97. Joe Knows Dough with Joseph Bautista

Why is tax planning important for business? How can businesses save taxes? What is self employment tax? Understanding taxes and tax planning is something businesses and owners have to pay attention to. We talk with Joseph Bautista of Bautista Planning and Analytics about steps businesses and owners can take to reduce their tax burden, boost revenue, and plan for success.

Connect with Joe Bautista:
Website: https://bautistaplanningandanalytics.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bautista-Planning-And-Analytics-LLC-111682298257136
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joejbautista/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joebplanning/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeBPlanning
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCG9CnAG_qYHwbTx3ScAlA
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joebplanning

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You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana Dowdell – Boss Consulting – HR Consulting
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You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ Harlow – Reliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
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Transcript

Dana Dowdell  00:05

Hey Russ, 

Russ Harlow  00:07

Dana, how are you today?

Dana Dowdell  00:08

 I'm good, how are you? Very well. We're gonna talk about taxes.

Russ Harlow  00:15

 Oh! 

Dana Dowdell  00:19

might not sound very sexy and exciting, but I think it's just a topic that every business owner needs to know. And is it's really important that you have someone on your bail team that can work with you understand your business, help you strategize and help you save. So we are meeting or we have Joe Bautista on with us this morning, and he is the owner and founder of bowtie step planning and analytics. Welcome Joe to it's just business.

Joe Bautista  00:58

Thanks, Dana. Thanks for us for having me, I'm looking forward to talking about everyone's favorite subject taxes.

Dana Dowdell  01:05

It can be sexy, it can be exciting. But I think, you know, the whole point is that it's a really good tool. And a really good piece of knowledge that a business owner has to have in order to grow, strategize, scale, plan, all of the things. But before we get into that, I want to hear about you and how you started Bautista planning and analytics.

Joe Bautista  01:31

So I'm mostly a financial planner, but a transition into as well as another service, organizational management consulting, so I can focus on businesses and help them with our organization, improve them, and then also help them with our tax planning. But the reason why I got into business is I basically want freedom. I don't want to trade my time for for money, I want to trade my time for value. And I've been living as a digital nomad for the last three years lived in Mexico, Colombia. Colombia is my favorite country in the world to visit MLG been to Costa Rica, Panama. But yeah, basically, I was in the Marines for seven years, I've worked as a federal employee at the Pentagon for like eight months. And I just don't enjoy it, because I'm very creative. And if I want to see a solution called beef be made I want to go implement it. And the reason why I got into financial planning is because like, Hey, if you can control your money that can give you a lot of freedom and flexibility to live your best life. And one of my favorite quotes is life as long as long as you know how to use it. And if you can get the money piece, right, and you're in your career, right and your organization, right, hey, life is going to be great.

Dana Dowdell  02:53

digital nomad, I feel like that is the dream of a lot of people who start a business where they can work from anywhere. And I'm really curious how, how that came to be, what steps did you take to put yourself in a position that you can travel and explore and, you know, really live the life that you wanted?

Joe Bautista  03:18

Well, it's, well, the main reason why I became a digital nomad is because I'm half Mexican, like half Polish and other European. And I really, really want to learn Spanish. That is my goal. I want to become fluent in Spanish, I want to be able to put all this content into Spanish. So I realized like, the best way to learn is through immersion. And so I came up with a plan, like, Okay, if I quit my old job, I'm out or they're coming, I really didn't enjoy it. I really didn't think it was because they were operating in an old manner is like, hey, things are changing. And this thing is going to be sinking over the next decade, or it's going to be really, really hard to operate in the same manner. So I was like, Oh, I was in the Marines for seven years, I had my GI Bill. So I was like, Oh, I can quit my job, go to school, get my MBA. The GI Bill will pay me about $1,000 a month if you live in Colombia, you can live off that just fine. So I was like, Okay, let me go get my MBA, I'll use my GI Bill. I have the income. Let me start my business while I go to school. I don't really recommend that because my the time to do bullet is very, very limited. So I focused on the NBA so didn't grow the business. I just graduated last December of 2021. Yeah, we're in 2022. And so now I'm trying to figure out okay, how do I want to grow this financial planning business, but that's the reason why I became a digital nomad was ultimately to learn Spanish. And it was like, Okay, what does it take? What are the planning steps I need to take to make this all happen okay to live In Colombia, you just need to make about 800 to $1,000 a month and you're fine. But yeah, it just all, it all comes with a plan. And this, but just realize there's some downsides to being a digital nomad as well.

Russ Harlow  05:17

So I'm curious, because in financial planning and this industry, it requires a lot of trust. And a lot of times, it takes a lot of time to build up that client base. So how have you been? You know, have been doing that how you build that trust with people? How are you getting the word out about your business? You know, how are you bringing those clients in?

Joe Bautista  05:40

Well, so when I first started, I was through networking. And I joined this one group for Latinos in tech, like they make pretty good incomes, just on the Slack channel, just providing value, got a couple of leads from there. But I just realized that's not the target base, I really want to focus on businesses. So I'm transitioning my marketing right now. But I also joined this one organization called Zoe financial, and they provide you leads as a financial planner, the key thing is they take 25% of your revenue. But like to me living as a digital nomad in Latin America, that is fine. Because for every dollar I make in the United States, it's like spending $4 In Colombia, like $3. In Mexico, Costa Rica was like two to one. So you just had to figure out where the right arbitrage is. So the beginning, most of my leads now have been coming through Zoe. So because it's really hard to build trust, and visually, so. Okay, as far as like, okay, what are the next steps I could take in? And Rizzoli? I get like one to two leads a week from that. So that's been really helpful.

Dana Dowdell  06:52

I wonder is do you have any interest or is that you know, a long term goal to support other business owners, who are also digital nomads, because you're experiencing it yourself?

Joe Bautista  07:09

Not really, because I'm looking forward to help businesses grow digital nomad, they just want to have that lifestyle business where it's like, okay, I make my income, I might have these little expenses that they're not really focused on, on the growth aspect. So I'm, I'm looking for, like for businesses that make at least $250,000, up to 2 million, and set up their organization to to grow at 2.1% month over month. And if you do that, your growth rate is about 25%. And then, with that type of growth rate, you'll your revenue should double like every three years. And so that's where I want to focus on, and then from there to give them tax planning strategies, like hey, this is how you set up, set up your Employee Retirement System, here's how you should set up your personal retirement system. Because it's more complex, complicated, and I enjoy doing more complicated stuff.

Dana Dowdell  08:09

Earning your MBA you know, I think there's plenty of really successful business owners who never went to college, right? And then there's lots of really successful business owners who have master's degrees, PhDs doctorates, all of that stuff. D, how do you view your MBA in terms of your knowledge, comfort level? skills in growing your own business? Do you feel like it was an essential need in order for you to build and grow your business?

Joe Bautista  08:46

For my MBA, I focused on data analytics. And that's what when I do, as I transition into this organizational management consulting, I wanted it to be a focus on analytics. So like, Okay, what is your customer? Or was your cost to acquire customer? What's your revenue per hour? What data analytics, you could do all that type of stuff. And so it's helping me with this new service. But it really depends on how big you really want to grow as a company. Like if you, if you want to make like 100,000 150,000 you probably don't need an MBA. But if you're looking to scale, it can really give you a bird's eye view of how everything works. Because you learn accounting, you learn strategic management, you learn what else, corporate entrepreneurship, that was really an interesting, interesting class that I took. Yeah, you learned it management that was really interesting, because you're just like, everything's technological. There's a lot of issues if you don't do it, right. So it just gives you a bird's eye view. And the key thing is you don't ask how can I do this? Yes, who could do it first? And then since you have a little bit of knowledge behind it, you're like, Okay, I know if I'm being taken advantage of or Not all, these are the things that I need to look out for. So if I see as valuable and the service that I want to provide an organizational management consulting, but it just really depends on what you're doing, and goals are.

Russ Harlow  10:17

So thinking about planning and moving forward, isn't it best to think about that before we start? You know, how we organize our business affects how things get taxed, and everything else, as you're talking about tax planning, and helping business deal with that, you know, do you know how many business groups I'm a part of, or forums like on Facebook and other places where people just go to Facebook and are like, Hey, I'm thinking about starting a business, and I'm just working to get a cheap LLC. And you're like, you should not be asking Facebook, you should be talking to a professional. So what are some of the things that people need to consider when they're starting a business that you found they might not consider?

Joe Bautista  11:02

Well, so the whole thing with LLC, versus S, corpse, and sole proprietorship, all those are more to protect your assets, they don't really provide you tax benefits. So if you're a sole proprietor or an LLC sole member, you're going to be taxed the same way. Because you're just going to file your schedule C, you're going to put your revenue, all your expenses, and that's going to tell you what you made for the year. And that's what you get taxed on. Some things just people have to realize is as a, when you work for yourself, you have to play pay self employment tax, so that's your sole Security, and Medicare. So if you work as a W two, you pay half of it and your employer pays half of it. Now, as a sole proprietor or sole member LLC, you have to pay the entire 15.3%. So a lot of people don't realize that there's that tax, you have to pay your state tax. But if you live in like Florida, or Texas, you don't you don't pay state tax, and then you have your federal tax as well. So just does, you just have to realize, like, okay, these are the things I need to take care of, I really think people should have bookkeepers don't do your own stuff. So get Quick Books, if you have a very simple business, QuickBooks is really, really simple to use it. And you could just connect all your accounts there, digitally, and then you just give it to TurboTax, or give it to somebody else that information can make filing taxes, but the key thing is you just want to keep on top of it. So like do it once a week where it can show only take you 10 to 15 minutes to do. But just realize your What are your capabilities, if because I see lots of business owners say they're going to do it, and then they don't do it. So it's like six months later, they haven't touched their books at all, and they have no clue what's going on. So just realize, like, know when to delegate and know what you should do. And, and for most things, as a business owner, bookkeeping is like $20 An hour task. If you value your time at $100 an hour, then that's something you should not be doing anything below like 30 $40 You should be getting so you can focus more on those revenue generating activities.

Dana Dowdell  13:14

I am that person, I took a QuickBooks class, because I was like, I'm gonna do it on my own. And I found myself in this space of I can do it, but I wasn't doing it. Because I was focusing on all other things of the business. And so I echo that advice, because it's a generally reasonable investment. And it makes it so easy to go in and look at your numbers because they are all maintained and up to date. And it's a huge value add in terms of running your business.

Joe Bautista  13:51

And with data analytics, that's really important for financial management. So when it comes to data analytics, 60, to 60 to 70% of the time working on a project is spent on cleaning the data. So if you have good records, then it's going to make the analysis go by so much faster, and it's going to be a lot more accurate as well.

Russ Harlow  14:12

So if you're trying to grow your business, you set a good goal, you know, 25% a year, 2.1% a month. If I'm growing my business in that way, I have to plan for that. Because there's going to be tax implications. And these are the things that people don't realize you're like, Oh, hey, I'm doing better than I was last year. Do you have to, you gotta remember, you know, Uncle Sam's going to come for theirs. And so how do we plan for that quarterly? Looking down the road? You know, how do we manage that? And how do we make the best of that? Because let's face it, taxes suck, but not paying taxes and getting hit with penalties and interest sucks even more. So how do we plan for that?

Joe Bautista  14:55

Well, so the idea is by having good bookkeeping, then you could say okay, Hey, if I make because anything you put by with your business is a tax write off. So if you buy a new laptop, if you hire an employee, that is something that can lower your taxable income. So you could do certain things to make that as like, Hey, I'm going to be in this tax bracket this year, let me make this big one. So I could go into a lower tax bracket. Other things you could do is make investments into your retirement accounts. So there's three types of retirement accounts, there's taxable accounts, there's tax deferred accounts and tax free accounts. So with tax the main tool for retirement or tax free and tax deferred, so a tax free is you put after tax dollars, and then you can take the money out tax free, tax deferred is you get a tax break now, and you pay taxes in the future. But the idea is, if you're a business owner, you might want to take that tax break now. Because say you put $10,000 in there, let's say you can reduce your taxable income by 40%. So you save $4,000 in taxes. So what can you do with that $4,000 today to make it more valuable than putting in a tax free account. And if you don't do any planning at all, then the tax rate is probably better, because you're just going to use spend that $4,000 on something else and make it get the best ROI on that. So it really comes up with your vision and your goals and what is the outcome that you want. So if you know, you could spend $4,000 on getting a new coat, or like some type of investment, like, say some type of training or some type of software, and that $4,000 is going to generate $20,000. And that's probably going to be way more than the $12,000 you would get from that rod down the road, or more or less. So. So if you know the deal before you accept the deal, it makes it removes a lot of uncertainty and these type of decisions.

Dana Dowdell  16:53

So I think we all know, like tax time, right? It's end of January until April 15. And it's when everybody hates taxes. When is a good time in the year to do tax planning? Is it something that you should be doing annually quarterly? Is it something that you should be, you know, setting a plan in place and then checking in on that plan? How often should somebody be looking at the strategy of their taxes?

Joe Bautista  17:25

So for my regular clients, right now, we just look at it once a year. So we just say that's usually done in the summertime after all the tax returns are done. And we be like, okay, here was your income last year? Here's your income this year. What do you project, if this is your income this year? Here's your tax projections. This is where you're going to pay in federal this is where you're going to pay in state. Okay, here are some things like, Okay, if this is going to be revenue, okay, what are some things that you want to do with that. And just like if you know that, if your quarterly tax bill is going to be this, if you make any changes, then these are the tax savings that you're going to get. So it really just requires you knowing what your revenue numbers and what your expenses are, for the year, and that can help you identify, hey, what am I going to do with this tax savings? So if I like if, let's say, for every $1,000, let's say you're in that effective 40%? Tax bracket, you're going to be saving $400? So what's your plan for that? $400? Do you want to keep it for yourself and spend it because a everything else is good? Or do you want to make investments with it? Like, do you want to save it for a rainy day, just just have a plan for your dollars, it's, if you do that for every transaction is going to be very annoying. So I would say do it semi annually to say okay, here's how the last or if you want to do quarterly, you could do a quarterly just realize that it takes time to do these type of analysis. So if you're not making, if your revenue is like $250,000, per se, then I would say semi annually is fine. Because, like are you like, Oh, am I gonna buy this box of pens and it saves me. Let's say it's $10 Oh, it saves me $4 Like, what am I really going to do with that? So let's look at the aggregate. So like, Hey, this is what I spent on office supplies. This is what I spent on equipment, like look at the big things and look at the individual things and and from there, you're like, Okay, what what do we need to do from a tax planning perspective, and that can help you with growth as well see if you're hitting your revenue marks, or your expenses becoming out of out of control.

Russ Harlow  19:40

So if someone's just starting up getting into business and thinking about all of these things, they're probably not thinking about these things. So I mean, what's the best course of action? You know, you a lot of times it starts as a side hustle, right? Somebody's working and like all of a sudden they're gonna break off and go, You know what I'm gonna do this on my own. And, you know, maybe they weren't reporting all the income maybe, you know, I mean, sometimes side hustles are like that. I'm not saying to cheat Uncle Sam, I'm just saying, Look, I heard somewhere that this stuff happens. So if they want to go legit and turn it everything, you know, into, you know, a legitimate business and get moving forward. Where did they learn about this? How do they plan for it, they don't know what their revenue is going to be now that they're full time, you know, what's the best way to approach this, that it's doesn't feel overwhelming. And to doesn't get them in trouble.

Joe Bautista  20:35

The best way is to reach out professionals and be like, Hey, let me talk to a tax preparer. So I'm not a tax preparer. I don't file taxes at all, I just do the tax planning. And that would be the best start because they're going to tell you, hey, you need to report this revenue egg, you need to pay these quarterly taxes. Hire a bookkeeper a good bookkeeper will tell you what you owe in quarterly taxes as well. And then you get all that information to the tax preparer, and they can hide. So don't, I would say hire professional as soon as possible to do so. Because if you're not going to do it, and most people are not going to do it. And then just don't ask how I could do it. Ask who could do it first, because your time is way more valuable than that learning all this stuff? This took me like seven years to be able to talk like this. Are you going to spend the next seven years understanding it? Like? Probably not? So just realize what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, and it's best to delegate those tasks that are worth less than your time?

Dana Dowdell  21:36

How does tax planning come into play? When we are thinking about retirement and closing our business? We've had a couple of conversations with some individuals on the podcast about you know, you start a business and you're you're really thinking and considering the front two thirds of your business timeline, and there's not much thought and intention put into the last 1/3 What happens when you're ready to retire? What happens when you're ready to slow down? Do you sell the business? Do you bring in a partner? So how does tax planning and the analytic work that you do help with that process?

Joe Bautista  22:22

So the tax planning piece is all about managing the tax bracket. So like, for if you're gonna sell for a million dollars, you probably want to figure out how can I break that million dollars over a couple of years, so you don't get bumped up into the highest tax bracket of 37%? Or in 2026? It's going to go up to 39.6%. And hey, like if you're in a place like California and New York, like oh, how do I go to Florida or Texas and sell this here, when I pay 0%? State taxes? So those are things that you want to consider as well, just from a tax planning, like, like, how do I manage this? So I'm not taking a big lump sum at once? How can I break it up? Like, can I have a seller's agreement where the buyer is paying me? I don't know, $100,000, over four years, or whatever the amount is just figuring out what how to break that up. From the organizational management that says, Okay, what is your succession plan? What, what are you going to do to sell this for the highest revenue, so, so if you have systems and processes in place, that's where that's why I want to do with the organizational management consulting with a data analytics focus is like, then you could sell it at a higher multiple, because a buyer is going to be like, Oh, I could just come in here and not change a thing. Okay, I could, you could sell it maybe 10x. We were revenue. If you have, if it looks like a bunch of looks like a mess. They're like, okay, yeah, I see you have these amount of clients, you don't really know anything like, Okay, let me buy it for two times revenue. So, so the, the, the better presentation you can give to a buyer, the more likely they're going to buy it and be able to buy it off a higher multiple, because they can see that this is yeah, this is going to generate revenue for a while because I don't have to fix that many things. If it's not, you're removing a lot of a lot of uncertainty.

Russ Harlow  24:22

And, you know, I, I kind of feel like there's some solopreneurs out there, who are just kind of thinking, oh, you know, I've just close my doors or whatever, and not planning. You know, I want to build a business that I can either, you know, pass down or sell or something, you know, it becomes an asset. But I don't want people who are solopreneurs thinking that this planning isn't necessary, just because they're not going to sell one day. Like there's a lot of things they need to consider, even though they're just on their own and they do all the work or maybe them and a helper or something else like Those are still legitimate businesses and they still have to there have a lot of benefits still that they could do with tax planning, right?

Joe Bautista  25:06

Well, for the solo entrepreneur that doesn't want to sell their business, the best thing they could do is just start funding their their retirement accounts. So like a SEP IRA or solo 401 care, that will be the best thing. So by the time you, you, you leave, then it's like, okay, I have my 2 million, 4 million, whatever is in these accounts, to say, hey, I can live off and still maintain my same lifestyle as before. So that would be the biggest thing. So it really just depends on what type of business it is like, for, for a lot for financial planners, they could sell their book of business, but like, it's usually for like two to three times their revenue, because a lot of those clients are based off trust. So like, like, if you have 100 clients, like maybe like 20 will go with you. So if you sell it to another company, so really just depends on what type of business it is. And that will determine what type of planning tax planning strategies you should implement.

Russ Harlow  26:15

So I mean, in my business, I deal with a lot of contractors and a lot of contractors or smaller shops, not to say that there aren't big companies with you know, 10 guys and five trucks out there or whatever. But what I want them to hear is, okay, sure you're making money, you're making a good living, you're saving, you've got enough in the business checking account, things are okay. But it could be better. Like, I want them to hear that. Okay, so if you open an a SEP, which is I, what's a self employment plan, or it's a retirement plan, right? Especially if you are, what is it just one to three employees or one to five, I forget how many it is, but either way, you could be reducing your tax burden by that money coming out pre tax. So I'm sure there's probably a cap on what you can put in, but let's say you're making $200,000 a year, and you're taking and you max out that now all of a sudden, whatever the max is for that, now, you're only paying taxes on revenue, that's it, you know, 180 or 150, or whatever. And now, and you're saving money for retirement, too. So and the government's not going to, you know, give you a hard time about it later on, you'll be in a lower tax bracket later on. I mean, you're if it's like printing money, guys, you just you need to talk somebody to figure out how to do it. Because even though things are okay, right now, they could be better. You know, and I just want them to hear that, you know, so I, I want them to learn these little tips and tricks to talk to people. I mean, are you dealing with smaller clients? Are you dealing with kind of a gamut?

Joe Bautista  27:45

Right now, smaller clients, but one of the biggest things I do in my tax analysis, as I show I'm like, Hey, here's your tax situation now. And here's how your tax situation is going to be in the future. So one of the biggest things that are going to be problems for some people is required minimum distributions. So at age 72, that's when you have to start taking money out of your tax deferred accounts. And if someone has $2 million, their first RMD is going to be 70 $70,000, more or less. And that RMD is going to get larger and larger and larger. So if people can see like, Okay, here's my cows. Now, here's what it's going to be 60 and 70. Here's my tax situation, here's my income situation. Once they can see it, then they start to get more motivated. Because until people can see what the situation is going to be like this, like, Okay, I'm just focused on my day to day activities, because they don't have a vision. They don't know what it looks like they don't they? If you can, if you don't know what it looks like, then why are you going to plan for?

Dana Dowdell  28:50

So you have a heavy interest and emphasis on the analytical part of business, which I think is probably making Ross so excited. Ross loves the numbers. And I think when we, when we're in business, we think about, you know, what's my p&l? What does my balance sheet look like those? There's more to Business Analytics than just though so what are some other numbers that business owners should have an awareness of from an analytical standpoint?

Joe Bautista  29:23

You should know what is the lifetime value of your customer? So if you get one customer, how much is that worth? And then from there, then that can determine what is your cost to acquire customer as well. So if you know it takes $2,000 to acquire customer but it's going to generate a lifetime value of $20,000. And hey, you realize that free marketing dollars that's how much you could spend and still be fine so or it could tell you like Oh, I'm spending more than this then it's either I have to change my marketing or I have to change the client and I'm focusing on and and just the analytics pieces. Also just can help you with operational efficiencies, like what is your occupancy rate? So your occupancy rate is, okay, how? How many tasks can you do in an hour? Typically, you don't want to occupancy rate above 80%, because then you're anything little like, thing that messes up, it just kind of create a big backlog of things. And this creates a bottleneck. I can also help you with your analytics with marketing. So what is your like, cost per click on Google Analytics? How many impressions are you doing? Okay, then from there, if people are going to your website, then it might make sense to get like a heat map on your website. So you can see like, where are people spending the most amount of time when they land on this landing page? Oh, they're spending here? Okay, then why didn't I click in on the scheduled appointment? So do you need to improve your copy? If that's the case, then you might want to hire a copywriter to help out with that? Or some other just like, Okay, what are the issues? And then once you identify the issues, then you can discuss the issues, and then you solve the issues. And then you supervise like, Okay, this was our recommendation to solve the issue, is it fixed? Or do we need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out? So I was in the Marine Corps for seven years, and one of the things they help you do is how to make better decisions is they use the old D a loop, so you observe what's going on, then you orientate yourself in the direction that you need to go. And then you make a decision on what you need to do. And then you act on the decision. And then as soon as you act, then you go right back in the audience, like you observe, you orientate. You decide, and then you act. So that's what analytics should help you do is like, Okay, what is going on? What am I observing in my business? Okay, this is the direction I need to go, this is how I need to get back into 2.1% growth for the next month, then you're like, Okay, this is the action plan I'm going to take, and then you act on it. And then you just keep following up until you get to where you need to be.

Dana Dowdell  32:15

There's so much here. And I want to, we could probably talk for hours about business analytics, but I want to put you through some lightning round questions. So the first one we want to know is what's one thing that you wish you had known before starting a business?

Joe Bautista  32:31

I wish I would have known about the book traction a lot faster. So the learn about the entrepreneur operating system. So just like that framework, with my MBA and my financial planning, the tax planning, I like I just create a talent stack with that. So that's my talent stack, it is those four areas. And if I feel like if I've been implementing the EOS system this year, it's like you're constantly meeting every week and just seeing the numbers and using the analytics like okay, what are the decisions I need to make to help me get to my end goal? So I wish I read read that book before I started a business.

Dana Dowdell  33:12

I think I need to read it because I haven't read it yet. What's your favorite way to market your business?

Joe Bautista  33:19

I don't like marketing, so that my favorite marketing is Zoe financial, who does it for me? So they give me the leads? And I go out and close them?

Dana Dowdell  33:27

Like my favorite. My favorite businesses to outsource? Yeah. What's one business platform that has changed your life?

Joe Bautista  33:36

I really enjoyed Tableau. Tableau is you put all the data and data that was zation, create a dashboard. And like I created one for our client for our client. And like, Okay, here's your best customers, here's your revenue. For the last couple miles, here's your appointments, here's your average revenue per session, here's how all your other employees are doing. So just when you can visualize something, then you can like, Oh, this is what needs to happen. Because if you give someone a spreadsheet, they're not going to know what to do. But if you give them a picture, then they can see patterns. People are really good at seeing patterns. So how can you visualize the data so you can see patterns? Try to also like realize that correlation is not causation as that time so you also have to like, understand your business and figure out what are the right metrics to go after?

Dana Dowdell  34:32

Awesome. Alright, last question. When did you feel like you made it?

Joe Bautista  34:38

Well, I haven't felt like I made it yet because I'm still growing. So going, but I like to say there's times where like, Oh, I got this, like when I saw, like, my big like, when I first hired my first planning client is like, okay, they're paying me for this stuff. And I know, I can provide the value. So I guess every time I say new clients like okay, I got this, let's just keep going a little bit more a little bit more. I told myself it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. I heard another stat, it takes the average business owner 11 to 15 years to become a millionaire. So it just takes time takes patience. And what really helps with that is just keeping my obligations and really low. And that really helps being a digital nomad because it's so cheap to live over there and just like managing your expenses, keep your obligations low, so that you can ride these lean years and just really focus a lot of your time on growing the business and building up your skills.

Dana Dowdell  35:42

I love it so much value there. Joe, where can people find you?

Joe Bautista  35:46

So my website is called Bautista planning and analytics. So if someone's interested in tax planning figure out okay, how do I pay Uncle Sam his fair share by now leave a tab then you can go there schedule a meeting. I'm also on social media JoeB planning, because I love planning. I'm always thinking about what, how do I ride the wave? A big reason why I love planning is because I heard a saying is when you enter a room and you don't know who the suckers, you're the sucker. And when I signed up for the Marine Corps, my recruiter told me that 1/3 of all Fortune 500 CEOs were Marine Corps veterans, which was a lie, but he knew how to sell me on getting in the Marine Corps and, and so after that, and there's been other things like okay, what do I need to learn? So I don't become the soccer if I'm always gonna be a soccer so the key thing is make it a 1% loss versus a four year loss in terms of signing up with the Marine Corps. It wasn't a lot I still enjoyed my time there but it just yeah, just know the deal before you accept the deal. That's another great saying I love to follow.

Russ Harlow  36:50

There are some big benefits with being prior service. There's a spree to Korea, even across branches. I remember being in basic training and some kid said thank you drill sergeant. And he said Don't thank me thank your recruiter. And I don't know if they did that the core two but it's funny. And I think it would be a disaster if we didn't hear your new tagline or the tagline you've been using, because I want to make sure we had that. I love it.

Joe Bautista  37:18

So my tagline is, if you go with Joe you can grow with Joe, because Joe knows dough.

Russ Harlow  37:23

And I think that's perfect. And I think if you want to be a millionaire, even if it's going to take that 11 to 15 years, it's a lot easier if you plan for it and you reduce that tax burden. I think we found our quote one of our quotes for the week and not leave an awkward Sam tip. Oh my gosh, tell me about it. Joe, thank you for being here. We want to thank you for sharing your expertise with our listeners. Thanks for stopping by the podcast. We want to thank our listeners for being here. Thanks for giving us your time. We hope you learned something, something you got out of here that you could go and put it into your business put it into your life and if not share it with somebody else because they probably need it. And if you did, definitely share it with somebody else because you know they need it. Remember, it's not personal. It's just business.