Income Report for April 2024: Knowing When to Let Go, 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 Creator Science. Today is the April 2024 Income Report, and we have some fun things that we'll be chatting about here today. We, of course, have our monthly tax tip, which is all about tax extensions. We'll also talk about the ultimate two-day interactive life-changing business growth conference that I'm speaking at in late June with Tim Tebow and other amazing individuals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'd love to see you there.

0:37And knowing when to let go and so much more, Fire Nation, when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Success Story, hosted by my friend, Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversation on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship. In a recent episode, Scott brings Kate Bradley on the show, founder and CEO of Lately.ai to discuss the best ways to use AI to create content. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts.

1:10Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. All right, Fire Nation, we are ready to rock with our income report for April 2024. Our gross income was$132 ,488. Our total expenses was$14 ,570 for a net profit of$117 ,918, a$27 ,000 decrease from March, and our percentage of net profit overall gross revenue was 89%.

1:56And again, we have a lot of cool things we're talking about today, but we are going to start off with Mr. CPA on fire himself, Ron, talking about tax extensions. So Ron, take it away. Hello, John. And hello, Fire Nation. This is Ron Parisi with CPA on fire for your April 2024 tax and accounting tip. Hey, Fire Nation, today we're going to be tackling tax extensions. If I were to take a wild guess, I would say of the Fire Nation faithful out there, probably only half of you have filed your taxes by the deadline and the other half needed to file extensions. That's a wild guess, but that's pretty much the trend with our clients at CPA on Fire.

2:43Today, I want to talk about the extension process, how to use it to your advantage, when to use it, and some of the nuances around it. First of all, let's just talk about when you need to file an extension, right? Or the purpose of filing an extension. So basically, you have essentially two deadlines for those probably within the Fire Nation. One is your April 15th deadline for your partnership and S-Corp tax returns. And the other is your April 15th deadline for your personal returns and your C-Corps. I know there's other returns out there, but those are the major ones. First of all, when you don't have all the materials that are required to file your taxes, it's best to file an extension.

3:32When do you need to file the extension? You need to file the extension before the deadline. You cannot file an extension come April 17th for the April 15th deadline. So it has to be done prior to that. An extension is an extension to file the forms of your tax returns, not an extension to pay. Very important, right? So you needed to make that payment. So say you are an S-Corp, right? You needed to make both your 2023 payment for taxes as well as your first quarter extension by April 15th. The extension really is only for the paper filing or the electronic filing. How to file, a little geek speak.

4:19You need to file Form 4868 to file an automatic extension for your personal return. And then businesses are required to file the Form 7004. and this is for the IRS, right? Depending on where you live, it's very state specific. Many states honor the federal extension, but some require a separate extension. So make sure to monitor your state requirements for complete compliance. The big thing, other than you're not having maybe your financials done, maybe you're waiting for a brokerage statement, or maybe you're waiting for like a K-1 from another partnership, right? These are the reasons to file an extension.

5:07In addition, you know, I know we have some R &D legislation out there. Chuck Schumer just came in and said, yes, the Senate is still considering some of the changes in the R &D realm, but they didn't give us a timeline, right? So if you do have some R &D credits and you're looking for more favorable treatment, probably a good idea is to extend that return. Let's see what our Congress can do between now and the ultimate deadline. And let's talk a little about the ultimate deadline, right? The ultimate deadline that you're going to be getting an extension until is, again, it's a six-month extension.

5:46So your March 15th deadline gets extended to September 15th, and then your April 15th deadline gets extended until October 15th. So that is really sort of the last time, you know, that you're going to be able to file your tax returns without having a late filing penalty. Okay, so let's just, you know, summarize here, right? Time to file the extension is before the deadline. The deadline gives you six months extension to file your forms, but not to pay, right you still need to pay by the deadline and that even though you may file with the irs and extension you still may be required to file with your specific state uh that you need to file in so there you have it fire nation just thought i'd give you a really uh down and dirty on tax extensions uh always a pleasure being with you ron parisi cpa on fire until next month Wish you the best.

6:49Take care now. Ron, as always, thank you so much for that, brother. And Fire Nation, please check out cpaonfire.com or just email ron at cpaonfire.com for any needs you may need in his area of expertise, all things taxes, all things accounting, et cetera. Now, Fire Nation, we are going to talk today about our interview of the month, which is the ultimate two-day interactive, life-changing business growth conference. It's featuring yours truly, JLD, Tim Tebow, Clay Clark, who has been a multiple, multiple time guest on this show. And of course, a sponsor of Entrepreneurs on Fire for over four years now and more.

7:30And the reality is Fire Nation, if you want to thrive, move beyond surviving, build that successful company, start that company, grow that company and live a life of abundance. Come to this in-person two-day interactive Thrive Time Show business workshop. It's absolutely game changing. I mean, this is a Michael Gerber quote, the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. Fire Nation, you are not passive, you are active. And as I said before, if you listen to many episodes, I'm actually going to be very active in this conference.

8:06Of course, I'm going to be at every workshop. I'll be on the stage giving presentations. I'll be hanging out with Tim Tebow. Oh, in fact, I challenged him to a sprinting contest. So we'll see if he takes me up on that. And I do think I will probably lose to him, but not by as much as most people think. And who knows, I may pull out a little victory. I was the anchor on the four by 100 of my high school track team. Big difference between that and a NFL quarterback, I know. But hey, I'm pretty sure I could beat Tom Brady in a sprint. And listen, I'm a Tom Brady slash New England Patriots fan. And Fire Nation, finally, it's important to be recognized People do judge us based on the quality of our website, our print pieces, our photography, our video, our public relations, or our podcast.

8:49So come on June 27th and June 28th to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was there last year for this conference. It was great, Fire Nation. I will be there again, again, as a keynote speaker alongside Tim Tebow and others. Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Come check it out. Now we're going to pass the mic over to Caitlin Erickson, who's going to talk all about letting go, letting go as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. You know your customers want fast, personalized support, but how do you find a customer service solution that actually delivers? Most solutions leave reps struggling to stay productive and customers frustrated by the lack of support.

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10:15Visit hubspot.com slash service to learn how this all new solution can help you deliver for your customers. Do you have a message inside that you know is meant to be shared with the world? Giving a TEDx talk is one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world and Thought Leader can help you get there. Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx Talks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest.

10:49You might be thinking a TEDx Talk sounds great, but where do you start? Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx Talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart, and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. All right, Fire Nation, we are back. And as mentioned, We're going to be talking about knowing when to let go.

11:29Kate, join the mic. Say hello. Take it away. What's up, Fire Nation? You might hear some cute little oohs and ahs from Bo in the background. He's hanging with us for this income report. And John, he's like so close to crawling right now. It's so wild. He's there. He's there. Right there, past the six-month mark. Time flies when you are having fun and have a baby. So yes, knowing when to let go. I've always personally felt like managing a team is one of the toughest parts of being an entrepreneur. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs would agree. It's a very special skill. Managing a team includes several different pieces, like knowing what roles you need to fill, when you need to fill them, who the right person to fill them is and unfortunately when you need to let someone go.

12:24And this month we experienced this. But of course there's many reasons to let someone go, right? Sometimes letting someone go has nothing to do with performance, which can make it even more difficult actually. Because your decision might be based on the state of your business, your business goals, or you could find that you simply don't have a need for a particular position any longer. And in April we made the very difficult decision to let one of our team members go. Jess, who has been with us for 10 years, over 10 years. And so you can imagine the relationship we've built and everything that we shared over those 10 years.

13:02Jess knew her position inside and out. She was great at her job. But as time passes in your business, it's easy to stop checking in on things. And I take full responsibility for this. It kind of felt like I snapped my fingers and what used to be a full-time critical position, um, had kind of become like a nice to have addition. Um, don't get me wrong. Jess handled some very important things for us, but it just was that her plate really wasn't that full anymore. We decided over the recent years to drop some tasks and projects that were no longer serving our audience, Youfire Nation, and our business.

13:45And as a result, Jess's task list had become smaller and smaller. And when it's such little things like year over year, you don't really notice it. But again, like I said, when I really took a time out and looked like five years ago, her plate was very full. Today, her plate was not really that full. So after a big review earlier this year, we realized that the position Jess had was no longer a critical part of our business, which led us to the very, again, difficult decision to downsize our team. So we are now a team of four. And I still stop myself sometimes like about to Skype Jess or send her something through Asana, which is the task management system that we use.

14:27And I kind of have to think like, oh, my gosh, this is wild. I still kind of have to remind myself that she's not with the team any longer. A very difficult thing to do, especially for me, because again, managing a team is not my super strong suit. So John, you seem just like very, very good at these things. I just don't feel like it's my best skill set. I mean, listen, when we grew our team, we were looking to grow a family of sorts. And that's really what we did for all these years. And especially for Kate. I mean, she was the person that was really interacting with our team most and having weekly meetings with them and doing this thing.

15:06So, you know, that's going to be a situation where when it comes time to let someone go, it's tough, it's difficult for all the reasons that Kate shared. But the reality is, you know, our business has changed, our business has evolved, and we've taken things off of our plates, and we've added a couple things to our plates. And you have to continue as a business owner to keep your finger on the pulse and just say, hey, what is still mission critical for our business? What is still a must have and what is just a nice to have? And you know, when you're trying to run a very lean and profitable business, you need to keep asking that question.

15:42And you know, like Kate mentioned, you know, we didn't even ask it as much as we probably should have been because, you know, the reality was we couldn't afford to have Jess on the team and still doing what she was doing. But a lot of the things that she was critical for back when we were just running a lot of other things, communities, launches, affiliates, et cetera. We just weren't doing those things at all or at nearly as high of a frequency. And so Fire Nation, I'm telling you, when you're running a business, you have to know what kind of business are you running? Are you looking for growth and scale and leverage?

16:16At that point, you're growing a team, you're adding to it. Or are you looking to say, hey, we're happy where we are. We have enough where we're at right now. Now, how do we continue to keep going forward with our business without waste, without excess, without all of those things? And so Jess served a great purpose for 10 years and we're happy that she was part of that team. But when we really looked in the mirror and we said, what is the best thing for entrepreneurs on fire moving forward? It was moving down to a team of four because we could do it and we knew that we should do it and we did.

16:49So Kate, I'm going to move on to the income breakdown in a second. But before I do, why don't you bring this topic home? Yeah, very well said. And we're incredibly lucky to have JM and Tapu still on the team. They've both really stepped up and are always more than willing to learn new tasks and take on new projects. So we're just, gosh, I think JM is with us since the very beginning. So 12 plus years and is to put to put got to be coming up on 10 years. Yeah, he's coming up on it for anyone out there, you know, thinking about what did you tell you told me a long time ago? I know this is maybe a somewhat well-known saying is that the first time you think about letting someone go, it's too.

17:37What is the saying? No, it's something along those lines is basically like if you're thinking about firing somebody, it's already past their due date, essentially. So it's really all about like hiring slow and firing fast, meaning that when you think that somebody may need to go, then they really do. Because if that person, and this is going for people, by the way, that are part of a team, if you haven't made yourself irreplaceable, indispensable, that's a problem. There's no reason why you shouldn't be that to somebody on your team. And for instance, I'll give a shout out to Tapu. Like I literally consider him indispensable.

18:12I really do. So he's created that role in our team for us. So are you doing that with the team that you're on, Fire Nation, or are people on your team, have they done that? If they haven't, then maybe it's time to sit down and have a conversation with them. Definitely. So Fire Nation, knowing when to let go. We're going to rip through our April 2024 income breakdown. Our product and service income was$128 ,000. We did 36 journal sales. We did, let's see, four mastery journals, three podcast journals, and 25 freedom journals leading the way. Podcasts Paradise brought in a little over, well, a lot over$3 ,000, just a little under$4 ,000.

18:57Our podcast sponsorships brought in$123 ,000, and our affiliate income was$3 ,600, and our total gross income was$132 ,488, with our business expenses being$14 ,570 for a net profit of$117 ,918 for that 89 % percentage of net profit overall gross revenue number. And Kate's going to take it home with our biggest lesson learned, which is different levels of challenges. I know that we've shared a bit about becoming parents in the past several episodes. And as any parent, oh, bless you, Bob. Oh, that was so cute. I'm keeping that in. As any parent knows, the transition brings about its fair share of challenges.

19:48And something that a lot of people have asked us is, you know, what has surprised you about becoming parents the most? And I think that many of the challenges for us have been more manageable than we imagined, which I'm very, very grateful for, of course. Some challenges have been tougher than expected. did. But I think that's been the biggest surprise for me is that a lot of the things that people were kind of like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be insane and crazy and you're not going to sleep and everything's going to be very, very, very, very, very hard. I don't really feel that way. I feel like this has been just incredible and amazing.

20:27And don't get me wrong, there have definitely been really tough times like yesterday when Bo was overtired and cried for 30 minutes. And I was texting John because he was on calls being like, can you please help me as soon as you can help me, please? So, yeah, there are definitely moments. But that's been one of my biggest lessons learned recently that everyone approaches and manages and navigates parenthood a little bit differently. And, of course, everyone's in a different situation within their household, within their finances, how they choose to live their lifestyle. And, of course, every child is different, too.

21:04So what one family sees as a huge challenge may not be a challenge at all for you and your family. I guess all of this to say, everyone loves to share their experience and advice when it comes to parenthood, but I've kind of learned to not overthink the challenges that others experience or let that be imprinted on you because sometimes it's easy for someone else to say, oh yeah, when my baby hit six months, this was just an absolute nightmare. And then, of course, you're thinking like, oh, my gosh, when my baby hits six months, that's going to be a nightmare for me, too. And I don't think that that's a great way to live a parenthood journey.

21:41And it just, you know, kind of makes you unnecessarily freak out over stuff. And I don't want to be that way as a parent. And that has kind of been just a standout for me. You might have a completely different experience than what someone else is sharing with you. So take it with a grain of salt and let your journey be your own. And Fire Nation, just a little side note, the reason why Kate was texting me during that time frame when Bo was a little feisty and wouldn't go down because I am the master yoga ball bouncer, put to sleeper person. It's just a skill that I have. I know, you know, some of us are born with it.

22:22I happen to be. So if you ever need to have your husband or wife, if you're the husband and you struggle with us, trained on that skill. I'll be doing classes live on Zoom once a month and follow for more details. But until then, Fire Nation, keep your fire burning. Success Story, hosted by my friend, Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversation on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship. In a recent episode, Scott brings Kate Bradley on the show, founder and CEO of Lately.ai, to discuss the best ways to use AI to create content.

23:06Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.