Goals — Best of

See the Possibilities

Dr. Scott Colonna turned a global pandemic into a

Splendor In The Grass

Randy Lesperance unearths the gardens of tomorrow.

The Good Neighbor Bryan Fifer is your hometown BFF.

51 | Healthy Habits, Healthy Profit Mike Michalowicz’s recipe for success. 54 | 20 Questions Everything you need to know about getting started with Profit First.

58 | Grow With the Flow Go Figure’s guide to cash flow. success story.

Driven Dan McCarthy is preparing his transit business for what comes next.

Mr. Big SH*T

Michael Wright makes the most of a crappy situation with The Poop Bandit.

Property Probst Meet nurse-turned-realtor, Elle Probst

Running a

business is no stroll in the park; it’s a relentless, ass-kicking endeavor that separates the contenders from the pretenders. Anyone who dives headfirst into the entrepreneurial world without a clue about the grueling reality is in for a rude awakening. Your business becomes more than just a venture; it’s your baby. You lavish it with time, attention, and hard-earned money, nurturing it with every fiber of your being. Every day, you’re faced with choices that can either nurture its growth or stunt its development. And let’s be real, mistakes are inevitable. And messy. And painful.

So, if running your company feels uncomfortable and hard, then you’re likely doing things right.

As someone who’s run a small business, watched friends build companies, and helped thousands of clients grow their businesses, I’ve learned that anyone who says running a business is easy isn’t telling the truth. Even the simplest of companies involve complex challenges.

But here’s the thing: Struggling with your company doesn’t mean you’re not smart enough to succeed or that you’re a bad CEO. Rather, it means that you have room to grow. Progress doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. And a setback doesn’t mean we give up.

You may have to pivot and make changes. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. It may be hard, but if you persevere, you’ll make better decisions and you’ll create better habits. When you do, you’ll make tomorrow easier. Until its time to pivot and grow again.

And that’s something each of the men and women profiled in this special issue of Goals has in common. From real estate moguls to eye care pioneers, airport shuttle virtuosos to champions of canine waste management, each has weathered storms and charted unique courses to attain their aspirations. By sharing these stories and the tools they’ve used to find success, we hope you’re inspired to keep working toward your goals.

At Go Figure, we work with an eclectic mix of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Some have been on their journeys for decades; others are just getting started. But no matter where they land, we are honored to play a vital role in their growth and success. Is it all about the numbers? No, of course not. But you must know the numbers to make the

rachel@gofigureaccounting.net

Struggling with your company doesn’t mean you’re not smart enough to succeed or that you’re a bad CEO. Rather, it means that you have room to grow. Progress doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. And a setback doesn’t mean we give up.

the Possibilities

Strong

entrepreneurs know how to turn a challenging crisis into an opportunity for their business to grow. Dr. Scott Colonna is one of them.

STORY HEATHER LEE PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID DELPOIO

“I’m hopeful, encouraged, and excited about the rest of this year!”

Lofty words for an optometrist in the middle of a pandemic. But that’s the essence of Dr. Scott Colonna — doctor, entrepreneur, business consultant, mentor, father, friend, and ever the optimist.

“Contrary to how many of us are feeling, the sky is not falling,” Colonna says. “Yes, this has been a challenging year. Yes, we’ve all experienced hardship at work and at home. Yes, we have had to pivot. But isn’t that what business is? Constant reinvention?”

He’s not being cavalier. Colonna and his businesses—Westminster Eyecare Associates, GMC Properties, Mandalay Optical Labs, and Uppercut Consulting—faced the same challenges as every other small businesses in the wake of COVID-19.

“Everything about how we had to run our businesses changed overnight. Over a two-week span, we furloughed our entire staff and faced mandatory shutdowns,” he says. “And yes, it feels like a merrygo-round of pivot, spin, reassess, reinvent, but that’s what business is. And it’s exactly what Rachel has prepared us for.”

He is, of course, referring to Rachel Siegel, CPA, Colonna’s longtime financial strategist, accountant, and bookkeeper.

“No matter what was thrown our way during the pandemic, Go Figure has kept it all on track. They

“We want to be the best in the world at what we do. I want to help other business owners and entrepreneurs be the best in the world at what they do.”

—Dr. Scott Colonna

were able to advise us on short- and long-term planning, and to coordinate that with our work family. Plus, when the PPP/Cares Act was launched, Go Figure was able to clarify the terms, navigate the changes, and keep us above water throughout those initial impact months. “

All told, Colonna’s companies were able to offer back full-time employment to 95 percent of their original employees. The other five percent chose to make a change and stay home with their families. “A decision we respect to the fullest,” Colonna adds.

“When it comes to navigating the business side of COVID-19, we nev-

er had an issue,” he says. “Because of the work we put into our cashflow strategies early on, we never had an issue we couldn’t overcome. What a blessing, right?”

That said, there was life before the pandemic. And to understand Colonna, one must look back to gauge such optimism.

20/02 Vision

The year is 2002. Dr. Scott Colonna is in his first year at Westminster Eyecare Associates, the practice he and Dr. John Ormando bought from a retiring doctor when the pair graduated from the New York College of Optometry.

Even then, the duo had a vision for more. “We knew we wanted to get out into the community and turn it into a group practice,” says Colonna. And that they did. What started out as a $600k practice has grown over the years into a $6M practice with over 65 employees and continues double-digit growth year over year.

“What makes us unique is that John and I had a goal; whether it was our staff or our patients, we wanted everyone to leave happy and satisfied with their service here,” says Dr. Colonna. “Where is the patient in this moment? How can we serve him? How can we surprise and delight her today? How is our team faring? When you bring it down to that basic level, magical things can happen.”

That passion remains today, even as COVID-19 acts as a universal kryptonite in the landscape of small business. “This is what we challenge ourselves with every day we come to work. It’s what we challenge our

Hiring for the Future

“Usually there’s a war for talent, but now there’s a surplus of great employees,” says Colonna. “In addition to those who are dealing with being furloughed or laid off, there are others at companies that aren’t thriving or whose work-life culture isn’t satisfying. So this is a perfect time to scoop them up!” Of course, to do that you have to make your company attractive to potential employees by being the best place to work. That means:

1. Have huge aspirations. Be inspirational with what you are trying to accomplish.

2. Be humble. Never stop trying to get better, and never stop listening to the ideas your team brings to the table. Remember: they are in the trenches of day-to-day patient (or customer) experience.

3. Be fun to hang with. You want your staff to say that working at your company was the best and most fulfilling job that they ever had. That’s never solely about money; it’s about being a part of something meaningful.

team with every day they come to work. It’s the standard we set in 2002 when we bought the practice, and it remains the core of what we do in 2020.”

In a way, Colonna says he is grateful for how this year has challenged him. “I know that sounds crazy, but the pandemic forced us to address weaknesses in employee satisfaction and our leadership practices,” he says. “We were able to step back and reconnect with our team, work beside them, and really understand the nuances of

day-to-day practice life. What we realized is that we had drifted from our core principles, and we’ve been able to use this time to get back to our roots, while still growing.”

What does growth look like in a pandemic? One word: expansion. “It has created partnerships and collaborations among businesses. We’ve been looking at buying businesses, expanding our footprint, and better serving our clients and patients,” says Colonna. “And look, interest rates are at an all-time low. If you are well-posi-

tioned and have the right financial plan, it’s a great time to expand. Go Figure has shown us that there is opportunity everywhere.”

So, for the immediate future, Colonna and his team plan on buying more practices, expanding their market base, and focusing on giving small business owners the tools they need to succeed. In fact, Uppercut Consulting gave business advice to small business and entrepreneurs for free during the first six weeks of COVID-19.

“I believe small businesses are what make communities thrive. We give back, we hire, we foster relationships.”

—Dr. Scott Colonna

“The

truth is, we want to be the best in the world at what we do. And I, literally, want to help everyone be the best in the world at what they do,” says Colonna. “We’re very personal. We’re not a cookie-cutter company. I believe during challenging times like this, the personal touch is going to set us apart from the larger, monopoly company. People want to feel like they are a part of something that makes a difference in their daily lives and where they live.”

Community First

“One of the things I’ve noticed in my lifetime is the loss of community, and I’m working hard to change that,” says Colonna. “Helping small business owners has been my biggest passion.”

Indeed, communities are our social fabric, the source of our livelihoods. Small business owners don’t just provide jobs; they live and work inside the communities they serve. And Colonna holds that as a core principle.

“I believe small businesses are what make communities thrive,” he says. “We’re the ones who sponsor the local sports teams, dance teams, mathletes. We support local schools as boosters,

PTA members, bake sale organizers, crossing guards, and school board members. We give back, we hire, we foster relationships. All our employees are from our community.”

For Colonna and Ormando, they are choosing to build their businesses around their lives.

And the same goes for their employees. “There’s too much talk of burnout,” Colonna says. “It doesn’t have to be that way. You can create memories with your family and still run, or work in, a successful business.”

As a husband and father, Colonna knows this firsthand. His daughter, Gianna, is independent and passionate about soc-

By the book

Profit First for Optometrists fills a crucial gap in financial education for optometry professionals. Rachel Siegel’s approach is not just theoretical; it’s born from real-life experiences and successes, from her clients as well as first-hand knowledge from Dr. Scott Colonna, making it an invaluable asset for every optometry practice.

Transformative takeaways, include:

Implementing Profit First: Understand how to apply this methodology specifically in an optometry practice for better financial management.

Practical Strategies: Gain insights into practical, actionable steps tailored for the optometry sector.

cer, basketball, and finance—a triple-threat in her father’s eyes. His younger son, AJ, although more affable than his sister, is equally competitive, with an affinity for golf taking him to national events.

Colonna and his wife are active parents, volunteering at the kids’ schools, cheering for them in after-school activities, and helping create a framework for their success. And yet, they still find time to have dinner together as a family.

And that is the measure of success. Or as Colonna likes to quote: “Success is not measured in the amount of dollars you make, but the amount of lives you impact.”

Expert Advice: Benefit from the combined wisdom of Rachel Siegel and Dr. Scott Colonna, offering a balanced perspective of financial management in optometry.

Real-Life Applications: Learn from real case studies demonstrating the successful application of these strategies in optometry practices.

Sustainable Growth: Find out how to achieve long-term financial stability and growth in your optometry practice.

Scan the QR code at left to order your copy of Profit First for Optometrists.

ShBig * t Mr.

Some people are willing to take a lot of crap. But Michael Wright, owner of The Poop Bandit, has made it into an art form.

STORY HEATHER LEE PHOTOGRAPHY FRED LOPEZ

pit bull with a lisp and a loose stool. A schnauzer with a memorable schnoz. A duo of dainty maltipoos with frighteningly large feces. Just another day in the life of Michael Wright.

As the owner of Orlando’s Poop Bandit, a dog poop removal service, Wright is easy to picture as a colorful mashup of your favorite Pink Panther characters: David Niven’s Phantom jewel (in this case, poop) thief only to be foiled Peter Sellers’ Clouse

Clouseau — who literally steals the show. Or, in this case, the shit.

“It’s a crappy job, but someone has to do it,” Wright deadpans.

It wasn’t always this way.

Michael Wright was once a professional talent manager, rubbing elbows with heiresses,

Hollywood producers, and Michelin-starred chefs. So how does one go from the jet-set life to, errrr, waste management?

“Well, that’s a loaded question. Pun intended.” Wright laughs.

“Basically Poop Bandit started as a job for my oldest son, and named for my dog, Bandit. He — Lucas, not Bandit — was having a hard time finding a job when he turned 16, and I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we just create one?’”

Doing His Business

The pooper scooper business plan wasn’t their first idea, but it was one Wright kept coming back to. “I can’t say that it was my original idea. I knew someone in Michigan who had a scoop business, and he was very successful. Ran that business for, like, 20 years. So I did a little research, and there was nothing in the area like it. So one Taco Tuesday, my wife and I sketched out a business plan, came up with the branding, and put a one page website together.

In all my years in business, it was actually the fastest idea-to-implementation ever. Tacos, cervezas, and then bam! We were in business.”

Wright is deflecting, of course, using his infectious sense of humor to keep the conversation light. Truth be told, The Poop Bandit couldn’t really be called successful until five years ago. In fact, Wright says the business just stumbled along. “Lucas really just wanted to make enough to pay for his car insurance, gas, and have a bit of cash in his pocket. So he had a handful of customers, probably like eight or so, and that was it. Then when he graduated high school and went into the Marine Corps, the company just limped along. We kept a handful of clients, mostly friends, but that was it. I was in the shit, literally, with my other company, and didn’t have the time or resources to put into scooping.”

For more than a decade, Wright’s primary business was running Domestic Estate Management Association, an association for personal chefs, butlers, estate managers, nannies, personal assistants, and such. DEMA connected high-quality, vetted service people with high net-worth families.

growing it from just a handful of members to 22 chapters across the U.S., plus one in Monaco and one in London.

“By 2016, we were poised to expand even further, but realized we were spread too thin. So that’s when we decided to double-down and bring on an investor. It was a real life version of Shark Tank, only not as fun,” he says. “The investor started stealing money from the organization within about six months, and the whole thing just mushroomed into a big, messy divorce in 2017. Friends I had for a decade. It was heartbreaking,” Wright remembers.

Fresh off the heels of that debacle, Wright transitioned into private service. “I was reeling from the partnerships and didn’t trust anyone, so I basically became an independent consultant. A headhunter talent recruiter for billionaires. They would come to me looking for people to run their homes or estates, and I’d find the people. Eventually that grew into consulting, where I’d go into their estates and diagnose their staff issues and, you know, help them with a battle plan to fix it.”

Founded in 2007, he and a partner built the company from scratch,

“Those three years were a lot of work, but it was really fun. I mean, I got to work and consult for some wonderful, high-profile people.

One day I’m talking to George Lucas. The next I’m dealing with Hollywood producers and celebrities. It was exciting and challenging and really high pressure, everything that I loved.”

And when COVID hit in March 2020, it all just … stopped. Wright’s private practice went from thriving to dying. “Obviously, no one was hiring, “ he says. “Especially the

wealthy, because they didn’t want people coming in and out of their home any more than needed. So just like that, it was like a water pump getting shut off.”

Like most of the world, Wright just hung out for a bit. “I did what everyone else did, watched Netflix and gained 30 pounds,” he jokes. “But it was pretty clear to me after the first month that COVID wasn’t going away. I’m not one to just sit around, either. I kind of go stir crazy if I’m not working on something, so I started to revisit Poop Bandit.”

Duty Calls

Despite the chaos of COVID, he still had a handful of clients, so it was time to decide: will The Poop Bandit die, or will it try? “I still believed it was a great idea, with untapped potential in this area, but to be totally honest, I was having a massive identity crisis,” says Wright. “Here I was, a guy who gave advice to billionaires for 20 years, and now I’m going to pick up shit? There’s no nicer way to say it. I really struggled.”

For the same reasons it made sense for his son to do it in 2016, it made sense to Wright now: low overhead, high potential. So, in the end, getting over that mental hurdle didn’t require a therapist or psych degree. It just required doing the work. And landing his first really big account.

“I doubled down and worked those remaining 8 or 10 clients. I asked for referrals. I did some local marketing. I updated the website, focusing on SEO and Google Adwords. The business grew, but it was a painstaking process. One client at a time, inch by inch, scoop by scoop.”

But then one day, while driving through a new local housing development, Wright had an epiphany: He could offer the service to HOA communities. “In Central Florida, especially here in Winter Garden, there are tons of these communities that have pet stations and dog parks, and they are never being serviced. The bins are overflowing. The bags are always empty. And there is still poop on the playground, literally. I figured I could build a whole business just dealing with overflow, and I was absolutely right.”

In fall 2020, Wright landed his first HOA, then his second by the end of the year. And with each

success, any personal issue he had with scooping, diminished. He embraced the “if you can’t laugh at yourself” adage and just decided to have fun.

And that he has. “In January 2021, it all just clicked at the same time, and I’ve been on an absolute rocket ship ever since.”

These days, the King of Ka Ka has a warehouse, three trucks, and five employees. And he’s actively looking to hire more people.

Though technically The Poop Bandit is five years old, Wright really believes the company is just a year

old. “From June of 2020 through now, it’s been working hard, keeping my head down, doing what I know will work. Even when there wasn’t immediate success, you just keep doing the work. This year, so far, I have basically doubled the business every three months. It’s growing at just an incredible rate, better than I ever imagined.”

That says a lot coming from a guy used to building six-figure-plus businesses. But Wright is the first to admit, he’s in new territory.

“In the past, I’ve always built my businesses with the end in mind. I would figure out the big, audacious five-year goal, and then I would work backwards, figuring out how to hit that goal. And this is the first company I haven’t built like that. COVID made the entire world rethink business, to do it differently, and I’m no exception. Instead of going all macro on a business plan, I just decide to work really hard, try to make good decisions, treat everybody as well as I can, and offer a great service and go over the top with the service and the communication. And it worked. It totally worked.”

That’s not to say he hasn’t made plans for 2022. More trucks, more employees, more commercial accounts. Perhaps another warehouse. But his most audacious goal is “to develop a process to turn the pet waste into compost instead of having it just go to the landfill.” And 2022 is the year he tackles Profit First.

Getting His Sheets Together

“I’ll be honest. I didn’t think

I needed accounting help,” says Wright. “I’ve managed my own books for so long that it just didn’t cross my mind to hire it out. But there’s just something about Rachel [Siegel]. She’s such a genuine, easygoing person. She’s not a hard sell. She just lays out the facts and lets you decide.”

The two had met as members of Central Florida’s Horizon West Networking Group last year, and Siegel became a Poop Bandit client during COVID. There was an easy camaraderie between the two, but it was Wright’s wife who first proposed the idea of hiring Go Figure.

“My wife is a smart woman,” he laughs. “Obviously, there are a lot of advantages to having someone else handle the books. My wife and I are both entrepreneurs and we like growing successful businesses, but we’re also at the stage where we enjoy our down time, too. So I was like, ‘well, I think I should talk to Rachel’—as if it was actually my idea.”

He and Rachel first started talking business over a cup of coffee. “I just asked her what she thought of our business model, what her philosophies are, that sort of thing,” Wright says. “She didn’t really push Profit First; she didn’t really need to because my wife was already on board with the idea. But I was playing it cool, like, ‘Let me let me read Profit First, you know, and get back with you.’”

Rachel encouraged him to listen to it on Audible. “She said, ‘All you do is drive around for the most part, so it will be much more entertaining.’” Wright listened to the entire book in 24 hours and hired Rachel the next day. “It made so much sense that I was mad I hadn’t thought of it myself! So hiring Rachel was a no-brainer. She’s a Profit First Professional, the only one in the area, and this is the system I’m going to want to do. So the next day I texted, ‘All right, I’m in.’”

“Mike gets so excited about things, and his enthusiasm just pulls you in,” Siegel says. “But we did have to dial it back a bit. We are working to get his books current, and we will do some Q4 and annual planning to make sure we set him up for success. But really, our goal is to start him on Profit First in January.”

“Funny story about January,” Wright recalls. “Last year, I was at a Horizon West meeting and we were doing a workshop where we wrote down our goals on a piece of paper and shared them with the group. Normally, most people write that they want to make X amount of dollars, or grow their business revenue by a certain percent. I didn’t. I wrote down that I wanted three trucks and a warehouse. That was January 2021. And it happened. It happened in the first three months of this year, maybe four. So January … yeah. The perfect time to start Profit First. The perfect time to start anything, right?”

So what would he write on that piece of paper for January 2022? “Oh shoot … I still have time to figure that out,” he says. “Stay tuned. But I’m sure it will be a shit ton of awesome.”

“…yeah, it’s been pretty awesome. I’ve had a few different successes and failures, but I’ve never had anything — anything — grow this fast in a 12month period. I’m still shocked by it all. Poop. I just can’t believe it.”

Property Probst

Nurse-turned-realtor Elle Probst firsthand that in the business of health and homes, care is the

to success. STORY HEATHER LEE PHOTOGRAPHY FRED LOPEZ

Property

Iget to step into people’s lives and help them with one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll ever make. I get to help the growing family find that extra bedroom and the veteran who’s been all over the world find a place to call home. I get to be a shoulder to cry on when it’s a family home being sold after someone’s passing. It’s as honorable as when I was at the bedside of a sick patient. Helping people is helping people, and that makes me happy.”

That’s Elle in a nutshell.

A registered nurse and certified realtor with The Property Pros, Elle Probst is humble and kind, giving the best of herself to everyone around her. “In both industries, health care and real estate, people need an advocate. They need someone who’s compassionate and who’s listening to them. I believe that’s my role as an agent, just as it was when I was a nurse.”

Nursing is, quite literally, in Elle’s blood. Her great-aunt was one of the founders of the second oldest hospice in America—Hospice of Northern Virginia, established in 1973—and helped grow the program throughout the U.S. and the Philippines.

“She was an oncologist,” Elle says. “But she saw more and more patients struggling with what to do at the end of life: Where do you go when every other option is exhausted? She wanted them to have every comfort at every stage of life.”

Year later, she rallied for Blue Cross Blue Shield to accept hos-

pice as a paying source for end-oflife care. It is thanks at least in part to Elle’s great-aunt that hospice care is widely available today.

Wealth in Health

Obviously proud of her legacy, it’s no surprise that hospice care was Elle’s health care passion— something she herself wouldn’t discover right away. “First, I was a children’s hospital nurse, but that only lasted six months because it was so heart wrenching, to see the kids suffer,” she says. “From there I spent five years as a cardiac nurse in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, before returning to the Alexandria/Falls Church area, where I became the nurse liaison for hospice patients. That’s when I first fell in love with hospice care.”

But life has a funny way of altering our plans. In 2004, Elle found herself relocating to Orlando, Florida, to take a job in the cardiac catheterization lab at Sand Lake Hospital, where her trajectory rapidly changed. “Sand Lake was a little community hospital at the time. I was working per diem, and they asked me to come on as an assistant nurse manager. And my career just grew from there.”

The hospital had already opened a second cath lab before a fateful merger with Orlando Health led to Elle’s team suddenly managing nine hospitals throughout the region.

In this role, she helped develop the open heart backup program at Orlando Regional Medical Center and earned her nurse practitioner degree before turning her

focus to her new role as heart failure program coordinator.

Her goal? To reduce readmissions from 26.7% to under 16%.

“I developed a trial where each patient was screened coming in through the emergency room, went through our protocol, and received their medications before they got discharged,” she says. Within two months, readmissions had decreased to 14.6%, and would ultimately settle at less than 12%. “It was an overwhelming success!”

So overwhelming, in fact, that the program was replicated at a number of regional hospitals, and Elle was tasked with developing a similar outpatient program. All told, these programs were the seeds that would eventually grow into the wildly successful Orlando Health Heart Institute.

The Art of the Deal

While the heart program was her biggest career accomplishment, it also quickly became her greatest stressor. “The work was incredibly rewarding, but I was working nonstop and losing time with my son. I had no life outside of work.

I was completely burned out.”

On Dec. 8, 2015, Elle stepped out of nursing and into entrepreneurship, becoming a franchisee of Painting with a Twist. “I had no idea how to run a business, or a franchise,” she says with a smile.

“But it looked fun, and I wanted something completely different. She built a location in Clermont and, in typical Elle fashion, was incredibly successful. “The franchise model is a

“In both industries, health care and real estate, people need an advocate. They need someone who’s compassionate and who’s listening. I believe that’s my role as an agent, just as it was when I was a nurse.”

“Here’s what I love most: I wake up every day unemployed. Every day, I need to find new business, and that keeps me motivated.”

great way to get that experience because it’s like a floor plan; they give you the tools to succeed—if you’re willing to do the work,” she says. “I got a crash course in business development, from the construction buildout to finances and monies, and hiring people, and bookkeeping, and how to get an alcohol license. I didn’t know it at the time, but it really set me up for my real estate career.”

She was named Painting with a Twist’s 2016 Rookie of the Year, and secured the rights to a Winter Garden location. But as fun as it was, it still didn’t give her the flexible lifestyle she wanted. So when she had the opportunity to sell in January 2019, she took it, changing course yet again to take on real estate full time.

Like many new agents, she cut her teeth working in model homes for a builder, KB Home. She didn’t stay long, but she did refine her knowledge of the market and negotiating skills while she was there.

In her first year as a bona fide realtor, she only sold one home. But she was undeterred, and by year two, that number grew to eight, and then the third year was 20. This year,ambitious as ever, her goal is to sell 30 to 40 homes.

“Here’s what I love most: I wake up every day unemployed,” she says. “Every day, I need to find business, and that keeps me

motivated. You see a lot of new agents drop off really quickly because they don’t treat it like a job. The ones who actually succeed are ones that treat it like a business. Success doesn’t happen over night.”

A House in Order

Elle is both talented and experienced at the human side of her job—networking, negotiating, and client relations. What she admits to being not-so-good at is the business and finance side. “And that’s where Rachel comes in,” she says.

She’s referring to Rachel Siegel, owner of Go Figure Accounting, whom she first started working with in 2019. “In the beginning, it was as simple as separating personal and business accounts. I was always mixing my money, so that’s the first thing Rachel taught me,” she says. “Then she helped me get the business organized the right way, as an S-Corp instead of an LLC. I ended up paying a lot of taxes my first year. It was painful.But then I actually got money back the next year.”

Thanks to both better business planning and implementing Profit First to further improve her cash flow, Elle finally enjoys the flexibility she has worked three separate careers to achieve—and even has enough in the bank to start planning for retirement.

“Rachel makes it so easy. She lets you do anything you want in terms of how you handle your business. If you want to do all

the bookkeeping yourself, you can. Of course, for me, it’s not my expertise, so I put my faith in her to set up the bank accounts and allocations. She helped me thrive financially, in a way I never imagined possible.”

Elle credits the Profit First plan for all her, well, profits.

But she also acknowledges that it takes some getting used to.

“At first, it’s confusing. But I’ve been learning more in the last two years, and now I understand why there are different accounts for owner’s comp and operating expenses and taxes. And paying myself—I can’t tell you how freeing it is to have my money working for me! Now I’m not waiting for a deal to close to be able to pay my bills.”

Patients Are a Virtue

Today, Elle is living the life of her dreams. She has the freedom to travel and work from anywhere, and the financial protocols in place to move forward with confidence. As Rachel often likes to say, Elle finally gets to work on her business, rather than just working in her business.

“I don’t tell a lot of people that I make more in real estate than I ever did in my nursing job. In my second year, I made my nursing salary in the first four months,” Elle says. “Still, I truly miss my patients. Patient care was my number one priority. But now I treat clients like patients, so it’s a different spinoff—the best of both worlds. Which is why I always say, ‘I can save your life … and your deals!’”

In the midst of a challenging business environment, Randy Lesperance unearths the gardens of tomorrow.

STORY HEATHER LEE PHOTOGRAPHY FRED LOPEZ

“Location, location, location” was once everything in real estate. But since the start of the pandemic that’s shifted to “space, space and more space” for home buyers and homeowners alike. Demand for properties with gardens and outdoor areas grew considerably as millions began working and schooling from home. And even though people are now returning to office life, the appeal of the great outdoors remains.

in the

A boon to landscape architects and designers from coast to coast, who are ready to step into the limelight. But the diversity and scale of work in landscape architecture is huge, and the mix of skills and expertise required to make these plans come to life puts landscape architecture right in the crosshairs of labor shortages and staffing challenges.

Which is exactly where Randy Lesperance of LanDesign finds himself in 2022, three decades after he first incorporated.

“It’s been a journey of love,” he says. “The only career I’ve ever really wanted. And yes, there were obstacles along the way, but nothing like what we’re seeing now. First with Covid-19, and then with what is happening inside the United States’s labor market, it’s dramatic. Unprecedented. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to come out of it, either.”

Planting The Seeds

The Rutgers graduate, class of 1983, first started a landscape division within his parents excavating company. Five years later, his designs needed room to grow, so he formed LanDesign and has been a sole proprietor ever since. The 34-year journey began on very small, postage stamp-sized properties with three figure budgets. These days look very different, indeed— working on affluent ocean-front estates with unlimited resources.

“There are so many avenues to pursue within landscape archi-

tecture, but I wanted to create individual unique oasis for people, satisfy all their needs on and compliment the incredibly beautiful architecture. Which is why I chose to focus my business on high-end residential properties and not commercial or parks,” Randy shares.

And focus he did. Specializing in landscapes along the New Jersey shore—Ocean and Monmouth Counties to be exact—Randy cultivated a roster of clients whose net worth and square footage grew over the years along with his reputation for unrivaled design. “CEOs, CFOs, millionaires, and celebrities alike, the kind of people that have three to four homes,” Randy shares. “They don’t go to just anybody; they’re going to who’s ever at the top of their game and has the best reputation. In fact, I would say that ten years ago, 90 percent of my business was reputation. That’s still important, but now they are researching you before they even meet you to determine your net worth and financial position. You better have a clean record, a good profile, and a great website, because these are people that are shopping Ferraris. And they didn’t get to where they’re at by not being able to make intelligent decisions.”

Still, landscape architecture isn’t the S&P or a banking portfolio or a medical practice. Intelligence is important, but so is creativity and vision and intuition. Great design, land-

scape or otherwise, can elicit an emotional response. And that’s what keeps Randy in the game, despite such banal business challenges as labor shortages and H-2B visas. “That’s what keeps me motivated. In a nutshell, I still want to be different and come up with the unique design solution, that one that stands out from all the others. I want to push the boundaries and be daring and creative and delightful. And I want to work for the right people, the ones who can afford the creative solution because the creative solution usually costs more money.”

Pandemic Effects

“I lived in my office for 11 weeks to save my business.”

The weight of that statement hangs in the air. “I know I have a partial view, but I feel that business owners took it much worse during COVID than the average employee because it was an awful lot of responsibility. That’s not to diminish what employees went through, not one bit, but as a business owner, I carried the weight of my family, in addition to my employees and their families. It was very isolating.

Randy continues: “To put it in perspective, in our area of the Jersey Shore, I thought the worst thing that I would ever go through would be Sandy. We had over 25 landscapes, more than a quarter-million dollars obliterated, but we were fortunate that our clientele was affluent enough to replace. With COVID, the sit-

uation is way more; the mental, physical, and emotional damage has last for years. Sandy was terrible, but the storm came in, we assessed damage, and then we could go to work fixing it. In this instance, we’re still waiting for the storm to stop raging. And it’s not just the Coast of New Jersey. It’s the entire world.”

Carrying such a burden is lonely, and isolating. Two years into the pandemic, health challenges still exist as the virus mutates, but now there is the added element of supply chain and labor shortages. And the landscaping industry can’t exactly work remotely.

“There’re some businesses where remote works very well,

and there’re some businesses that don’t. Meetings and CAD design can occur virtually, but excavating and digging and laying materials are all-in person endeavors. But truth be told, my full time staff, and there’s about 15 of them, they can function in a hybrid model. But a large percentage of my project

employees, my laborers, are here on the H-2B visa program, which may or may not even be running this year. Then what? I have a business that is poised to grow exponentially, but I may not even have employees available to me. And then ones I do find are going to be in high-demand. Poaching is, and will be, a huge problem.”

Randy leans back in his chair, obvious concern furrowing his brow, and takes a deep breath.

“Here’s what the last thirty years have taught me: I can be as uncomfortable as I want, as angry as I want, but the bottom line is if I want to stay in business, improve and grow my business, I have to go with the flow. I have to work around the supply chain, and I’m doing that. My team is doing that already. H-2B? I have no control over that, but what I can control is the work environment, the benefit structure, the kind of things that make working for me more compelling than other companies. And you know who’s been really great at helping with this? Rachel Siegel.”

Make An Impact

Properly managing your books and making the right financial planning decisions takes time, skill, and effort. It’s not a one-time thing, either. “Our financial lives are complex and inter-related,” says Rachel Siegel, owner of Go Figure Accounting. “Pulling one lever can have unintended consequences in another aspect of your business, today, tomorrow, and well into the future.

Which is why we really value our long time clients.”

LanDesign and Go Figure have been working together for close to 15 years, possibly longer, but neither Randy nor Rachel want to do that math. Suffice it to say, both of their businesses have grown exponentially over the last decade and a half.

“When I first me Rachel, she was young, passionate, full of good ideas, and aggressive. In a good way. She has a tremendous personality and wit, but when it comes to finances, she has always been firm and confident. It was just a good fit from the very beginning,” says Randy. “I knew I could trust her, and she knew that I was the kind of client that was going to get her whatever she needed at whatever particular point because I understood the value of good finances. I also knew that I needed to plan well and I needed to run the business well, and Rachel’s guidance during those growing years was crucial for me.”

These days Randy’s goals are steadfast: Optimizing the business finances, running a tight ship, and “minimizing the amount of benefit that goes to the government,” he explains. “I believe in the government, and I believe in the tax system, even though there are inefficiencies. But I prefer to stay in the middle lane, paying the proper taxes, but maximizing the benefit that goes to me, the employer, so that I can better take care of my employees.”

A hot topic for Randy, who is keenly aware of ongoing labor shortage issues and looming

visa challenges. “Keeping my employees happy and healthy is a top priority for me,” says Randy. “It has been for a number of years, and Rachel has been very good in helping me find the right opportunities. For example, she introduced me to a profit-sharing program that has worked really well for my team, while benefiting my bottom line at the same time. She’s very creative with numbers, how you can maneuver things to make this situation better. And you can genuinely see how passionate she is about her client’s success. She’s invested, personally invested.”

Also on Randy’s mind is his own future. “About 10 years ago, I started talking to Rachel about planning for the future sale of the company, specifically how that relates to my tax exposure. What purchases would optimize the company, which do not. Controlling the end bottom line. And about seven years ago, eight years ago, we put a plan into place. You know, I already had a financial advisor. Now I have three different ones working all together to do the best thing. That’s all Rachel. She helped put those pieces together for me, and it’s working. That’s why I’m with Go Figure, why I stay here.”

Randy pauses, and then continues. “You can get accounting anywhere, but really good, intuitive tax and financial planning? That’s a skill. That’s a creative skill that has an intangible element. Like landscaping, but with money,” he laughs.

“The pandemic undoubtedly surfaced an appreciation for our yards like we’ve never seen before. Our yards have become the space to do essentially everything we also do inside— dine, cook, entertain, work, play, and relax.”

Good Neighbor the

the

Good Neighbor

is building a wildly successful business with authenticity. His secret? Putting the ‘you’

FRED LOPEZ

ease. That’s part of his efferves-

All who meet him treasure his curiosity; conversations linger and you always feel heard. Indeed, the slow, hyper-attentive way he listens and engages with people has become a lost art in today’s distracted age. He makes goodness look attractive.

He both embodies the boyish charm of Jake from State Farm

and a modern-day take on Mr. Rogers. Indeed, Fred Rogers once said, “My mother would say, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Bryan is one of those helpers. And he does it while exemplifying the qualities we most desperately need now: neighborliness, gentleness, deep listening, creativity, emotional honesty, lack

of pretense, and an unceasing focus on raising healthy, curious, and confident communities.

And he does it while building a wildly successful insurance business. His secret? Authenticity.

LOCAL ROOTS

Did you know that everyone’s favorite neighbor, Mr. Fred Rogers—whose lessons of kindness, responsibility, and community endure long after his death— started discovering his purpose while studying music composition at Rollins College in Winter Park? He learned the importance of relationships on that campus, a spark ignited in the intimate, personalized learning environment that became his home. He learned how service to others is life’s ultimate calling and that community is the driver of good.

Like Mr. Rogers, Bryan calls Orlando home, albeit as a native and not just a college student.

“I was born and raised in Orlando. I went to high school at Bishop Moore, then Florida State University, and back to Orlando after I graduated. Orlando has always been home; my mom still lives in the same house where I grew up, which is very special, I think. So after FSU, I came back, and met my wife here—she actually went to West Orange High School. When we got married 16 years ago, we moved to Winter Garden. And I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Although Orlando has always been in the picture, insurance was not. His undergraduate degree was split between hospitality

“It’s so important to have a good CPA that’s really helping guide you. Sometimes, you can’t control your losses and you don’t really want to focus on the negative, the cancellations, the people that are going to leave you. It’s more important to stay focused on the positive… who can I keep helping and growing?”

management and sports management. “Originally, I thought I wanted a career with Disney, and that’s where I started as a lifeguard. But I ended up working for the RDV Sportsplex, which was the home of the SolarBears and the Magic, before transitioning to the YMCA,” he says.

Serendipitously, the chairman of the Board of Directors at the Y where Bryan worked was a State Farm agent. “Everybody knew Robin,” he says fondly. “If Robin told you to do something, you just did it. He just had this charisma and influence. I got to see his success in the community, how he was really looked up to, and that impacted me greatly.”

Bryan, of course, became a State Farm customer of Robin’s, and worked closely with him over the years in a mentor-like role. “After a few years working together at the Y, Robin said to me, ‘You know, you’d really be a good State Farm agent.’ And that pretty much planted the seed.”

The seeds of growth, however, took longer to root. Though Bryan connected with a recruiter and was deemed a good fit for State Farm, there were other challenges in the economy— ahem, 20072008—that prevented him from launching his own agency.

“A friend of mine had just become a State Farm agent, so I said, ‘I’ll come to work for you for a year. Let me just learn the business.’ I ended up staying there nine years! Number one, I really enjoyed it; but number two, I got married and I had two children, so stability was im-

portant. Thankfully, we really balanced each other well. She let me run the office so I could kind of operate it like my own agency. It gave her the freedom to be able to travel and do things that she wanted to do and know that she had somebody that could run the business.”

But Bryan never lost that itch to do it for himself. So, in 2016, when State Farm approached him about an opportunity to grow in Horizon West, he took the leap.

“A lot of people think we’re franchises. We’re not, we’re independent contractors with State Farm. State Farm hires agents who actually go out in the community and build relationships with customers, one person at a time. That’s how we grow our business. To me, it felt a lot like my work at the YMCA. I was helping people. There is this inherent mission behind the why. At State Farm, we help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams.”

GROWING PAINS

“When you become a State Farm agent, there are two different models,” Bryan explains. “You have what’s called a traditional role, which means that you’re taking over an office from an agent who has retired. So you start with an active book of business. I started the opposite way, which is called New Market or Scratch Agent, meaning just like any other business, you open and you don’t have any customers. And so, you’re hitting the ground running

every day, hustling, trying to grow your business. I think it was Robin who gave me this great advice: People have to see you. Be everywhere and get involved with everything. In a year’s time, they’ll think you’ve been in business for 10 years.” And that’s exactly what Bryan has done.

From getting his car wrapped to sponsoring events at local schools to putting up tents at chili cook-offs and carnivals, fests and fairs. “I think I did 57 events my first year, and easily doubled that my second year,” Bryan laughs. “People may not have known me, but they recognized my face and my name, and that opened so many doors.”

The marketing piece is just one aspect of Bryan’s business. Obviously, money plays a role, too.

“I believe that scared money doesn’t make any money,” he says. “If you want to grow, you have to be investing in your business constantly. I know for a fact that for every dollar I invest, I get two or three back. When I first started, I set a business plan of where I wanted to be at one year, two years, three years, five years and 10 years. So, one of my 10year goals we’re about to hit next week. This year, which is year seven, will be my best year yet. We will grow 30 or 40% probably this year, and I’ll hit my 10 year goal three years early.”

Of course, Bryan hasn’t done that alone. Over the years, he has built a team of people to support him at the agency. He now has eight people working for him, a mix of junior agents

and support staff, and the team recently moved into a new office space that’s nearly three times larger than as his old office. There’s room for at least four or five more people, more if he converts the conference room into more offices.

“Insurance is a market, like stock market, real estate, and other things. So, you’re always going to have peaks and valleys. So, for example, during COVID, we lowered rates by over 15% because nobody was driving, and nobody was having accidents. Not very many other companies did that. They may have given their customers a refund or something small. So, that put us in a very competitive position. I can’t take credit for that because I don’t control rates. But every year since then, it has been very, very competitive.”

This year, however, will be challenging in new ways, especially given Florida’s difficult insurance climate. But Bryan remains optimistic.

“There’s always the opportunity to grow. Auto and homeowner’s insurance are the two big drivers—those are insurance policies that people need. So, they’re going to shop for those policies; they have to buy them. With the amount of people that are moving to Florida and with the challenges that are going on with other companies, we’re in a really good position to help them. We’d like to continue to grow into some of the non-demand products that we offer, like life insurance and disability.

“State Farm’s number one in the country for life insurance, but a lot of people don’t even know we sell it. From homeowners to auto to life, we, literally, insure every aspect of your life. With these options, we can really take a holistic look at your financial situation and make sure that you’re protected from everything that could happen.”

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

In addition to his vibrant, dedicated team, Bryan also gives credit to Rachel Siegel. “She’s the first CPA that I’ve met that does things like we do at State Farm… she takes a holistic look at the big picture.”

“When Rachel and I first started working together, we would look at what percent of revenue I was spending on different things. Let’s say rent was 10% of my revenue for the year. Well, then I stayed in that space for 6-years and my revenue grew, but my rent stayed the same. So, that came down to where I was only spending 5% of my revenue on rent. Well, then you jump back to a space like this, and my percentages almost went back to year one.

“But as soon as I get a little bit further down the road, I can afford to add one more team member, and then one more. That was part of the reason to invest in this new space is that I can grow another four or five team members in this office easily. Rachel helped strategize that. She’s been hugely influential in the growth of my business.”

When he first became an agent, Bryan worked with a different CPA, who he really liked. But when that agent decided to retire, he sold his book of business to a big CPA firm in downtown Orlando and Bryan got lost in the shuffle. “When I met Rachel in 2018, the biggest thing she offered was that relationship piece that I was missing. I want the advice, I want your opinion, I want the ugly truth. Even if I can’t do something now, Rachel can tell me here’s how we get there. She’s very caring and very compassionate, and she treats your business and your books like it’s hers.”

The ugly truth of Bryan’s business is that “The first couple of years, I didn’t make any money. Rachel came into the picture between year two and three, and there was work to be done. I was putting everything in QuickBooks so that I could send it to my CPA, but we were never reviewing it. They weren’t helping me categorize things. My payroll wasn’t linking in and I had to manually do that. So, as soon as I got with Rachel, she dove right in and said let’s clean you up and let me show you how it needs to be done. That way you’re doing it right.”

“Being a business owner, you have to be on top of your money, especially—that’s our lifeline. And so, within a year my books were clean. I knew where I was going to be. I can predict where my revenue is going to be, and where my expenses are going to be.

“When we actually started having money left over every month, Rachel helped me figure out, okay, this needs to go into sav-

ings, this needs to go into taxes. And that’s kind of how we rolled into Profit First. I was familiar with the book, but I had never read it. And that was ok. Rachel laid it all out and I went all in.”

The first thing they did was pay down debts. “Once we got debtfree, it became much more fun. Rachel encouraged me to make it personal, so we decided to put in a pool at the house. We paid off that pool in 12 months thanks to Profit First. It just works. It’s money that you just systematically set aside. More recently, Profit First is helping pay off the new building space. I spent $26,000 on my first build-out, and this one was $130,000. That will take a little longer to pay off, but I’m not feeling it. Which is amazing.”

For Bryan and his team, it all comes down to relationships, especially in a service-oriented business. “That’s why we focus every day on just making sure we’re taking care of our current customers. Nobody likes it when your rate goes up, but our clients appreciate that we’re reaching out, we’re being proactive, we’re trying to guide them, maybe making some small tweaks, you know, to keep the rate down a little bit. But, in the end, it’s just about connecting with people.”

Perhaps the reminder we most need from Bryan Fifer today— like the one Mr. Rogers demonstrated for 50 years—is this: goodness is not only possible; it’s also compelling. It’s desirable. He’s walking proof that they can and do exist in the world. And they can be profitable too.

Driven

Driven

Dan McCarthy learned the hard way that perseverance is key to success.

STORY MARK MCWATERS PHOTOGRAPHY FRED LOPEZ

an McCarthy is the owner of Village Airport Van and, by his own admission, did not exactly start out as a focused, goal-driven sort. Setting goals did not come easily to him. “I’m more of a ‘Hey look, a squirrel!’ kind of guy. I was always being pulled every which way. I needed someone by my side to keep me on track. Thank goodness my wife and now Rachel at Go Figure are great at that,” Dan says.

One thing Dan has always been good at is perseverance—a word he learned the true meaning of during four years of service in the US Army with the 82nd Airborne during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. “Way back in basic training, I was on a run and we came to a spot where we had always taken a break before. Out of habit, my brain and body told me it was time to stop. Big mistake. The run kept going, and all of us who stopped were treated to an hour and a half of monkey drills:

jump up/jump down/roll left/roll right/now do pushups and more pushups. After that, I was determined that I would never fall out of a run again. I would never let my mind psyche me out, ever. I would hold on and never quit on anything, no matter what.”

That never-say-die attitude came to Dan’s rescue when, in 2008 while working for Comcast, he took a bad fall. He punctured a lung and broke his collarbone, among other injuries. At about the same time, Dan’s father, who had always wanted to start a taxi cab business, came down to Lake County to give that a go. They bought a taxi together and soon found themselves in The Villages, waiting for fares with other taxis. They got zero takers. “We heard people saying ‘Don’t take any taxis but Village Taxis.’ Clearly, we needed a different idea. Not taxis, exactly. How about shuttles? What about starting a shuttle business for

The Villages and going after the airport business?”

With just four used Crown Victorias, the two began getting the word out about their new Village Airport Van shuttle service. “My Dad placed one ad. The next morning the phone rang at 6:00 a.m. It rang again at 6:15. Then 6:30. It continued like that all the next week. We had one cell phone. We passed it back and forth between meals and bathroom breaks. That’s how it started.”

“We started making money that very first month. We would often run up to 33 passengers a day. That was a lot of airport trips back and forth in our old Crown Vics. So, Dad traded in his almost-paid-off personal car and bought a Ford Econoline van in December 2009. We put almost a million miles on that vehicle.”

Village Airport Van has been through a lot since then. By

now, they’ve transported more than 1.4 million passengers. In 2014 they converted all their vans to propane gas. It was a good move. “In 2013, we spent about $750,000 in fuel. So, we switched it up. Propane works well for us, and it’s more sustainable, with 50% less emissions than gasoline. Plus, all our vans and propane conversions are made here in the United States.”

By 2019, they had 35 vans on the road. Then COVID hit.

“Those times were tough for us, like for most people. Our business plummeted. There were some airlines still flying, but at severely limited schedules. We booked trips to the airport at 8% below our first-year numbers.”

But Dan, as always, chose to persevere, just as he promised during his basic training days. Village Airport Van never stopped running. “All through COVID we were here. We would not leave our customers stranded. You just don’t leave your people. The military taught me that. And these were our people. They kept us alive during very difficult times, and we will never forget that.”

The year 2020 still had more challenges in store. The most significant of these was the loss of his father. “He and I had been partners all that time, and when I lost him, I was left to manage our business on my own.”

One of the first things he did was fire his old accountant. “Dad would never have done that. She had been with us from the beginning. But I knew we could do better,” he says.

In her place, Dan hired Go Figure Accounting. “I have known Rachel for over 40 years now. Her brother and I were good childhood friends. I knew she was an accountant and had moved away from Florida and become partners in a big-time accounting firm. Lucky for me, Rachel came back to start her own firm.”

An entire accounting firm was what Dan knew he would need to make sense of his father’s outdated accounting methods. “Dad ran our business from his dining room table and basically put all our money in one big pile. I had several other businesses by then. One of them, a non-emergency medical transport business, we grew from $600,000 in sales per year to $1.6 million. But we never knew which business contributed what. We never had any idea where the money came from or where it was going. I needed someone, an accountant I could count on, and I knew Rachel was the one to do it.”

But where Dan saw an obstacle, Rachel saw an opportunity to grow. “She gave my wife a book to read, Profit First, and my wife liked it. A lot,” he said. “She had us at the word ‘profit.’”

Talking about growth, however, turned out to be a lot easier than growing. “Finally doing things right, for the first time, was painful. I won’t lie. Like ripping a bandage off. I opened a bunch of new bank accounts. Thank goodness my wife is so meticulous and organized.”

“We never knew which business contributed what. We never had any idea where the money came from or where it was going. I needed someone, an accountant I could count on, and I knew Rachel was the one to do it.”

All that hard work paved the way for Dan’s next big move. Specifically, a move outward, to a second location. “The Villages is expanding to the south and so is my business. My solution was to add to my geographical coverage. So, I bought a piece of land by the Turnpike and US 27, the furthest spot south before we got on the road to the airport. My plan is to pick people up in smaller areas, bring them to our hub, then the airport. As much as The Villages expands, we’ll be able to cover the market. No more driving people around on long trips with many stops.”

Construction on that new facility begins next month, and Dan credits Go Figure with making it all possible.

“Rachel is amazing and sharp as a tack. I swear, she rattles stuff off and makes my head spin,” he says. “Yeah, at first it was like swallowing a bunch of horrible pills. But now I’m growing steadily, earning good profit. Go Figure is keeping me 100% legit and putting as much money in my pockets as possible.”

More importantly, Go Figure has drive and perseverence to match his own. “Rachel taught me that I am in this for the long game. What I’m building now will last. It’s future-proof and I’ll be able to grow my business exponentially. Rachel has me spending money in the right places, where I get the best deductions and save the most money—and that is huge. You can’t ask for a better business partner than that.”

POINTS OF $770 million

The amount US consumers lost in social media scams in 2021, up 18x from 2017.

SOURCE: FTC

Unfair Share

Social media fraud cost one small business owner more than she bargained for.

Social media has become almost an extension of the self; we use it to stay in touch, meet people, plan our weekends, shop, relax, or kill a few minutes while we’re sitting in the drive-thru. But a recent influx of fraud reports to the Federal Trade Commission indicate that

this online social life is the newest target for scammers.

And we’re not talking about some run-of-the-mill pickpocketing. “They literally mirrored my accounts, siphoning money out from my checking and PayPal accounts without me even know-

ing,” says Dr. Donita McCants, owner of a concierge mobile veterinary practice in central Florida. “At first, it was a few hundred dollars — something a business owner wouldn’t think twice about. You see a charge for Facebook Advertising and you think, ‘yes, sure, that makes sense.’ But really, I was only spending half of that.”

Cramming an entire veterinary office inside the back of a trickedout Mercedes Benz Sprinter van was not a childhood dream of Dr. Donita’s, but taking care of animals certainly was. “I was always one of those kids putting popsicle sticks on baby birds. I’ve pushed for this dream since I was 5 years old. Now the dream is real.”

And the process of turning that dream into reality was one she documented on Facebook and TikTok. She never would have imagined that sharing her story would come at such a high cost— to the tune of $20,000 in fraud. It wasn’t until she brought her books to Rachel Siegel for help reconciling the accounts that the pieces finally started to make sense. “I just felt like my numbers were draining, and I didn’t know what was going on. It took Rachel literally 24 hours to sort it out. She’s absolutely incredible. I’m so grateful.” It may have taken 24 hours to

identify the gap, but it would take months to finally say the problem was solved. “The scammers are just that good,” Donita says. “They were so deep into my accounts that even when I turned off PayPal and disabled my linked accounts, they had already accessed my bank accounts. At one point, they changed all my passwords, and when I fixed it, they did it again!”

It took starting from scratch— new bank, new accounts, each with new double- and triple-au thentication—to put an end to the sieve. While the worst may be over, there’s no way to undo what’s been done; Dr. Donita won’t recoup a single cent of what she lost. It’s a painful les son for a first year in business. But Dr. Donita, ever the opti mist, just wants others to learn from her mistake.

First and foremost, Donita says: Have a great accountant. “Go Figure has been so instrumental in repairing the damage and helping me stay afloat during this time.”

Second: Don’t rely on automat ed systems to tell you what, where, and when you’re spending. “Write down what you spend or authorize on social media advertising. Only use one tool to place your ads. No third-party anything.”

And finally: Keep a strangle hold on your accounts, even if it’s inconvenient. “I have one account linked to my social media adver tising account and that’s it. And set your fraud alerts to the highest level. Sure, it’s a pain to triple-au thenticate every time you pur chase something, but it’s worth every penny.”

“At first, it was a few hundred dollars — something a business owner wouldn’t think twice about. You see a charge for Facebook Advertising and you think, ‘yes, sure, that makes sense.’ But really, I was only spending half of that.”

– Dr. Donita McCants, client

The current total value of the accounting industry; by 2025, that value will be $736 billion.

90%

The percentage of accountants who feel there was a cultural shift in the industry.

1/2

The number of accountants who feel that providing financial advice is part of the job.

79%

The percentage of accounting forms that offer Covidrelated services.

10-15 YEARS

The average time taken to make partner in accountancy companies.

Their digital fundraising campaign helped them successfully establish their first brick-and-mortar location in July 2021, and their second location in July 2022. In 2024, Jeff’s Bagel Run plans to open five more locations in Central Florida. When you pair passion with good finances, anything is possible! FACTS & FIGURES

GOAL GETTERS

Double the Dough

Jeff’s Bagel Run is our tastiest small business success story.

Quick recap: After moving to Winter Garden in 2016, Jeff and Danielle Perera began searching for the perfect bagel. Unfortunately, finding a morning bagel in Florida that appeased the two New York natives proved nearly impossible. So, Jeff did the only sensible thing— he started making his own.

That spark ignited a business, and Jeff’s hobby turned into sharing joy with

the community in the form of a pop-up shop featuring hand-rolled, always boiled, fresh daily, delicious bagels!

Turns out, the entire community was hungry for something better. They struggled to keep up with demand, often selling out of a day’s worth of bagels in minutes. When even that wasn’t enough, the pair did what any budding young

business would do and turned to Kickstarter.

Agent

Those who work with her describe her as a dynamic community leader, vivacious and energetic. “I’m honored by the description,” she says slightly blushing. “I love being involved in the community and creating what I want to be a part of.”

When Tracey and her neighbors in the growing Horizon West area saw a tremendous need for business camaraderie, she didn’t wait for someone else to do something about it — she created one. Horizon West Professionals is no once-per-month, potluck type of organization, either. It’s an innovative, micro-local, referral-based 501(c)(3) networking group for those who work and live in the area. Meetings, chaired by Tracey, are high-energy affairs, and membership is industry-exclusive–only, one person per business sector represented. It was at one of HWP’s bimonthly networking events that Tracey met Rachel Siegel, owner of Go Figure Accounting. “Right away, she seemed very knowledgeable and trustworthy,” Tracey

says. Turns out, she was right. Tracey enlisted Rachel to help set up her business organization as an LLC, plus assist her with taxes and strategic planning.

“She does my business as well as my personal taxes,” Tracey says of their three-year relationship. “One year, she saved me $17,000! Of course, that’s great, but over the years, I’ve really come to rely on Rachel’s advice. She’s more than just an accountant; she’s a friend and an advocate.”

When she’s not creating networking groups, Tracey is a full-time realtor for Miami-based Xcellence Realty and a Prepaid Legal Service Independent Associate, better known as LegalShield and IDShield.

Although Tracey has been in residential real estate for nine years, she has become most excited about LegalShield, despite only being at it for four-and-a-half years.

“LegalShield is becoming an even bigger passion than real estate because the peace of mind you get from having it is priceless,” she explains.

Through LegalShield,

Tracey advises clients about membership that offers ‘round the clock attorney access, without steep retainers or costly attorney fees. Attorney services such as living wills, power of attorney and legal review of client documents are also provided under the membership fee, along with unlimited consultation. Tracey only sees an upside to utilizing the service for law coverage and identity protection. “If you’re proactive, instead of reactive, you’ll spend less money to deal with situations that could have been avoided, and it costs less,” she shares.

“This is a very litigious society — it’s one of the oldest professions and a multi-billion dollar industry. And, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the world.”

While they may seem completely separate, Tracey gets the opportunity to combine her two favorite occupations.

“In a lot of states, including Florida, you don’t need an attorney at closing,” she explains. “Buyers and sellers have legal questions, but rather

than spend $300-$500 an hour, they skip the attorney and Google the answers. Which, as you can imagine, can go horribly wrong. With LegalShield, you can use it to ask any question about the transaction, loan documents, or interpret the contracts. All as part of your membership.”

Tracey also informs her real estate clients about the advantages of LegalShield for review of contractors’ home repair contracts, and the wisdom of estate planning to protect their new purchase.

Where Tracey’s initial goal was to make an extra $500 per month, she has more than surpassed that goal. With enough to make LegalShield and IDShield her primary focus, right after raising her two daughters, Averie, 18, and Bryce, 16, Tracey is pumped about the future.

“The sky is the limit,” she beams. “My income will continue to grow with the number of people I help. So yes, there’s unlimited income potential, but really I just love to change lives. My heart is in serving.”

“The sky is the limit! My income will continue to grow with the number of people I help. So yes, there’s unlimited income potential, but really I just love to change lives. My heart is in serving.”

Rachel Siegel, CPA

Giving ’em the Business

Rachel answers your most pressing business questions.

“Do I really need a partnership agreement for my business?”

Absolutely! This is crucial for your business for a hundred different reasons.

When partners initially go into business, they are motivated and happy to embark on this exciting new adventure together. At the beginning, they agree on almost everything. These new entrepreneurs believe they will be in business together forever, or until they sell the company for untold millions of dollars. They assume nothing can or will go wrong. What could possibly go wrong in this scenario? The short answer: A LOT!

The reality is, the desires and expectations of business owners change over time. A great partnership agreement, or operating agreement, spells out what happens if the partnership

or corporation doesn’t work out. What if one of you gets sick or disabled? What if someone decides to retire? What do you do if one partner isn’t pulling his or her own weight? Who keeps the company name? How do you divide the assets?

Unfortunately, this happens all the time, especially in small businesses. I had one client who ended up in a very contentious lawsuit that went to court, but because she had an signed operating agreement, the court went straight to the books. The agreement saved her. Without it, she would have lost the practice and her clients, let alone six figures in income and assets.

“I’m a solopreneur with no employees and no contractors. Do I still need a separate business account?”

The desires and expectations of business owners change over time. A great partnership agreement spells out what happens if the partnership doesn’t work out. .

It’s tempting, right? The company card in hand, at the gas station, out to dinner, or at the store. Is this really a business expense?

Probably not. But we tell ourselves, “This is part of being a business owner, the business paying for things.”

Even as a single-person business, you are actually embezzling from your own company without realizing it. And the long-term effects can be disastrous if you want to sell your business or even take on partners.

Think of it this way: If you were a manager of “Your Shop Inc.,” would you handle your business finances the way you do? Probably not. You probably would need to show your boss the projected monthly income, the expenses, you’d know how much money the shop needed to make every day and have a plan on how you’d do it. Or you’d be fired, right?

Treating your business like a personal piggy bank can only lead to bad things. But the good news is that we can always correct for that. Admitting your business and/or personal finances are out of control doesn’t mean you’re broke. It means you have no idea where any of it is going. And we can help with that.

“Does my business really need a CPA and a bookkeeper?”

Great question! Yes. You need both a CPA or EA and a bookkeeper. Why? Because tax preparers and bookkeepers handle different aspects of your finances, there are big benefits to enlisting the services of both. Bookkeepers ensure your books are accurate and up to date, allowing you to keep track of your bills, understand your cash flow, and prepare to meet with your tax preparer. Your tax preparer can then use those clean books to prepare your taxes. If your books are a mess, however, you end up spending more time and money while your tax preparer plays catch up. Even worse, you will have missed out on having current information on your financials for however long your books have been outdated, likely leading to poorer business decisions along the way.

By enlisting the services of both tax preparers and bookkeepers, you have access to a broader range of support. Your bookkeeper will have a better understanding of your business operations and finances on a day-to-day basis, while your tax preparer can answer any questions you may have about the tax implications of your decisions. In addition, you can reduce the risk of errors by having financial professionals with different areas of expertise review your books.

“My financial planner says I should really be working with a CPA on tax planning. Can’t one person do both?”

Your financial planner is right, and here’s why: With tax laws and regulations constantly changing, it can be difficult for financial advisors to stay up-to-date and provide their clients with the most robust tax strategies. This is why partnering with a tax planning CPA can be a valuable asset for financial advisors.

Tax planning proves to be a very important aspect of wealth management for clients. Did you know that: A whopping 80% of investors think that their financial advisors should focus on minimizing their taxes?! But that’s not really their job. Their job is to help your money grow in the most efficient way possible. By working alongside a CPA, financial planners can ensure that their client’s investments are structured in the most tax-efficient way possible. By working together, it’s a win-win for the client.

“How is a S Corporation more beneficial than other business structures?”

An S Corporation, or S Corp, is a special type of corporation that’s designed to avoid the double taxation drawback of regular C Corps, partnerships, or even LLCs.

However, the IRS places more restrictions on S Corps. For example, these businesses are not allowed to have more than 100 principal shareholders or owners; and they cannot be owned by individuals who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. They must also have a board of directors and executive officers, and use either accrual or cash basis accounting.

But what you really want to know about is the tax benefit, right? Well, if you can overcome the restrictions, incorporating as an S Corp means that the corporation itself is not taxed on its profits. The profits are passed onto the shareholders and are taxed as personal income, much the way an LLC is taxed.

S Corps are also allowed to pay out dividends to their shareholders. Dividends come from the net profits —what’s left over after all expenses are paid. Shareholders are not required to pay self-employment taxes on these dividends, which is a savings of 15.3%. However, there is a catch: The IRS requires that active owners of S corps pay themselves a reasonable wage. That means you can’t simply take all the S Corp profit as a dividend —you must pay yourself a salary, which will be taxed as standard payroll wages. How much will you save? It really depends on the business’ profits, how many partners are in the S Corps, and what your personal tax bracket is. But if you really think S Corp might be best for you, give us a call. We can walk you through it!

SPOTLIGHT ON THE TEAM THAT PUTS THE “GO” IN GO FIGURE

MEET THE team

Lovan Life!

Cindy Lovan, EA, is an enrolled agent, number sleuth, business advisor, dog lover, Kpop enthusiast, and all around awesome human.

Bet On Beth!

For Bookkeeper Beth Kisner, kindness and optimism always make for better business.

Bilingual in English and Laotian, Cindy earned her accounting degree from Buena Vista University in the charming small town of Storm Lake, Iowa, where she grew up. In 2017, she married her high school sweetheart and started her dream job at Go Figure. “It’s easy to let accounting take a back-seat in your business. But what I wish more business owners knew is that it’s important to do it right from day one, and not just put it in a shoebox and figure it out later,” she says. “Every day I deal with issues that were poorly documented or simply done wrong that undermine the company’s success.”

A woman so passionate about numbers can’t be wrong.

What’s the best part of your job?

Working with a great team who is always ready to help when needed.

Your favorite financial challenge to solve?

I like the challenge of organizing messy books and getting them back on the right track. It’s so satisfying to get books to balance in preparation for tax returns or the financial statements crucial to securing a business loans.

Beth Kisner’s laughter is full of warmth and life, a vivacious trill that invites you to lean closer and join in on the fun. It meshes well with her light-hearted demeanor, making her the perfect antidote to tax season and financial reporting. The fact that she’s an organized genius who is also good with numbers is just icing on the cake. This laid-back verve fits right in with Go Figure’s people-first mantra.

Why Go Figure?

What’s the best part of your job?

Connecting with the people, hearing stories about their kids or pets or vacations. Better bookkeeping just helps them have a better life in the long run, and that’s what is most important to me.

What keeps you motivated?

I’m just a curious person who wants to keep learning and doing. Preferably having fun at the same time.

Rachel and I are best friends. Her husband and my fiancé work together, and the four us became fast friends. We always talked about working together, but the pandemic turned that into reality sooner rather than later.

Just Ask Joslyn

Got an accounting problem? Joslyn Jones has the solution — and if she doesn’t, she won’t stop until she finds it.

Tune in to Wendy

Wendy Reed is a modern day business alchemist, turning leads into gold and handshakes into partnerships

In the dynamic field of accounting, versatility and a breadth of knowledge are key. So is a good sense of humor. Which is perfect if you are Joslyn Jones, a vivacious bookkeeper who possesses a diverse skill set, a passion for continuous learning, and a raucous laugh. Joslyn knows better than anyone that adaptability is the key to success.

How would you describe your specialty?

I consider myself a “Jill of All Trades,” striving to acquire a wide range of knowledge and skills.

What’s the biggest misconception about bookkeeping?

It’s impersonal and solely focused on numbers and spreadsheets. At Go Figure, we believe in getting to know our clients. By understanding the individuals behind the business, we can provide support, and help them make informed financial decisions. We care about you and your family, and we’ll be a step ahead when normal life-milestones may result in a tax credit or a new tax burden — we’ll give you sound advice.

Picture this: you’re the captain of your professional ship, setting sail into the vast sea of opportunities. Every day brings a new adventure, whether it’s forging strategic alliances, uncovering hidden market gems, or turning potential clients into long-term collaborators.

The soundtrack to your sail is Jimmy Buffet, and your Captain is Wendy Reed, part-time Parrothead, full-time Strategic Account Manager, or as Rachel likes to call her, “The Go Figure Cheerleader.”

What is the best part of your job?

Networking and meeting new people and business owners. When I discover a challenge, I always find a way to solve it by connecting people or businesses together.

What’s the biggest misconception about accounting?

Almost every business owner is embarrassed by the lack of knowledge they have of their own bookkeeping and accounting. The biggest message I have for all of them is, “You are not alone!” That is why we are here.

TAKEN INTO

The Perks of Planning Your Profit

Meet Profit First, a practical, actionable blueprint for creating and steadily increasing your profits.

Sometimes the most important business ideas are the simplest. Focus on leads, not sales. Don’t sell products, provide solutions. Start small, build big. As for profitability, you can sum up why that matters in just one word: Stability. Being profitable means your company can continue to offer its valuable services, even during challenging times. Being profitable means that you, your family, and your employees can maintain their lifestyle, come what may.

“The truth is, Profit First is a concept I wish I had when I began my entrepreneurial career,” explains Rachel Siegel, CPA. “But now that we’ve incorporated it into Go Figure, and shared it with a few of my clients, I’m confident it can help all small businesses improve the overall health of their company. And be profitable. Because let’s be honest: in business we want to be profitable.”

What Is Profit First?

Essentially, Profit First is a book about cash management, but in reality it’s so much more. Authored by Mike Michalowicz, it describes both a philosophy and a system for building businesses in a sustainable way that creates long-term success.

How do we do that? By flipping a universal rule on its head.

The GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principle is Sales – Expenses = Profit. In the formula, profit is a leftover, a final consideration, something that is hopefully a nice surprise at the end of the year.

Profit First is mathematically the same, but it employs a shift in behavior: Sales – Profit = Expenses. With Profit First, every single time revenue comes into your company, you set aside a predetermined percentage of that revenue as profit. You transfer that profit to an account in a different bank, and you watch it accumulate.

Once you realize that your profit should be allocated before distributing money to rent, utilities, overhead, and other bills, the rest is easy.

It’s basically the envelope method for personal finance, applied to business. Profit First is designed to provide clarity around your cashflow, allowing you to make informed decisions rather than emotional reactions or inaction.

Mindset Reset

We think of expenses as unavoidable—cost of material, for example. Rent, salaries, utilities, and so on seem equally intractable, at least in the short run. If we didn’t need to spend money on something, we wouldn’t, right?

Once you realize that your profit should be allocated before distributing money to rent, utilities, overhead, and other bills, the rest is easy.

Not really. In fact, as humans we naturally focus on things that come first, and when profit is at the end of the equation, we seek to increase it by increasing the front—the revenue.

Reducing expenditure is something that simply doesn’t happen, and it may not seem feasible in growing a business. The practice of setting aside a percentage of profit and spending only what remains is what makes Michalowicz’s concept work. Expenses actually can be avoided, eliminated, or budgeted for a later date. Doing that can be uncomfortable, of course. It may mean some spending for equipment or expansion doesn’t happen immediately. Sometimes, difficult decisions about people and positions must be made.

Despite those hurdles, and the current bigger-faster-now culture, Michalowicz says that a profit-first approach is actually growth-friendly. When you come across a unique opportunity that will add to revenue and profits to your business, you will have the resources to invest without endangering the current business.

Benefits for Your Business

Rachel explains it this way: “If your company isn’t where you would like it to be and cash is not readily available, it is because you are not managing cash well. Small steps will get you to that goal. And that’s how Profit First works—with small steps.”

Most of the clients who come to Go Figure typically have one, maybe two bank accounts for all of their finances. According to Rachel, when you’re looking at

Profit First, in a nutshell: Before you pay expenses, pay yourself first.

• Run your business based on what you can afford to do today, not what you hope to be able to afford someday. When profit comes first, it is the focus, and it is never forgotten.

Tools

Read or listen to Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

Listen to the Profit First Podcast

Schedule a Profit First analysis with Go Figure

one large lump sum in your bank account, you’re much more likely to spend freely because everything feels like a small sum of the whole account. But if you separate all of your income to pre-determined allocations based on percentages, you force yourself to think more critically about your spending!

The book recommends setting up five foundation accounts to start, but Go Figure suggests starting with two.

Make a savings account in your existing bank and then allocate 1% of your income to that account, the profit account. The logic here is if you bring $1,000 of income this week, you can certainly run your business off $990. Ten dollars seems arbitrary, right?

Then we move to two or three percent. You can run your business on $980 or $970. If you do that for a few months, and grow your profit account, the pain point feels nonexistent and yet you have an entire account that’s just profit. And suddenly, Profit First seems completely logical and you’re ready for more foundation accounts, a.k.a. envelopes.

Your exact percentages will depend on your business structure, type of business, and current financial situation, but let’s use this example:

• 30% Owner’s Pay

• 10% Debt

• 35% Expenses

• 15% Tax

• 10% Profit

Twice a month, the money coming in is divided by the percentages you have calculated and allocated to its applicable account to be used only for its specific purpose.

Profit First According to Rachel

• What sold you on the concept? It just makes sense.

• Describe Profit First in one sentence. A quick and easy cash management system

• What is a benefit of Profit First accounting? It gives guidelines for the business to utilize, and it helps create good habits.

• How long does it take a business to get set up? You could have the assessment done and set up the bank accounts in the same day

• Why now? Why not? If the company isn’t where you would like it to be and cash isn’t readily available, it’s because you are not managing cash well. Small steps will get you to that goal.

Go Figure uses Profit First to manage their finances, and so do a number of other clients, including Dr. Scott Colonna of Westminster Eyecare and UpperCut Consulting. “We’re so excited to be able to bring this idea to more and more small businesses, especially those facing challenges in the current economic climate,” says Rachel. “Even though we’ve just launched the program last month, we’ve done the assessment for a few different clients

and they are all seeing the results. It’s amazing the difference one small percent can make, even after the first quarter!”

The true and greatest benefit of the Profit First Method: the ability to create real, tangible improvements in your finances—both personally and professionally—on an ongoing, scalable, and sustainable basis.

Want to learn more about Profit First and how it could work for your business? Contact us today at gofigureaccounting.net/profit-first.

Healthy Habits, Healthy Profit

Profit First’s recipe for success uses diet and exercise to leverage fat profits.

This is the year. The year you get real about your financial health.

Spoiler alert: it has a lot to do with your daily habits.

For many of us, our daily life is set around habits, structure, and patterns. Most of us wake up around the same time each day, brush our teeth, do some form of exercise or meditation, and eat a relatively similar breakfast, before

heading off to work. We stop at the same coffee shop, park in the same spot, check our email, listen to voicemail, and start the work day.

Here’s the thing: Habits can be helpful or hurtful. If you’ve ever tried to eat better, get at least seven hours of sleep each night, or floss daily, you know that habits are not easy to form or change. And that’s exactly the

same for your financial health.

To transform your business into a money-making machine, you must develop sound financial habits, just like how you need healthy dietary habits to lose weight.

Which is exactly how and why Profit First makes so much sense — it’s a method of habits that grow a successful business based

loosely on four principles from dietary-science research.

Coincidence? Absolutely not. Here’s a quick overview of how diet and wealth work together to achieve success Profit First Accounting.

USE SMALL PLATES. In a diet, the practice reduces your food intake. But with Profit First, you take out profit first and split the balance into small accounts. With less cash, you’ll be forced to find innovative ways to achieve more with less.

CHANGE MEAL SEQUENCE. In a healthy diet, you always eat the low-calorie, nutritious food first. In finance, you take profits first and pay your bills last, so you only spend what you can afford.

REMOVE TEMPTATIONS. A healthy diet helps you remove junk food and stock up on healthy food. In Profit First, once you’ve taken your profit, keep it out of sight, out of mind and hard to access.

MAKE IT CONSISTENT. In a healthy diet, you eat small, regular meals so you won’t get hungry and overeat. With Profit First, likewise, don’t wait for your monthly or annual statements to assess your cash position. Log in daily to check your balances. Manage your allocations and payables twice a month.

Small Changes, Big Results

The good news is it’s not hard to inject healthy, positive choices into your life and business. You simply start where you are and make progress every day towards habits that will be healthy for you. Michael Michalowicz, the author of Profit First, breaks it down even further, sharing his Top 10 Tips to Create Better Habits in 2021.

BE REALISTIC. It’s okay to have lofty goals. But to achieve them, you need to create a group of smaller goals to get there. Celebrate the small wins.

BE MINDFUL. You can be more motivated than the 10 other

entrepreneurs in your networking group, but if you are not 100 percent clear on what your “want” looks like, then what are you really going after? Find ways to increase your awareness and be more mindful overall. For

Is Your Business Financially Fit?

Don’t mistake income and profit. Your business isn’t necessarily healthy just because you’re bringing in lots of cash. If your business is leaking money all over the place, you won’t stay afloat for long so step one is to get real with yourself about your business’ financial health. If you don’t start taking your financial security seriously, you run the risk of lulling yourself into a false sense of security and then being screwed if there’s a dip in sales.

Do you have enough to cover yourself if you have a couple of bad months? Are you stuck living check-to-check because generating more revenue has also incurred more bills? Is there a way to be doing things more efficiently? These are all important questions to ask yourself.

Profit First includes an assessment outline that can help bring clarity and highlight areas that need adjustment. Want to learn more? Let’s take a walk and talk.

you that may be working out, meditation, prayer, yoga, writing — whatever it may be, practice it at the beginning of your day. Because without being mindful, it will be harder to be intentional, which is another important step in creating better habits.

BE INTENTIONAL. Getting swept away in your day is natural, but not productive. If you set your intentions early on in the day, whenever the static starts to bear down, you can hit that imaginary reset button and return to the intention you set for yourself.

AVOID BAD HABITS. You’re an adult, you know what they are. Avoid the actions that cause the bad habits. Stop the behaviors that are counterproductive. And, stop avoiding the unavoidable. Not checking bank statements will not increase your balances.

CREATE RITUALS TO FOSTER GOOD HABITS. Work out clothes folded at the end of the bed. Sneakers on the toilet. Gym bag packed. Automated daily accounting/banking reminders. These are in your face reminders of the bigger picture, of the goal you set for yourself.

STAY ACCOUNTABLE. If you follow the Profit First system you know how successful your business will be when you stay accountable. To improve your habits and achieve your goals you must, must stay accountable. Do you check your bank account balance daily? Do you make it a habit to log in and monitor your account balances? That one small step can help you kick off the traction you need to create, establish or maintain just one business goal. And it’s a great way to start the domino effect toward a more profitable business.

GO SLOW. Little of quality is created within minutes. Small, consistent steps garner bigger results. It takes some patience, but your results will be real and lasting.

BE CONSISTENT. Following systems will help you maintain good habits because they are organized and clear cut. All you have to do is follow and apply!

TRACK YOUR PROGRESS. It could be graphs, or milestone balances. It could be as simple as crossing items off a master to-do list. Track it to stack it!

MAKE DECISIONS THAT FEEL GOOD, NOT GUILTY.If you implemented Profit First, you know how

To transform your business into a moneymaking machine, you must develop sound financial habits, just like how you need healthy dietary habits to lose weight.

empowering it was when you opened the five accounts. Then you had those accounts listed for you to see every day. The same is true for physical fitness. Training for that 5K and then finishing it will be empowering. Giving up sugar is torturous, but watching your A1C drop is life changing. Maybe it was daunting at first, but the good decisions, the responsible decisions, ultimately help you change your habits and achieve those business goals.

One More, For The Win

Going to the gym isn’t just for athletes in training. The best business professionals understand that preparing your body physically will help prepare your mind and body to thrive within the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Don’t take our word for it.

Several studies, including this one, found that “eating unhealthily is linked with a 66 percent increased risk of loss of productivity, while lack of daily exercise is linked with a 50 percent increased risk of low productivity.”

So while it isn’t necessary to run five miles or bench 150 pounds, you do need to have a basic level of fitness. So in additional to Michael’s Top 10, Go Figure CEO Rachel Siegel adds this: Move your body every day.

If you want to perform, you must be fit. Running, swimming, going to the gym or doing yoga, it doesn’t matter as long it’s something you enjoy, keeps you fit and becomes part of your routine. You will feel more energized and more efficient at work. Ironically some sports also provide you with a great time to think about work (usually strategy) away from emails and a screen.

Haven’t read the book? That’s ok. Michalowicz shares these four Profit First principles:

1. Better is not better. Different is better. Seek ways to stand out from your competition instead of beating them. And by standing out, chances are you will beat them.

2. Take your profit first, always. The belief that profit is a year-end concept is bunk.

3. The less you do the better you will be. The less variety in the types of customers you’re serving, the more you’ll be able to be on the leading edge of the solutions that truly serve them.

4. Book a four-week vacation to be taken within the next 18 months. If doing this feels laughable or impossible or both, then you have a business that is in trouble.

20

Everything you wanted to know about Profit First, but were too afraid to ask.

THE BASICS

1. What is Profit First?

Profit First is a system (and a great book!) from small business finance expert Mike Michalowicz.

2. Ok. Besides that, what’s Profit First, really?

In business, we’re always told to pay ourselves first, but we’re never taught how. Profit First rethinks traditional accounting by prioritizing profit before paying any expenses. We take income, prioritize a percentage for profit, and use whatever’s left as our budget. If there’s not enough, we have too many expenses and need to make cuts. If Profit First were a mathematical formula, it would look like this: Income - Profit = Expenses

3. I’ve heard it’s like a diet plan for finances. How does that work?

There are four key principles that are similar to the idea of dieting:

• Use small plates. Smaller plates equal smaller portions. Smaller portions equal fewer calories. Fewer calories typically leads to weight loss. In Profit First, smaller plates are dedicated bank accounts.

• Start with the good stuff first Satisfying hunger with vegetables rather than chips leads to a healthier balance, and lower overall consumption. In PF that means paying yourself first.

• Remove temptation If cheat foods are inconvenient to get, you’ll eat less of them.

• Find your rhythm: Don’t wait until you’re hungry to eat. Plan ahead to manage hunger, which avoids binging and results in fewer calories consumed. The result — for Profit First and dieting — is a leaner, fitter, and more profitable business.

4. Does it really work?

Yes. It changes your mindset and educates you on your finances. Profit becomes something you plan for, rather than something you hope for, meaning you’ll budget your expenses more carefully, a la Parkinson’s Law.

5. Parkinson’s Law? What’s that?

Author and historian C. Northcote Parkinson theorized that demand for a resource changes to meet the supply of it. In other words, when we’re given two weeks to do a project it takes two weeks, and when we’re given eight weeks to do the same project, it takes eight weeks. We’ll easily spend a $10,000 budget, but we’ll also make the most of a $1,000 budget if that’s all we have.

Profit First makes Parkinson’s Law an asset. By removing your profit from your budget, you force yourself to find ways to get the same things done for less money.

THE BANK ACCOUNTS

6. How does Profit First work in practice?

Think of Profit First like the cash envelope system. You cash your paycheck and then divide it into various envelopes for different purposes: Groceries, Gas, Clothes, Utilities, Rent, etc. When the envelope is empty, the money has run out for that category. The only way to spend more is to pull from another envelope.

Profit First does the same thing, but uses bank accounts instead of envelopes, allocating income across them in specific percentages. These percentages are adjusted over time, so that profit increases from say 1% to 10% over 2 years, and operating expenses decrease from 65% to 45%, for example.

7. Wait! Five different bank accounts?

Yes. But don’t panic. We can help you figure that out. The 5 Profit First accounts are:

• Income All of your income is going to be deposited here before being distributed to your other accounts. Chances are, you already have this as your business checking account.

• Profit. This acts as a cash-cushion/rainy-day fund as well as a quarterly source of profit distributions.

• Tax The government always gets their money, so you may as well allocate it.

• Owner’s pay This where your salary comes from. And yes, you should always be paying yourself a salary!

Operating expenses (OpEx)

This is your business budget. What you see in this account is what you have to work with.

8. More bank accounts means more bookkeeping. Is Profit First really worth the effort?

Yes! In fact, the extra bookkeeping is negligible, and possibly even more efficient than using just one account. With Profit First you simply reconcile the deposits and periodic transfers from the Income account. All expenses and payments come from the OpEx account. And all the other accounts are typically a single transfer in and a single transfer out on the 10th and the 25th. If you’re really lost, though, we can help!

9. What’s this about the 10th and 25th?

Profit First calls this the 10/25 Rule, where you allocate money from the Income account to the other accounts on—and only on—the 10th and 25th of each month.

10. Why does it matter when or how often I do my allocations?

By allocating and paying bills twice a month, you are not only more consistent and efficient, but it helps give further clarity to your cash flow trends and statements than smaller transactions throughout the month.

11. So should all these be checking accounts?

The short answer is no, but it depends on how exactly you’ll use those accounts. As a general rule, savings accounts yield interest but limit

your number of withdrawals, while checking accounts allow unlimited withdrawls (and allows you to issue checks!) with the drawback of not yielding interest. Since the Income account accumulates all deposits until they’re allocated, incoming funds “sit” for approximately 28 days a month—plenty of time to generate interest. So setting up the Income account as a savings account and all the other accounts as checking accounts allows the most flexibility for withdrawals and writing checks, while accumulating the most interest. Win, win!

GETTING STARTED

12. How do I determine what percentage goes into which account?

It starts with an Instant Assessment, which you can do on your own, or you can work with a Profit First professional firm (like ours). It requires analysis of the company’s P&L and balance sheet, and a review of the owners’ personal tax returns. From there, we can develop your specific allocation percentages. We use industry benchmarks to establish goals for what those percentages should be for a high performing company, and create a map for achieving those goals over time.

13. Should I be using Total Income or Real Revenue?

Total Income is the top line revenue of a business. It represents all cumulative sales. Real Revenue is the Total

Income minus the cost of materials and subcontractors. Think of it as the difference between gross and net gains. The rule of thumb is if you’re a service-based business with full- and part-time employees, base your Profit First process on Total Income. If you are a manufacturer, retailer, restaurant or a service provider, or otherwise spend a significant portion (20% or more) of your operations on materials and subcontractors, do the Profit First Process based on Real Revenue.

14. Is Real Revenue the same as Gross Profit?

No. Gross Profit is the total revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold (COGs). COGs can include materials, subcontractors, employee labor, project costs (e.g. project related travel), and ancillary costs (e.g. shipping costs). Real Revenue is a simpler calculation and less subjective. It is total revenue minus materials and subcontractors. For example, a home builder may have $10M in annual revenue, but requires materials and subcontractors that cost $7M a year. This builder really has $3M of “real revenue,” and needs to operate like a $3M company rather than a $10M company.

15. Since Profit, Owner Pay, and Tax are all for the benefit of me, can’t they all be in one account? While the money allocated to these accounts do all benefit the owner(s), the use of the money is distinct. The

Owner’s Pay is for your salary or regular recurring distribution; the Profit account is more like a quarterly bonus or a rainy day fund; and taxes, of course, are different from either of these monies. The accounts need to be kept separate so that you can instantly tell what money is allocated to what purpose.

16. Why is the Tax Allocation 15%? That seems pretty high. The Tax account is intended to pay both corporate and personal taxes. When the owner has periodic taxes due, quarterly or otherwise, the business “pays” for the owner’s taxes. And since the money is being allocated on the 10th and 25th, the taxes should be reserved well in advance to offset any panic when taxes are due.

17. Shouldn’t I run up expenses to cut taxes?

That is one of the most damaging myths of money management. Running up expenses to reduce taxes is the same as spending ten dollars to save three, it is very damaging to the business. The goal is to run the business as profitably as possible (that is the only way to achieve financial freedom), and you should work closely with a Profit First Professional to additionally reduce your tax liabilities as much as you can.

IS IT FOR ME?

18. My business isn’t profitable yet. Is Profit First doable for me?

Absolutely! Even better to get those good habits hard wired from day one. In fact the sooner you start with Profit First the faster you will master financial discipline and ensure that your business runs efficiently. Plus, by paying yourself first, you are more sustainable and therefore more motivated to keep growing.

19. My business is already profitable. Can Profit First still help me?

Of course. Who doesn’t want to be more profitable? By using Profit First, your business will progress more quickly to meet your long term goals.

20. My business is in debt. How do I pay it off and still take a profit?

Pay all the minimum fees out of your Operating Expenses. Then use any remaining money you have in the OpEx account to pay off your smallest debt as fast as you can. No matter what, keep doing the profit allocation of Profit First every 10th and 25th. This sounds crazy since traditional GAAP accounting would be having you pay debt first, but you MUST build the habit of always taking your profit first. Then when you do your quarterly profit distribution, take 95%-99% of that distribution money and use it to crush one of your debts. The remainder (1%-5%) is used for you to celebrate. This process has you constantly chipping away debt while remaining profitable.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you know Go Figure even a

little, you know we are deeply committed to helping business owners better understand their financials, so they can experience peace of mind around their company’s money. By adding Profit First to our services, we’re putting more focus on helping business owners take home more of what they earn. And one year later, we’re even more excited about Profit First’s potential for you and your business and for the opportunities it’s giving us to create deeper, more meaningful — and even more fun — relationships with our valued clients.

Most commonly asked questions sourced from GoFigure staff, “ProfitFirst” and ProfitFirst Professional assets by Mike Michalowicz. If you still have questions and want to learn more about how it could work for your business, email hello@gofigureaccounting.net.

ProfitFirst, in a nutshell:

• Before you pay expenses, pay yourself first.

• Run your business based on what you can afford to do today, not what you hope to be able to afford someday.

• When profit comes first, it is the focus, and it is never forgotten.

Finance Expert Mike Michalowicz

Grow with the Flow

Go Figure’s guide to cash flow

Every business needs cash. Regardless of how much revenue your business earns, if your cash is tied up in unpaid account receivables or unsold inventory, that money doesn’t do you any good. Maintaining a healthy business cash flow gives you the capacity to meet your financial obligations and the flexibility to grow with new opportunities. Cash flow is one of the most common road blocks to success—so much so that we’re presenting on the topic at several conferences this year. So let’s get back to basics, shall we?

What is Cash Flow?

Cash flow is a measurement of the amount of cash that comes into and out of your business in a particular period of time. When you have positive cash flow, you have more cash coming into your business than you have leaving it.

When you have negative cash flow, you have more money going out than coming in. In layman’s terms, managing cash flow is all about figuring out when you’re going to have cash in your hands, figuring out how to get more of it in your hands faster, and how to manage your spending.

Managing Cash Flow

Revenue measures how much money is coming into your business, while cash flow measures both how much comes in and how much is going out. Cash flow also takes into account things like financing activities; for example, did the bank just deposit a $10,000 loan into your account? It’s cash, so it counts! It’s how you manage those funds that will make or break your business.

If you’re looking to improve your cash flow management, we often suggest starting with these seven simple steps:

1. Stay on top of bookkeeping. It’s the single best way to understand all the financial transactions in your business, and you can’t do the rest of the steps without it.

2. Generate cash flow statements. If you have an accountant, they can do this for you. Otherwise, you can use

CASH FLOW AFFIRMATIONS

Can you say “yes!” to all these statements regarding your business?

• I pay myself consistently at a level that is appropriate for the type of work I perform in the business and at a level equal to or above any other employees.

• I have no business debt or if I do have debt, it is continually being reduced and never increases.

• I have ample money set aside whenever it is needed to pay taxes, buy inventory, and cover expenses

• I consistently take a profit distribution (separate from my pay) that is NOT reinvested in the business to pay back my initial investment and compensate me for taking the risk of being a business owner.

• I am easily able to make informed decisions to grow, contract, or adjust my business based on real-time cash flow information.

The more yes answers, the better your cash flow. However, even one “no” indicates that are opportunities to improve your cash flow through the use of a cash flow system.

software—or calculate it yourself using spreadsheets. You can up your analysis with cash flow projections to see how your decisions are impacting your future financial health.

3. Analyze your cash flow. Take the info from your cash flow statements and use it to understand how money is moving through your business.

4. Figure out whether you need to increase cash flow. Relying on your credit card or line of credit to make ends meet? These are signs you need to free up more cash flow.

5. Cut spending where you need to. Overspending can result from either covering unnecessary expenses or paying for expenses at inopportune times. Cut overspending to increase cash flow.

6. Speed up your accounts receivable. Whether you’re waiting on invoice payments from clients or deposits from payment processors, the faster you get money in your pocket, the more cash flow you’ll have.

By “paying yourself” first, it ensures that your financial results are based on having enough cash on hand before you pay any expenses.

The Relationship Between Cash Flow and Profit

Here’s the truth: Making profit generates cash flow. However, entrepreneurs commonly confuse cash flow with profitability. The two are not the same, but the best way we’ve found to illustrate that is by implementing Profit First into your business.

7. Rinse and repeat. Make analyzing your statements a regular part of your back office routine. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at spotting opportunities to increase cash flow—and nip shortages in the bud.

Mike Michalowicz’s “Profit First” model changes the Revenue – Expenses = Profit expression of traditional GAAP accounting into Sales – Profit = Expenses. While this is not an official figure to report on any of your financial statements, it’s an excellent cash flow management mindset that helps business owners prioritize their personal and business savings so that operating expenses, expansion, taxes, and personal income are always being paid.

By “paying yourself” first, it ensures that your financial results are based on having enough cash on hand before you pay any expenses. Thereby simplifying cash flow inside and outside your business.

FLOW FIGURES

56%

The percentage of small business owners that are facing cash flow pressure.

SOURCE: XERO

2

WEEKS

Businesses with more than $10,000 in monthly expenses had only 2 weeks of cash on hand.

SOURCE: PNAS

82%

The number of failed businesses that said cash flow problems were a factor in their failure.

SOURCE: US BANK

OVER HALF

The proportion of all businesses worried about how they’re going to pay their bills.

SOURCE: XERO

Turn Extra Into Extra Extra

Part of the Profit First Process involves converting more of your expenses into profit. Each quarter, you evaluate your current percentages and move them closer to your target. Just one caveat: Never take a step back.

If you are adjusting and tweaking your percentages conservatively, we suggest that you account for three percentage points each quarter. Meaning you could move your Profit Account from 5% to 8%. Or you could move your Tax Account from 11% to 12%, Profit from 5% to 6%, and Owners Comp from 23% to 24%.

You did it. You made it through another year. And it’s high time to treat yourself to a little extra Because you know what? You deserve it. You’ve been working in and on your business, day in and day out, year after year. What’s the point of all that time and effort if you never get to enjoy it?

Believe it or not, your business knows how hard you’ve been working. You’ve been practicing Profit First diligently and have taught your business how to run more effectively. Now your business wants to give back, above and beyond what it already gives you. How? With a quarterly profit distribution.

Not to be confused with Owner’s Pay, which is treated as a salary, the quarterly profit distribution is more like a bonus. This is your business’s gift to you as the owner for always going the extra mile to keep it healthy. And rather than only getting that gift once a year, you get it every. three. months.

Good Things Come in Quarters

Surely we’ve talked to death about the Profit First process and its five bank accounts: Income, Tax, Operating Expenses, Owner Pay, and (our favorite) Profit. The main purpose of the Profit account speaks for itself, but it also serves some other, secondary purposes:

• Growth metric. As your business grows, your profit grows in kind. The Profit account, then, is almost a small-scale model of your success.

In our experience, quarterly is the sweet spot; it’s long enough between distributions that they don’t feel like part of your income, but still frequent enough that you can enjoy the benefits of business ownership, not just “every now and then,” but here and now.

• Cash reserve. Ideally, you only ever draw from this account when you want to, but, ready or not, emergencies happen. In those cases, the Profit account is the big, fluffy cash cushion that gets you through it.

• Quarterly reward. On the first day (or first business day) of the quarter, equity owners draw from this account as a thank-you for having the courage and risk tolerance to start and maintain the business. It’s this third function that we’re homing in on here—the “reward” part, of course, but also the “quarterly” part. Some people choose to take their distribution more or less often. But in our experience, quarterly is the sweet spot; it’s long enough between distributions that they don’t feel like part of your income, but still frequent enough that you can enjoy the benefits of business ownership, not just “every now and then,” but here and now. It’s best to follow the financial quarter, rather than counting the months from the first day you begin implementing Profit First. Let’s say your Profit First practice began August 12. You’d still take your distribution on October 1, the first day of Q4 It doesn’t matter whether you started on July 3 or September 26; what matters is that you get into a rhythm that’s as easy to track as possible.

Profit, Meet Pocket

On to the good stuff. Drawing your quarterly profit distribution takes three simple steps:

An Extra Layer: Debt

The percentages used in this article assume you don’t have any debt. Debt ties you to the past and prevents momentum. It’s important to keep your cash flowing for present expenses and future growth.

We encourage business owners to prioritize their debt—take on as little and pay down as much as possible. However, we also recognize that’s easier said than done. The beauty of Profit First is it can help you get rid of debt while still giving you profit to take home.

So, when you withdraw that 50% from your profit account at the top of the quarter, we suggest you take 98% of it and throw it at your debt! From our earlier $5,000 example, you would withdraw $2,500, put $2,450 toward your debt (Do you feel that? It’s the feeling of your success punching your debt in the face.) and take the remaining $50 as profit.

It’s important to enjoy the fruits of your labor; even if it’s a small portion, it still gives you more confidence than if you’d kept nothing. Only have enough to buy a Big Mac? It’ll be the best Big Mac you’ve ever had.

1. Tally the total in your Profit Account as of the last day of the previous quarter. If it came in this quarter, it doesn’t count.

2. Take half of the money (that’s right:50%) as profit.

3. Leave the other half in the account so it can keep serving its other functions, growth metric and cash reserve.

Let’s say, for example, you had $5,000 in your Profit account on September 30. If you are the sole owner, you’ve got $2,500 in your pocket on October 1. If you share ownership (ex., you own 60%, a partner owns 35%, and an angel investor owns 5%), then you would distribute the profit according to each owner’s share ($1,500,

$875, and $125, respectively). In either case, $2,500 stays in the Profit account.

So what do you do with those funds? Whatever you want! Your profit distribution is that little extra you can put toward all the other extras of your life. There is, however, one exception: You can never put your distribution back into the company.

Your business gave you a gift that it doesn’t want back. Even if

Always take your profit, and always treat it like profit. Use it on whatever gives you joy.

you try to dress it in fancy terms like “reinvest” or “profit retention,” you can’t cover up the fact that you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Your business needs to run off the money it generates in its operating expenses. Full stop. Always take your profit, and always treat it like profit.Use it on whatever gives you joy: A nice dinner for your family; a vacation; that new Tesla.

And if you couldn’t take enough profit distributions last year, make it a goal to have good habits and take more for 2023 and forward.

RELAX, IT’S JUST TAXES

Taxes are the bane of most business owners. But with the help of Profit First, they don’t have to be.

Taxes don’t have to be overwhelming. With Profit First, you can make sure you’re paying the right amount of taxes and staying on top of them throughout the year. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand the different types of taxes and how to deal with them.

First, you need to differentiate the types of taxes that may affect your business. Depending on the type of business you own, you may be subject to income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, or other taxes. You’ll also need to know how to file your taxes and

when you’re required to make payments. Once you know the types of taxes you’re required to pay, you need to figure out how to pay them. You may be able to pay them online, by mail, or in person. You should also look into tax deductions that can help reduce your tax bill.

Business expenses, such as office supplies and travel expenses, may be deductible.

Finally, you need to know how to stay on top of your taxes. This means setting up a system for tracking income and expenses, making sure you file your taxes on time, and paying taxes when they’re due. If you’re not sure about any aspect of taxes, you should consult a professional.

Here’s what you should know:

1. Paying taxes is actually a GOOD thing. It is proof that your business is profitable. Paying taxes is only problematic if you don’t have the cash on hand to pay them. That’s where Profit First comes in. The Profit First system helps you proactively set aside money to pay your taxes, so you don’t have to dread tax day anymore.

2. Profit First recommends setting aside 15% of your Real

Revenue (Total Revenue minus Materials and Subcontractors costs) for taxes. If your tax professional is not a Profit First Professional, they might tell you 15% isn’t enough. Why? Because your tax professional is looking at the “bottom line” on your Profit and Loss statement, or your “profit on paper” after all business expenses have been deducted. But with Profit First, you don’t run your business based solely on your P&L. This is one reason why working with a Profit First tax professional is so important.

3. Following Profit First and creating a tax account does NOT negate the need to work with a tax professional. A qualified tax professional can help you legally reduce your tax liability with strategies that allow most of your cash to stay with your business (or flow through to you, the business owner.) Beware of tax professionals whose primary strategy is running up expenses to avoid paying taxes.

The Framework

The standard Profit First bank account known as the Tax account is specifically designated for income tax purposes.

When setting your tax percentage, I can’t say enough… Always, always, always estimate high; it’s better to have more tax savings set aside than you need than to not have enough.

Twice a month, you allocate 15% of your real revenue to this account. Real revenue refers to cash receipts minus any cash spent on inventory or other cost of goods sold activities. By following this percentage-based approach, you can ensure you have sufficient funds set aside for tax obligations.

I want to be sure you hear me say that you need to confirm your tax percentage with your tax accountant. The industry standard for income tax is 30% of net profit (your profit after you’ve subtracted your deductible expenses). When looking at gross income (which is what we’re doing with this method), most creative businesses will likely need to save 20-25% for taxes, but you must

confirm this with a tax professional.

If you pay quarterly estimated taxes for your business, the funds in the Tax account will be utilized for those payments. However, there are important considerations to keep in mind. When your sales exceed the previous year’s figures, the allocated funds should cover your current-year tax liability. It’s crucial not to view these excess funds as surplus for other purposes. They are intended to account for the increased tax liability resulting from higher sales.

It is important to note that this is only covering income tax, not sales tax. You should be charging your customers sales tax for each of their purchases and setting that amount aside for when you make that quarterly payment. We’ll cover that in the next section.

When setting your tax percentage, I can’t

say enough… Always, always, always estimate high; it’s better to have more tax savings set aside than you need than to not have enough.

HOW TO HANDLE SALES TAX

It’s crucial to note that the Tax bank account discussed in Profit First is not intended for sales tax. The 15% allocation mentioned earlier is specifically for state and federal income tax and does not include a portion for sales tax. Sales tax regulations vary by state, and businesses may be required to collect and remit sales tax for multiple states. The remittance frequency is typically quarterly or annually. To ensure that you have funds set aside for future sales tax remittance, it is recommended to create a separate bank account specifically designated for sales tax. These funds collected

for sales tax are not your funds; they are to be remitted to the respective state governments. It’s essential to avoid the temptation of using these funds for other purposes, as it may lead to a shortage when it’s time to fulfill your sales tax obligations, potentially requiring you to borrow money to meet those payment requirements.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER TAX TYPES?

There are several other types of taxes you may encounter — property tax, franchise tax, etc. These taxes are paid from the Operating Expense bank account in your Profit First structure. They are not included in the 15% that is set aside for the Tax bank account. Taxes are no one’s favorite subject, but they are much less stressful when you are prepared to make the payments.

GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICES

Dr. Scott Colonna’s education prepared him to care for patients. But the knowledge he gained building up his practice was integral to his success. Put those lessons to work for your business. Generate more revenue, cut costs, and transform your business. Clients have seen 25% to 200% growth in their practices. Schedule your one-to-one consult today.

NowAvailable!

See the possibilities

Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First is a book and cash flow method for creating good business habits. Go Figure is writing the Profit First for Optometrists book. While it’s Optometry focused, it has been expressly written so that the principles within can easily be applied to all types of business.