Get Radical with Your Business Starting with Accounting Fundamentals

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heather zeitzwolfe podcast.m4a

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Hi and welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we have with us Heather Zeitz Wolfe. She is a profit advisor and a business coach and a CFO as well as a CPA. So she's also the host of a podcast get radical with your business and she's all about stopping the guessing game.

With your business and finances, welcome to the show, Heather. It's really great to have you here.

Thank you for having me. This will be very fun. I love the combination of woo and finances.

Yeah. And they do come together, I mean.

It doesn't.

When I think when people think of finances and bookkeeping, there's like the maths, the maths get you the numbers. Ohh they God, they're going to come out of the woodwork and steal you away, but they're not really. I hated math when I was growing up.

Oh, really? Wow. OK.

I was terrible at it. It probably because we kept moving and math is one of those things that sequential you have to like.

Go along and learn if you learn the basic.

6.

You're you're pretty good. You have a good foundation, but if you don't learn how to multiply and divide and add and subtract in your head.

You're you're screwed.

Yeah, and it is all sequential, especially when you get to the algebra like you have to know. You have to have a solid foundation of one thing to go jump to the next thing. And you know, kids today, you know, they have calculators, they've got computers. So I don't. And I, truth be told, I am not one for math in my head people.

Always give me a hard time because I'm.

Like uh? Wait, what is it? And and they're like, you're a CPA. You should know this. And I'm like, dude, I use a calculator or spreadsheets all day. Like, I don't. I don't have that. But you do need that. The basic skills of how to do those things. Yes, so.

Yeah, but it's not. It's more like a puzzle.

I think accounting and bookkeeping is more like a puzzle than it is a math.

Problem it can be very puzzly and especially when people aren't doing it correctly, which unfortunately a lot of people that go into business they you know well first of all they go into business because they have a passion for something which is wonderful.

But they may not have a passion for numbers, and so their financial side gets kind of neglected. Or they may think like ohh, I don't want to spend money on a bookkeeper. Ohh, there's the software. I can just use the software and ohh just hook up my bag. Blah blah blah and they think OK and they just cut corners in there. But it could turn into a big hot mess and then that.

Hot mess then comes to someone like me that has to unravel that puzzle. So there is a lot of, like, Detective work. It's very Nancy Drew. I love that stuff. I I, I actually enjoy that side of it. But sometimes it can be years of going.

Years of unraveling, you know. So, uh, you never know how deep that rabbit hole may go.

I yeah, I just being a penny off could really be thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars or in the governments case, millions and billions of dollars, cause apparently they're not all that particular about their accounting.

But you know what? With the woo part of it, like uh, you know, if you go back to.

The Renaissance time, like math, was like alchemy. You know, there was like this whole, like, you know, like, it's almost like a this magical thing. And it's it's kind of cool. I mean it's it's, you know, these like.

Uh, weird. I was going to call weird sciences, but alchemy I I'd have to look up the actual definition of alchemy, but it feels like it's like magic with.

Science combined.

Magic is just science that hasn't been explained yet.

Oh, OK.

To numbers help us to explain things.

And really, I think that's.

It draws it draws reality out of the woo for you.

When it comes to accounting, you take something that's like it's all out there. All the possibilities are out there and you bring them into focus like and it it's it's even a forecasting tool like prediction.

It's it's, it's it's there's some like mystical stuff to it and that if you have the right if you know what your numbers are you can you can know what you need to hit in terms of planning and you can know what the outcome is going to be. You can figure out how much you can expect to make.

Mm-hmm.

Based on the numbers data data is so important.

Yeah, I'm glad you. I'm glad to hear you say that because it is important. I mean, it's important to for us to look to the past so that we can understand what the future hold.

And you know, again, you know accounting is it is backward thinking, but you have to have those tools that information in place so that you can have a crystal ball and maybe in a spreadsheet, but to look towards the future and some of it is going to be guesswork gut.

You know your gut intuition, so it's it's based on that internal, uh.

Maybe it's like I I call it like from your gut. Like your intuition, but then also it it has to be centered in reality like actual data and numbers. So there's it it. Yeah. There's a balance between.

It's.

It's pretty amazing and it's it's not.

It's not as hard as people might think it's going to be, because a lot of the, a lot of it is bank account driven.

There are a.

Lot of other pieces to it and it's really easy to like get.

Get it all tangled up and especially just start bringing in credit cards and interest and buying buildings and doing all the other things to it. But just what are your suggestions to people that are just starting out? Or maybe they've been in business for a while, but they're really not in business because they're.

Not.

Keeping track of their.

Finances.

Yeah, like you said, it doesn't have to be difficult. People actually make it more difficult than it needs to be.

Because when they start a business, oftentimes they, you know, like I mentioned, they have a passion. They were like, ohh, I'll just put this on my personal credit card or I'll just get this. I'll pick this up at the store. And ohh, I guess this is gonna go on my business and now all of a sudden then they're like, oh, I guess I'm supposed to get a business bank account, and now they're like, oh, I gotta pay my electric bill.

But I don't have any money in my personal I'll just use my business and I'm like now all of a sudden, it's all, like, commingled and.

That just makes it more difficult, like if you.

Are going to start a business like open up a business bank account if you you know are unable to like you know, go to the bank or like get an LLC or whatever it is that like. If you want to be a specific like entity structure or all that kind of stuff. And let's just get a separate bank account to start off with. Like if you're not sure you want to like how much money you want to sink into this.

Business or whatever, just get a separate bank account and just make sure that things are separate. Take regular draws, don't be paying your personal bills out of your business like set it up like a business and treat it like a business and it makes it so much easier when it comes to like tax time and that sort of thing.

And you know, a lot of times people are just the only reason.

Why?

They're tracking their receipts and all that stuff is for tax purposes because they have to. But really the sad part is, is that.

They should be really tracking it for themselves, because if they've got a business, they should be knowing what's going on.

But I think a lot of times people don't want, not they don't want to know what the reality is. It's almost like not going not going to the doctor. Like ohh if I don't go to the dock.

Sure, I won't know if I'm sick or not. You know, like the people would almost rather not know. And it's sort of the same thing, you know? It's like, OK, put your big girl pants on a big boy pants and.

Look at your numbers and see where you're at and you know sometimes it is going to be a grim reality. But knowing that that is a grim reality, then you could take action and put things in place like maybe you are. You're pricing uh needs to change or maybe you're not working with the right clients or.

You know, I mean, there's so many different things and maybe it's like you have to find different vendors or maybe you're overspending in a certain area that you don't need to, but you have to examine these things. Otherwise it's just it's just guesswork. And unfortunately, yes, I believe in intuition and all of that.

But sometimes it's a little off where where you can sometimes be wearing rose colored glasses or something, you know, or they look at their bank statement. They're like, ohh, there's money in there and they think, oh, I got money.

But then they, you know, again it could be they could be commingled, we don't know. Like maybe you actually have more expenses that you had on your personal card that you know haven't moved over to the business yet and it's actually not as good as you thought it was, you know, so there's many different factors in there. So yeah, just start from beginning.

Separate your finances. That's the easiest thing you can do.

Another good reason to actually get a business credit card is you build business credit. Instead of living on your own credit, which you can, you can really screw up your own personal credit.

Having a business and running it on your personal credit.

Well, and also if you are set up as like an LLC, you want to make sure that you're putting things in that LLC's name, so you'll get an EIN from the IRS. You know you then you.

Go to the bank with that EIN and you want to keep things separate because the worst thing, I mean the whole idea of having an LLC is for that protection. And I'm not a lawyer. And as far as like any of this information that we talked about today, it's just for informational purposes. This is not tax advice.

Or anything. But you know, if you do have an LLC, open up the bank account and then treat it like a business, because what can happen is if you are audited or you're sued or whatever happens, they can do this thing called piercing the corporate veil. So if you are commingling all your stuff.

To the IRS, or whoever's you know, government entity that you know, if you're getting sued or whatever, it's going to look like you're like, it's all mingled together. Like, where's the? Where does the LLC start and stop? You know, you gotta, you gotta treat it as a separate business. It's a business and has its own things. And then you have your own credit cards and all of that kind of stuff.

Exactly.

Yeah, and.

And the LLC can have its own credit score. I think a lot of people don't realize that, but.

It it can have it, it's its own entity. It's another. It's like you gave birth to a child and it it's not there on the side.

Yeah. Yeah. Treated, yeah, treated separately.

It's not you.

So what would you suggest to people if they're just starting out, or if they've been going along and haven't really?

Maybe they're they've been practicing their coaching business or they've started a business and they're they're making a little money. It's not. Maybe not consistent, but they're.

They've put off doing all of these things and they are commingling their funds because, you know, that's generally what people do when they first.

Hmm.

So what would you suggest to those people? How? How do they get it straightened out now before the mess gets worse?

Yeah. So recognize that, that's your situation. There's no shame in it. So many people have been in that same situation. You can come see someone like me that.

He can help you.

Make sense of it? Divide it up and then just start clean and it doesn't mean that you have to be in a bookkeeping software. It could mean that you just put things in a spreadsheet. You know, it really depends on your the way that you are going to be able to keep this up. If you can't afford.

To have a bookkeeper or something. What is the system that will work for you that you will be consistent with? Is it, uh, writing things on a calendar or putting it in a notebook like just keep things organized?

And that way you can go back and look at it if you don't have a lot of transactions. A spreadsheet is totally fine. I you know, I see some people jumping into using online tools like QuickBooks or Wave or whatever way too soon. Like it's not complicated. It like there's not enough going on.

There's no reason to pay for software. Uh. If you're not bringing in that much money, you don't have that many.

The actions, but there are, you know, low cost ways like wave is another solution but again you have to know what you're doing because otherwise you can kind of monkey it up and then what happens is it costs more for somebody to clean it up and and make sense of it. So you might as well just start.

Start off on the right foot. Have somebody that knows what they're doing, help you set it up, and then you can go from there and see you know.

Can you hire somebody else or not? But I, you know, envelope systems work. I mean, people do you, you know, do something that will you'll stay consistent with.

Would you say?

That if you at least would take your bank statements and your credit card statements, and if you purchase everything that you purchase using one credit card and it's only for your business if you just keep those statements in a folder, when you go to your accountant to and I would suggest.

You know, at least quarterly, if not monthly, have them do an income and then income statement and a balance sheet and.

And then if you do any purchases, put those big purchases, put those receipts in there too.

Yeah, I mean, you know.

It's just like it's so simple that.

And.

We live. Yeah, we live in this day of, you know, everything is electronic and most banks, except for maybe some small credit unions, will allow you to get a what they call a CSV file, which is like an Excel file that you can just download from their website. It has all the transactions already in.

A spreadsheet like ohh now all you have to do is categorize them. So if you don't have that many transactions it's it's a really easy way to do it. I've created spreadsheets, you know that I share with my clients where they can categorize things very very easily and it just tallies it up and then you.

Yes.

You have the banking the checking on one tab you have the credit card, on the other you know and you keep track of the income that's coming in and the different expenses. It can be super easy. It doesn't have to be complicated. And I really believe in keeping it as simple as possible.

Yeah, yeah. And it. And when you're just starting out, there's there's just not that much, honestly.

Yeah, I mean, it depends on what kind of business you have. Like if you have like a lot of like equipment and start up costs and that's sort of thing, you know it depends on the business. But you know if you're talking about like coaches and stuff like that, you know maybe it's some software, maybe it's a laptop, you know other businesses I work with, they might have to buy like a food truck and then all the things that go into it or.

It's not like.

They may have an Airbnb that they're setting up and they buy furniture and you know, there's like all these different things. But if it's just like a coaching business, it's pretty, pretty simple.

And I know I have some clients that do consulting and like grant consulting and that sort of thing. They're they're very little expenses. You know, I mean they have some, but you know, so it depends on what what kind of a business is it is you know, what kind of you know it? Yeah, don't make it as.

Don't make it any harder than it needs to be. Just keep it all separate.

Yeah. And thus ends our conversation.

Now, also though one of the key things about tracking this stuff is knowing if you should be sending in money for taxes. So.

Yeah, that's a good.

You are starting your own business. You know, if you came from the corporate world, you're used.

Due uh your employer taking out the money and sending in the taxes for you, well, now you're your own employer, so you have to take that responsibility and send money in. Now, it depends on, you know, a lot of other factors as far as like maybe your spouse is making a certain amount of money or you've got another job or other side hustles and that sort of thing.

Those factors that come into play, but you know, take responsibility and send it in because otherwise you may end up with penalties.

Who wants to pay penalties and penalties are not and is are not an expense that you can deduct from the business. So that is stuck on you. So and I don't like to pay extra for anything.

Like interest? Don't pay it if you don't have to.

And that brings us to Social Security taxes.

You know, you're used to maybe your company paying that both sides of it, because it's actually there's two sides to that.

You pay half and the company pays half. But when you're self-employed, guess what? You get to pay full size.

MHM.

Yeah. So that is one thing that kind of is a rude awakening for many people is the self-employment tax.

So they may even feel like, well, wait a minute. I have all these other deductions. And that's like you look at the front side of the tax return and you think like, ohh, OK, but that doesn't matter if you have all those deductions on that front side. If you still made money in your business, guess what, you flipped that tax return over. I'm talking about the whole paper ones and.

What there's self-employment tax, so you may get hit with that. So keep in mind that yes.

The government wants their money, so you can't there. Yeah. There's no way around that. So that can be like something that people are.

Just like, wait, what?

I can't believe this, you know.

So and as a person who's reached the age of Social Security, I can tell you that it's important that you.

Actually have some gainful employment along the.

OK so being self-employed and paying that self-employment tax has allowed me to qualify for Social Security. There are a lot of people out there who are maybe not quite to the Social Security age and they're they're unaware of some of the changes that have happened in Social Security like you have to have worked.

Within the last 10 years of collecting Social Security, which?

Hmm.

I have a friend who she's she had to pick up a job because she's she hasn't. She's been homeschooling her kids and living on a farm and doing all that stuff but has no income that she's paid into Social Security. You don't have to pay a lot, but you have to pay something in for.

Wow.

The last 10 years, even if you had a, you know, a big corporate job and you, you made hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it was 20 years ago.

You you meet the 40, the 40 quarter thing your your.

I think it's forty quarters.

Your your basis for what you're going to get is going to be based on that, but you still have to have that 10 year.

Thing in there or or you don't get anything.

Hmm.

Yeah. And a lot of people think like, oh, well, Social Security is going to be gone by the time I go, might get it. But, you know, who knows? And.

You might as well contribute towards it. This is a terrible thing. I'm going to talk about, but what? And this is my father's long dead. But back in, like the 70s, I remember he had a business and he had an employee that worked for him and she was paid under the table.

And so.

She went to retire. She had no Social Security like because for years she had been paid under the table. So.

Yes.

It's not, it's not in your best interest to get paid under the table.

No, I mean one, it's like it's you're supposed to be claiming this money to the IRS anyways. If you're living in America, but but it also, it's just going to like in the but in the end anyways, because now you're not putting any money away so.

You know no rules.

You.

It's not a benefit, it's not something that everybody just automatically qualifies for when they hit whatever the retirement age is. It's something that you're it's an insurance, it's something that you're contributing to. You're paying a premium on so that you can get a reward.

At a certain agreed upon point and but there's rules about it and.

We don't talk about this.

In in normal society, you know.

And so you have people that are.

Hitting the retirement age and they're like what?

Well, can I just say though that uh, when you told me that you're collecting Social Security, I was kind of blown away because you look way too young.

I'm 64.

Oh, OK, thank you though.

I thought you were much younger, so I was like what?

Yes.

OK.

But we just had to start looking into it because we were getting close to that point. And there's another thing that is out there that most people don't know about, and that's the you can collect half of your spouses Social Security if it's more than yours.

Hmm.

You can collect the difference and you can you can collect.

Your X's.

Half of your ex's Social Security. If neither of you remarried, or if you didn't remarry, if you were. If you were married for at least a year.

Ohh OK, that's very interesting.

Or I think in my case it had to be 10 years. There's there's a 10 year thing in there somewhere which I thought was really interesting also. And I hadn't known about that. But my dad told me about that.

Because a lot of.

Hmm.

Back in the 70s and 80s, when you know women were.

They weren't really making that much money and and then their husbands they supported, you know, their husbands going through school and then their husband supported them and then they get divorced. And so now these women had no nothing.

Hmm.

And I think that's when those those laws started.

Coming into play, but just.

Umm, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. When my mom, my my dad passed away, my mom was still alive. She got her amount was altered a bit. So it went. It did go up. I'm not an expert in Social Security. And I will say that, you know, every year, you know, things may change. So.

Just make sure that you know you're looking at. Maybe what you're you're going to retire if there's, you know, things.

That rule, you know, tax stuff always changes. And there's like always things that are gonna sunset. So there's like things that are active today, may have a like a a certain time where they expire and or something new comes in. So yeah. But you know, it's always good to like not rely just on Social Security but to have other means of retirement. So.

You know, if you are able to put towards a Roth, it's a.

Great way to it doesn't lower your tax burden, but it but you take the money now and it grows over time. And then when you take it out, you don't have to pay tax on the game. So that's a, you know, that's a great, great thing. But if you are self-employed you can have, you know like a solo 4 and 1K.

Or something like that. It helps reduce your taxes and you're putting money towards your future as well, so it's good to, you know, I'm not a financial planner, but so I can.

Speak on like you know, certain things. But I can say it's good to diversify, you know, and put your money in different places so you know, high risk, low risk. You know, it depends on. You can look at what you're you plan to retire and you know and you know The thing is that we live in this time where things are.

Rapidly increasing in price.

And uh it, where I live in Portland, the the rent has just like, exploded a mortgage. Not more. I'm sorry.

Well, you know, the mortgage interest now has gone up, but real estate tax has really gone up. So people have maybe had their home, they paid it off a long time ago. All of a sudden now the property tax is like shot up to the point where they can't even afford to live in a house that's already paid for and.

Uh, so that's really sad. And then you see, like, a lot of older people working.

Thing and I always talk to them to see, like, you know, is it by choice like like and some of them be like I was so bored retired. I wanted to work, you know. OK, that's fine. But then when you see some people that just look like, Oh my God, you feel so bad. It's like this is this is their only option. Like they're just not making enough. They probably didn't get enough from Social Security.

Whatever it is and and it's just very expensive to live now. So yeah. So we have to kind of think about our future and especially if you're getting close to that that age but.

Now is always the best time to think about your future. When it comes to to planning for you know, what's your life going to look like when when you're older and you don't have the energy that you had when you're in your 20s and 30s and 40s because it.

It arrives quickly, more quickly than you will anticipate. Trust me on this and it's not. It's not that hard to say, even if it's just a little bit, you know, $50.00 a month.

Or a week if you can, you know, just put it aside and invest it in something you.

MHM.

You never know and and put it in different. Some things don't, just like depend on like the stock market or I.

You know I.

I like cryptos. I'm doing really well right now.

Ohh good for you. I did not have that kind of luck.

I I didn't just do cryptos, I did gold and silver and I did stocks and and mutual funds.

Oh, OK, yeah. Yes.

Yeah.

And and 401K's and I mean we did a lot of different things, not just one thing. So you know sometimes some things go up and some things go down, but we didn't get wiped out when you know if the stock market crashes, it's not the end of the world for us.

MHM.

Right.

Yeah, and and things always you know good. They go up, they go down. You know it's like you just kind of have to ride it out.

And it, you know, as long as it's diversified and then you should be OK. And yes, some things are gonna be, you know, it's can be kind of like gambling at times. But hey, I'll tell you, it probably pays better odds than going to Las Vegas and putting money into machines. And I have a lot of family members that have worked in the casino.

Industry and the house is always, you know, it's built for the house to always win. So yes, you might win a few 100 bucks here and there, but really putting money into a retirement fund is a much safer.

In place, rather than just putting quarters into machine, so and now and now they don't even have quarters now. They just you, you put in a ticket in there so it takes away that whole thing and it just draining your bank account.

Yeah, I don't get that, but.

I've never been.

One for.

I'll buy lottery tickets, but I want to. I I lived in things. I graduated from high school in Las Vegas, but Ohh never just the whole gambling thing is like I don't.

To the point.

Yeah. And I mean, I know people have addictions to it and you know, it's that that rush of like, oh, am I gonna win? And, you know, sometimes you can get lured into those things. You know, it's like, but you have to, you know, have a conversation with yourself. Like, am I OK to lose X amount of dollars? Because that's probably what's going to happen and be able to just walk away.

When that happens, you know I'm one of those. If I do win, I'm like, I'm I'm cashing out like because I like.

Yeah.

Yeah. Or you put 1/4 in and you suddenly win big windfall. Then by that, I mean like, maybe 10 bucks dinner. Yes, that's how I am, too.

Yeah.

Yeah. When it comes to to planning for your future and it kind of goes back to understanding what your end game is for when you create your business, what, what does success look like for you and and plan for?

Yeah, because some people may want to actually sell the business or they want to give it to a family member. Or maybe, you know, I mean, I work with a lot of women who are later in life where, you know, maybe their corporate career is over. Maybe they are in retirement and they're like, I'm bored. I want to start a business or maybe their spouses.

Planning the.

Passed away and now they have to like, think about like, oh, OK, Now I, you know, maybe they were working part time or something before, but now it's like I need more money coming in or I mean there could be a variety of things. You know, the the pandemic of course like changed everything. I mean the whole world changed.

But a lot of people were kind of forced out of work and it is tougher for people. I'm I'm 55. It is just tougher to find a job when you are older because you know companies are not supposed to you.

Know.

Be ageist or anything, but I have talked to people who have.

Said that, like when they took when they took away their year of graduation off of their LinkedIn page, they got more responses after they did that like that were older like me so or they took away some of their.

Prior experience because it was so, so much older that finally like they were getting calls. So I mean it obviously ageism is definitely out there and you know the young people more power to them, they know a lot of things about technology and stuff that probably a lot of older people don't know and.

But you know, I think the workplace needs a nice balance of people that are older and younger, so.

It needs it needs a good blend because there's different perspectives on everything you know.

Yeah.

I agree.

And I own being old. I I love it. I wouldn't change it for the world, you know? It's like I feel like I finally arrived and I can enjoy life now. I don't feel like I.

Have a job.

But I really haven't had jobs much in my life. I've been self-employed.

Lot of my life.

Well, that's cool. That's very nice. I mean, that's, you know, that is a privilege that like, you know, a lot of people want to take advantage of. And like for me like.

I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but there was a side of me that was like always afraid, like ohh.

You know, and my parents grew up during the depression, so I've I have, like, a scarcity mindset, like built into me. So it's like, ohh, but what if I don't make this or or what if I fail and I can't.

You know, pay my mortgage or you know all these things. But when you get older in life, you're you're kind of like, well, wait a minute. If I don't do this now, when am I gonna do this? You know, so you have a different attitude. I think it's a little bit easier, I think, like when you're super young, you don't know what, you know, all the things yet. It's so like you're you're you're ready to take more risks.

Who?

What you don't know?

And then when you're in that sort of middle stage of like, ohh crap, I owe these things. I got these credit cards. I got two loan debts. You know, it's like then it's it's a little bit more difficult to just kind of go.

Out and and and explore your different ideas, but I think later in life is a good, good time. I. You know, I think these are in my 50s. That's when I started my business. Has it been some some the best, some of the best years of my life. You know I've met. Met so many people and you know you get to work with the people that you want to work with. You're not forced to.

Have UM clients that are terrible that you don't want to work with and you know and it become a yeah. Yeah. And all the office politics. And you know, when I look back at all those things and it was like, that was really toxic, you know, and.

Co employees.

And I I'll admit I was guilty of falling into that kind of stuff, cause it's like it's easier to live in a world of negativity and complain. And, you know, especially when you're unhappy in your job and stuff. It's like everybody likes to complain. And now I find that my world is way more positive.

And I wake up every day excited and not like.

Drain that I have to do something that I can't stand or, you know, feel like I'm undervalued or whatever it is, you know, or have to work on something I don't feel like working on. And so yeah, it's just so much. It's so much better now. It's and everything is more positive. So.

Yeah, I like the positive part of it, I I think.

It's just like it, just the things that used to bother me or worry me. I like it just doesn't matter anymore.

Well, and I used to be sick. I used to get sick a lot too when I was working and I think not only are you exposed to germs in the office place, but I think it was just the stress of it and now.

So.

Even though I know I have to like.

Make my own money and all that. But it's still. It's on me. It's not on the. Relying on other people like I. Now I can make my own decisions. And yeah, it's so even though yes, money has to come in and there's some stress around it. But I I'm not stressed out, you know, I mean.

Sometimes, maybe. But you know, for the most part, I'm.

Not.

That's that's the place to be, though I think you know.

So.

So how do people work with?

You if they want to.

Yeah. Thank you.

Get in touch with you.

For, yeah, so I I have like kind of two sides to my business. One is under Zeiss Wolfe accounting. So that's my last name.

And uh, if you go to that website, you'll see I have bookkeeping and tax prep and tax services there. And then I have another website because.

Zeiss Wolf accounting is not the easiest thing to spell, so I have another website. If you go to get rad biz.com. So because I like to say like get radical with your business so get rad biz.com you can go there and I talk about my profit advising.

CFO Services and you know, I like to work with people one-on-one. I've had group programs. I don't have anything right now, but I do offer free workshop.

And I have free downloads and things like that, and I've also been super getting into AI. So if your business, if you're thinking like, oh, I wanna do something with AI, but I'm not really sure what to do. I also offer services and helping you kind of tap into that. And my whole thing is like, it's not about.

You know, making AI do something from scratch, like I'm all about, like, use your own creativity and use this as an extension of yourself. Like it's like an extra brain for yourself so.

Yeah. I just, I just read this. This was disturbing. I just read this article yesterday about teachers using AI to grade kids papers and how like teachers are now going to be not very involved in reading like the kids stuff and knowing what the kids are writing about. And I was thinking like, OK.

So the kids are probably using AI to write things, and now the teachers are using AI to grade the papers. Like where's the where's the human element in all of this? This is terrible. Like, I don't want AI for that. Like, that's not what I'm talking about. So.

I'm waiting for AI to become self.

Replicating where it.

It becomes an echo chamber because so many people are depending on it.

And using it to create content. So AI grabs the content.

And regurgitates it and it it becomes like telephone that old game.

Hmm.

Yep, Yep.

Per game I I wonder if that won't happen at some point.

Oh, I think it's already happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely. And. And The thing is, you got to message it and teach it and rework things. It's it's not right out-of-the-box. You're not going to get the right right response, but.

But again, I like you know, if you've got a podcast, I work with a lot of podcasters.

You know, from this you get a transcript, you can put it. Now we can use AI to give us a transcript from something. You put that into, you know, whatever your choice. If it's ChatGPT or Claude or whatever, whatever you're using and then create show notes or a summary or something like that and you can turn into a blog post.

And you don't have to use it straight out of what it gives you. Then put in your own little finesse. But yeah, I mean, it can be a time saver. I love Productivity Tools. So I think if it's used correctly, that it can be a great resource.

It's just.

I agree, and and sometimes you just need wording like you have an idea and you just don't want to sit there and think about it anymore. This is what this is what I'm thinking. Make it short and snappy and make it sound like me.

Yeah. Yeah. Or like taking, like, for instance, for going on podcasts.

Like oftentimes they'll say like, give me a bio, a bio.

So that it's, you know, a few paragraphs and then another one will say give me 5 lines and I'm like, OK, so you know, you can put it in there and it will give you some suggestions, maybe it's not so good, but maybe you can go in there and like steal like, OK, this sentence, this sentence and this sentence. I'll put those together, you know? So yeah, you know, it's.

It it can be a time saver, but also it can also go on some weird tangents too.

So yeah.

So.

People can get your profit, a strategy session off of your website that can.

Yeah, they can go there. If they go to get rad biz.com and there's a connect button on there, you can just connect with me. You can also find me on Instagram at get rabiz and yeah, just look me up and just DM me on. I'll talk to you and you know, I'm on Facebook. I've got Facebook groups.

And I'm on LinkedIn and you know, if you're a business owner, LinkedIn is probably the best place to find me. But, you know, have a human connection with me, and I will have a human connection with you back. The worst thing is on LinkedIn and being like inundated with people just trying to sell me stuff out-of-the-box. So let's get to know each other. And, you know, I won't try to sell you anything either.

Let's just.

Me. I I love connecting with people, humans, humans, not robots.

Be human.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what's the one thing that you hope the audience takes away from this conversation today, Heather?

Oh.

Ohh well, uh. Hopefully that if you do have a business or if you're thinking about having a business.

Yes.

Think about how do I treat it like a business? How can I set this up like a business? And you know, come talk to me. Just drop me a, you know, chat or anything and I can steer you in the right direction. I've made so many different learning tools. I, you know, I have so many links that I can share with people. I mean, there's so much information out there. But.

I think it's also there's so much information that sometimes you don't know where to look to like, narrow down to what you need to do. So. Uh, yeah. Just let me know and I'll, I'll help you so.

Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. This is great.