EP 582 – QuickBooks: Getting Your Bookkeeping And Accounting In Order With Emma Dawn

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This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host, CEO of We Close notes, Scott Carson.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the no Closer Show. As always, Scott Carson. Excited to be here with you today. And we live in a different world than we did a week ago or a couple days ago, depending on the country you're in. And there's been some moving and shaking going on economically. Also groundbreakingly with some of our folks on the west coast dealing with issues from the ground shaking. We ain't talking about news, we talking about literally ground shaking, earthquake news, basically. We are honored to have a special guest on today who is working with a lot of entrepreneurs and helping them avoid those ground shaking events of things that I think a lot of people like to put for, they take for granted. They like to put off to the last minute. And with some of the changes going on in the economy and what the government's rolling out, this might be an opportunity where it's like, oh my gosh, I don't have to worry about this immediately, but be able to get your mind, get your business wrapped up a little bit better and get rock and roll. We'll dive into that in just a second. Our special guest today, she is also a fello podcast. She's the host of the Mommy Wines podcast. We're not gonna talk about Mommy's drinking wine today, though. We're talking about what she does with her full time stuff and helping entrepreneurs like you guys out there, small business owners all across the country. She is the creator of the Home Bookkeeper masterclass host of the Mommy Wines podcast, and CEO of EDJ Consulting, which is a financial services firm. And so we are honored, honored, honor, honor. Have us. Joining us from Salt Lake City today, Emma Dawn. How's it going today, Emma?

Good. I'm happy to be on your show.

Yeah, we're excited to have it. So it's been a while. So we brought somebody that was in the, you know, the bookkeeping, the accounting aspect of here for our listeners across the country and note nation out there. So we were talking the other day, you're working with some small mortgage companies and other entrepreneurs really kind of doing what? Getting their books ready to rock and roll from the ground up and making sure that they're looking good by the time it comes around to file for Uncle Sam. Is that right?

Yeah, pretty much. So the way this kind of all started, after I went to school for finance, I got a couple professional licenses, my life and health and my NMLS to be a mortgage loan originator. And I kind of worked in the financial industry, banks and lending. And then bookkeeping kind of just fell into my lap. Bookkeeping and like the financial side of business development just kind of, I don't know, it just kind of happened naturally and organically for me. And I started using that in developing insurance agencies across the nation handling, you know, their books and doing it there. And then recently in the past few years, I've taken my home bookkeeper side now that QuickBooks has paved the way for remote working. And now I get to work with really cool entrepreneurs and small businesses. So that's exciting.

That is exciting. It definitely is exciting. I think he'd be a lot more creative for you. It's also nice as we were talking yesterday of working with a variety of different people that have different passions. I mean you were talking about there's an investor there locally, does a lot of fix and flips that you work with. Cassalt Lake City is a very competitive market. We've got some friends of the neck of woods that live it also. It's literally shaking.

It is. There's groundbreaking things happening in the SLC.

And the SLC is exactly right. So let's talk a little bit about that because with taxes being pushed back now a couple months, people can take a little bit of a cyber relief. They've also pushed back the deadline to file or to contribute to self directed IRAs that same time frame. Do you see a lot of entrepreneurs that waste the last minute to get their books done on April 15th? They're glad to file an extension till.

October, or is it every single one? And I feel like I love working with small business owners because they still have that passion for their business, whether they're a contractor or an auto body shop, a bakery, whatever it may be, when they're still in the small startup small business. You know, they're not quite a chain, a Home Depot or a Target, yet they still have this passion for what they do. And that's really what I love seeing when I work with small business owners. But the downside to that is they are so focused on building the most beautiful kitchen or flipping the next house or, you know, they're overwhelmed with baked goods for different parties and events and whatnot. Especially Here because Salt Lake has a sweet tooth that they kind of push the financial things aside. You know, they're more concerned about, you know, the next car renovation or restoration than they are, you know, oh, I can update QuickBooks later or I can, you know, fill in the Excel spreadsheet later or those receipts aren't going anywhere. I'll just ship them in a shoebox. So that's definitely where having a bookkeeper comes into play, especially for the people who aren't, you know, financially minded. There's so many people out there who can, you know, swap an engine in a Chevy like it's nothing, but God forbid if they put something into an Excel spreadsheet.

Sounds like we're hitting a hot button with you existing clients there, Jaime.

Well, it's good for me because I am financially minded and it's fun to interact with all these different people who have different passions. But when it comes to the deadlines, you know, if they wanted to start a business or if they had an interest in the financial aspect, they'd probably be in the financial industry. So oftentimes small business owners don't. And a lot of people are wiping the sweat off their brow right now because everything has been pushed back and they're like, okay, I have a little bit of time. But yeah, that's definitely where I come in. Right now's the time where I'm shooting out mass text messages, hounding everybody for their last minute receipts. You know, any kind of loans that they've taken out in the past few months, I need all that info. And now's the time I start. They're like, oh, it's the bookkeeper.

They're hitting go to voicemail on Emma. I know. So let's talk to those out there that have been trying to do this themselves, because I think that's one of the biggest things. These online tools make it easier. But it also, like you said something, it's not the allocation of time to get things done. You know, we're good at swapping out engines or fixing and flipping a house or buying a note, working that aspect out of marketing, not always easy, not always the best at tracking our expenses. So why don't we start with the beginning? If you were to sit down with somebody who's brand new, what's the things that they can do immediately to make their lives and your life a lot easier, huh?

So definitely when they start getting to the point where they start taking their business seriously, this is something that they're, you know, strongly going to pursue and they're dedicated to it. I definitely advise them to sit down with a business attorney or some kind of business advisor of some sort because there's a lot of different things that they can write off or different classifications that count towards different types of businesses. So finding out the type of business and classifications that they're going to be needing and how they need to be tracking their transactions and what's a business related expense and what's not is probably going to be the very first thing that they're going to need to do. Because then if they are going to pursue the bookkeeping side, especially if they're a startup and they just don't have the, you know, the resources to outsource their bookkeeping yet, they're going to need to know, you know, like the legal side of what kind of business they are running in order for QuickBooks to kind of match them with the best.

Program that makes sense. Sitting down and talking with an advisor, figuring out exactly what can be written off or what kind of things. I'm literally thinking of the newest commercials that I'm seeing right now where the guy is an accountant for a celebrity and he's getting a text, hey, look what I just bought. A tiger. Can I write that off?

Yes. I have gotten texts, hey, I'm at the Apple Store, can I buy an Apple watch? And I'm like, sure you can, but it's not a business expense. Or they're like, hey, I want to trade in my pickup truck for a motorcycle. Can I do that? And I'm like, well, you can. You might want to talk to your wife. But it's not a business expense. So definitely finding out the classification of your business is probably the very first thing because all bookkeeping is, it's very simple. It's just the, I guess like management of the financial affairs of a business. So in order to make tax time easier, you need to manage your books and to do the taxes at, you know, the end of the year, the beginning of the year, you're definitely going to need to know what kind of business you're going to be filing for. Basically all bookkeeping is, is it's just the lead up to that really fun time that everyone really, really loves, which is tax time.

Right. And I think the biggest thing is, I think the difficult thing is probably setting up the chart of accounts, figuring what falls into which buckets. Right. Whether it's a travel expense or keeping. Here's a big thing. I think a lot of people screw up keeping personal expenses separate from business expenses. So you're not piercing that corporate bail protection of having an LLC or an S corp. As our buddy Aaron Young from Ouaflo and Associates is common for saying, the corporation is not me, I am not the corporation. So you're expensive. Kind of got to keep different or separate in chart of books. And if you use something to make sure you're what, paying back yourself from your corporate or vice versa, if you're using the money from different sides. Right?

Yeah. And even if it's as easy as, you know, just opening a second banking account or checking account and if you don't have quite the business that can handle all of the banking business or the business banking fees, just open a separate like a free checking account because those are a thing nowadays which are super great. But definitely keeping the business and the personal expenses as separate as possible. I know sometimes there's some gray areas, you know, cell phone bills or things like that that can be touchy depending on the type of business. But definitely doing everything possible. You know, maybe get two credit cards, a business and a personal, even if it's not a business card, you know, get two personal cards, use one only for business. Just anything you can do to keep the like the transactions separate is going to make everything just in life so much easier. For if they're going to be doing it themselves or if they're going to be hiring somebody, it'll definitely stop some roadblocks.

Now that's probably a big thing if somebody's setting that stuff up. How often? I mean, I know it depends on the business, but if they're set up from the get go, what are you seeing or what are you spending about an average time per month with your clients who have everything set up and kind of following your path to get things done? Is it 10 hours a month, A couple hours here or there? Because you're able to download everything and kind of just get some clarification. We'll be talking like 40 hours a week for a while.

Oh gosh. Not for any small to medium sized business I spend if I'm actually doing the bookkeeping. Depending on this style of business and just the ease of QuickBooks these days, it might take me, you know, 10 hours a month to do like the construction. The house flipper, he takes about 10 hours a month just because there's probably 500 transactions at home Depot so I have to manually upload those receipts. But there's a lot of things. Even if a small business owner is looking to outsource their bookkeeping, there are a Lot of things that they can do that's going to cut down that bookkeeping time. QuickBooks has an app where they can take a picture of their receipt. It also like it scans the receipt for information and then syncs it up with the data that's in the transactions. So that's nice that that would save a ton of time because one of the biggest things that takes me the most time and I am paid by the hour. So the more hours I spend on the books, the more the business has to shell out for services. So snapping those pictures of receipts or at least organizing them, you know, my construction clients and my landscaping clients, those are the ones who hand me shoeboxes. And it's been like that since forever. So I think it's going to go ahead and continue. But the CL take the time to either take the picture or categorize things. They really keep their finances separate. So they either have a business credit card, a business debit card, a business banking account that's gonna cut down so much time and it's gonna save them money in the long run.

As easy as just snapping a photo? Yeah, it's the easiest. This thing is such an amazing thing of scanning. I know folks taking a picture at least, right. One of the things I like doing the phone with is if I'm drinking wine, I'll scan the label and it'll tell me everything that's going on with that wine called Vivino.

Yes. I still need to download that app. It sounds like something I need in my life.

There you go. Exactly. But that's the thing is it becomes a habit of you're going out to dinner or simply taking five seconds to scan it and hit upload for the most part can save a lot of things. Now a lot of people are using their vehicles or driving around for events or training or looking at property or things like that. What are some of the suggestions you would give to people who are wanting to track their mileage? Because I know that's always a big kind of discount for a lot of self employed people, people that are traveling areas. I know we've done that in the past with our real estate stuff. What's some ways that you have people track their mileage for?

So there's tons of apps out there that they can download for free or they can even use if they want to go old school. The trip. Most cars have two trip modes so they can just clear it whenever they go onto a business trip or whatever. Clear it to zero and take a notebook, categorize the Miles, you know, write them down. But if they do use QuickBooks, which I highly recommend, I'm a big advocate for QuickBooks because it's just made my life so much easier. But the app that, you know, QuickBooks has, it has a mode on there where if you're going to be driving around for business, open the app, click, you know, the mileage button, and then it just automatically tracks it for you. And it uses the GPS on your phone, so it's actually more accurate than the odometer on your car.

Oh, my gosh. I did not know that. That is really cool. Just go say boop. Especially for the realtors, the fix and flippers. I'm going marketing this afternoon. Click, let's track it, and then click to stop when we stop. For the most part. Huh?

Yep. Realtors, it's one of the things. Even if you go on to, like, watch the QuickBooks video about the app there, it's like, that's the example they use, you know, when they're driving around looking at houses or, you know, taking clients around. Anybody who drives a lot, you know, landscapers, construction, you know, realtors, anything like that, somebody who's driving quite a bit for their business, definitely download the QuickBooks app, take an image of the receipts. They automatically match, and then the mileage is on there as well.

That's awesome. Now you have developed this home bookkeeper masterclass because I think a lot of people like the idea of working with somebody, but they're also like, oh, God, I don't want anybody to see what's going on in my business or what I haven't done the last year or two. Do you get that a lot?

Yeah, there's clients, definitely who have taken a little bit longer to warm up just because everything is so available now. You know, people are saving their credit card information and their bank account information on their phones, and they can access it with a facial scan or a thumbprint, you know, and everything is just saved. It's saved on computers. It's available, it's out there. And I think people are more concerned about that than they are writing a check, despite the fact that when you write a check, you're literally handing over all of your bank's information. But one of the things that I would really say for bookkeepers is, or even businesses out there who are considering getting a bookkeeper, is that QuickBooks is not designed for the accountant or for the bookkeeper. QuickBooks is designed for the business owner. And it has been ever since it was an original software. So Even if you sync your bank account or your credit card information to QuickBooks, there's no way for me to go in there and make any kind of transactions on your account. I don't see anything but basically less information than what would be on a bank statement. So it makes it so much easier. Especially nowadays, you know, with the app, you can take the pictures like I mentioned, and it automatically syncs and all the transactions come over, they have basically the same information as a bank statement. It's just not going to have any of your account information, it's not going to have any account numbers, you know, date that it's open. There's no transactions that can be made and everything is super, super secure. And what's nice about QuickBooks nowadays, now that it's online, everything is in the cloud. Every. I don't know what it is, but it's out there. But the best thing about cloud based software or programs instead of, you know, traditional software is that the firewall and the spam and the security is constantly being updated and it's all being updated for free. So as times change, things advance. It's just going to get more and more and more secure. Where the original software that you would have to just download on your computer, you know, go out and buy a disk, some people feel comfortable with that because all of the information is at home on my computer. But every time that there's any upgrade that has to be purchased. So it just makes it more affordable and way more secure having a cloud based system than the traditional software.

Yeah, that makes it especially for those of us that are traveling a lot of times we can access it from anywhere. So just a home laptop. I'm not going to be lugging around a desktop. Everywhere we go these days it's all laptop and smartphone for the most part.

Smartphones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks computers. And it's nice too because if you're at a hotel, you know, you can go in, use your secured login, log in on a hotel computer, use an incognito window and then you can just wipe the information or just log out. So the access like the accessibility is incredible and it's great for people who are like realtors or they're going out and they're giving estimates to clients because they can, you know, they don't have to carry around notebooks of stuff anymore, they can just have an iPad or anything like that. Contractors, landscapers, you know, auto body guys, anything that's like a service based business like that, it just makes it so easy because you can work up everything on any kind of connected device and you just have it all right there.

Yeah, definitely. Ease of access. There's no reason like, oh, I got it now it's all at your fingertips, all within just seconds or not minutes away from it. Now you are working with a lot of people to help them work from home as a bookkeeper. So if people are looking for somebody, let's talk a little about that because I think a lot of people want to start with somebody and get kind of things rock and rollin. Or they've got maybe somebody they can hire in remotely, a virtual assistant that may be taking some stuff over where it's. Whether it's here locally or it's nationally or internationally as somebody out there. Let's talk about your masterclass and kind of the things that you're doing because I know that's a huge passion for you of helping people. You hear it come through when you're talking about the ad on your podcast, like, hey, this is a great opportunity to work from home, especially right now with everybody being wanting quarantine and having an extra 60 days or 90 days to get rock home. So let's talk about your masterclass and why it's so awesome.

I know right now is like the perfect time to do it because you're already sitting at home doing nothing. And it's such a blessing for me to have, you know, this business that I've built through QBO, which is QuickBooks Online. So what I've done is I've kind of taken all of the information and all of the bookkeeping business aspects that I have, you know, tested. Some of them failed, so they're not included. You know, some of them I really, really liked. I've tested all kinds of different marketing tactics, things like that. And just since 2013. Oh, go away, Zeplin. So I've been doing this since 2013, so I've kind of developed everything and put it into this bundle, which is the masterclass. And basically it's designed. I designed it for multiple reasons and it goes from what a bookkeeper is and does to building and scaling your own bookkeeping business. So it just basically has jam packed full of all of the information that I've learned since 2013, working from home and you know, being a bookkeeper using QuickBooks and how to build that, you know, trust and that clientele. There's multiple reasons. It's getting more and more and more easy to work a flexible career these days with the advances in technology. And with that comes Businesses that want to scale. So your neighborhood, you know, mom and pop oil place or tire shop or bakery, with the power of social media and online presences, people can start a business like that. It is so easy to be like, oh, I'm going to turn this into a business. You know, opening online retail stores or anything like that is so easy now. So it's so much easier for people to grow a business. And because of that, a lot of people are looking to outsource bookkeeping even faster. And in the class, it goes over all of the crazy statistics of small businesses in America right now. There's like 30 million and there's just a ton of room for bookkeepers, a ton of demand. But a few of the reasons why I kind of wanted to build the masterclass and share it with everybody is, you know, after having my son, I realized that I can't just take him to school if he's sick or he's gonna have, you know, sporting events or things happening events at school or things like that. So just having the ability to live a more flexible lifestyle as a woman and a mother has just been such a blessing and I wanted to share that with others. But there's also a couple other reasons. You know, it's a great side business for students. They can do it pretty much anytime. There's not a lot of deadlines, except for around tax time, so they can do it anywhere. And also there's a lot of, you know, seniors out there who, you know, not everybody is a stickler about planning for retirement. And a lot of the retirees right now are coming out of a day and age where there used to be pensions and there used to be retirement plans. And you know, they thought that, you know, if they go to work every day for 30 years, that they're going to be fine. And that used to be the way things are, but things have changed. So this is a great opportunity for even retirees. There's no labor intensive work. They can do it from, you know, the comforts of home. They don't have to travel anywhere as long as you have a connected device and you can maybe update a Facebook status or balance a checkbook. You can use QuickBooks. And there's so many training tools that QuickBooks offers for free on how to use their program that it's just a no brainer if this is something that you know. But it's still a job. Things still need to get done. Even if you're working from home, you know, in leggings and a hello Kitty sweatshirt. You're not any less professional than if you were sitting in an office. And you know, I think a lot of the things that people can, can struggle with is that when you're a home bookkeeper, you're your own boss, you're your own motivator, you know, it's not going to get done unless you do it. So you kind of have to switch the mindset from going from an employee to an entrepreneur.

We had so many people out there across the country who have been laid off and they're in a tourism industry or they're working around the hospitality industry. Waiters rest, you know, people that work at the different parks. And you hit the nail on the head too. A lot of the elderly folks that have been transitioned out of the workforce but are still struggling to find a job that they can fit in and kind of call their own shots for the most part to survive versus just on Social Security or disability, stuff like that. So I love that you brought that up because we've got a lot of listeners out there and people in not nation, we like to call them, who are always looking for side hustles. And yes, the note business, the real estate business is a great thing, but especially right now with things being an upheaval, you know, we're delaying mortgage payments for 60 to 90 days, we're delaying rent checks coming in for that same period of time. There's gotta be a way to kind of offset that. And you know, this is an ideal thing. And when I saw this, we got to talking yesterday, I was like, oh, I've got to have you on to talk about this. How long is the masterclass? You know, you've got a lot of information in seven plus years of you doing this, Emma. Is it delivered online via video? Is it a manual? Is it ongoing coaching and phone calls? How's it kind of work for everybody?

So it really kind of depends. It's completely self paced. It's accessible through teachable.com. so there's just different slides, different, you know, videos, audios, things in the class. So it's completely self paced. I would say, you know, it kind of. I've designed the masterclass to go hand in hand with QuickBooks Online. So you're gonna be anybody who's interested in taking the home Bookkeeper masterclass, they're gonna be taking the class and the free QuickBooks Online certification at the same time. So honestly, I would say depending on if you spent about an hour and a half, you know, hour, hour and a half a day, it might Take you about two weeks to get through it. And at the end there is a Pro Advisor certification exam that you can take for free through QuickBooks. It really just gives you a free accreditation. It's basically like my life and health license. It's just free, which is great. And with the QuickBooks Online Pro Advisor certification, QuickBooks actually markets for you. So that is awesome. You can bring in about four to six clients a month using the QuickBooks marketing. And then at the end of the class, I know not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. Not everybody wants to open up their own firm. So there's two options. You can either go off and open your own home bookkeeping business, get your own clients, do everything yourself, you know, get with a business attorney, set everything up to go ahead and start doing this, or they can come and be a bookkeeper at my firm, edj Consulting. And it's basically, it gives them the opportunity to still have the flexibility, still work from home, still do the bookkeeping. They just won't have to deal with all of the business liabilities that come with being a business owner. So it's been really great. People have been really liking it. I've kind of been making some tweaks and plan on relaunching it here shortly. But pre orders are available and they can all they can get more information on that@emmadon.com what's the cost?

What's the investment for people to get signed up for it?

I made it really affordable. It's 197.

Wow, that is really affordable. And you said basically they spend an hour a day, about two weeks. So what, 14 to 20 hours approximately of going through that cut. As you said, they're walking hand in hand with the QuickBooks and then of course able to pick up the phone or give you a phone call too if they have some questions. Right?

Yes. So they can reach out to me anytime. I'll be there to help them throughout the course. And I made it really affordable because I designed it for mothers, stay at home moms, college students and retirees. And that's a big chunk of the population who doesn't have, you know, if you're a stay at home mom, then you have no income coming in unless you know, you have a spouse or a partner. If you're a college student, if you're anything like me, you definitely did not have extra money laying around and if you did, you probably bought mojitos and a retiree. So many of the retirees these days are living not even paycheck to paycheck, they are well below the poverty line. And what men do typically, now this is some of my life and health ness coming out. But men typically die first. And when that happens, the woman who had taken time off of her career, you know, to raise a family or take care of somebody in their life, whatever it may be. Women of retirement age are in such a struggle right now financially, especially the generation of current retirees, because they're coming out of a time where women did stay home and then they didn't make as much back then. And, you know, so in today's retiree age group, there's a lot of women who are struggling. And when your partner dies, your income that you were already struggling to make ends meet with every month is now going to be deducted because that person is no longer there. So I've really tried my best to pack in the most amount of, like, the best information I've learned over the past seven to eight years into an affordable class that really does walk hand in hand with the QuickBooks training.

I love it, I love it, I love it. Now, you mentioned something on there, too. It was really. I think people are going to ask there, like, oh, my God, I can go off. I can go through this and go off and try to start my own thing, or I can hang my shingle with you. Right. And so you're going out and obviously finding clients and then outsourcing that work to your stable of expert bookkeepers that you've trained there for. You know, we talk about hourly rate here, what kind of income people can make from that, or how's that kind of pan out for everybody? Emma?

Yeah, so all of the bookkeepers who choose not to open up their own bookkeeping business, and I support whatever they choose to do 100%. But if there's somebody who maybe is a retiree, maybe a college student, you know, they're going to school for something, but they just want a little bit of income on the side. You know, somebody who's not maybe dedicated to jumping in headfirst and starting their very own business. They can bring in clients as if it was their own business. They can work those clients and they can be their bookkeeper, but they just won't have to deal with any of the liabilities. On the business side, they still get a really good rate of 20 to $25 an hour.

I like that. Hang on a second. That's worthy of a.

Yeah, so, you know, I don't take a ton of stuff away from them. They can still bring in Clients they want to work with, they can work them as if they were their very own clients, which they are. They're kind of doing it under the business umbrella of EDG Consulting. And then every time they do bring in a new client who does sign a I do do annually, like, annual contracting agreements with my clients, just because a bookkeeper really isn't going to make sense or do a whole lot for you until your very first tax season. You know, we do categorize all of the transactions and we do manage all of the things coming in and out financially. But you're not going to really see what a bookkeeper really does until you go to file your taxes and you realize that they just saved you $100,000. That's when you're going to be like, okay, I kind of like this person. So, yeah, they can come in, they can, you know, make good money on the side, bring in clients that they want to work with. And then every time they do have somebody, a new client, come in and sign a consulting agreement and have them be their bookkeeper, then they get a bonus. So it's just. I think it's a win win for everybody.

Yeah, I totally think so. I can think of at least six people right now that I've talked to in the last couple days who are like, ah, I need to do something.

So everybody I've talked to in the past couple days because everybody's like, well, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm still sitting here.

I'm still sitting here doing books, even though the grounds are shaking and everybody's staying home trying to avoid being sick.

Right, I know. And it's definitely. It's times like these that really make, you know, the idea of a flexible job or a flexible career, having a business that, you know, you kind of have more control over way, it just skyrockets the appeal. Everybody now all of a sudden wants to find something else. And I don't even think a few of the women that I work with who are bookkeepers, they do other things on the side as well. And I think the importance of having multiple streams of income in a time like this, in a day and age like this, is just so important because things can flip upside down in seconds. And we're watching it happen right now. This is the perfect example. So having multiple streams of income, even I know there are some women out there who are doing bookkeeping from home and they're using it to just pay off debt. And then who knows, maybe they'll keep doing it. Later on, or maybe they won't. But yeah, it's super easy. It's nice because it's. There's no really upfront investment. You don't have to have capital, you don't have to have inventory of anything. You're basically just transferring your time for pay. So all it is is a service. So there's no, you know, upfront investment. You don't have to carry any kind of inventory, you don't have to have any kind of stuff. Storage of, you know, anything. So there's no overhead really. Most people already have a computer or if you don't, I travel around with my Chromebook. So I leave my laptop at home. If I go on a trip somewhere, I bring my Chromebook. It's very small, it was very affordable. I think it was like 150 bucks. And then that's what I work with for that. And it's just so nice having a business where especially right now because like everything is so. Everything's just put on hold right now. Shipments are being put on hold. So there's a lot of businesses out there who are kind of inventory based or retail based and they're struggling. But for me right now this is great because there are tons of people who are like, okay, well, what can I do now? And bookkeepers are kind of known for saving businesses money. And it's one of those things where you have to spend money to make money because filing tax is wrong or miscategorizing transactions or, you know, not writing off things that you should be writing off costs small business owners a lot of money. It's only March 23rd. I can't believe it's March 23rd already. I think I've been at home for a week. But I just logged into QuickBooks and I realized that I saved my client, who's only three months into the year, almost four months into the year, $106,000 already in tax write offs.

Wow. And what specific thing can you go a little bit deeper in what is involved in that 106,000?

A lot of it is miles. Also interest. That's one of the things a lot of people don't think that they can write off. Truck payment. It's the contractor. So truck payments, you know, home office space. If, you know, maybe you have a business where, you know, you flip houses like he does, or you're, you know, a contractor. Anytime you're in business for yourself, any small business, no matter what it is, they're always going to be doing something from home. You don't get to clock in and out when you're a business owner so you can write off, you know, utilities, home office space, you know, business automobile payments, all of the interest that you've accrued in that year. Also, for the real estate industry people, if they are paying mortgages on their properties, you know, there's just so many things out there that people think, okay, well, I went to Home Depot and I'm a contractor, so I'm going to save my receipt and, you know, and write it off. But outside of the basic business materials, there's so many other little things that, you know, maybe the IRS doesn't promote. You know, they're not going to put it on a billboard driving down Hollywood Boulevard or anything. But there's so many little things that you can write off when you're a business owner because it's not, you know, you're in business for yourself. You're the one who does that. So, yeah, utilities, overhead, office space, all of that stuff is tax deductible.

What's one or two of the things that most people don't even know about that they can write off? What's the things that kind of surprise people that are unheard of most of the time?

Home office space. And any kind of payment interest is that those are probably the biggest ones. Because if I'm with a client who runs an auto body shop says, okay, well, I have the overhead of my office, you know, my auto body shop. But they're not taking the. If they bought the building that the shop is in and they're not just leasing it, that interest is tax deductible. Or, you know, because they are a business owner, if they do anything from home, if they are changing oil and tires during the day and then they come home and they're sitting at their dining room table, you know, putting in all their transactions, okay, well, all of a sudden you have a home office space. So those are two things that a lot of people don't think of because they're like, oh, well, I have business space or I have an office space or a shop or whatever, you know. But those are two things that you can always write off any kind of interest related to your business, whether it be like, credit card interest, business loan interest, if you're in the real estate industry, mortgage interest, and then just the overhead of operations space.

Now, do you work with a couple of different accountants as well to help people find an accountant if they don't have one, to kind of finalize things if they need that aspect of things?

I have two here local that I work with. I have an EA and a cpa. And then in the Salt Lake area or in the Utah, I guess area, I've also partnered with a business attorney so they can find all of that information if they're local on my website. But if they're not, QuickBooks has the you can search for different people in different areas through QuickBooks. So if you're looking for an accountant or if you're looking for a bookkeeper, if you're looking for, you know, whoever, any kind of business service out there, QuickBooks can definitely help you find that.

This has been awesome. What's the best way for our listeners to connect with you to find out more about the masterclass and then say hey Emma, please help me, help, help me. Emma, what's the best way for people to get a hold of you?

Well, I work with any kind of small to medium sized business nationwide. One of the best things about things being virtual these days is that it kind of opened the doors to working with more businesses. All of the information about the services that I offer outside of bookkeeping, there's bookkeeping, payroll, business insurance coverages, protection plans, retirement planning, family planning for small business owners or family financial planning. If you want to have a baby, have a baby. But the family financial planning, small business owners and then all of the partnerships that I've created for, you know, maybe tax help with the CPA or business help with an attorney, all of that can be found on Amazon.com along with their home bookkeeper Masterclass Pre order information is all on the resources page.

You heard it there emma.dawn.com to find out all the services she provides along with that bookkeeping masterclass that I think many of you need to look at possibly doing. Especially if you're struggling these out there, everybody struggling in some sort of fashion. If you're worried about income or the next few months, this might be an opportunity for you guys to take advantage not only to help your own business but also help others around your free time. Plug and play things. If you've got friends that are struggling, have been laid off or don't know what's going on, this might definitely be a great way forward, capitalize and maybe take a little of that pressure off of Uncle Sam bearing down their throat. So Emma, thank you so much for coming on the note closer show. Such great stuff guys. Can also check out the Mommy Wines podcast, hilarious podcast as well too out there and I was honored to be a guest yesterday on that as well too. So thanks again. So much, Emma, for coming on.

You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Always a pleasure. All right, guys and gals, that's gonna wrap it up for this episode. Check it out, emma, dawn.com or you'll check out the link at our website. We close notes.com under the no Closer show podcast. But go out, take some action, buddy. And we'll see at the top by Sam.