239. Beyond the Numbers: Transforming Your Money Story w/ Paden Squires

Financial expert Paden Squires shares powerful insights on tax planning, wealth building, and entrepreneur mindset strategies to help business owners keep more of what they earn. He explains how proper financial planning goes far beyond basic tax preparation, requiring strategic quarterly meetings and documentation of tax-saving opportunities like the Augusta rule.

• Paden's journey from corporate employee to entrepreneur driven by childhood financial anxiety
• Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial disorganization and lack clear visibility into margins
• Traditional CPAs often only prepare taxes without offering strategic planning or wealth-building advice
• The Augusta rule can save entrepreneurs $3-5K annually by renting their home for business meetings
• Documentation is crucial for any tax strategy to withstand potential audits
• Proper financial mindset requires understanding the balance between delayed gratification and growth
• Tracking weekly financial KPIs like margins and cash flow prevents reactive decision-making
• Advanced strategies like deferred sales trusts and opportunity zones can significantly reduce capital gains taxes
• "With enough time and energy put into something, you can get better at it" - 

Connect with Paden at squirestaxplanning.com to book a call about your tax situation or find him on social media and his podcast "Behind their Success."

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome
• 1:24 Peyton's Journey from Employee to Entrepreneur
• 5:42 Financial Challenges Entrepreneurs Face
• 9:46 Finding the Right Financial Professional
• 12:12 Tax Planning Strategies and Documentation
• 19:08 Mindset's Role in Money Management
• 26:12 Advanced Tax Strategies and KPIs
• 37:57 Legacy Advice and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, it's Mindset Cafe. We all about that mindset. Gotta stay focused, never settle for less. It's all in your head how you think you manifest. So get ready to rise, cause we about to be the best.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Gotta switch it up. Gotta break the old habits. Get your mind right, turn your dreams into habits. No negative vibes, only positive thoughts. What is up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Mindset Cafe podcast. It's your boy, Dev Gonzalez.

Speaker 2: 0:32

And today we are back with another special guest. We have Peyton Squires on. He is a CPA, CFP and an entrepreneur who is passionate about helping business owners really simplify their finances and reduce their tax stresses, while building wealth and peace of mind. And as we start to get towards the end of the year, honestly, this is when you should be starting to talk to someone like Payden. If not Payden, if you guys don't have anyone, because don't wait until the end of the year or the beginning of the year to try to figure out and now you're playing catch up. Right, you should be figuring those things out now. It's September. Believe me, December, January, is going to come a lot faster than you think. But without further ado, Peyton, thank you so much for taking the time out to hop on the Mindset Cafe. Absolutely, man, I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here. So I mean, I like to always start off with a little bit of your backstory. How did you get into the financial planning, the accounting, all that. What led you to that road?

Speaker 1: 1:23

the accounting, like all that. You know what led you to that road? Yeah, yeah, Great question, you know it. It really goes back to to my childhood. You know. I grew up a single family home in a, in a single mom, a mom situation.

Speaker 2: 1:35

You know what?

Speaker 1: 1:35

why we didn't have you know we weren't like completely destitute or anything, but we did. We did have struggles, right, and it's certainly things I knew or recognized as a kid that you know, maybe we had a little bit less than others and in times, you know, I remember stories of when my mom actually got laid off from a job and my grandma being there and being anxious and everything about it and as like a 10, 12-year-old kid, that was like a huge you know burned into my mind of you know the anxiety around that, right, and so that drove me.

Speaker 1: 2:04

You know the anxiety around that, Right, and um, so that drove me, you know it. It drove me into the world of money and finance, right, I just knew I never wanted to experience that again, like as an adult. I mean, like my motivation probably was nothing more than I didn't want to be poor, as as non-noble as I guess that that is, but like that, that was my fear, right. And you know that led me into studying money and and you know accounting and all those things in college. You know I I went through that and ended up getting a master's degree. I came out, you know, in the middle of like the the 08, 09 recession, out of college, so, like everybody in finance was getting fired from their jobs. So I ended up getting a job at a little local bank.

Speaker 1: 2:44

You know, worked a couple years in a few different, you know, insurance company, a local bank and then a large manufacturing company, but quickly found out like I'm not built to be an employee at all, really, really, anywhere I was. While I was a good employee you know anybody would say I was a really good employee like I hated it. I hated sitting in the cub cubicle doing whatever people told me to do, bored out of my mind, kind of thing. So when I did my last real job I had, you know, back in, say, 2012, I ended up sitting there studying for the CPA exam and that was my escape plan. My escape plan was to study for the CPA exam. As soon as I passed, I quit my job and opened up my own firm that happened in 2014 and grown into what it is today.

Speaker 2: 3:33

That's awesome. That's the hard thing. A lot of people will get frustrated with their current state, whether it's being an employee or you know something in their life, but no one, a lot of people, don't want to take that step, or take that you know, that step off the ledge and into the unknown, and so for you to do that you know is is huge. What was what were some of the first like unknowns that you had to experience, going from employee to business owner?

Speaker 1: 4:04

Yeah. So I mean you know, you know the listeners know, yeah, it was scary, you know, I mean it was the best decision of my life, but I didn't know that at the time, right, I didn't know how this would play out but but yeah, I mean, for me it was.

Speaker 1: 4:17

It was leaving a safe corporate job, a safe corporate paycheck right, or at least the perception of it being safe. Um, and and jumping down on my own and and literally, you know, like day one I'm sitting here with a laptop and like in my living room. I started this business in my house and.

Speaker 1: 4:32

I didn't really even know what to do, like, hey, I need to figure out how to get clients and and and make money Right and and so it it. You know, I I had a. My situation was a little lucky because my my wife at the time was finishing, finishing up nursing school, so she was like going to start her first real job. Before that I was like the only one really making money, so it was like a good timing of like she was coming on board to make money and then I was just going to quit at the same time. So we were like in the almost the same financial place and that really gave me the runway to. You know, just jump and jump into it and see what I can make happen.

Speaker 2: 5:08

No, that's, I mean, that's awesome, I mean, and that's did you. Were you starting to like transition into becoming an entrepreneur while you're an employee or did you do what I kind of did and just kind of jump ship? And you know, I just jumped ship, yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:23

I just jumped ship and, and you know I you know for the listeners or whatnot, like I mean, you don't have to do it that way, right? I mean there, there are definitely ways, and maybe even less scary ways to where you can be building this, this side gig, especially now with technology.

Speaker 1: 5:36

That you don't have to like just go cold Turkey, quit your job and jump all in, right. So there there's definitely ways you can do it. Um, maybe edging in, but then at the same time, like are you really committed, right, are you really going?

Speaker 2: 5:52

to go down that path. If you're got your feet at both, you know what I mean in both worlds. Yeah, I think that's. That's the hard part, at least for me, was like I'm that kind of person that has to just go all in. I mean, I've done it two times, like at each level, and I think for the second time I don't know if I would have done it if I wasn't in a similar state that you were in. Um, when I was a, I had my own personal training company running, you know, six figures and everything, and then opening up my gym, which is now a franchise, you know, we franchise it. But opening the gym, I had to go from six figures to no figures, right, but my wife my, my wife was making money and doing everything.

Speaker 2: 6:26

So it was like, okay, like we're good for a little bit while we, we transitioned, so that it was a. It was a jump all in, but a more strategic jump on the second one.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Yeah Well, and I think it's important, I think it's important to realize, like you know to to move to that next level. Often you do that to take those couple steps back right, like you almost kind of like break, break it down before you can re rebuild it, and that you know that's what it is like, your income you know you're gonna have to take a hit in the short term, but understand that, like you know, hopefully the future is a whole lot better.

Speaker 2: 6:59

That's the. That's the goal. You know what? What are some of the financial challenges? You would say that a lot of entrepreneurs, and even maybe yourself, when you first became an entrepreneur, you know face and how do you help them overcome them.

Speaker 1: 7:13

Yeah, I mean the, the, the biggest issue I see with with entrepreneurs especially, you know, especially ones that say you're under, you're under a million dollars, right, and you're still a million in revenue and you're still figuring out a lot of stuff. You don't really have a lot of systems. I mean they're just disorganized. I mean just flat out disorganized. And many entrepreneurs they get into whatever their business is because they're passionate about it or they like doing it, or they're really good at some specific service or thing they do, but that doesn't mean they know anything about finance or running a business, or you know those things.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Those are totally different. Skill sets, right, and accounting and taxes and numbers and stuff, especially for a lot of people, can be intimidating, right.

Speaker 2: 7:57

And.

Speaker 1: 7:57

I often see where entrepreneurs it's like they just don't look at it because they don't you know what I mean. They don't fully understand it and it's just like, hey, if I'm not looking at it, I'm sure, I'm sure it's OK, right, and and so it's. It's really just, I guess, a lack of intentionality around a lot of it, and you know, I would also say that a lot of it's the industry's fault.

Speaker 1: 8:27

You know I mean a typical CPA firm, tax preparation firm. They're not necessarily set up to help you with any of that stuff either, right, like so. So and this is why we've designed our firm much different. But like the typical CPA firm is like they're just tax preparers and there's nothing wrong with that. But like many people get a CPA, get a tax preparer, and are expecting something other than them just prepping your taxes and they're not really motivated or incentivized to do anything else. Right, they work with so many clients and they're just prepping your taxes.

Speaker 1: 8:55

And where a lot of the intentionality is lost is there's nobody really planning with you and actually walking alongside, helping you make decisions, helping you make strategic decisions out there in in the marketplace. It's just there's not a lot of people doing that no, definitely, and that's the hard part too.

Speaker 2: 9:12

What I've learned is just like in fitness right, that's, I'm in that industry. Right, there's different, different levels to trainers. Right like, everyone's a certified trainer, you know whatever the case may be. But you quickly learn that certain people have above and beyond knowledge and dive deeper and continue their learnings and so forth. And same thing for CPAs, financial planners and stuff. For example, when I first became an entrepreneur, the person I was using for my taxes know the, the person I was using for my taxes. I quickly realized that this is probably not the best person because she didn't really know much about, like you know, the write offs and all that kind of stuff. And I was like okay, this is.

Speaker 2: 9:52

This is I got.

Speaker 1: 9:53

I outgrew that person which is it happens and that's normal and that's going to be part of your process, especially if you're you're growing.

Speaker 2: 10:10

You know you're a rapid grower like, yeah, I mean, you gotta up your relationships too, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:11

And then it happened again when, all of a sudden, I asked my cpa you know a couple like tax advantage questions that you know I heard online, looked them up and stuff and he, his response was, oh, I was actually looking into that too, it's really. And I was like, okay, if you're looking into it like, and you're trying to do this for yourself, you don't really know about it yet. I was like we might be on that line, you know. And then, launching the franchise, all of a sudden, it was like you know, now there's a whole different side of it. That was like, okay, I think, I think we've kind of parted ways a little bit here. Um, with with yourself, though you know what's one of the things that, when people are looking for someone like you're saying, like you know a financial planner or a cpa that is doing what you know, you're saying like you know a financial planner or a CPA that is doing what you know, you're saying like going above and beyond.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Yeah, and just tax strategizing, I mean just tax planning.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Yeah, what are some of the things that maybe they can ask them or kind of verify to make sure they're getting the person that they want?

Speaker 1: 10:59

Yeah, I mean it's. You know, obviously it's up for what you're looking for, but you know, if you're looking for that planning and strategist, like I mean, you should be talking to this person three to four times a year. I mean minimum, you know, like our process is.

Speaker 1: 11:13

You know, we make everybody meet with us four times a year and often we're chasing down the entrepreneurs like hey, meeting time, it's time to have a meeting Because you know they get busy and they're running around and stuff. But yeah, you need to. You need to ask questions of like, what do you? You know, how do you plan with clients? How do you do you, do you offer any services that actually you know, help me strategize to drive down my tax bill, not just you know file my taxes correct and once again, that needs to be done and most CPLs or CPAs are fantastic at you know filing the tax returns. But what can you do?

Speaker 1: 11:49

you know what are you going to do to help me make decisions and strategize how to make the situation better, not just report it to the government.

Speaker 2: 11:58

See, that's awesome. Those, I mean those are perfect questions. So you guys, if you guys need someone, hit up, hit up Peyton. So what are some of maybe the strategies that can help reduce some of that tax stress in like practical terms from?

Speaker 1: 12:11

an entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 12:13

Is it like weekly checks of your KPIs? Weekly, you know what are your. Some little key tips.

Speaker 1: 12:20

Yeah, I mean, you know just yeah, I mean, obviously you know having dashboards, having KPIs, just knowing kind of what your daily measurements are.

Speaker 1: 12:28

And you know that's not just in finance, you know, it's across all the different pillars of business. You know, other sales, marketing or whatever you know. With this it's a matter of like the tax planning kind of sits on top of like your accounting, like the tax planning kind of sets on top of like your accounting. And often, you know, I get, I get some entrepreneurs that are kind of up and coming and maybe not established as much and they don't have very clean books or books at all, to be honest with you, and that makes my job almost impossible to do Right, because if I don't have the information I can't strategize Right, or if I don't have accurate information. So it's, you know, one is like you got to get, you got to get clean account and especially if you're doing any significant revenue, you got to get clean accounting because, one, it's going to inform you to make business decisions Right, even internally, and two, it allows a person like me to come in here and really add value and get strategic about how we recognize income and how we recognize expenses and the timings of all that, and then some even just basic strategies we can implement, like you know. I mean I'm sure a lot of the entrepreneurs listening here and whatnot have heard of like the Augusta rule, or have seen that you know on the internet that bounces around all the time because it's I was talking about golf and whatever, but like that, that's a. That's a very simple one that 90% of um you know traditional CPA firms will never even help you with. Um and and just to get a quick rundown of what like the Augusta rule is, it's.

Speaker 1: 13:56

You know anybody in the United States can rent out their personal residence uh, for up to 14 days a year and not at pay income taxes on. So, as business owners, the way we strategize that and take advantage of that is you know you're going to host legitimate business meetings in your house, right, and we're going to pay a fair rental rate and ultimately the business is going to pay you rent for hosting business meetings in your house and ultimately the business gets to deduct it. You, as that person, since you were in and out for less than 14 days, don't have to pay income taxes on it. And while that's not some massive thing, you know, for most people it could be three to $5,000.

Speaker 1: 14:34

And the reason most CPA firms aren't going to set that up for you is because they don't have any processes around it, right, they don't have any ability to help you do any of that, so they're just going to say, hey, well, it's only a couple thousand dollars, probably not worth doing right, to deal with all this stuff. Well, our firm, we've set up processes and things to make that super easy for you to document and have lease agreements and really have a, you know, a file, in case you ever were audited to say, hey look, this was all very legitimate of what we did, right. So this was all very legitimate of what we did Right. So you know, we've really built processes to help people implement those smaller things that you know nobody else is going to actually help you do no-transcript.

Speaker 2: 15:26

And that's like the surprising part, because the guts of the rule and all that kind of stuff only works if you document, because if you do get audited or anything and you don't have any proof there's yeah, they're gonna take away that expense.

Speaker 1: 15:42

You're gonna have back taxes and penalties and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, going to take away that expense. You're going to have back taxes and penalties and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, and that's what you know. While I'm an absolute strategist and looking through the code of like, ok, right, and we're going to put together files and documents that says anybody comes asking questions, well, you know, here you go, what questions you got. You know that kind of thing. So, yeah, I mean, there's plenty of people out there that will just, like you know or I don't say plenty, so some people out there that will you know, just do the Augusta rule have no documentation and you know, hope for the best, and you know it probably works out for a lot of them, but some people it certainly doesn't.

Speaker 2: 16:31

So I mean, like that's my thing is. What I've kind of talked to people about too in is my understanding, at least my feelings of taxes Right is it's like a game right, and what I mean by that is the more you know about the game, the better you can play the game right. It's not that you're playing it, you know wrong or anything like that, but if you don't know the different plays and different you know strategies there's levels exactly.

Speaker 2: 16:54

There's levels to it, right, and in that's just what goes with anything in life, right, but the next, next kind of pivot I want to take on it is how does the mindset really play into managing money and building wealth?

Speaker 1: 17:09

Yeah, yeah. So you know, I'm very big on mindset, you know, and of course I have my own podcast and it's all about very similar to yours, right, about entrepreneurship and mindset and all those things. And I think you know, I think you know, I think what makes me different, even just as a, you know, as a money guy or even you know, you can kind of tell I'm probably not a typical CPA personality. But what, what makes me different is, you know, I really do consider myself an entrepreneur Right.

Speaker 1: 17:37

As you know, I I mean I call myself the entrepreneur's accountant Right Because I live in that world so much as an accountant right, Because I live in that world so much, I work with so many dang entrepreneurs and in lots of mastermind groups and stuff where we're doing roundtables and picking each other's businesses apart and all that kind of stuff. So it's, I think, like you said, there's so many different layers to this and there's always another, you know another level to play the game at and it's having the mindset of growth and and wanting to keep advance. You know it's you.

Speaker 1: 18:08

Not only do you got to do that with yourself, but also with you know, with your vendors, as you, as you continue to grow, like you said, you've kind of gone through different professionals. I've done that in the same, whether it's, you know, marketing or different things that were people helped me, um, get to the level where I was at. But I wanted to keep going, going and I, you know I needed, I needed to involve somebody else that has already seen those roads right, I've already been down those roads right.

Speaker 1: 18:33

You know, I didn't want to necessarily go with my vendor because they would be learning it with me at the same time, right, I'd rather just skip that step, go find somebody that's already been down that road and they can take me down. That know quickly, right, and they know where they're going no, definitely so.

Speaker 2: 18:48

I mean with with a lot of the entrepreneurs that you talk, to right their mindset about their, their money. Is it more on like, especially if you don't know your numbers, you can't improve your numbers, right? Yeah, so their mindset isn't really developed around you know, whether it's an emotional development or just a analytical development around their actual finances? How do you start to prepare them to understand sometimes spending money Right, like you know, in a SEP IRA or something like that, that expenditure is actually a benefit and it's not losing money? Or you know, how do you start to kind of help them develop their mindset?

Speaker 1: 19:28

Yeah, and it's, it's, you know one, it's developing a relationship right, I'm, I'm, you know I'm, I'm very relational guy and and you know everything I do is, you know, trust and money and and, and you know the, the, all those types of things and and you know.

Speaker 1: 19:42

I'm very aware, like you know, I understand it's not just a logical game, right, you know I, especially around money. You know everybody has so much emotions around money and you know you're carrying whatever your parents did with money and all those habits and whatnot, right, so it's it's. You know, I understand it's not. It's not just like a lack of information, right, it's not generally not the problem, like, like you, you're in fitness space, right, it's not like people don't know generally what to do.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Like you know, they know they need to work out more and eat less calories generally, right, if that that's how they want to. You know, and and and in taxes, and once again, like there's so many more levels to that, but like the base level is, you know, people kind of kind of understand that levels to that, but like the base level is, you know people kind of kind of understand that. So it's more of a, it's more of a habit thing, right, right, and and and helping people understand and and make better choices and and seeing the long-term gain. Um, right, because everything's, uh, you know, can I have it now? Or if I delay gratification, it could be better. You know, years down the road, and that's always the tradeoff, and especially in money, it's it's the more you can delay gratification. Or, you know, keep doubling down and rolling money forward and whatnot you get, you get the most growth. So it's it's trying to always get entrepreneurs to see the bigger picture.

Speaker 1: 21:01

And now, at the same time, it's also it's like I have a lot of conversations with entrepreneurs. It's like, so, like, what problem are we solving for? Like, what is the end game here? Right, like you know, everybody wants to pay less taxes and make more money. Sure, but like, to what end? Like, what are, what are we actually? You know what is your business, what do you like? What's your vision? What are you actually trying to build? Because, you know, make more money and pay less taxes, I mean, there's a million different things we can do but like, depending on what you're building that's going to inform you know the strategies and roads we ultimately take?

Speaker 2: 21:36

no, definitely, um, I mean with that, though man. I was, I lost, I had something that you're saying, that it was. It clicked in, it clicked my head. I was like man actually. I was just thinking lost that I had something that when you're saying that, it clicked in my head. I was like man. Actually, I was just thinking about that the other day.

Speaker 1: 21:50

I do that all the time.

Speaker 2: 21:53

It'll come back to me, but I mean, is there, oh, actually a little side question? Yeah, and this is more for kind of like a personal question too, because you have financial planning right and then you I've met, you know, fractional CFOs and so forth, and so what's the difference for entrepreneurs between someone that is actually like a financial planner that will help you plan your finances, and whether it's with the business and your personal? And what's the difference between like a fractional CFO?

Speaker 1: 22:25

Yeah, you know a fractional CFO is going to be. I mean they're going to be running your internal. You know your internal finance function right. You know you usually see fractional CFOs maybe get involved in businesses. I don't know, maybe 3 million up generally, you know, maybe not even till five or seven or something. It just kind of depends on the business. But you know they're. They're in there running the finance function and you know where you've got enough stuff going on that that it's worth having a high level person in there just making financial decisions all the time and monitoring and budgeting and being strategic there. You know I don't know very many fractional CFOs that work in tax at all right, like as in that. That is not. I mean, I'm sure there are some, but the vast majority aren't right there. They're just there as like almost an outsourced employee to run your finance functions. You know, generally.

Speaker 1: 23:23

Even then you know I work with a lot of organizations that have a fractional CFO and you know we're coming in and doing their strategy around taxes and, ultimately, the net worth building of the you know the owner Right, so that you know, I think that's kind of the biggest difference the CFOs are really. I mean, they're internally working on strategizing of like business growth and things like that. Working on strategizing of like business growth and things like that Right, and somebody like me is is coming in and and you know I'm very specific in the tax world and you know, while we do provide a lot of business consulting too honestly, with just the vast amount of businesses we've worked with over over the years we can usually add value in a lot of those places too.

Speaker 1: 23:59

But you know we're very focused on how do we grow the business owner's net worth as efficiently as possible and and accomplish what goals? You know, obviously they want.

Speaker 2: 24:10

No, definitely. I think the reason I asked that too is is I've I mean you hit up, you know, and I'm sure you do as well, on social media from like LinkedIn and Instagram and stuff.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Yeah, and it's like and I think not like understanding, like your, your tie between, you know, cpa and financial planning makes complete sense. And then that separation between CFO makes complete sense. But I've seen just financial planners without a CPA or a CFO connection and they kind of blend into like a CFO but they're not a CFO and it's like this weird little you know mixture of wanting to touch every world.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Yeah, yeah, and you know, yeah, I mean the vast majority of financial planners are like asset managers, is what I would say. They help you invest your money in new weather stocks and bonds or whatever that is help you invest your money in new weather stocks and bonds or whatever that is. You know and and you know I'm not not you know why I do.

Speaker 1: 25:10

I do financial planning and not talk about you know bad, about a bunch of financial planners, but like very, very little of them have extensive tax experience at all, which, which, in my view I mean the tax is such a huge part of all that, like you can't really do financial planning without understanding tax, because taxes I mean the biggest expense and all that and what you constantly have to keep in mind as you're making moves and investing in different things is like what are the tax implications of this and how can you know if I go into this investment, how can I get out and how I'm going to deal with the taxes and all those things? And, and you know, there there are a lot of just kind of retail financial planners that you know you come in and they just stick money in mutual funds and the advice is not very high level.

Speaker 2: 25:57

I think, okay, that makes more sense. Um, I do have a question on a strategy or potential strategy that I've kind of heard about, and then it's funny enough that I saw it yesterday. It was about capital gains, right, and capital gains and a trust. I forget what kind of trust. I know there's different kinds of trust, but it was saying essentially that if you put your assets into and I don't know what they qualify- as assets, maybe a beaded trust?

Speaker 2: 26:26

I'm guessing maybe. But then if you sell the assets while it's in the trust, you deferred capital gains yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Deferred sales trust yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Oh, that's a real thing.

Speaker 1: 26:38

It is. But you do have to be careful about what is done and who's doing it. And you know, with any of these things, you know with any tax strategies and whatnot like, there's a lot of great people out there and then there's a lot of people that you know are trying to sell you something right, and yes, so deferred sales trusts are absolutely a thing that's usually only coming into play at pretty high levels. You know what I mean those things are. When you start talking about maybe you know high seven, definitely an eight plus figure. You know transactions and stuff, generally things under that. You're not doing that kind of stuff. But yeah, deferred sales trust, there's ability to sell assets and no trust and you can loan money against it and it allows you to kind of basically defer capital gains. Is what it can do.

Speaker 2: 27:28

Oh, got you. So I mean, and then the reason I wanted to bring that up is that I also heard that you can. And again, this is all. I have no knowledge of these things that and put their business into the trust or sold the business in the trust or something, because doing it that way versus creating the business you can't. I guess the trust couldn't create the business. You had to basically sell it to the trust or give it to the trust and it deferred taxes or something. Is that?

Speaker 1: 28:03

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and that that's kind of the the overarching deferred sales trust kind of model. You you know you ultimately end up kind of selling the business into the trust and it gets complicated and specific. But yeah it can allow definitely for you to defer, defer capital gains, absolutely yeah. And and you know, and that that's one way. There's, I mean there's, there's millions. I mean I say millions. There's, I mean there's, there's millions. I mean I say millions there's definitely others too.

Speaker 1: 28:26

You know one one I would tell you about. That's it's going to be really big. Starting back up in 2027 is what's called opportunity zones. Opportunity zones are out of the one big beautiful bill here we got. We got opportunity zones returns. Opportunity zones are like areas governments draw and say, okay, these are economically depressed areas and there's tax benefits for investing in these areas, right. So what happens is people develop funds you know they're building real estate or whatever. Of course, with any of these things, you need to worry about the underlying investment and how confident you are in that.

Speaker 1: 29:01

But the tax structure is what it is. You know, opportunity zone funds allow you to take a capital gain. Let's say you sold an asset and have a million dollar capital gain. You can take that million dollars and dump it into an opportunity zone fund. Say this happens in 2027. Your tax bill on that million dollars gets delayed all the way to 2030. I think it's 2034. So it's like seven years. So instead of paying that capital gain tax now, it gets delayed seven full years. And then these funds are designed at year seven that they will kick you out of distribution a tax-free distribution at that point to pay your tax bill that's due in year seven, right? And then if you hold on to the underlying investment for 10 years or more, there's no taxes at all on any of that growth. So you think about it as you drop a million dollars in, you know you're going to get your cash in year seven out of it to pay that tax bill.

Speaker 1: 30:00

And then, you can ultimately exit the investment tax-free at the complete end, and so that's like how opportunity zones work. Of course, you really got to vet what the actual investment is and that kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 30:14

But it's a very powerful opportunity. Mad Fientist, no, that's huge, that's awesome. I mean, what blind spots do you think that most entrepreneurs have with their finances?

Speaker 1: 30:28

I think they just don't know what's possible. And part of that is just you know, you don't know what you don't know, and that goes for all of us. We all don't know right, and you know it's always just evaluating. You know your relationships right Even. You know your vendors, your relationships, your employees, obviously all your relationships, your employee I mean obviously all your relationships.

Speaker 1: 30:50

But about your relationships is is this person going with me to the next level? Right, um, and? And are they capable of you know, going with me to the next level? And? And and, even better, so, have they already been there? Like, have they already been down there, in, in, in, even in their own personal life? Right, um? So it's, it's I. The blind spot is you know, you just don't know what you don't know, and often their strategy I mean almost certainly their strategy that can be implemented and value that can be added, just depending on your situation. But I think it's just getting around people that can help you do that.

Speaker 2: 31:30

Got you One last random, tending, a tangent question, and this is this was this? Was that random thought that I had Just came back to me Going back into, like the trust thing, the the Roth I think it's Rothschild like method right, where it's like everything's in the trust and they're putting like assets into the trust and then you're taking draws from the trust or something like that.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Is that something that people actually do or Um, yeah, well, you talk, I think it was. It was probably not Rothschild, it was probably Rockefeller the Rockefeller. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the big, the big, big, um big trust stuff. Yeah, I mean it's you know the the things with trust, and I'm definitely not an attorney the.

Speaker 1: 32:12

Thing with trust. They allow you to really control, ultimately, what the assets do, even after your death. You can describe what all this money is for and who can take it and for what reasons. And yeah, you know Rockefeller was very key on. You know legacy and not just passing on assets, but you know passing on the principles and things that allowed them to earn all those assets, right, and so they developed a trust systems to where.

Speaker 1: 32:43

Hey, you know this is there's rules around how all this money works. Because you know you look at a different family. You look at the Vanderbilt family um, two, three generations after them they were all broke um and and, and you know they were like Rockefellers and Vanderbilts were way up there together and then, if you know, you don't pass on, money generally doesn't go through Generations very well, right, often it goes to like one generation and it's gone, um, so it's, it's the. The awesome thing about trust is it can allow you to not just get money to the next generation but hopefully even through the next generation, right?

Speaker 2: 33:19

got you. So this might not be a cpa question or even a financial planning question. It may be, but it might be more into your entrepreneur side and knowing numbers right. What are the top KPIs that someone or an entrepreneur should be tracking to focus on their growth?

Speaker 1: 33:39

Yeah, one, just margins. I mean often people have no idea, especially if you're in like a product based business or even even really services depending, depending on your business model, but like most people don't know their most people don't have clear line of sight to to really. I mean, like nothing shocks me anymore to see multimillion dollar businesses that don't have clear line of sight to really really anything. You know they got an internal person to their accounting that like kind of knows what they're doing and so it's, it's, it's just it's's a pure lack of lack of sight and a lot of it is. You know margins.

Speaker 1: 34:14

You know if you're a product based business, or you know construction or remodel or whatever, like job costing, knowing like did I actually make money on this job? I just did, or not? Or I'm like pretending like I did Right, and and then also just I mean just flat out, net, net profit margin, right. Like you need to know, especially like you're in the construction world or whatever, like what is your profit margin, what should your profit margin be on every job? And then that allows you to back into figuring out okay, how do we hit a 20% net or whatever? That is right. So it's all margins. Of course you got to worry about you know overhead and just random expenses and stuff, but it's really just making sure you're hitting the margins you need to hit to make whatever money you need to make. And the issue is that like no one even does that math or even things, are very very few people do.

Speaker 2: 35:10

Yeah, no, I think that's, that's a big one.

Speaker 1: 35:12

Um, I mean, even for me, like I do do my numbers every, every Friday, so that I could just see and keep track, and plan, plan out the next week, and that was something that well, and I would say the the other part that just just come to mind as well, it's just like cashflow.

Speaker 1: 35:28

Um, you know, obviously you can have a very profitable business, a very profitable, growing business, and still run a serious cash problems. Um, you know, especially if you're like a product-based business and you always got to reinvest in inventory and you're growing company and at some point that kind of like breaks and you run out of money even though you've been making money the whole time. Um so, so cash flow is everything right like you've got. You know you can't like pay your bills with your inventory or feed yourself with your inventory, right, you got to, um, you got to manage cash flow and have a line of sight, especially if you're, like you know, fronting job costs and things like that.

Speaker 2: 36:03

And I think that and that's one of the big things, that the reason why we started tracking every Friday and how I found out I kind of outgrew, you know, my, my current year, my previous CPA was getting getting PNLs. Like a month and a half after, like it was already done. I was like, okay, I'm, I'm being reactive to everything you know awesome you know, but also making decisions and I was buying inventory for the gym like supplements and stuff, and buying, you know, a bulk to get the 10% discount and then it was like okay, well, we're sitting on so many supplements that we're we're buying more than we need and we're just doing it for the 10% discount.

Speaker 2: 36:41

Like this is not. This is killing the margins right, yeah. So I think that was one of the big things like actually knowing the numbers and being able to make decisions on a weekly basis or monthly basis. But knowing your numbers, even kind of almost somewhat live, you know, allows at least me to make better decisions.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Yeah, yeah, and I think just having like a basic, like cash flow projections, especially even just with you know, with you know, you say you're buying all this inventory, right, like knowing that, like, okay, here's the timing of the next few months of, like, my bills coming in and probably the income I'm going to recognize is like, is it? Do we hit any point in there where, like, oh, the money's gone, right, and and so, and, of course, the further you can see that out, you know, the more you can do about it. Right, and it's just making sure that you're not running out of cash.

Speaker 2: 37:28

Exactly so I got one final question that I ask everyone, right, and it doesn't have to be a financial answer, right? But the one thing I'll say is it's not a tombstone. I say that and people still sometimes give me a tombstone answer, right, this is the Payton Squires legacy wall. On this legacy wall is any message that you have learned from your life's journey, right professionally or personally. What is the one message you would leave for the up and coming generations?

Speaker 1: 37:58

wow, kind of sum up my life in one one, one sentence, huh, um, you know I I if I had to put put it on there is that with enough time and energy put into something, you can get better at it. And I think Tom Ballou is a podcaster I listen to a lot too. He does impact theory, founder of Quest, nutrition and whatnot, and he calls it the only belief that matters.

Speaker 1: 38:28

right, if you have the belief that if I put time and energy into something, I will improve at it. That's the only belief that matters, because if you don't have that belief, you will never start and you never will get good at it right. So it's having the belief that you can really do anything and I truly believe this with enough time and energy 100%.

Speaker 2: 38:47

I believe that too. I love it. Well, where can people connect with you and follow you and learn more about you? Know tax planning and financial planning?

Speaker 1: 38:57

Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent, yeah, so, um, you know, on the tax planning side it's, it's squirestaxplanningcom. So, um, you know, there you can book a call with us, love to chat, chat with you guys about your situation and see if you know, see if we can be any help for you. On the personal side, I have Peyton Squires out there. You can find me on YouTube and all the social media places. On that side, of course, I got my podcast Behind their Success where we interview a lot of awesome entrepreneurs and get their stories and share a lot of mindset and tips and stuff like that. On the personal side, just look me up, I'm all over the place, my name, and then you know if you're interested in tax stuff squirestaxplanningcom book a call with me.

Speaker 2: 39:40

Awesome. All that will be in the show notes, guys. But make sure you guys share this episode with a friend. If you know an entrepreneur that struggles with their taxes, definitely share this with them. But leave that five-star review. It really does help us out and spread the word for the entrepreneurs and just for mindset, Right. But, Peyton, thank you so much again for taking the time out of your day to hop on the Mindset Cafe. I can't be distracted. I stay on my grind. No time to be slackin'. I hustle harder. I go against the current Cause. I know my mind is rich to be collected.