Get Your Shoot Together Photography Podcast
Get Your Shoot Together Photography Podcast
Episode 175 - The Senseless Census
This week on "Get Your Shoot Together," Kira Derryberry and Mary Fisk Taylor get real about the rollercoaster of running a photography business. They dive deep into Kira’s headache with the 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey from the Census Bureau—a beast of a task demanding a super detailed inventory of business assets. They chat about the stress of ticking all those government boxes and how it’s a wake-up call for keeping tight records.
The duo also spills details about their awesome cruise with Virgin Voyages. They're all praises for the cruise’s smart branding and top-notch customer service, drawing lessons on how to spruce up their own business vibes. They talk about how every little detail on the cruise was tailored to enhance the guest experience and how this kind of thoughtfulness can translate into the photography biz.
Tune in for a candid blend of stories, struggles, and pro tips that’ll get you thinking about how to handle the bureaucratic side of business and make your brand shine just as brightly as Virgin’s. Whether you’re dealing with tedious forms or trying to level up your service game, this episode’s got some golden advice.
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at RetouchUp. Retouchup Work smarter, not harder. Welcome to Get your Shoot Together the photographer's podcast where we discuss studio business life and keeping it all in line. I am Kira Derryberry and I am Mary Kiss Taylor. I was trying to make it sound like I was reporting like a newscast, like and I'm Kira Derryberry. Yeah, I was trying to sound more like Ru. I was reporting like a newscast, like and I'm Kira Derryberry. Yeah, I was trying to sound more like RuPaul from RuPaul's Drag Race when he's like and now you will lip sync for your life. No, that didn't even sound right at all. It wasn't close. No, not even close. But I watched a lot of it on the boat, as you know. So I feel like, okay, that was a RuPaul fail. My apologies out there, but you know. But I appreciate the attempt. I tried. I think that was nice.
Speaker 1:So we just got back from the cruise Mary, we did y'all. It was so, so fun. It was so fun. It was so fun. It was something else. It was. There were some lows, but mostly highs. Well, the lows were off boat. Let's be honest. Oh, wasn't the crew? Oh, no, I just been to the trip in general. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, lows, definitely on the travel.
Speaker 1:Well there, if you had been paying attention to the news, florida got lots of tornadoes over the last week and looks like we might even get more actually. Oh no, yeah, I mean, maybe we'll see. I mean we had three tornadoes hit Tallahassee while we were trying to travel, so, um, so we were already out in Atlanta. We got stranded in Atlanta. Delta is not being great on the things they promised, of course no, and um, you know, that was kind of a dumpster fire. You know what sucks is like if you're trying to uh, you and I I don't think we've ever had to do this before because we were so confused by it when it happened but like when your flight gets canceled and you, it's middle of the night and you need a place to sleep and you're trying to book a hotel because the airline sure as crap isn't going to book you a hotel, right, so you book a hotel. And then you get to the hotel and you realize, oh, they think you're checking in at three o'clock later that day. Yeah, three or four, they're not ready for you. So if you book a hotel after midnight, you really can't book it. You really can't. And even what we learned, even if you call and say, okay, I'm coming right now, like I'm going to check in at 2 am or 3 am, even if you confirm that they still cannot seem to get that part, no, no, in fact, are you too traumatized from the event to talk about it? To talk about what happened with Leslie? No, leslie, yeah. So let's talk about customer service for a hot second.
Speaker 1:So I got off the boat and did everything wrong, like I literally immediately tried to book flights but I got confused about the next day, what day it was. I booked it for the wrong day. It was just so many things. We were tired. I tried to book a hotel right there at the airport which, shockingly, I was getting all these things, not realizing that I'm exhausted and I'm booking everything for 24 hours ahead or for that checking in at 4 pm, not 3, not at 2 am. So, anyway, that's not what you're thinking about when you're just trying to get it. No, we had Janet Dodd, who's, you know, we're 70th birthday. I have my daughter, kira and I, and so we're just trying to get from point A to point B and trying to low-key, not freak out, because what we're being told is we're not gonna be able to get you to Miami tomorrow, and all we knew was we had to get to Miami tomorrow because our boat was leaving at 4 pm and we had no choice and we all had checkbacks. So there was just lots of things I was trying to be calm about. So Kira goes, I'll call the Hilton line. Kevin has great status with Hilton. I'll get us a Hilton. The Hilton that was eight miles away was conveniently downtown. We went back downtown Atlanta, which was fine. We get there.
Speaker 1:Leslie, leslie the night auditor I'm not going to mention the hotel because but it was terrible Leslie the night auditor was so irritated with us. It was 2.30, three o'clock in the morning and we I just booked two rooms and we and you think that we'd asked her to run hardcore mathematical equations like do our taxes? But we got there. I said we booked two rooms, we're going to need receipts because Delta has to reimburse us for these rooms and we have to do them separately. So we tried to separate the two. No, the first thing she told us is they never should have booked you. We're sold out, not welcome. Oh, not friendly, not friendly. Not friendly. And I said, oh well, she called and they booked the room.
Speaker 1:She goes here, goes, well, we're going to be out in three hours. She goes, it doesn't matter, ma'am, they'll still be dirty. I'm like, yeah, Leslie, you're genius. Yeah, they will. But you know, if we're out at 7 am, checkout, I mean like stupid early, like we're literally down for three hours. Yeah, no, she didn't care.
Speaker 1:I put my credit card in and it comes out for an amount that's more than what the agreed upon amount was. When I spoke with somebody and she says that's just with the deposit, and I'm like, oh, okay, I'm familiar with that concept because you'll get it back, you know. When you check out, I'm like, great, okay, thank you. And but I'm too tired to do the math, like what is the deposit? Cause it doesn't seem right, like Nothing added up. No, it wasn't like a $50 deposit or a hundred, it was like something odd, make no sense. And so we were like, okay, well, no problem, cause we just retired, and please, just like, make this finish, you know, and so.
Speaker 1:So then you get in there and you give your card and you know we do all the rigmarole, and then they give us keys and they send us to bed the next morning very early, like we barely closed our eyes and I slept in my clothes. I mean, I was just face plant into this bed. We we only have what we carried on with us, right? So I packed extra pants I'm the only one that packed extra things, but I gave them to my mom because you know. So I'm in my Ghostbusters shirt and we go downstairs and we're checking out and Leslie the night auditor is still there, right.
Speaker 1:But then the guy who's checking us out, he goes, we go, we're checking out a 518 and 514 or whatever he goes. That's impossible. We don't have those rooms. We don't have those. Like. What kind of scooby-doo hotel are we staying in? Was that a ghost floor? What the hell just happened? I said, well, I need a receipt, and he literally keeps punching numbers, punching numbers. But he goes you're not checked in. I'm like, well, I, sir, I here's my key, here's my room. I slept in a room. I mean, have I been taken to an alternate universe? What's happening?
Speaker 1:Leslie comes out and she gets very angry she's still angry at us because we checked into her hotel Very mad, and she does something. And finally she says I just need to get this straight, you guys, it's all messed up. And I'm thinking well, I'm sorry, leslie, I'm not sure how I messed up because I checked into your hotel, but, okay, I'll take the blame because our Uber's waiting and we're just trying to get to Miami. And so I get in the car and I get a call from my visa why have I run up? Why have I rented 17 rooms at this hotel?
Speaker 1:Literally, there was, at some point, there was over $1,700 worth of charges to my room, which is definitely not the amount we agreed upon. By the way, I have $1,700 worth of charges to my room, which is definitely not the amount we agreed upon. By the way, I have $1,700 worth of charges. I try to call Leslie and say hey, leslie, in the Uber, I'm with the airport. Hey girl, something's gone wrong here. She pretty much told me I was wrong, it was all pending, it would all come off. I'm thinking well, $1,700 seems like a lot for this $171 room I stayed in. Okay, leslie, I got to get to the airport and deal with other things. Now we had to find our baggage, which is a whole nother story, by the way. Um, so halfway don't, nothing, nothing. Next day, still nothing. I'm I'm not kidding friends.
Speaker 1:By the second morning I got a eat two emails from this hotel for no show charges, where for when? Shakira Dairyberry had reserved two rooms, and on Expedia for the seventh floor and I got charged another $280 times two. I'm still trying to. I still have not worked through it It's-. None of this happened Like. These are false. This is fake news, false things. None of this happened.
Speaker 1:At one point, when I called her from the boat, said I don't really like what you're sharing with telling me and I don't want this to get escalated, so I'm going to hang up on you now. You know what. She set a boundary. Her boundary was she didn't want to hear about the charges on my credit card and I said Leslie, I'm another card. You guys have literally, just, you know, maxed out my little tiny travel card. This is just a little tiny personal card. Like thank goodness I used that one, because God knows where it could have gone. Like I don't know I would have bought the hotel. I think, well, I didn't get charged as much, but still the wrong amount. And yeah, and I don't. And then it turns out that Delta doesn't care, the credit card company doesn't care and Leslie sure as crap doesn't care. No, she doesn't care. But you know what Small price to pay. I mean high price to pay actually, but for the fun we had.
Speaker 1:We did have a good time on the boat. We had the best time On-boat adventure is great and we had our luggage. So things did eventually work out. Our luggage did go to the Miami airport. We did not. We went to West Palm Beach and then we had a Mad Dash, which is an amazing black, highly recommend black lane. Our service came through. They were the best thing about that whole experience. They came through, got us, the guy ran out to the Delta, got our luggage, got us to the boat we walked on, above and beyond Amazing. So bravo to black Lane, bravo to Virgin and Delta, this hotel. No, thank you to Delta and double to F right off to Leslie, because I think the feeling is mutual.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, but no, we had a great trip and travel pro tip air tags. Charge them and get more of them, because that was helpful for the luggage. Yeah, thank goodness Mine was dying. I've already ordered. It should be in any minute. Now I was like immediately ordered new air tags because we had people at the Delta counter, two or three people saying.
Speaker 1:One lady even snapped at me. I was like, are you sure? Because my daughter's luggage tag is showing hers is like 692. She goes, ma'am, and she turned the computer around. She goes do you see, right here? And I said, yes, ma'am, you're right, you're right, they're going to be on your plane, they'll be on your plane. And she was so assertive that we believed her. But we actually had two. Here's what we figured out. Try three times to get the answer to. And best of no, actually two people told us that they would be on the plane and one person told us it wouldn't, and that one person was right. So Well, the guy the night before said they would be on the plane too. We had three people tell us they would be on the flight with us. So that whole rigmarole that if you're not on the plane they don't take your luggage lies, lies, deceits, not true, lies, not true. But virgin cruise lines, five star chef, kiss, beautiful. Um, we had so much good food, so much good drinks, uh, good times.
Speaker 1:Um, dancing karaoke, multiple karaoke nights, lots of karaoke. I'm mouthing it like y'all can see me tons of karaoke. Y'all know kira, uh, lots of karaoke, but it was really cool like it was. It was just it karaoke, but it was really cool Like it was. It was just, it was a lot, it was everything you wanted. Plus it was comfortable and it was perfect. It really was. And new friends we made lots of new friends. I have all their names and numbers in my phone. Yeah, kira is definitely my new friends. I love, I love new friends. So so we met Jake from Shreveport. For jake from shreveport, who we love, um, anyway, mama had a great time.
Speaker 1:Mom and I got matching tattoos almost forgot, on the boat they have a tattoo. It's called squid ink, super duper cute. And uh, they actually did it. We talked about it and joked about it and I'll be darned if janet and kira didn't do it. And mom was gung-ho man, I was like, well, we'll just get like a little tiny little, little tiny little lotus flower or whatever. And she was like I mean, well, you want to see it? I was like, well, okay, and then and then we came in and I'd kind of like talk to the girl about like how big we wanted it. And mom was like, oh, but I thought it would be bigger. So she went first and she made the cutest pain faces the whole time, very cute. Yeah, she didn't say a word, but she got through it.
Speaker 1:And then I just talked about I made what did we? We read the Val Kilmer's Wikipedia page. Yeah, we talked about Val Kilmer. We talked about your cats. We talked about Dan yeah, we talked about Dan and his gender change Neutrality and we talked about I don't know. We talked about, oh, you talked about Pokemon, I think. Oh, we talked about Pokemon. I showed her some of my Pokemon. I had to do anything I could just to distract myself from the fact that a needle was dragging across my skin, but she was very good and fast and they were all booked up by that night. Oh, yeah, they booked the first day and then that night there was no more appointments. So I did not get a new tattoo, but Janet did. They killed it. Yes, I love it and it's all good to go now, mary. It's like See, easy peasy, yeah, really easy. So, anyway, so it was great. It's like, yeah, see, easy peasy, yeah, really easy. So, anyway, so it was great.
Speaker 1:We highly recommend Virgin Cruise Lines, virgin Voyages. It's not like any of the other ones. They're not paying us. I wish they were. No, no, no, kidding, we talk about it, but I can't imagine not doing that again and we're going back honestly to to um, yeah, it was. Yeah, well, we are. We already have booked, we've already, we've already booked. Uh, we already have two booking two. We all booked another. We haven't booked it yet, but we have a contract to like reserve the thing. So we were trying to. You know what? Actually, let's take a pause for the cause and come back, because I want to talk about, like I love cruising and kira likes it too, but I want to. I want to talk about what made it different, because I think that's a really good indicator of our own business, like things that we could make happen. If that makes sense, all right, great, we will be right back.
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Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know I cruise a lot and I have like really great status with World Caribbean. As you know, I love Texas school, I love the Texas school cruise and I've done that with many, many years of my family. Why was this so different? And I was trying to pinpoint it because I always like to say, gosh, why am I having such a different experience? Like I would definitely pay more and expect to pay more for this cruise? And these are the reasons why I was not jostled about like cattle, like I wasn't trying like every.
Speaker 1:I felt like there were just barely ever any crowds. I always had an elevator. I didn't like. I went to the pool, I found a chair. I didn't have to. There's no buffets. They have the like what we would literally be like the buffet on a regular cruise line, is more like a food court where you could have got fresh sushi made to order. Burgers like a, like a um, a mixed salad, like when those salad places where they make your salad for you, fresh bakery paninis, pizza Paninis, tacos, noodle bowls Everything was delicious, fresh anyway, a Bubbles bar, like all this stuff.
Speaker 1:And then every night you got to pick a different restaurant and it was a real restaurant. So we went to the Italian restaurant or we went to the it's called the Test Kitchen, which was all tastings and there was the steak and seafood restaurant. Like it was like going out to a different restaurant every night. So it was like being out in the city going to different places. It was just and every little area was so different, like if you were at the dockside bar. There was like more like Calypso kind of music and really like everything looked very Moroccan. Or you could be up at the red room bar, which was very, you know very different, or I don't know it. Just I felt like you could go to. I mean, I feel like I still didn't see it all and it's not even that big of a boat.
Speaker 1:Everyone everywhere had a different theme and it wasn't like you know, you get on like another brand ship or whatever, and it's like everything is Mardi Gras themed or everything is pirate themed or Jimmy Buffett themed or whatever. You know what I mean. But like everything in this place, while it had an overall general like red vibe because that's the brand, you know. So everything thematically went together. The red and the octopus are two of the themes. The red and the octopus were, yeah, but everything I mean talk about like really thinking through, like what would virgin brand look like if it was, you know, on a Greek island?
Speaker 1:What would virgin, you know brand look like if it was, you know, on a Greek island? What would virgin, you know brand look like if it was a virgin casino? What would virgin brand look like if it was a virgin tattoo shop? Disco, disco and like whatever.
Speaker 1:Even the shopping, the shopping area, was different, like I just can't say enough about it, and the rooms were not big. But what they did that I really appreciated is they made the shower bigger and the bathroom a little smaller, because I don't know if anybody else has ever traveled where there's little tiny showers and I'm like well, I'll just put some soap on the wall and roll around in it and I'll be washed. It was a much roomier shower, but you know, but it's still the same size cabin. I would say the cabins are about the same size, but they have hammocks on every single balcony, which my daughter loved, and I know Janet Dodd did too. Oh yeah, like I don't know the cutest video of mom in it.
Speaker 1:But you know, I was just thinking about, like you know, we have like— you know different genres. A lot of people have different genres in their photography business. So, like you know, with me, it's my commercial stuff and it's my family portrait stuff. You know, with you guys, you have weddings and you've got your family portraits and you've got, you know, you've got your holiday sessions. Thinking about it as like, okay, here is the umbrella brand, virgin Voyages, right, and here are our main staples, like the color red, and you know, like this logo and Richard Branson and luxury, and you know all that stuff. And then you go okay, now if we were to take a stab at this sub, like sub genre, what would this brand on top of it look like? Right, and I was thinking about that, when we have a lot of photographers have like these little, like I do newborns and I do boudoir and I do maternity, I do whatever, and you think about it, it's like your brain.
Speaker 1:The theme of the brand is always there, but underneath it it's got little specific things that are nice for that little subdivision. Does that make sense? Exactly, yeah, but the key components, the key components are consistent. You know, like, um, just key, like making you feel that you're not just one of many, making you feel like not nickel and dime. You're like Wi-Fi was included in all the extra restaurants, all that was included in the price, so like we can do that in any genre of our business. Like it was those little subtle things. Yep, it was all. Really it was all.
Speaker 1:It felt like you were getting a little bit of everything, but you were getting it from the same place and you didn't feel like I mean, everything was cohesive. And that's the thing. Cohesive, that's the word, right, right, because it was a very mixed crowd, mixed crowd, like all ages, all I mean you know Adults only, so All adults. But I mean there was just all you know, every, I feel like every skin type. Everything was represented. Like it was just, it was a melting pot of people, gay, straight, just partiers, or just the people calmly sitting around reading their book, like everybody just was very cohesive. We passed a bunch of people just playing, calmly sitting around reading their book. Everybody just was very cohesive. We actually passed a bunch of people just playing like really intense board games, lots of board games, you know, which was cool to see too, you know. So it's just like it's got something for everyone, which I thought was there's not anything.
Speaker 1:You can't really be bored on the boat? I don't think. No, you couldn't, and I felt like it was the least judgy environment I've been in in a very long time. I don't know why. That just hit because people were just wearing what they wanted to wear and nobody was commenting or side-eyeing. I don't know. I don't know. I can't quite. I'm trying to put my finger on it because I want to, because I want to understand it, because it just was such a great experience.
Speaker 1:I want my clients to feel that way every time they walk out of my studio yeah, yeah, that all your needs were met and like everything was anticipated Right, even like the rooms. You know, gosh, everything was fast when you had to, like put your food out in the hallway, like mom. You know, mom put the food out. It was already gone when she went to grab like another handful of stuff to put out in the hall. And then, like mom called for a towel, I mean it was there. It's like there's somebody just standing in the hallway like waiting for someone to call. It's how it felt. But you never saw them. I never saw them. I never saw them. I never saw them. And the way they even deliver the food is so efficient. They're not rolling a big cart, there's not trays, they put them in this zip up.
Speaker 1:I mean, just so much thought went into it. Obviously, really, really did so gosh, I just I can't wait to do it again. I think it would be so fun and next time we're going to get to do. We actually didn't even, because we had dinner every night. We didn't do any shows, no, which I thought we would be doing every night. But then we just occupied ourselves every night with stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, there's karaoke and they had private karaoke rooms. So if you didn't want to do the public karaoke, they had a spot where there were four, what seven or eight of us. We just met people like come with us, we're going to karaoke and they're like no, we don't. I said no, we'll do it privately. We were all singing, every one of us. Just, I don't know, it was just again. Can't say enough nice things.
Speaker 1:Karaoke brings people together, we know that, we know that from experience. But yeah, no, you know, then we can come home and then work, and that insults injury. We're delayed, delayed, delayed getting out. We all missed our connector and but we got home with it. I got home at 2 AM, so travel was not easy, but the, the, the ride was great. The ride was great. I think there were there's travel things. I think we, I would do differently next time, but we've learned our lessons about that. So, but yeah, so definitely would want to do it again.
Speaker 1:But now back to reality. And I don't like it. I don't like it either. I'm really struggling. I'm really struggling. I don't know what's going on with me, but I am really. I am really. I'm resisting when the vacation is too good. I'm resisting the work. Unfortunately, there was things I couldn't, I can't resist.
Speaker 1:While we were gone, I hired our friend Bethany to do this massive inventorying in my studio because I received something called let me. I always forget the exact name of it. So let's get the exact name of it. So let's get the exact name of it. So, in case you have gotten this, you could, okay, it's from the United States Census Bureau. It's the 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey. What's this, you ask Mary? It is a punishment, I guess, for owning a small business. That's not good. That's the only thing I can say. Did you have to do it? I had to do it and I think it was something like 35,000 businesses got picked to have to do it in the country, and so it wasn't everyone.
Speaker 1:And, honestly, when the paper came, it was like a little. You know how you get like stuff that looks like junk mail, but it looks like it's going to be a check, with a little perforated binding around it, and you look at it and it says like pre-sorted first class mail or something, or bulk mail, and you're like, oh, this is garbage, this is a loan refinance offer or something, yeah, and you throw it away, and so that's what it looked like. It came to the studio and I remember receiving it and looking at it and going I don't know what this is. You know, like I don't want to fill out a, like I don't want to be on Nielsen family. You know, you know, like I just thought it was like if you wanted to do this, you could do this, and so I threw it away.
Speaker 1:And then, right before the week before we're leaving for vacation, I get another notice and now it's the same kind of paper but it says something like you know, this is required by law. You know penalties apply if late. You know you have to do this and I open it up and I'm like what is the scare tactic? I open it up and it's like legit, a real thing, from the United States Census Bureau and there's a $5,000 penalty for not doing it. And guess what? It was due on April 30th and I so I'm like, fine, I'll sit down, I'll do it. You know, I'll just sit down and do it. So I log in, I put the little pin number in, I start to do it. It is horrible.
Speaker 1:It is like I answer like the first few pages of basic information, like where is your business located and how much revenue did you do in 2023? And you and that kind of thing. Okay, I'll spend the time doing all this. And then I get to this page about assets and it wants detailed listing of your business's assets and their original purchase value, depreciated value of certain categories, so like oh, my gosh. So I realized one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sure smarter people than me have a rocking inventory of all of their equipment and office supplies and furniture and things like that that a department in their company may have put together for them, but that is not something I did. So my accountant has like a list of, like a basic list of equipment, yeah, for depreciation purposes or whatever. But like I haven't really given her like a very finite, detailed, updated list in quite some time, so she'll have me review it. I'll add like, oh, I bought a camera, here's the camera you know, or whatever. But like I don't add like the new, you know, chair that I bought for this, you know, or posing stool or something, I don't have all that stuff on there. Well, apparently I should have been, because they wanted all that. That was the first time anyone has ever asked me for anything like that. They wanted everything.
Speaker 1:They wanted to know significant calculations for depreciation on all that stuff, the year it was purchased and in all these different categories, and what else was it that we had to do? Oh, and I thought, well, okay, so I don't want to have to do this. I can't do this. I'm going to hire Bethany to work on this. Like I paid her hourly to work on this while I was gone and she worked so hard on it and researched all of my receipts and all of my, like, amazon account, like just to pull order dates and all stuff, built the spreadsheet together.
Speaker 1:I used a lot of chat GPT help to like help me like know exactly what I should be looking for. So we didn't have to go back and look and I thought, okay, worst comes to worst. If the building burned down, I would have, I would have a good, solid list. You know, like maybe we don't do this every year, but I would, you know, right, and so I only know of a handful of people who have been asked to do this, and one of my friends was like you know, it's good enough, just just fake what you got and just put it in or whatever. And I was like I just don't feel comfortable. This feels very official. You know like this feels very official. So so I tried to be as accurate as I possibly could.
Speaker 1:But, mary, this thing was asking me, I have, I have significant chat history with um chat GPT. That's been going on since I got home from the cruise. Me and chat GPT. We have been working like a, like a team here trying to um fill out not only that part of it but a huge spreadsheet of all kinds of other language that I don't even understand. I mean, maybe I'm supposed to right Asset acquisitions and disposals, capital expenditures, you know, temporary staff and least employee expenses, what qualifies as your fringe benefits. I mean, there are things that I can get, but I have to get them. Like, I have to go to my payroll and run all these reports and I have to. So, anyway, manchap JPT.
Speaker 1:Luckily I was able to. I mean, it took a long time to get it, to give me exactly what I wanted because it kept running into problems, but I was able to upload spreadsheets. You're able to take screenshots of things now. So every time it was like I just can't read the spreadsheet you sent me, I'm like, well, if I take a screenshot of it, can you read it? And it's like sure, let's try that. So I take a screenshot of everything it's asking me for in the spreadsheet and I go what should I put for it? Now the spreadsheet goes all the way for columns to A, v. Oh wow, if A, b are your first columns, a, v is where it ends, right, and you've got to put information in for every single one of these and anyway, perfect nightmare. So I would say chat, gpt. Okay, here are columns M through V. Here's a screenshot of them.
Speaker 1:Tell me where we need to find this information out of what I've given you and pull it and then list out everything we need to do. And it's not like my stuff is listed. The way this stuff is, you know, like it's having to tell me first it has to decide what my stuff that I have would, where it fits under their stuff. It's just like it's. This is like an accountant's job, you know like this is. Anyway, I can't believe they make you. I mean, how can they make us do that? And it's the first, apparently it's the first year that this is going on. And again, somebody who knows more about this kind of stuff than me, it's probably got more information about it. Maybe they had some warning, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But at the end of it, I was just finishing it when you and I got logged in and it asked the very last question is how many hours would you estimate it took you to complete this? And I was just like I don't know Too many, too many hours, a hundred hours, a hundred hours away from my business, to try and get this done, plus the money I spent on somebody to to do the. You know most of the work. Yeah, I'm just wondering what I mean. Data gathering yeah, unfair, not small business friendly at all. And I there was like a notes place. It was like you know, here's where you can type in some notes and to explain why it places where you estimated things. Every single time. I was like this is not small business friendly. This was like this is not small business friendly. This was not fair.
Speaker 1:This is, I don't understand most of this. I'm having to get a lot of help. It's just where was I supposed to go with that? No advice on how to help you, just videos. Oh, look at video. You know this one of 20 videos where we explain to you how to fill out columns V and X. They literally, oh my gosh, it's like a form. And then you get through with the web form and then they go and you think you're done and it's like no, download this spreadsheet and fill out the spreadsheet and the first tab of the spreadsheet is just instructions on where to find videos on how to fill out the spreadsheet and you're like, are you serious right now? What's the purpose of this? What are they going to do with this stuff? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm traumatized from it. It is. I'm traumatized just listening to it. I'm pretty sure I would have just pretended like I didn't get it. I've hung up on so many people today. People have called me today and I'm like I can't. Every time I take my eyes away from this project I have to start over. Like I can't figure out where I was and then I realized that I did something wrong and then I have to go fix it and it's just been awful. So now it's over. I hope. I hope it never comes back to bite me in the ass because, like honestly, I don't know if I filled it out right.
Speaker 1:I did my best. I'm one of those, whatever numbers you use, make sure you use them when you file your and stuff, because I can see that being a huge thing. Right, I feel like it's a trick. I feel like it's a trick too. I'm not falling for it. Well then, you'll pay the $5,000. I just, I would rather pay $5,000 than do something like. I mean, literally, I would rather pay $5,000. I just feel like we should have been able to opt out of that. You know, oh, there should get something. I mean that's absurd. I felt like what they did is, instead of incentivize it, they just threatened, right Like it's exactly what they did. It's not kind of. It is what they did. I mean that's just really crappy.
Speaker 1:We're small business owners. We barely have enough time to do what we need to do, and now you want me to take 50 hours and pay somebody to. I mean, how is that? We're like, we're in the terms, we're micro business numbers. In terms of this, like it was asking me for, like my machinery lease amounts for the machinery and for robotic equipment. I would have told him to F right off. I'd be like you know what you can. Just here, here's $5,000. Leave me alone. Yeah, I just I don't.
Speaker 1:Well, if we're micro businesses, I mean like I know, no, I get it, I get it. I mean it's easy for me to sit here because I well, god, I mean I could. I mean I don't remember seeing anything. Well, I'm glad you didn't get it. If I hope you didn't get it because I, you, you would have to, you would hand it off to. If you did get it and you're sitting I realized, oh, I'm not even near being done with this because we just got home. So I extended it until the end of the month and I just finished it just now because I don't want to ever think about it again. But if you got it, or you get it next year, I would just go ahead and give it to your accountant. Yeah, that's what I'd be doing, because I can't imagine ever trying to do that on my own again. I mean, I was hoping.
Speaker 1:I mean chat GPT really did help and explained a lot. I was like I don't know what this phrase means, what does this phrase mean? And so it was able. But it's like I don't want to know what that phrase means, like whatever it is, like I don't want to know, I don't want to know the formula for depreciation, like leave me alone. I mean that's not. I don't know, I don't know, and I mean your average business owner doesn't even have enough stuff to depreciate. Like this is that's just absurd. This is just silly. This is just absurd.
Speaker 1:Well, according to ChatGPT, the standard, the like, industry standards for, like useful life, because you have to. Before I could find appreciation, I have to enter useful life. Well, I don't. Well, how do you determine what useful life of a camera is? I don't know. Well, it says the industry standard for useful life of the camera is five years, five years. And I was like really Five years. And it says yes, and it gave me all this you know data to back up why, you know, for a well-used, like continually used camera, five years. I was like, well, I'm certainly not upgrading every. I mean, there have been times where I've not upgraded every five years, like for sure. Yeah, we definitely aren't. Yeah, and then the lens lens of useful life is seven. Oh, come on, I've had some lenses for 15 years or whatever. You know what I mean. Like I was like, huh, seven.
Speaker 1:Well, how long did I take a computer? Last Computer, last three? Oh, come on. So I'm doing all this work to inventory all this stuff. And then it gets, we put in the useful information, and then the depreciation value is zero and I'm like, are you really so? None of my stuff is worth anything. That's what it says. Oh, come on, this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I'm glad you're done with it, I'm glad I didn't have to do it. But, oh my gosh, I just I wish, I just I just I don't. Why, why, why, but why, why, what do they need this for? And why do they hate me? Like, why do they hate small businesses? And you know, like, why don't they want me to work? I can't make any money to fill out this form.
Speaker 1:The next time you ask me if you keep giving this just without warning, like you'd think that a letter would have arrived, maybe months in advance, going prepare for this Census Bureau. Yeah, just take off the month of April. Oh, yeah, during tax season, this will be due. Like, why? Rude, I don't know. And it's from the federal government, it is, it is. I confirm that Because I was like scam, it's a legitimate thing. Yeah, that's what I would think. No, well, that's what I first thought. Yeah, it is definitely from the United States Census Bureau. It is their website, it knows who I am and, yep, annual integrated economic survey. They better not give this to me next year, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:I will be very upset, very upset indeed. Well, I mean, you fell for it this time, so I don't know. I'm eager to hear if you are listening and you received it and you did nothing and didn't turn it in, will you please let me know if they find you, because I don't like empty threats. You know, and I would like to know if you had to pay for it. And if you haven't done it and now you're freaking out that you did get it and you threw it away or something, you can still log in to the website and put in. Well, I guess you can't if you don't have the paper because there's a pin on it, but go to the website and you can ask for an extension if you have all that stuff and then give it to your accountant.
Speaker 1:I said what is this for? What is the AIES for? The AIES is a new survey designed to combine several existing Census Bureau annual survey collections to reduce respondent burden. Really, it's simultaneously increased data quality and operational efficiencies. Well, well, it's a new survey to cause you an immense amount of stress and heartache and tears and loss of revenue. That's what I think. Well, and just by the by Title 13 of the United States Code, section 131 and 182, makes it required by law that you have to fill out a US census, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So if you got it. You're the lucky one of the lucky ones picked, oh my God. So I mean, my understanding is that not everybody received it Like, or maybe they're going to spread it out throughout the year. Maybe I was in a batch, but I know three individuals that received it, three other businesses that received it One of them, really, yeah, and they're all small businesses. My friend Allison got it. My friend Mike got it. He's a videographer, he does commercial videography. I feel like one other person told me they got it. But, yeah, the horror, horror, the horror, the worst thing that I've ever had to do as a business owner, hands down. Now it's over and I still, like I'm trembling. Okay, so not everybody got it. Yeah, you were randomly selected through a process of scientific sampling I'm calling BS on that and represents thousands of other households like yours. We randomly select about 3.5 million addresses each year.
Speaker 1:Rude, it's so rude. Well dang, all right guys. Well, buckle up. That could happen to you. I don't know what to tell you, but it may be happening to you and you didn't know it. Because it looks like junk. Yeah, I mean, they feel like it should be official, like it should be.
Speaker 1:I throw away most mail because I feel like most of it is just something you know, it's not real, like who sends mail? Uh, well, I'm a delhi-north government. I mean, in my tax payment, obviously from previous oh, did you finally get that all worked out? I did. I mean I'm still working on fixing it with, like my uh 17 hats and stuff like that, but yeah, it still sucks. It just sucks. I got my money back.
Speaker 1:So far it's been a year. It's been a dinger humdinger year. For you, it's been a hub digger. We no, thank you, absolutely no, ma'am, I do not not. Well, gosh on that note.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a warning, a warning, sailors, what is it? Come back for vacation. I mean, what was nice is to be able to get that vacation and put everything down. It was nice, it was nice. But then to come back to that, I mean at least it's done. I guess. Well, yeah, it's done, and now you have all that information and well, you'll be ahead of the game, because I guess all of us will eventually get it and then we'll have to do it. I don't know, I hope you don't get it. I do too, because I might just. Yeah, I think if I get it, I'll just quit, just close your shop down and then come back.
Speaker 1:I'm not liking this at all. I'm not liking this at all. Well, okay, so Mary and Kira had a fantastic trip. Part of the trip getting there leaving there, not so much coming home no stars. So there was a solid five days of five stars and then it's been no stars. I know for everyone who's been like jealous of our vacation photos um, we earned that because because of the front end and the back end of of it, because it's back, it's back to reality for show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I uh launched our, so all my spring stuff is ready. Now I won't. I'm working on beach marketing right now. That's what I'm working on is families at the beach, so that's my big task. What a fun thing to work on, like something for your actual business. Imagine that, not just trying to not be charged for things you've already done.
Speaker 1:Counting things yeah, I'm not doing that right now, but I mean I guess it's coming, I don't know. Counting things yeah, I'm not doing that right now, but I mean I guess it's coming, I don't know. I uh ugh, that's it. I'm not that. No happiness on that, no, so watch out, watch out in your mail. All right, well, just a little ray of sunshine for y'all's day.
Speaker 1:Maybe we should put on this podcast. Don't listen, just don't even follow. And not friendly, but then go get prepare your glass of wine. Yeah, not friendly, just by the by. That's been something that I have decided that when people start walking towards me, I'm going to start screaming Not friendly. You know, like, if, like a dog, if you start walking towards a dog and the owner will go not friendly, not friendly. I'm going to start doing that about myself in general, because people are just getting on my everlast nerve.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get you a button to put on Not friendly, just a not friendly button. Honestly, the people that know me are all for it. They're like, you know, that's actually not a bad idea. I feel like people should be warned. What if the button was a heart, like a little heart shape, like it looks very friendly, you know? Or it's a big, like a smiley face, like a big yellow smiley face, like you know? And then it says not friendly, yeah, okay, well, well, because dogs are cute, and you go to walk towards the dog. You're like, because I want to pet the dog, because the dog I mean I don't, but you do and you go towards the dog to pet it and the owner goes no, yeah, just don't, yeah, just not friendly. So give it a try.
Speaker 1:Y'all give it a try in your social norms, and not in our business, obviously, but just out in general and people, when you don't want to people. I feel like it could be, it just could be an option. Is all I'm throwing out there. It could be All right, you ready to wrap this one up? Let's do it. You guys can follow us on Instagram at getyourshoottogether. You can follow us on FaceFace at getyourshoottogether FaceFace, my face, faceface and you can email us at girl at getyourshoottogethercom. We will, oh sorry, and subscribe to us on all the places where podcasts are played, all the places where podcasts are played. We will see you guys next time on my God. Thanks y'all.