February 2024 Income Report

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Content is Profit. Today is the income report for February, 2024, and we have a lot to talk about as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions.

0:36Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises, and Franbridge Consulting has guided them. Franbridge's founder and frequent EO Fire guest, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country, and his service is free. Sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising, at franbridgeconsulting.com. All right, Fire Nation, we are back and ready to rock with the February 2024 income at a glance.

1:14Our gross income for February was$138 ,464. Our total expenses were $16 ,889 for a total net profit of$121 ,575, a$13 ,845 decline from January, and our percentage of net profit to overall gross revenue was 88%. So we have some cool things to talk about with TEDx Talks. We're also going to be talking about using AI for social media. But first, let me hand it over to Mr. CPA on Fire himself, Ron, as he talks about navigating your tax preparation. Hello, John, and hello, Fire Nation. This is Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire for your February 2024 tax and accounting tip. Hey, Fire Nation, always a pleasure being with you.

2:02Here we are mid-March. I'm sorry. Yeah, mid-March, I guess. Yep. And it is tax time for you, Fire Nation, a bunch of entrepreneurs and business owners. And I thought I would do a quick rundown of getting everything ready, all your materials and for your tax preparer or tax professional this year. I'm sure everybody, well, maybe there's some of us out there have already filed, but probably the majority of us are still gathering the last paperwork coming in in the mail, etc. But I'm just going to do a quick rundown and I'm going to talk a little about, you know, some of the things that easily get missed or that are extremely important to let your tax preparer know.

2:49So the first, you know, thing which, you know, that helps with a smooth tax preparation process is just to have all your materials ready. So for your business, make sure you have all 1099s that you receive, your 1099-Ks for your credit cards, et cetera. And also make sure that your financials, profit and loss and balance sheet are correct. Make sure your balance sheet's reconciled and balanced between assets should equal liabilities and equity. and for those of us that operate in multi-states, make sure we have proper allocations between those states of revenues and expenses that will go a long way to help your tax preparer.

3:35On the personal side, make sure we have W-2s, 1099s, 1099 consolidates, but also just think about did we make any college savings contributions? We usually don't receive any paperwork for those Or did we make any investments, have investment earnings that may not be reported on 1099s, including house sales, things like that? So just kind of take time just to kind of make a mental checklist of everything that happened in 2023. The next big thing is to disclose your crypto, your NSF token transactions. those need to be reported on your tax return now. Next is foreign reporting requirements. I believe I did a separate piece on this, but this has to do with the U.S.

4:29Treasury division called FinCEN, and you'll hear FBAR filings. FBAR is basically just an informational return, has to do with potential money laundering, but this is where you need to report certain balances that you have in bank accounts and investments overseas. So any type of, you know, make your tax preparer aware that you have money overseas, and that includes Mexico or Canada. Also, too, people can get caught up with inheritance and being involved in trusts or potentially like owning investments abroad. Maybe you own a piece of property in Indonesia or something along those lines. All that needs to be disclosed to your tax preparer.

5:22Big, you know, potential huge oversight definitely has some ramifications. The FBAR has some penalties, high penalties involved. But again, you know, once you have all your materials and you're ready, this is a really good opportunity to at least start the tax, you know, planning process, right? So during this time of year, we need to get the tax returns filed. It's a compliance piece. But also use this time to talk to your tax preparer, talk a little strategy, and most importantly, get a postseason tax meeting set up. This way you make sure that you're planning for the future. What I say is it's always difficult to do any type of tax planning once the year closes.

6:10there is a couple of strategies that can be done for 23 but really now a big piece of this is planning for 2024 so take advantage of your tax repair at least get some strategies right now but more importantly get a get a meeting booked in in may or june to really help you know have a tax strategy session tailored for your unique financial situation goals. So there you have it, guys. I wish everybody luck during this tax filing season and hope your 2024s are doing well, prosperous. Until next month, Fire Nation, this is Ron Parisi signing off. Thanks, everybody. No, thank you, Ron, for dropping these value bombs, brother.

6:56And as always, Fire Nation, And cpaonfire.com. Check out what they have going on there. You can email Ron directly. Ron at cpaonfire.com. Ask him a question about accounting, about taxes. He is there for you. Now, what went down in February? Well, let's talk about our interview of the month. I interviewed Taylor Conroy about how to land and deliver a TEDx talk in 2024 that reaches millions of people. we had some amazing value bombs. Number one was have that low point right next to the high point so that when people are listening to your speeches, they're having this visceral emotional experience going from a low to a high.

7:37Number two was when someone shares your talk online, they're not sharing the content, they're sharing the contrast, they're sharing the feeling. We as speakers need to realize we're energy conductors. We're not just people yapping into a microphone. And then number three, know of those fears that come up and helping people work through those so they can get to the other side. The definition of courage is not the absence of fear. It's feeling the fear and doing it anyways. And Fire Nation, thought-leader.com slash fire. You can sign up for free today. You're gonna get a free webinar on how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions in as little as 30 days.

8:17Taylor, make sure that this webinar, this content, this value is so valuable, is so action-packed. So go back and listen to the whole interview with Taylor Conroy because so many gems were dropped. And then thought-leader.com slash fire is going to get you to a place where you can watch an incredible, very focused webinar on this content for free. Next, we're moving into using AI for social media as soon as we get back from thinking our sponsors. If you're a startup with big goals, then it's important to find a CRM that can keep up. But I get it. When you're in startup mode, it can be tough to know which platform is right for you and your business.

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9:36To see if you're eligible to join the HubSpot for Startups program and take your growth to the next level, visit hubspot.com slash startups. Have you ever considered hosting on Airbnb? kate and i airbnb'd one of our places here in puerto rico and we love it it not only allows us to share this magical island in our community with those visiting it's also a great way to earn some extra income we've had a number of guests rave about how special the vacation was as a result of staying in a place that is so beautiful that it felt like home this is a big reason why we originally got into hosting we know what it's like to travel and want to have a place to call home so we figured why not create that feeling for others next month we'll be traveling to meet up with friends on the West Coast and knowing how easy it is to host on Airbnb, we're considering putting our own home up on Airbnb while we're away to earn some additional income.

10:25Maybe you have an upcoming trip planned as well. While you're away, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. More and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering the awesome franchise opportunities that exist across a variety of industries. Franchising can simply be the better path and interest in franchising is at an all-time high. Lucky for you, John Ostenson, founder of Franbridge Consulting and a frequent EO Fire guest, is here to help you explore the premier franchise opportunities today. John and his Franbridge Consulting team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly.

11:01Franbridge is hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the franchise world, including both active and passive opportunities from tiny homes to youth soccer, industrial hoses to pets, senior care to mental health, and more. John has served as an Inc. 500 franchisor and is a multi-brand franchisee himself, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation call with John today or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising, at FranBridgeConsulting.com. That's FranBridgeConsulting.com. All right, Fire Nation, we are back. We're going to start off by talking about using AI for social media.

11:40And here's the deal. Social media, it's obviously here to stay. And it needs to be a complimentary part of what you're doing when you are creating content, because why not? If you're going to create content, you might as well spread it out across all the channels to reach the biggest audience to make the biggest impact. So when I was approached by an individual, and we'll definitely be hearing from him and more about this at a later date, but I was approached by an individual who said, John, I can take your podcasting content. Instead of just having those little audio bars that jump up and down when you post a visual onto social media, I can actually make it really cool thanks to AI.

12:21What I'm going to do is I'm going to obviously have to do some manual labor as well, but with AI, it makes it possible so that what would have taken thousands and thousands of dollars and hours and hours of work to create this amazing B-roll footage and all these different video clips and transitions and all these different things. With the use of AI now, he can just kind of go ahead and upload this audio content and boom, this beautiful video is made. Now, it's not quite that simplistic. There's obviously some work behind it, but it is a fraction of the work that it used to be. So using artificial intelligence AI for social media is a really cool opportunity.

13:01It's especially cool for somebody like myself, who doesn't actually create videos for my interviews. I do audio only interviews. And so then to have like this AI version of me speaking to the microphone, and then to have these B-roll cuts, you know, that are talking or showing these actual video clips that are relevant to the content that's being shared. It's really interesting. And I've gotten a lot of great feedback from you, Fire Nation, about these social media clips that, you know, just that they're interesting enough that you'll actually watch them for 15 seconds, for 30 seconds, for 45 seconds.

13:30And then of course, the goal is you get people interested enough in them, in that clip that they want to then go listen to the whole interview on your podcast, at your website, whatever that might be. So using AI for social media is a really cool and very neat opportunity. And we will be talking more about it at a later dates. Let's move into February's 2024 income breakdown. Our product service income was$125 ,460. We sold 56 journals throughout the entire month. That was 27 freedom journals, 15 mastery journals, and six podcast journals. Podcasters Paradise did$5 ,592. Our podcast sponsorships,$117 ,943.

14:12And our affiliate income was over$13 ,000 with ClickFunnels being the big one, which was$6 ,717. We got over$5 ,000 for coaching referrals and all that jazz. Our total gross income for February was$138 ,464. And then our expenses, we have them all listed out at eofire.com slash 126. Quite a lot of smaller but recurring expenses. And then some one-offs, of course, as well, which brought our expenses to$16 ,889 for a total net profit of$121 ,575. So$121 ,575. Now, if you haven't noticed, we have not heard yet from Kate Lynn Dumas. She's actually holding Bo Arthur Dumas right now, our little four-month-old boy.

15:07But I'm going to swap with her right now. I'm going to give a big hello to her. Then I'm going to take Bo. And this is what parents do when we're sitting next to each other and there's a baby involved. and I'm gonna let Kate take it away with her biggest lesson learned, which is all about knowing your worth. So Kate, give me Bo, okay? I got a good hold on him. Now, take it away. What's up, Fire Nation? Great to be on the mic with you as always. Happy March, but wow, Q1 in the books? Just like that. So this month, knowing your worth. So each month I host a mixer for female entrepreneurs here in Palma, Somar.

15:48I've been doing this for about five years now. It is such an awesome experience because it's incredible to bring together so many awesome women and to know that they all live in the same community is just mind-blowing to me. That was one of the biggest things that when we moved here from San Diego is, are we going to find a community of like-minded people? And holy cow, this female entrepreneurs group. So it's only females who live in Palmas Del Mar who are entrepreneurs. and we have over 100 people in this group now, which blows my mind. So at our meetup in February, the topic of knowing your worth came up, which is not only a huge topic, but hugely important as an entrepreneur.

16:31And as we started talking about worth, I realized how many individuals struggle with this. And I am definitely including myself in that statement. It can take many forms, right? Giving away your time freely, undervaluing your coaching or your programs, pricing things at like such a low dollar amount. One of the women was talking about a course that she was building and that she was going to charge$99 for it. I'm like, what? This course is worth$1 ,000. And I know that it can be really difficult to kind of, yeah, just know your worth, know what the things that you're creating, how they should be priced.

17:12And I know that especially for a couple of the women who were at this meetup, we're talking about nonprofits and feeling like they just really wanted to do something good and they want to donate their time. And one of the women shared a very powerful reminder that I will leave you with today when it comes to knowing your worth. you can do good and do well. So it doesn't have to be this, oh, if I'm helping people, I can't be, you know, monetarily benefiting from that. You can do good and do well. So don't forget that knowing your worth is again, a huge topic and it's so hugely important as an entrepreneur.

17:54So if this is something you're struggling with, you are definitely not alone. And it might be worth a conversation with some fellow entrepreneurs to kind of try to get yourself to a place where you feel like you're more confident that you can charge what you're worth, that your programs and your services and your time are very, very valuable and you should be getting compensated for the value that you're putting out into the world. Thanks for that, Kate. And as always, Fire Nation, keep your fire burning. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

18:35Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions. Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises and Fran Bridge Consulting has guided them. Fran Bridge's founder and frequent EO Fire guest, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country and his service is free.

19:07Sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising, at FranBridgeConsulting.com.