Tax Season Tips for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

Larry Roberts [00:00:09]:

What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:00:12]:

And I'm Sara Lohse. And this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

Larry Roberts [00:00:16]:

And on this episode of the podcast, we have an amazing guest with us today. His name is PT and he is the owner and founder of fincon, a massive creator conference for those that are in the finance space. So hopefully we're going to learn some ins and outs of how we manage our brand from a financial and even tax perspective. So, pt, thanks for joining us, man.

Philip Taylor [00:00:40]:

Larry, Sara, it's good to be on with you guys.

Sara Lohse [00:00:43]:

Happy to have you. You. So you. Your background was actually as a cpa and you just recently got back into practicing as a cpa, right?

Philip Taylor [00:00:53]:

Yep. It's a little bit of a wild story, but definitely, definitely have my CPA and accounting degree. Came up through college with that and spent some time in public accounting and then jump. You're right. Jumping back in.

Sara Lohse [00:01:06]:

Yeah. And congratulations. I know you're opening a new practice and. Or taking over your father's practice.

Philip Taylor [00:01:11]:

Yeah, yeah. So what's. I'll let. I'll let you in on it. So certainly my dad's had a. Had a firm for several years and just became apparent to me that, you know, it was going to be me taking it over or no one else. And so I'm jumping back into the. The CPA firm business.

Philip Taylor [00:01:28]:

It's a great firm with young staff, and we're turning it into a virtual firm. Right. My dad had more of a physical location serving clients in the Branson, Missouri area. But we're going to sort of turn that virtually. I've been in the sort of the Internet business world for the past 15 years, so I'm very comfortable, like, marketing online and serving clients online. And so that's kind of where we're going to be shifting the firm. So I'm excited about jumping back in with actually client services and actually turning the firm potentially into a firm that serves specifically online creators. So we're going to be taking people from fincon and offer them a bookkeeping and tax solution to help them throughout the year.

Philip Taylor [00:02:09]:

So that's the idea.

Sara Lohse [00:02:10]:

Please.

Larry Roberts [00:02:11]:

That's cool, man. You know, it's funny, and I don't even think Sara knows this story, but coming right out of high school, I was a little confused. Didn't know exactly what I was going to do.

Sara Lohse [00:02:19]:

No, I know that.

Larry Roberts [00:02:20]:

And. Well, yeah, you know that part. But I was actually enrolled to go to DeVry, of all places to ride, to be a CPA. I thought that CPA was, was My path in life now, today, I can barely look at, look at that. Look at the look on her face. She's super perplexed. She's like, bro, you barely pay your taxes, man.

Sara Lohse [00:02:41]:

Seriously, you didn't make it very far, huh?

Larry Roberts [00:02:46]:

Numbers aren't your thing. But yeah, honestly, it was. And I was enrolled into Bry, but ended up having a kid instead. So that's.

Philip Taylor [00:02:53]:

It worked out a little different.

Sara Lohse [00:02:54]:

Yeah, that'll do it.

Philip Taylor [00:02:55]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I definitely didn't, I didn't take the, the traditional career path either. I was, I was more of a natural marketer and like you. And so even in my time working in the firms, it was apparent that, like, I was probably more suited to be on the entrepreneur side. After I would do a tax return for, for a business owner or a real estate investor or something, I kept saying to myself, ooh, I want to be this kind of person one day. You know, the person I'm doing the return for. And I would. I told my partner that one time and he said, that's crazy.

Philip Taylor [00:03:27]:

I actually want to be this not one of the entrepreneurs. And so he's like, you should probably go be an entrepreneur for a while before you help help people out with their finances. But yeah, I'm the opposite.

Sara Lohse [00:03:38]:

I never thought I would ever own a business or do anything because I was so afraid of the taxes and all of that that goes into it. So kind of jumping into that, what is the first thing or like the, your best tips for someone that is like us taking that entrepreneurial journey, launching an LLC or becoming self employed? How do we even get started in a way that'll make tax time easier?

Philip Taylor [00:04:07]:

So certainly as a business owner, you want to focus primarily on sales and marketing up front to get clients in, get business going. But if you've done that, you've sort of proven out the model cash is coming in, you're like, okay, this is a true business and I'm, I'm getting going. What you'd probably want to do before the end of the year or as soon as possible is spend some time separating your business from your personal financial endeavors. So when you first started, they were probably sort of co mingled. You just had one checking account, one savings account, and didn't have anything really established. So as much as possible, wall off the business from your personal life. So I suggest if you're not opposed to credit cards, if you're comfortable using cards, paying them off every month, first step, always sort of suggest is to, is to maybe get a business credit card and start moving the business expenses through that initially. That'll at least wall off the expense side, which is typically where the more the volume of the finances of the businesses.

Philip Taylor [00:05:06]:

And then if that's at a bank or an institution that also offers a checking account, go ahead and take the step of get that going as well. So you've got sort of the tool to use to run the business through to a degree and then you've got the account to sort of start holding, you know, the inbound cash that's coming in.

Larry Roberts [00:05:24]:

Let me jump in there real quick, PT Because I think a lot of people miss out on the differentiation between having a personal, personal checking account and a business checking account. Really when it gets down to the focus of having. And you mentioned the credit card and that's really what kind of triggered this was having personal credit cards and business credit cards. Your credit rating for the two are entirely different. Can you kind of educate us there on that process a little bit?

Philip Taylor [00:05:49]:

Yep. Well, certainly talk to the financial institution who's rolling it out. But I would say that for the most part, any new business that you start, the bank or the institution is going to be, it's going to be associated with your, with your Social Security number. So there will be somewhat of a personal check against that credit. However.

Larry Roberts [00:06:10]:

And I'm so sorry, I don't mean to jump in, but I just want to differentiate. So you're talking about, it sounds like you're talking about from more of a DBA perspective than if you go out and establish an llc. Is that, is that the difference there?

Philip Taylor [00:06:21]:

Yep, exactly. Okay. Because we hadn't got there yet. You know, I think the account is probably a good space first just to do it. And that's going to be. You can get a business credit card, but it's going to be certainly tied to your name and your Social Security number. So before you get what's called an ein, an employer.

Sara Lohse [00:06:40]:

I did a notification number.

Philip Taylor [00:06:42]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. From, from the irs. Then it's going to be hard for you, I guess, to establish that, that business line of credit or, or a credit card associated with purely the business.

Larry Roberts [00:06:53]:

And I laugh there, I laugh there, PT Because I've always been a side hustle kind of guy and I literally used to, I had a website called Tax ID solutions dot com.

Philip Taylor [00:07:04]:

Nice.

Larry Roberts [00:07:05]:

And look at, look at Sara. She's so disgusted. And I'm. But I would, I would help people establish their ein numbers.

Sara Lohse [00:07:13]:

Help is a very strong word here.

Larry Roberts [00:07:15]:

No, no, because, you know, if a lot of people don't know how to establish an ein. They don't know how to go get their tax ID number, which is synonymous with an ein number. And so I had a website that for a small fee, I would direct you where you needed to go. So I was more of an information outlet and I would say, hey, you want your tax I.D. go right here. And I would buy Google Ads at the time and I was doing the pay per click campaigns and tax ID solutions was at the top of Google. So if you typed in tax id, my website came up first. Click there.

Sara Lohse [00:07:46]:

He sold them a link to, to the website that you set it up. That is what he did. That's just you pay me for the service.

Larry Roberts [00:07:54]:

How is that?

Sara Lohse [00:07:55]:

Click here.

Larry Roberts [00:07:55]:

How is that not a service? They didn't know where to go. I gave them directions. It was, I, I still don't understand how it wasn't a service.

Philip Taylor [00:08:02]:

I love it. I actually really love that because the process, the process can be difficult and.

Larry Roberts [00:08:08]:

Yes.

Philip Taylor [00:08:09]:

And if you throw in the LLC component, if you're like, okay, I need the ID number plus the llc, then you're dealing with the states, you've got a sort of a federal, federal deal. And we all know government websites aren't necessarily the best at directing where to go, how to set, set things up. And then on the LLC side, you've got the state that you're dealing with and every state does it differently. So there's, there is a lot of hand holding that is, is needed to be done. I, I guess for, for upstart business owners there. And I, when I went through the process the first time, I actually wrote a blog post about it. So in a similar way, I kind of shared that process on my blog, walking us through these exact steps. Bank account, credit card, SL bank account, then the ein, then the llc.

Sara Lohse [00:08:52]:

I think I did this backwards.

Philip Taylor [00:08:54]:

And then, and then you've got, and then you, and then you've got really the, the bones of the skeleton of, of like a good business setup at that point. So that's, that's basically the bare minimum I would say you'd want to have. The LLC part can come a little later if you want to maybe fully establish the business to do that. But that helps in terms of like continue to separate the business and the, and the personal side. It helps with spreading the liability of the business around. The LLC is the limited liability company. So yeah, I think having that set up next is probably a wise thing.

Sara Lohse [00:09:33]:

So was I set up my llc, got my tax ID number and then Set up all the bank accounts and the credit card. Did I do it wrong?

Philip Taylor [00:09:41]:

No, no, no, that's fine, that's fine. I just don't want the legalities of those two things to slow the business owner down and to immediately have them separate. Because then at that point, once you have the ID number in the llc, you may want to then go establish like a, a true business account or true business line of credit or whatever. But entrepreneurs just need to get going and they just separated as quick as possible. Focus on sales and marketing.

Sara Lohse [00:10:06]:

And now since I'm an LLC and I'm like the sole proprietor, whatever, however you say it, I'm. These are big words for me when I go to file my taxes, am I actually filing them together? Like, I don't file the business taxes separately.

Philip Taylor [00:10:22]:

You don't, you don't necessarily have to. So the way it works is so if you establish the LLC, what you'll do is you'll still file your 1040, but you'll add on a Schedule C for that for that year's filing. The Schedule C is where you put all the income and expenses associated with that business. Now you don't have to have an LLC to, to file the, the Schedule C. You can do that just if you have a business running through. Just, just if you're running a business, that's where you would put the profit and loss from that business on there. But if you have the LLC and it's a single member, meaning you're the only member of that llc, then you would also put that on a Schedule C. The only exception is if we're getting in sort of the weeds here already.

Philip Taylor [00:11:06]:

But if you were to. So the way the LLC works from a tax perspective is it's considered, especially for the single member llc, it's considered a pass through entity. And so the IRS basically ignores it and says, okay, here's this extra sheet you can put all your business income on. You can be an LLC or not, we don't care. But, but that's where all your business income goes on that Schedule C. And then that's going to pass over to your 1040 and you'll still pay taxes on it just like you would for any other type of source of income. The only exception though is if you get into what's called an S Corp. So you establish yourself as an llc, filing your taxes as an S Corp.

Philip Taylor [00:11:48]:

And what that does is it puts you into a corporation status with a single corporation status with the irs. And so you, you would then move your business over into a different form, an entirely different tax form. You still do your 1040 personally, but then you have an 1120s for the, the business. And so, and then you, the 1120s would be due on March 15, the 1040 due on April 15, and then you would marry those two up to file your personal return. So subtle difference. S Corp status selection is not something a new entrepreneur necessarily needs to worry about. But at some point it makes sense. And I can explain the reason that it makes sense if you'd like.

Philip Taylor [00:12:29]:

Down the road in this conversation, it might be too heady for everyone's point.

Sara Lohse [00:12:34]:

My brain already hurts.

Larry Roberts [00:12:35]:

It's a little, it's a little deep, I think. You know, what I would kind of be interested in and hopefully some of our listeners would be interested in is, you know, as an entrepreneur and somebody that's established their brand and they're still trying to get their footing, taxes can definitely be very intimidating aspect of what we do. But I think what a lot of people are looking for is those deductions.

Philip Taylor [00:12:55]:

Yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:12:56]:

Talk to us about and what are some of the things that we can save money on?

Philip Taylor [00:13:00]:

Yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:13:00]:

By having a business account and being entrepreneurs. Because I mean, cash flow is always a struggle, especially as an early on entrepreneur. That cash flow can be very, very tight. And if we can write some of these things off or save money, I think that's to our advantage. So could you give us some insight there on some of the things that we may overlook, some of the most common deductions that people don't take into account.

Philip Taylor [00:13:21]:

Sure, absolutely. So certainly setting up the separate account helps because then you can identify what your expenses are and whatever things that's associated with the business. And then as you're pulling that card out, it sort of triggers you to say, oh, is this associated, if this is this, you know, meal associated with something with the business, is this thing I'm buying from my office associated with it? So it puts you in the mindset of like looking for these types of deductions. But that's the normal everyday average spending. So anything you spend, it's called ordinary and necessary. Is the IRS language. If it's an ordinary or necessary expense associated with their business, you can deduct it on your schedule C or on that as part of that S Corp. Through the 1120s that I mentioned.

Philip Taylor [00:14:07]:

But what are the outside of the box things? Right. So you're going to have your standard expenses, your, you know, anything associated with the business. But what are some, some of the outside of the box things? Maybe at the end of the year, like, okay, I want to maybe add on some expenses or do some things to save money on my taxes, like you mentioned. So a couple of things through the years that I've done is focus on accelerating my expenses. So I'll look at what I would maybe spend in the first quarter of the next year and maybe try to accelerate some of those expenses. And when I. What I mean is basically like, if you're going to a conference that you know you're going to next year, then go ahead and buy that ticket for that conference.

Sara Lohse [00:14:46]:

Like fincon.

Larry Roberts [00:14:47]:

Yeah, I said fincom. But being the professional that I am, I was muted, so that worked out really well.

Philip Taylor [00:14:53]:

Yeah, so. So accelerate some of your expenses. That's the way to think about it. Of course, that affects next year's taxes. So you're sort of always playing that acceleration game if you go down that route. Some other big ideas are not to not do forget the fact that you have a home office. And oftentimes people think, well, it's not. I'm not paying rent, so I don't necessarily have to.

Philip Taylor [00:15:15]:

I can't deduct that. But. No, you can. You can deduct the extent.

Larry Roberts [00:15:19]:

And that's something where every year I try to deduct my office by studio, because this is my home studio. I mean, it's literally a room in my house that is my studio. Plus I have another space that I do all of my development and actual real work goes on in a totally different room. But every time I do my taxes, it comes back because I don't qualify to write it off. And it's super frustrating. I don't know how I. I know I have to be doing something wrong, but it's. Yeah, because I get zero deduction no matter what I claim.

Larry Roberts [00:15:48]:

I mean, I've claimed the whole square footage of the house and it still goes, nah, you're good. You're not getting a deduction. I don't. I don't know what I'm doing wrong there, and I know you can't answer that today, pt. But I mean, this is an example. It's it, it, it. Those types of deductions kind of frustrate me, but I think some. Someone like yourself could help other entrepreneurs that might be falling into that same rut.

Philip Taylor [00:16:08]:

Yep, yep. Well, on schedule C, they have two methods you can use to deduct that home office. There's sort of a simplified version which basically takes, I think, $5 a square foot for the room, or there's sort of A more complex version which kind of takes into effect, like, some of your actual expenses associated with it. So there's two ways you can calculate it, but there. There may be some limitations, like you said, that might apply to your particular situation that may prevent you from doing that. But. And also maybe the software that you're using.

Larry Roberts [00:16:40]:

So good old TurboTax.

Philip Taylor [00:16:46]:

Yeah, it might be worth visiting a CPA to look through it and see, you know, why that limitation's happening. Try to understand that a little deeper. But yes. Home, office, something you always should try to deduct every year. The vehicle that you used for your business. So if you went, if you drove it to conferences, if you drove it to meet clients, if you, you know, use it as part of your business, then certainly you should be deducting that as well. So those are two big items, car and home. And then some additional levers you can pull are.

Philip Taylor [00:17:16]:

And these are massive, actually. The first one is retirement accounts for your business. So just like you have, if you had a employee, you know, regular job, and you had access to a 401k at that job, you can set up the same thing for your individual business. And so the Solo 401K or the SEP IRA or the Simple IRA are three types of accounts that you could establish for yourself as a business owner. There's differences between the. The three there depending on if you have employees or not, but basically it allows you to defer some of your income. So let's say at the end of the year, your business, bottom line, made $50,000, and you want to take some of those funds and put them toward your retirement. Instead of giving more of that over to the IRS, you can establish a solo 401k, and that has massive deductive deductions available to it, not only because you're the employer and the employee in this situation, you get to actually deduct the contributions on both sides.

Philip Taylor [00:18:15]:

And looking to the solo 4.1k is a good option, especially if you don't have employees. Like, you can really defer a lot of your income into the future. That means you also need to save that money. You don't have access to that money. But my thought has always been, through the years, I was like, I'd rather save it for my future than give it over to the irs. And so that's a big one. Another big one is charitable contributions. So if you've got a charity associated with your business or just personally that you're into, utilize the end of the year as a good time to give Some of those funds to a charity versus giving to the government to ultimately dull it out based on their wants and wishes.

Philip Taylor [00:18:54]:

Another one is just to something you mentioned earlier was to are there any new pieces of equipment, new vehicles, new things that you know you're going to need for the business? You know, now may be a good time to buy those. Now, don't let what they say is letting the, the tail wag the dog here. Like, don't go out and buy something just because you think it's going to save you on taxes. Only buy things if it truly will help business and move you, move your business forward.

Larry Roberts [00:19:21]:

PT it was great having you as a guest. We appreciate what's going on today, but. Yeah, no, I'm just kidding. No, it's funny you said hit the.

Sara Lohse [00:19:29]:

Nail on the head with Larry.

Larry Roberts [00:19:30]:

No, it's like, man, put me in my place right out of the gate. But because you do, you can be tempted by those things, especially when you're listening to people. You know, there's so many influencers out there that we look at as being super successful and they have all these, these tax breaks and these different angles where they're leveraging certain tax breaks. But so many times we don't take into account as, you know, newer entrepreneurs that maybe those same tax breaks aren't necessarily going to work for us. So I, I think that, I love what you're saying there. You know, keep it, keep it basic, keep it simple as possible and don't try to, you're going to find yourself in some hot water. And, you know, I'm speaking at that from a little bit of experience. There was a time where I didn't quite pay enough.

Larry Roberts [00:20:17]:

And this, what got me was they didn't even tell me till three years later. I had no idea that I owed the IRS money until three years after the fact. And of course, by the time they come back, there's interest and penalties. And now I'm on a payment plan for the next five years. And it felt like I was never going to get out from under that, but I did eventually. But if you can avoid those pitfalls right out of the gate, of course that's going to be much more beneficial in the long run.

Philip Taylor [00:20:44]:

I think it's important, once you establish that that checking account, maybe throw in an extra savings account associated with it and start stashing some of that over in there, 10, 15% of your earnings should probably go over there to that to get ready for the tax bill at the end of the year. Because if you're if you're earning, if you're earning the money yourself and it's coming in through 1099 type of payments, then you're responsible for those, for those taxes. And so you need to be stashing.

Sara Lohse [00:21:12]:

It aside, jumping back to the home office deductions. So my home office is, I mean obviously it's in my house. So I'm using the same electricity, like all of those, like the same utilities. Can I deduct my whole utility bills or can I only do like a, like a piece of it?

Philip Taylor [00:21:33]:

Sure. It's a, it's a percentage based on the square footage of your home, of your office compared to the rest of your home. So let's say your, your home office is 100 square feet and your house is a thousand square feet. So you're working with 10 of your expenses at that point that you can deduct.

Sara Lohse [00:21:54]:

Is anyone from the IRS going to come and measure my office?

Philip Taylor [00:21:59]:

They're not, they're not.

Sara Lohse [00:22:01]:

Good to know.

Philip Taylor [00:22:03]:

I mean, I don't know. They might, but I doubt it. What was I going to say? Just make sure that it is, it is important that this space, it is important that the space be dedicated to your business. And so it's not the kitchen table, unless the kitchen table is the only thing you ever do there is work on your business. So it can't, it doesn't have to be a physical office, but the space has to be dedicated to your business. There's also sort of a, a factor of like how, how many months during the year did you actually use it? So let's say it's a seasonal business. It can be dedicated. But if it's seasonal and you only work there during the summer, then you sort of have to cut that 10% then by the amount of months that you actually used it.

Philip Taylor [00:22:48]:

So does that make sense?

Sara Lohse [00:22:51]:

It's a lot of math.

Larry Roberts [00:22:53]:

So is taxes. Yeah. So PT tell us, man. We've done a, we've had a good conversation here about taxes and kind of laying the foundation of the, at least the groundwork for our taxes going forward. As new entrepreneurs, I would like to learn a little bit more about fincon.

Philip Taylor [00:23:10]:

Yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:23:10]:

Now I've only been to fincon once and it was a great experience. I went at the behest of Sara and also as co promoter of another conference, myself, podfest, we had a booth there at fincon and of course talking to people to potentially come to our event as well. But tell us more about fincon, how it got started and, and what it means to the financial creator community.

Philip Taylor [00:23:35]:

So back in the day, I was a personal finance blogger. I still am have that [email protected] and on that journey I met other content creators online. We needed a space to come together and share ideas, meet, meet brands, kind of have an industry conference. And so that's what it's become. We've grown it through the years. It's a great group of people that are helping people with their finances on a regular basis. And so we get to serve them with a really, what's become a digital marketing conference. So a place for them to sharpen their content creation skills and come together under one roof.

Philip Taylor [00:24:10]:

So we've. We're in our 13th iteration. Our next one will be in Atlanta in the fall of 2020.

Larry Roberts [00:24:16]:

I didn't realize it was 13 years. Wow, that's amazing. Congrats.

Philip Taylor [00:24:19]:

13 years strong. Yeah. But a great community to serve. And I've got a great events team behind that business that puts on the show every year. But really it's the community that comes together that really has a big abundance. Mindset, collaborative mindset. And that is interested in basically helping folks achieve financial freedom and independence in their lives and comes together sort of collectively under that mantra.

Sara Lohse [00:24:45]:

Yeah, fincon has always been one of my favorite events. And we, we were just together at the conference down in New Orleans, AFCPE symposium. And I was there just on my own. But you had a booth. So I spent half of the conference at your booth talking to attendees. And I would talk up the conference and I'd be like. And in case, like, you think, like, you're not fully convinced yet, I don't work for them. He's not paying me to say this.

Sara Lohse [00:25:11]:

I just felt like there was an open chair. I get to sit down. I'm going to tell you how great this event is because it's just, it really is. And the community is amazing. And every time I go, it's like a little. I mean, we say this all the time about podfest and Outlier, but a little family reunion. I get to see all the people that I haven't seen since the last conference. And everyone is always.

Sara Lohse [00:25:32]:

They just want to help other people and collaborate. There's no competition. And like, how can we help everybody else do great things? So it's just, it's such a great event.

Philip Taylor [00:25:42]:

Well, thanks for that, Sara. I appreciate you.

Larry Roberts [00:25:45]:

And even just being there one time, I kind of got that feeling as well. You know, I do a lot of conferences, speak all across the country at podcasting conferences. And creator conferences and AI conferences, you name it. And there's very few that feel like what I would call a community. But even in my single appearance there, and that wasn't an appearance by attendance, I didn't speak there or anything. But just being there, I felt that same community type vibe. And the people that I connected with and talked to and interacted with, it just, it just gave that community vibe off, which is super, super cool and super, super rare in a conference type environment. So good job on providing that community for everybody.

Philip Taylor [00:26:26]:

Yeah, thanks. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that our subject matter is still a taboo in our society. Right. People don't want to necessarily talk about, open up about their money or share ideas about it. They're afraid they'll be judged by it. They're afraid they're, they'll seem ignorant of it. Um, and, and so when we get together, it's, it's, it's, it's like we have permission to have those conversations with each other finally. We're the people, we're the weird.

Philip Taylor [00:26:52]:

Always call them the weird people on the Internet who like to talk about money, you know, so when you get them in a room, it's like, cool. We can actually have these conversations versus, like bothering my wife or spouse with it or bothering a neighbor with these topics, you know?

Sara Lohse [00:27:06]:

Yeah. And you actually have a new event coming up too. You've branched into the travel industry.

Philip Taylor [00:27:11]:

Yep, Yep. So the Fincon team is going to take on Travelcon in May of 2024. So it's been an existing event in place, another creator event that serves travel creators. And so we're going to be running that event in Portland in May. And it was Matt Kepnes who founded that event, Nomadic Matt. And he said, you know, here you go, pt. Take it and run with it. And so he's got other fish to fry and we're gonna, we're gonna take the event and move it forward.

Philip Taylor [00:27:42]:

So, yes, the team and I have expanded into two events, a sort of a spring and fall deal. I've also got the CPA firm I'm trying to get off the ground. So there's a lot going on right now, but I'm excited for it. I'm here for it.

Larry Roberts [00:27:56]:

That's super cool. Tell me more about travelcon. Because Sara's the world traveler, she's got the tattoos to prove it. But me, I literally just got my passport for the very first time this year, and I still, still, still haven't used it. The, the trip that we were planning fell apart. But yeah. So tell me about travelcon. What is that all about and what's the audience that you're looking for there?

Philip Taylor [00:28:19]:

Sure. Similar to FinCon, it's content creators. So it's anyone who's has a podcast, a YouTube channel, a blog. But instead of finances, the focus is on travel. So whether you're budget travel, luxury travel, rewards in some kind of adventure travel, whatever it is, or just traveling with your family, if you're showing that off online, creating content around it, and that's kind of brewing up a little business for you or a big business where the conference that's going to help you do two things. We're going to take you on a journey from part time content creator to full time and then we have a second track dedicated to scaling up. So if you already are at a full time creator, we're going to help you scale up that operation and turn it into sort of a bigger business idea, potentially with a, with a team and creating more freedom for yourself. So it's really business focused, very marketing focused.

Philip Taylor [00:29:10]:

We'll have brands there, we'll have the destinations there. So you could come and if you're a creator who likes traveling around and sort of being hosted by destinations when you get there, yes please, those destinations will be there and you can work out a deal with them to, you know, to come to their city or their state or whatever it is and showcase them and be compensated for it. So that's kind of how the industry works. There are a few travel agents there that are content creators, there'll be authors, people who work for sort of travel tech solutions. But for the most part it's just people who, who are passionate about sharing their experiences with travel and what they're doing online. And in some way they figured out how to attach a business to that, you know, and that business part is what we're going to help them expand the dream.

Larry Roberts [00:30:00]:

That is so cool. And you know, it's, it's kind of a testament too because, you know, we're heavily involved with podfest. You, you've got fincon now you've got travelcon. And we see all these content creator cons or conferences that are out there and it just speaks to the power and the opportunity. Being a content creator slash entrepreneur today especially, it's, it's really interesting because I was, I'm a huge fan of Think Media and Sean Cannell and I was watching an episode of the Think Media podcast, I think it was yesterday, maybe day before, and Patrick Bet David was on there and Sean was interview interviewing pbd and they were talking about the power of how content creators, now more than ever, we've got the platform, we've got the voice, we've got the opportunity to get out there and not just make an impact, but make a career out of what we love to do. And it's so super cool to see you doing that in the finance space and in the travel space. And it's just, it's just such a tremendous time to be alive right now. If you're a creative and you've got, regardless of what your interest is, you can create content and be an entrepreneur and leveraging some of your insight and your tax methodologies there, you can, you can be successful.

Philip Taylor [00:31:13]:

Well, thanks, Larry. Yeah, I'm bullish on it too, man. I'm, I, I think this is, I think this is the future. My kids, they're kind of the, they're tweeners and they talk about how that's what they want to be when they get older, is it as a creator. You know, they've, they've got their YouTube channels they follow. They don't watch real TV and. Yeah, and you know, that's, that's kind of the future they see themselves in, you know, is. Is sharing what they're doing online.

Philip Taylor [00:31:38]:

So I'm bullish on it. I'm honored to be serving these communities because they're entrepreneurs. You know, most people that come to my shows, they pay their own way. You know, it's not like someone, some. Someone's sending them there or something like that. I mean, they're really investing to be there, and so that's a cool customer to get, you know, in the event space.

Sara Lohse [00:31:56]:

Yeah, I used to get someone sending me there, and then I decided to be an entrepreneur, and now I have to pay for it. And I did not think this through.

Larry Roberts [00:32:06]:

Go ahead, pt.

Philip Taylor [00:32:07]:

I was gonna say, at least you get to deduct that expense now. You know what I'm saying?

Larry Roberts [00:32:10]:

There you go. There you go. I mean, we're sitting here celebrating the opportunities that we have, and Sara's over here going, yeah, it sucks.

Philip Taylor [00:32:18]:

Okay.

Sara Lohse [00:32:18]:

I said from the beginning I never wanted to open to run a business. And I still, I'm just like, I probably made a mistake.

Larry Roberts [00:32:27]:

You definitely did not make a mistake. You're crushing it. And I appreciate the opportunity to have you as, as a, as a co host and a partner here in what we're doing. So. Really amazing.

Sara Lohse [00:32:35]:

Oh, he said nice things about me.

Larry Roberts [00:32:37]:

Yeah. It's not often, so take it. But bt, man, thank you. Thanks. We really appreciate you being here with us, pt. Tell everybody where they can reach out to you. Find out more about fincon, find out more about travelcon, Find out more about your. Your practice.

Larry Roberts [00:32:50]:

Just tell everybody where you're at.

Philip Taylor [00:32:52]:

Yeah. Best place to hit me up is on either Twitter @pt money, or on LinkedIn. And you can just search for pt money or Philip Taylor on LinkedIn and you'll spot me on there as well. So those are my favorite two platforms right now. Yeah. But love to connect with anyone in the. In the audience who's interested in either event or is interested in being one of our beta test versions for our tax and bookkeeping clients in the future. We're.

Philip Taylor [00:33:17]:

We're opening the doors to that in the coming weeks. And so, yeah, Sara did that. I win you over for that.

Sara Lohse [00:33:25]:

You mean I don't have to do it? Okay.

Larry Roberts [00:33:27]:

I don't want any of my friends or associates seeing my books. So.

Sara Lohse [00:33:34]:

True.

Philip Taylor [00:33:37]:

Anyways, that explains the IRS letter now.

Larry Roberts [00:33:40]:

Yeah. 100%. 100%. Yeah.

Sara Lohse [00:33:42]:

It was deserved, I'm sure.

Larry Roberts [00:33:46]:

So. Well, PT, thank you, man. We really appreciate you coming on here, providing a tremendous amount of value on this particular episode of Branded. And for those of you listening and watching, if you found some value in this episode, do us a huge favor, just go ahead and hit that subscribe button. So Sara and I and our amazing guests like pt, can continue to bring you this amazing content each and every week right here on Branded. And with that, I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:34:11]:

I'm Sara Lohse. And pay your taxes, people.