EOY Expenses and Deals

Business brain, episode 610 for Wednesday, December 25, national pumpkin pie Day. That's not what you thought I was gonna say. 2024. Greetings folks and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to tune business brains together so that each of us, including those of us doing the show, can learn more and keep on living those charmed lives. Our sponsor for this episode is LegalZoom, where you can go legalzoom.com promo show BB show gets you 10% off any business formation product. We will talk more about all of that in a little bit. And chatgpt wrote my script and I have not read it yet, so you're gonna want to hear what it makes me say. Here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And here out in Northern California, it's crazy foggy outside. I'm looking out my window and it's just insane. Shannon Jean. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad that LegalZoom is here. I think I've used them for almost every business I've started for someone small thing or big thing and you know, even have had my attorneys recommend, hey, that's pretty straightforward jump on LegalZoom. You can download this thing and da da da da.

Yeah, you'll save a bunch of money.

I'm glad they're here. I'm glad they're here. If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas. Because we're going to release this show on Christmas. Yeah. Merry Christmas, Shannon. Yeah.

Yeah.

Merry Christmas, Dave. I'm excited. I love this time of year. I think it's great. There's a, there's a lot going on and I figured we'd just do we a grab bag show and talk about some different topics and see where it goes.

I love it. I. I love it because pre show you told me that you are doing something this week that I also believe I am doing. And it is not surprising to me that we're both looking at buying cars this week. I. Six years ago, I accidentally bought a car between the week, during the week between Christmas and New Year's. I wasn't intending on buying a car. My family was away. My wife and daughter were away. My son was here. He had just turned like 18 and he had never gone and test driven cars before. And I was like, oh, dude, this is perfect. I'm like, within the next six months or so, I'm gonna replace the car that I have. And so we built a spreadsheet because we're like nerdy guys.

It's smart.

Smart. Well, I need to be able to fit my drums in. So I took the, with the seats, folded down, the, you know, cubic feet of storage that my then current car had and started looking at others and, you know, put it all together. Of course ChatGPT could pull this data for me now and it has, but we pulled it manually. It really wasn't that difficult. And Consumer Reports I think was probably the best place to find it all at that point in time. And built a spreadsheet and was like, okay, here's these three models of car that sort of fit what I'm looking for and also will actually fit my drums. And so we went to three dealerships and we test drove cars. And I wasn't planning on buying something new.

That's always okay. Ah, okay.

Well, because I could, it would work fine for me to get something that's a couple years old and save the depreciation, right?

Absolutely.

I don't care.

It's a great, great strategy.

It's a great way to live the charmed life. I don't need to show you that I could buy a new car.

No.

That's the only reason.

No G wagon. No G Wagon.

And so I, so we went and the Subaru dealer, when we got there, it was like, I don't know if the Forester or the Outback is the right thing for me. We drove the Forester. I was like, I don't like this car. It just didn't. The visibility and stuff. It was like, no, no, I'm not. This is. No. And they're like, well, we do have an outback. It's a 20. It was that model year. They're like, it's on the lot. It's the touring version. And it's like, okay, well, sure. Like that sounds eight. Like, okay. And they're like. And the guy told me, he's like, I know you'll go and like check and confirm all of what I'm about to tell you, but this is. We're gonna, we're gonna give it to you for less. We're, we're willing to sell it to anyone, you, anybody else. Doesn't matter. For less than you could sell it for with 100 miles on it in your driveway. Because we need to get. It's a, it was at the time, it was a 2018. They're like, next week this becomes a year old car.

Yeah, that's tr.

We got to get it out of here. And it was, I was like, oh, okay. And we, My son and I sat and I was like, this is a gorgeous vehicle. I mean, it's exactly what I wanted. So I wound up buying it. But it turns out for a variety of reasons that, you know, this is a good week to buy a car. So. So I'm going to go looking. We'll see what happens. But I. I think I know what's going to happen, so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is a good week, I think so for us. We went and drove. I need a new truck. My truck is starting to get some age on it, and I don't like to, you know, it's. I kind of think either pay. You pay for it one way or another in repairs and maintenance after a certain point or just for the. For the vehicle. And so picked out, you know, kind of drove all these. I drove every flavor, every brand because I've. And I've owned, you know, Fords, Dodges and stuff, but I've never owned a Chevy. So I'm like, hey, you know, maybe we'll buy a Chevy or a GMC and see what that experience is like. And so the. The local dealer has no more 2024s, which I would have bought to save some money. Yeah, yeah, but he's got. He's got. Yeah, of course that's what he's done. But he's got some 20, 25s are really nice. Had a couple nice ones. And I said, hey, what's. What? Give me the best deal you can on this. Send me a text after I drove it and everything. And he says, well, we can let you have it for the sticker price. And so I was like, well, that doesn't sound. Are we. Are we still in Covid. Is that so? I just, you know, I like this vehicle, but I'm not going to pay the sticker price. I just won't, you know, I'll go drive a little further and find a 20, 24 or something like that. So I posted that on X. I just happened to do this. Sure. And I just said, hey, is. Is our dealers still getting the sticker price for these. For these trucks? Because that's what I was just quoted and everything. And this is the power of your network because within just a few minutes I had PO responses about, you know, try this, do this call, do this call. And then I had some DMs from people like, I think I can help you.

I own.

I own a dealership. I do. I sell software to dealerships, and I can probably give you a hand and Then I had one of my followers said hey, I'm a supplier to GM and I can share my supplier discount with you if you'd like.

And so he, I know.

And I said I, I saw, I sent me, I sent him a dm. I was like, is it for real? And he's like, oh yeah, no problem. I have. He's like, I have to use it up. I, I, yep, I had somebody else but they never, they didn't use it and it's going to go expire or whatever. I'm happy to share it. And so it's like that's incredible. Shares with me. I run the whole thing. You know, it's like a $4,000 coupon if you will. And I was like, man, that's amazing. So then looking at these two trucks, one is you know, like 10 grand more than the other. And I'm trying to figure out like what is, what's the value here? So I downloaded this sticker window sticker from each of the trucks that was listed on the site. Uploaded and boast to chat GPT and I just said can you tell me, give me, give me the lowdown here. What's the, you know, compare and contrast these vehicles. And it gave me an incredible breakdown that, of things that I missed, little things. Oh, you're paying more for this payment. And then it gave me a breakdown on what it thought the most, the more expensive maintenance would be based on the engine size and this all kind of stuff. So just, it's just, you know, amazing tool that you could use both of them, the network and the AI to help you in ways that maybe you wouldn't think of. But it's just kind of like a research assistant if you think about it like that, which I love. It's cool.

I have more to share on that.

Yes.

The next thing that I want to do though is talk about starting your business right there is that moment of sticker shock when you realize that, that traditional legal services cost as much a year as a coffee fueled brainstorming sessions, right? Like it's crazy. And here's the thing, setting up your business doesn't have to drain your bank account. Enter our sponsor, LegalZoom, your affordable, no nonsense business launchpad. LegalZoom makes starting running and protecting your business as simple as a few clicks. You need to register your LLC or corporation. Sure they've got you covered, got legal or tax questions, their network of experienced attorneys is there and ready to help you. And with LegalZoom you're not just saving money. You're saving your sanity. For over 20 years, LegalZoom has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their dreams without breaking the bank. So why not you launch, run and protect your business to make it official today@legalzoom.com and use promo code bbshow to get 10% off any LegalZoom business formation product excluding subscriptions and renewals. Get everything you need from setup to success@legalzoom.com and use promo showed bbshow promo code. Did I say promo show promo code bbshow legalzoom.com and use promo code bbshow. And as a disclaimer, LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and self service tools. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice except where authorized through its subsidiary law firm, LZ Legal Services LLC. And our thanks to LegalZoom for sponsoring this episode. So useful. It is. Yeah, they say that that expires on 1231 24, but I don't, I don't think it does. I think it's going to go longer than that. Yep.

Nice.

Simply because of when they're having us do this ad. But you know, make sure to get in there before the end of the year if you, if you really want to make sure. You mentioned using Chat GPT. I. We. You taught me, in fact, that the Voice mode of ChatGPT is a great thing to do when you're at use when you're in the car doing nothing. Yes. And so it wasn't that long ago that I said to Chat GPT. I'm curious how the new car sales business works. I want to understand how a dealer makes money and where they make money and what the invoice price is versus what a dealer actually has in a vehicle. Please explain it to me. Like, I'm a high school student in terms of education level. I didn't want it to get like five year old.

Five year old.

Yeah, yeah. It was too low. Like I can, you know, But I don't want it to assume I know things I don't know. So, yeah, high school students.

Good.

And so I'll go through a little bit of this because it was. Some of it was like, yep, that's what I figured. And others it was like, oh, that's interesting. Invoice price is the price that the manufacturer pays the dealer for the car. Think of it as the sticker price for the dealer. Right.

Okay. The dealer buys the car for that price from the manufacturer.

Correct.

Okay.

Often the dealer's actual cost is less than the invoice price. Because of incentives and discounts, there are holdbacks. Manufacturers can give dealers a percentage of the car's price back after the sale. That's called a holdback. So you pay them, and then they pay for it at full invoice price, and then they get something back that's like a rebate. Right. Dealers may also receive bonuses for meeting sales targets or selling certain models. Right. So they're. Yes, right. This all makes sense.

Totally.

The difference between what the dealer pays after incentives and what they sell the car for is their gross profit. Of course. I'm going through this here. Additional ways dealers make money financing. If you take out a loan, they will almost certainly earn a commission or mark up the interest rate so that they earn a commission on that. The extended warranty, service plans, and accessories have higher profit margins than the cars themselves do. And when, of course, you trade in an old car, the dealer can resell it at a profit. And I. Look, I went into this like I do anything not trying to eliminate the dealer's profit. I. They are in business. I want them.

They need to make some money.

They need to make some money. Right.

Very reasonable. Yes.

Yes. And so. But. But once you know what models you're buying, then you can start to research the holdbacks and those sorts of things. What I did learn during COVID and it fits in with this, is it used to be if you walked into a dealership and said, we're paying cash, that they would love you. Nowadays, it's 100% the opposite. We. I chose at the time we bought a car, it was like July of 2020. We were also refinancing our house, which was a total nightmare because banks were so backed up in the underwriting department, we never actually could because by the time underwriting would get to look at our paperwork, all the paperwork we had submitted would be expired. And they'd be like, we need it again. And I kept sending it, and finally it was like, guys, like, there needs to be a deadline on this. So we never did wind up refining because of that. But I didn't know that at the time we bought this car. And I said, I don't want another hard pull on our credit.

Sure.

You know, so I'm. I'm. It's going to be like, we're just going to pay cash. We would have gotten a better deal if I had agreed to finance it and then just paid it off a month later.

Yeah, that's what I think. I learned that, too. It makes much more sense. And what I like about, like, now with your credit stuff online. Like, we keep our credit frozen at all times so nobody can ping it, but I just ask the guy, okay, which service do you use? All right, hold on. I go online, unfreeze it, they ping it. I'm like, are you done? Great. And then I just freeze it again. And it just really helps to keep your stuff secure, especially for business owners. I highly recommend it, man.

That's another good piece of advice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So keep. Keep your credit log in, create accounts on all, you know, Experian, TransUnion, and what's the other one? I forget?

Equifax.

The Equifax. All three go freeze it. And it only takes a second. It's just a little button that you hit. It's not their credit protection, which they sell.

They. And they will make it seem like you cannot freeze and unfreeze your credit without signing up. Yes.

No, that's a lie. And so the fastest way I have found it every time I log in, because you have to look around for where to do it.

Yes.

Is go to your alerts, and there will be a record of alert that when you froze it the first time, click that, and it'll say unfreeze or freeze and click the button. It'll take you right there. Otherwise, you search around. And they're trying to just put barriers. They're creating friction because they want you to put your credit card in to pay for a service, and you just. You don't need to do it. I mean, you can just credit or whatever lifelock type of things. But I think freezing the credit, it's just. So make sure nobody, you know, opens a new account and hits your credit in your name, which is what you're trying to avoid.

So I put links to each of the three in the show. Notes for everybody.

That's good. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I'm. I'm, you know, I mean, I'm seeing the flow of business slow down here. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, Right. Well, when we're recording this, according.

We're recording this on Festivus. So, yes, I got a lot of problems with you.

That's the greatest. That is the greatest.

Yeah.

The earning of the grievances.

You know that Festivus was created prior to Seinfeld. It was. It was the father I got. I'm doing this from memory, so I might have it wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was the father of one of the writers on Seinfeld was involved in its, like, creation or whatever. And the writer didn't like, he was like, no, I don't want to include this in the show. And the, like, whoever was in charge this should be. And their biggest regret is that they named the episode the Strike instead of Festivus.

Festivus, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a genius. It's in our, you know, lore. If you go to, you know, any. Look up any gif and just type Festivus, you'll see everything. And I think, I think it's great. But, you know, there's still people doing business, lots of stuff to get done. I'm looking forward to, you know, relaxing for a couple of days after we're headed up to Tahoe, but we'll still get some work going. And. Yeah, I think it's going to be great. It's been a wonderful year and I'm looking forward to 2025 is going to be epic. And I really, I think that. I do. Yeah, I do.

Yeah. It's this, this week again. We're recording on Monday. I was shocked at how many people, like, how much business is actually still being done here on the 23rd. And I think it's because of that weird Wednesday, Christmas. Like, I think most people are taking Christmas through the weekend off as opposed to the whole week. I was shocked with one of my businesses we work with in an Italian company. Like, they're in Bologna and I know how it is in Italy because my daughter lives in Italy and everything there shuts down. I emailed them on Friday asking them about the status of. I'll call it a past due invoice or three.

Okay.

But that's pretty normal in Italy. They're slow with the way they pay. I was shocked this morning to get not only a response from someone in their accounts payable department, but a response saying, yes, sorry about that. We will get one of these prepaid this week.

Nice.

In Italy, of all places. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

That's cool. That's crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. It's, it's. Yeah, it's interesting to see how, you know, the shopping and buying and, you know, deals that must close before the end of the year. I think it's. I, I find that after Christmas, 26, 27th, and then that it's weird now because of that Wednesday, but that three or four days in between Christmas and New Year's can be pretty productive. You can get a lot of stuff done. There's not a lot of expectation from other people. So I think it frees you up to. I don't want to say Ignore others demands on your time, but you can kind of ignore others demand on your time, you know.

To that end, I had a crazy week last week. I did it to myself. I had on Monday and Tuesday two rehearsals, neither of which was at my house. So I was like, helen, gone. Yeah. Wednesday I had, you know, off from not needing to go anywhere, but I had tons of work to do. And the same was true Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday because of the holiday. We recorded my Mac Geek Gab podcast in the mornings and that's a three hour affair. Two mornings in a row. And then based on the rehearsals earlier in the week, on Thursday night I had a gig two hours south of me and on Friday night I had a gig should have been two hours north, but in the snowstorm was three hours north.

No way. That's brutal.

I did this to myself. I knew it. I didn't let myself get stressed about it or anything. I just went into the week knowing that this is how it's going to be on Saturday. My wife all week had been trying to organize like a, like a holiday lunch, dinner, whatever, with some of her girlfriends and the only day that they could do it was Saturday lunch. And she's like, I'm so sorry, like, I'm not going to see you all week because, you know, I'm out. She's like, I'm out. Like, it's totally fine. I'm going to want to sleep in. I did. I slept in. And then while she was at lunch, I spent two and a half hours in my office. And Shannon, it was like so productive. It was ridiculous because that's great. No one was looking for me. Yeah, I could send out emails and I wasn't getting replies to transact me. It was just. Yeah, I could get stuff done. So yeah, there's always good. Yeah, yeah.

They can be very productive and get the. I always like to, you know, strip down my office and get stuff straightened out. I've got stacks of stuff that I haven't dealt with and. And I had to do that before.

My daughter came back for Thanksgiving because she was working in my office with me. So it would. But otherwise this is the week I would do that too.

Yeah, yeah, it's cool. That's great. But yeah, it's. You know, folks, we've enjoyed having you here. Next year is going to be amazing and we hope you stick around along for the ride and look forward to seeing you and have a wonderful holiday.

Yeah, absolutely. And again, Shannon, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Everybody out there that celebrates happy Wednesday. If you don't, Happy Hanukkah, because that starts today.

That's right. That's our thing.

Yes. Thanks, folks. We'll see you next year.