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Mike Kollath – Palladium Tax Advisory CPA
On the Help Entrepreneurs Need: “Quite frankly, compliance, while it’s necessary, isn’t where you actually can help someone.”
You may not know Mike yet, but you need to. Mike helps businesses with tax strategy and he illustrates his journey and a few tax tips in this interview.
Mike’s stories, from his first venture into the online retail world with a used children’s clothing store to the eventual establishment of a successful CPA firm with over 45 employees and $5 million in revenue take you through his education, saving you the time. Through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of tax planning, strategic growth, and adapting to market demands.
Mike discusses key takeaways from his business endeavors, his strategic approach to tax advisory services, and how he leverages his expertise to help clients save money and optimize their business operations.
Listen as Mike explains how to position yourself as a business owner, to make sure you keep as much of your money as is legal.
Enjoy!
Visit Mike at: https://www.palladiumcpa.com/
Podcast Overview:
04:59 Starting a Business Journey
08:19 Growing Pains in Small Teams
12:33 Partnership Growth and Process Implementation
14:45 Private Equity Inquiries Surge
16:30 Origin of Banana VoIP Venture
21:07 Genesis of Sustainable HR PEO
22:50 PEO & HR Tech Services
27:58 Growth Sparked by New Leadership
29:03 Private Equity Growth Factors
32:56 Pandemic Surge in Call Service Interest
37:39 “Excited for New Startup Phase”
Podcast Transcription:
Mike Kollath [00:00:00]:
I call them churn and burn chops, where they’re just cranking out as many 10 forties and Yeah. On business returns as they can. But that’s the problem. Right? If you have all these returns you gotta get done, you don’t have time to do the other stuff that’s actually valuable to the client. Right. Quite frankly, compliance, while it’s necessary, isn’t where you actually can help someone.
James [00:00:25]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at DrawInCustomers.com. And today, we’re welcoming, slash preparing to learn, from Mike Kollath, and I’d love to list all the companies you got going on, Mike, but I think it’s better The you do. So first, we got the Palladium.
Mike Kollath [00:00:50]:
Yep. Palladium Tax Advisory. Alright. A new CPA firm that I started about 3 months ago.
James [00:00:57]:
Oh, nice.
Mike Kollath [00:00:58]:
The there’s Sustainable HR PEO
James [00:01:00]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:01:00]:
Which is a professional employer organization, which we can talk about later. Sustainable HR recruiting, which we just started to do, basically headhunting. And then we have BananaVoIP, which is a VoIP company.
James [00:01:13]:
Nice. Alright. So So perfect for
Mike Kollath [00:01:16]:
a for
James [00:01:17]:
a show about entrepreneurs and all that jazz.
Mike Kollath [00:01:19]:
Certainly.
James [00:01:20]:
So let’s talk about let’s just go Book. First time you started your business, which business was the first one?
Mike Kollath [00:01:25]:
Okay. So The first one was a small, used clothing children’s store.
James [00:01:32]:
Used. On mine. Children’s clothing.
Mike Kollath [00:01:34]:
Used children’s clothing. Yes. Alright.
James [00:01:35]:
Tell me about that.
Mike Kollath [00:01:36]:
On mine. So we bought that company, my ex wife and I did. Okay. So we got lots of, children’s clothes in the Kademan. And so we’re just doing it online. And then eventually, I figured out it’s really hard to make money selling children’s clothes online. And it’s a pain in the butt to ship and do all that fun stuff.
James [00:01:56]:
We’re selling Ebay or what where was No. It was just online. Your platform was your online store?
Mike Kollath [00:02:01]:
Yep.
James [00:02:02]:
And this somebody else had it and you bought it? Yep. Tell Mike, what made you decide to get in that industry?
Mike Kollath [00:02:07]:
Well, I’d always wanted to be an On, and why that industry? It was there.
James [00:02:13]:
So is this someone you knew or anything like that?
Mike Kollath [00:02:15]:
Nope. Nope. We just found it. I can’t remember exactly how we found it, but maybe it was a friend of a friend or something like that. Alright. And so, so, yeah, that, lasted maybe a year, and then we made a large donation of used children’s clothing to Goodwill.
James [00:02:29]:
Just closed up. Just closed up. Out of there.
Mike Kollath [00:02:31]:
Too much work and, you know, the the cost benefit wasn’t there as The as an account.
James [00:02:36]:
So when you bought it, how tough was it? Like, you paid something for it. So was it basically an asset purchase? Yeah. Or was there Correct.
Mike Kollath [00:02:45]:
No. It was just basically bought a bunch of clothing Okay. On the website. Alright.
James [00:02:49]:
On the website. And whose idea was it? Was it yours or your
Mike Kollath [00:02:52]:
ex wife or wife It was more mine. Okay. Yeah. And I had always been interested in entrepreneurship. We’re also looking we’re looking to buy a business. We almost bought a nursery that was out in Fitchburg.
James [00:03:04]:
You’re talking tree nursery?
Mike Kollath [00:03:05]:
Yeah. Tree nursery. Wow. You know, basically flowers and trees
James [00:03:10]:
and Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:03:10]:
And The kind of stuff. So we almost bought a travel agency just before 911.
James [00:03:17]:
On, that’s the boat there.
Mike Kollath [00:03:19]:
Yes. Yes. Yeah. So we we were looking for a long time. Alright. And so, unfortunately or fortunately, used children’s clothing. I did learn a lot from the standpoint of I didn’t On do that. And it is it’s hard to do the marketing for that online.
James [00:03:37]:
I bet.
Mike Kollath [00:03:37]:
Especially back then. I mean, that was The what’s that? Nineties or 2000? Early 2000s, I think.
James [00:03:43]:
Oh, so you’re talking Internet was pretty infant.
Mike Kollath [00:03:46]:
Yeah. Pretty Yeah. Pretty infant. So it, so, yeah. Lessons learned.
James [00:03:51]:
Alright. And were you coding? Because the website No. The website was
Mike Kollath [00:03:55]:
our setup. We would upload pictures of the clothing
James [00:03:59]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:03:59]:
To the website.
James [00:04:01]:
Because you’re talking just for the kids at home that maybe don’t understand what dial up is.
Mike Kollath [00:04:04]:
Oh, sure. Yes.
James [00:04:05]:
56 k modems.
Mike Kollath [00:04:07]:
I mean,
James [00:04:07]:
if somebody went to a web page and it had 500 pictures on there
Mike Kollath [00:04:10]:
Yeah.
James [00:04:10]:
You’re gonna click and then go
Mike Kollath [00:04:12]:
I’m gonna wait for a while.
James [00:04:13]:
Make a sandwich and come back.
Mike Kollath [00:04:14]:
Yep. Yep. Exactly. But other than that, you know, the whole website was set up, so we didn’t have to worry about that stuff.
James [00:04:21]:
Alright. But So is the domain still out there? Someone’s got it?
Mike Kollath [00:04:24]:
I don’t know. I haven’t looked for
James [00:04:25]:
a while,
Mike Kollath [00:04:25]:
to be honest. It could be for
James [00:04:28]:
all I know. Funny.
Mike Kollath [00:04:29]:
But Alright.
James [00:04:30]:
So you shifted gears. You’re like, alright. Donate some clothes. What’s next step?
Mike Kollath [00:04:34]:
And I was fully employed at that time. I worked at a couple of CPA firms. Then I actually went to work for an insurance company, and my next foray into entrepreneurship was starting the CPA firm because I got fired.
James [00:04:47]:
Oh. You got fired from a CPA firm?
Mike Kollath [00:04:50]:
No. Laid off from the insurance company.
James [00:04:51]:
Oh. Oh.
Mike Kollath [00:04:52]:
They got bought out by another company in Birmingham, Alabama.
James [00:04:56]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:04:56]:
And I wasn’t moving to Birmingham, Alabama.
James [00:04:58]:
No. I don’t blame you.
Mike Kollath [00:04:59]:
So ended up had to figure out what what I was gonna do with my life Alright. At that point. So I actually had a job lined up, ready to go, and then my ex wife at the time said, well, why don’t you start a business? And I’m like, oh, I didn’t know this was you know, I told you before my daughter was like a year and a half
James [00:05:18]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:05:19]:
When that happened and my ex wife wasn’t working much at that point because home with the kid a lot. Yeah. So yeah, we ended up I ended up starting the CPA firm because I enjoyed working with clients and Mike doing tax accounting type Book. And so that was the start of Calls and Associates CPA.
James [00:05:39]:
Dang. So when you first started Colas, it was you or did you?
Mike Kollath [00:05:42]:
It was me, myself, and I. Alright. Working out of my house to start. No clients. Although luckily, my ex employer hired me on as a consultant. Oh. So The was a good start. And The, CUNA Mutual became a client shortly after that.
James [00:05:59]:
That helped launch, I imagine?
Mike Kollath [00:06:01]:
That helped launch, provided some cash flow. But I’ll never forget my first day, of, you know, owning the firm and getting things going. I watched the Food Network the entire day.
James [00:06:15]:
Is that phone ringing yet? And I’m like, this is probably not a good way to start a business. No. Not for a long
Mike Kollath [00:06:20]:
term. Yeah. Pounding the phones and networking with people and
James [00:06:24]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:06:24]:
That fun stuff. And I did have some work to do with the my ex employer too. How
James [00:06:29]:
long did it take to get going from Food Network watching to actual being what you would consider to be a legitimate money making business?
Mike Kollath [00:06:36]:
Yep. Call, I hired my first person within 3 months I’ve gotten a pretty big client.
James [00:06:43]:
Nice.
Mike Kollath [00:06:44]:
Yep. And then I hired a second person, I think it was within The year and then it was off to the races. Alright. You know, profitability Sure.
James [00:06:54]:
Yeah. Yeah. Cash flow.
Mike Kollath [00:06:55]:
Right? We definitely were were making money at that point.
James [00:06:58]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:06:59]:
And so within Book, what was it? 2 years? Year and a half? No. End of 2008 because I started in March of 2007. End of 2008, we ended up buying another company, another CPA firm.
James [00:07:13]:
Did they have a rough day with the whole 2008 crash? No. The helped or it was No. It didn’t. Not related?
Mike Kollath [00:07:19]:
It didn’t really seem to impact clients that much. Okay. No. The he was retiring.
James [00:07:23]:
Oh, well, that
Mike Kollath [00:07:23]:
makes sense. Sorry to The owner and his son and his wife were the 3 people in the firm.
James [00:07:28]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:07:29]:
So that doubled the size of the company at that point, Brought on The old, owner was retiring. Sad story. He passed away within a month of selling it. No. Yep. Hard tech, shoveling.
James [00:07:43]:
Wow. Yeah. It was Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:07:45]:
The was freaking me out.
James [00:07:46]:
So don’t sell your Business?
Mike Kollath [00:07:48]:
No. Yeah. Don’t sell your business apparently.
James [00:07:49]:
Or sell it when you’re young or don’t shovel. What did you learn? All 3. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:07:54]:
But yeah. Luckily, his son stayed on and all the clients stayed On.
James [00:07:59]:
So Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:08:00]:
Because you know, when you buy those, the clients, it’s a little scary when, you know, the main person, because he was On help during tech season for
James [00:08:09]:
Oh, no.
Mike Kollath [00:08:09]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he was So then
James [00:08:11]:
you got a rough conversation with all the clients that, you know, Mike, hey, funny story. Yeah. I’m your guy. What happened to the old guy?
Mike Kollath [00:08:19]:
Yep. Yeah. So The was interesting interesting way to go. But that got us we’re we grew to like 7 people, I think, at that point. That’s alright. So we’re starting to starting to move. I think those are the toughest times when you’re between 5 and like 15 people.
James [00:08:36]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:08:37]:
It’s just the growth and scaling is very hard.
James [00:08:40]:
That’s Yeah. Because you lose On person Yeah. And that’s a measurable percent Yep. Of your crew. And if you add people, that’s a measurable percent you have to come up with payroll.
Mike Kollath [00:08:50]:
Exactly.
James [00:08:51]:
Exactly. It’s hard to hire people at
Mike Kollath [00:08:53]:
that level.
James [00:08:54]:
So it’s I’m right there. So it’s
Mike Kollath [00:08:56]:
Yep.
James [00:08:56]:
A challenging Yep. Roller coaster,
Mike Kollath [00:08:59]:
I guess, time. That’s exactly right. So then we continue to grow organically. That’s actually around when outsourced accounting started to take off, as a as something that, firms were offering and clients were interested in. It wasn’t real popular before The, and this was Mike 2,000
James [00:09:18]:
10. So when you say outsourced accounting, you mean bigger companies?
Mike Kollath [00:09:21]:
Basically no. Generally Call companies. Okay. I’d say under 5,000,000 in revenue.
James [00:09:26]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:09:26]:
And basically, you outsource the bookkeeping to an accounting firm.
James [00:09:30]:
So would they norm what would they normally do? Have somebody on staff?
Mike Kollath [00:09:33]:
Some of them were doing outsourcing, but most people had some, someone on staff. Really? Yep. Okay. So basically, what we would do is we would look at what they’re doing, peel off The true administrative stuff, like answering phones, making deposits, you know, those kinds of things. And then we would just come in once a week, twice a week, depending on the size of the client, and do all their accounting.
James [00:09:55]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:09:56]:
Pay the bills and
James [00:09:57]:
And this is back when you said come On. You mean literally
Mike Kollath [00:10:00]:
Yeah.
James [00:10:01]:
Come in.
Mike Kollath [00:10:01]:
Physically going on-site. Most of our our clients were like that, prior to COVID. Alright. But yeah. So that part of the business took off, like crazy at that point. And those tend to be larger clients too
James [00:10:15]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:10:16]:
From a billing standpoint, you know, it’s the equivalent of Mike 10 or 15, 20 tax returns.
James [00:10:21]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:10:22]:
And so that actually ended up being before we sold it, it was probably 60 plus percent of our revenue.
James [00:10:29]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:10:29]:
And tax was maybe 25. And then we did a lot of payroll too.
James [00:10:33]:
Sure.
Mike Kollath [00:10:34]:
So, yeah. Over the time, we did, I think, one more acquisition in that time frame.
James [00:10:40]:
Oh, you bought another accounting firm. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:10:42]:
Yep. The bought another accounting firm. But then the rest was organic growth.
James [00:10:46]:
Wow.
Mike Kollath [00:10:47]:
The acquisition no. Sorry. 22 accounting firms.
James [00:10:49]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:10:50]:
Actually, now that I think about
James [00:10:51]:
3 other accounting firms. That’s that’s how you know you’re an entrepreneur. Right? You’re like, how many businesses? Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:10:58]:
2 of them demerged later, so that’s why I wasn’t Alright. In them being, you know No.
James [00:11:04]:
It’s funny. You remind me of this whole, what’s the thing where they want you to the FinCEN thing?
Mike Kollath [00:11:09]:
Oh, yeah.
James [00:11:10]:
And I had to think like, I don’t know what’s going on with it now, but
Mike Kollath [00:11:12]:
it’s been suspended again.
James [00:11:14]:
It’s one of those things where I’m like, how many LLCs? Like, I gotta look. I know. I really gotta look.
Mike Kollath [00:11:19]:
I’ve been postponing it. I haven’t done them yet.
James [00:11:22]:
It’s I mean, we don’t have to run down that road because I don’t know what’s gonna happen with it, but it’s one of those things where I’m just like, that’s On funny that I if somebody said, how many LLCs do you have? Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:11:31]:
I’d have to think about that too.
James [00:11:33]:
I’d have to be Mike, I gotta dig a little bit. 4?
Mike Kollath [00:11:37]:
Probably 4.
James [00:11:38]:
Yeah. I mean, so it’s
Mike Kollath [00:11:39]:
kind of
James [00:11:39]:
funny. How many businesses have you bought and sold? I don’t know. Some? It’s like, I guess, you can see how many candy bars they’ve had. Like, I don’t know, probably more than they should.
Mike Kollath [00:11:48]:
Yeah. It’s, but anyway, so we kept growing over time. We’re up to about 45 people and
James [00:11:56]:
45 employees?
Mike Kollath [00:11:57]:
Yeah. Holy cow. A little over 5,000,000 in revenue. Alright. At the Mike.
James [00:12:03]:
That’s cool. I imagine that’s cool.
Mike Kollath [00:12:05]:
Oh, it’s great. Or is
James [00:12:06]:
it a lot of headache?
Mike Kollath [00:12:07]:
No. It it So I didn’t have to do a lot of client Book. So I got to start shifting out of that and doing more of the admin and strategic stuff, for the firm. So that part of it was really nice. And we had an HR department, and we had so we had plenty of stuff that people that could take care of the Yeah. Or things that I didn’t like doing. Let’s make
James [00:12:31]:
it that way. Fair.
Mike Kollath [00:12:33]:
So yeah. And then brought on a partner, what, probably 10 years ago. We had 2 partners, in the firm. One’s in Sauk and then the other one was in Madison here. So had some support there too. It was nice to have other owners with The level On commitment or responsibility. But, yeah. So we you know, the handling Once we got past, like, I’d say, 25 people, that’s when they could really feel, like, we were able to do documentation around processes and all that fun stuff.
Mike Kollath [00:13:06]:
We were able to put together an internship program. Alright. Before that, you just don’t have the time with the number of people that we had. So we could have people dedicated to training the interns and have them come On, which really helped us with our tax season, staffing.
James [00:13:22]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:13:23]:
And now it’s actually the main source of new employees for for the firm.
James [00:13:27]:
Nice. So So you reached cruising altitude at around The 25 employees.
Mike Kollath [00:13:31]:
Yeah. 25 was right around there. I mean, I was still involved but, yeah, by the end, I was probably working 5 to 10 hours a week at most on clients The the rest of it was and I, you know, had to work 50, 60, 70 hours a week before that. Alright.
James [00:13:45]:
And then I got back to much inventory.
Mike Kollath [00:13:46]:
Yeah. That’s right.
James [00:13:48]:
We’re actually making money.
Mike Kollath [00:13:49]:
We got it down to a manageable, you know, 40 hours a week or so.
James [00:13:52]:
That’s cool. So Alright. Yeah. So then So then we sold it. Alright. You’re Mike, this is too comfortable. In January.
Mike Kollath [00:14:00]:
Well, The so they’re extenuating circumstances around it. Not extenuating, but, we started to look at, like, our long term succession planning.
James [00:14:09]:
Between you and the partners? Yep. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:14:11]:
Yep. And so we talked to our we had a management team, talked to the management team to see if anyone was interested in potentially taking over the firm. Mhmm. They weren’t. Oh, okay. So we didn’t it wasn’t an important thing to us, but we wanted to know our road map. So, you know, when I hit, like, 60 out, we were gonna start really thinking about how we’re gonna have a succession plan for the firm. But the so private equity started coming into the accounting world Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:14:42]:
Probably 4 years ago or so.
James [00:14:44]:
They’re hitting a lot of industries.
Mike Kollath [00:14:45]:
Call, it’s happening everywhere. Yeah. Even the bigs, like Baker Tilly Book on private equity money. And so, ironically, we started getting Calls, like, random, out of the blue. People Book to do roll ups, looking to buy just your firm to merge and blah blah blah. So started to fielding those calls once we knew the management team wasn’t interested. And, The be honest, it’s more that the price was right. And I felt like we had grown it to a spot where we were probably gonna have to invest Mike money into the firm and technology to really keep it growing.
James [00:15:20]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:15:22]:
And with a lot of the changes going on with AI and those kinds of things, I thought, you know what?
James [00:15:27]:
Mike get a little bit of a minefield going on.
Mike Kollath [00:15:29]:
Yeah. Well, On private equity, it has just raised prices.
James [00:15:33]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:15:33]:
So On general, the multiples were 0.8 to 1.2, and they went up probably 25 to 50%, depending on the size of the firm and all
James [00:15:43]:
that On
Mike Kollath [00:15:44]:
of stuff. And so from a timing standpoint, I’m not sure we could have made it any better.
James [00:15:49]:
No. That’s fair. That’s fair. When they start throwing carrots like that in front
Mike Kollath [00:15:51]:
of you,
James [00:15:52]:
you’re like
Mike Kollath [00:15:52]:
Yep. What are you gonna do? Yeah. So it’s been great. We had a couple moved here from California, bought the firm, and they’re running it now.
James [00:16:00]:
That is cool. Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:16:01]:
So yeah. And then you want me to just keep going?
James [00:16:05]:
Keep going, man. So The entrepreneurial story here.
Mike Kollath [00:16:08]:
A lot of these things. So BananaVoIP was the next company that we started during the the, CPA firm years. The for CPA firm years. Yeah. So my my, bill for my VoIP services was a lot per month. And I went to my IT firm, and I’m like, how much would it cost to just do it ourselves?
James [00:16:29]:
Yeah. Right.
Mike Kollath [00:16:30]:
So we said, sure. The server wouldn’t cost that much. And, you know, they could do all the plumbing of the, you know, the software and all that fun stuff. So we partnered up with The, 5050 owners with our Javis Industries is the name of the company that we partnered with. And so, of course, over a beer or 2, we came up with the name Banana VoIP. Nice. And, we went we went from there.
James [00:16:54]:
That is awesome.
Mike Kollath [00:16:55]:
Yeah. So the VoIP company, that hasn’t grown as much, but it’s
James [00:17:00]:
a Is there a Salesforce or is it kind of just it’s there and it’s just a little added to it?
Mike Kollath [00:17:05]:
With the clients. Okay. You know, between they work with a lot of small businesses and Mhmm. We work with a lot of small Business. So that’s Yeah. That’s mainly how we get them.
James [00:17:13]:
No. I get it. Because with calls on call, initially, the first 6, 7 years, it was just it was there. My business partner has her other thing. I had my other thing. And between our clients, if we’re just Mike, hey. You need someone The answer your phones. We got this business.
James [00:17:30]:
Yay or nay, whatever, and move on with your life. And it’s just kinda there Yeah. Until we started dedicating time to
Mike Kollath [00:17:38]:
it. Yep. No. That’s very true. I think if we would dedicate more time to selling BananaVoIP, I think we could we could do a pretty good job with it because from a pricing standpoint, it’s pretty reasonable. Yeah. We have the local presence so the IT firm can go out to The the spot and
James [00:17:54]:
Mhmm.
Mike Kollath [00:17:55]:
Make sure that the VoIP is gonna Book, the voice over internet protocol will work there with their internet connection and all that that stuff. So it’s nice having them around, to take care of the technical side of it. Yeah. Yeah. And then I don’t have to worry about it.
James [00:18:09]:
So somebody else’s problem.
Mike Kollath [00:18:10]:
Exactly. Exactly.
James [00:18:12]:
And then sustainable HR?
Mike Kollath [00:18:14]:
So well, there’s another one in there.
James [00:18:16]:
Oh, there’s another The?
Mike Kollath [00:18:16]:
Yes. It was called Megalodon Insurance Systems.
James [00:18:20]:
Oh, I didn’t even know about that one.
Mike Kollath [00:18:22]:
Extinct shark. The the company is also extinct.
James [00:18:27]:
Alright. Well, it’s a thing.
Mike Kollath [00:18:28]:
You know, we shouldn’t have named it that. Alright. Probably was the name problem.
James [00:18:31]:
Because no one could spell it?
Mike Kollath [00:18:33]:
Yes. Yes. They’re Mike, Megalodon? Yeah. So that was, we actually raised money for that one.
James [00:18:39]:
Really?
Mike Kollath [00:18:40]:
Yeah. Just a small private placement.
James [00:18:42]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:18:42]:
But we raised around $400,000 for that On. And obviously, we put in our money too from the CPA firm. And we had our cofounder for it. So, basically, what Megalodon Megalodon did was underwriting and claim system for insurance companies, property and casualty insurance companies.
James [00:19:00]:
I don’t even know how you break into that industry.
Mike Kollath [00:19:02]:
Well, I had been in the insurance industry. Actually, the cofounder was the CEO of Physicians Insurance Company Wisconsin. Gotcha. Okay.
James [00:19:10]:
So you had a foot in the door somewhere.
Mike Kollath [00:19:12]:
Yeah. And with the CPA firm, I did a lot of work with insurance companies.
James [00:19:16]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:19:17]:
So we decided The there’s a real there’s not a good market or a good product out there for small insurance companies, and that was our thesis.
James [00:19:26]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:19:26]:
What we didn’t realize is how hard it is to get insurance companies to change. Oh. And how slow they move.
James [00:19:34]:
Very, very, I imagine.
Mike Kollath [00:19:35]:
Very slow. Yes. And so The, unfortunately, struggled struggled, never were able to get a client.
James [00:19:42]:
Never even?
Mike Kollath [00:19:42]:
Never On.
James [00:19:43]:
No. Get off the ground?
Mike Kollath [00:19:44]:
No. So we never we lasted about 2 years, I think. We were
James [00:19:50]:
really close. Without a client? Uh-huh. Wow.
Mike Kollath [00:19:53]:
The Calls cycle is very long. Alright. Very, very long.
James [00:19:56]:
Mike, we got irons in the fire, man.
Mike Kollath [00:19:58]:
So yeah. That one was a failure. I learned a lot from it. I learned I never wanna raise money again. Alright. That’s not fun. I don’t like it.
James [00:20:05]:
Because I imagine you get phone calls every month saying, hey.
Mike Kollath [00:20:08]:
No. I mean, most of them were friends and family.
James [00:20:10]:
So Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:20:11]:
We didn’t have that kind of issue. And not Call the people that did we knew that it wasn’t their life savings that they were giving us. So it wasn’t as that big of a deal.
James [00:20:20]:
Didn’t make Thanksgiving dinner change?
Mike Kollath [00:20:21]:
No. No. No. Okay. No. But, yeah, it was an interesting an interesting thing. And as I said, I I don’t envy founders who have to go out and raise money. It’s not, that’s not fun.
James [00:20:32]:
So tell me about pulling the plug on that. Who is the one that’s Mike, hey
Mike Kollath [00:20:36]:
We ran out of money.
James [00:20:37]:
Oh, like literally. Yes. Bank is empty.
Mike Kollath [00:20:40]:
Yeah. We we had, spent as much as we wanted The, and we had spent the money from the the investors
James [00:20:48]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:20:48]:
And just shut it down. So they got a nice capital loss
James [00:20:51]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:20:51]:
For that year, and we, washed our hands and went. So
James [00:20:56]:
Just imagine that email.
Mike Kollath [00:20:57]:
Yes.
James [00:20:58]:
Good tidings.
Mike Kollath [00:20:59]:
Yes.
James [00:21:00]:
Lucky for you.
Mike Kollath [00:21:01]:
You you get a write off.
James [00:21:03]:
Yeah. Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:21:04]:
So that was the next one.
James [00:21:06]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:21:07]:
Then we started sustainable HR at the time. Okay. Mainly because I didn’t wanna do HR for the firm. And so I’m like, well, what if I could hire someone and have them work with our clients too? Yeah. And fortunately, it did work fairly well. The clients, did like the service and I didn’t have to do as much The. And so The was kind of the genesis of sustainable HR PEO.
James [00:21:33]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:21:35]:
Which basically we started 2 or 5 years ago. Yeah. 5 years ago now. Really didn’t get it going until about a year and a half, 2 years ago.
James [00:21:45]:
Oh, wow. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:21:47]:
Because we On to take it slow.
James [00:21:48]:
Mhmm. I
Mike Kollath [00:21:49]:
On make sure we had systems in place, and and we’re able to service clients. And quite frankly, I knew what a PEO was, but I didn’t know a lot about the business. But it’s a
James [00:21:59]:
PEO stands for
Mike Kollath [00:22:00]:
Professional Employer Organization.
James [00:22:02]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:22:02]:
So basically, what we do is, we will employ the people at the the company. So let’s say you have company x. Yeah. We we would do the w twos, the payroll. They would be on our benefits, but they would maintain the management aspect of working with the their, their employees.
James [00:22:24]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:22:24]:
And we provide some light HR with it, handbooks, and onboarding, off boarding, and then we do benefits too.
James [00:22:31]:
So the main goal was to get those employees that maybe in a smaller company Yeah. The benefits. So it’s tough insurance. Health
Mike Kollath [00:22:38]:
insurance when you only have, like, 1 or 2 people
James [00:22:40]:
Very tough.
Mike Kollath [00:22:41]:
That want to be on the health insurance. So we have we’ll be close to, like, 900 employees that work
James [00:22:50]:
for
Mike Kollath [00:22:50]:
us, essentially. And basically, we charge a per month fee for each employee, whether they’re in different pricing for if they’re full time or part Mike, and that’s the professional employer organization aspect of it or PEO. We also do administrative services only, which oh, oh, let me say this. On the PEO side, you also get the HR tech. So the paperless onboarding, paperless onboarding. Alright. Employees get to sign up for their benefits online. We do the payroll and all that fun stuff, take care of all the state and and federal filings.
Mike Kollath [00:23:25]:
On have the unemployment rate, for us. So if you have a higher unemployment rate, you can save money on unemployment.
James [00:23:31]:
Oh, interesting. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:23:33]:
Sure. Workers’ comp, you know, obviously, you have to have that, to employ people in Wisconsin.
James [00:23:39]:
Mhmm.
Mike Kollath [00:23:40]:
So we work with a broker to get the the workers’ comp insurance, and we have some, some other liability insurance in case an employee sues, that kind of stuff. And then we do administrative services only or ASO, which is where the company would get access to our technology and some support with the technology for from us. And then we also, do the payroll and all the state and federal filings for them, but and but they’re not on our benefits.
James [00:24:09]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:24:09]:
They can administer their benefits with the online, portal that we have, but they would not be on our benefits. Got it. Alright. And then we just do HR consulting.
James [00:24:18]:
Is this nationwide, or is it specifically Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:24:21]:
We’re in, like, I think close to 30 states now
James [00:24:25]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:24:25]:
With various employees.
James [00:24:27]:
I asked because we were using The PEO for a long while, and then COVID happened. Mhmm. And then we hired an employee out of California.
Mike Kollath [00:24:36]:
Oh, god.
James [00:24:37]:
And then our PEO said, nope. Mhmm. Funny story. No California. Yep. And me being just a guy that thinks we’re in a country that’s, like, happens to have states with there’s no borders on those states. Right? You just drive wherever. I can fly to California no problem.
James [00:24:55]:
And I’m like, what do you mean we can’t hire in California? And they’re like, no. No. No. You don’t get it. California is a whole another country as far as Oh, yeah. HR is concerned.
Mike Kollath [00:25:03]:
It’s very friendly to employees in California. We do have several employees in California with the PEO. We used to have an employee with the CPA for him in California too.
James [00:25:13]:
Yeah. So I felt so bad because I had to call that On back and be Mike, hey, funny story. I’m told that we can’t hire you. And she’s like, yeah. And, like, are you okay? And she’s like, you’re like the 10th person to tell me.
Mike Kollath [00:25:26]:
Really? Yeah. That’s funny.
James [00:25:28]:
So the work from home thing in California, I don’t know if that’s only for industries in California or I don’t know.
Mike Kollath [00:25:35]:
Yeah.
James [00:25:35]:
Maybe people just use a Wyoming mailbox or something. I don’t Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:25:39]:
I don’t know. It’s
James [00:25:40]:
But whatever it is.
Mike Kollath [00:25:41]:
I mean, California hasn’t been bad as far as we’ve been concerned, but we haven’t had many employee problems. True employee problems with California employees.
James [00:25:49]:
Gotcha. So Well, I’m sure she was nice as a person. Yeah. I was just told by the PEO company, we don’t even service California.
Mike Kollath [00:25:56]:
Some don’t wanna mess around with it. We do because we want our clients to be happier.
James [00:26:00]:
Alright. Well, yeah. My PEO company didn’t
Mike Kollath [00:26:02]:
Once you have once you have On employee in California, you might as well have a couple
James [00:26:06]:
of So maybe that was the thing. Right? Because we were 1 I didn’t know if she was gonna be part time or full time. Mike, that was a long time ago. Yep. Whatever. Yep. It’s one of those who are just like, nope. I think they gave me a list.
James [00:26:18]:
I wanna say 9 or 12 states where they just
Mike Kollath [00:26:20]:
9 or 12,
James [00:26:21]:
It was definitely 1 to 1, and it made me kind of laugh, like laugh, cry, because I’m like, you know when a good time would have been to give me that list?
Mike Kollath [00:26:32]:
Before he started?
James [00:26:33]:
Before he started looking all over the country for employees. It’s Mike, maybe give me a little bit of a heads up.
Mike Kollath [00:26:39]:
Yeah.
James [00:26:40]:
But whatever.
Mike Kollath [00:26:41]:
No. That makes sense. That makes sense.
James [00:26:43]:
Details. Details.
Mike Kollath [00:26:44]:
Yeah. Right. We we would do business, I think, in pretty much every state.
James [00:26:47]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:26:48]:
There’s no there’s no no no’s. I know there are some states though, where PEOs either aren’t allowed to be there Oh, okay. Or they can only do certain things in those states.
James [00:26:57]:
Okay. I’m learning Ohio is a pain. Pennsylvania’s a pain.
Mike Kollath [00:27:02]:
Oh, yeah.
James [00:27:02]:
Because you got these little
Mike Kollath [00:27:03]:
New York.
James [00:27:05]:
New York. Okay. Yeah. We have had employees in New York. Yep. Yeah. I didn’t know about, I don’t know if they call them parishes, but individual parishes Mike a county.
Mike Kollath [00:27:14]:
That’s Louisiana.
James [00:27:16]:
Has their tax.
Mike Kollath [00:27:17]:
Oh, yeah.
James [00:27:18]:
And to get to figure out whatever you’re supposed to pay and where you’re supposed to pay, it must be just some guy in some backwards shack that’s open every 2nd Tuesday On the full moon or something like that. So,
Mike Kollath [00:27:28]:
like The we have 2 of those people.
James [00:27:30]:
We just want the number, man, and then the address for where we’re supposed to send this report, and just getting that information.
Mike Kollath [00:27:36]:
Oh, sure.
James [00:27:36]:
Yep. Oh, my gosh.
Mike Kollath [00:27:38]:
Yep. Yeah. Because, like, how
James [00:27:40]:
you’re making it very difficult to pay you. Mhmm. Very difficult. Yeah. But Yeah. Yay.
Mike Kollath [00:27:45]:
It’s it’s a pain in the The. Right. I used to say. The old the old CPA firm did more than 400 payrolls. So
James [00:27:52]:
Wow. Okay. So you had a little bit of experience under your belt?
Mike Kollath [00:27:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. From a payroll standpoint, we were pretty comfortable with it.
James [00:27:58]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:27:58]:
So yeah. So that that company, we so when we started growing significantly, we brought on a a new guy, a president, Jason Wilbourne. And he’s he was with, On another, PEO here in town. Gotcha. So he knew the industry very Call. And that’s when we really started to take off.
James [00:28:18]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:28:19]:
So we’re up The I think we have 7 employees.
James [00:28:22]:
Nice.
Mike Kollath [00:28:22]:
On of which lives in Georgia. Alright. Well So, so that’s been growing and we’ve been investing in that business to because we we wanna we wanna make it a good sized company and hopefully be bigger than the CPA firm was Nice. At some point. So Yeah.
James [00:28:38]:
So our private equity company is chasing after Oh, yeah. Company? Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:28:42]:
That’s what happened to the On in the other one here in town.
James [00:28:45]:
Oh, got it. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:28:46]:
The the QTI one was acquired by private equity, and then it was bought by another private equity.
James [00:28:51]:
Interesting. So what is, I don’t understand that world. Yes. I mean, in the end, their money’s green, so they On buy your business and rock and Call. Away you go. But why? Why are they Yep. So prevalent?
Mike Kollath [00:29:03]:
So there’s a couple of things going on from what I understand. Number 1, there’s just a lot of money. Okay. So private equity has grown significantly in the past 5, 10 years, and a lot of money is going into it. You know, once the baby boomers start retiring, maybe that’ll or significantly retiring, maybe that’ll slow down. But there’s just a lot of money. And number 2, they like recurring revenue.
James [00:29:27]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:29:28]:
And so, that’s why they like accounting firms right now.
James [00:29:31]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:29:32]:
And so, that’s I think The primary driver. You look at The they’re buying payroll companies. They’re buying PEOs. They’re buying, you know, all kind insurance agencies are are really on the radar right now. Investment managers are on the
James [00:29:49]:
Oh, really?
Mike Kollath [00:29:50]:
Yeah. Okay. Yep. They’re buying up those 2. Veterinarians are very popular right now.
James [00:29:54]:
On learning or have learned that because we get we’re doing phone answering for a lot of veterinary clinics. Yep. And when you’re cold calling, you have to find the ones that are not owned
Mike Kollath [00:30:03]:
Yep.
James [00:30:03]:
By some big huge corporation thing, because then the decision timeline is Oh, yeah. Just way too long Forever. For me to do it. Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:30:12]:
Yeah. We we worked on probably 3 different sales of The, of The. So Wow. Over the past, probably 4 years.
James [00:30:21]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:30:22]:
So, yeah. It’s very popular right now. And it’s just because they got so much money.
James [00:30:28]:
So who Mike, when you say private equity, it’s just people with Call?
Mike Kollath [00:30:33]:
Yeah. So
James [00:30:34]:
They don’t On to invest in stocks or real estate or something like that?
Mike Kollath [00:30:37]:
Correct.
James [00:30:38]:
Correct.
Mike Kollath [00:30:38]:
So
James [00:30:38]:
What’s the attraction to random small Business? Small businesses?
Mike Kollath [00:30:42]:
They think they can get a better return than
James [00:30:44]:
Okay. In the
Mike Kollath [00:30:45]:
stock market.
James [00:30:45]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:30:46]:
That’s the the premise. So some of The, it depends. Right? There’s the huge ones, there’s smaller ones, like The one the people that bought us had what they call a search fund
James [00:30:55]:
Okay. Where
Mike Kollath [00:30:56]:
they raise money from investors. They go out and look for a company, and that’s, you know, I wouldn’t call it private equity, but, you know, it was more friends and family type money from what I understand.
James [00:31:06]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:31:07]:
But then you have the larger, more formalized ones, where they’re looking, you know, they won’t look at anything under 10 or $20,000,000 in revenue.
James [00:31:15]:
Got it. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:31:16]:
And those, when they so some of them do what The Call roll ups. Right? So Mike with the vets, they’re trying to roll them up. They’re gonna try and drive more revenue through them. They’re gonna cut expenses because they shouldn’t need, you know, HR. They shouldn’t need, you know, an accountant. Right? They should have Book end. So consolidating systems and those kinds of things. Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:31:37]:
So when you get into the bigger ones, that’s what they’re doing. And so, you see The. So it’s really all over the board. I mean, there’s smaller ones. There’s a couple in Madison Okay. That are smaller ones. One’s looking at primarily manufacturing type companies.
James [00:31:52]:
Oh, interesting. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:31:54]:
You know, others do, you know well, I guess there’s really I don’t know how many there are, Mattis. I’m sure there’s more than just that. But, yeah. They’re they’re looking for something real particular.
James [00:32:05]:
Okay. I mentioned they’re under the radar a little bit because they don’t Yeah. Necessarily On be Yep. Known or seen.
Mike Kollath [00:32:11]:
Yep. But, yeah, I I started getting Calls, not just for the firm, but for my clients.
James [00:32:17]:
Wow.
Mike Kollath [00:32:17]:
They wanted yeah. They wanted, yeah, do you have any clients for sale?
James [00:32:20]:
And
Mike Kollath [00:32:20]:
they’re always looking for something particulars, you know, from a size standpoint and industry standpoint.
James [00:32:26]:
Interesting.
Mike Kollath [00:32:26]:
So yeah.
James [00:32:27]:
So your clients in x y z industry Yeah. Wanna acquire to grow their Business?
Mike Kollath [00:32:32]:
Yeah. Or well, they wanna buy my clients. Oh. So that’s why they’re calling me because they know either attorneys or lawyers usually are the hub
James [00:32:40]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:32:41]:
For that kind of stuff. So what what they were looking for is any other clients that are looking to sell.
James [00:32:45]:
Interesting.
Mike Kollath [00:32:46]:
So yeah. It’s it’s been a fascinating ride from that standpoint, understanding, like, The how big the impact of private equity has been on a lot of different industries.
James [00:32:56]:
We got I can remember during the pandemic, like, 20 to 22 Mhmm. We were getting letters, phone calls, or emails with people kicking tires Yep. About buying the call answering service. Yep. I On say for a little while, it was at least 1 every 2 weeks. Yeah. And I was thinking, like, what in the world is going on here? And now that is I wouldn’t say The dried up, but it’s definitely less.
Mike Kollath [00:33:23]:
Yes.
James [00:33:23]:
Which whatever. I mean, I chatted with a few of them and it was kinda Mike, I still feel like there’s more milk out of this cow. So I’m gonna keep
Mike Kollath [00:33:33]:
Yeah. We were I mean, we went through we talked to probably 5 or 6 different parties. Okay. During the process.
James [00:33:39]:
Wow.
Mike Kollath [00:33:41]:
And they all had different models.
James [00:33:43]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:33:44]:
So some were other accounting firms that wanted to buy, they’re looking to acquire. Another one had a interesting model where they just buy the firm and let you run
James [00:33:56]:
it. Oh, interesting. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:33:57]:
And So
James [00:33:58]:
then you’re an employee? Mhmm. Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:34:00]:
Yeah. So that’s an interest that was an interesting one. So, yeah, there’s a lot of different ways. Yeah. And that you can sell or merge if you want to.
James [00:34:12]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:34:12]:
And so, that ended up, we ended up with these guys because it was a family and we liked it. We just Mike that part of it better. Yeah.
James [00:34:20]:
If it worked out, it’s all good. Yeah. Tell me about the other the tax strategy thing that you have going on now.
Mike Kollath [00:34:26]:
Palladium Tax Advisors, CPA. Alright. Just started it recently. We’re doing a recurring revenue model, shall we call it?
James [00:34:36]:
Nice. Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:34:37]:
More of a subscription model. Sure. So one of the things I saw with clients and other CPA firms is they just can’t take the time to sit down with their clients and actually do tax planning. Ask them about their long term goals and understanding, you know, from that standpoint, what can we do to save you Calls.
James [00:34:56]:
Mhmm.
Mike Kollath [00:34:57]:
And so, we are doing the monthly meet or quarterly meetings in general with each individual client, doing tax planning at least once a year, especially for the business owners, looking for opportunities, in that area. Already saved $15,000 Nice.
James [00:35:15]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:35:15]:
In taxes. So that’s kind of the goal. We just wanna be much more hands on
James [00:35:21]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:35:21]:
With people. And so far, we’ve had pretty Book, pretty good response to it, working primarily with investment advisers and their clients. Our minimum is about a $100 a month.
James [00:35:36]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:35:36]:
And so depending on complexity, you know Sure. Could could go up to 500,000, 2,000 a month depending on how many businesses there are and
James [00:35:44]:
Right.
Mike Kollath [00:35:45]:
How complex things are. But, yeah. One of the things that the old firm and all the potential clients that I had talked to is The was their main complaint is that their CPA never has time for them.
James [00:35:56]:
Huge. Huge. Yeah. That was a huge or that was a huge complaint that I had. Yeah. And I didn’t I didn’t know that tax strategy, tax planning was different than doing my taxes.
Mike Kollath [00:36:09]:
Yep.
James [00:36:10]:
I assumed that was all the same ball of wax. Yep. And so I assumed that that was
Mike Kollath [00:36:16]:
happening. Yep.
James [00:36:16]:
And I was very wrong. Very, very wrong.
Mike Kollath [00:36:20]:
Yep. And
James [00:36:20]:
then after talking to other business owners, they’re like, yeah. The thing. Yep. So they just don’t know where to go to say, like, hey, we have, I don’t know, millions of pages of tax code. Yeah. My tax guy fills in my numbers in his little program. Maybe he’s using whatever turbo tax or something like that. Spitting out what I owe and
Mike Kollath [00:36:45]:
There you go.
James [00:36:46]:
End of transaction.
Mike Kollath [00:36:48]:
Well, that’s the reality. Right? Because they don’t charge enough in order to be able to spend the time with the client.
James [00:36:57]:
The didn’t sell it. Right? They didn’t sell it. A lot
Mike Kollath [00:36:58]:
of people don’t even bother doing it. Right? They appear I call them churn and burn chops, where they’re just cranking out as many 10 forties and
James [00:37:07]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:37:07]:
And business returns as they can. But that’s the problem. Right? If you have all these returns you gotta get done, you don’t have time to do the other stuff that’s Right. Actually valuable to the client. Right. Quite frankly, compliance, while it’s necessary, isn’t where you actually can help someone
James [00:37:25]:
Uh-huh.
Mike Kollath [00:37:25]:
Save money.
James [00:37:26]:
Right. Right. Right.
Mike Kollath [00:37:27]:
And so that’s why the tax planning aspect of it, you know, I have software that does it. And then it’s tweaking it and doing different scenarios and and looking at the overall situation that the client has.
James [00:37:39]:
Nice.
Mike Kollath [00:37:39]:
So Yeah. It’s, it’s exciting to to be at the startup phase. And you know, the reality is I started the old firm in 2007. It gets to a size where you can’t control things. You can’t make big changes because it’s just hard, Especially when you’re working with accounts. The don’t like change. And so being able to build this from the ground up is pretty pretty exciting for me.
James [00:38:04]:
It’s the the honeymoon phase of entrepreneurship. Right?
Mike Kollath [00:38:07]:
That’s exactly right.
James [00:38:09]:
I always joke it’s like a relationship The you can have more than On relationship, and the first relationship doesn’t get pissed, and you’re gonna leave a relationship that’s not working without a whole lot of court fiasco.
Mike Kollath [00:38:21]:
Yep.
James [00:38:21]:
And you can go through the honeymoon phase again. It’s kind of fun.
Mike Kollath [00:38:25]:
It is. The start up phase
James [00:38:26]:
is the fun
Mike Kollath [00:38:27]:
part. The start up phase is the fun part.
James [00:38:29]:
Yeah.
Mike Kollath [00:38:29]:
When you have to do real work The
James [00:38:31]:
Right. We On go away from just watching the Free Network and do
Mike Kollath [00:38:35]:
That’s right. To actually do to actually do work.
James [00:38:37]:
Oh, that’s awesome. So Mike, where can people find you?
Mike Kollath [00:38:40]:
They can find me at mkollath@palladiumpalladiumcpa.com.
James [00:38:48]:
Nice.
Mike Kollath [00:38:49]:
And that name is actually made by my wife.
James [00:38:52]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:38:53]:
Because I was trying to think of what what to what to name the The. And I woke up the next morning, she’d sent me an email and said, Palladium Super Playdium. Right. I’m like, What is Palladium? It’s very expensive. Let me tell you that.
James [00:39:08]:
Alright.
Mike Kollath [00:39:08]:
It’s a rare metal.
James [00:39:10]:
Okay.
Mike Kollath [00:39:10]:
At, is used in a lot of different stuff. I didn’t realize that all the different applications from computer stuff to just whatever. It’s in a lot of lot of different products. So
James [00:39:21]:
Alright. It’s a
Mike Kollath [00:39:21]:
but it’s very expensive. My original thought was I was gonna buy every employee some Palladium until I saw what the prices were.
James [00:39:28]:
The is tin foil. It’s close enough.
Mike Kollath [00:39:29]:
That’s right. That’s right. So and they don’t had it, it’s pulling. They don’t sell it at Costco for some reason.
James [00:39:36]:
No. The just can’t get a pallet.
Mike Kollath [00:39:37]:
That’s right. That’s right. Awesome.
James [00:39:39]:
Well, Mike, thank you so much for being on the show.
Mike Kollath [00:39:41]:
Thank you, sir.
James [00:39:42]:
This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link at DrawInCustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the The Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’d like to, it would make a big deal. It’d be helpful. Give it a big BOLD thumbs up, subscribe, and, of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends, especially those friends that perhaps have some tax challenges
Mike Kollath [00:40:10]:
That’s right.
James [00:40:11]:
Some HR challenges, some voice over IP challenges Mhmm. Or just like the stories of all those entrepreneurs that start many businesses just for the love of the game. I think that’s safe to say. Right?
Mike Kollath [00:40:24]:
That is right.
James [00:40:25]:
Past episodes can be fun morning, noon, and night at the podcast link, fun at drawincustomers.com. I already said that, but I’ll say it again. It’s that important. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.