VANNOY:

Hello everyone, Mike Vannoy, vice President Marketing at Asure, and have a really cool topic. Today we’re gonna talk about the top 10 things small business owners, owners need to stop doing. And I, a really cool guest to help unpack this. So, I ran into JJ Joshua, JJ, the CPA online in his YouTube channel, researching topics around payroll a couple years ago. He consumed a ton of his content as the pandemic hit, talking about F F C R A and CARES and E R T C super knowledgeable guy. I’m gonna get point you at the end of the show here to his YouTube channel. Great resource for you to get more information. But today we’re gonna talk about the 10 biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs are making and that they can change tomorrow. JJ, welcome to the show.

JENSON:

Well, thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it. I’m excited to be a part of this. It’s clear that you and your company have the same mission as my YouTube channel, which is to help small business owners, the self-employed. I am a practicing CPA of 30 years. I’m still in the trenches. I know there’s a number of people that maybe are putting together content or seminars that don’t have any real working knowledge, or they’re out of the game, so to speak. And so it’s exciting to visit with you because you guys are definitely in the game and you are helping small businesses, just as I had said. So I’m happy to be here today to be a part of your mission.

VANNOY:

Well, we welcome and look, look forward to it. Topic number one, I think this is maybe the, the biggest hidden gem in, in, in, in in the small business world, in the, in the entrepreneur’s playbook here. So many people that you start a business because I’m really good at doing X or performing y type of service, I start out hanging a shingle by myself, then I hire an employee, maybe a family member. I slowly grow and I just don’t know about what the heck are you even talking about A Schedule C and a form 1120 s? These things sounds scary to me. Why should I care about this?

JENSON:

The number one reason you want to care about this aspect is that this most likely is going to help save the biggest line item of expense for you as a small business owner, as self-employed that you’re probably not even aware of, which is the worst kind of expense. And what I’m talking about is self-employment taxes. So when you start a business or you have a business, if you’re not filing a separate tax return with the IRS on an annual basis, the thing you should know is that you bet your bottom dollar. You are a Schedule C filer. How would you know this? Go and look at your individual tax return. And you’re gonna find a Schedule C right at the top that says sole proprietor. If you’re a Schedule C filer, which I just indicated, then you’re paying if you have net income, self-employment taxes, and that rate is 15.3% on whatever your net is.

The thing to note is that you don’t have any say beyond the expenses of your business on how much that tax is going to be, meaning it’s just a flat rate. If you wanna know how much you paid last year or in a year in the past, look a little further in your individual tax return and you’re gonna find a schedule se s as in self-employed se, and you will see at the bottom of that page how much you paid in self-employment taxes. Now, with this Mike, you know, when we talk about self-employment taxes, you know, as well as I do, but for the viewers, what does that really represent When we’re talking about your company, when we talk about what those taxes are,

VANNOY:

And JJ we’re, this is incremental additional to personal income tax.

JENSON:

This is Yes.

VANNOY:

Yeah. Yes.

JENSON:

Yeah. So this is in addition to the individual tax, but you know, with you guys doing payroll, you know that when you are an employee, so for most that are starting their own business or they’re self-employed, you probably at once upon a time were an employee. And when you got paid, there was social security and Medicare withheld fica, and it’s 7.65%. And then that company where you, whether you were aware of it or not, also matched that percentage, which is 7.65%. Let’s add these together. That’s 15.3%. This is the magic that I want you to hear on why you don’t wanna file a Schedule C and why you wanna file a form 1120 s is because the net net income, when reported on a form 1120 s is not by law subject to this 15.3%. So if you want to know, well, what am I gonna save by filing an 1120 S versus filing a Schedule C?

And I’m trying not to throw a lot of schedules, but in terms of the viewer literally able to know right now how much they’re able to save, go to the Schedule SE in your individual tax return. And you will see right there how much your self-employment taxes are, which is also on schedule one that flows right to your form 10 40. And Micah, you just indicated that’s in addition to your individual income taxes. So I’m gonna just pause there for a second to say your individual taxes, let’s just say for grins, is a blended rate of 25%, right? That’s a successful small business. Sure, your self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. And then if you’re in a state, what is that state tax rate? And what I’m telling you is all of a sudden you add these numbers up and 45% of your net income is going to taxes with that number one line item that I just told you about, that’s just hiding in the tall grass like a snake called self-employment taxes.

VANNOY:

We JJ think about our number one expenses being real estate in people, but the biggest expense we probably have the most control, but the least knowledge about is taxes.

JENSON:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you take someone that’s filing a Schedule C, and I bet on average that they’re probably grossing about 200,000 or less, if not a hundred thousand or less. And most Schedule C filers, they’re scrambling for all the expenses that they can get their hands on. But most schedule C filers probably are not going to have more than about 50% in any expenses. So just to do some simple math, if you have a Schedule C filer, they gross a hundred grand, they have 50,000 in expenses, so they net 50 grand, they’re going to pay 15.3% on that 50 grand before they even pay their income taxes. That’s gonna be about $7,500. Yeah. And I bet when you would look at that self-employed expenses for their business, I bet there is not any other expense that is much more than the $7,500. Now let’s talk about this 1120 s.

So where I get, and you kind of nailed it, it’s like, oh gosh, this sounds a little overwhelming and a little scary. The thing to note is that if you would just go to irs.gov and look up Form 1120 s and click on the form, because page one of that form you’re gonna see looks pretty darn similar to a Schedule C, believe it or not, because all it is is this reporting your income and your expenses. So here’s what I want you to take away from this, is if you do not file the Schedule C, but we use these same numbers, you gross a hundred grand and you have 50,000 in expenses, so your net income is $50,000, well guess what? That gets reported on your individual tax return. Because the great thing is, is an S-corp has no corporate level of tax, but you are literally in this one year, in this one example, going to save $7,500 because by law, the net income if you just reported through an 1120 s, is not subject to this self-employment tax.

So very briefly, you do need to formalize your business at the Secretary of State, 10 outta 10 times. It’s pretty much gonna need to be an L L C get e i n, and then you need to set up a separate bank account if you think that’s too much of a hassle. What I want you to remember is in this simple example, it saves $7,500. Mike, you had said before when we were kind of visiting before we got started about the number of new businesses and sole proprietors kind of going out and getting an e i n yeah, kind of leading in and out of the pandemic.

VANNOY:

Yeah, it, it, it it’s a total hockey stick as, as people got laid off. But even when people didn’t lay, get, get laid off, as we know that the jobs have largely come back, we’re not totally where we were pre pandemic, but the participation rates, i i is, is way down because people are choosing alternative paths, right? They’re, they’re, they’re choosing gig economy options. They’re chart maybe starting their own business from their house. So the number of e i n registrations that entities have, have, have exploded in presumably this, these are all, you know, either zero employee or one employee firms to start up.

JENSON:

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the thing is, is that I’m also experiencing this, that there’s lots of people that are still employees, but they’re now, to use that term, you just did, you know, the gig economy, the gig businesses, but they have found something to do in addition to that, to right add to their financial security. But here’s the reason that they really need to look at the 1120 s carefully, okay? Because you would probably have most people say, all right, well, what’s the catch here, JJ? The catch is that when you are an S corporation, that’s a business that elects with the i r s on a form 25 53, which is pretty straightforward. You then now are, or you are now in a position that you have a separate entity, a separate in essence identity, which is then in existence by a separate e i n number that we were just talking about.

Yes. But when that happens, you then need to pay yourself some payroll. And this is where you then want to hear a few more numbers from me, which is this. If you have somebody that has an S-corp, the I r s in essence is aware very keenly that that net income is not subject to self-employment tax. But the reason it’s not subject to that tax by statute, meaning by law, is that now for that owner, they have two ways to get money out of that business. One is called a distribution, which is not taxed. Again, it’s just simply a check. It’s very much like a dividend. But the difference between a distribution and a dividend is that a dividend is taxed, again, down at the individual level where a distribution is not. But here’s what I want you to hear you do to pay yourself payroll.

And this is where many fellow tax pros, EAs and CPAs kind of fall asleep at the wheel and they, I don’t wanna use this word too heavily, but they’re lazy. And what I mean by that is that many tax pros will say, well, if you’re an S-corp, now you have to do payroll. Now you’re ready to hear, well, what’s the catch? Here’s the catch. When you pay yourself payroll, as I was telling you earlier, even though you’re the owner of the business, you’re now an employee just the same as any other employee. Which means that back when you were an employee for somebody else, or when you’re paying anybody, there’s gonna be that 7.65% of social security and Medicare, it’s FICA withheld. And then now this company that you own is gonna match that. Guess what, what I had told you earlier, it’s 15.3%, but here is then where the magic happens is, and I’m not talking about now, we’re in essence taking advantage of the law in a way that’s gonna get you in trouble.

But where the advantage comes with an S corp is that you get to choose what your salary is. Now, we could basically go in a direction and say, well, I’m gonna pay myself 12 grand a year. The IRS does want you to pay something reasonable, but in that example, I just told you, if somebody grossed a hundred grand, they had 50,000 in expenses, I’d probably be counseling that client to probably pay themselves about 20,000 a year in a salary. That then means this, that 20,000 was subject to the 15.3%, but 30 grand was not subject to it, which that person then saved $4,500. But see, this is why they need to get with a company like yours affiliate. Because when you now have payroll, this is where then the tax pros get lazy. And what I love about what you told me about your company and your mission is that you’re building and fostering relationships with tax professionals like myself, CPAs, and s right?

You then say, Hey, listen, when you have a client that now is going to be an S-corp, you don’t need to worry about doing all the filings that go along with it. And this is where then many people kind of draw the line and go, well, I don’t wanna do all this extra filing. And that’s where you all come in. And this is why I don’t do payroll for one client, and I’ve had my own practice now 25 years. So for the last 20 years, I won’t even bring on a client if they won’t use a third party. And the reason I say that is that we know that when we’re dealing with payroll, we’ve got reports that have to be filed with the I IRS and with the state, and there’s different due dates and some are quarterly, and you’re withholding taxes and you have to get it paid in.

But all of that, when handed over to a professional, to a group like you, that it’s number one what you do every day, it’s what you eat and breathe. You are the experts on this. The other thing is that any questions that come up and entanglements, you’re gonna be able to take care of, and here’s why. I just go back, and I’m not trying to stick anything to my fellow tax pros EAs, but see, I’ve traveled around the country talking to fellow CPAs and EAs over 50 cities. And one of the things I always ask is, Hey, at what point should somebody be filing 1120 s and not a Schedule C? And in my opinion, it’s around 20,000. So if you’re net netting more than 20,000 and you’re not filing 1120 s, I really think you should take a hammer to your hand because that’s really what you’re doing to yourself. But most CPAs said it was about a hundred thousand, which means that they are in a position where they are influencing their client to just do the easy route, which is to continue to file the Schedule C. So to save taxes and to do all this, you have to walk and talk just like any other business. But isn’t that worth it? In that simple example, I just told you, over a 10 year period, you saved $45,000. And that’s assuming that you never made more than a hundred grand gross,

VANNOY:

Almost 50 grand for one strategy that once set up. I’m not gonna say it’s not autopilot, it’s that that probably, but the the process is, is, is set. This isn’t, this isn’t work. You have to continually do JJ, I, I’m, I’m gonna do this. We got nine more topics to get through. This is the biggest one I wanted to talk about. I think we could I’d love to invite you back and we could spend an entire hour just on this one, cuz it, it can get wonky yes for people and scare them. Give just give the, give the 22nd wrap. Put the, put a bow around this thing for our, our audience today beyond, just stop doing a C and start doing 1120. Yes. What’s actionable that people can do on next week,

JENSON:

Go to the Secretary of State and set your entity up as a limited liability company. Go to irs.gov and get an EIN for that. After you have the ein@irs.gov, you file a form 25 53. So find the form 25 53, you fill it out within 75 days and you’re now an S-corporation. Set up a separate bank account, run your income and your expenses through that report those income and expenses on 1120 s and you’re accomplishing what we just talked about. And then throughout this, find the professionals. Because even if you’re now having to spend a little bit of money on this to get the professionals to help you, you’re still gonna come out way ahead, especially given the numbers that can start adding up year after year.

VANNOY:

Yeah, right. All right. Awesome topic. One of the very highest recommendations we can make to, to our audience in, in one of the fastest ways you can put more money in your pocket. Let’s talk about N 10 99. So I’ve had guests on the show where we talk about 10 90 nines purely from a compliance perspective. Like what are the minimum threshold tests in making sure we’re classifying workers properly. We see a lot of people get in trouble with Department of Labor audits where they’ll classify people as 10 90 nines just cuz they think they’re making it easier. They think it could be more flexible for both sides of the party employer and employee, even though not employee 10 99. And they, and they find themselves at the, at the wrong end of a D L L audit, right? And, and it can be very costly, very fast. But you, you, what’s your practical guidance around 10 90 nines?

JENSON:

So if you’re a small business owner, self-employed, and you have other people helping you that they’re not a company, meaning it’s just a person and you’re just paying them individually, and if they’re doing that on any routine basis for you, you just need to classify them as an employee. And that’s really just the law. You don’t really have any say. Now you can go and find a form SS eight that is@irs.gov and they walk through all the tests if you really feel as though you want to examine this. But really what it comes down to is if someone’s routinely doing something for you, that is an individual, doesn’t matter if they work at home, doesn’t matter if they’re choosing their own hours, doesn’t matter if they’re using their own computer. Right now, what the IRS sees as a number one target is protecting the employee.

And the way that they protect employees is to ensure that businesses, i e employers are doing everything properly, starting with paying them properly. When you now look at somebody that is an individual and you opt to pay them, in essence, what we would just say, a straight check, you’re not withholding taxes, you’re then obligated if you’ve paid them $600 or more in the year to file a form 10 99 N E C N E C is in non-employee compensation. Many don’t know this, but if you send a form 10 99 n e c to somebody improperly, meaning the IRS later comes and indicates, improves pretty easily that they were an employee, the i r s can implement a civil penalty that is $5,000 per person per year. And you can’t abate it. You cannot get out of it. Now, for those of those of those people that, that don’t need to be scared into doing it, the thing to note then is more where I talk with my clients is when somebody’s an employee of yours, you get to control, and I don’t mean in a, in a bad way, but you get to control work product, you get to control what it is that they’re working on for you.

It’s protected. The insurance that you’re buying to protect your data, to protect your liability, especially for professionals, is not extended typically to somebody that you’re saying, Hey, they’re not a part of my company, they’re independent of my company. So you have a business that you’ve worked hard on and you wanna protect. So by making somebody an employee, you’re helping to protect your own business. The other aspect is,

VANNOY:

Go ahead. One of the things we talked about in the past is so, so there there are, there are litmus test questions, right? And, and, and, and you can hop on our hop online, check out our webinar specifically on this topic. But one of the simple ways I like to think about it was, you know, you hire a general contractor that you would maybe then issue a 10 99 too. Think about that. That’s to, to maybe build a house or remodel your kitchen. Well, that, that contractor might sub out the plumbing work to one person, the electrical work to another person, finishing work to another person. And they as a contractor, they have choices of how they perform the work, the tools that they use, the time at which within reason that they perform the work. Same thing for us in, in, in our jobs, right? If we are hiring someone, if that person truly has the ability to perform the work whenever they want, wherever they want, they supply their own tools, they get toter determine scope. They could hire subcontracts to, to do it for them if they wanted, okay, you’re 10 99 territory, but if not, you’re in dangerous place w W2 all day long, right? Yeah.

JENSON:

Yeah, absolutely. And, and if, and if I could add one thing to that when I’m talking to my own clients, is, is this person that you’re paying, doing what they’re doing for you, for anybody else? And if the answer’s no, you’re really looking at the i r s very easily able to show that no, they’re really an employee, they’re not even doing this for anybody else. So there’s no way that they have a separate business. The reason that somebody wants to ensure that their business is compliant with payroll rules, laws and regulations is, and I’d love to hear what you think on this, but in my opinion, employment taxes have the highest amount of penalties. They are very easily then penalties that can be doubled in high interest the irs and not trying to scare anybody. But the IRS has really targeted the number one tax that they have got to go after is payroll taxes.

And that includes ensuring that people are paid properly as employees and that those taxes are able to be in essence collected. Yeah, but here’s the thing, and maybe maybe you would know on this, but if you don’t file reports and indicate that somebody’s an employee, there’s no statute of limitations with the IRS to go back and reclassify somebody as an employee. And everything you paid them would be subject to 15.3%, which is a social security and Medicare employee and employer. Yeah. That’s, and you would then be looking at a hundred percent penalties, plus late payment penalties under underpayment penalties, late file penalties, which quite frankly can add up to around 150% of whatever the tax is. So

VANNOY:

Did you actually, actually even worse than that. On top of that, you could have if Department of Labor, so that’s irs if Department of Labor got involved and say, oh, you were trying to use usurp overtime by calling them a 10 99 contractor. And meanwhile they’ve been working 60 hours a week for the last these 10 employees have been working 50, 60 hours a week for the last three years. You’re, here’s, here’s the overtime that gonna retroactively pay all those employees even if they don’t work for you anymore. On top of that, if it was a 10 99 and not an employee, so therefore you technically didn’t have quote unquote employees in a state but now all of a sudden retroactively an employee in a state, you might all of a sudden be on the hook for sales tax. Oh, oh wow.

JENSON:

State

VANNOY:

You didn’t, right, right. So the ramifications are just, they’re just way too big to to yeah. To try to put chicken with this fine line. Yeah.

JENSON:

And, and wouldn’t you probably agree with this, it’s all to save 8%, meaning the really what it comes down to in, in pretty much,

VANNOY:

I was gonna ask you to put this bow on it. Yeah,

JENSON:

Yeah. Is that when you pay someone as a independent contractor and you send ’em a 10 99 all you saved yourself was the employer portion of payroll taxes, which is 7.65%. You got a little bit of federal unemployment tax, a little bit of state unemployment tax, so I just kinda round it to 8%. So you’re putting your whole business at risk, your reputation, your dollars for what to save 8%. What you need to do is just charge your customers more. So you’re making more to cover this cost protect your business is really what it comes down to.

VANNOY:

You know what again, we could spend another hour on this topic, but that is the perfect segue, JJ what’s the next thing that small business owners need to stop doing?

JENSON:

Stop not raising your prices. I pretty much can speak quickly to this because my grandfather who was a, told me about this when he was kind of mentoring me, starting my own business, cuz I have my own c p a practice, which is this, he gave me the example of charging my client a hundred dollars an hour cuz I charge my time. And he said, you know, if you, you’re charging a hundred dollars an hour and the next year you decide to increase your fees by 5%, so now you’re gonna charge $105 an hour. You can lose clients and still make the same amount if you just run the math. So in an example, if you lost one client, 1% of your client list, and you then incorporate into this calculation the fact that you’re now charging $105 to everybody that stayed, you’re making the same with one less client, which more important that my grandfather pointed out is that you now can make room for a new client that’s gonna come in and pay the 105.

See, most of the time when I’m dealing with clients, it’s really that one client that they’re scared that’s gonna call ’em to say, I can’t believe you just raised your fee. Is that really the kind of client you want to keep? The one that just was somehow deathly afraid of this client leaving them? I said, well then call the client privately and say, listen, I’m raising my fees. You’re such a great client, I just want you to know that I’m increasing my fee, but I’m going to, in essence, still charge you the old amount for the next year. And this increase won’t go into play for the next year. Work with that. But that one client’s ruining your business in essence. So you deserve it. Value what you do, raise your fees, do it every year when you wait. That means that next year you’re gonna have to raise it that much more. And the end of the day, if people value what they’re doing, they’re gonna pay for it.

VANNOY:

Yeah. This, I see entrepreneurs make this mistake all the time. So many times I, I might be great at designing kitchens, and so I start off by swinging a hammer and do being my own design person and selling my own jobs. And I know how much margin there is in that. And I lived a comfortable, live a comfortable life. And, and I, and I know the value of a dollar, there’s almost like some guilt around charging more. If I’m the hairstylist who you know this is just, this is just my time. I know how much money my client has. If I raise the price, I know it’s gonna be hard on her. A lot of times there’s guilt associated with these things. We’re not looking to be capitalist pigs to be for the sake of being capitalist pigs. But if, if you have more to do in a day, then you can accomplish, by definition, you’re not charging enough. Right? If you charge more it, you’re gonna, you’re gonna lose clients, but it’s gonna more than make up for it. And you’re gonna be able to afford the resources to get you the help to better serve the ones you have. Yeah. Any final remarks or thought thoughts on raising prices for entrepreneurs?

JENSON:

Well, in 30 years of practice, any clients of mine that have raised prices, they’ve never, of thousands of clients I’ve worked with, they’ve never reported back to me that they lost any clients. I mean, everybody just kept paying. So don’t be afraid of it. Just do it.

VANNOY:

JJ what would you say, cuz this is, this is maybe super good timing or really touchy timing. I mean the, the, the, the, the new numbers come out this week around inflation. Consumer price index is what I was looking for. C p I numbers published this week. There’s a, there, there’s a lot of people stressing their vendors are raising prices, one in two and three times a year on them. Their costs are going up, but they’re afraid to pass that on to their clients. What what additional guidance would you give entrepreneurs around price increases in the face of some pretty aggressive inflation right now?

JENSON:

You know, I would say this, really evaluate what it is you’re selling. Break it up into segments. Are you giving away something that maybe in the beginning it was easy to give away, but now maybe your customer doesn’t even want it, need it, but you’re still providing it. And all I’m meaning is really examine what it is that you’re selling, really break it down. And the example I would give is that typically when you go to an auto shop, there’s gonna be a lot of line items, you know, all the parts and the labor for each one and the tax, and they really break that down. So I’m not saying necessarily you give this big itemized receipt or in invoice to your own customer, but really kind of break that down. And I have a minor example. I just have a service that comes and works with my pool.

 And basically that’s what they did after the pandemic. They did increase it five bucks. That’s where I tell my client, just increase it a dollar. I mean, do something, right? But they then started breaking out and saying, listen, with each visit, here is the chemicals that we’re bringing. So we’re gonna need to charge separately for that. And if you don’t want the chemicals, you don’t have to pay for ’em. So we can still come every week and we can still do all the things, or you can do the chemicals yourself and keep your price the same. So my point is, is really evaluate what it is that you’re selling. Maybe break it up because if your client doesn’t need it, you don’t need to sell it to ’em and you can sell it to somebody else. But then that allows you, for those that do want it, you’re able to charge for that. So it’s breaking it out a little bit. And then the increases don’t seem as big as to the owner. It’s just little things that then add up to what an appropriate fee should be.

VANNOY:

All right. Let’s move on to the next topic around fees. I had a conversation yesterday with an entrepreneur I I, and he was talking about passing along credit card fees to clients. It’s something he hadn’t done in the past. He was concerned about this. There’s certain, there are, depending on, on, on what you call it, right? There’s notification requirements to the clients, whether you treat it as a surcharge versus you mark your price up and discount back. There’s, there’s different approaches to this. What’s your practical business advice? But then also other, other tax ramifications to some decisions around you know, credit card fees and, and passing these to customers.

JENSON:

So the one thing we’re talking about here is that when you have a small business owner, self-employed, they wanna provide the con convenience for their customer to pay ’em, which is then what? It’s a credit card. But then for that convenience to your customer, exactly what you’re talking about, we’re now gonna pay a credit card fee to the credit card company, which is somewhere around two and a half, maybe three and half percent. So let’s call it 3% that directly eats into your profitability, 3% of your gross. I mean, that starts to really add up. It’s another sneaky little deduction. Now, what we’re getting ready to talk about here, you would want to check, I think there’s about five states that actually don’t allow you to do this. So check with your consumer credit to see if you’re one of those states. I don’t know what states they would be, but here’s what it is.

You’re now adding a line item on what you’re charging the client that then covers that fee. So here’s how I’ve done it. I’ve just actually got a haircut today with my barber and he told me that, Hey, hey yi, when you come to pay with the credit card, it’s just gonna be a $2 fee in addition, or I take cash and there’ll be no fee. So I had my decision upfront before I sat in the chair and I made the decision now that I wanted the convenience to pay with the card, therefore I’m paying the $2. And my barber, who’s working hard in essence now, doesn’t have to eat that cost. It’s another way that if you are afraid of raising your fees, then what is it that you can do to pass on a very direct expense to the customer? Cuz it’s really for their convenience.

Now, it can just be a percentage, but I’m telling you, I was down at the lake last week and I went into a little gift shop just to pick up a t-shirt. And when I checked out, it said, any credit card fees, we add two and a half percent to the sale. And it’s a very separate line item. So my biggest advice is to be upfront with your customer about it, show it as a line item, and with the client complains about it more to say, well, listen, you’re the one that’s deciding to pay this because if you pay by check or maybe ACH or cash, this isn’t something that we’re charging you. So now you’ve done the you’ve done the good thing of kind of switching that decision over to the customer.

VANNOY:

I, this, this is gonna be interesting to me how it plays out over the next few years. So there’s obviously more retail oriented small businesses that con you have to align the consumer behavior, right? And people simply don’t need carry cash and checkbooks anymore. You have to take the card. So it’s a question of who pays for it. I, I think it’s interesting, like when you, I I travel a lot for work and make a hotel reservation. Let’s say I saw, I made a reservation for 150 bucks a night and I go to check out and it’s two 15. I’m like two 15, what the heck? City tax, county tax state, I mean crazy amount of taxes. And I, and in my brain I’m thinking, oh, you know, it’s, it’s darn taxes. I’m not thinking the hotel screwed me over.

Right? I’m thinking, okay, I can see the additional line items. They really did honor their 150. So I think there might be some psychology in as a marketing guy in, in your favor as an entrepreneur. But like you said, JJ, it’s all about communication. I think legally you have to disclose it what the surcharge is. But as long, as long as you’re open and transparent about the communication you’re making about their choice, not yours. And I think about line unexpensive. If I got a, if I do a hundred th if I got a hundred thousand dollars business on my hands and a hundred thousand of the dollars comes from credit card because it’s that type of a business, that type of consumer and I’m paying three and a half percent. I it’s not that you’re just not, it’s not just reducing a $3,500 line item, that’s one that goes straight to the bottom line. Yeah. So it’s really, really big impact. If, if, if it makes sense. Yeah. You always have to think about the consumer. So I don’t think we’re either one of us are advocating saying, no brainer, go do it. It’s all about the consumer. And are you making them happy? Cuz they have choices. But it’s surely is something you should be considering.

JENSON:

Yeah. And what I tell clients that are resistant to raising fees, what we just talked about or doing, maybe something about the credit card fees, is do you want that to be what you say when you’re putting the, we’re going at a business sign in front of your businesses that, you know, we, we couldn’t raise our, we we were too concerned about raising our fees. We didn’t pass on our credit card fees. These things start adding up. And so now I’m closing my business. And so what I tell clients is, I want you to imagine right now in this chair is your child and I want you to look at your child and I want you to tell your child, I’m not gonna be able to fund your college. I’m not gonna be able to get you a second pair of soccer shoes.

We’re not gonna be able to take that great vacation. You’re gonna probably have to help me in retirement cuz I’m not gonna have enough to take care of myself because I’m now gonna put this customer in the other chair before you. This customer comes before you child, this customer. I don’t wanna lose them. I don’t want to charge them a little bit more. I don’t want to pass on these expenses. So I’m gonna put the customer before everything else in my livelihood. So when you put it in those terms, every single one of my clients now runs through a wall to raise their fees because they are not gonna put that customer before their family. They may put the customer before themselves, but they’re not gonna put it before

VANNOY:

Their family. Yeah. We become so emotional. That’s a great, great question to ask because we come if we’re good human beings and we, we we’re business for a reason. So we’ve become so emotionally attached to the business and the services and the customers and, and how hard their lives may be. That that’s a great way to reframe the, the, the topic. Yeah. Alright, so, and I’ll my word not yours, surcharges. That’s specifically around a, a way to pass costs for credit cards. What about just discounting in in general?

JENSON:

Yeah. Never do it. Just charge what it is. Don’t mark up your price to then just mark it down. You lose credibility in my opinion. Clients don’t you know whether to trust, well, is this being well, did somebody else get a discount? The other part is what I tell my clients, and it’s something that I learned from my grandfather as well. Again, a CPA who also advised small businesses advising me with my own business is that when I discount a customer and that customer now really falls in love with my service or whatever product you’re selling. And now what is the number one compliment we would say as a business owner that a customer can do is refer somebody to you. But when they refer then somebody else to you, they’re gonna say, Hey, make sure you ask for the discount or that referral that’s coming to you is going to expect your pricing to be the same.

So when you discount, you now create generations of new clients coming in expecting a discount. So if somebody really does feel that they need to discount, then put something beside it, which is, if you pay by this date, then here is your fee. And if you want to pay the full amount, then you’re gonna provide it to us, and this would be for my business. Then you’re gonna provide it to us at a later date. Meaning we came up with something that says, listen our rate is this through the end of February for March in the first two weeks. Here is our rate. We didn’t say you got a discount for getting it to us early. We just made it clear the rate’s higher if you get us the documents later. And so it’s very much being upfront with your customer that builds the integrity. We’ve all probably walked in somewhere and we’re like, how is it that if I buy one suit, they give me two free and socks and a shirt and a tie and then I get 50% off shoes if I just buy one suit. Like you now think, well what kind of quality is this? I mean, some still fall for that, but I,

VANNOY:

And how bad, how bad were they gonna rake me over the coals had I not been aware of this if I’m about the day earlier? Right?

JENSON:

Right, right. And so I had one customer that came to me and he ended up being one of my biggest clients, still is. And one of the first thing he said to me is, I know I’m gonna be a big customer. So this is back, I’m 25 years old when I started my practice. And he said, Hey, I know I’m gonna be a big client, so what kind of discount are you gonna give me? And I said, none. And he said, you’re not. And I said, no, cuz if I give you a discount, then really what you’re asking me to do is do a 90% job for you. I would rather do a hundred percent work for you. Meaning I wanna be a hundred percent in on saving you taxes, not 90%. So if you want me to discount, then really think about it. Am I really gonna give you that same type of attention versus the client that’s paying me a hundred percent? And they said, I’ve never heard that before. You’re hired. And this is a client that really was been a number one fee level client. And he test told that story over and over and over because I showed that I was worth it by then showing how it was worth it to them to not be a discounter.

VANNOY:

I learned something really cool from Steve Robinson. He’s the former c o from Chick-fil-A. He was he is first at marketing employee their 35 years. Took him from a hundred million to almost 6 billion. He gets a lot of that credit discounting and coupons. He did it in early in the, in the early days and, and he stopped. That couponing and discounting is a great way to drive transactions, but not relationships, right? So your business model is something that you’re driving to the transaction only. Maybe it’s something you think about, right? But if you want a relationship, a repeat customer that sees value it’s not just that discounting can hurt in the moment and take margin away from the transaction. It does, but it takes, it takes it, it really just sucks away from the value of the relationship and therefore the lifetime value because no one’s gonna stay in a relationship that doesn’t have value, right? Yeah.

JENSON:

And you don’t want someone to pick you just because you’re the cheaper one, because that means that the second you do what you gotta do, which is increase your fee, they’re gone.

VANNOY:

And you just told them that what you do is a commodity, right? Yeah. Oh, primary differentiator between us is price. Okay, I’ll lower my price. You’ve just signaled to them that no matter how, how smart and cool and awesome you seem to be at the end of the day, it really is about price. So

JENSON:

Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true.

VANNOY:

I’m, I’m in anxious for this next topic. J g So this is something that I, I, I haven’t thought enough about. But there’s some, there’s some real tax advantages here around paying, paying your kids. And I think there’s distinctions between kids and family members first tell, tell us what you mean by stop not paying your kids and help unpack this topic.

JENSON:

So the thing about this is that when you pay somebody, they’re gonna pay tax on whatever it is that you pay them. And whether they’re your kid or your family or somebody that’s now just working for you when they then also get paid, they get to use that money for whatever it is that they want. So when you then pay a family member and you pay kid pay a kid they’re gonna pay tax on that income, number one. Number two, there’s gonna be most likely in a lot of scenarios, it’s gonna also be subject to payroll taxes. But the thing is, is that whatever then is paid your business got to deduct. That person’s gonna pick it up as income, whether they’re your employee, a family member or a child. But see, they’re gonna pay tax at their rate. And many times when we think of kids, everybody goes to the four year old.

Most of the time with my clients, it’s about age 14 learning the value of working. Many small business owners, their family is involved, they expect it to be for free, but wouldn’t there be an advantage to actually paying them? And here’s why, for what I just told you secondary, when you pay an employee, they can use it for whatever they want. Soccer lessons, college paying for lollipops, I mean, whatever they want. Yeah. So when you now pay your kid, you pay a family member, you’re now passing on that income to them, but you’re getting the deduction. And for most small business owners, their tax rate is gonna be higher than their kid. So in essence, you are passing that income down to the kiddo. That kiddo is then, and if they’re under 18, you still get to obviously be involved, but that kiddo can then use those dollars for things you would’ve spent otherwise and you would’ve gotten a zero deduction for.

So with this, you have to do it properly and that’s where you all come in, which is this. So if you’re an S corporation, then if you pay your kids no matter the age it is going to be subject to Social security and Medicare tax. If you pay them as an employee from a partnership, it is not subject to Social Security and Medicare. If they are under the age of 18. If you’re a Schedule C, and this is not enough of a reason to stay a Schedule C, but if you are a Schedule C and you pay a kid that’s under 18, it is also not subject to self-employment taxes. But I’m telling you, most of my clients, their s corporations when they pay their kid is gonna be subject to social security and Medicare tax. But the thing is, if you look at the standard deduction, so no matter the age, whether it’s a kid or an adult, there is a standard deduction.

So you’re gonna have to in essence look it up because it changes each year due to inflation. But most recently it was 12,800, meaning the first 12,800 that anybody earns regardless of their age on a w2, is not subject to income taxes at the federal level. So if you pay somebody, let’s just use the example of $10,000, you are gonna pay some payroll tax on that as an employer, there’s gonna be some tax withheld. What is that? 15 3%. But most of my clients, if they’re paying somebody 10 grand family member or not, that’s gonna save them. Let’s just say they’re in the 35% bracket. Pretty easy, right? It’s gonna save them $3,500 in tax. There is going to be the payroll tax, but then you have that lesser tax rate that is then paid by the recipient. So the only thing I would just say about this is that for whatever reason people think that this is something that is wrong or sounds taboo, for lack of a better word. But the thing is, is if you, if you do it properly, meaning you’re doing a paycheck and it’s on a routine basis, the last thing I’ll note to you is that the IRS actually loves this and why they just picked up payroll tax on the scorp or if they’re 18 or older, they picked up payroll tax.

VANNOY:

Yeah. The fact

JENSON:

That it may not there

VANNOY:

Payroll tax on, on allowance without this, right?

JENSON:

What’s that? No,

VANNOY:

There’s no payroll. They don’t get payroll tax on allowances otherwise <laugh> for kids.

JENSON:

That’s right. And you don’t get to deduct the allowance. Yeah, that’s

VANNOY:

Right. All right. So I, I’m gonna, if I can recap, boy, we, we could hide, we could bring in a psychologist and talk about parenting strategies around this. There’s some really cool things you could do with your kids teaching ’em the value of money where they’re the one paying for soccer camp, not you with this money. Cuz maybe there’s no way in heck you’re gonna ever gonna give your kid 10 grand an allowance. But just to net it out, if I’m gonna, if if I was going to pay my kid 10 grand and I gotta pay now 15% you know, split on half of that employer, other half employee, so 15% of that 10 grand in, in tax. So now I’m up to 11 five for, to net 10 grand in my kids’ pocket versus I take this money as profit and then after tax I’m paying 30%, 35 or more percent on, on this money. I’m still thousands, literally thousands of dollars ahead by paying my kid this money as an employee rather than after taxes outta my own pocket, right?

JENSON:

Yeah, yeah. You nailed it. So in that example, someone saves two grand on 10,000. What I was gonna say is that there’s nothing in the law now when people hear this, they ex they think I’m telling them to exploit the law. But what I’m telling you, there’s nothing in the law that prevents what it is that we can pay anybody. You can pay a million dollars for a 32nd ad in the Superbowl. If that ad in the superb Bowl had pick any famous kid, you know, Olson twins or any kid off Disney pick them, right? That kid’s gonna probably get, you know, I don’t know, 10 grand, 50 grand to be in that commercial. There’s nothing that prevents it. There’s nothing in the law that says, oh, well if it’s your own child, you can only pay ’em $8 an hour. So if you’re doing something that’s reasonable, but what I’m telling you is in 30 years in the audits that I’ve been through, the payroll audits that I’ve been through, they’re pretty much typically has been another family member on that payroll. And it’s never been a question, it’s never been inquired upon because here’s what I actually hear from the I r s, you know what, most people don’t do this. Most people pay under the table. Most people 10 99 their kids, most people pretend it’s some other deduction. The fact that you claimed it as payroll and put it out in front of us, boom. You followed everything. What is there then for them to argue?

VANNOY:

Right? That’s a really, really good point. Interesting point. All right, JJ, I’m gonna move us to our next topic here. What do you mean by stop not reporting cash income?

JENSON:

So many small business owners, especially when you start, you might be asked by a customer, Hey, is there a discount if I pay in cash? And then you start thinking, well, maybe I want to collect cash cuz if I give a discount, then maybe I don’t have to report this. So the thing to note is that with the I irs, there is no materiality when it comes to not reporting income. Meaning if you don’t report a dollar, it’s just fraud, period, the end. It’s just fraud. Yeah. What I tell clients is, report all of your income and now really get with me or your advisor to really make sure you’re deducting everything you can outta that business, number one. Number two, if we look at the pandemic as an example, your loans for the E I D L as an example or what you’re grossing came into whether you qualified for P P P or if you for E R T C, when you don’t properly reflect your income, you can lose out on other benefits.

When banks are looking at your loan abilities, they’re looking at what your income is. So you don’t want to commit fraud. No one wants to do that. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re hurting your business. And really then your goal is, is, well, what expenses can I be running through the business? So really what it comes down to is for you to really know your numbers in your business, what did we really do? You wanna collect the cash and report it, put it in the bank. But I will tell you this, any audits that I’ve been through where they have looked at the bank statements, the number one thing they’re looking for is on a deposit slip. Do they ever see any cash reported ever? And so if your deposit slips never reflect any cash, they pretty much know, most likely with most businesses, something’s amiss there. Now we understand there’s exceptions to all that, but at the end of the day really comes down to do not commit fraud. It’s the number one way to just get in trouble. And it’s pretty easy for somebody to, in essence, put themselves in a jam not even knowing it.

VANNOY:

I mean, as a payroll company, we’re, we’re compliance first. And so at any webinar we’ve ever done webinar P P P E R T C, how to get tax credits and money back and stimulus and whatnot, we’re never advising anything. But the law always gotta follow up law. But you made a really interesting point. I won’t say who. And so Iris don’t come to Carl and I, I I I I know someone personally, they were paying PE employees, you know, off the books because they were bootstrapped young business and, and hand living, hand to mouth. And when the pandemic came along, it crushed ’em because they had to close their doors for, for a bit. And because they didn’t have actual payroll, they couldn’t even apply for p p p money, right? They couldn’t apply for E I D L, they, because they didn’t have the record keeping. And they missed out on truly business saving kind of money in it just, it just doesn’t pay. Yeah. Anything else? You wanna put a put a wrap on this topic before we talk to next one?

JENSON:

Well, just one thing. Yeah. Wrapping it up and to add really what with what you just said, when I’ve had customers asking me about this, which was mostly in the early days of my practice, I said, what are you really accomplishing here, because if you’re collecting cash and not reporting it, but then you’re using that cash to pay employees under the table, you didn’t accomplish anything. You could have collected the thousand dollars, paid the thousand dollars, and you’re still in the same position, but you’ve now not broken the law. So at the end of the day, it does, it just never, if you, if you just run the numbers, it still doesn’t make any sense.

VANNOY:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, you, you, you avoided tax on an income, but you also avoided the expense that was fully deductible, so. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let’s talk next topic here. What do you mean by not deducting mileage on your vehicle? Is this in, in your experience, how many people don’t do this?

JENSON:

So most everybody misses this. Now let me, let me be clear just to, to kind of spread what is on the, on the slide here is that we’re talking about when you use your personal vehicle for business purposes. So if you have a vehicle and you’ve titled it in your business, then you’re not gonna be able to take mileage on that. But when you’re self-employed, you’re filing a schedule scene, you’re like, well, I don’t have a separate business name. I don’t have the the, the, the business that owns this vehicle. Well, then you’re obviously taking mileage. The mileage right now is something that changes kind of with the tide a little bit. But right now I believe it’s 60 and a half cents a mile. It’s usually, let’s just say historically it’s always been over about 50 cents a mile. So let’s just think if in a year you drive a thousand miles on your personal vehicle, that’s $500 that your business could have paid you.

 And it’s not taxable to you. And it’s deductible to the business. So it’s like the best way to get money outta your business, which is tax free to you, but a deduction to the business. So all you’re really now trying to determine is, well, how much of my personal vehicle am I using for business? And now that people are working at home, many people don’t know this, but if your primary office is at home, and I don’t just mean like wink wink, I work at home, right? If your primary office is at home and there’s a lot of different tests to determine your primary office, and it’s a lot easier than most think your mileage starts. If you have a personal vehicle that you’re using for business, the second you leave your driveway or the street and head to the client or to the bank or to the post office, that’s not considered commuting.

If you have another office that you go to, then that mileage from your home office to the next office is not considered commuting. When people talk about the commuting, they’re talking about rules that are for employees and it’s rules that are related to form 2106, which is unreimbursed expenses for employees. When you’re a business owner, when you’re self-employed, when you own your own business, you’re not following because they don’t apply these rules that are for employees that come down to this commuting. You’re following a separate set of rules. It’s just what I’m telling you. And so you’re then leaving money on the table, and at the end of the day, someone would usually ask as a follow up, well, when should I title my car in my business? Or when should I actually take actual expenses? And I’m just saying rule of thumb as if you have a vehicle that weighs over 6,000 pounds, G V W R, which is gross vehicle weight rating, which is what trucks and SUVs that you’re able to under current times get up to a hundred percent deduction in year one, regardless if you financed it or not.

That might be the real time to think about, do I want to take actual expenses and actual depreciation? What I tell my clients is, if you have a vehicle that’s 6,000 pounds or less, G V W R, we want to do this mileage thing. And it’s just something where people are leaving the deduction on the table. And you know why they say, well, I don’t want to track the miles. I mean, so you don’t want a $500 check on a thousand miles. That’s tax free to you in a business deduction. When you put in those terms, they’re like, okay, the last thing I’ll just dispute is Yeah, and it’s a

VANNOY:

Lot more money than that cuz if you’re driving for work, you, you’re putting money a thousand miles on in a year, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is real. This is real money. Yeah.

JENSON:

And, and I was just gonna say, the IRS actually only requires you track it three months out of the year, then you can use it as an average for the remainder nine months.

VANNOY:

Wow. I did not, that’s a new one. I did not know that. Yeah. Right. There’s a million things we could unpack there around buying and amortization schedules, right? Mileage and No, you can’t expense the gas that you put in the pump. You do the mileage. Yep. But the the punchline is here, expense your darn mileage. Right? Yep. Yeah. Alright, let’s, let’s move on to our next one. I think we’ve got two left here. I’m looking at the clock. I, this is something I think people entrepreneurs just don’t think about. When you say stop not maxing out your re your retirement, a lot of them, a lot of entrepreneurs I believe at least, don’t even think that they have retirement options. They think the business is the retirement right into that for me.

JENSON:

Yeah. So the number one way that you’re gonna secure your own future is to be an entrepreneur about it. People go out on their own, start a business cuz they want to be in control. When you build a business and you build a value and you’re crossing your fingers that maybe one day you’re gonna be able to sell it. And that’ll be how you ride out in the sunset into retirement. Guess what? That’s completely outta your hands. You’re now hoping crossing your fingers and relying on somebody else. That’s not what an entrepreneur does. An entrepreneur does sure things. How do you do a sure thing saving for retirement? The thing to note is that any option that’s available to you, there’s no way it’s enough to even retire on. So all the deductions that you can take, whether it’s a SEP or a simple 401K ira, there’s the Roth ira, which you don’t get the deduction for.

But my point is, no matter what plan you pick and maxing it out, it’s still not enough. And so when I talk to my clients and I really point out to them, even if you max this out, this is still not enough to retire on. So you gotta at least do this. One of the things that I have found probably about 15 years ago, even for myself, is to make this an automatic for the business owner, an automatic deduction. What is the max that you can put in? Divide it by 12 and have it automatically come outta your account, in essence, to help fund your retirement. And then what I tell people is this, cuz many get kind of overwhelmed, well, should I do a SEP or should I do a 401k or do I simple? Do I wanna do an ira? Here’s what I tell them.

All it is is a doorway. That’s it. You’re just deciding what doorway do I want to go in? And the next answer or the next question is, so how much money do you wanna put in? Because one plan allows you to put in 6,000, another 13 and another 20 using round figures. So at the end of the day, you wanna pick whatever you think you’re gonna afford. And that’s the plan you pick. Cuz once it goes through the doorway, it can go into a money market. Bonds stocks, many think that by putting money in a 401k, it automatically goes to the stock market. It doesn’t, it just went through a doorway that said 401k at the top. Once it’s inside, now it’s growing tax free. You are able to pull it out tax free. I do wanna pull back if I can, when we talk about paying kids, whether they’re younger or in college, you know, when they have wages, they now can contribute to a Roth ira.

 We know that if you make too much, you can’t contribute to a Roth ira. Roth IRA is no deduction when it goes in, but then it’s completely tax free when it’s pulled out into retirement. So when you have a kiddo and they’re making 12 grand, 18 grand, they don’t really need the deduction for retirement. They don’t need the IRA deduction. So the Roth is then a way that you can be putting money aside for your kids that goes towards, you know, their retirement. So I just wanted to kind of pull that as, as kind of a full value. Oh,

VANNOY:

There we go. Sorry about that. So many entrepreneurs, I believe think, oh, 401k, that’s for the big company I used to work for, but now that I’m self-employed, that’s not even an option. Not true. Right? There are, there are so many investment vehicles we can never get into all of them in, in this conversation. But I, I think the punchline is, is max out every single one you can, none of ’em is gonna be big enough to retire on in and of itself. And so what you’re really doing is you’re building a portfolio of the most tax adva, most tax advantage advantageous portfolio way to access your money when that, when it does come time to retire, right?

JENSON:

Yeah, absolutely.

VANNOY:

Yeah. Okay. Last topic here. The home office deduction. Tell me, I think, I think maybe give us your pre covid answer in your during covid answer. Is there a post covid answer I this, I think there’s a lot of confusion on this topic around dedicated space versus during pandemic flex time. Unpack that one.

JENSON:

So the first thing I want you to note is that this is only available if you’re filing a Schedule C and I’m kind anti filing a Schedule C as we talked about in the beginning. But if you are filing a Schedule C, typically that means you are just starting your business, maybe what we call a gig worker or somebody that’s maybe not doing it full-time yet, but you are then most likely working out of your house. And if you actually go I believe it’s form 88 29, and the only reason I keep throwing out these form numbers is if you go to irs.gov and you just put in the keyword, the directions or instructions are literally written at a fourth grade level, the irs, and not as an insulting, but they really try to simplify. So when you then look at what are the tests, there are so many different tests and you only have to meet one of them.

So yes, would it need to be dedicated? But that’s only one of the tests. You don’t have to meet all of them. So at the end of the day, what it comes down to is when you’re now looking at the square footage of what you’re living in, whether it’s an apartment townhouse or home, then what square footage are you? And I’d probably say that’s kind of the most key thing. How much square footage are you using for your home office? And no, it can’t be all of it. And here’s how we make it really simple, is the IRS has now a simplified formula where for each square foot that you use for business, it’s a $5 deduction up to 300 square feet. I’ll tell you this, when I first started my practice, I did a big analysis for a client that just came in.

They, they literally lived in a mansion. They had a lot of different rooms that they were genuinely using, and employees were going there to work. And you know what? That home office deduction was $980. And he was like, well, you didn’t calculate this, right? But see, when you go to actual expenses and do a percentage, most of the time means 99.9% of the time, actual expenses of using your home for business purposes is gonna be less of a deduction. Which is all to say this, the IRS has already said all the, all the oxenfree years ago, we’re fine. Take a home office. Here’s all the easy ways that you can do it. We’re gonna let you take a $5 per square foot deduction up to 300 bucks, which is a $1,500 deduction. And what I’m telling you is that’s the biggest deduction that I’ve ever seen on a home office. Meaning no matter how big your house is, it’s not gonna be that high. Now, if you own anything else, your partnership, C corp, s corp, there’s no home office option for you. This is only for Schedule C. So there’s no reason to be a Schedule C to get this deduction because it really kind of comes out to 1500 bucks. It would be much more advantageous to be an S-corp.

VANNOY:

Yeah. So full circle, we started the started st the the conversation recommendation number one, stop filing schedule C, file 1120, yes. Reclassify if you need to as an S-corp take the full deduction. There’s instantaneous if, if you’re making more than say 50,000, if your business is netting more than say 50,000 in the more than $20,000 a year in profit. It, it’s, it’s truly, really, really easy money. Kind of a no-brainer. But if you’re smaller, you’re starting out then this one makes perfect sense. JJ, I could talk to you for a long time. This has been a really cool conversation. I’d love to have you back to unpack some of these topics in more detail. Maybe just take 30 seconds if you could tell, tell e everyone how, how you help clients and maybe how they could find your content and get value from you.

JENSON:

Well, I really appreciate the opportunity again, I, that your company’s mission is similar to the mission of my YouTube channel. And so I’m not taking on new clients. I’m feel fortunate about that. So I’m not able to do anymore. I’ve kind of found the limit. I’ve increased my prices, I continue to increase ’em. I’m making the living that I wanna make. And so now, believe it or not, I’m having a lot of fun doing what it is that we’re doing right now. And also on my YouTube channel, JJ, the CPA, if you’re into any other social media, you’re gonna find me by looking up JJ, the CPA. I do seminars for small business owners as well as continuing professional education for tax professionals. All really on the low side in terms of cost. But really at the end of the day, I think I’ve always been passionate about being a C P A.

 And that really means that I’m a certified public accountant. And so I feel like with my content that I’m putting out there, specifically with YouTube, I have a responsibility to the public as a C P A. And so I try my best to only provide information that it is consistent with what I’m providing to my customers and in a way that maybe they can take this and go to their professional and get some savings. And so at the end of the day when I was in high school, I took an aptitude test and it said I was either gonna be a minister or a movie star. So instead I decided to become a CPA and finally became known somewhat on YouTube. And I think I’ve kind of mixed all that together and I’m pretty happy about.

VANNOY:

I think you have, I think you have preach, preach. JJ, the CPA. JJ, it was a pleasure meeting with you. I look forward to hopefully we can talk again, real soonly, this has been a great absolutely conversation. I’m, I’m sure our audience has learned as much as I have today.

JENSON:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity.

VANNOY:

So truly coincidentally, our, the, the, the, our mission, our vision at, at as Asure is to become the most trusted human capital management resource available to entrepreneurs everywhere. You can read it on the website, that’s it verbatim. Our job is to provide the very best content and resources for you guys to, to stay compliant and grow your businesses. And that includes the profits that fuel growth. So hopefully a bunch of great information today. If there’s anything we can do for payroll, hr, time to attendance software or the HR services to help you grow your business, we’d love to talk more about it. Until next week, JJ, thanks again for joining me.

JENSON:

You bet. Thank you again. I appreciate the opportunity.

VANNOY:

And thanks to everyone else. We’ll talk to you next week.