Thank you, Michael.

Joining me in the studio now is Amanda Stickel.

First of all, Amanda, welcome to the studio.

Thank you so much for having me.

And you are a tax strategist, a fractional CFO, and recently the author of The Regulated Wealthy Woman: Five Financial Pillars for a Profitable, Peaceful Business.

And we're going to talk about that in a little bit.

But something that stuck out to me when we initially started setting this up is you s - you focus mostly on year-round financial leadership.

Tell me a little bit about what that means.

Yeah.

So I have almost 16 years experience in the accounting industry, and every time I meet with somebody, it's a similar experience where they're overwhelmed with taxes.

It's a, it's a scare.

Like they, at the end of the year, they're scared of it.

It's unexpected and they don't know what to do.

And what I have found the most beneficial is working with business owners throughout the year in order to plan and put systems in place, to be prepared for taxes, but also to realize that taxes are just a piece of the puzzle.

There's a lot of moving parts as far as cashflow and business decisions that need to have some sort of financial leadership in place throughout the year.

So that way you can have a profitable and peaceful business that is aligned to how you want to be living your life.

And with 16 years of doing this, you've definitely got a strong background on doing stuff like this.

I got to know, what are some of those tips you share with either clients that aren't doing their own business or those that are coming around January like, "Hey, I need to do my taxes.

What do I do?"

Yeah.

Biggest one is to plan for taxes throughout the year.

So having a system in place.

So what that means is like a bookkeeping software, QuickBooks Online, there's way of accounting, Xero.

There's so many different options out there.

Even Google Sheets is really helpful.

But tracking your income, tracking your expenses, and being aware of what's actually happening in your business so that way you can plan for taxes.

So when you have those systems in place, then you could set aside, say, 30% of your profit every month into a high yield savings account.

So that way your money's working more strategically for you instead of giving the, the government an interest-free loan.

So when people are calculating their taxes, something I, when we were getting this interview set up, I was running into a lot of these TikToks and Instagram posts of people that are like, "The IRS knows what your income is, but it's really a gamble.

You have to go in and put it in, and if the IRS doesn't agree with it or like it, they're going to send you to jail."

So can you debunk that mystery for me out of cur - just for curiosity's sake?

Yeah.

I think there's two, two parts in this.

The first part is usually the IRS does know your income.

But that's where a lot of the strategy comes into play because as a business owner, they're aware of your income, but they're not aware of all your expenses that go into operating your business.

And that's, that's where the fun part gets to be, where you can be strategic with your spending.

They do have to be ordinary and necessary expenses for your business.

But there's, there's lots of strategies that you can play with to kind of shift your, like, spending habits that you're already doing to be business deductible.

But you have to be proactive and you have to have documentation in place.

But that's where you, you have control with the IRS.

And then the second part is that you won't automatically go to jail if you get something wrong.

I mean, that is a big fear for people, and it's totally understandable because I don't want to go to jail either.

But what will happen if they do find something that's not matching their records, they're just going to send you a letter and just asking for some verification.

And that's where the documentation comes into place and just respond to the letter and you'll be, you'll be okay.

You must also have a bunch of freelancers who come to you and help and ask for tax help.

Am I correct in that?

Yes.

Yeah.

So when you, when you see those like first time freelancers who come in and have never run a business before, have never managed cashflow, what are some of the common early mistakes you see them making?

Yeah.

The, the first one I want to say is that they, they don't think they have a business because they're not taking themselves seriously.

So that's a, it's a mindset thing and it's hard, it's a hard shift too coming from employee to then being employ - I mean, basically you're your employer, you're being a business owner, you're responsible for your taxes and keeping all the documentation and getting the clients.

Some people start off like thinking they just have like a hobby, but really it's, it is a business.

So first recognizing that and acknowledging that you are a business owner.

And the second thing is that they, they put their, all the money stuff on the back burner because it scares them.

It's overwhelming.

They might not have that foundational understanding of, of how taxes work and like what can, what they can deduct and how it's reported.

Or how tax, like how, how much their taxes are going to be.

So all of that is very overwhelming and stressful.

So instead they kind of, they put it on the back burner and like, "I'll figure it out later."

And then they never get to it.

So those are the, the two biggest mistakes.

Ignoring it, not having the systems in place and not tracking for taxes.

You mentioned something earlier that I wanted to get back to about deductions.

Those are usually, those must feel like sometimes like the cheat code to be like, "I can get my, I can get my tax refund or whatever I owe down a little bit."

But you can't deduct everything.

Like I can't deduct my dog or cat, like if I wanted to.

Right.

So what's, what are some common or uncommon deductions that you see or would recommend?

Yeah, common ones are your supplies.

So as like a videographer, your equipment, your camera software, those things are very common in, in multiple different businesses.

Some uncommon things are things that people don't think of as tax deductions or, or remember that they actually do use it for business is a portion of your cell phone.

We use our cell phones all the time, especially for social media.

That's how we're marketing our business and talking to our clients.

So you can take a portion of your cell phone.

And a home office deduction is a big one that's, that's missed and people are often kind of freaked out about because they feel like they're going to get audited and like they're going to get things taken away and get in trouble.

But it can definitely be a legit write-off if you're using a space in your home as an exclusive space that you use for your business regularly.

And it's a great write off to have some of those personal expenses be a business deduction.

Covering a lot of good ground, but I want to ask you, what sticks out to me about your book is your subtitle here, the five, the Five Financial Pillars for a Profitable and Peaceful Business.

For people thinking about starting a business or freelancers who are like starting to think about running a business, what are those five financial pillars without spoiling the book?

Yeah, no.

Happy to, happy to share.

Pillar one is to have separation.

Pillar two is to have systems that work for you.

Pillar three is to pay yourself intentionally.

Pillar four is to plan for taxes throughout the year, like we've been talking about.

And pillar five is to be planning for your cash flow in the future.

I like to say the phrase cash is queen because I work with a lot of women.

So cash is, cash is queen in the business.

I want to ask you this.

Why is hiring a CFO important, not just for tax season, but all year round?

Yeah.

Because business and taxes happen throughout the year.

It's not something that just happens at the end of the year.

And there's a lot of opportunity to plan for taxes and be strategic with taxes, so to keep more cash in your pocket.

And that happens through intentional strategy throughout the year.

In addition, it's hard to run a business.

Business is hard.

We can't do everything on our own.

And having an expert on your side to manage your systems and give you key information that you might not know exactly how to interpret, I'm giving you the bits that you need to know so that way you can make strategic financial decisions.

I think one of my last questions that I have for you tonight is, what would you define as financial success?

Just for anybody.

So I think that's very subjective.

And that's one of the things that I like to talk about is that you have to figure out what success means to you and not focus on what everybody else is talking about.

Because everybody else has different goals and different lifestyles, different family structures.

To me, it's about having the time flexibility to spend with my kids, to go to all the sports things, to do community things.

I'm big in my community.

And also financial freedom.

Like I don't want to have to stress about going on vacation or going back to sports, paying for all the sports equipment.

I want to be able to support my family that way.

Amanda Stickel, thank you so much for joining us.

One more thing before we go.

Where can people go to purchase the regulated wealthy woman?

Yeah.

So this is available on Amazon right now and will also be available in Four Quill.

Four Quills In the Paddock.

Will's Four Quills Bookshop.

Yes.

Shout out to Destiny Wood, by the way, over at, over at Four Quills.

Amanda, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today.

We appreciate you coming by.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.