieds (Clickable)
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Keep hustling!
Kate
-Chief Hustler-
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