December 2023 Income Report: Email Opt in Testing, Starting the New Year Strong, and more!

0:01Boom! 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 My First Million. Today is the income report for December of 2023. And we're going to be talking about some really cool things, Fire Nation. Ron, Mr. CPA on fire himself has a great monthly tax tip. We're going to be talking about 48 days to the work you love, settling in as a family of four, and so much more. We'll be diving into that and more as As soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors.

0:40Sales Evangelist, hosted by my friend, Donald Kelly, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Each week, Donald interviews the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now. A recent episode you should definitely check out is the five ways to do daily outbound with LinkedIn. Listen to Sales Evangelist wherever you get your podcasts. Hostinger is among the top web hosting and website creation brands in the world. See for yourself. Head to hostinger.com slash onfire and use code onfire for an exclusive 10 % discount.

1:17That's hostinger.com slash onfire and the code onfire. All right, Fire Nation, let's kick it off with our December 2023 income at a glance. Our gross income for December was$146 ,758. Our total expenses were$17 ,182 for a net profit of$129 ,576. That's a$29 ,958 decrease from November. And our net profit to overall gross revenue percentage was 88%. Absolutely love that. Now, Fire Nation, we're going to dive into 48 Days to the Work You Love. We're going to talk about settling in as a family of four. But first, Ron has a great monthly tax tip for you. So Ron, take it away. Hello, John, and hello, Fire Nation.

2:09This is Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire for your December 2023 tax and accounting tip. Hey, Fire Nation, this month we're going to be covering a topic hot off the press, probably something you've come across, you've read, and maybe you haven't quite grasped exactly what that is. And this is the Corporate Transparency Act. In a nutshell, this is where you have any entity that you've created with the Secretary of State may need to be registered at the Financial Crime Enforcement Network, FinCEN. This is the same folks that are part of the Department of Treasury, same folks that if you have money offshore and you need to file an FBAR, these are the same folks that kind of are the ones that you need to report that as well.

3:04So what essentially is the Corporate Transparency Act is requiring everybody to register a beneficial owner information report, a BOI report with their agency. And what that means is if you have an entity you've created with the Secretary of State, you're going to need to go on the website. You're going to need to create an account, and you're going to need to register that entity. And not only register the entity, but you're also going to have to report any beneficial owners of that company. And I'll just tell you right now. So the beneficial owner is anybody who owns over 25 % of the company, but also who exercises substantial control within the company.

3:55And that would be your senior officers, maybe board directors, anybody who's got a substantial control over the business or within the business. Let's just talk a little dates right now, right? So we've been getting a lot of inquiries at CPA on fire, right? This is kind of really came on us very quickly. So I have no idea how many entities are registered out there. I heard a number of 35 million. I got a feeling that's a little light. But essentially, let's just talk about deadlines and what you, as the owner of an entity, need to do. So if you have an existing entity coming into 2024, you have 365 days.

4:39You have all year to register that. And this is just only a one-time registration. So if you have an existing entity coming to 2024, you have between now and January 1st, 2025, to register that entity. However, if you create a new entity, you have 90 days from the creation of that entity in 2024 to report it to FinCEN. And then the last date is 30 days. you have 30 days to report any changes or maybe any corrections to your original filing. So just one year, 90 days, 30 days, just to remember this. I'm going to give you my take, right, is that, yes, this is a big undertaking. The first thing I would think you guys want to do, I mean, I had to do is really think back about all the entities you've created in the past that maybe didn't work out?

5:37Did you, you know, fully, you know, dissolve those entities? It's probably a good time right now to figure that out. But really think about how many entities that you own. You know, we have clients that, you know, every real estate project is in a separate LLC. So every, you know, every separate LLC, they're going to have to register with FinCEN. So it could quite become quite taxing. But, you know, this has been my advice to my clients is kind of let's just wait, wait this out a little. We have all year, right? Let's let some of the big technology software companies maybe help us along the way.

6:19I know some of the corporate registrants have products out there. But I think that, you know, before you go out and hire an attorney or seek advice from another service provider. I think hopefully over time, you know, there's going to be different service providers that are going to be able to do this relatively without a lot of friction. But it does encumber us as business owners to really think through, you know, how many entities need to be registered and exactly who needs to be listed as a beneficial owner. And I really think that, you know, I would wait personally until the spring and summer to really start investigating and look for potential third parties.

7:08There's some, you know, issues about maybe this is the unauthorized practice of law. I don't know exactly. That's a state-by-state issue. But this is something I just wanted to raise with you, Fire Nation, just to be aware of. This is not something that you guys need to totally rush into unless you do start creating new entities in 2024. But I think it's really smart to be one, aware of the reporting requirement to kind of wait this out. And then the third piece I want to talk a little about, and that's a FinCEN identifier. So if you are a real estate professional or for my instance, right, I own like three different businesses.

7:47it's probably a good idea to get an identifier first and then use that identifier to help you quickly report your beneficial owners over multiple entities. So definitely look at this unique identifier and obtaining a unique identifier first before you go and register the entities on FinCEN. So take a step back, right? Corporate Transparency Act. You've got to register all of your created entities with the Department of Treasury, the FinCEN. You have all year if there's an existing entity. And then, like I said, we have 90 days if you create a new entity, 30 days if you make any changes. So hopefully, I wanted to kind of make everybody aware.

8:40I wanted everybody to kind of have a pretty general understanding of what the reporting requirements are. My advice is kind of wait this out. Let's see where we are come spring and summer and how if it's any easier to do these filings, maybe with some third-party reporting operations. So that's my accounting and tax tip for December. The one thing I wanted to mention before I go off is that, hey, I wrote a new book. It's called Financial Superpowers. Take Your Business and Personal Wealth Next Level. And for those who don't know me, right, I'm the managing member of CPA on Fire. The book is really written as a guidebook for financial operations.

9:27You know how important financial operations to you entrepreneurs, to the business owners are, to really be a guidebook for entrepreneurs to understand how, you know, growing entrepreneurs should view their financial operations, should manage their operations, should optimize their financial operations. So you can look at it on Amazon. You can get a digital download copy from our website, cpaonfire.com. Once again, it's called Financial Superpowers, How to Take Your Business and Personal Wealth Next Level. Ron Parisi. Hey, always a pleasure being with you, Fire Nation. Until next month, wish you the best and happy new year.

10:08Take care now. Ron, thank you as always for dropping value bombs for Fire Nation. And Fire Nation, please, for help with your taxes, any questions, ron at cpaonfire.com is always waiting for your email. cpaonfire.com is a website where you can learn more about them and their great business, their great company. Check them out. Now I want to talk about the interview of the month. It's with one of my dearest friends. I go way back with this individual, Dan Miller. He is famous for his work all around 48 days to the work you love. And this episode was so good. We talked about building on where you are in life.

10:50It's never too late to have a new beginning. About sometimes we hang on to things really tightly, but just being generous may open the door to some riches you didn't expect. We talk about how being wise can be more than just having a degree. Lean into things that increase your ability to have an understanding heart, not necessarily just another piece of paper to hang on a wall. And speaking of an understanding heart, check out this culmination of weekly inspiration shared with Dan Miller's inner circle over the years. The link to an understanding heart is on our website, eofire.com slash income124, or just go anywhere and Google an understanding heart, Dan Miller, and you will find it.

11:32Now we're going to bring Kate in as we talk about settling in as a family of four. What's up, Fire Nation? Happy 2024. I know that this is our December income report, but of course, going live in January. And whoa, talk about a year flying by, which in the moment for me being pregnant, it felt kind of long day to day, but looking back and thinking at the beginning of the year, we didn't have a baby. And at the end of the year, we had a baby. That was pretty wild. But needless to say, December was a very busy month here at EO Fire Studios, but not in the typical sense. It was busy in the sense that we've just welcomed our first son, Bo Arthur Dumas, into the world and he is definitely keeping us on our toes.

12:24Wow. So he was born November 14th. So December, we were just a couple weeks into it. And this being our first child, we weren't really sure what to expect when it came to our new day-to-day routines and such. And for two people who thrive on schedules and planning, we've definitely had our fair share of adjustments to make, but we are loving every minute of it. And Gus is also adjusting to the idea of having a baby brother around. He's not really too sure what to think of all of this yet. Although I will say over the past couple of weeks, I feel like Gus is definitely paying more attention to Bo and very interested in what he has going on.

13:06But all things considered, getting into the flow of parenthood has been very smooth. Wouldn't you say so, John? I'd say it's been quite smooth. And that's a little hat tip to your sister and your mother and father being here for a big part of this and being a lot more helpful than I expected, to be honest. Oh, my gosh. We have had such a huge luxury of having a family flowing in and out since his birth, really. I mean, your parents were here when he was born. Then your sister and her family came into town. And then what did we have one or two days in between? your family leaving and my parents arriving.

13:45And then my sister came in the middle of that. My parents are still here for a couple more weeks. And I totally agree with you. I was thinking like, oh, it's going to be really nice to have people around. The emotional support has been awesome. But it really like having an extra set of hands makes such a huge difference. Big time. I mean, just the fact that your mother is willing to just sit there and hold Bo for really a just open-ended period of time is huge. Yeah, that has been such a treat. And I think it's awesome that he's just been around so many people. He's actually, I don't know if this is credit to us just being very active when I was pregnant and out at get togethers and gatherings and parties a lot.

14:35We traveled a ton when I was pregnant, but Bo is such a champ. I mean, he went with us to multiple Christmas parties. He went to the golf cart parade here in Palmas. We did a new year's Eve party where he hung until I think I left at like 10 30, 10 45. And he was just rocking out in the carrier all these times that we were out with him. He's been a good little buddy to have around. And I'm glad that we're exposing him to noise and to people. And he's a trooper. He is definitely a trooper. So Beau has definitely consumed a huge part of our December, pretty much all of mine in the best way possible.

15:16And yeah, we hope that you had an amazing time celebrating the holidays with your family and loved ones as we did. And again, a huge happy 2024 to everyone out there tuning in and Fire Nation. Fire Nation, you need to check these photos out that Kate posted of Bo and us. Even Gus makes an appearance. eofire.com slash income124. These are the creme de la creme of the photos. And I got to be honest, they're pretty awesome. Bo's yawning in one. He's smiling in another. He's sleeping in another. He's laughing in another. He's very stoic in another. I mean, really the whole range of emotions. And man, some good photos.

16:04Definitely check it out. It's eofire.com slash income124. And just to round that out, I will say that becoming a mother has been such an incredible treat. So many people try to describe to you what becoming a parent is like, and there's just no way to ever experience like that feeling until you're in it. And I'm just so grateful that we've had the opportunity to experience this together, John. I feel like having Bo has been such a beautiful chapter in our journey together. Okay. Email opt-in testing, left hand turn, sharp left. But in November, actually, we were approached by a longtime friend and fellow entrepreneur Zach Swinehart.

16:51And he has done a lot of website work for us in the past. He's built landing pages for us. He has also done some email testing for us in the past. But this time he asked if he could help us improve our homepage newsletter opt-in, our email conversions there. And we are big fans of email. and we believe that your email list is incredibly valuable despite over the past five-ish plus years people saying that email is dead and yada, yada, yada. I don't believe that. I think email is very much alive and that it's a very important part of your marketing and communication strategy. So we took Zach up on his offer and testing is still in progress, but we're seeing some pretty incredible results so far.

17:34Zach is totally rocking it out for us. Um, just a little sneak peek into some of the stats, the total percent of all website traffic opting in and confirming their email from a recent test that Zach ran is 2.27%. Our baseline was 1.79%. So that's a 26 % improvement. Not bad at all. We'll definitely keep you posted as Zach continues his AB testing, but I'm very happy with the initial results. And I'm excited to see what happens in the coming months. Absolutely. And Fire Nation, listen, numbers do not lie. We've been tracking this stuff for a long time. So we are seeing these real numbers increase in an incredibly meaningful way.

18:20I mean, 26 % improvement, and we're looking to build off of that. I mean, the amount of leads that's going to generate over time is incredibly significant. So I'm really glad that Zach's doing this for us. He's great. And I know he's always open and willing to work with Fire Nation. So we have a link to Zach's website in the income report. And of course, you can just directly visit ZachSweinhart.com. That's Z-A-C-K, ZachSweinhart.com. Check it out. Check him out. He's always very excited to help people that are in his wheelhouse and really, really nice guy. Really great guy. We really appreciate what he's done for us.

19:01Anything, Kate, before we move on to the next step? Nada. Fire Nation, next step coming when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The new year is upon us and that means new goals, more growth, and upgrading your day-to-day workflow. While most sales folk are stuck in the mud of manual scheduling, digging into data, and tracking down leads, let me share with you a better way to win so you can crush your Q1. The new HubSpot Sales Hub is smart sales software for today's multitasking reps. It's built to help you manage every stage of your sales pipeline with ease. It's filled with easy to use and powerful tools that make closing deals and collaborating across departments a breeze.

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22:02I tried out Hostinger myself, and their AI tools made building a website such a breeze. It took me just a few minutes to personalize and set everything up all without breaking a sweat. See for yourself. Head to hostinger.com slash onfire and use code onfire for an exclusive 10 % discount. That's hostinger, H-O-S-T-I-N-G-E-R.com slash onfire and the code onfire. All right, Fire Nation, we are back to talk December 2023's income breakdown. Our product service income was$138 ,593. We sold 83 journals. And that was 43 freedoms, 31 masteries, and four digital packs for the podcast journal. We did over$6 ,000 for Podcasters Paradise.

22:48Podcast sponsorships were over$129 ,000. And then affiliate income was a little over$8 ,000, most of that coming from ClickFunnels. And that brings our gross income to$146 ,758 with our total expenses of$17 ,182 for a net profit of$129 ,576. And as I mentioned in the intro, that is an 88 % net profit to gross margin revenue. So very happy with that number. Definitely looking forward to future numbers in that arena. And Kate, you're going to take us home with the biggest lesson learned starting the year off strong. Yes. Well, as we wrap up 2023 here and look into 2024, I know this isn't the first time you've heard me talk about this if you've been following us for a while now.

23:45And that is reflecting back on the previous year in order to help start your new year off strong. And honestly, it doesn't have to be at the new year that you do this. You could really do this any time of year. You could even do it more often than one time a year. You could do it quarterly, every month. In some ways, we do it every month with our income reports. And that is reflecting back and seeing what went well, what didn't go well, and what you can double down on. Because oftentimes as business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, side hustlers, whatever you refer to yourself as, we can really get caught up in the doing of things.

24:25and with such a long to-do list and huge aspirations and goals for our business and in our personal life, sometimes we can forget to take that time out to just reflect on where we're at and also more importantly, where we've been. Because what so many of us do not realize is how much we can learn from our past experiences. So I get the question a lot like, how do I know what goals to set? Or how do I know if I should focus on this or focus on that? And the answer to all of these questions is looking at your past experiences and seeing how they can help you shape the next three months, six months, or one year in your business.

25:03So here's how we do this. It's a very simple set of questions that you can sit down and ask yourself. The key is you have to actually set aside time to sit down and answer these questions. It's not a two-minute exercise that you can just jot down real fast, although it doesn't have to take days or weeks either. So I would recommend even just blocking off one hour on your calendar sometime in the coming week. Schedule this time to sit down and really think about these questions. There's only four questions. We've got them over on the income report, so you can always refer back to that. As John said, the income report this month is eofire.com forward slash income 124.

25:43Those four questions are, what were our biggest wins last year? What were some of our toughest struggles or missteps? What do we want to eliminate or do differently this year? And what do we want to double down on? So you can see that answering some very simple questions about where you're at right now and where you've been over the past year can really help inform your goals and what your focus should be moving forward. Because by identifying your biggest wins, you know exactly what's working well. So these are the things that you should strongly consider doubling down on. And by calling out your toughest struggles or your missteps, you can start to eliminate or even decide to do differently the things that are not serving you or your business.

26:28Because when you know what you want to double down on and what you want to eliminate, you can start to craft your goals and the focus you want to have for 2024. I'm very excited to be starting this year off strong, and I hope you are as well. Now, did Bo really not make a peep this entire time? He is just sleeping like a little angel next to me right now. Wow. Fire Nation, before we went live, we said, you know what? If Bo starts being a little cranky pants or starts whining, we're just going to go with it. He's going to be part of the episode. I fully expected it to happen. You know what? He didn't.

27:03But expect a future income report to include Bo going a little whiny town on us at some point because, hey, that's what babies do. but I guess it won't be this episode. And until next month, Fire Nation, keep your fire burning. Sales Evangelist, hosted by my friend, Donald Kelly, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Each week, Donald interviews the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders, and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now. A recent episode you should definitely check out is the five ways to do daily outbound with LinkedIn.

27:39in. Listen to Sales Evangelist wherever you get your podcasts. Hostinger is among the top web hosting and website creation brands in the world. See for yourself. Head to hostinger.com slash on fire and use code on fire for an exclusive 10 % discount. That's hostinger.com slash on fire and the code on fire.