KIS & Tell October 2021

Here's some food for thought.

I read an awesome quote from a recent interview between Danny Meyer, CEO of the Union Square Restaurant Group, and a CNN Business anchor.

"If you really want to go unvaccinated, you can dine somewhere else."

Oh, the corporate nostalgia this brought up!

Through my schooling and early work, a common belief was "Corporate America knows best." These are the guys that are crunching the numbers, to see what makes the most sense financially.

Even if a decision seemed immoral, many people could justify it because of the smart people in Corporate America. As in, "JP Morgan is doing it so it must be okay. They must know something I don't."

When I was younger, I used to rely on Corporate America's judgment a lot. Now, I don't always agree with this line of thinking. But, I digress.

With the still strong anti-vaxx movement and the Delta variant spreading like wildfire in a drought, Corporate America has had enough. 

Hence, the Union Square CEO's quote. After centuries of conservative, pro-business laws and Supreme Court rulings, it is within a business’s legal right to refuse service and employment. “Right to work,” ring a bell?

These businesses have looked at the numbers, considered multiple scenarios, and analyzed the risks. The result was that what’s best for business is to vaccinate everyone. Pretty conservative, no?

Fresh Content

Hot off the press & onto the blog, website, and beyond.

It’s been a hot minute since the last KIS & Tell. Tax season, travels, and other content took priority. Here’s the highlight reel of what we’ve published since May:

Blogs—quite a few actually! 

Free resources including a spreadsheet to track your finances if you don’t use software and a quiz to determine what legal form of business is best for your company.

And the big one… 🥁 drumroll, please… I launched a shop! 

Right now you can grab the Biz Wellness Plan to organize all your tax, legal, and admin to-do’s so they won’t slip through the cracks ever again. I’ll be adding more to the shop before the end of the year so watch this space. 

App of My Eye

I'm always on the lookout for new apps that help make running a business easier! Here are the best finds over the past month.

I’m a big fan of checklists. 

1. They are fun to check off. 

2. It makes me feel productive writing one. 

3. It gets stuff out of my brain so I won’t forget and can relax. 

Asana is like a big checklist with lots of extra useful features. It’s a place to store important notes, so you can have all the info you need when you need it. It has reminders, so recurring work will automatically recur. It’s organized and easy to use. Sometimes it feels like my second brain! 

I’ve used Asana to manage my client work. So much of my work repeats. Being able to set tasks to repeat automatically at custom intervals is a blessing. However, it’s even better when I’m collaborating with contractors on internal projects. We can brainstorm within the app, toss ideas around, assign tasks, upload files, manage the work, and have a clear idea of where we are in the process.

Since it’s such a key part of how I run my business, it’s where I built the Biz Wellness Plan. Asana is a perfect app to stay on top of repetitive and diverse tasks. 

Unrelated to business, I’m smitten with Asana. The word “asana” comes from yoga. It means the physical postures. Most Westerners think that yoga is just a physical practice, but that’s only 1/8th of what yoga is. Using this tool reminds me to practice the other forms of yoga off the mat.  📿

Best Reads

I love to learn. Especially with business, there are always new perspectives and information we can benefit from. Here's my latest fav.

The Logic of Corporate Accounting - ROI

How often do you think about the returns on your investments? For example, how you spend your time, energy, or money?

Going back to the idea that Corporate America knows best, we’ve all agreed with them so much that the lingo seeped into our culture. We use business metrics to evaluate our personal decisions. One such metric, return on investment (ROI), is used now in many situations outside of traditional financial analysis. 

The formula is very black and white. A positive return means it’s a worthwhile endeavor. A negative return means you shouldn’t do it. 

People use ROI to consider what they will get in return for their effort, not necessarily their money. In a way, it’s like asking, “what’s in it for me?” It is a helpful tool, however, you have to keep in mind context.

The tricky part in the expanded use of ROI is that not everything can be boiled down to a dollar value. Intangibles, like happiness and satisfaction, don’t have a price. Thus we have to modify how we evaluate returns because it becomes subjective. 

This article was a refreshing read! I highly recommend reading the whole article if you’ve ever considered the ROI on a personal decision.

Practicing Simplicity

Practical tips to simplify your business.

Practice: Add your most used websites and apps to your bookmarks bar, edit the bookmark and delete the name.

Rationale: You can condense all the links you need to fit within the bookmarks bar. What will be left is the website’s favicon. 

Tools: any web browser

QuickBooks Tricks

New features & hacks to get more out of your QB subscription

There’s a new integration built right into the Transactions (formerly “Banking”) section - Amazon Business. It’s siloed under the new “App Transactions” tab.  

Amazon purchases are a pain to record because they bill you when they ship items. One order can be split into multiple shipments and it’s hard to line up the correct receipts with payments. The new integration fixes this issue. What a relief! 

You can also categorize each item you bought. You could book every item you purchased to a different account if need be, like Office Expense, Electronics, Supplies, Continued Education,  --  you get the point. ☺️

Also under App Transactions, you can sync Square. I haven’t tested this integration yet. The normal Square integration is okay. Since the Amazon integration is so good, I look forward to testing this new integration with Square. 

Tax Tips

The world of tax is constantly changing. Here's what you need to know.

Here’s a little-known pandemic benefit - meals are 100% deductible in 2021. In a normal year, a business can deduct 50% of the cost. This increase is an incentive for businesses to go to restaurants and help them recover. You can show them your support and get a tax deduction.

In this context, a restaurant is any business that sells food for immediate consumption. It does not include a grocery store, convenience store, vending machine, liquor store, and the like.

Now go forth and treat your team, prospects, and best clients to lunch! 

(Just make sure to keep your receipt and write down who was there and what y’all discussed.)

Sharing Cents

Every month, I donate to a different cause. All thanks to my clients. 💖 Here’s who *we* gave to this month.

Somewhere in my early twenties, I decided I wanted to move to Australia. For lots of reasons, it hasn’t happened yet, but I did get a visa, visit the country, and still absolutely love it. Beaches, chill vibes, rainforests, and that accent - what’s not to love? 

Best of all, one of my favorite animals is there - koalas!! 🐨🐨🐨

Now climate change and human development are hurting koalas. Roads and fires are huge dangers, as well as the loss of habitat and even pets, like dogs. 

After the horrible fires in 2019, I came across the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie. Since then, we’ve been supporting this organization in two ways. First, by “adopting” individual koalas, and second, by planting eucalyptus trees. 

One of our adopted koalas is Maria River Road Jan. Here is his story, from a very ill joey curled up in the middle of a road, through his up-and-down recovery, to a peaceful life today. I love how they shared his story, as well as this video of him happily munching and playing in his own sanctuary. 

Thank you.😥❤️🐨❤️

Kitty Corner

It's impossible for me to get through a newsletter without mentioning my furbabies!

I was really worried all Spring. But thank goodness, the fur did not fly while I was away in Mexico. Instead, I came home to some sweet, sweet cuddles. 

I’m not sure Cami is very happy here, but Phoenix wants to be just like her big sister. 

Having a few months without the parents around made them closer. It makes my heart glow to see them getting along better. Cami will still act like she doesn’t want a sister, but then I catch them like this. The snuggle is real!

Heads up

Tax deadlines, events, and upcoming things you need to know!

It’s Q4 already! I don’t know about y’all, but this year went by so fast. It’s already time to file any tax extensions (due on 10/15), reassess your income and estimated tax payments, and make any changes you want to before the ball drops in Times Square. 

For me, I’m pushing through a couple exciting projects to finish off my annual goals. (Yes, I keep to them all year because I have accountability!). The goal is to finish before December so that I can end the year with glorious rest. 

For the first time in years, I do not have to travel every three months in order to keep my little family together. I can stay put!! Last month, I got my temporary Swedish residency visa. *Happy Dance*

Now, I’m settling into some new hobbies, like watercolor painting, and enjoying whatever pumpkin products I can find (people here don’t get it, but I’m working to change that). Happy Fall, y’all!