How to Save on Business Taxes

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Victoria Thayer – Novii CPA

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Consider short and long term marketing strategies.
07:16 Contemplating business success and personal fulfillment.
15:17 Close working relationship, delegation, and operational improvement.
16:05 Initial investment in hiring to create value.
23:15 Dealing with challenges, support is beneficial.
31:02 Improving communication and prioritizing thoughts through organization.
35:07 Improving accountability, efficiency and mindset for success.
40:27 Parenting spurs personal growth and learning.
45:22 Financial modeling helps project future costs, revenue.
48:49 Plan ahead to avoid tax bill surprises.
55:52 Consulted accountant about different tax methods, changed approach.
58:57 Plan ahead for business growth, update strategies.

Podcast Transcription:

Victoria Thayer [00:00:00]:
And now when I have an urge to message someone that is just scattered, it’s nothing very urgent, I either message myself or I email myself all my random thoughts, and then at the end of the day, I create a concise email, like, okay, these are all the marketing things or sales things that I thought of. Here it is what the idea is, the reason why, and despite the deadline, or how important it is so that they have. Because otherwise they were like, I don’t know what this even mean.

James Kademan [00:00:34]:
And today we’re welcoming, preparing to learn from Victoria Thayer of Novi CPA. And, Victoria, it’s been a year.

Victoria Thayer [00:00:42]:
It’s been a year. Yes.

James Kademan [00:00:44]:
I was just gloating for you with a friend today that I met with them, and I said, I’m meeting with Victoria again today, and I’m super excited. Cause she’s a CPA. It’s been in business a year, and she actually has employees. Most cpas that I know, it takes them decades, and some of them just stay themselves or maybe their kid joins out or something like that. So I’m excited to talk about growth with you today.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:10]:
Yes, no, I’m excited, too. Thank you so much for having me here again. It’s a pleasure. Like you say, has been like a year. It’s incredible. Seems like not that long ago.

James Kademan [00:01:20]:
No, it goes fast.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:22]:
We were having too much fun. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:24]:
So tell me, how many employers are you up to now?

Victoria Thayer [00:01:27]:
We are up to eight. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:28]:
Eight.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:29]:
And are they all including me? Yes.

James Kademan [00:01:31]:
Okay. They’re all accountants.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:33]:
We have two kind of, like, more on our admin team. They are in church of marketing. Like the sales funnel, all of that fun stuff.

James Kademan [00:01:42]:
So. Man, this just gets cooler. Because you’re a CPA firm that actually has people in marketing.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:46]:
Yes. Yeah, I know. Yes. Which is so interesting, me, because if you look at socials or SEOs for CPA firms, it’s not usually where they tend to invest money on.

James Kademan [00:01:57]:
Not even a little bit.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:59]:
So that has really allowed us to tap into that kind of market of the new leaders and new businesses are looking for cpas, not only in a newspaper or things like that. Now they’re looking at LinkedIn, who are my connections, who is coming up as a relevant person in the industry. LinkedIn has been wonderful for us. And again, we put a lot of blogs. We have a newsletter, actually. I think we actually reached to 800 subscribers recently. Or a newsletter from a CPA firm that. Come on.

James Kademan [00:02:32]:
Yeah. No one’s jumping at that. Yes. Tell me more about numbers and taxes.

Victoria Thayer [00:02:36]:
Right. So, yeah, no, it has been incredible. I mean, I cannot take ownership on the success or marketing team. Like, Shayla and Haley have been wonderful. They have incredible ideas. Shayla actually is getting her masters now in UX design. So that’s like user interface design. So all of what she does with our website or client portal, the whole experience that we try to kind of, like, come up for the customer is really.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:05]:
Well, throughout. Like, we try to really make sure that their experience, from the moment that they sign an engagement letter, is like, hey, this is your welcome package. This is like, little tutorials on how to use your client portal, trying to make it as easy as possible. Because, come on. Like, numbers are already kind of frustrating. No one wants to do taxes, so if we can make the process easier, then why not? And that really has helped us quite a bit.

James Kademan [00:03:28]:
That’s incredible.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:29]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:03:30]:
You know, it’s funny, because the same person, I was gloating about you, too. I said, you got this. Was actually a social media person that I was hiring for social media for my businesses, because I don’t. It’s one of those things, like, I should. I should do that. I’m not gonna. It’s just not gonna happen.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:45]:
It always gets back on the burner.

James Kademan [00:03:47]:
I’ve been shitting for years, right? So it’s time to hire a professional, get it done. And I was talking to her, I’m like, you gotta look at what Victoria’s doing with NoVCPa on LinkedIn. Cause I need that. Cause when I go on LinkedIn, even if I’m on there for 10 seconds, like, somebody messaged me. So you gotta go on the platform, and you’re like, hey, scroll, scroll. There’s Victoria. There’s nobody. And it’s bizarre.

James Kademan [00:04:12]:
I’m like, every time. Every time there’s probably, I don’t know, two or three people that I’m connected to where I’m almost guaranteed to see their stuff. And I thought for a moment, huh? Why don’t I see other people’s stuff? And you just pick a random person. It’s like, oh, because they haven’t posted in months.

Victoria Thayer [00:04:30]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:04:31]:
Which I’m guilty of that as well.

Victoria Thayer [00:04:32]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:04:33]:
Cause it’s not priority.

Victoria Thayer [00:04:34]:
Right? Exactly. Like, it falls off in the priority list pretty quickly. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:04:38]:
That’s the name of the game of the marketing is to be top of mind, right?

Victoria Thayer [00:04:41]:
Yes. And the other thing, too, is, like, whenever we think about marketing, too, we think about short term and long term. So, like, our sales funnel, like, you know, like, for a CPA firm, it’s not as fast for us, because we just don’t do only taxes. So whenever, like, tax time comes, like, there’s people that only want the taxes, we don’t do that. We do the whole kind of like, financial statement forecasting. So those type of clients usually have different decision makers. They are usually taking a longer time to make a decision, to switch. So for us, sometimes we’re playing kind of like the long game.

Victoria Thayer [00:05:16]:
So we’re trying to add value, stay relevant, and stay in front of all these different people. So sometimes it’s like, yes, I mean, we do have a pretty good sales funnel, but we’re always thinking about, like, hey, we don’t want to only invest for, like, short term, but also long term, like, and we only not think that way for, like, customers, but also for future team members. So we just started like, an internship program. And we are like, making sure, like, right now we have an incredible intern. Her name is Megan and she’s amazing. She’s studying, like, accounting at UW. She’s going to become a junior. So what we’re trying to do is also create a name, a brand name, and making sure that we also keep that pipeline for future hires.

Victoria Thayer [00:06:00]:
Because as a new business owner, it’s sometimes hard to, hey, you may have a wonderful product and an amazing service, but if no one knows about it besides your really inner circle, like your friends and close people, then it is harder to let others know. So that’s why we’re trying to do the marketing for short term and long term, as well as, like, recruiting as well, like, making sure, like, hey, like, Novi CPA is actually a brand we’re only having here, like, I don’t know, a year and two months. But we provide all these services, all this value we have been able to, like, gather now testimonials from our current clients.

James Kademan [00:06:37]:
Awesome.

Victoria Thayer [00:06:37]:
And that has been amazing because that’s like the pinnacle, right, of like, okay, we’re adding value. People are happy. We have gotten a lot of referrals. So, yeah, that has been just wonderful. Yeah, we’re very, very excited.

James Kademan [00:06:50]:
It’s cool. You get the social proof.

Victoria Thayer [00:06:52]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:06:53]:
It’s so interesting talking with you because your CPA, that’s actually got your head wrapped around the numbers and the business. Yeah, most cpas, maybe it’s just a circle I’m talking to, but they don’t, they don’t, they don’t market, they don’t. They know numbers. And that’s pretty much the extent of their knowledge base, which that’s a lot. I mean, tax code is a big deal.

Victoria Thayer [00:07:16]:
Yeah. No, no, absolutely. But yes, I think that when I was deciding before I started, like, thinking about, like, do I want to start a business? That’s one of the things that I want to think about. It’s like, okay. And I kept reading about it, like, not because you’re a great, like, person doing, like, a cake or, like, for example, if I can be the best at 1040 returns. But that doesn’t necessarily mean. Yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I may enjoy the other aspect, which, again, it kind of, like, allowed me to kind of think throughout before I took the leap. And I was like, if I imagine and visualize myself having to deal with, like, prospecting, if I visualize myself doing all these things, does it bring me joy or does it bring me, like, a headache?

James Kademan [00:07:59]:
Oh, pain.

Victoria Thayer [00:08:00]:
Yeah, pain. Like, kind of to visualize it ahead of time, for me, it was exciting. So that’s why, like, for me, it has always been about, like, okay, I love what we do. We have to have a great quality. And at the same time, my vision from the beginning was to have a business, not to be a self employed person. So that’s also something that we need to figure out when we’re starting a business. And I have fellow cpas that they like the lifestyle. They’re like, you know what? I work from, like, January through April, a lot of hours, but then I’m just chilling, you know, and that’s completely fine.

Victoria Thayer [00:08:36]:
We all want different things, and that’s completely okay. But kind of asking yourself, what are your goals and what you’re looking for for me was to create a business. So eventually I would love to have zero billable hours. That’s my end. I’m like, I just want to work on the vision, the strategies as a business owner and not necessarily be in the weeds, which I have been able already to extrapolate, move away myself from the very in the weeds. So I just coming in now as reviewing all the financials, more higher level advisory, forecasting services. So that has been wonderful, too, because it has allowed me to really focus on the business, which, again, sometimes is easier said than done.

James Kademan [00:09:22]:
Fair. Totally fair.

Victoria Thayer [00:09:23]:
Sometimes we get pulled into the wheat, but making sure that we always make time to focus on what will make our business move forward. Kind of like the 80 20 rule or the things that they say about we have things which, again, as tax accountants, we sometimes have things that are urgent and important. Like all the tax deadlines that we have are always chasing after them. But there is also things that are important, but not urgent. But that would definitely move our business forward. So making sure that we carve time to focus on that.

James Kademan [00:09:53]:
It’s the marketing aspect.

Victoria Thayer [00:09:56]:
The marketing also like the recruiting efforts and also things like creating sops, evaluating recurring processes. I’m always looking at different tech stacks. Again, we think about our tech as part of our team. So the client portal that we picked, the tag software that we picked, everything that we’re using, it’s part of Novi. So I always make sure recently we started doing loom videos. So loom is this platform that allows you to record a video sharing your screen. So we noticed that when we were doing with financial statements, we were like, okay, let’s say, hey, Jim, here it is, your, your financial statements. Once you see them, let’s schedule a call to go over them.

Victoria Thayer [00:10:42]:
Well, business owners, as you know yourself, they’re busy, they’re all like, okay, I got them out. Yeah, that’s falling off. Falling off. It’s not as important. I have all these other things that I need to get done. So what we found out is that people were more likely to see it. Then we started doing a little summary in the financials of like, hey, these are the highlights. Well, people were still not reading them.

Victoria Thayer [00:11:05]:
So we decided to do a video with this platform called Loom. So we record a little video saying like, hey, like five minutes or less. About three minutes of like, hey, these are like the big highlights of your financials. And we walk them through it, give them the why, what is their percentage of growth? What are the main expenses, things like that. And it takes three minutes. We send them the link and they have been watching it and watching it more, and we have been able to find out a way to add value to the clients. It’s like, hey, you’re paying for this. You really need to know these things.

Victoria Thayer [00:11:38]:
And then we let them know, hey, if you want to sit down and like even like dive deeper into this, like, let’s have a conversation. But it’s things like that. So, yeah, we’re always looking about like, how can we improve our current processes and taking that mentality of like, oh, we have always done it this way, let’s continue doing it this way.

James Kademan [00:11:56]:
No worse things you can say, right?

Victoria Thayer [00:11:58]:
Yes, exactly.

James Kademan [00:11:58]:
We’re here.

Victoria Thayer [00:11:59]:
Yes, exactly. So it’s always about making sure that you have time also as a business owner to keep thinking about like, okay, where do I think the industry is moving to? Where is the next thing? So that has been very, very important too. And analyzing even our data. We were looking. Okay, what are of our clients who are or sectors that we’re serving the most? How can we niche down too? So even with things like that, it has been important to take the time and reflect back. Okay, like, where are we spending most of the time? Where should we invest more? So, yes, always making sure that we’re looking back at what we’re doing and evaluating it too. So when we were like, when we just started doing that loom video, we were actually embedding the video in the financials. Bad idea.

Victoria Thayer [00:12:52]:
We tried it for like a month and no one watched it. And we were like, okay, guys, we’re paying for, like, the subscription. We’re like, we’re loom subscription. We’re taking the time to record the videos and no one is watching it. Well, like, is it worth it? So always whenever I make a decision as a team, like, and for the organization, always evaluating it, like, was it right or was it wrong? And it’s okay to be wrong because at least we tried.

James Kademan [00:13:18]:
That’s it right there. You try, right? Can you imagine how many other companies either didn’t try at all or they tried and then they’re just like, yeah, we do it now. That’s how we do it now from this point on for decades or whatever, not realizing, like, hey, let’s look at the data and see nobody’s watching it.

Victoria Thayer [00:13:35]:
Right?

James Kademan [00:13:35]:
Let’s tweak a little bit.

Victoria Thayer [00:13:37]:
Yeah. So that’s when we started just sending an email directly and being like, like that. It was easier because to get to the financial, they still had to go to the client portal.

James Kademan [00:13:45]:
I’m just so funny that you’re saying this stuff because I’m like, if I would have gotten that email, no, it gets opened. Maybe if I’m stuck on a plane or something like that, but watching a three minute video. Sure, yeah, sure.

Victoria Thayer [00:13:57]:
Like, you can do a red light. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and it’s pretty short. It’s like you watch reels in Instagram or like nowadays TikTok or I don’t know what people are watching things on. So, yeah, so we decided to do that. So always, like, reevaluating things. And I think that as small business owners, all of us, we have a competitive advantage, which is that we can move fast. Like big corporations, like nothing against the big CPA firms, the regional and national ones, but compared to us, we move pretty fast.

Victoria Thayer [00:14:27]:
We can get implemented software so fast, we can implement new processes so fast. So we use that to our advantage instead of seeing like, oh, no, they have so much money. They have all these resources. Trying to look at what are the competitive advantages that we, as small business owners have, which is like, the relationships that we can create. There are not just like a number, so people feel more valued. We can move fast. And even with, like, us, business owners keep recruiting people. It’s like creating that culture that will attract the right people.

James Kademan [00:14:58]:
That’s huge. Tell me, let’s talk about people.

Victoria Thayer [00:15:00]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:15:01]:
Because that’s always a challenge for any business. You got eight people, including yourself, which means that you’re approaching that size where you almost need a manager.

Victoria Thayer [00:15:08]:
Yes. Which we do.

James Kademan [00:15:09]:
You do?

Victoria Thayer [00:15:10]:
Yes. So we have a director of operations, so she’s also CPA. I worked with her previously.

James Kademan [00:15:16]:
Oh, nice.

Victoria Thayer [00:15:17]:
Yeah. So it was great to have that relationship with her. We worked together as auditors, so I knew her from then, and she had joined the team, and she’s in charge of, like, making sure that she has, like, sop set up. We worked on that together. And she also has become, like, very that position. I feel like any business owner should have that believe on kind of like removing themselves from the weeds, because having someone in a position of director of operation has allowed me to remove myself to work more on the business than be pulled. Like, for example, if the staff accountants or the senior accountants are like, oh, my God, I don’t know how to deal with this, then they go first to her. She’s the one, like, making sure that we’re meeting all the deadlines, and I’m pulled in only with certain clients and when things are getting.

Victoria Thayer [00:16:05]:
Getting very complex. So again, again, it’s an investment at the beginning because, okay, at the point that I was about to hire her, I was like, well, I’m pretty much taking away from what I am. Like, you know, what I’m making and what I’m, like, growing into the capital, into the business. But it was an investment because, again, going back to the vision, I was like, well, that was scary. But I believed that, okay, it’s going to be an asset, and it’s going to allow me to free up my time so that I can focus on what I can add the most value. So in my case is sales. I am the one that is bringing all the sales. So I am the one being more out there.

Victoria Thayer [00:16:44]:
So I needed to make sure that I gave myself time to be out there, to be doing the prospecting calls, to be going to networking events, to be going to, like, all sorts of things.

James Kademan [00:16:56]:
Sure.

Victoria Thayer [00:16:56]:
Yes, exactly. If I don’t do that, then we’re going to plateau because I’m pulling to the weeds. So that was the moment when I knew that I needed someone else to kind of replace me for, like, the more accounting work and tax work so that I can, like, I mean, I’m still involved, but I have been able to remove myself. I think that at this point, I’m probably like, 40% accounting and tax work and 60%. Okay, 40 and 60. Did I say 40? I’m like, yeah. I’m like, you’re like, I’m worried if you’re bad with numbers. Yeah, I’m worried eventually.

Victoria Thayer [00:17:35]:
So, yeah, so I would say 40 and 60, pretty much 60% on the business at this point.

James Kademan [00:17:40]:
Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:17:40]:
So that has really allowed me to focus on the growth and creating an. I never had a strategy plan. I didn’t even have a business plan when I started the business. Really? No. So now I’m actually sitting back and being like, okay, I think that at this point, I read a quote, too, that said, what got you here will not get you to the next place.

James Kademan [00:18:03]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:18:04]:
So I really took that to heart because I know that what got me to this point will not allow me to continue scaling up.

James Kademan [00:18:13]:
Yeah, it doesn’t usually won’t scale.

Victoria Thayer [00:18:15]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:18:15]:
Right.

Victoria Thayer [00:18:15]:
So I knew that I needed to do things different. So that was one of the reasons, too, to start delegating work and making sure that I get, finally, a strategy. I have gotten mentors as well. I tapped into the resource of the Maryland mentors, which is like a free community, because again, I’m still pretty young. So, you know, you all are. It’s all good. So I’m trying to tap into the knowledge of other people. So I’ve been able to talk to people that are in HR, other people that are like experienced cpas that have been like, in very big CPA firms that know everything about sops and how to set them up.

Victoria Thayer [00:18:58]:
So always reaching out to your network and also to people. People are so wonderful when you ask them genuinely, hey, I have this situation. This is what I’m thinking. They will give you your advice. First of all, they’re going to be flattered that you thought so highly of them. And yes, definitely I have gotten to lunches, coffees, and people have been so willing to give advice. So that has been wonderful. So that has been another reason why we have been able to grow, too.

Victoria Thayer [00:19:25]:
Tapping into the resources that the community offers. There is a lot of help out there.

James Kademan [00:19:31]:
Oh, there’s a ton. Incredible amount. Small business development center. You have score. There’s 5 million people offering coaching of some kind.

Victoria Thayer [00:19:39]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:19:40]:
There’s even just anyone that owns a business if you call them up and say, hey, let me pick your brain over coffee. In my experience, it’s been pretty rare that they say no. And it’s also been my experience that if they say no, usually they don’t want to admit what’s going on behind the curtain. So you don’t want to talk to them anyways.

Victoria Thayer [00:19:57]:
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so it’s about that, too, because I feel like one of the challenges that I have faced, too, and I think that probably is common, is that as business owners, we are sometimes a little bit kind of like very alone with certain topics that, of course, you don’t want to just open up to the whole team. Maybe because maybe sales. Maybe it’s like, oh, we’re not hitting the sales market.

James Kademan [00:20:24]:
An employee would be like, what? Yeah, might have a job.

Victoria Thayer [00:20:27]:
Exactly. But you may want to talk to someone that has more experience in the industry regarding that, about, okay, is this seasonal? How does this work? Should I be tapping into different organizations, things like that, or even if you have issues. No issues, but, like, challenges or things that you want to overcome with, like, communication or organizational structure within your business. You may not want to just open the floor, but you may want to tap into those, like, mentors or people that can allow you to pick at their brains, too. That has been amazing for me because, again, it can get lonely. Can get lonely and very kind of, like, overwhelming, I think is the word, which, you know, we have to juggle so many things.

James Kademan [00:21:11]:
Yeah. I mean, that’s part of the game, right? I have a small group that I meet with once a month.

Victoria Thayer [00:21:15]:
Oh, that’s awesome.

James Kademan [00:21:16]:
Just a few people, and they’re all business owners that I would say are relatively the same as far as what they’re pulling revenue wise and stuff like that.

Victoria Thayer [00:21:25]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:21:26]:
But they’re one of them. I like. Cause she’s retail. And so anytime that I’m like, oh, my gosh, it’s so tough to find employees, she’s like, let me tell you how hard it is to find employees. And then my problem’s like, yeah, I don’t have a problem.

Victoria Thayer [00:21:43]:
Perspective.

James Kademan [00:21:44]:
We’re good.

Victoria Thayer [00:21:45]:
Yes, everything.

James Kademan [00:21:46]:
And then it’s also because they’re in different verticals. They can say, well, this is how we do it in our little neck of the woods, which is great. And you can say, like, oh, you know, why don’t we do that? Or something of that nature? So it just. And it’s people I mean, to a point, it’s a little bit of a complain session, but a lot of, but it’s not like you’re just complaining, too.

Victoria Thayer [00:22:08]:
We’re finding a solution.

James Kademan [00:22:09]:
Like, you just complain to a spouse or friend or something like that. These are people that are like, you don’t get to complain unless you are actually interested in a resolution of some kind. And so that gives us some, like, okay, it’s not that big of a deal. Here’s the steps that we should take. Or here’s perspective one. Here’s perspective two, and maybe their posing perspectives, or maybe they’re a little bit different, but it’s just people that have gone through stuff, and so they have some ideas. So that’s been helpful for me.

Victoria Thayer [00:22:37]:
That’s awesome. I love the fact that they are in different industries because I think that what can happen to business owners is that if you, for example, if I only reach out to cpas, I get in this silo of, again, going back to like, this is how the industry has always done. But other industries may be going ahead. And let’s think about hairstylists. They’re social media. I know they got it all. They’re always in the feed. They’re amazing at that.

Victoria Thayer [00:23:04]:
Content creation and keeping people engaged. So there are things going on in different industries that we can always learn from. So I love that you do that. Yes. That’s awesome.

James Kademan [00:23:15]:
It helps, I guess, because there’s always going to be a problem or issue or challenge, whatever you want to label it. Right. At some time that you have to, that you have to deal with at any given moment. Right. But also, I think it helps, or at least for me, it helps from a mental point of view. I was even talking with people today over at coffee. I ran into a guy that I hadn’t talked to in years, and he was telling me about some employee issues, and I’m like, thank you so much for saying that, because I have employee issues. Everybody that I know that has employees has employee issues.

James Kademan [00:23:49]:
But when I throw something on social media about employee issues, there’s people that are not in business that are like, oh, my gosh, James, you must be a huge pain to work for. And I’m like, or, or every one of employees has some headache or challenge.

Victoria Thayer [00:24:04]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:24:04]:
It’s not to say that maybe I’m a pain in the butt to work for it. I don’t know. Probably am. But it’s one of those where it kind of gives you a sounding board or, you know, that you’re not alone.

Victoria Thayer [00:24:16]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:24:17]:
That you’re like, okay, cool. Everybody’s got problems.

Victoria Thayer [00:24:19]:
Got it.

James Kademan [00:24:21]:
It’s not just me.

Victoria Thayer [00:24:22]:
Yeah, no, that’s so important too. And I faced that too with. At the beginning when I was just starting out, I took so personal. People will say no to aproposal. I was like, oh, my God.

James Kademan [00:24:36]:
Why do you hate me?

Victoria Thayer [00:24:38]:
Why do you hate me? Like, what’s wrong with me? I, like, honestly, the first time that it happened, I felt like I didn’t know my. Like, it took me. Like, it took me too hard. Like, I was like, oh, my God. I don’t even know my value anymore. I’m like, people don’t value me. I don’t think I’m that actually smart. Like, I started, like, telling myself all these things, and then I met with someone that was a business owner, and they told me, that’s gonna happen a million times.

Victoria Thayer [00:25:06]:
That’s normal. We all have been there. Like, that has nothing to say about who you are. And they were like, let me tell you something. Not everyone’s gonna like Victoria. And that’s okay. That’s just what the market is. So when that person told me that, I was like, oh.

Victoria Thayer [00:25:22]:
And he told me that he just had a conversation like that that day, and he has been in business for, like, 30 plus years. And then, like, you’re saying, it just made me feel. I’m like, I’m sorry you had to have that conversation, and it didn’t go well for you, but it makes me so happy.

James Kademan [00:25:38]:
Yeah, right.

Victoria Thayer [00:25:38]:
Because it reassures me that, like, it’s nothing wrong with me, but that’s just kind of the challenges that come with business ownership.

James Kademan [00:25:45]:
Yes, I can remember when I had my printer repair company, Amazon was just coming around, and I gave a quote for a printer, and they’re like, I can get on Amazon $10 cheaper or whatever. Maybe the same price. Whatever it was, it was. They could just order it online for a similar price. And I remember thinking, I get this from a wholesaler, and I have to pay the wholesaler. Like, you have to pay Costco. I have to pay the wholesaler in order to do business with them. With them.

James Kademan [00:26:13]:
So I call up the wholesaler, and I’m like, hey, man, how come anyone can go on the Internet and buy this thing for cheaper than what you’re offering it? Because I got to put margin on there. Like, what’s the game here? And he just kind of gave me a shoulder shrug, and I was taking it so personal. Like, don’t you want to support small business? Right? This is going on.

Victoria Thayer [00:26:32]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:26:33]:
Then I thought what would I do if I was in their position? I do the same exact thing that they’re doing and I wouldn’t think twice about it. And it’s nothing against James or whoever. Right. It’s just, it’s business.

Victoria Thayer [00:26:45]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:26:46]:
So I’m just like, ew, alright, find a different game.

Victoria Thayer [00:26:50]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Another thing too that I have learned during this time has been that really kind of like I took too hard at the beginning as a small business owner. When we’re hiring people, sometimes we get too emotionally attached. And I remember one of the mentors telling me that, remember, Victoria, like, they are not your family. You are a professional team player. Yeah, team.

James Kademan [00:27:16]:
Not a family.

Victoria Thayer [00:27:17]:
Exactly. Exactly. So knowing that and that he made me understand too that like, hey, eventually people are gonna leave. That’s a reality so far. Like no one has done it yet. So I’m like, okay, but eventually is gonna happen. And I think that at the beginning when he brought that topic up, I felt like, I felt already like a breakup. No one has left, but I felt like I was already grieving.

James Kademan [00:27:41]:
This is our family reunion every time we work. Right. It’s Monday.

Victoria Thayer [00:27:47]:
But yeah. So I came to piece to the fact that like, hey, like I have done it before. I have moved from one job to the other one, one of my prior jobs, like my prior bosses, like I’m still very close to him. We still go out for lunche.

James Kademan [00:28:00]:
Go on.

Victoria Thayer [00:28:01]:
And I quit that job. So instead of him being bitter against me, no, he has always been there to support me. He understands that I’m following a different trajectory. So, yeah, so that has been pretty interesting to now understand and learned too that we’re a team, we’re just a professional team and we’re always switching players.

James Kademan [00:28:24]:
Yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:28:25]:
So that also has been another lesson that I have learned to. And yes, and also I just recently had like a 360 review as well.

James Kademan [00:28:34]:
Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:28:35]:
So like all of the team gave feedback on myself. So, yes.

James Kademan [00:28:41]:
All right. Would you learn?

Victoria Thayer [00:28:43]:
You don’t want to do that? Yes.

James Kademan [00:28:47]:
I can only imagine. But I think it’d be worthwhile because it’s kind of one of those like you don’t necessarily know. I wouldn’t know what people believe is wrong with me. I’m certain that they think something is wrong with me. But I’m also certain that there’s going to be some. If I would do something like that or when I should say when I do something like that, then I’ll be like, wait, what? Oh, I do that one of those like, cause you’re going. And you don’t take the time to pause and say, huh? Right?

Victoria Thayer [00:29:18]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:29:19]:
You’re just going, this is happening. Boom.

Victoria Thayer [00:29:21]:
Yeah, no, that is true. And I think that because it’s always go, go, go. I wanted to make sure that I slow down and kind of hear their feedback too, which actually, and sometimes I read in a book that was something like, your weaknesses when you’re trying to hide them, people are seeing them. So being more honest and upfront about that and what you’re working on sometimes make them like, oh, thank God she knows. She didn’t know that she does this stuff. So, yeah, so I learned that I need to improve my communication skills and organization skills. So like, you’re saying we business owners are, go, go, go. Sometimes I can start talking without telling someone, what client is this for? And I just start talking.

Victoria Thayer [00:30:12]:
I say, oh, yes, this depreciation table. And they bought this equipment. They asked me, so what client are we talking about? Because I just have it in my head and I think it makes sense. Who am I talking about? But I don’t give context, for example, or when I’m giving, like, I’m very scattered. Like, my best thinking time is when I’m driving.

James Kademan [00:30:32]:
Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:30:32]:
So I come up with like, a lot of ideas. And sometimes, like, for example, to my marketing team, like, they are, like, I tell them, like, oh, this or this and that. And then I send them like a bazillion teams messages and they’re like, well, can we concise it all in an email maybe? And then see, like, okay, which one should we attack first? And things like that. Because sometimes I can think so quickly that I can, like, just bombard people. So. And that was consistent across, like, all the team. So it was nothing. Like one person had it against me.

Victoria Thayer [00:31:02]:
It’s like, how dare they? They have something against me now. It was consistent. It was about like, the communication skills and being, like, being able to, like, organize the thoughts better and also knowing what is more priority than other things, giving more context too. So definitely I see it. And now when I have an urge to message someone that is just scattered, it’s nothing very urgent. I either message myself or I email myself all my random thoughts, and then at the end of the day, I create a concise email of like, okay, these are all the marketing things or sales things that I thought of. Here it is like, what the idea is, the reason why, and the spec, the deadline, or how important it is so that they have. Because otherwise they were like, I don’t know what this even mean, which is fair.

Victoria Thayer [00:31:54]:
I’m like, these two words make sense in my head, but understanding that different people hear different things and then process information a different way. So that has been eye opening, because, like you, I’m always, go, go, go. I’m in my emails while I’m walking to places. I’m like, red light. Oh, wait, I got 30 seconds. I can. 30 seconds. Yes.

Victoria Thayer [00:32:17]:
I’m always on the go. I listen to podcasts and stuff while I shower. I try to be as suspicious as I can, so understanding that other people are not going at the same speed, and that’s okay, but also making sure that that’s not hurting in the team because me going, like, at a thousand miles does not do anything. If I’m just putting all this confusion on people and they’re like, well, we don’t know. And then they cannot move forward because.

James Kademan [00:32:47]:
They don’t have any direction with that information.

Victoria Thayer [00:32:49]:
Yeah. So that has been one of the things that I’m working on, on making sure that I am more organized and improving my communication skills. But again, I was like, oh, I guess I’m not a good communicator, but that’s okay. At least now I know. I think that internally I knew, because even with my husband, sometimes he’s like, what are you trying to say? So I guess I saw it coming.

James Kademan [00:33:12]:
Try to keep up, buddy. Try to keep up.

Victoria Thayer [00:33:16]:
But now hearing it from them, like, yes, this is something that I need to work on. And now I’m more mindful and intentional. Another thing, too, that I learned was that someone brought up that they didn’t feel valued when we were not respecting internal meeting time, because then it felt like their time was less important than other people’s time.

James Kademan [00:33:36]:
So you had a specific time for.

Victoria Thayer [00:33:38]:
A meeting, and it would go, yes, exactly. And it was consistent. I was being like, I stand responsible. I was being a little bit bad. Like, if it was internal, I was like, well, it’s okay if I’m, like, 20 minutes late.

James Kademan [00:33:48]:
Late to the meeting. Oh, yeah, late. Okay. Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:33:53]:
Late.

James Kademan [00:33:54]:
Yeah. Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:33:55]:
Yeah. So, yeah. So late to the meeting. So because we were all in the office, I was like, well, it’s okay. It’s fine.

James Kademan [00:34:01]:
Yeah, that’s good.

Victoria Thayer [00:34:02]:
Yeah. That was in my head, but my head, it was never the intention to make anyone feel less appreciated or make them feel like their time is less valuable than mine or than anyone else’s. But when she told me that, I was just shocked because I was like, oh, my God, that was never my intention. I was just like, well, we’re all here. It’s not a big deal. We can always recap at another time. And since then, now since she told me that, I was like, oh, I never want anyone to feel that way. I am not more important than anyone else.

Victoria Thayer [00:34:35]:
We all have different skill sets and we’re coming together, but that’s it. But since then, now I make sure that I put an alarm when we start, when we end, and I don’t book back to back meetings anymore because the issue was if I had a client meeting right before that, when I ran, like, you know, over the time, then I usually was like, I just let it happen. And then, like, all my other meetings started trickling down.

James Kademan [00:35:01]:
And then Wisconsin. Goodbye. Right? I’m gonna say goodbye twelve times before I leave. Another 45 minutes.

Victoria Thayer [00:35:07]:
Yeah. So that also has been something else that I’m working on. But again, like, I also had those mentors to be hold me accountable. So I gave them all my summary of my 360 reviews, and I told them, okay, these are the things that I think I’m going to improve. I’m going to work this quarter on, and this is what action items I’m taking to improve them. Like, not getting, like, back to back meetings, putting alarm, making sure that now, like, I am not, like, emailing one little thing for every single thing that I am thinking of, but concising it. So it takes an effort, too, to make sure that in order for the team to grow and be successful, I also need to change my mentality, because I think I still have the mentality of just myself, kind of like a selfpreneur kind of person, like just a solo flyer. So now, making sure that as we keep growing the team, making sure that also my mentality and my skillsets get aligned with who I need to become to get to the next level.

James Kademan [00:36:10]:
Gotcha. Oh, I love that. Who you need to become?

Victoria Thayer [00:36:13]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:36:14]:
Wow. That’s impressive. That is. Wow.

Victoria Thayer [00:36:17]:
Thank you. It just came natural. Tell me who you need to become to get to the next level.

James Kademan [00:36:24]:
That’s amazing. That is. It was all worth it. Podcast is over. Just summarized it in 10 seconds. That’s amazing.

Victoria Thayer [00:36:31]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:36:32]:
Wow. We need to become to get to that next level. So tell me about this 360 thing. Is this a questionnaire or is this somebody interviewing them?

Victoria Thayer [00:36:40]:
No. So it’s like a form with specific questions about, like, okay. Like, one of them was like, what areas could grow in more? Could you Kulai? So it was yes. No. So they had it for, like, I think three weeks before our meeting, they came up with all of their answers. And this may be challenging for some people, but it actually was in person. So we met with every single one? I met with every single one of them.

James Kademan [00:37:08]:
Okay. Asking them the questions.

Victoria Thayer [00:37:10]:
No. And they came up.

James Kademan [00:37:11]:
Tell me what you hate about me.

Victoria Thayer [00:37:14]:
No, but practically. No, but really? Yes, they came up with their answers, and then we just had, like, the conversation about it and, yeah, it was a positive conversation.

James Kademan [00:37:27]:
Was this a conversation that you. Was everybody going through this for you exclusively or. Everybody was going through this for everyone.

Victoria Thayer [00:37:34]:
It was only for me and the director of operations.

James Kademan [00:37:36]:
Okay. Okay. So wasn’t you alone?

Victoria Thayer [00:37:38]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:37:39]:
Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:37:39]:
But we had our conversations separately. So, like, for example, like, I will have a one on one with, like, one team member, then the next one. So.

James Kademan [00:37:48]:
Oh, this wasn’t in a big group?

Victoria Thayer [00:37:50]:
No.

James Kademan [00:37:50]:
Oh, no.

Victoria Thayer [00:37:51]:
It was a very. No, this was a very, like, one on one.

James Kademan [00:37:55]:
So you’re going through the answers that they gave?

Victoria Thayer [00:37:58]:
No, they are telling me because they didn’t send it to me until that moment.

James Kademan [00:38:02]:
Oh, wow.

Victoria Thayer [00:38:02]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:38:03]:
Oh, wow.

Victoria Thayer [00:38:04]:
Yeah. And then they told me we start again. Like, we kind of, like, the positive how, like, what things have been going well. And another question. Yeah. What’s about, like, the areas where I can grow? What was their wish? Like, their wish for me and how have I impacted their professional life, too? So, yeah, so it was a lot of overload was pretty good, and they were all, like, felt like. I think that it was success by the fact that they felt pretty comfortable sharing all this stuff.

James Kademan [00:38:38]:
I was just gonna ask, were some people just staring at the table, like, oh, I gotta tell you what I wrote.

Victoria Thayer [00:38:44]:
No, that was a cool thing, too. It’s like, I felt pretty proud that everyone felt happy to tell me what I needed to grow on. There was not even one person that was like, oh, you’re perfect. You’re amazing. Like, no, one day. But no, not today. Not today. So that was a success on its own, too.

Victoria Thayer [00:39:03]:
So, again, like, hearing the things that they truly valued, the other things that they felt like, I can do better, it was very important to me because, again, feedback means that they still care. And I rather hear it now than, like, later on. They, like, when they quit, when they quit, I’m like, I always hate it when you see that.

James Kademan [00:39:22]:
And I’m like, well, another thing.

Victoria Thayer [00:39:25]:
So, yeah, so that, I mean, once again, like, it’s scary and it’s uncomfortable, you know? But I think that that’s the only way to grow and to kind of, like, we were saying, like, how can we continue improving and changing the whole habits, too? Because again, like, I came from being an employee. I had my employee hat. So I feel like now with a team, way different. A lot of things that I used to don’t understand about my prior employers, now they make perfect sense. I’m like, oh, that’s what they meant. I should not have complained about that.

James Kademan [00:40:04]:
I totally, there are times when I’m talking to an employee and I think, I can’t wait. I can’t wait. Just like a parent saying to a kid, right, someday you’re gonna have kids, right? Someday when you start a business, you’re gonna have this conversation with an employee, and you’re going to be like, oh, that’s what was going on. Just like a parent talking to their teenager or something like that.

Victoria Thayer [00:40:27]:
When you have kids, it is like that. It is, yes. So it has been a lot of learning and making sure that I change that mentality to be able to continue growing instead of making sure that instead of making them fit to me, I feel truly that I need to continue evolving, too. And again, I don’t have as much time as I used to to read. So I try to do a lot of podcasts, a lot of, like, audiobooks, things like that, but always trying to learn about, okay, what is out there, what can I do better? What things can I start implementing? And see, does it work for me? I mean, a lot of things are out there about feedback and all this self development stuff. I try to take one thing, try it. Most of the time, it does not work out for me. And I’m like, okay, next thing, what else can I try? And making sure that we’re always trying different things, seeing how we can continue to grow, but, yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:41:22]:
And I almost think that it’s almost like in sports, you know how they sell. Like, your mind gets there before your body. I think the same thing with businesses. If you get into that mind, then the business will get there, too.

James Kademan [00:41:37]:
Yeah. Because then you actually have an aim.

Victoria Thayer [00:41:39]:
Exactly where you’re going.

James Kademan [00:41:40]:
Yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:41:42]:
So, yeah, so it has been. Yeah, it has been a long process. Feels longer. I actually feel like my body feels like it’s been more than a year, but it’s okay. Has been rewarding. I have laughed a lot. I mean, it has. I mean, I’m not gonna say also that every day is just like roses and rainbows, because obviously, as a business owner, that’s not the case.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:03]:
No, there’s like a roller coaster. But even, like, the bad days, I’m still. Still happy that I’m doing what I’m doing.

James Kademan [00:42:11]:
That’s the name of the game right there.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:12]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:42:13]:
Right. Enjoy your business.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:15]:
Right. Yes. And it’s supposed to bring us joy. That’s the goal.

James Kademan [00:42:19]:
One of them.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:20]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:42:20]:
But, yeah, that’s a big one.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:22]:
Yeah. So, yeah, so that has been kind of, like, the whole experience again, like, I continue dreaming about, like, the next stage for us.

James Kademan [00:42:32]:
That is incredible to hear.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:34]:
Yeah, that’s.

James Kademan [00:42:35]:
You’re always just looking at, like, what’s next? What’s next? What’s next? They’re growing because then employees are gonna be like, okay, what is that? So I hope the right ones will say that. And that’s gotta attract people. Clients will be impressed with that because they’re like, okay, she’s interested in growing.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:50]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:42:51]:
So that’s super cool.

Victoria Thayer [00:42:52]:
And one of the things, too, that I always think is, like, with cpas or with any, like, you also want to. If I show that, like, hey, like, this is, like, the perspectives that we’re using, and kind of, like, then other clients are going to be like, oh, actually, they. We also want to grow, so we’re going to get. We want to be surrounded by people that are. Or businesses that are also in the same trajectory, that are also, you know, showing the same things. Because if I’m trying to sell, like, a forecast to a client, say, well, are you forecasting your own things? Like how? Like, you know, it’s almost. If you’re trying to sell something to also be good at it.

James Kademan [00:43:24]:
Yeah. Oh, that’s fair. That’s fair. I used to always make. I shouldn’t say used to. I still do. I make fun of business coaches that don’t have their own business.

Victoria Thayer [00:43:33]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:43:35]:
Or you think of a health coach that’s overweight or something like that. Or someone that’s even a doctor that smokes. I don’t know. Something like that, where you’re like, I feel like you’re not the expert that you’re trying to portray yourself as.

Victoria Thayer [00:43:46]:
Yeah, no, exactly. Yes. No, I feel the same way that whenever I try to or surround myself with people, I make sure that, like, do they actually do as they preach?

James Kademan [00:43:59]:
Huge.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:00]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:44:00]:
So my advice is so good, I.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:02]:
Don’T take it, but I want you to pay for it.

James Kademan [00:44:05]:
Yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:07]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:44:10]:
Perfect. Perfect.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:11]:
So, yeah.

James Kademan [00:44:12]:
So tell me really quick, because I know we don’t have a ton of time here, but your business, you are focusing less on taxes and more on a broader.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:21]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:44:22]:
Forecasting, all that jazz. Tell me about that, because I’m gonna say I’m an ignorant business owner when it comes to numbers and stuff like that. I know the growing, the sales, the marketing, rah rah. Yeah, all that. But forecasting is something that I’m just like, we’re gonna be more and better. So tell me about that.

Victoria Thayer [00:44:43]:
Yes. So, so again, what we do is like financial statement preparation. So like on top of the bookkeeping, some clients have their own bookkeepers, like internal personnel, or we come and do that as well, like bill pay, invoicing, all of that. Then we do the financial statements. So that’s almost like the transactional part, let’s say. Then it comes more of like the kind of like controller services or almost like CFO services would come with like the budgeting, the forecasting. So what that means is that, okay, we look at your historical data where like, okay, you have been growing 5% every month, every quarter. Then we have that historical data.

Victoria Thayer [00:45:22]:
Then after that we can project your future. And then we can also know what costs you have, variables and fixed costs. So, like, if you sell a service, in my case, what we’re selling, we have hours, right? So we have employees. So that’s a driver for revenue. So, but at the same time, it’s going to signify a payroll expense, payroll taxes, benefits, all of that good stuff. So what we do is that we build these models with all these drivers. So you can see when is the best time to hire someone financially, how is that going to affect your cash flow? And they usually do that a lot for like, tech companies because when they’re trying to raise more money, they’re saying, like, okay, you’re saying that you’re going to hire all these people, you’re going to buy all this equipment. How is that going to affect what sales are you projecting? So it helps a lot, but it also helps, like, we have one client that they were thinking of hiring different staff, but they wanted to know when was the best time for cash flow because they also were planning on buying some equipment.

Victoria Thayer [00:46:22]:
So they had different things moving on, going on with their business. So what we do is like, first of all, you need to have good transactional data. So like, your books needs to be clean because we’re based on that to the future. Then the forecast portion comes to like, okay, this is what we believe is going to happen. And at least then the clients know when to make the decision. When is the best time they have? Worst case scenario. Best case scenario. And they actually can make goals for like, okay, this means that I need to have this much revenue if I want to hit that goal.

Victoria Thayer [00:46:51]:
All right, so it creates this kind of like, bringing to reality and step by step these ideas. I can say, like, well, I want to be 20 people in a year firm, but what does that really mean? How much money do I need to make and how much, what levels am I going to hire? If I hire a staff accounter, a manager, it’s going to be this much. It’s going to be this much. How many workable hours are in a day? What will be the billable rate that I need to put to the clients? What do I need to do? If I do I pay them less? Do I increase my billable rates? Like, there’s all these different variables that I can see all in one model understanding. Okay, so what different moving pieces do I need to change to get to my end goal of making this much money? Yeah, so.

James Kademan [00:47:38]:
Oh, I love it.

Victoria Thayer [00:47:39]:
Yeah. So it’s a little bit of like looking in the crystal ball.

James Kademan [00:47:43]:
Sure. So are you projecting out a year or three or months or quarters or how.

Victoria Thayer [00:47:48]:
So we do. So some clients we do up to five years.

James Kademan [00:47:51]:
Oh, wow.

Victoria Thayer [00:47:52]:
But we recommend doing, like, up to one year to do more, like precise. But again, like, the people that usually ask, like, business owners that ask for five years are usually more the ones that are looking for, like, series b funding and things like that, that have multiple investors and they want to kind of like, project far ahead.

James Kademan [00:48:09]:
Yeah, got it, got it, got it. That makes sense. Interesting. And then are there other facets of what you guys do?

Victoria Thayer [00:48:15]:
Yes. So we do. Yeah, so we do the tax preparation and tax planning. Again, we like to think of tax preparation and, like, the tax return as a byproduct because, for example, next month we’re going to be meeting with all of our clients that are small business owners s, corporations, partnerships that we need to sit down with them, be like, okay, this is what your year has been so far. This is based on this. This is what we project you’re going to make at the end of the year. I mean, pretty much, you know, these many months have gone past. We know pretty well how much money you have made, how much money you’re going to make the last quarter.

Victoria Thayer [00:48:49]:
So we can know how much are you going to owe in taxes so that you’re never surprised. Because I used to be in jobs that clients were like, well, I didn’t know I was going to have this bill, so I was not prepared for this. So we never want to have that conversation. And if they’re going to owe money, if we do it in September, the tax planning, then they still have plenty time to make things change. So maybe they decide to hire more people. They decide to buy an equipment that they were thinking of buying. Either way, they can do, like, more retirement contributions. There is multiple things that we can do to reduce the tax bill when it’s not January, and it’s like, well, there’s very little at this point.

Victoria Thayer [00:49:28]:
Yeah. So, yeah, so do we do the tax planning, the tax preparation, forecasting, and budgeting, and the financial statements?

James Kademan [00:49:34]:
Nice.

Victoria Thayer [00:49:34]:
Yeah, so we try to be, like, a full on house for all the services, and again, like, the advisory and kind of. We try to be proactive, too. So whenever we see something that, like, hey, how have you guys thought about this? We always try to be proactive instead of reactive. We always want to be ahead of the client because they’re paying us for advice and for us to be watching out what’s happening with new legislation, new things that can affect them instead of being them. Like, hey, I heard in TikTok that this thing was going on. Like, we don’t want clients to be them bringing us the stuff to us, but we want to always be ahead, and I be us bringing them the information ahead of time.

James Kademan [00:50:13]:
It’s funny you say that, because I was the guy that got the big tax bill this year for last year, and I went to my accountant, and I said, hey, I saw on YouTube, what about this? And he was like, yeah, you could do that. And I’m like, why didn’t you know? You could have given me a little heads up. Little like, hey, James, have you ever thought of this? Or, hey, have you considered this? Or, hey, I’m a guy that you’re paying a lot of money to know stuff like this. So here’s some options. Instead of me looking on the web and typing in something like, how to save money in taxes, right?

Victoria Thayer [00:50:47]:
Like, the most basic.

James Kademan [00:50:48]:
And the top three videos that come up had that. I say, hey, can I do this stuff? And he’s like, yeah, yeah. I’m like, oh, not cool. Yeah, not cool. Cause I would hate to be the guy. I would hate to be the guy. I was the guy, but I hate to be. I was forced in the position of being the guy.

James Kademan [00:51:08]:
But when I was fixing whatever, I used to be a mechanic a while ago, and I would hate to be the guy under the hood and have the client say, like, hey, client, here’s what’s wrong with your car. And the client being like, well, have you checked this? I’d be like, huh? That’s a good idea. No, no, no, no. Or I just imagine being a doctor, like, hey, you got cancer, blah, blah, blah, blah. And someone’s like, I saw this commercial. You know, what about that? And the doctor’s like, huh? Yeah, we could try that, right?

Victoria Thayer [00:51:41]:
Yeah. No way.

James Kademan [00:51:43]:
No way. If I feel like if the professional person that you are paying is in a position where they can get essentially taught by the client from something that the client found on the Internet, oh, I’d be embarrassed. Is that professional?

Victoria Thayer [00:51:58]:
Yes, absolutely. But it happens quite often. I don’t think it’s because they lack sometimes the expertise, but because sometimes people overserve. Like, they have too many clients, too much volume. So that’s something that I see a lot in the CPA industry. It’s like they focus on volume more than the quality of the work. So, again, like, if you’re working with, like, again, like last year, I think we only prepared about, like, 45 tax returns. When a traditional CPA firm, every partner would probably do between, like, around 300,000.

Victoria Thayer [00:52:35]:
Yeah, 100, like, around to 500. When you’re looking at that many, again, it’s more likely that you’re not going to know the ins and outs and you’re not going to be looking too closely about what else can we do or even care.

James Kademan [00:52:48]:
Right.

Victoria Thayer [00:52:50]:
You’re just trying to move along the.

James Kademan [00:52:52]:
World, turn and burn to. Yeah. I learned after talking with many people, CPAs and other business owners and stuff like that, that there are tax people where you just, you give the numbers and they, like a machine, spit out what you owe. And apparently that’s what my guy was. And then there’s tax strategists who are like, okay, this is a game. What if we move the pieces this way? What could be the results of the game? Which that sounds like way better.

Victoria Thayer [00:53:17]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:53:17]:
And more like what you do.

Victoria Thayer [00:53:19]:
Exactly. Yeah. So. So, yeah, it’s. It’s. It’s different. Different business models. But.

James Kademan [00:53:25]:
But, you know, it’s funny. It’s funny that you say that, because I, as this ignorant business owner, I’m in my own little silo for doing business. Like, I got my call answering service. Like, you, rah, rah, this is my shingle call answering service. But no one pulled me aside and said, hey, CPA can mean different things to different people.

Victoria Thayer [00:53:43]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:53:43]:
So just because you hired an accountant doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re gonna do the things that you’d like them to do.

Victoria Thayer [00:53:49]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:53:49]:
They’re gonna do whatever they feel like. That nomenclature means, like, no one pulls you aside like that.

Victoria Thayer [00:53:57]:
Yeah, no, that is true. Yes.

James Kademan [00:53:59]:
Because there’s no. I even asked. I don’t remember who I asked, but I’m like, okay, CPA, certified public accountant. Is there another acronym that I should be looking for so that I don’t have to go to YouTube thing that I should look for to find somebody that does the thing? And they’re like, yeah, no, no, they’re all cpAs. So then I was thinking, oh, well, we got to come up with another.

Victoria Thayer [00:54:24]:
Acronym to, yeah, say, like, I will.

James Kademan [00:54:28]:
Actually look at your numbers instead of just entering them or something of that nature, whatever it is. Yeah.

Victoria Thayer [00:54:33]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:54:33]:
So I think you got an awesome thing going.

Victoria Thayer [00:54:35]:
No, yeah, no, thank you. That’s what we’re trying to do, like, focusing on the valley creation, because it’s also no meaningful work for us if we are just plugging in numbers again.

James Kademan [00:54:46]:
I hope not.

Victoria Thayer [00:54:47]:
Yeah. Right? So that’s not the fun part. The fun part is to like. And we have talked to the rest of the team. The fun part is, like, creating the videos, telling them what it means. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:54:56]:
I would get excited if I was. If I was an accountant, I’m totally not. But if I was, I would get excited for a client if I could save them money, and if I’d be like, I just saved you $50,000 in taxes, I would feel just this rush.

Victoria Thayer [00:55:11]:
Of, like, yeah, yeah.

James Kademan [00:55:13]:
So maybe accountants don’t do that. I don’t know.

Victoria Thayer [00:55:16]:
We do. We do. We do. We’re pretty cool.

James Kademan [00:55:18]:
Okay, nice. You may be the anomaly. So, from my experience, pretty sweet anomaly. So it’s just one of those things where I’m like, don’t you want to look? And even if it’s not just for me, just this little. I don’t know, there’s probably some rule or write off or something that you could use that little piece of knowledge for half your clients. Even just the mileage deduction alone, I didn’t know what the options were for mileage deduction. Okay, so I had a.

Victoria Thayer [00:55:50]:
Was that the thing that you found in YouTube?

James Kademan [00:55:52]:
It was. So, yes. So let me back up a step, I guess, to be specific about that, and keep in mind, I’m not an accountant. Yeah, but there’s a few different ways to do that. And I was doing it one way, and then I learned about this other way on YouTube. And so I go to my accountant, and I’m like, can I do that? And he was like, yeah, you can. And I then followed it up with, okay, I know I can. I’m doing it this way.

James Kademan [00:56:20]:
Tell me, pro con, like, why would I not do it that way? And they lean back and they’re like, well. And I’m like, well, this should be pretty straightforward. We’re talking about mileage, deduction. The rules of the game are pretty straightforward.

Victoria Thayer [00:56:33]:
Euphoria. We’re not talking about, like, new legislation that.

James Kademan [00:56:37]:
No, no. So I’m like, from my point of view and my little ten minute YouTube video that I watched, this makes sense. So tell me, if I were to do it that way, would you roll your eyes and say, oh, my gosh, James, that’s a terrible way? Or would you think, yes, that’s the way you picked the right one? Or like, I felt like I was working a Ouija board talking to him.

Victoria Thayer [00:56:59]:
A Ouija board?

James Kademan [00:57:00]:
Me. Like, I feel like I’m paying you for an answer where I say, I drove for business. What is the best way financially to figure this out? And they’re just like, you have options. Like, no, no, no. I know I have options. I know I do. Help me pick the option because I assume that they were the smart one. Because they’re the ones that I’m paying to be smart.

James Kademan [00:57:24]:
But yeah. So the IR’s got a few extra bucks for the past 15 years, 20 years. Wow.

Victoria Thayer [00:57:32]:
Thank you for your donation.

James Kademan [00:57:35]:
They need it so bad. So yay. So what are some things? I guess just really quickly don’t have ton of time. Let’s say top three things that you wish small business owners would know about accounting that you just wish they walked through the door. They already know this. You don’t have to educate them.

Victoria Thayer [00:57:55]:
Wow, that’s a tough one. So, first of all, accounting is important. Yes, that it is the blood of your business. Again, cash is so important. We need to understand what’s going on in our business. I know we get busy and a lot of small business owners are like, well, I do it every quarter. Well, you should do it more often than that, like bookkeeping and all of that type of stuff. So accounting is important.

Victoria Thayer [00:58:20]:
Do not think that it’s like a just tedious task. Record keeping. It actually can help you, give you a lot of information. Second of all, find a good accounting software, like invest on. Like, it’s not that expensive. I think it’s about like $50 per month with Quickbooks online, something that you can use to automate transactions so that you don’t have to spend too much time doing it is super important. So finding a good one, don’t just use excel or paper because it’s very easy that you can make a mistake. You may be missing out on deductions for future tax and also tax planning.

Victoria Thayer [00:58:57]:
If your business is expecting, like, a lot of growth or things are changing, be proactive about it. Talk to your tax professional about it ahead of time, because after December 31, there is very little that can be done at that point. So know that you need to be proactive about it. And also, one more thing, not because it was okay to do last year, it means that you should be doing the same thing. So we have a lot of owners that are like, oh, I have always been a schedule c. I’m always schedule c, my 1040. This is what I have always done. But it’s like, no, wait a second.

Victoria Thayer [00:59:34]:
Your situation is now different than what it was five years ago. Does it still make sense for you to be this type of entity for tax purposes? So making sure that. No, because you were always, that it means that you’re always going to have to be. That you can change to different tax entities, like an 1120s. So always know that. No, because you did something in the past means that it’s going to work for this year. Like, things change. Like, you’re saying you need to, like, be proactive and see what is the most beneficial that year.

James Kademan [01:00:04]:
I love it. Yeah, I love it. Victoria, thank you so much for being on the show.

Victoria Thayer [01:00:08]:
Absolutely.

James Kademan [01:00:08]:
How can people find you?

Victoria Thayer [01:00:10]:
Yes. So you can find me in social media with Novi CPA and Victoria Thayer. I’m very active in LinkedIn, so please visit us online on our website, too. You can subscribe to our newsletter, so you can get awesome accounting and tax tips and. Yeah, I hear that it’s pretty. They enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun. The newsletter.

James Kademan [01:00:31]:
I bet. I bet that’s exciting.

Victoria Thayer [01:00:33]:
Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for being on social media.

James Kademan [01:00:35]:
Oh, there’s more.

Victoria Thayer [01:00:35]:
So one more thing. I’m actually starting. But wait, there’s more? Yes. I’m starting, like, a little small podcast with tax tips.

James Kademan [01:00:44]:
Nice.

Victoria Thayer [01:00:44]:
Yes, it’s starting, like, in a month from now. It’s gonna be a very quick five minute podcast with tax tips. So coming up soon.

James Kademan [01:00:52]:
So yours is a podcast that I’m gonna end up finding when I have my CPA saying, hey, you omega.

Victoria Thayer [01:00:57]:
Yeah, exactly. You’re like, I hear it here.

James Kademan [01:00:59]:
Victoria Online told me.

Victoria Thayer [01:01:01]:
Yeah, exactly.

James Kademan [01:01:03]:
That’s cool. Love it. I love it. This has been authentic business adventures. The business program that brings you the struggle, stories, and. And successes of business owners across the land. And authentic business adventures is brought to you by Calls On Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country. On the web at CallsOnCall.com and of course, The Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us, available wherever fine books are sold.

James Kademan [01:01:31]:
We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, if you could do us a huge favor, give it a big ol thumbs up, subscribe, and, of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends, especially those that have to pay taxes. Yeah, we’d like to thank you, our wonderful listeners, as well as our guest, Victoria Thayer, owner of Novi CPA. Victoria, can you tell us that website one more time?

Victoria Thayer [01:01:54]:
Yes, noviicpa.com.

James Kademan [01:01:56]:
All right. That’s n o v I I n o.

Victoria Thayer [01:01:59]:
Yes, noviicpa.com. I love it.

James Kademan [01:02:02]:
Past episodes can be found morning, noon and night. The podcast link found at drawincustomers.com thank you for listening. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.