November 2023 Income Report: Welcome Bo Arthur Dumas, 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 Marketing Made Simple. And today you are listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire's Income Report for November 2023. We have a doozy. We're going to be talking about how to lower your tax bill this year. We're going to be talking also about what every business owner should know for commercial leases. We're going to talk about our interview of the month, welcoming baby Bo Arthur Dumas to the world and so much more.

0:38And we'll be talking about all that when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The Gold Digger podcast hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar 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 hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Belay is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions.

1:14Download Belay's Bulletproof Budget Template for free, which is the exact budget template they use to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Today, just text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123. All right, 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 want to hesitate.

2:03I want CPA on fire, Mr. Ron himself, to jump on and share with you how to lower your tax bill. So Ron, say what's up, what's going on, and take it away. Hey, John, and hello, Fire Nation. This is Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire 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 rear view financial reporting versus forward facing, forward looking.

3:00And it's something 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 let me define rear view accounting. So 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 rearview accounting. 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, and you're trying to sit there and figure out, okay, what was working last month, wasn't working this, you know, what worked, what didn't work last month, and you're already 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.

4:16And 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. 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 want to be three months from today. Or where do you want to be three years from today.

4:58and 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 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 living in the past. We're looking into the future and, again, seeing, okay, where are my goals and how do I need to get there and how am I measuring my performance to meet those goals? For this new client of CPA on Fire, this was transformational.

5:42Just never knew 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? How are these people going to 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 and time. So we kind of looked at, all right, 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 that ad strategy, marketing strategy would look like.

6:31And it really transformed this individual, this entrepreneur's thinking. And they went from just always looking and being very analytical about past performance to, holy moly, this is what I'm striving for. How am I going to 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. 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 we take this month tax and accounting tip to look at sort of the rearview 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.

7:34As always, Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire. Always a pleasure being with you, Fire Nation. Until next month, go out there and crush it. We'll see you soon. 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 at cpaonfire.com for any tax and accounting tips or questions. Now we're on to Mr. David Lizarbram's November legal tip. He's going to talk about commercial leases, what every business owner should know. David, take it away. What's up, Fire Nation? David Lizarbram here, and I'm excited to be back with another legal tip for you.

8:14I'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. Of course, what we talk about in this income report can't cover every issue that comes up.

8:56It'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 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 the property expenses.

9:31A net lease means you're paying the base rent plus one of the following, typically. Property taxes, insurance, or maintenance costs. 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 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.

10:06The last one that we can discuss is a percentage lease. So then 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 where services or goods are sold on-site. 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.

10:40In 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, a 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 know, what the rent's going to be for a long period of time.

11:13Often there will be renewal terms. So that means that you may have the right to extend or renew the lease. But you've got to know for how long, at what cost, what are the terms like, et cetera. You know, are there approvals required, et cetera. 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 up front and the conditions under which you'll get it back.

11:49Maintenance and repairs. You want to clarify, of course, who's responsible for what, maintaining what aspects of the building. Exit strategy. That's the conditions for terminating the lease. You want to make sure that's clearly defined, including are there penalties for breaking the lease early. And finally, and this is like for a smaller 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.

12:21Well, they don't know this company. This company has no background. They haven't 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 guarantee the lease. That means if the company goes out of 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. So again, you want to 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.

12:52I 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 Teavana 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 required 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. 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.

13:35So even a huge corporation like Starbucks can be caught up in commercial lease issues, so it's even more important for a smaller, newer, entrepreneurial-type business. So again, leasing a commercial space is 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 um you know the more time you you spend on these kind of details um you know the better off you're going to be you don't want to get caught out um you know you got to understand the type of lease the knowing the ins and outs of the agreement understand these basic terms um just get you know make sure you're informed you understand what you're entering into if you have any legal questions about your business entering into a lease anything like that you You can always feel free to be in touch with me.

14:16I'm happy to talk with members of Fire Nation. Again, I'm available at Lizzerbramlaw.com. If you're not 100 % sure how to spell that, just type it into Google as best you can and I'll 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. David, so thankful for that great piece of advice around commercial leases. And of course, Fire Nation, Lizzerbramlaw.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 Beau Bear Arthur Dumas into the world, and, of course, more details on the income when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

15:00Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic this year. Even if you're not using it, you've likely heard about the many benefits it can provide, like helping you save time, brainstorm ideas, and tackle your to-do list. But how do you put this into practice? If you find yourself spending hours each day on content creation, then I've got a tool that will help you do just that. Meet HubSpot's new AI-powered Campaign Assistant, a totally free-to-use AI tool tailored for the marketers and business builders who spend hours each day on content creation. Campaign Assistant will transform the way you work by crafting personalized emails, ads, and landing pages with just a few prompts in a matter of minutes.

15:37And you can start seeing the benefits fast. Just pick the content type, add key selling points, and let AI take it from there. Campaign Assistant isn't just free. It's also fully integrated with HubSpot's smart CRM, so you can publish the AI-generated content directly into your landing pages and emails from your CRM. So work smarter, not harder. Head to hubspot.com slash campaign-assistant to test drive Campaign Assistant for free. 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.

16:16I 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. Belay's 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.

16:46This is the exact budget template that Belay used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the Bulletproof Budget Template and streamline your business with Belay today. All right, Fire Nation, We are back and we're going to 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.

17:24Number two was it's not about getting things for yourself. It's about understanding the challenges, desires, and needs of others. And then number three, generative AI is even more meaningful. Professionals, entrepreneurs, and coaches must start using and practicing it. 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 100 % virtual. And this, of course, is the Coach Expo of 2023. 23. Just visit futurecoach.com slash fire. That's futurecoach.com slash fire to learn more. And we'll catch you there, Fire Nation, or we'll catch you on the flip side.

18:09Now we're going to move into welcoming baby Bo Bear, Arthur Dumas. 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 going to be welcoming Kate Lynn Dumas onto the mic, the mother of Bo Bear Dumas. So Kate, say what's up and let's chat about Bo Bear. 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.

18:57And 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 would you say? I was pretty prepared for any scenario that was going to 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 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.

19:41So it was somewhere in the middle, maybe. 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. Um, 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, uh, 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 us at home in our bedroom, skin to skin time with Bo.

20:30and 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 got to 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 retest and actually ended up getting a third machine to retest because they kept coming back low.

21:15So 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 them. Well, I'll speak for myself. It was a huge shock for me. I 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.

21:58She came over and spent the night with me because 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. 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. Yes, I will say that leaving with baby Bo on oxygen, sitting in the back seat of our car at 11 p.m., driving 45 minutes north to San Juan during a pretty torrential rain shower was not ideal.

22:47And then getting to the hospital, dropping him 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 seems known to mankind at the time. 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.

23:39Yeah, I mean, I know when we were up there, especially when we first got there, we had no idea how long Beau was going to 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 Beau the entire time because I was breastfeeding. And so that was a huge win. I was able to spend, 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.

24:19And he only had to stay in seven days, which was also a huge relief. 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 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 pounds, seven ounce baby boy. and I know that the NICU and the birth and everything that we've been through the past month is one of the, you know, many surprises that are going to be thrown our way in parenthood and I feel like we've handled it very well.

25:08I feel like the transition back home, John, I know that for the both of us, 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.

25:49At 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'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. Fire Nation, we are finding our way. And if you want to see some great photos of us doing just that with Bo, eofire.com slash income123 is a great place to check out the pictures that Kate posted of us literally minutes.

26:43I 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 in all of his glory, of course, as well as some other things that we're going to be posting around business and life. And Kate, before I get to the income breakdown, anything you want to add to this? I think that covers it. Awesome. Well, Fire Nation, our November 2023 income breakdown is as follows.

27:24Total journal sales,$2 ,283 worth, 67 journals sold. We did 36 freedoms, 17 masteries, and seven digital packs for the podcast journal. Our 100-day gold journal brought in$3 ,124 in royalties, so that was a great little check to get. Podcasts 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. And that gives us a net profit of$159 ,534. four. Now, Kate is going to take it home with November's biggest lesson learned.

28:21So 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 forward slash income one, two, three. 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 going to come in handy given that we've just welcomed our first baby into the family.