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Business Expenses and To Do Lists · Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast

• 0:00
  Dave Hamilton: Business Brain, episode 796 for Wednesday, October 14th, World Standards Day, 2026.
• 0:09
  Dave Hamilton: Huh. You'd think the music could play one of these days.
• 0:12
  Dave Hamilton: I see it. It's right there. There it is. Look at that. Yeah.
• 0:14
  Dave Hamilton: You know, if only there was a standard for when you press a button.
• 0:18
  Dave Hamilton: Does ISO have a standard for the amount of time that's acceptable between pressing
• 0:23
  Dave Hamilton: the button and starting the music?
• 0:26
  Shannon Jean: Yeah. ISO 9001 or whatever.
• 0:28
  Dave Hamilton: Something like that, man.
• 0:29
  Shannon Jean: I thought it was Pumpkin Pie Day for some reason.
• 0:31
  Dave Hamilton: It might also be Pumpkin Pie. Was that today, though? See, because we're recording
• 0:35
  Dave Hamilton: this on Monday, which might be Pumpkin Pie Day. I saw it.
• 0:39
  Dave Hamilton: Oh, there you go. But Wednesday, see what I mean?
• 0:42
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, it's hard. I got to think about these things.
• 0:44
  Shannon Jean: That's why you're in charge of the knobs and the buttons.
• 0:46
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, that's right. Sometimes the buttons don't work, though.
• 0:50
  Dave Hamilton: Greetings, everybody, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take
• 0:53
  Dave Hamilton: some ideas, we crunch them, We use them to tune our business brains and level up our charmed lives.
• 1:01
  Dave Hamilton: And our sponsor that's going to help you level up your charmed life is Whatnot,
• 1:05
  Dave Hamilton: where you can go and you just search Whatnot in the app store and start selling
• 1:09
  Dave Hamilton: today. It's cool. We'll talk about it in a little bit. It's very cool.
• 1:13
  Shannon Jean: Sweet. I love Whatnot. We have a lot of our resellers that sell up there.
• 1:16
  Shannon Jean: Live selling. It's huge.
• 1:18
  Dave Hamilton: And that's Shannon Jean, and I'm Dave Hamilton.
• 1:20
  Shannon Jean: Hey, I am Shannon Jean. I'm in Northern California. I appreciate you being here,
• 1:23
  Shannon Jean: either on the live stream, in your car, on the podcast, or on YouTube,
• 1:27
  Shannon Jean: where you can catch these shows.
• 1:29
  Shannon Jean: And this is our 12th year, episode 796.
• 1:34
  Dave Hamilton: I know, we're close to that 800 thing.
• 1:35
  Shannon Jean: Coming up on 800, man.
• 1:37
  Dave Hamilton: I was also thinking, as I was prepping the show today, you know,
• 1:40
  Dave Hamilton: at the end of every episode, we debate our big takeaway of each episode.
• 1:47
  Dave Hamilton: And then we take that big takeaway and we expand it into a business blueprint
• 1:53
  Dave Hamilton: that shows you how to take the takeaway and apply it to your business, right?
• 1:59
  Dave Hamilton: And as I was looking at it and kind of prepping the shell for this episode,
• 2:03
  Dave Hamilton: I don't know what today's big takeaway is because it's a thing we decide.
• 2:06
  Dave Hamilton: I don't even know what I'm going to vote for.
• 2:08
  Dave Hamilton: But as I was putting it together, I thought, you know, it's interesting.
• 2:11
  Dave Hamilton: I certainly and I think you and I share this, but I don't want to put words
• 2:15
  Dave Hamilton: in your mouth. I certainly have the idea that when we get to the big takeaway,
• 2:18
  Dave Hamilton: it's like, well, I hope it's my thing.
• 2:20
  Dave Hamilton: I want to quote unquote win. But but the reality is where I win every week is
• 2:26
  Dave Hamilton: from having the discussion.
• 2:28
  Dave Hamilton: Like it's, it's not, there's no, if my, if the thing I brought in is not as
• 2:34
  Dave Hamilton: good as the thing you brought in or, or whatever, like we want the best topic to be the takeaway.
• 2:39
  Dave Hamilton: And it's just, and I know this objectively, it's just odd that like,
• 2:44
  Dave Hamilton: I have this weird competitive thing that makes me want to it to be my topic,
• 2:48
  Dave Hamilton: even though that's really not the point of it. So, yeah.
• 2:51
  Shannon Jean: Yeah. I understand that. I want to win too.
• 2:53
  Dave Hamilton: I know. I get it. I know. It's just ridiculous.
• 2:56
  Shannon Jean: But I would say when we originally came up with this, what's the big takeaway,
• 3:01
  Shannon Jean: I thought there would be a lot more back and forth, but it kind of works out.
• 3:05
  Shannon Jean: We're both like, yeah, that's pretty obvious.
• 3:07
  Dave Hamilton: It's usually pretty obvious.
• 3:09
  Shannon Jean: Yeah.
• 3:10
  Dave Hamilton: There've been a couple where it's been, but, but yeah. Yeah.
• 3:14
  Dave Hamilton: So that's our business brain blueprints, which you can always get it.
• 3:18
  Dave Hamilton: Businessbrain.show slash blueprint. So, or blueprint.
• 3:21
  Shannon Jean: Check them out.
• 3:22
  Dave Hamilton: We have it working both ways. Hey, I, um,
• 3:25
  Dave Hamilton: I, I, I'm always looking into productivity, right?
• 3:30
  Dave Hamilton: Okay. And it, it, enhancing my own productivity.
• 3:34
  Dave Hamilton: And I'm not sure if I said it on the show or if I mentioned it to you,
• 3:38
  Dave Hamilton: but I was having a conversation with a friend relatively recently and he asked
• 3:42
  Dave Hamilton: me how are things going or whatever.
• 3:44
  Dave Hamilton: And my answer was, Hey, I think I feel like I have one too many things on my
• 3:47
  Dave Hamilton: plate. And so I've been, I don't know how that is. Yeah, I know. Yeah.
• 3:51
  Dave Hamilton: And so I've been working on like figuring out what that means for me,
• 3:58
  Dave Hamilton: but also like how to better get command of things. Right.
• 4:05
  Dave Hamilton: And I realized that I've been doing my to do list wrong. Now, I am someone that,
• 4:11
  Dave Hamilton: I have tried, not all of, but several of the more convoluted to-do list management
• 4:20
  Dave Hamilton: systems like the GTD thing.
• 4:22
  Shannon Jean: I hate them.
• 4:24
  Dave Hamilton: I do too. And a big part of the reason that I dislike them or that they don't
• 4:29
  Dave Hamilton: work for me is that I start obsessing over making the system work efficiently.
• 4:39
  Dave Hamilton: And I spend more time tuning the system than I do doing the things that the
• 4:43
  Dave Hamilton: system's going to – I need it simpler.
• 4:46
  Dave Hamilton: And I realized this. I was like, oh, I'm really going to be an expert with this
• 4:50
  Dave Hamilton: GTD thing. It's like, well, that's cool. But if that's if that's your goal at
• 4:55
  Dave Hamilton: the end of the day, Dave, then you've succeeded. But if your goal was to get
• 4:58
  Dave Hamilton: these other things done, you didn't do any of them. Right.
• 5:01
  Dave Hamilton: So I've always kept a very simple to do list.
• 5:05
  Dave Hamilton: And Apple's reminders is as good an example of that as any.
• 5:08
  Dave Hamilton: It's sort of what I use, but not really. but it doesn't matter right it's just
• 5:12
  Dave Hamilton: literally a list with check boxes and items on it and that's it and that works for me but lately,
• 5:20
  Dave Hamilton: it hasn't been in that i haven't been getting to everything that i want to get to.
• 5:29
  Dave Hamilton: I have compartmentalized my to-do list. I have different categories,
• 5:32
  Dave Hamilton: but the way I'd marked my categories was, and this is a pattern that I started
• 5:37
  Dave Hamilton: years ago, and I realized it doesn't serve me at all. It doesn't necessarily
• 5:42
  Dave Hamilton: get in the way, but it doesn't serve me.
• 5:43
  Dave Hamilton: And that is I have a different category for every one of my businesses.
• 5:48
  Dave Hamilton: Like I have a category for backbeat. I have a category for business brain.
• 5:51
  Dave Hamilton: I have a category for Mac Geek Gap, right? I have, you know,
• 5:54
  Dave Hamilton: for personal life, for music, I have categories, and that's what I put things into.
• 5:58
  Dave Hamilton: And it is helpful in a way to think about things like, okay,
• 6:02
  Dave Hamilton: well, I have to do this stuff for Business Brain and this stuff for Mac Geek,
• 6:04
  Dave Hamilton: I have this stuff for BackBeat, whatever. Fine. Great.
• 6:07
  Dave Hamilton: But when there are more things on my reminders list than there are time for
• 6:14
  Dave Hamilton: me to do, what naturally happens
• 6:17
  Dave Hamilton: is in the moment I'm constantly making a series of Sophie's choices.
• 6:22
  Dave Hamilton: Like, all right, which thing am I going to choose to do now?
• 6:25
  Dave Hamilton: Which am I going to choose? Therefore, what am I choosing not to do?
• 6:29
  Dave Hamilton: Right. And it's just, this is happening all day long, every day.
• 6:32
  Dave Hamilton: And at some level, that's just how things are going to go. But there is an amount
• 6:38
  Dave Hamilton: of energy required every time I have to make that decision about something.
• 6:43
  Dave Hamilton: Right. And then there's the, and then there, depending on what it is, there is the stress or.
• 6:49
  Dave Hamilton: Guilt's the wrong word but the the obligation of like crap there is that thing
• 6:54
  Dave Hamilton: i gotta get to that at some point but today's not going to be the day right
• 6:57
  Dave Hamilton: and and that's distracting to thinking like okay i'm setting this aside again,
• 7:03
  Dave Hamilton: and so i thought okay wait a minute what if i,
• 7:07
  Dave Hamilton: Take that that decision point needs to happen. Right.
• 7:11
  Dave Hamilton: But what if I take that decision point and move it earlier in the process so that,
• 7:17
  Dave Hamilton: I'm and now I have two lists and and I've been workshopping these names and
• 7:22
  Dave Hamilton: I'm I'm happy with what I have, but I'm open to this.
• 7:26
  Dave Hamilton: But my name, the names are for my list are must do and might do,
• 7:32
  Dave Hamilton: because I know there are things that if they're not on the must do list, they might not get done.
• 7:38
  Shannon Jean: You could go.
• 7:38
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, they could go for a very long time. And I and I need.
• 7:41
  Shannon Jean: To continue to punt those down if you needed to go.
• 7:44
  Dave Hamilton: And I have been like, that's the reality is for the last two months.
• 7:49
  Dave Hamilton: You know, many of these things have just been punting down the road.
• 7:52
  Dave Hamilton: And that's fine as long as but I need to be intentional about putting them on
• 7:58
  Dave Hamilton: a list that can be punted as opposed to just saying, oh, I'll put it on for tomorrow. OK, great.
• 8:04
  Dave Hamilton: Like it'll get done tomorrow. But then tomorrow becomes tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Right.
• 8:08
  Dave Hamilton: And so this idea of being very explicit with,
• 8:14
  Dave Hamilton: where does this fall in my list of importance and ruthless about that which
• 8:21
  Dave Hamilton: I am allowing myself to put on the must-do list.
• 8:26
  Dave Hamilton: And it's much more efficient doing that once as opposed to all day long.
• 8:32
  Dave Hamilton: That's the part that – that's the real difference maker for me, I think.
• 8:37
  Shannon Jean: Yeah. I, I, uh...
• 8:40
  Shannon Jean: I see the value of that. I don't use that type of list because I've just found
• 8:45
  Shannon Jean: that my brain doesn't work well with that.
• 8:48
  Shannon Jean: But I do have my classifications are more like
• 8:56
  Shannon Jean: today and then long-term projects, right? Sure. That's what I find. Okay.
• 9:02
  Shannon Jean: If I kind of, oh, I want to build this thing. I want to do this.
• 9:07
  Shannon Jean: I know I can create this project where I'm going to keep track.
• 9:11
  Shannon Jean: Okay, here's what I'm working on.
• 9:13
  Shannon Jean: What are the things that have to get done to get there?
• 9:17
  Shannon Jean: And then I know that every single day I have to do certain things.
• 9:20
  Shannon Jean: Yes. Repetitive, repetitive stuff.
• 9:22
  Dave Hamilton: Some of them are repetitive for sure. Some of them aren't. Some of them are
• 9:24
  Dave Hamilton: repetitive. Yeah, for me, I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
• 9:27
  Shannon Jean: And I'm certainly not the most efficient person in the world,
• 9:31
  Shannon Jean: but I have fought decades to where I didn't have to be, right?
• 9:36
  Shannon Jean: To where I had the freedom to just kind of like, okay, let's see, what am I working on?
• 9:42
  Shannon Jean: I'm more impactful on my business and my businesses when I'm more free-flowing.
• 9:52
  Dave Hamilton: I'm the same way. I need some time to just be able to just kind of let my,
• 10:00
  Dave Hamilton: again, I've never been diagnosed, but I'll call it my ADHD brain. Yeah, same.
• 10:04
  Dave Hamilton: And I'm pretty sure that's what it is.
• 10:05
  Shannon Jean: Your business brain.
• 10:06
  Dave Hamilton: My business brain. That's what it is. It's your business brain.
• 10:09
  Dave Hamilton: I need to let my business brain just wander.
• 10:14
  Shannon Jean: Yeah, because it makes great connections, right?
• 10:16
  Dave Hamilton: Frequently. Yes. Yeah.
• 10:18
  Shannon Jean: Yes.
• 10:19
  Dave Hamilton: But I need to make sure I have time for that.
• 10:21
  Shannon Jean: Yes, I get that. And I do like that. And my favorite is the to did list,
• 10:27
  Shannon Jean: if you've never heard us talk about that, where at the end of my day,
• 10:31
  Shannon Jean: I make a list of things I got done.
• 10:33
  Shannon Jean: And that's how I keep track of if I'm moving in the right direction,
• 10:38
  Shannon Jean: if I'm knocking things out.
• 10:40
  Shannon Jean: I'm just not as good as making lists and having them in front of me in the morning.
• 10:43
  Shannon Jean: It's just a different way to look at it.
• 10:45
  Shannon Jean: But I like that idea of the must-do.
• 10:49
  Dave Hamilton: And again, I'm ruthless about that, which is – That's good.
• 10:53
  Dave Hamilton: I gatekeep that list like it's the most important list in my life because it is.
• 10:59
  Dave Hamilton: Because once I get through that list, I have my might-do list turned off until two things happen.
• 11:08
  Dave Hamilton: I get all the must-dos done, and there's nothing like...
• 11:13
  Dave Hamilton: No ideas percolating in my brain that I want to give myself the opportunity to go and explore.
• 11:20
  Dave Hamilton: And only after that, then it's like, all right, what's on the might-do list then?
• 11:24
  Shannon Jean: Yeah, that's good. Because I use my calendar a lot as my to-do list.
• 11:29
  Dave Hamilton: Sure, okay.
• 11:30
  Shannon Jean: If it gets on my calendar, it's getting done that day.
• 11:33
  Shannon Jean: I don't generally move things. But my reminders, which I live and die by,
• 11:39
  Shannon Jean: Apple reminders, I often punt those down the road. Yeah. You know,
• 11:43
  Shannon Jean: I'll be like, oh, okay. I didn't happen today. Yeah, exactly.
• 11:48
  Shannon Jean: But I love being like, remind me tomorrow. Yes. Sometimes it can get a bit repetitive. So I get it.
• 11:56
  Dave Hamilton: Mine just got to a point. And this is a byproduct of me actually having like
• 12:01
  Dave Hamilton: one too many things on my plate, which is just how it is right now.
• 12:04
  Dave Hamilton: And like self-inflicted wounds, I'll get through it.
• 12:07
  Dave Hamilton: But the reality is that basically for the last, you know, month and a half, two months,
• 12:12
  Dave Hamilton: I haven't had very much time at all where I feel like I'm through enough of
• 12:20
  Dave Hamilton: my list to give myself the freedom to experiment and like wander.
• 12:25
  Dave Hamilton: Well, that's bad. Like I need that time. Yeah. And so this was all right.
• 12:32
  Dave Hamilton: There need. We're in crisis here. We're in calendar crisis.
• 12:35
  Dave Hamilton: I need to figure this out. And it was like, right. Okay. If I just am ruthless
• 12:39
  Dave Hamilton: about the things, the reality is I'm not going to do everything.
• 12:43
  Dave Hamilton: We've proven that. Like I've got months of history to support this. Right.
• 12:46
  Dave Hamilton: Years, but really the important part months. So let's just embrace that and
• 12:51
  Dave Hamilton: say, this is how it is. Fine.
• 12:54
  Dave Hamilton: Now, let's pick the important things, and then I need to have the time to do
• 12:58
  Dave Hamilton: the wandering. Maybe it won't be quite as much as I would prefer,
• 13:01
  Dave Hamilton: but I need some of that, if not every day, every other day kind of thing.
• 13:07
  Shannon Jean: That's cool. That's good.
• 13:10
  Shannon Jean: There's so many different ways to manage this productivity system that you build.
• 13:15
  Shannon Jean: If you have one that really works for you, feedback at businessbrain.show.
• 13:19
  Shannon Jean: It sucks that we can't – I can't comment, really. I'd love to say,
• 13:23
  Shannon Jean: hey, Japanese Juan, is that his username? Thanks for being here.
• 13:27
  Dave Hamilton: So, because 99% of you are listening to this, I now need to explain what just happened.
• 13:38
  Dave Hamilton: Shannon saw a comment on YouTube from Japanese Juan who says,
• 13:41
  Dave Hamilton: I finally caught you live. I'm excited.
• 13:43
  Dave Hamilton: And it's true. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you get an alert and
• 13:49
  Dave Hamilton: you can watch us record the week's episodes live. So, yeah. Yeah.
• 13:54
  Dave Hamilton: Please do that. It's awesome fact. Yeah. It's great.
• 13:56
  Dave Hamilton: It's great. Coolio. And we could publish a calendar event for this too.
• 14:00
  Dave Hamilton: We can talk about that. It's interesting. That somebody could subscribe to like
• 14:03
  Dave Hamilton: businessbrain.show slash calendar. I know I'm saying it. Maybe I shouldn't be
• 14:08
  Dave Hamilton: because it doesn't exist yet, but it could.
• 14:10
  Shannon Jean: No.
• 14:10
  Dave Hamilton: That's interesting. And we could make that happen. So, let us know.
• 14:13
  Dave Hamilton: Feedback at businessbrain.show if you want uh if you would like to do that one
• 14:16
  Dave Hamilton: one last thing on the to-do list because this is something i've noticed i mentioned
• 14:20
  Dave Hamilton: the names are important i'm minor must do and might do right now,
• 14:25
  Dave Hamilton: might do i was talking to somebody else about this they're like what are you
• 14:27
  Dave Hamilton: going to have like must do and should do i'm like oh no no no no no it can't
• 14:31
  Dave Hamilton: say should do that there's an obligation there yeah the might do list needs to be
• 14:37
  Dave Hamilton: i need to accept that the things on that list might not get done for a while. Yeah, that's right.
• 14:44
  Shannon Jean: And like you said, the brain load is on the front end. You've already decided that.
• 14:48
  Dave Hamilton: And it's once for each task. It's not 18 times or it's not every day.
• 14:54
  Dave Hamilton: All the tasks that are on the might do list,
• 14:57
  Dave Hamilton: I don't worry about them and like, oh, where am I going to place that in the
• 15:00
  Dave Hamilton: week? No, it's just on this list. It's like timeless, essentially.
• 15:04
  Shannon Jean: Yeah.
• 15:05
  Dave Hamilton: So, yeah.
• 15:05
  Shannon Jean: I like it. I like it. Same.
• 15:07
  Dave Hamilton: All right. We have a tax question that we are going to, a listener question
• 15:13
  Dave Hamilton: about taxes. My favorite topic.
• 15:15
  Dave Hamilton: Is it really? No. Interesting. Huh. Now I have other questions.
• 15:19
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah. But I will let you all percolate on that in the backs of your minds while
• 15:24
  Dave Hamilton: in the fronts of our minds, we talk about our sponsor.
• 15:28
  Dave Hamilton: Here's what surprised me the most about our sponsor, Whatnot.
• 15:31
  Dave Hamilton: It's not just one thing, right?
• 15:34
  Dave Hamilton: I went in there and I was looking for an electronic show, right?
• 15:38
  Dave Hamilton: And I saw this guy running piece after piece, talking to everybody in the chat the whole time.
• 15:44
  Dave Hamilton: Genuinely fun, like a really engaging experience.
• 15:48
  Dave Hamilton: And then I realized that the same app, whatnot, also has beauty,
• 15:53
  Dave Hamilton: collectibles, luxury fashion, right? Sports cards and somehow cookies, right?
• 15:59
  Dave Hamilton: I've really enjoyed interacting with it. And if you've got something to sell,
• 16:04
  Dave Hamilton: please go check it out, right? Because that's the part for us.
• 16:09
  Dave Hamilton: Anyone can sell on whatnot. Big businesses, small businesses,
• 16:13
  Dave Hamilton: or a business that doesn't exist yet, right?
• 16:16
  Dave Hamilton: People selling there sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces because
• 16:23
  Dave Hamilton: you're not just listing products.
• 16:25
  Dave Hamilton: You're building actual connections. You're talking and people are listening and engaging.
• 16:30
  Dave Hamilton: Buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app, and they come back to see your
• 16:35
  Dave Hamilton: face instead of just your logo, right?
• 16:38
  Dave Hamilton: That's the charmed life. An audience that shows up for you, not just for your inventory.
• 16:44
  Dave Hamilton: Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start
• 16:50
  Dave Hamilton: selling right away, too. Go check it out. I think you're going to like it.
• 16:54
  Dave Hamilton: And our thanks to Whatnot for sponsoring this episode.
• 16:57
  Dave Hamilton: So we were talking about YouTube comments, and indeed, the NorCal Men's Network
• 17:03
  Dave Hamilton: on YouTube asked last week, Hey, I'm new to the podcast,
• 17:08
  Dave Hamilton: so I don't know the answer to this, but have you addressed the tax benefits
• 17:12
  Dave Hamilton: of owning a small business and all of the write-offs that are available? Wow, easy for me to say.
• 17:20
  Dave Hamilton: Shannon, you want to start with this?
• 17:22
  Shannon Jean: Yeah, I think
• 17:26
  Shannon Jean: deductions, depreciation, tax write-off, it's one of the huge
• 17:34
  Shannon Jean: reasons that own not just a business, but multiple businesses.
• 17:39
  Dave Hamilton: Because,
• 17:42
  Dave Hamilton: it's...
• 17:45
  Shannon Jean: What's the right way to use it? First of all, we're not accountants.
• 17:48
  Shannon Jean: We're not bookkeepers. We're not giving you tax advice. I just want to state that out in there.
• 17:52
  Shannon Jean: But there are things you need to buy in your normal course of business that
• 17:58
  Shannon Jean: also can enhance your life.
• 18:00
  Shannon Jean: And we've said it here on the show that we often want, you know,
• 18:04
  Shannon Jean: living a pre-tax lifestyle is, you know, you're much better having a great expense
• 18:09
  Shannon Jean: account than getting a big paycheck. In my experience.
• 18:13
  Dave Hamilton: Oh, yeah. I have had years where I haven't taken an income from the business,
• 18:16
  Dave Hamilton: you know, because you're in like growth mode or whatever.
• 18:19
  Dave Hamilton: And it's still like a huge benefit to have a business.
• 18:25
  Shannon Jean: So, you know,
• 18:28
  Shannon Jean: there's specific things. And we'll link in the show notes. I'll share it with
• 18:32
  Shannon Jean: you, Dave. Like you can go to the IRS website and they have a whole list of
• 18:35
  Shannon Jean: like, here's the guide for small business on tax write-offs and all stuff.
• 18:39
  Shannon Jean: But you really need to have a great accountant that you can sit down and have a discussion with.
• 18:44
  Shannon Jean: And you need to say, here's my business. Here's my businesses.
• 18:50
  Shannon Jean: What can I write off? And you need to have context. Context really, really matters.
• 18:56
  Dave Hamilton: I recommend having two accountants, Shannon. I have multiple businesses.
• 19:01
  Dave Hamilton: And I have two accountants, one that handles like half of them and the other
• 19:05
  Dave Hamilton: that handles the other half.
• 19:07
  Dave Hamilton: And it just so happens, I kind of found myself in this scenario,
• 19:12
  Dave Hamilton: one of them is far more risk-averse than the other.
• 19:17
  Shannon Jean: Yes.
• 19:17
  Dave Hamilton: And it's excellent because I can kind of pit them against each other in a sense.
• 19:23
  Dave Hamilton: I mean, they're not against each other, but I can ask them both the same question.
• 19:26
  Dave Hamilton: Like, hey, how would you handle this? And one of them is like,
• 19:28
  Dave Hamilton: oh, you can't do that. And the other is like, well...
• 19:31
  Dave Hamilton: There's a point where you can't do that, but here's where you can do this,
• 19:36
  Dave Hamilton: and here's what I've seen, and then kind of using them to give me the information
• 19:41
  Dave Hamilton: to decide for myself where my risk falls.
• 19:46
  Shannon Jean: It's a really good point is that no matter what accountant or whatever you have,
• 19:50
  Shannon Jean: all of it comes back to your responsibility.
• 19:55
  Shannon Jean: You are accountable, not your accountant.
• 19:57
  Dave Hamilton: No, despite their title.
• 19:59
  Shannon Jean: Despite their name.
• 20:00
  Dave Hamilton: I mean, they are accountable if they sign your tax return. There's a liability there.
• 20:05
  Shannon Jean: But there's lots of caveats where they're like, we have not audited this business.
• 20:08
  Shannon Jean: Yada, yada, yada. You're giving them all the information.
• 20:11
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, they make you sign a form that says- Correct. That you are- It can't.
• 20:16
  Dave Hamilton: That you are- Everything, that they are filling out your taxes for you or completing
• 20:21
  Dave Hamilton: your tax return based solely on the information you have provided- That you've given them.
• 20:28
  Dave Hamilton: And you sign that this is all accurate and complete.
• 20:31
  Shannon Jean: Yes. Complete. And there's lots of nuance, right? That's why we have thousands
• 20:36
  Shannon Jean: of accountants. That's why it's crazy. That's why the tax code is probably thousands of pages.
• 20:41
  Dave Hamilton: 75,000 or something now?
• 20:42
  Shannon Jean: Some crazy thing. So to Dave's point of risk, some accountants are very risk-averse.
• 20:50
  Shannon Jean: Other ones are like, well, yeah, it kind of fits in this thing.
• 20:54
  Shannon Jean: But I always ask, since I know I'm going to be ultimately accountable,
• 20:57
  Shannon Jean: I say, is this a penalty decision or a prison decision?
• 21:01
  Shannon Jean: Because if it's a penalty decision, like, well, if we go this route and somehow
• 21:06
  Shannon Jean: we get called out or it gets disqualified, you might have to pay a penalty.
• 21:11
  Shannon Jean: Well, I'm cool. I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with the other one, obviously.
• 21:15
  Dave Hamilton: Well, I mean – Obviously. You say obviously. There are accountants out there
• 21:20
  Dave Hamilton: that are used to dealing with people that might not say obviously to that.
• 21:23
  Shannon Jean: So you want to have that discussion. And then like your attorney, your accountant –
• 21:29
  Shannon Jean: is you need to really open the kimono if you get my drift. They need to know everything.
• 21:35
  Shannon Jean: You can't, like, not include them in the stuff, or you won't benefit.
• 21:38
  Shannon Jean: Like, okay, you want to buy a new truck? You want to buy a big Ford,
• 21:42
  Shannon Jean: you know, or a Raptor or some $100,000 pickup truck?
• 21:46
  Shannon Jean: Does that fit into your business that you can then expense and have that discussion?
• 21:53
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, can you take a Section 179 on that? Like, is that— Correct.
• 21:56
  Shannon Jean: Correct. All those things can you do. So I think more valuable than us giving
• 22:02
  Shannon Jean: you like specific, you know, oh, you can write that off, you can't write that off, whatever it is.
• 22:06
  Shannon Jean: It's having that great relationship with your accountant and doing also your
• 22:10
  Shannon Jean: own research and having, especially now with AI, you can get a lot of feedback,
• 22:15
  Shannon Jean: even though, you know, you need to double check it and have your.
• 22:19
  Dave Hamilton: I will give some specifics, though, because I think they are,
• 22:23
  Dave Hamilton: for instance, specifics, right? Like this might not apply to you,
• 22:27
  Dave Hamilton: but it's worth considering. So you've already mentioned vehicles.
• 22:31
  Dave Hamilton: That's one that often can work very well. And that's sort of the same with all
• 22:35
  Dave Hamilton: of these other things on the list, your cell phone, right? Your cell phone service,
• 22:40
  Dave Hamilton: your computers, all your technology.
• 22:42
  Shannon Jean: All your technology. And you should have, if you have the cashflow,
• 22:46
  Shannon Jean: you should have the best technology you can. Yes.
• 22:50
  Shannon Jean: And because your business is going to pay for it. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. Yep.
• 22:54
  Dave Hamilton: No, those are for sure. But but and this is again, please ask your accountant.
• 23:01
  Dave Hamilton: But most business structures allow you to take to have an annual meeting.
• 23:08
  Dave Hamilton: Where that annual meeting exists is very flexible.
• 23:15
  Dave Hamilton: So not only do you get to expense your actual travel for business,
• 23:20
  Dave Hamilton: but your annual meeting is considered actual travel for business.
• 23:25
  Dave Hamilton: And within a great deal of reason, the IRS, like that's one of the last things
• 23:33
  Dave Hamilton: they look at because they know you can say, look, I had to go to Aruba for my annual meeting.
• 23:38
  Dave Hamilton: Is the only way I could convince all of the stakeholders to come.
• 23:43
  Dave Hamilton: They're not going to come to New Hampshire in the middle of the winter.
• 23:45
  Dave Hamilton: I've got to take them to Aruba.
• 23:47
  Dave Hamilton: And the IRS, you get one a year, and as long as you can show that the stakeholders are there, then,
• 23:54
  Dave Hamilton: my wife and I, and she is a member of the LLC that expenses the trip,
• 24:00
  Dave Hamilton: and we go to Mexico and have our annual meeting. That's perfect.
• 24:04
  Shannon Jean: We've done the same thing.
• 24:05
  Dave Hamilton: And I'm happy saying it out loud on the podcast. My, my, um...
• 24:10
  Dave Hamilton: Because I would be happy saying it to the IRS. And that is, you know,
• 24:14
  Dave Hamilton: you have your prison or penalty question.
• 24:17
  Dave Hamilton: And that's a good one. Don't get me wrong.
• 24:20
  Dave Hamilton: My version of that is how would I feel? I can explain it to my accountant.
• 24:26
  Dave Hamilton: I can explain it to Shannon. I can come on the show with my tongue in my cheek
• 24:30
  Dave Hamilton: and explain a crazy tax scenario.
• 24:32
  Dave Hamilton: But would I be able to, with a straight face, sit down and explain this and
• 24:38
  Dave Hamilton: defend this decision to an IRS agent legitimately, not hoping to like skirt
• 24:43
  Dave Hamilton: around something that they don't ask? It's legit.
• 24:45
  Shannon Jean: It's legit.
• 24:46
  Dave Hamilton: Being like, no, I went to this thing. Yes, we enjoyed time in Mexico. Of course we did.
• 24:52
  Dave Hamilton: But as I understand it, the rules say that I can do this.
• 24:55
  Dave Hamilton: Do I have that wrong? Right? And I would have that. And if they say,
• 24:58
  Dave Hamilton: the rules don't say that, Dave, then I'd say, I'd turn to my accountant and
• 25:01
  Dave Hamilton: I'd say, why'd you tell me the rules said that?
• 25:03
  Dave Hamilton: Like we'd have a different conversation. But yeah. Right.
• 25:06
  Shannon Jean: I think travel and curriculum are two of the greatest things you can expense in your business.
• 25:12
  Shannon Jean: You should go to conferences. We've done shows all about them.
• 25:16
  Shannon Jean: You should go to events. You should host events for your customers,
• 25:20
  Shannon Jean: for your clients, your members, whoever they are, all those things.
• 25:24
  Shannon Jean: But, you know, all those things also require good cash flow, right? You have to
• 25:27
  Dave Hamilton: Have— Money's coming from somewhere.
• 25:29
  Shannon Jean: Money's got to come from somewhere. So I love that. And I think you should also
• 25:33
  Shannon Jean: learn about accelerated depreciation because a number of laws have been put
• 25:39
  Shannon Jean: in place. Some of them were temporary. Some of them have been made permanent where you can—
• 25:44
  Shannon Jean: you know expense a hundred percent of a piece of equipment um that
• 25:49
  Shannon Jean: you know in one in the first year which can really help plan but the key again
• 25:53
  Shannon Jean: is planning is you talk to your accountant and the accountant says okay what's
• 25:56
  Shannon Jean: your revenue look like this year and you say great we're going to do really good
• 26:01
  Shannon Jean: and he should say he or she should say well let's let's go do you need a new
• 26:04
  Shannon Jean: forklift do you people need new trucks uh are you hosting a meeting in mexico
• 26:09
  Shannon Jean: because we got three months left don't wait until december
• 26:13
  Shannon Jean: do you meet with them in august or september or right now today today is better
• 26:18
  Dave Hamilton: Than yesterday today is better than yesterday.
• 26:20
  Shannon Jean: Yes and and get all that stuff and just have that great relationship with them
• 26:24
  Shannon Jean: ask those questions and help them or so they can help you plan and i wish i
• 26:29
  Shannon Jean: was better at it as well oh but yeah you know
• 26:32
  Dave Hamilton: No it's a great question and really what i meant to say is tomorrow is better than today.
• 26:37
  Shannon Jean: There you go Yep.
• 26:38
  Dave Hamilton: But you know what I meant.
• 26:40
  Shannon Jean: Folks. Anytime, yeah. So yeah, get that, build those relationships.
• 26:44
  Shannon Jean: A great accountant, and I've been through a bunch of them. Same.
• 26:47
  Shannon Jean: Over time, things change. Your business grows to certain. Sometimes you outgrow
• 26:50
  Shannon Jean: those accountants, and sometimes you disagree with them.
• 26:53
  Shannon Jean: But yeah, have a great relationship with them, and you'll be set.
• 26:57
  Dave Hamilton: What is the takeaway on this?
• 27:02
  Shannon Jean: I think the takeaway for me today, because I always would like to have a better
• 27:08
  Shannon Jean: relationship with my accountant, is that your accountant needs to be on your
• 27:11
  Shannon Jean: team that you're communicating with all the time, not just when they do your taxes.
• 27:17
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, I, I, I am, I mean, I'm looking at this through my lens.
• 27:22
  Dave Hamilton: So we are going to disagree today because I think this, I've already,
• 27:27
  Dave Hamilton: this accountant thing is something I've already got fairly dialed in. Yeah.
• 27:33
  Dave Hamilton: Uh, which, which is what is influencing me. So I'm, I'm talking this out here.
• 27:38
  Dave Hamilton: What's new for me is being ruthless with things that appear on my to-do list. To-do list.
• 27:44
  Shannon Jean: Yeah, that's, I think it's valuable.
• 27:48
  Dave Hamilton: I don't know which is more important.
• 27:50
  Shannon Jean: We can disagree. It's good, and we'll do both. Businessbrain.show slash blueprints.
• 27:55
  Shannon Jean: We're going to expand on both of these topics and create a business plan around
• 27:59
  Shannon Jean: that specific topic. You can come and download it anytime, plus all the other
• 28:03
  Shannon Jean: ones that we've created.
• 28:05
  Dave Hamilton: Yeah, so be ruthless with your to-do list and get a good accountant.
• 28:09
  Shannon Jean: Communicate with them. Don't just talk to them. Don't just talk to them after
• 28:14
  Shannon Jean: the year ends. You have to be chatting with them all the time.
• 28:17
  Dave Hamilton: It is. And I wish I was better at that too.
• 28:20
  Dave Hamilton: Folks, thanks for hanging out. All that's going to be available at businessbrain.show
• 28:25
  Dave Hamilton: slash blueprints, as we've said a few times here.
• 28:28
  Dave Hamilton: Go check it out. I think you're going to like it. Feedback at businessbrain.show
• 28:31
  Dave Hamilton: if you have a question for us. And keep living that charmed life.
• 28:33
  Dave Hamilton: We'll see you on Friday. I see.