2227 - Financial Tips and Community Support for Entrepreneurs with Women in Wealth's Michelle Taylor

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1:05With us right now, it's Michelle Taylor. Michelle, you are the founder of Women in Wealth. You're found on the web at womeninwealth.co. Michelle, it's great to have you. Thanks so much. I'm happy to be here. All right. So, hey, before we get going in talking about the work that you do, the impact you have in the world, what do you do for fun lately? Like, what are you into? Any hobbies, movies, TV, music, gaming, that sort of thing? So many things, but I would say what's top of mind is I love to travel. And I just got back from a trip to Spain and was with a group of friends, got to see a lot of really unique things, super excited, always looking to go new places.

1:53So I would say first and foremost, travel is my passion that I love to do when I'm not doing all the other things. yeah um well that's always fun to travel um what brought you to spain uh one of my closest friends who's actually one of my cousin-in-law it was her 40th birthday oh not bad what'd you do what'd you do there and more importantly what would you recommend people do when they go to spain so the only thing i would say we we did the flew into madrid we did Sevilla, Nerja, which is a small beach town, very non-touristy. So that was really interesting to see kind of the real life of the Spaniards.

2:40And then we did Granada to go to Alhambra. We did a flamenco show. And I think that the only thing I would say not to do is a bullfight we did try and do that um and it was not my favorite okay uh was it a little kind of graphic or yeah it just um if you love animals it's so hard you know how yeah up you see the bull like yeah and coming up but that's not what they do i have a big lab and the bull kind of ran out like a big puppy to me. And it was, yeah, but I mean, it's culture, it's fun. Good. Well noted. Well noted. Well noted. Well, Michelle, share with us a bit about the work that you do.

3:30What is women in wealth? So women, by the way, can I, can I just point this out? We're fellow Orlandians. I did, I didn't mention that at the top. So I appreciate that you're, you're based here and hopefully having a tremendous impact with, with women in central Florida. Well, thank you so much. And yeah, it's exciting to know that you're right down the street. We'll have to make a habit of hanging out. But so I focus primarily on helping the founders. We work with about 95 % of my client base are business owners. And we specialize in filling in the gaps that come with being a business owner and make sure that they are growing their wealth inside and outside of their companies, help them exit.

4:19And most importantly, I think for so many of them is managing access to capital and keeping more of their money, not just making more of their money. So we are not CPAs, but we are experts in tax strategy. Yeah, well, would you mind maybe going through you know, three or so, three, four of like the biggest tips for business owners to make sure that they're taking advantage of so that they're, and, you know, again, minimizing their tax liability, making sure that they have, you know, maximum, you know, kind of capital to invest both in themselves and in their business and in their future, and just kind of have the freedom that that smart decisions can enable us to have?

5:10Yeah, sure. So one of the things I would say is making sure that your investment strategies are not in direct competition with your business. And what I mean by that is oftentimes people are given the advice of investing just in retirement accounts or tying up capital that they may need to grow and scale their business. So I think that that would be number one. Number two is look for the low hanging fruit. So often there are strategies that business owners are not reviewing with a trusted professional that can save them a ton of money. And what I mean by that is looking at your salary, what you're paying yourself as an S-corp, you know, and in any of the hot topics that you see on social media, like Augusta strategy and paying your children, all of those things.

6:05Yeah, and because this is a pretty savvy crew, let's pause here and just make sure we go back. I want to address that first thing. So you said, don't compete with yourself. Can you explain what that means, please? Well, so for example, if number one, being a business owner is a big enough risk as it is. So we try and focus on leveraging. That is, in my opinion, the secret sauce. So if you're putting your money in an investment account, that is pretty aggressive. You aren't as likely to be able to get a high loan to value on that investment account. So we tell all of our business owner clients that it's a good fit for, you want to have your money invested, but you want to have a piece of your investment in something that's pretty conservative so we can leverage it with a line of credit.

6:59That way, you can use those funds to go out and acquire different territories or invest in your business, buy new equipment that will also help you on the tax side of things. And if your money is tied up in something that is either illiquid or in a retirement account, which is the go-to for a lot of CPAs, SEP IRAs, 401ks, you're not able to leverage those dollars. And that could put you in a pickle where you need capital and can't get to it. Yeah. And, you know, I think I wonder if you run into this often where maybe entrepreneurs, especially in the early days, it's hard for them to take, you know, take assets and invest them into something else when they might be so passionate about their business that they say, well, listen, the surest bet I know is investing in myself.

8:01How do you deal with that with someone's like, you know, or maybe they might even say, I don't have money to invest. My business has an unquenchable appetite for resources. I most of the time agree with them wholeheartedly. That is something that is so important with entrepreneurs and business owners is if I had to bet on my business or in something that I couldn't control, I'm going to encourage them to invest in themselves and their business every single time. So I think that what we're kind of thinking through is in that founder stage, startup stage, you should be just reinvesting in your own business.

8:40However, once you start to look at that stage two growth-oriented business owner, there needs to be a synergy between what they're doing to grow their wealth inside and outside their business so that they are not competing with each other. Um, and Michelle, uh, going back to, uh, you know, advice number two was obviously work with smart people. Sure. Absolutely. What were some of those strategies you'd mentioned Augusta rule? I mean, that, uh, again, that should be a real easy one. Do you want to explain that one? Yeah. So basically you are able to rent out your primary residence to your business and you're able to do that for up to 14 days a year.

9:24Now, there has to be a reason to do that. You want to make sure that you're doing the due diligence on the back end. But if you're having team meetings, or you are going and sourcing out a space to have gatherings, why not benefit from moving dollars that are taxed in one bucket to a lower bucket, which is you personally, you do not pay taxes on those personally when you receive those dollars, and you're still scratching the same itch. So it's little things that a lot of times people know about, hear about, but don't implement because it does take partnership in understanding the due diligence that needs to happen in case you're ever audited.

10:04You want to make sure that you've done the right things on the back end so that there is no issue with complying with the tax code. Yeah. Michelle, again, you were kind of lightly mentioning a couple of things on the strategies. So again, Augusta is an easy one. What would be one other one that maybe you could explain in a little bit more depth? I would say paying your kids. Now, yeah, and please explain the rules on that, how to do that. And so again, I agree with you. Yeah, it takes doing your homework on the back end. And so often CPAs aren't necessarily up for that challenge. And they might not think that the client's going to do it.

10:46So maybe it doesn't get mentioned. But you want to make sure that the job that your kiddo is doing is a real job. But it's a great way, especially for entrepreneurs, to instill in their children that work ethic and teach them the business that the parent is in. So you want to make sure that the salary you're paying them is checking two boxes, in my opinion. You want to make sure that it is industry standard and that you're doing an audit of what is reasonable within the community. For example, you're not going to pay your child that is helping you with general tasks around your office, bookkeeping, things like that, you know,$1 ,000 an hour.

11:32We want to make sure that there's alignment there that won't raise any red flags. And then honestly, in my opinion, you want to keep it, if you can, under that standard deduction. Because if you're paying them under the standard deduction, they're going to receive that money tax-free. And they can use that money for anything that they and you want. It can be for summer camps. It can be putting the money into a Roth IRA. They can start an investment account. It can be for buying clothes, something that they're working towards. So again, it's shifting dollars from one tax bracket to another, as long as the due diligence is done in the back end to make sense if you're ever audited.

12:17Yeah. And Michelle, tell me a little bit about Women in Wealth. And so you offer it as a membership. You've got a couple of tiers. Why do you operate it like this? So oftentimes in my work with business owners, I was encountering women that were all having the same questions and conversations. And number one, first and foremost, women and wealth is about changing the way women think and feel about money. Historically, we are less likely to raise our hand. We are less likely to admit when we aren't sure of something because we don't want anyone else that's sitting at a table that we've pulled a chair up to, to feel like we don't belong there.

13:02So my passion was really the driving force of this. And that is to make sure that women have access to the education, the community, and the same resources that so oftentimes are things that the guys have that women do not. So I put together Women in Wealth. This initiative has been around for almost five years now. And it's truly about giving women a place that they can see someone that has walked the path that they have walked, raise their hand and say, you know, I don't understand. I was in a meeting today and something was mentioned, but giving them a safe place to find the answers they're looking for.

13:45And then to be able to self-educate at their own pace. And again, just bring together a community of like-minded women that are going to learn and grow from and with each other. Yeah. Michelle, you also have a podcast. It's called Talk Wealthy to Me. So do our friend listening. Just search around your podcast app. You can find that. It's called Talk Wealthy to Me. What do you talk about on Talk Wealthy to Me? We talk about your money story and understanding what success looks like for you. I don't know about you, Josh, but growing up, there were a couple little things that I thought, when I can have fresh flowers in my house every single day, or when I can have a garage refrigerator stocked full of different drinks and extras, in my mind as a young girl, that meant that I was successful.

14:39So I think it's really interesting to pay attention to what those stories are that we grew up and told ourselves. And again, I think it's just talking through what were the wins, the pitfalls, what was the worst business decision that you ever made that if you could go back in time and tell yourself to avoid a pitfall, what would that be? And hopefully the audience listening, that will encourage another person to not make that mistake. It's just having conversations around money, getting comfortable talking about money, talking about the different things that are out there that we don't necessarily do the best job of conversing over wine.

15:20Like, yeah, you know, it's so funny. You mentioned, you know, having a, you know, you know, a refrigerator or a drink fridge, you know, filled with, you know, filled with drinks. You know, it's funny. Like, you know, for me, you know, I wanted to, I was, when I was, you know, probably in my teenage years, like I really wanted to have a really nice DJ console. Guess what? I have one now. But, you know, on the drink thing, we got a, like one of those beverages, cooler side by side that goes into a built in. and stuff. And it was really overpriced in my opinion, but I got to tell you that it is such a luxury that we enjoy every day.

16:06Do you want to just mention one last thing about like this idea of maybe having a luxury in our life and the value that that might bring the psychological value? So one of the things that was really important to me growing up, I grew up with divorced parents, One that was an entrepreneur, my dad. My mom was a retail manager for years and pinched every penny. And I remember thinking when I grow up and I travel, I want to stay in nice hotels. I want to turn left when I walk into an airplane instead of right. And those things seemed so far off. And I can tell you now that the pleasure of it is not lost on me and that girl that had those dreams.

16:50Those are definitely luxuries. You can stay at any type of establishment that you want to if travel is important, but I cherish that I'm able to, you know, speak to that, to, to sometimes turn left instead of right and to stay in nicer hotels. It, those are the little things that, that make it all worthwhile. You know, I, I love saving money on like 95 % of the things in life. And then there's so that I can splurge on the things that really matter to me, manufacturer and, um, you know, retail or profit. I don't care so much about splurging on that, to be honest with you. So I don't mind like, you know, shopping really, really smart.

17:33I remember that's my whole savings angel persona, but, uh, yeah, I love that concept. Okay. Uh, well, Michelle, your website, women in wealth.co, um, when our friend, uh, goes to your website, what would you recommend they do? I would just recommend to look through it and really identify what you are looking for. So for anybody that is interested, there is a circle community component, a library of education. And one of the things I'm super excited about on the site is the I've got a girl component. So once you are in the community, I've got a girl is basically a database of female professionals that I have vetted and sourced that should be sitting at your table, making sure that you've got the right people in the right seats.

18:23And really just figure out what you're looking for. Ask questions. If there are any questions, the team or I can answer them and test it out. We do monthly mastermind calls, calls biweekly with Q &As with different professionals and ultimately are looking to grow this thing. The more women, the more voices in one spot, the better. So it just depends on what you're looking for. Take a peek. Michelle Taylor, founder of womeninwealth.co. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Josh. It was a lot of fun.

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