“My Life Is Tax Deductible” & Other Intangible Benefits of Running a Small Business

The Small Business show podcast episode 31 for Wednesday, September 9th here at BusinessShow. Co. I'm Dave Hamilton and yes, the year is 2015.

I'm glad that it's still 2015. I have a lot more stuff to do.

Dave.

Yeah, this is Shannon Jean coming to you from Lafayette, California. And we're just running around like crazy today. We had a lot of Apple announcements that have put everybody behind, I think, and watching the stuff, a lot of exciting stuff announced this morning.

Yeah, yeah, of course. We're both Apple guys in our, in our businesses, so it, it's natural that today becomes Apple Day everywhere, even when we're just talking about small business stuff. So. Yeah, yeah.

And I think there's a couple of things from a business perspective since we're not really a Mac or you know, iOS type show, but certainly I watch that show or watch the event in order to see what's coming down the pike and how it's going to impact several of my businesses. Won the repair business. And you know, we always love it when things get more complicated because it tends to, when the products get a little more complicated tends to take away some of the, the lower hanging fruit, if you will. The folks that are, we don't believe, maybe have a very professional presence in the repair business. Sure.

Well, yeah, the little fly by night repair shops, maybe it's time for them to fly. Yeah.

Well if you can't do the repair and you can't deal with the Touch ID issues and the 3D Touch and the complexity of the screens. Exactly. So you know, the other thing I really loved, which was fantastic is, you know, there's going to be an 800 to $1,200 iPad, which from a repair standpoint is just awesome.

Yeah, yeah.

I heard a big collective woohoo from the tech department as they were watching, you know, a couple hours ago. And it's just nice. Cause that kind of puts you back in the realm of where the customer perceives a higher value, which in turn allows you to, you know, we talk about pricing our services a lot here and you know, we want to be perceived as experts and highly educated and highly trained. And that's not cheap. And you know, we don't want to cheapen the services and the things that we offer with a race to the bottom to compete with, you know, every guy working out of his car, which is nothing wrong with that and a great place to start. So being able to go, you know, quota repair on a device that's 800 to $1200 and a device that maybe schools and businesses will adopt, especially the enterprise market, which we do a lot of business with. It's very, it's exciting for us.

That's cool, man. Yeah. I hadn't thought of it from those terms, but yeah, it is, it is a touch more expensive and, and by that I mean about 50% more expensive.

That's right. And you know, it's a, you know, it's, it's a good place for them to start and it's certainly going to work its way down.

Yep.

And you know, $170 keyboard, $100 you know, fancy stylus that's got Apple written all over it, you know.

Totally. Yeah.

And then that's good. It's, I think it's for all of us that make our living in that industry. It's actually very good for us.

Yeah, that's right.

That they protect the, the margins and the, and again the perceived value. Because if you look at the market, I mean it's littered with cheap knockoffs that have no value. I mean, you know, no name tablets. I will tell you because we buy thousands and thousands of iPads that need repair and go through our refurbishment process and I get lists with, you know, non branded tablets or even some other, you know, different brands that are just, they're worth nothing.

Sure.

Literally you can't afford to repair them.

Yep.

And thus they don't, they don't have any value. So I just thought that was kind of interesting. I thought we'd talk about that for, you know, a couple minutes as we got, as we got started.

Yeah, no, that's, I, I hadn't, I hadn't thought of it that way. But you're totally right. Yeah. If Apple were, you know, operating at, at razor thin margins, that would not be good for any of us because it yes. It just, it, like you said, it, it. They set the tone. Really.

That's right. Yeah, they, they set the tone and yeah. The expectation from the customer's perspective, which is great.

Right? Yeah, great. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah. So I'm actually curious for you though because I am an Apple guy and so I just got to ask the question, what are your thoughts on the iPad Pro? We don't have to go long on this, but I'm just curious, is it for you or. And I know, I mean, I know your business thoughts because you just shared.

Them, but yeah, from a personal perspective, I mean it looks awesome. Do I have a use for it? Probably not. I hate to say that once I got my six plus, you Know, I had gone and had an iPad mini and I kind of just moved it downstream in the family and I really don't use it that much anymore. Yeah, rarely do I do it and you know, this year I had, I wanted to get back in analog mode a little bit. So I'm not reading as much on those devices as well. Going back to paper and which I really enjoy. So I'm not sure if I'm the target customer.

Yep.

But I do think there is a, you know, they're going to cut, yes, it has a high, you know, price tag, but I think that they're going to be cutting some massive enterprise deals.

Sure.

With, you know, with IBM and Cisco and stuff. So I think you'll see this adopted, you know, from a perspective of having like maybe, you know, one of our people walking through our warehouse managing inventory with that, you know, larger screen. I think that's very effective.

Yep.

And I think you'll see a lot of third party, you know, companies implementing things with that and you know, whether it's point of sale stuff with a bigger screen and a faster processor and you know, so I'm, I'm excited about it. I think it could rejuvenate things, but I'm not sure whether I will own one other than to tear the thing apart.

Well, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure I'll get one, but I don't expect to use it regularly. I have a six plus, but I also, and I could live with the six plus without an iPad.

Yes.

Knowing that I will always have an iPad around to test things on. I, I, I lived for like a month without my iPad when I got the six plus and I was like, yep, I can totally do it.

Yeah.

But I have this iPad right here, so why would I ignore the fact that I have this right here?

Yeah, that's, that's a good point.

Right. And, and so I do. But, but the, here's the funny part. My iPad is an iPad mini, a Retina mini, you know, and I really like that size. And I, I think, I think like you said, there's the use case for the iPad Pro is, is very different. It's not like, well, do I get the mini or the Air? And you sort of, you know, balance the options. One's a little bigger and a little faster. Although that's not so much the case anymore with the Mini 4 because it's just as fast as the air, which they sort of announced in about a four second interval.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

I thought this interesting Yeah, I did too. Yeah, that was, it was interesting that they didn't talk that up because that would probably cause a lot of people not to buy an iPad Air 2. But you know, maybe, I don't know. But you know, but there is that choice, right, that you make it like, oh, I could go a little bit bigger, but the Pro is a whole different market, I think, you know, do I get. I don't really need a laptop, but I don't want something so small. So, you know, that's where the iPad Pro solves that problem. You know.

That's right. And I would imagine that it's going to have a pretty dramatic effect on the MacBook Air market because now does.

The MacBook Air go away? Because we've got the MacBook, right, that they announced this year, the 12 inch MacBook. And so that sort of made the Air questionable to begin with.

That's right. Yep, yep. It's, it's very interesting and you know, from a, you know, business user, I mean I couldn't imagine not having my, you know, MacBook Pro Retina. But you know, this is the first Mac laptop I've owned for more than a couple of years, you know, because I kept. You'd always upgrade when the new thing came out, everything. But they kind of hit a wall I think on some of it other than processor and you know, that kind of thing. And so, you know, they got to move into these other products, keep things moving.

Yep. Yeah. I keep computers longer now than I, than I ever have because, because I don't, you know, they're fast enough. Right.

Right now. Yeah, that's true, that's true.

I used to, I used to budget for a 48 month upgrade cycle.

Yeah, that's about right.

And now, you know, I, that may have doubled in fact.

Yeah, I think you're right. I'm just thinking I'm coming to the end of it. You know, I just had to put a new battery in and.

Sorry, how old is your current.

I have like a 2013.

Okay.

And you know, and it works great. But like I will say, as I was trying to, you know, use a bunch of different apps this morning with the, the Apple event streaming in Safari, I was definitely feeling it.

Totally.

And so that's probably going to push me in there. But last Apple question, because we don't want to bore all the non Apple people if there's any out there, but will you upgrade your 6 plus to the S?

Well, again, I mean I say this with a twinkle in my eye. I have To Shannon.

I understand that. And it's terrible, Dave, because I'm really in the same boat you are.

I know. Yeah. Yeah. I have to. Yeah.

And, and that brings up a, you know, a great topic is. And I always tell people, one of the best reasons to own your own business is because it's fun and, and, you know, and especially if you can get in the position where you are in a business that you're passionate about, you know, hopefully you're interested in it and get something, you know, about it. But, but even if you're not, you can still justify some of this stuff. You know, if I was sitting at home and I was not related to this at all, justifying a new phone or an iPad, you know, thousand dollar iPad Pro would be much more difficult than being able to say, well, I'm in tech business, I need to do this and we'll get the write off.

And I got to know about this. Otherwise the future of my business is. Is it at risk?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You won't even. That's correct.

Yeah. I don't. If I can't talk intelligently about these things, I, you know, who's going to want to listen to my podcast about Mac stuff or who's going to, going to want to read my articles about this stuff if I'm, you know, four years behind?

That's right. And I would just, you know, anybody out there, I talk to a lot of people that are kind of on the edge that are, oh, I'm moving from being employed to, you know, doing part time and I'm going to, I'm going to get into this full time and start my business and you know, that aspect of it where, you know, the intangible benefits that it offers you are dramatic. Uh, and, you know, it's different for everyone.

Yep.

But certain certainly, you know, we talk about, yeah, you do lose some freedom, but you gain a tremendous amount of flexibility and being able to outfit yourself and to travel on your business's dime, educate yourself more or your, you know, family member, if they're a coworker, that kind of thing, that stuff is huge.

Well, when I, when I started, you know, I had some real jobs for a short period of time. I worked for Citibank for a little while, although I even turned that into a consulting gig. But, well, because it was better because they paid me the same. I listen, I worked five days a week at the salary employee and I convinced them to convert me. I don't know how this, I did this actually, but I convinced them to Convert me to a contract employee because I wanted to start my own consulting business. But it would be nice to have a, you know, client that was a, you know, a big part of it. And, and so they, they basically paid me the same to work three days a week as a contractor instead of five days a week as an employee.

And were you going on site? I mean, were they, were they aware that you're working less?

Oh, yeah. Oh, no. I mean, this was a. Yeah, we, we were. This was very out in the open. Yeah.

Getting the same amount of stuff done for them.

Correct. And that, that was the, that was their expectation was, okay, look, you know, we, we still expect the same amount of work out of you if you think you can do that in three days. And that we all kind of knew. We're like, well, yeah, sometimes you're just there dicking around on the Internet, aren't you? Like, yeah, but that, but, but this was 90s, so that was actually valuable to them to have somebody. That was because I was the only one. You know, it's not like now where you're looking at cat videos and it's actually wasting time. This, There was a time when doing that was actually valuable to the company. Yeah.

And that's really an important thing to recognize if you're working for some, you know, company and doing things for them. You may in fact be close to or, you know, really in one way or another, running your own business anyway. And, and you may, if you really sat down and think about it, be able to, to kind of convert what you're doing. I mean, what a great way, what a great safety net, you know, to take, take your first client that's basically paying you a living and convert them into a customer, you know, instead of an employer. Yes, you lose some, some stuff.

But I had to get my own health insurance. Right. Yep. Right.

And the stuff you gain and then using that as a, you know, stepping board into something greater, you know, really, that, that, that's really a valuable insight.

It got even more. And I, and there's actually an end to this story, but we'll take this tangent here because it's interesting. So I did this, right? And I, I converted to this. They knew they were going to lose me if, if, if they didn't do what I wanted because I had other offers for more money, but I didn't want more money and five days a week employment. I wanted flexibility. Right. And so, so they, and they knew that and they played that because I tried to get more money and the flexibility and they were like, you know, we know how this is going to go and here's what we're going to offer you. And we know you're going to say yes, because we know you. You know, so they, they played me just as much as I played them, and that was fine, sure. But then the, the division that I. And I went at that point, which I, what I didn't know was I had to go through this whole process of becoming registered as a vendor with Citibank. And this was an ordeal, not just for me, but for them. They, you know, none of us really knew what this was going to entail, and I'm kind of glad they didn't because they probably would have said no, but, but we went through the process and, you know, got me approved and they had to go through the system and all this other crazy stuff and, and then it was fine. And then I was a vendor. Well, they had a couple of other people that they wanted to bring in as contractors for various other projects. You know, midterm, like, you know, maybe a six month employee here, somebody summer for three months there, that kind of thing. And the best part was the finance guy sat me down in his office one day and he's like, all right, look, you know, I got these two other people that we're going to hire, but I don't want to go through creating, you know, the vendor relationship with them again because that's, that was terrible. And I'm like, yeah, I don't blame you. He's like, so here's what's going to happen. They're going to work for you. They're going to bill you for their time. You're going to add 10 bucks an hour to whatever they, they, they pay, you know, that I'm, he's like, I'm going to tell you what they're supposed to be paid because he' to negotiate the deal. I'm just the middleman, right. With the contract. It's like, but you have the contract, so add 10 bucks an hour to whatever we agree to pay them and whatever they inv. Voice you for and you invoice me for that and then we'll get it paid and you're good to go. Was like, aha.

Yes.

Yeah, Wait a minute, there's money on the table here. So I, I milked that for a while. That was pretty good.

Yeah, no, that's great. And, and you know, kudos to the guy for, you know, looking for that, that solution. That really was a win, win for everybody, right?

Totally.

And that makes a lot of sense. And you know, those approvals and, and that paperwork stuff, you're right. And we've, we've gone through a lot of those things and they can really be a headache.

And, but especially with a big company, you know, it's. Yeah, but I mean, it's a headache for anybody. But you know, for them, they just had so many restrictions and all this other stuff and they were like, dude, there's no way.

But yeah, go ahead.

I was going to say where this story was going was, you know, other than those few little real jobs that I had, I've always kind of been self employed, either with this computer stuff that I enjoy, as you said, or the music stuff that I enjoy. And I file, you know, I mean, the computer stuff now is its own businesses and we've talked about the different structures, but my music stuff, I still file a schedule C. You know, I'm self employed on that officially. But either way. And I, this is my joke, but it's mostly true. For decades now, I've been able to joke and say my entire life is tax deductible. Right. And that's, you know, to your point, you get to write off your travel. I mean, you can't be egregious about it, but if it's, if there's a legitimate business reason for you to be traveling, well, then it's a write off, you know, and, and the same is true for like, I mean, I can, I can joke, I can sit down with the IRS with that same twinkle in my eye and tell them I, I have to buy an iPhone 6S or a Success plus, and they're not going to disagree, even though they know I enjoy the heck out of the fact.

That's right.

I get to write it off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Enjoyment. Enjoying it does not preclude it from being a tax write off.

It's not illegal. Right.

Yes.

Yeah. And that was something that, you know, I really, I enjoyed the process of enjoying it too. Right. I mean, there's, there's that much. Right. But, but that's part, like you said, that's part of the, the benefit of running a small business or any business. And you know, we start small and hopefully grow, but you know, it does help to offset some of those headaches of. Oh, yeah, you know, I got to go through this too. Okay, well. Right. You know how it works.

And.

Yeah.

And the folks that are, you know, getting a paycheck or working.

Yeah.

I mean, there's tons of benefits, you know, along that Way as well. But not seeing that kind of hidden thing of. And you see, you know, small business owners that are building wealth over time because they've gotten advice from their attorney, their insurance guy, the banking, all these kinds of things, because those folks are going to look out for you and say, hey, you know, you should be doing this. Or, you know, I mean, my accountant will always come back and go, you know, you guys are just not. There's nothing in your meals and entertainment category, you know, which you can write off 50%.

Right.

And he's like, you know, tell me about your year. And he's sitting there going, oh, well, you know, you went and met this guy to that. And we may not. Sometimes it's not tracked as closely as we can. So when you have them asking you those questions and pointing those things out, you know, that's how one way, it's not always about making more money. It's about, you know, also about enriching your life in so many other ways.

Yep. It's true. And yeah, yeah, I get to live the life, the life of Riley and by many people's standards. And I'm not, you know, exorbitantly wealthy. I just create opportunities.

That's right. And get to do lots of cool stuff.

I get to do, yeah.

Be around cool things and that kind of stuff. And that's, that's a something that.

For example, today was one of the first Apple events that I didn't go to, to be honest. I didn't get an invite. They, they crunched down on it and only gave us one.

Interesting.

Yeah, but that's, it's rare, but it happens. You know, I, I, I probably wind up going to 75% of them, as it turns out. I wound up hurting my wrist this weekend. I'm really glad I'm not on airplanes yesterday and today. Yeah. But, you know, I got to go. I mean, I've been to most Apple events, including, you know, what I would consider Steve Jobs best performance, which was when he announced the iPhone. And that's a cool thing.

It is a cool thing.

Yeah.

And I've mentioned here before, you know, FedEx flew my wife and I out to the Orange bowl, put us up for a week, and, you know, on the golf course out there, and I mean, it was great. I mean, all those kinds of benefits to you. And when you become, you know, a client of a large, you know, corporation like FedEx or something, and you start pushing some, you know, revenue their way, they're going to pay attention to you. And there's all kinds of things. I've taken my son, you know, who is a football nut, to NFL events, you know, preseason stuff with the 49ers and launches and this. And you get to, you know, meet these guys and all that stuff, you know, again, just kind of hidden gems that are, you know, in the life of a typical small business owner.

Yep.

So that's. That stuff's. That stuff's awesome.

It is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I was, I was, I was complaining one morning my kids were getting up for school at the same time that I was leaving for the airport to go to one of these Apple events. Because coming from the east coast, it sucks. You know, I travel. I have like 11 hours of air travel, just air travel, you know, and then a night in a hotel and whatever travel happens in between and all of that for, you know, a 90 minute event. Yeah. And I was, I was ranting about this and my son's like, hey, how many other people are going to be at this thing tomorrow that you're going to. And he was like, you know, 10 at this point in time. And I'm like, about 150, maybe 200. He's like, how many people want to be there? Like, oh, yeah, that's a lot. A lot of people. He's like, I want to be there. Like, yeah, I know. He's like, I know it sucks that you have to travel, but think about how cool it is that you get to do this. I was like, yep, I'm going to shut up now. I'm good. Yeah.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. Well, it's that, you know, once you get in it, you, you often don't recognize how, you know, cool it is.

Yeah, you do. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, like anything else? I was.

Anything else?

Yeah. I have a guy I do a lot of business with, not with a tech restorer, another company that we own and he's in New York and we are always complaining back and forth about headaches. And today him a text and I said, hey, what? I said, it's total. Grass is greener. I said, I'll buy your business, you buy mine, and I guarantee the headaches are going to be the same, you know, and it's just the way it's going to work. So I, I guess it, you know, the, the lesson here would be being around other people that own businesses and getting a peer group can really help you out because you get that sounding board that you can talk and get feedback to. And, you know, we, I don't know if we haven't talked about it a while, but we have a survey up@businessshow.co where we ask some questions about what you'd like to hear about and what our subscribers. And we'd love to have you take it. And we'll put a link in the show notes today. You can also just email feedbackusinessshow.co. but one of the questions about, you know, or the comments that we got was, oh, it's great to hear that not everything you try succeeds. And, you know, Dave, you made a comment a few times that, hey, if you make 20 calls and one of them connects, well, that's a success.

Yeah.

And, and there was a guy that's like, you know, who responded to the survey and he says, man, that, that's so, so helpful to me to know that that's okay and that you, you know, not. Because most people talk about their successes, not their failures.

Correct.

And. And, you know, so what's better?

I mean, you, you shouldn't dwell on your failures. Right. I mean, there's a good reason that people talk about their successes. You should be aware of your failures. What got you there, and then pretty much you need to let it go. And, and that's why people don't dwell on them. Yeah, that's right. Successful people don't. But we tend to have more of them than we do successes sometimes. Yeah.

And hopefully you learn something to where you can, you know, have a valuable lesson from that failure.

That's right.

And take that with you. And that's what, you know, that's what we talk about here. You know, when we have interviewers on, we say, hey, you know, we, we embrace our mistakes. What is the best mistake you made? And what, I mean, best is what taught you the most important lesson. And every business owner has something like, oh, yeah, okay. You know, looking back, this is what I, I did or didn't do, and, you know, that. That kind of thing.

So so far, no one said that coming on this show was the biggest mistake they made.

Hopefully that, that, that continues that way.

That's right.

Yeah. But we have a bunch of interviews lined up coming into September. We have some varied business owners and, you know, if you know someone or you'd like to talk about your business on the show, we would love to hear from you as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've been picking, handpicking our, our interviewees, but we certainly would love to hear from you if you're the right person. Nominate yourself. If someone else is the Right person. Nominate them. It's fine.

Yeah. And one of the, one of the questions we always get is, well, how do I market my business? How do I get one? Well, this is one way you can market your business. You know, come on here. We'll listen and talk with you, ask you some questions and chat, chat you up a bit and get the word out about your, your company, what you're doing, what you love about it. And that's, that's the way you start.

You know, it. Totally. Feedbackusinessshow Co. That's how you get in touch with US or visit businessshow.co and take our survey. Do both, in fact, please.

Yeah, that would be awesome. And you know, what's great is, on a parting note is another great thing I love about business is you never know where it's going to take you. Considering we had a totally different agenda with this show and we just kind of started rolling despite the fact that we both talk too much or we do both, like talking a lot. Yeah. You know, we were able to, you know, kind of roll it into something completely different. So we have a, you know, great set of topics that we'll use in the coming weeks. And that's awesome. I love that stuff.

Me too. Thanks for, thanks for taking the time. Shannon, thanks for the take, taking the time. To you, our listeners, it's great having you again. Feedbackusiness show. We'd love to hear from you, even if it's just to say thanks. I know that, that now that's gratuitous, me asking you to say thanks. I. What I'm saying is if you don't have anything to say other than that, we'd still love to hear from you.

Yeah, that's right. Or a criticism. Give us some pointers of what we can do better and otherwise. Enjoy the rest of your week in the coming weekend and we'll be back with you next week.

Take it easy.