0 (2s):
Boom shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Marketing Made Simple. And today you are listening to Entrepreneur on Fire Income Report for November 2023. We have a doozy. We're gonna be talking about how to lower your tax bill this year. We're gonna be talking also about what every business owner should know for commercial leases. We're gonna talk about our interview of the month, welcoming Baby Bo Arthur Dumas to the world, and so much more. And we'll be talking about all that when we get back from thanking our Sponsors,

The Gold Digger Podcast (43s):
The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kutcher is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business acts, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recent on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts.

BELAY (1m 9s):
BELAY is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions. Download Belay’s Bulletproof Budget template for free, which is the exact budget template they used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc five thousand's fastest growing companies for nine straight years today. Just text fire, that's FIRE to 5 5 1 2 3.

0 (1m 31s):
Alright, Fire Nation. Let's kick in with our November of 2023. Income At. A Glance Gross. Income for November was $169,518. Our total Expenses were 9,984 for a Net Profit of $159,534 for a Percentage of NET profit. Overall gross revenue of 94%. This is our best month ever for this specific metric. Fire Nation. Super proud of that and we have a lot to talk about as I mentioned in the intro, but I don't wanna hesitate. I want CPAOnFire, Mr. Ron himself to jump on and share with you how to lower your tax bill.

0 (2m 11s):
So Ron, say what's up, what's going on buddy? And take it away.

1 (2m 15s):
Hey John and hello Fire Nation. This is Ron Parisi with CPAOnFire for your October 2023 tax and accounting tip. Hey, Fire Nation. It is cold here in Ohio. I'm fired up. We're coming down to the end of the year for 2023. What I think was a very, very quick year. So basically what we do every month, right? We talk about tax and accounting tips for you, the entrepreneur. And I thought I would bring up a topic regarding financial reporting. It's called real, you know, rear view financial reporting versus forward facing, forward looking.

1 (3m 1s):
And it's something, you know, we've been working with a new client and how it's really been able to transform their operations and sort of their mindset. So what, let me define rear view accounting, right? So I really do think the accounting industry in general does a disservice to entrepreneurs, right? Most entrepreneurs, I'm sure Fire Nation, right? We always want to do better with our businesses, we want to improve operations, we want to grow, become more profitable, build our wealth. And I think the accounting industry does a disservice with this rear view accounting. It's, it's definitely compliance based, but usually, you know, you have your operations, you have a bookkeeper and they're giving you, you know, you close the month, you're getting that month's financials, you know, 15, 20 days later if you're lucky.

1 (3m 56s):
And you're trying to sit there and figure out, okay, what, what was working last month wasn't working this, you know, what, what worked, what didn't work last month and you were already, you know, three quarters or a full month later and maybe there's a whole host of different problems and different issues to solve or things that are going well. And I just want to kind of introduce to you kind of forward facing financials and that's what I think is creating forecasts, creating budgets for your business in the future obviously. And what you do is as the month rolls on, you're constantly looking at those targets built inside those forecasts and budgets comparatively to actual, it's called budget to actual.

1 (4m 45s):
And you're constantly measuring, you know, where you want to be, you know those forecasts and budgets kind of marry your goals where you want to be, you know, a year from today where you wanna be three months from today or where do you want to be three years from today. And you're constantly looking at how the business is performing to where you want it to perform. And every month we do what's called the budget to actual analysis and we see okay, where are the profit drivers? How, you know, how are these certain key performance indicators working? And we're always sort of course correcting every month, but we're doing it forward facing, right? We're not reliving in the past, we're looking into the future and kind again seeing, okay, where, where are my goals and how do I need to get there and how am I measuring my performance to meet those goals for us?

1 (5m 38s):
You know, new client of CPAOnFire, this just transformational, just never, you know, new how to manage their ad spend when they could bring on certain team members. They wanted to bring on certain key leadership inside the organization was sort of blind to when can I bring this person on? At what revenue size? What are, how are these people gonna affect my margins? So we really built a pretty nice, you know, three year forecast on the revenue and then a rolling 12 month budget from an expense side. and we sort of like, I always talk of snapshots, right? Like pictures in time.

1 (6m 18s):
So we kind of looked at, alright Today, we looked at a month, we looked at three months, we looked at a year from today and what that org chart would look like, what that ad spend or sort of the ad strategy marketing strategy would look like. And, A really like transformed this individual, this entrepreneur's thinking. And they went from like, oh, you know, just always looking and being very analytical about past performance to holy moly, this is what I'm, this is what I'm striving for, how am I gonna get there? And really got into a good cadence with looking at that budget to actual changing things very quickly that needed to be changed.

1 (7m 1s):
And I think in general gave this individual a huge amount of confidence to make those decisions and their performance has been outstanding. So I just thought, you know, we take this month tax and accounting tip to look at sort of the rear view accounting, sort of the compliance based accounting versus forward-looking accounting and using certain tools to really, you know, marry together your long-term goals with your financial reporting, your financial operations. As always Ron Parisi with CPAOnFire, always a pleasure being with you. Fire Nation until next month, go out there and crush it.

1 (7m 42s):
We'll see you soon.

0 (7m 44s):
Ron, as always, a huge thank you for dropping these value Bombs and Fire Nation. Make sure to visit CPAOnFire.com and also just email ron@cpaonfire.com for any tax and accounting tips or questions. Now we're on to Mr. David Lizerbram’s November legal tip. He's gonna talk about commercial leases, what every business owner should know. David, take it away.

2 (8m 10s):
What's up? Fire Nation. David Lizerbram here and I'm excited to be back with another legal tip for you. I've been practicing law for 21 years and have loads of free content over at my website, lizerbramlaw.com. That's L-I-Z-E-R-B-R-A-M-L-A-W.com. This month's legal tip is all about commercial leases, what every business owner should know. So whether you're setting up your first storefront type business or you're relocating a corporate office, navigating the world of commercial leases can be complicated. This piece is designed to make that process a bit more manageable by covering key elements you need to know before signing a commercial lease.

2 (8m 52s):
Of course, what we talk about in this Income Report can't cover every issue that comes up, it's just kind of a high level overview. So let's start with the basics. What is a commercial lease? So it's basically just an agreement contract that allows a business owner to rent a space for commercial activities. Residential leases like a leasing an apartment, those are usually standardized but commercial leases can vary widely in their terms and conditions. So it's really important to know exactly what your business is agreeing to. There's several types of commercial leases, so you'll see these terms. A Gross lease, that means you pay a fixed monthly amount and the landlord covers property Expenses. A net lease means you're paying the base rent plus one of the following, typically property taxes, insurance or maintenance costs.

2 (9m 41s):
Now triple net, and you'll see that term a lot, that means you're paying the base rent plus all three of those. So taxes, insurance and maintenance. Sometimes this will give you a lower monthly rent, which is nice, but it can expose you to fluctuations in operating costs. If the, you know, the cost of operating the building goes up, maybe it needs some more security, maybe there's repairs, things like that that can affect the amount you have to pay on a monthly basis, even if the rent is fixed. The last one that we can discuss is a Percentage lease. So then you would, typically what you'd have is a fixed minimum plus a Percentage of monthly sales. And that's common for stores, restaurants, locations like that or services or Goods are sold onsite.

2 (10m 21s):
So the advantage in theory is that both you and the landlord are incentivized to make sure there's foot traffic and the business succeeds. You know, sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. So understanding the type of lease you're entering into will have implications for your operational budget. So make sure you know the difference of those different terms. In terms of negotiations, the key is that it's more than just rent. A lot of people just look at that top number, the rent number, you know, the per square foot and then they think, okay, well that's what I need to know. But there's a lot more that can go into it. Some terms you should be aware of. First of all, the lease term, that just means the length of the agreement. So when the contract says this is the term that means how long is the agreement for, you know, just like anything else, the short term lease gives you more flexibility, you can get out of it earlier, but a long-term lease might provide rent stability, meaning you're, you know, what the rent's gonna be for a long period of time.

2 (11m 13s):
Often there will be renewal terms, so that means that you may have the right to extend or renew the lease, but you gotta know for how long at what cost, what are the terms like et cetera, you know, or their approvals required, et cetera. Another thing, another term to look at is rent escalations. That'll explain how and when the rent will increase over the term. It's common for commercial leases to increase on a fixed Percentage like let's say 3% for example, on an annual basis security deposit. Just like with an apartment or something like that, you have to know how much you'll need upfront and the conditions under which you'll get it back. Maintenance and repairs, you wanna clarify of course who's responsible for what, maintaining what aspects of the building exit strategy, that's the conditions for terminating the lease.

2 (11m 59s):
You wanna make sure that's clearly defined, including are there penalties for breaking the lease early. And finally, and this is like for a smaller or new business, very important, the personal guarantee landlords will often require one or more individuals to personally guarantee the lease. So if you form a new company like an LLC or a corporation and then you just walk into a building and you say, Hey, I'd like to rent space here, well they don't know this company. This company has no background, they haven't, you know, necessarily had a lease before. So they will very often require even for an established small business that you, the business owner or one or more people personally guaranteed a lease. That means if the company goes outta business or doesn't pay the rent, the landlord can go after you personally for the unpaid rent plus interest and other damages sometimes including attorney's fees.

2 (12m 44s):
So again, you wanna look at that very carefully. So one little kind of case study here, just so you know that even big companies run into commercial lease issues. I was looking at the case of Starbucks versus Simon Property Group. Of course we all know Starbucks. In 2017, Starbucks wanted to close 77 of its Tiana stores. So it had this sub-brand that sold tea instead of coffee located in malls operated by Simon Property Group. The commercial lease agreements included continuous operation covenants which legally require the stores to remain open. So sometimes malls and strip malls and things like that will have this. They don't want empty storefronts so they may sometimes require you to remain open.

2 (13m 27s):
Starbucks tried to exit the agreements but they faced legal challenges and the court eventually ruled in favor of Simon Property Group emphasizing the importance of understanding lease terms before signing. So even a huge corporation like Starbucks can be caught up in commercial lease issues. So it's even more important for, you know, smaller or newer entrepreneurial type business. So again, leasing a commercial space, it's a significant commitment. You shouldn't take it lightly, you know, nobody gets that excited to read a commercial lease agreement. I read a lot of them, but you know, the more time you you spend on these kind of details, you know the the better off you're gonna be. You don't wanna get caught out, you know, you gotta understand the type of lease, the knowing the ins and outs of the agreement, understand these basic terms, just get, you know, make sure you're informed, you understand what you're entering into.

2 (14m 12s):
If you have any legal questions about your business entering into a lease, anything like that, you could always feel free to be in touch with me. I'm happy to talk with members of Fire Nation. Again, I'm available @Lizerbram.com. If you're not a hundred percent sure how to spell that, just type it into Google as best you can and all come up I promise. And I always love it when I hear from members of Fire Nation. So thanks to you all for listening and we'll talk to you next time

0 (14m 33s):
David. So thankful for that great piece of advice around commercial leases and of course Fire Nation. LizerbramLaw.com is the place for you to go for all of your legal needs. Now we have a lot more to talk about when it comes to November, the interview of the month, welcoming baby Bo Bear, Arthur Dumas into the world, and of course more details on the income when we get back from thinking our sponsors.

Hubspot (15m 0s):
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0 (16m 4s):
We all know the feeling of just starting out when you are your business, every client, every decision, every detail, it's all up to you. but there comes a time when your potential for business growth depends on you letting go and hiring a team who can help. I know easier said than done, but BELAY actually does make it easy. BELAY has helped thousands of business owners make the leap to scale their businesses with their simple flexible staffing solutions. Belays exceptional virtual assistants and accounting professionals can partner with you to help you grow your business and take control of your time. They have the nation's largest pool of US-based talent ready to work with you from anywhere and scale with you as you grow. And BELAY is passionate about helping your business succeed. So they're offering Fire Nation a free download of their Bulletproof Budget template.

0 (16m 47s):
This is the exact budget template that BELAY used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc five thousand's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Text Fire, that's FIRE to 5 5 1 2 3 to Download the Bulletproof budget template and streamline your business with BELAY today. Alright, Fire Nation, we are back and we're gonna start with the interview of the month, which is becoming a coach of the future intro to AI with Mr. Eben Pagan. An absolute legend and the three value Bombs we talked about during this interview was, number one, attaining peak success that can transform you into your best self. Number two was it's not about getting things for yourself, it's about understanding the challenges, desires and needs of others.

0 (17m 31s):
And then number three, generative AI is even more meaningful professionals, entrepreneurs and coaches must start using and practicing its must Fire Nation. And you can unlock the next level in your coaching practice with the best of the best in the world. Success leaves clues and they'll show you the way it's a hundred percent virtual. And this of course is the Coach expo of 2023. Just visit futurecoach.com/fire, that's futurecoach.com/fire to learn more and we'll catch you there. Fire Nation or we'll catch you on the flip side. Now we're gonna move into welcoming baby Bo Bear Arthur Dumas.

0 (18m 15s):
Of course his full name is Bo Arthur Dumas but we have a nickname for him. Bear. So you can call him Bo Bear if you ever see him and we are gonna be welcoming Katelyn Dumas onto the mic, the mother of Bo Bear Dumas. So Kate say what's up and let's chat about Bobert.

3 (18m 33s):
What's up Fire Nation. So excited to be back on the mic for the first time since Little Baby Bo joined us in this world and wow did we ever get thrown into parenthood in all the best ways, but we definitely experienced some unexpected things with the birth and afterwards, which I'm sure every parent can relate to. And John, I don't know about you but I had definitely mentally prepared myself for things not going exactly how I thought they would, but I feel like quite a bit went a little different than I expected. What did, what would you say?

0 (19m 12s):
I was pretty prepared for any scenario that was gonna come up that I thought that I could imagine. And you know, frankly this was pretty much one of them. I mean not exactly of course, but I had felt pretty emotionally prepared for a a perfect birth all the way down to a fairly emergency scenario. So it didn't go all the way down to my worst premonitions, but it obviously didn't go to the perfect side either. So it was, it was somewhere in the middle maybe.

3 (19m 45s):
Yeah, yeah, I would say that too. I'm definitely very happy to be able to report that we successfully did a home birth, we did have a birthing pool but it did not end up being a water birth. And wow, I labored in literally every position possible. But you know, at the end of the day Little Bo came out seven pounds, 14 ounces and 19 inches long and we got to experience some pretty amazing skin to skin time. Me, you and Bo just hanging out on the bed for I would say a good couple of hours, which was the ideal scenario.

3 (20m 26s):
Us at home in our bedroom, skin to skin time with Bo. And that was like so heavenly that was perfect. But of course what we didn't expect is when our doctor started doing all of his monitoring and checking all of Bo's vitals that his blood oxygen levels were really, really low. And at first our doctor said, you know what, like my machine has gotta be broken because if this baby's blood oxygen levels were actually at this level, like he would be blue right now, he of course was not blue, he looked totally fine, but he did go get a different machine to re-test and actually ended up getting a third machine to retest because they kept coming back low.

3 (21m 16s):
So very, very unexpectedly we were told that John had to pack a bag and that he was going to be driving Bo and admitting him to the NICU that night, which was definitely a huge shock for both of, well I'll speak for myself. It was a huge shock for me was not expecting that at all. And of course it was incredibly heartbreaking to have just gone through this, you know, beautiful birth and labor and then to be told that, you know, John and Bo are having to leave and I have to stay at home. That was really tough. And John, thankfully your family friend Terry was here and was such a champ, she came over and spent the night with me 'cause it was quite late at night at that point and that was just really of course helpful and very sweet of her to do that.

3 (22m 8s):
Also, very thankfully, our doctor was willing to accompany you to the hospital to help you with that whole process. And I can imagine for you that that was not an ideal scenario, obviously leaving to go to the hospital, but the fact that the doctor went with you was such a huge win and I'm sure expedited the process big time.

0 (22m 28s):
Yes, I will say that leaving with Baby Bo on oxygen, sitting in the backseat of our car at 11:00 PM driving 45 minutes north to San Juan during a pretty torrential rain shower was not ideal. And then getting to the hospital, dropping them off at the emergency room, pediatric emergency room and then having to kind of, you know, watch the doctors do their thing, which luckily they did so very competently and then leaving him a couple hours later in the NICU all hooked up to all the machines. It seemed known to mankind at the time.

0 (23m 11s):
But it was a good relief getting to the NICU the next morning and seeing that he was snug as a bug in a rug and seemingly doing quite well, albeit the seven days of antibiotics he had to go through. Which of course very far from ideal, but something he handled very well and seems to be progressing incredibly normally and nicely at this time.

3 (23m 39s):
Yeah, I mean I know when we were up there, especially when we first got there, we had no idea how long Bo was gonna have to be there for and we specifically chose this hospital because it's the only NICU on the island that would allow me to be with Bo the entire time because I was breastfeeding. And so that was a huge win. I was able to spend a, you know, all of my time there. It was again, very heartbreaking the first, I think it was three days we weren't able to pick him up or hold him or anything because of how many machines and tubes and everything he was hooked up to. But thankfully I think it was on day four we were able to start picking him up and holding him and he only had to stay in seven days, which was also a huge relief.

3 (24m 23s):
We ended up getting an Airbnb right near the hospital so it was easy for us to kind of hop back and forth and John was able to come during visiting hours. So yeah, like you said, the, the hospital visit not something that anybody wants, but we had a good experience. The doctors were all very nice and you could tell that he was being taken very good care of. So we now have a very healthy nine pound, seven ounce baby boy. And I know that the NICU and the birth and, and everything that we've been through the past month is one of the, you know, many surprises that are gonna be thrown our way in parenthood and I feel like we've handled it very well.

3 (25m 8s):
I feel like the transition back home, John, I know that for the both of us I, I feel like we have really handled that transition well and kind of finding our roles and responsibilities and how we can help support each other. You know, I think that we've handled all of that really well. So man and Gus, Gus has been a champ. He's still getting used to having a baby brother. He's definitely, you know, looking for that extra attention here and there not being the quote unquote only child anymore. But he's also just, you know, I think adjusted very well. He's becoming more and more interested in Bo.

3 (25m 49s):
At first he was kind of like not interested at all. Now he kind of hangs around and gives him a sniff and licks the toes and he's getting a little more curious about what this other human in the house is all about. So yeah, I, I'm loving motherhood so far. It's definitely a massive challenge. I've had a lot of times where Bo’s crying and I have no idea what to do and that's really hard. I do not like listening to him cry and as I'm sure every parent and especially mother can relate to. But yeah, we're finding our way

0 (26m 26s):
Fire Nation, we are finding our way. And if you wanna see some great photos of us doing just that with Bo EOFire.com/income123 is a great place to check out the pictures that Kate posted of us. Literally minutes, I mean minutes after the birth. Then a couple other really great ones from the NICU and then back home and with Gus And A, couple other great shots as well. So definitely check those out and of course follow either of us on Instagram, John Lee Dumas or Kate l Erickson if you want to continue to see Bo and all of his glory of, of course, as well as some other things that we're gonna be posting around business and life.

0 (27m 12s):
And Kate, before I get to the income breakdown, anything you want to add to this,

3 (27m 17s):
I think that covers that.

0 (27m 19s):
Awesome. Well Fire Nation, our November, 2023 income breakdown is as follows, total Journal sales, $2,283 worth 67 journals sold. We did 36 Freedom, 17 mastery and seven digital packs for the podcast Journal a hundred Day Gold Journal brought in $3,124 in royalty. So that was a great little check to get Podcasters Paradise brought in over $5,000 podcast sponsorships over $154,000 and that brought our total income to $169,518 with our Expenses being very lean at $9,984 for that 94% of total NET Profit to Gross revenue number I gave you earlier.

0 (28m 10s):
And that gives us a NET Profit of 1 59, 5 34. Now Kate is going to take it home with November's biggest lesson learned.

3 (28m 22s):
So this month's lesson learned is kind of piggybacking on last month in last month's Income Report, we shared how to stay focused in 2024 by Choosing a word of the year. And this exercise was inspired by Chris Brogan, who actually happens to be hosting a workshop on Choosing, a word of the year. If you're interested in checking that out, we have that linked up over at EOFire.com/income123 . But what I didn't share in last month's report is the word that I've chosen for 2024 and that word is surrender. Now I knew that this word was gonna come in handy given that we've just welcomed our first baby into the family.

3 (29m 3s):
But to be honest, I had no idea how necessary this word would be for my year end here in 2023. I used this word a thousand times during birth. I use this word a thousand times at the nicu. I've continued to use this word many, many, many times since we came home. And as we settle into this whole new life as parents navigating the ups and the downs of having a newborn, our daily and our nightly routines being completely flipped out upside down, I have definitely found this word to be very grounding for me and very helpful.

3 (29m 45s):
So, well I knew again that this word was gonna come in handy big time for 2024. What it has already done for me to close out 2023 has been so incredibly priceless. And I definitely want to say that, you know, so many of you in Fire Nation have reached out to us, sent us prayers, love, thoughts, amazingly positive vibes, and we are so incredibly grateful for that. Now I truly understand very like rawly for the first time what people mean when they say it takes a village. And we feel very blessed to have, you know, so many people surrounding us and an incredible community of people who are supportive and here for us.

3 (30m 31s):
And that includes, again, so many of you who have reached out. And I just want to recognize that and say how much we appreciate that has been such a huge help in this very, in these very early stages of parenthood. So huge shout out to you, Fire Nation. And again, if you are interested in choosing a Word of the Year for 2024 and you would like to check out Chris Brogan's workshop, which I guarantee you will be more than well worth it, we have that linked up over on the report EOFire.com/income123

0 (31m 5s):
In Fire Nation. As always, until next month, keep the fire burning.

The Goal Digger Podcast (31m 12s):
The Goal Digger Podcast hosted by my good friend Jenna Kutcher is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business acts, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recent on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing, Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts.

BELAY (31m 37s):
BELAY is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions. Download Belay’s Bulletproof Budget template for free, which is the exact budget template they used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc five thousand's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Today, just text fire, that's FIRE to 5 5 1 2 3.