Latest / Profit With A Plan / EP313: Profits in the Numbers: Bookkeeping, Tax Smarts & Clarity with Tanya Akimenko

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EP313: Profits in the Numbers: Bookkeeping, Tax Smarts & Clarity with Tanya Akimenko · Profit With A Plan

• 1:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey? Is your business bleeding money behind the scenes. Most business owners are unknowingly leaving profit on the table. Why? Because they don't fully understand their numbers
• 1:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: in this episode of profit with a plan. I'm joined by Tanya Arkhamenko, founder of Golden Apple Agency, who has spent 20 years helping entrepreneurs to turn financial confusion into confident decision making today we're unpacking, why, bookkeeping is essential and not optional, and the number one tax strategy every business owner should know about.
• 1:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and finally, why cash flow mastery creates stability and growth.
• 2:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So if you've ever delayed your books, feared tax season, or avoided the financial side of your business, then this conversation is going to be a game changer. It's time to stop winging it and start using your finances as a competitive edge.
• 2:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey? Entrepreneurs! Are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to profit with a plan podcast where we help you scale smarter, increase profitability and build a business that's worth more, whether you keep it or sell it.
• 2:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Reiner, business growth strategist and the profit booster behind infinite profit.
• 2:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I've helped countless entrepreneurs to turn their businesses into highly profitable and sale ready assets. So they enjoy more income now, and a bigger payday later. So join me for practical strategies, expert insights, and proven steps to make your business more profitable, more valuable, and built to last.
• 3:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is sponsored by infinite profit. Where we don't just talk profit, we deliver it.
• 3:06
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• 3:09
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• 3:51
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• 3:56
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• 4:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, let's jump into today's episode with our guest, Tanya Archimenko, the founder of Golden Apple Agency, and a passionate advocate for the financial clarity in today's businesses.
• 4:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: With over 20 years experience, Tanya has had a front row seat to the financial decisions that make
• 4:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: or break entrepreneurs. She knows that behind every successful business is a strong financial foundation.
• 4:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Tanya is on a mission to change the way business owners view their numbers through her agency. She provides more than just a tax prep. She delivers personalized reviews and clear financial insights that help clients make smarter profit, driven decisions, whether it's bookkeeping, tax strategies or cash flow planning.
• 4:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Tanya helps simplify the complex and make finance a powerful growth tool welcome to the Podcast Tanya. I'm so happy you're on today.
• 5:03
  Tanya Akimenko: Thanks so much. I'm so happy to be here very excited.
• 5:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, me, too. Well, you know, we're around the middle of the year, and I thought it was a really good time to really revisit those tax and financial strategies, because, you know, we come out of the gate in the beginning of the year, and we've got all these, you know, beautiful dreams of. Oh, I'm going to do things right this year, and incomes business and putting out fires and chasing customers, and you know we get kind of Midway through the year, and it's I always think it's a perfect time for that reset.
• 5:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so I'm glad to have you on today. But before we get started.
• 5:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Why is it that you think you fell into the tax line? I mean, not many people wake up and go. I love numbers, and I want to make a mark.
• 5:49
  Tanya Akimenko: It's actually a really funny story. So I used to live right today, I live in the beautiful Jacksonville, Florida, where it's sunny and we get to go to the beach. But there was a time I lived in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, and my ex-husband started a construction company, and this is going to give away my age. But this is before the fast Internet, before
• 6:11
  Tanya Akimenko: online things and things like that. So we were looking for an account to do like payroll, and especially like certified payroll. And we couldn't find anybody. The closest person was 2 h away. And again, this was before the Internet, fast Internet. We did have dial up Internet.
• 6:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The the sound of the dial tone when you'd ring in. Yes, I remember that.
• 6:32
  Tanya Akimenko: But yeah, so it would be like a 2 h drive one way just to submit our pay stubs, or whatever you know, so they can give us certified payroll. And so I was like, I was working at a bank. Then I was like, you know what I'm gonna do it myself. I'm gonna figure this out. But Math was always my favorite.
• 6:49
  Tanya Akimenko: I did take accounting classes, even in high school. I loved it. It was just, you know, everybody thinks accounting is like a math, but in reality it's like logical thinking. It's like, it's the puzzle, and it's great, and I love it.
• 7:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know I'm a fan of numbers myself, like in in all honesty, like I can't add 2 and 3 together without my calculator, but I can see the numbers and understand what they mean, the data behind the numbers. And so I always get excited with that side of it.
• 7:21
  Tanya Akimenko: What you said, the data behind the numbers. That's what's exciting.
• 7:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It really is. Because and as today's busy business owners, you know, if you're not looking at that data to tell you what it means and what you could do with it. Then you're you're kind of guessing your way through your business strategy and going. Hmm! Maybe we will hire somebody or hmm! Maybe I need to cut expenses, or even worse. Hmm! Maybe I want to invest in some equipment to make me grow right. You can't do that without understanding your numbers.
• 7:55
  Tanya Akimenko: That's so true. I 100% agree with you on that one.
• 7:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it, I love it so. Tell me
• 8:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: tell me about why, bookkeeping is so essential in managing those kind of numbers, because it is. It is the the data, right?
• 8:11
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah. So bookkeeping is really essential, because in order for you to get that number to get those numbers to understand them, it comes with. You know.
• 8:21
  Tanya Akimenko: tasks like nobody wants to do with that bookkeeping data entry that every little
• 8:27
  Tanya Akimenko: transaction that you do is categorized correctly. Does it show up on the reports correctly, and things like that. And with AI it is getting faster. But also AI is only as smart as its last transaction is what we're realizing.
• 8:42
  Tanya Akimenko: So if you categorize it, if you tell AI, it's gonna just run with it. And then you're looking at your reports trying to understand your numbers, and you're like, Wait a minute.
• 8:51
  Tanya Akimenko: This was not this expense. This was not this, you know, and I've had to do a lot of cleanup in order for the business owner to actually understand the number. And it's because of those bookkeeping tasks that were not properly categorized.
• 9:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, if someone told me, and this is feels like a hundred years ago. But it's kind of this garbage in as garbage out. If you don't categorize your expenses and your income properly in the right category, and that's done its setup and an entry level, then you're not going to everything like you just said is going to be skewed on the other side. And you're going to be going. Wow, okay.
• 9:30
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.
• 9:32
  Tanya Akimenko: but with bookkeeping honestly, the task of bookkeeping itself. It's so tedious and like not everybody can do it. It does take a special person to just sit there and categorize transactions like I've had employees quit who had accounting degrees. And they're like, listen, this isn't for me.
• 9:49
  Tanya Akimenko: this section.
• 9:51
  Tanya Akimenko: These tedious tasks of categorizing transactions is not for me. So like I said, it is very tedious. Nobody really wants to do it. That's why everybody's coming out with different ais, like any accounting software you look at. They're like we're offering AI. We're offering AI because nobody wants to sit there
• 10:08
  Tanya Akimenko: and do the tedious tasks. But again, AI is great. I like, I'm embracing, you know, technology and things like that. I told my employees I'm like, listen, we're not fighting against AI. We're learning it, and we're like trying to stay, you know.
• 10:22
  Tanya Akimenko: with with it. But again, it's those tedious texts you have to set it up correctly. You have to categorize it correctly. You have to teach the AI still.
• 10:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. And I think that's really important. It's all front loaded in my mind to get it programmed correctly whether you're using AI or having your your bookkeeping personnel. That's manually entering this information. But I think, too, with, if I remember right, one of my one of my mentors, a long time ago, said.
• 10:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Run everything, run all your expenses through this one credit card, because the credit card broke out the categories of what you were spending on and where you were spending it, and you kind of had one document to look at. Is that still a good practice to do.
• 11:09
  Tanya Akimenko: Well, when it comes to credit cards, my philosophy is, it depends what the benefits of that credit card is, and a lot of times like if you get cash back, that cash back is not taxable income, but it's money in your pocket. So if you
• 11:25
  Tanya Akimenko: have a few credit cards right? And there's 1 that you can select like this one. I get 3% cash back on gas. And then this one, I can get 3% cash back on shopping and things like that. But that's more of a different strategy. But yeah, I definitely agree with you. You should like dedicate a credit card, even if you're
• 11:45
  Tanya Akimenko: just starting out, and you don't have a business card. Dedicate your personal credit card and put all business on that credit card never, ever mix expenses, business and personal.
• 11:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, but it makes it a little easier to track those expenses that you have, because I mean, you know, the last thing I want to do is walk into your office once a month with a box of receipts. Right? I mean, there are a lot of softwares that can help you document your your expenses and your your everything coming in and out a lot easier today. Right? I mean, we're not. We're not writing it all down anymore. Are we.
• 12:21
  Tanya Akimenko: You'd be surprised by how many people still write it down.
• 12:25
  Tanya Akimenko: But hopefully, yes, hopefully, we are using some sort of software, or even a spreadsheet. You know.
• 12:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. But I think you know, in reality we're business owners. So we go out to lunch. We take a client out to lunch, and then we go fill up our car with gas, and then we've got that subscription for the marketing, or for some sort of printing that I did, and it's like all over the place, and by the end of the day I'm like
• 12:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I got the client work done. Now I'm going to go home.
• 12:56
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.
• 12:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I didn't input any of the expenses that I had in there. So I was wondering there's got to be a greater, a better system or something that you use, a process that you use that makes it easier on the business owner to get that data to you in the right framework.
• 13:11
  Tanya Akimenko: Yes. So one thing. With the credit card and the transactions in general like, if you do go buy supplies
• 13:18
  Tanya Akimenko: it will tell you how much you spent and where you spent it, but it was still won't tell you enough details like, what did you actually purchase there? What was it? Actually, you know, things like that? Obviously, quickbooks is very well known. And and everybody really, most everybody uses it.
• 13:37
  Tanya Akimenko: And I know there's a lot of accounting software that are trying to compete. But I've I did test a lot of them out. They come close, but honestly, with quickbooks. No one compares, and if you don't like, need the invoice part they did came out with a
• 13:53
  Tanya Akimenko: a really cheap option. But you do have to get it through an accountant. Yeah. So
• 14:00
  Tanya Akimenko: honestly, if we get a customer that's not using quickbooks, we put them on quickbooks.
• 14:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You're like. This is the way it's going to be. Deal with it right? Because it is. It's like you said. It's such a tedious task. And there's so many opportunities for mistakes and errors that if you're not on the same page, and you're not delivering the information that you and your team need to be able to put the data in correctly. Then it's just going to be that garbage in and garbage out system that gets everybody in trouble.
• 14:30
  Tanya Akimenko: That's true. Yeah, I did hear the garbage in garbage out before. So yeah.
• 14:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, I mean, it's like, it's, it's terrible. Because here we're using this information right? And this is the reason we're talking about bookkeeping, right? Because it's the data that helps us make the decision of okay.
• 14:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: is it time to hire? Is it time to invest in my company? Can I afford to pay somebody a raise or give them a profit share, or, gee my marketing, how much did I really spend on that? Or I mean, there's a thousand 100,000 different questions that you can ask your data to give you an answer as to whether
• 15:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: yes, you should do it or no. You should not do it.
• 15:16
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, that's definitely for sure. And if you don't have that data you won't know the answer.
• 15:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? Or if the data is skewed in some way because you didn't get the bookkeeping done correctly, and therefore, too, yeah. So so I'm hoping that this conversation is is some ideas and values that the audience can hear. They go. Oh, okay.
• 15:37
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, I actually do have a tip for the bookkeeping.
• 15:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Great. Yeah.
• 15:42
  Tanya Akimenko: So actually, a lot of people think, oh, it's a tedious task, and things like that, and it is most of the time it is. But you need to learn yourself like, where? How do you view finances? Because when it comes to finances, it's all emotional. A lot of people think it's logical, but it's really emotional. You're tied into it and
• 16:01
  Tanya Akimenko: figure out what, how you are. Are you a morning person? Are you an evening person and dedicate that time yourself to actually sitting down and looking at your finances, figuring out because they do snowball on you
• 16:14
  Tanya Akimenko: if you don't dedicate time. But again, there is no such like an answer like, Oh, you should do it every Friday morning, or whatever you know. No, it's you gotta learn yourself. You gotta know when when it when are you actually willing to do it? And that's and just set it up and make it a habit.
• 16:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Make it a habit. That's a great. That's a great tip on it, because and and listeners, we're not telling you to do your own bookkeeping. We're not telling you to do your own accounting or tax planning. No.
• 16:46
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, it is.
• 16:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Saying that you need to have you need to be involved.
• 16:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so when you're yeah. So I guess when you're looking at your finances on Friday morning, right once a week, or once a month, whatever that time slot is. What are we looking for?
• 17:04
  Tanya Akimenko: So you want to look at your if you're you know. If you do have a bookkeeper, you want to look at your reports and things like that specific things. Maybe you're looking for return on your investment. If you're doing marketing, that's important, like, I'm spending this much money on marketing. What's my actual return on this investment and things like that? But yeah, I didn't mean to do it. Your own. I mean to dedicate time.
• 17:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, gosh, no, I know.
• 17:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, I know.
• 17:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I always tell people that's 1 place that you need to invest on day. One is in someone to to manage your bookkeeping in your tax planning, because that's a place that you know none of us are experts in. Nor should we be experts in. And that's the place that can get us in so much trouble. And and like, I said in the beginning, we need that data to make great decisions. So.
• 17:51
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, with us doing bookkeeping. We actually have like an onboarding. And it took me like 20 years to realize that most people I give them a pretty report, all categorized, and they're like great. What do I do with this? You know. So we do have like a whole onboarding process. We have 2 meetings with them. We learn their business, how they do things. And then the second meeting, we actually show them
• 18:11
  Tanya Akimenko: go over the reports. This is where you can find it. This is what you're looking for. This is what you need to focus on in order for your business to grow. And it's amazing, like our customers are like shocked. They're like, how come nobody's ever told this to me before.
• 18:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: No, because they just deliver a report, if if at all, and then they expect the business owner to go about their business right and the business owner doesn't understand what they're looking at when they look at a financial statement or a balance statement or an income statement, and to be able to go. Oh.
• 18:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: okay, so is this good or bad? Right? They need somebody. They need somebody capable and and and who can speak? Who can speak business owner, on on what that number means. So they can start to train themselves on on how to use that data correctly. Right?
• 19:00
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, for sure. But also finances is the heartbeat of every business, and you want to make sure you keep your hand on the pulse. You know.
• 19:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly exactly so. I love the idea of picking out a time that you know you can have a cup of coffee, and and you know you can sit down, or it's in the afternoon, or whatever it is that you find a time a regular slot to review your financials and ask. Write down some questions, to to ask your your accounting professional but to sit there and start to go. Oh, are we on track right?
• 19:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because it could be halfway through the year, and you haven't looked at your financials, and you're like, Oh, I thought we were doing better than we were, or how come? I don't have what I thought we had in the bank, or, Wow. I didn't realize we were spending that much.
• 19:48
  Tanya Akimenko: Right.
• 19:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You won't know if you don't look right.
• 19:50
  Tanya Akimenko: That is true. Yeah, you you won't know if you don't check if you don't review.
• 19:55
  Tanya Akimenko: There's, you know, some subscriptions that you might be ha! Paying that you actually stopped using.
• 20:00
  Tanya Akimenko: So it's important to review, not just the bookkeeping reports, but also the transactions to the vendors. Who have you paid?
• 20:08
  Tanya Akimenko: Who have you paid, and how much.
• 20:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And then I think, too, when you, when you look at this kind of when you look at these reports, and you're able to see that. You know there's there's some really good tricks, right? That we can start to do to master cash, flow, and to be able to, you know, have better times in there? Where, like even even
• 20:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: accounts, receivable versus accounts payable, you know. When do you pay people? And when do you get paid and balancing that so that you're not in the hole and floating somebody else for for a period of a month before they pay you kind of thing.
• 20:43
  Tanya Akimenko: That is so true. And this is why credit cards with, you know, points or cash backs come into play. So you want to keep your money in the bank as long as possible before you have to pay your credit cards and things like that, not saying to carry a balance. But you should pay them almost off before they close
• 21:00
  Tanya Akimenko: to, you know, to show to, for your credit score, and everything else like that. But, as you said to carry someone. It's better for your credit card to carry them than your bank account being low on funds.
• 21:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly exactly so. What are some of the ways that we can create stability and growth using our cash flow.
• 21:21
  Tanya Akimenko: Really, if you have your bookkeeping, and if you have your dedicated time, you're when, if you start reviewing it, that's already going to be
• 21:29
  Tanya Akimenko: building your stability. You're already going to know. Okay, this is actually my average. And then you will know, hey, I'm actually lower. I'm actually low on funds. I'm actually low on my collections accounts receivable. But if you don't have that, you know, once a week, or even at least once a month, I think, at least once a month. You don't have that baseline
• 21:52
  Tanya Akimenko: so, and when it goes in regards to like the cash flow, you need to establish a baseline. What is my Breakeven Point? A lot of people don't even realize what is their Breakeven point. And that's so important. You sign up a customer. You start working on a customer. What's your Breakeven point with that customer? When does actually profit come into play?
• 22:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 22:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know, just looking and working with some of my previous customers trying to figure out. You know they do a they did a service. This one I'm thinking of in my mind now is that they delivered a service, and they had people that were working on a team, and they were buying some products, and they were reselling the products. And and it was always just mind boggling that they thought that they were more profitable
• 22:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: on a job than they actually were, because they didn't take into consideration all the little pieces that came in and affected that job, even even something as simple as because they had employees workman's Comp
• 22:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: that into the price of the hours that you're paying the employees and taxes. And you know all the other little things. But yeah, it's it's it's really important to to find that break even point. I think that's a great, great great tool. And you can't do that unless you know your numbers.
• 23:12
  Tanya Akimenko: Exactly. That's so true.
• 23:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's it's it is as simple as that. But but again, business owners, you don't have to be a financial whiz. You just have to have a foundation and a partner such as you, Tanya, that can come in and go. Look, here's what I'm noticing. Here's a trend, you know. Here's the direction we're heading. We might want to make some adjustments here or there, and you can't do that if you don't have a partner.
• 23:38
  Tanya Akimenko: That is true. Yes.
• 23:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so this is great. You've given us some real strengths on why bookkeeping is so important in the business for the business owner to grow their profitability and to be able to make good decisions along the way. And you gave us some ideas on cash flow stability. What about taxes? Right. I mean, we're in the middle of the year, and you know
• 24:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you went through a helicious tax season. I know that many of us business owners kind of push it off a little bit, but it's still. It's something that shouldn't wait until the year end right.
• 24:13
  Tanya Akimenko: Correct. Yeah, it is better to get it. Your taxes done on time.
• 24:18
  Tanya Akimenko: I know that people do file extensions, you know. That's what they're there for. But of course, if you're not filing on time, you're not, it's most likely because you're not ready to file, and that's again where your those tedious bookkeeping comes in to play.
• 24:34
  Tanya Akimenko: But as far as like taxes. I always say there's a lot of tax similarities between businesses, but a tax return is like a fingerprint again, it's similar, but no tax return is alike, and that's why, like
• 24:48
  Tanya Akimenko: not all the tax strategies work across the board. There could be one for benefiting one company, and there could be one that's really not benefiting, because the goals are separate. When you think of tax strategy, you have to start thinking with goals 1st
• 25:04
  Tanya Akimenko: and then work your way backwards to tax strategy, because sometimes I've seen tax strategies that actually hurt the business, because, you know, they're trying to write off so much. They're not showing any profit. They can't get a loan, they can't buy a building, and so on and so on. You know.
• 25:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 25:20
  Tanya Akimenko: But I would say like, I know you touched base on the number one tax strategy, I would say the number one especially for a business is to make sure they're in the right entity you start with like an Llc. You're taxed as a sole prop because the Irs does not recognize an Llc. It's just on the state level. You have to pick how you want to be taxed. But then, as you start earning more money, you start growing. Then you move up, you move into a corporation or an S corporation, actually.
• 25:48
  Tanya Akimenko: But a lot of times you just start and you choose the wrong entity
• 25:52
  Tanya Akimenko: from the start, and it and it hurts you. I think.
• 25:56
  Tanya Akimenko: if anything the number one question should be for your tax preparer. It's like am I in the right entity.
• 26:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's a great question. Because, like you said, we start up and we hear something, or we research something and find it. And then we never revisit that option, because as we grow and expand and evolve into our current business, whether we bring on team members or partners, it's still the income levels and the things that you want to be able to
• 26:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: have benefits from from the tax code. Right? So deductions and things like that, you know, they shift as your income starts to increase, and where you're going to start to see benefits. So I think a lot of business owners haven't reviewed that. And they're probably still in the same tax entity than they were when they started, even though they're 5, 10 years in, and probably should be revisiting that right.
• 26:52
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, I would highly recommend to revisit, at least be sure that you are in the correct one.
• 26:58
  Tanya Akimenko: I mean, just a entity switch could literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars on tax returns for some people.
• 27:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, exactly, exactly. And I think even something as simple as an S. Corp. Where you're paying yourself because you're required to as as A. W. 2 employee. It now gives you business owners some financial stability along with the business being financially stable. So if you want to start making some purchases. You've got a stable income that's documentable as well.
• 27:34
  Tanya Akimenko: Correct. Yeah.
• 27:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Instead of living off of the oh, well, I got I made this much this month, so I can pull out that much right, you know, kind of the young business kind of mentality of you know I eat what I kill.
• 27:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's we we call that bank balance accounting.
• 27:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's accounting. Oh, my gosh! Well, I'm sure you've seen some really messy accounting systems for sure, and the and the crossover, as you said, mixing personal and business, and you know, doing all sorts of things that can just really get you in trouble. But yeah, it's it is. I mean.
• 28:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the business is. And I think you. You said this? Really? Well, it's an entity.
• 28:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You. The business is is its its own thing, its own person.
• 28:21
  Tanya Akimenko: Right.
• 28:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 28:22
  Tanya Akimenko: Yes, we.
• 28:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Have to treat as such. Therefore it needs to have its own corporate identity. It needs to have its own bank account, its own credit card its own services. You know. It's got to have everything of its own separate from your
• 28:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: personal stuff.
• 28:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and why we see so many smaller businesses, or we call them lifestyle businesses, where the business owner runs everything through.
• 28:48
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, I always tell them, listen, give your business a people name. Call him John Smith.
• 28:54
  Tanya Akimenko: Would you just go up to John Smith and be like, hey, give me 50 bucks to buy some food.
• 29:00
  Tanya Akimenko: you know. No, you wouldn't. You would actually, you know, work. And then John Smith will pay you for your you know, job and things like that but once it's like a Aha moment for business owners, you know, once you establish, like you said an identity kind of entity identity for that business. Now it becomes like, Oh, okay, there is a wall between me and the business. We are actually separate, even though, of course, you still running the business.
• 29:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I think that's that's a really
• 29:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: important point, whether you're still a newer business, or even a more mature business. But to create that wall.
• 29:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and, like you said, you're not going to go up to John and go give me 50 bucks for so I can buy some groceries. I mean that's brilliant. That really gives the visuals of what you would do. You do your work, and on the 1st and the 15th or the 30th of each month you get paid out of your business, and you go buy the groceries out of your money.
• 30:00
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.
• 30:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But nobody. I mean, there's a lot of businesses that don't run that way.
• 30:06
  Tanya Akimenko: That is true. Yes.
• 30:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's scary. Gosh! That's why you need a professional bookkeeper to manage your business. Manage the way it's set up to have the professionals that are in there. If you, if you're lucky enough to get a professional that that has tax planning abilities, that's even better. You don't have to go to the top of the charts to get the higher end people, because they won't want to do the lower end work. And I think it's just to have that accounting
• 30:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: team correct on your on your list of advisors
• 30:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to help you design a business and run a business
• 30:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: in the proper way that would be most beneficial to the business and to you as the owner, founder.
• 30:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I think that's really the
• 30:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the the 1 million dollar, the 1 million dollar relationship. And the question is is to have someone like you for that.
• 31:04
  Tanya Akimenko: I tend to agree. I did fall into accounting because of my ex-husband, but I've like like you said I had a front row seat to so many businesses.
• 31:15
  Tanya Akimenko: you know, who succeeded, who failed, and things like that. And honestly, the ones who failed are the ones who didn't understand. Their finances
• 31:24
  Tanya Akimenko: are the ones who looked at their bank balance and made decisions based off that.
• 31:28
  Tanya Akimenko: and really just didn't realize that finances is the heartbeat of your business.
• 31:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well said, well said, all right, Tanya, this has been really good information, and I know there's so many different areas and legs and pieces that we could talk about. The business owners really, truly need to understand and get a good grasp on. So where can listeners find out more about you and Golden Apple Agency so that they can start to
• 31:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: kind of fine tune what they're doing.
• 31:58
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, so our website would be the best option. It's golden apple agency, inc.com.
• 32:04
  Tanya Akimenko: And I actually have a quick cheat sheet for everyone. It talks about business expenses. Now, a business expense does need to be ordinary and necessary for your industry.
• 32:16
  Tanya Akimenko: but it kind of helps like this cheat. She kind of helps. You think a little bit outside the box, because what I've noticed some people, some business owners, especially if you're starting out to. But even even if you've been in business for a while, some people don't even know what's tax deductible, and what's truly a business expense. So it kind of gives you. This is kind of like a quick cheat sheet kind of helps, you think. Outside the box.
• 32:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it, and that's so important. Because the somebody said, Oh, you should. Because you have a business, you should run everything. You know your gym membership, your car, your cell phone, your spouse's cell phone, everything you own should run through your business. But it's not always true.
• 32:55
  Tanya Akimenko: No, no, that she she'll help you with that.
• 32:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: For sure!
• 32:59
  Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.
• 33:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Gosh! All right, excellent! And where can they find that.
• 33:04
  Tanya Akimenko: It's just golden apple agencyinc.com backslash cheat, sheet.
• 33:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it super simple, easy to find, and could probably save you a lot of money and even more headaches so cool.
• 33:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right. So this has been really good. I hope. Listeners, you've found some ideas and strategies, bookkeeping strategies. Sorry. Get my brain working again. I keep thinking about. Oh, that checklist is really good, but I hope you were able to find some ideas and and strategies that will help you be more profitable from from this idea on here
• 33:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and for that. By the way, if you are tired of overpriced marketing, that's complicated, and time consuming the profit. Booster marketing hub is your low cost, easy to use, alternative to expensive strategies, complete with automation templates and a personalized strategy call. Get more details at profitboosterbiz.
• 34:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: all right. You don't want to forget, to subscribe. You want to catch future shows. You can always find profit with a plan on any of your favorite podcast platforms. We're looking forward to more great profitable information on next week's show. So until then make your plans and profit with them. Thank you so much, Tanya. This was super good.
• 34:23
  Tanya Akimenko: Thanks for having me.