[00:00:00] Juli Baranik: Welcome to the seven figure builder show. My name is Julie Baranik, founder of seven figure builder, where we help high achieving CEOs connect with their dream clients to scale to seven figures and beyond.

[00:00:09] And today I’m here with my friend, Kimberly Tara. Hey, Kimberly. Hey, Kimberly. Hey there. How’s it going? I am thrilled to talk with you today. This will be a lot of fun. I love out on all things finances. So this, thank you. Thank you. Yes. We’ve got space today to chat about it. Perfect. So first and foremost, where in the world are you?

[00:00:27] Kimberly Tara: 

[00:00:28] I am in new Orleans, Louisiana in the U S

[00:00:32] Juli Baranik: nice. Nice. Awesome. Very cool. And for those people that haven’t had a chance to meet you yet, can you tell us just a little bit about what you do with your business?

[00:00:41] Kimberly Tara: Yes. So I always like to put first that I’m a wife and a mom to four little kids because I always forget that.

[00:00:46] And it’s such, it’s such an important part of my life. Um, but I also really love my work. I partner with CEO mom service providers, just female service providers, but moms really resonate with where I am in my season of life. That’s why I say it’s important to lead with the four kids, but we partner with CEO mom service providers to.

[00:01:06] really help them build wealth and accelerate creating their dream life through proactive tax planning. And we’re just here to be their partner, be their trusted advisor in a space where quite frankly CPAs are. Getting bad raps and they’re not giving clients good experiences that they deserve. And especially for women, we just feel like we’re constantly being told we’re not good enough at math or being a business owner.

[00:01:35] This is too complicated. Or we were left out of those conversations growing up. And so our firm is really here to change the narrative on that and bridge the education gap for women, especially women, business owners, and really be a resource. In a nonjudgmental way, uh, as we guide our clients, uh, to success.

[00:01:56] Juli Baranik: That’s amazing. And so incredibly needed. I know so many of us were, we’re really good at what we do with our business, but like the business piece we learn along the way. So it’s so important to have the experts that know exactly what they’re doing to help kind of guide that and Maximize your potential as far as your profitability with your business, right?

[00:02:14] Kimberly Tara: Yeah. Yeah. And I like to joke and say that we do the part of business ownership that most business owners don’t want to do. Right. We know that the accounting and the taxes fall to the bottom of the list over and over again. But that’s what we love and that’s what we’re here for. We want our clients.

[00:02:28] To have the foundational knowledge that they need as, as an entrepreneur. But we’re here to do the high level strategy, be proactive for them so that they can stay in their zone of genius and serve their clients well.

[00:02:39] Juli Baranik: Absolutely. So do you help them like physically with their books or is it more like from a 

[00:02:43] Kimberly Tara: strategic level?

[00:02:44] Yeah, so we actually don’t do bookkeeping. That’s a fantastic question. We get it all the time. Um, I think that bookkeeping is so incredibly important. Um, and if you’re over the six figure mark, you should absolutely have a bookkeeper, but we don’t do bookkeeping. I think bookkeeping is important, but my brain does not like doing bookkeeping.

[00:03:01] It’s a little boring. It’s a little too boring and too routine. Um, that’s why we also don’t do tax preparation only. We do do tax preparation for our clients, but our bread and butter is the proactive tax strategy because my brain loves the puzzle. It loves the challenge. And honestly, it’s so much more rewarding for our clients, right?

[00:03:20] Preparing a tax return. You’re just doing it because the IRS tells you, you have to, you’re going to get in trouble, right? If you don’t file your tax return, but what an impact we are able to make in our clients lives when we can save them 20, 30, 40, up to 100, 000 a year in taxes. What an impact we can make in their lives and the things that we’ve been able to see them do with that money.

[00:03:42] For

[00:03:42] Juli Baranik: sure. No, that’s huge. So digging right in, like what are the biggest things that you see entrepreneurs miss or business owners miss as far as that proactive strategy?

[00:03:52] Kimberly Tara: Yeah. So as far as the proactive strategy, the first thing I would say is actually knowing your numbers and having timely and accurate records because I’ve had a couple of people, you know, they’ve heard me on a podcast, they’ve heard one of my presentations and they’re like, I want to work with you.

[00:04:07] I want to save money. And I’m like, that’s great. Where’s, where’s your net income at for the year? Oh, I don’t know. And I’m like, well, it’s October, right? We need to know that. So we need to get you linked up with a bookkeeper who can help you catch up and then keep up because the reality is we can’t do our job really at all, much less effectively and do our job well, if we don’t have accurate and up to date.

[00:04:34] Numbers and records to work off of. So I think that that is wholeheartedly the first and most important step to being able to have a proactive tax plan in place, because. What I’m doing for my clients who are perhaps making 200, 000 a year is very different from our clients that are making 13 million a year, right?

[00:04:58] And then everybody in between. So we need to know where you stand for the year. What is your gross revenue? What is your net income? What is your cashflow? Because that’s probably one thing that also makes our tax practice unique as we take a more. Holistic approach to our tax strategies, because there are some incredible tax strategies out there, but they take a cash investment to make them happen.

[00:05:26] Right. And if cash isn’t available or cash is earmarked for something else, well, we need to go back to the drawing board for our client. That’s not a good strategy for them right now. So there are a lot of things to take into account, but I think first and foremost, making sure that you know, your numbers.

[00:05:42] that they’re up to date, that they’re accurate. That is the number one step to being able to start thinking about tax strategy and not thinking about it in December or, God forbid, January of the next year when the year has already come to an end. That’s not good enough.

[00:05:58] Juli Baranik: sure. Yeah. And without that foundation, it’s very difficult to make educated decisions.

[00:06:03] Yeah. I

[00:06:04] Kimberly Tara: mean, that’s just the text. Yeah. That’s not even talking about the other business decisions that, you know, you need your numbers to make. That’s literally just the tax planning, but yes, everything, when it comes to running a successful business, pretty much everything goes back to that foundation of knowing your numbers, having them be accurate, having them be timely.

[00:06:22] Like we’ve got to get into this mindset that that is really almost the number one thing that needs to be done as a business owner. For sure.

[00:06:29] Juli Baranik: So we’ll say that we have that foundation. What would be the next thing that you would say for people to look at? So

[00:06:34] Kimberly Tara: the next thing that our firm typically looks at is entity selection.

[00:06:39] And this is where, you see people talk about, I’m an LLC. And then they think that they’re just going to go file an LLC tax return, and there is no LLC tax return out there. So, and I should say I know that you have listeners all around the world, most of what I’m saying is really just here in the US because I’m a US CPA, um, some things can be applied but this is, you know, more specific to the, to the US tax code, but thinking about, okay, Okay.

[00:07:08] I’m an LLC, right? Um, but how does that mean I file my taxes? And there are a couple of different options. It depends on how many owners you have, right? So sometimes depending on how you set yourself up or how many owners you have in the business, the IRS defaults you to filing a specific type of tax return.

[00:07:31] Then sometimes there are options. And so this is where when you hear, Maybe your business besties talking about, oh, I became an S Corp or something like that, right? Um, this is S Corp is an entity selection. And so one thing that I like to talk about here, Julie is, S Corps are great. But you need to, again, take a step back and make sure you’re looking at it from a holistic approach, because I find that a lot of accounting professionals, especially those who aren’t well versed in tax strategy, maybe they’re just, you know, a bookkeeper or a tax preparer, they’re not really staying up to date with the tax strategy.

[00:08:10] They think that it’s an easy suggestion that they can throw out there to show value to their clients, but they don’t understand all of the nuances that come into place with being an S Corp and now all of the things that you’re responsible for because you’re an S Corp or maybe there’s, um, another strategy that you want to implement, but you can’t because it’s not allowed if you’re an S Corp.

[00:08:31] So all of those little nuances. S Corp is always great to be looking at, but there are other entity options out there. And so entity selection is usually the next step that we take in analyzing some opportunities for our clients. Awesome. And then I’ve got another one. Um, and so then, so then after that, and the easiest one, even if you’re not working with a tax strategist is missed deductions, that’s always the easiest.

[00:08:59] And that can come in a couple of different ways that can look like. making sure that you’re maintaining good records as a business owner and you’re not commingling your funds or you’re not using a personal credit card for a business expense because then you’re going to forget to capture that expense on your business’s profit and loss.

[00:09:20] So making sure that you’re just not missing any expenses that you’ve spent your hard earned cash on and that you’re not forgetting to deduct that on your tax return. That’s really important. And the second step is Sort of shifting your mindset from an employee to an employer and a business owner and realizing how, oh, that, that could be a business expense.

[00:09:45] You know, just thinking about, oh, I went and bought pens. Well, when you were an employee and you bought pens for your house, you didn’t think about deducting it. If you’re a business owner and you’re buying pens, that’s a business expense, right? You’re probably most of the time that you’re using pens is, is for your business.

[00:09:58] And then the third part is really just shifting that mindset and saying, how do I turn this expense? Into a business expense. What checkboxes do I need to check off in the IRS code so that this can become a legitimate bona fide business deduction? And that’s where the magic starts happening. And that’s the creativity, right?

[00:10:23] Juli Baranik: Absolutely. What have you seen or what do you recommend of things that people don’t normally think about, like section 179, for example, or anything else along those

[00:10:33] Kimberly Tara: lines? Yeah. So the only thing that I’ll say on the vehicles is, I see a lot of social media posts about, just go buy a G wagon.

[00:10:45] It’s over 6, 000 pounds and you can take, uh, section 179. But we’re moving into an online world and the IRS is catching on to that, right? I had somebody recently, a new client, and I’m like, so your tax return says that you have 8, 200 business miles driven, but everything that you’ve told me tells me that you work remotely from your house in your home office.

[00:11:09] So where did you drive 8, 200 miles last year? And it’s like. Yeah, I definitely didn’t drive 8, 200 miles. I have no idea why that’s on there. Well, that’s a problem, right? Because that means now we have a documentation problem. Be cautious of, tax advice that you’re taking from social media because, uh, most of the people giving that tax advice are not actually tax strategists or tax professionals even.

[00:11:32] But yes, if you are legitimately using a vehicle in your business, right? Then you absolutely should be taking advantage of bonus appreciation. And I’ve seen, unfortunately in the past, I’ve been doing this for almost a decade now, they missed the mark on the 6, 000 pounds by so little.

[00:11:49] And it’s like, you know, just with a little bit more forethought, if you would have been working with someone like us, or if you would have just asked ahead of time, We could have saved you from missing it by a couple hundred pounds, right? It’s huge. It’s so huge. It’s so huge. Um, and so, yeah, you’re absolutely right.

[00:12:05] That’s one, another one that I see, Missed a lot is probably

[00:12:14] uniforms. and uniforms from a creative perspective. So if you’re just wearing like you and I just have regular clothes on today, right? Um, even though we’re on camera, even though, you know, we’re sitting here looking at each other, we need to look professional that doesn’t count as a uniform, right? So what we encourage our clients to do is to find something and then put a logo on it.

[00:12:40] Even if it’s small, right? But like, I’ll put it on the arm. So maybe if I had a shirt on right now that said the Terra CPA firm, it would have my logo and I wouldn’t wear it because it’s got a logo. I’m not going to wear it out. Right. How can you get creative like that and say, how do I turn this into a uniform?

[00:13:00] I work with a lot of photographers and a lot of them were deducting their. Uniforms, right? They have like, like kind of uniforms, like all black or whatever they wore to work with a lot of wedding photographers. So they have like these uniforms cause they’re like running around and they’ve got four cameras on them and you know, they want to blend in with their black and look sleek, but look nice.

[00:13:21] And I’m like, you can’t deduct that if it’s just a. Black pair of hands from H and M. Right. But what can we do to turn? And they’re like, but I don’t wear it if I’m not going to shoot a wedding because I shoot weddings once a week, two times a week, like I’m not wearing these clothes outside of shooting weddings.

[00:13:39] And so we got creative and we got their logos and their names all put on these black. T shirts and pants that they were buying, and now it’s a uniform expense, right? And a deduction on their tax return. So it’s just little things like that, you know, and people are like, oh, but that’s so small. That’s only going to save me, you know, 1, 000 in taxes.

[00:13:59] You start finding little pockets of missed deductions or missed opportunities here and there. Before you know it, you might be up to 5, 000 in your pocket. And I don’t know about you. I would take 5, 000. Absolutely. You know, I think most people would.

[00:14:14] Juli Baranik: For sure. What do you recommend for people as far as maximum to this point, but maximizing their profitability.

[00:14:21] Kimberly Tara: So before I get into how you should maximize your profitability, I really want to talk about, this is something that is really important to me. You see a lot because our social media is everywhere now. Right. And so As we know, social media is the highlight reel of life, whether that’s your personal life, whether that’s your business life, social media is the highlight.

[00:14:45] And I have seen, with my own two eyes, in black and white, on profit and loss statements, business owners who are touting that they’re seven figure businesses. The best was when I learned that people are doing this and saying they’re a seven figure business because they’ve added up all the years that they’ve been in business and all of the gross revenues.

[00:15:08] I was like, when somebody told me that I was like, you’re kidding me, right? Like somebody’s not actually doing that. And they’re like, Oh no, people are actually doing that. I’m like that. Yeah. That’s not how it works, but anyway, you can spin it in a marketing direction of however you want. So just. Beware, because I’ve seen even without like even people who are legitimately having gross revenues of seven figures or more, which is a legitimate seven figure firm.

[00:15:33] They’re only keeping five, maybe 10 percent of that, right? So you’re talking 50 to a hundred thousand, but then I’ve worked with business owners who are making maybe five or 600, 000 in gross revenues each year, but they’re at a 40 percent profit margin, which means they’re keeping. 200, 000 to 240, 000.

[00:15:52] And I guarantee you, they have a lot less headaches than those seven figure firms. Right. So I just want you to be really aware if you’re ever comparing yourself to what you see on social media. I even, I’ve had some negative feelings pop up like that, right. Where somebody who was like, I grew to multiple six figures in 15 months, but then I saw and I’m like, Okay, but you’re keeping way less than I am.

[00:16:14] Like, like my gross revenues are slightly less than yours, but I’m actually bringing home more than you are. So like, what’s, you know, and it’s not a right or wrong. It was that we chose to do things in a different way. I just think that it’s really important that we don’t compare ourselves and our businesses to one another, because remember people are showing you the highlights.

[00:16:34] You don’t know the full story. So just, I wanted to put that out there because I’m really passionate about that. I think we can , I’ll get caught up, especially as women in comparing ourselves to others. And then like, you actually see the ins and outs and you’re like, well, dang, I’m actually doing better.

[00:16:48] You know, I’m doing better than that. So that, so I just, I wanted to lead with that. Other ways to maximize your profits is again, it’s going to, I know I’m going to sound like a broken record on this podcast, but first is knowing your numbers. Like you have to actually look at them. I think there is such a fear as women to actually like, Look at the numbers, like put them on paper, have everything categorized, print out your profit and loss, and then look at it.

[00:17:14] Right. And then after you look at it, we need you to understand what’s on it. And that’s where, you know, one of our pillars is education. That’s really important to us because we want. Our women business owners to understand what they’re looking at on their profit and loss, right? And the best way to make sure that you are staying lean, right?

[00:17:34] And by lean, I mean, minimizing your expenses is to actually make sure that you’re capturing them all, you’re recording them all. And then you’re looking at them all. And you’re looking at them at minimum every single month, because In order to increase your profitability or maintain your profitability, you need to be able to make decisions quickly.

[00:17:55] If you wait until January of next year to look at your 2023 finances, well, what if something bad happened in February and you lost all this time to make a change? That’s honestly where I see the biggest impacts to profitability come from is not. Knowing about them fast enough and therefore not being able to take action quickly enough to rectify something.

[00:18:20] And it might be something simple and it might be something that you had no control over. There’s no judgment here on what might have gone wrong, but the quicker you know about it, the quicker you can rectify it and take action to right the ship and finish out the year strong instead of being like, whoa, I had no idea that this happened 11 or 12 months ago.

[00:18:40] That’s honestly like one of the biggest things that I see impact profitability.

[00:18:44] Juli Baranik: And I hit on something really big too, that the numbers are not judgment. Like we need to take the emotion out of it. And I know we tend to be pretty logical minded people. So that may be easier said than done, but when you can make educated decisions based off the numbers, then that really does take the emotion out of it.

[00:19:01] And so then you can make that educated decision, pivot with your business, do whatever you need to, to then, you know, finish out a more

[00:19:07] Kimberly Tara: profitable year. Yeah, I love that. I’m all about data driven decisions, right? Because I know, like, I’m going to sound like the typical CPA, but numbers don’t lie. Typically, 99.

[00:19:16] 99 percent of the time, the numbers don’t lie. And so, like you said, it does, I think it does allow us to remove the emotion and make those fact based data driven decisions for a business. And sometimes, I’ve had people tell me, I’ll use the frame, like, Business is business.

[00:19:33] It’s a business decision. And they’re like, but business is emotional. Like we’ve had this like movement in the last couple of years. Well, business can be emotional. Well, I guess it can be right. And like, to a certain extent, those of us who’ve started businesses, like my business is sort of like another baby.

[00:19:46] I take it very seriously. I take it very personally. It means a lot to me. I’m always thinking about how we can improve the experience for our clients. I’m always thinking about if there’s something I can bring to the table, but at the end of the day, sometimes. We just have to make a business decision because if you are making an emotional decision that can bankrupt your business.

[00:20:08] Juli Baranik: Totally. And that’s huge also. I mean, I think we have to pull the emotion out of it. And the more we, we function in emotion with our business, the more we make cloudy decisions. Versus like, okay, this is what it is. It’s I I’m very passionate about my business. And there’s a difference between passion and emotionally based decisions and passion.

[00:20:29] A hundred percent. Like that’s why we do what we do is we’re passionate about what we do and helping people. But yeah, no, we have to, we have to pull the emotion out of it.

[00:20:39] Kimberly Tara: Yeah. And I think, I think it’s okay to feel the feels right. Like, okay. Like we made a recent pivot in our business and, and I needed 24 hours to feel the feels right.

[00:20:48] I needed to process, I needed to just not come up with a, so like, I just needed to feel the feels, but after 24 hours, it was like, okay, Kimberly put your big girl panties on and we need to find a solution. We need to figure out what are the next steps. What are we going to do? What’s going to be the action that we take.

[00:21:04] And so yeah. Acknowledge the feelings, but then, okay, now we need to switch to solution. Like, like, okay, now I’m a busy, yeah. I felt the feelings now I’m a business owner and I need to figure out what the next steps are. I’m the leader of this company. People are depending on me. My team is depending on me.

[00:21:20] My clients are depending on me. So I need to go back to the numbers, the actions, um, being logical, being practical. Acknowledge the feelings and then move on to a solution.

[00:21:31] Juli Baranik: And I’m personally, I’m all about constant improvement and learning. And that’s what marketing is. It’s like, you throw something out there, you try it and you move on.

[00:21:38] And so it’s constantly taking

[00:21:40] Kimberly Tara: that. That’s why I’m so bad at marketing. I don’t like that.

[00:21:45] Juli Baranik: Uh, this is how my brain works. So yeah, no, I, I totally hear you and it’s, it’s, it can be scary. You know, it’s funny. I, I saw something and I asked my husband, I was trying to remember where the heck I saw it, but it was about comedians, like totally off topic, but not really.

[00:21:58] And, you know, you look at a comedian on, you know, up on the set and they hit it every single joke, right. Every single joke lands and everybody laughs and they just totally have. a blast. But what you don’t see is all the shows that happened before that, where they had their set list and they would try to joke, see what lands.

[00:22:16] Okay. One landed, keep that for nine, right? The next time we try another 10, right. And I’m just making numbers, but like you’re refining it over time. So by the time that they get to the big stages, every single joke that they tell. Has landed. And so they’ve tried it every single one. And then you take that set and that’s what you go with.

[00:22:35] And I totally see a parallel between that and business where we try things over and over and over and you get to that refined list of, okay, this lands with my dream clients. That’s what I lead with. And that’s where to me, it’s constantly about testing, improving, asking for feedback on a continual basis.

[00:22:52] Like I’m huge on that in my business. And then again, pull the emotion out of it. Okay. It’s objective. This is what they said. Some of it’s good. Some of it’s bad. What do I want to do with

[00:23:01] Kimberly Tara: it? And then we move on. Yeah. And that’s why we’ve had a recent pivot is, is we tried something. And so, you know, I felt, I felt the feelings for the day because I was like, yeah, this, this isn’t working.

[00:23:10] This isn’t how I thought it was going to go. We’re not calling in our clients that, that are aligned to work with us and, and it was better before. And so, you know, there were some failure emotions that came up from that. And, you know, so again, I felt the feelings, but then I switched my mindset and said, But Kimberly, I’m so proud of you for trying something and putting it out there because that, that really isn’t me.

[00:23:32] I want everything to be perfect and I want to know that it is going to be a soaring success before I even think about mumbling it to the world. And so I think it’s all about how we are in our mindset to say, Yeah, it didn’t work out, but I’m proud of you for putting it out there and for seeing. And now I also have, I’m big and not into not having regrets.

[00:23:51] , I can have no regrets that how we work with our clients, what our offers are, everything that we do, it is so aligned. I’m so lit up by it. And I have no regrets that we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing for our clients.

[00:24:06] Juli Baranik: And along with the profitability, I just want to shift slowly, what do you recommend for people as far as maximizing paying themselves?

[00:24:13] And a lot of feelings that go along with like that whole thing versus their business profitability.

[00:24:20] Kimberly Tara: Yes. Yes. So first I want to mention that. Depending on how your business files its taxes, um, that can determine how you are supposed to pay yourself, right? So, you know, without getting into the weeds, we have actual payroll, we have distributions, owner’s draw, whatever you want to call it.

[00:24:40] First step is to make sure that you’re paying yourself in the proper way that the IRS says you need to pay yourself. So talk to your CPA about that because it’s very important. Now in terms of The practicality of paying yourself. The most important thing that we are always talking to our clients about is consistency.

[00:25:00] You have to get into a consistent habit of paying yourself. And so sometimes that can mean. Paying yourself a little bit less than what you might want to pay yourself so that you know, you always have the money in the business to pay yourself every single month, because it’s that habit of consistency of always doing the same thing.

[00:25:24] And most of our business owners pay themselves monthly, but if you do it every other week, whatever that looks like for you, it is the habit. And the consistency of paying yourself that same amount every time. And you can always increase it. Right. But I don’t want you to say I’m gonna pay myself 10, 000 every month, because that’s what I need to live.

[00:25:42] But your business can’t sustain paying you 10, 000 a month. If, if you need 10, but your business can only sustain six. You’ve got a little bit of a problem and you need to go out there and your business needs to bring in more revenue. Either you need to decrease your personal expenses so you can take home less, or my preference is for you to go out there and get more clients and grow your business and bring in more revenue so you can pay yourself what you want for your dream life.

[00:26:04] For me, it is really getting into the habit of consistency. A lot of business owners, when they come to us, they’re like, I paid myself 2000 last month. Oh, I paid myself 10, 000 this month. Oh, Oh, I’m going to do five. Oh, can I take a distribution here? And that doesn’t. help you with the projections and the cash flows and the planning for your business.

[00:26:24] And it doesn’t help you to know, can you bring on another team member? Can you make that investment because you’re all over the place. And so I think that for maximizing profitability, you need to think about how much can I pay myself without. putting the business in a hardship from a cash flow perspective, but being consistent with it.

[00:26:45] And then I truly believe that that consistency of paying yourself is what enables you to slowly increase how much you’re going to pay yourself. And then, yes, again, you can always give yourself a bonus, right? Whether that’s once a year, twice a year, a lot of my clients do quarterly, right? So we have a consistent amount that they pay.

[00:27:07] themselves each month, and then every quarter we look at the profitability, we see where we ended up, and then they give themselves a little quarterly bonus. Awesome.

[00:27:16] Juli Baranik: And do you recommend more like set amounts based off of the budget or more percentage amounts based off of like what you’ve factored out you need for the

[00:27:23] Kimberly Tara: year?

[00:27:24] Yeah. So a lot of our clients are either S corp, right? Because we work with, with multi six and seven figures, some eight figure business owners. So they are. Pretty much all S Corps, um, pretty much all on payroll. And so they have reasonable owner’s compensation studies done with us. And so that is what their pay is based off of.

[00:27:43] We know what their annual compensation needs to be, and we just divide it by 12. So that’s their monthly paycheck.

[00:27:49] Juli Baranik: That’s awesome. Yeah. So what resources would you recommend for people? Do you have any particular books in mind that you would, recommend for people to check

[00:27:58] Kimberly Tara: out? Oh gosh. Okay. So I don’t have a, I don’t have a lot for like tax cause I don’t read a lot of, read a lot of those.

[00:28:05] Um, but let’s see. So we actually have a resource. It’s 118 tax deductions for service providers. And so that is a really. Great list to get your brain thinking about, am I missing any expenses that I’m not currently thinking about as a business owner? Then it’s a great list, whether you’re brand new to business or whether you’ve been in business for 10 years.

[00:28:25] Um, there’s almost always something I get an email and they’re like, I never thought about that. I didn’t think about that. So I definitely recommend checking that out. Other resources, I’m gonna pull up my audible because I’m an audible and a podcast junkie. And when you were talking about the comedians, I know that there’s a book that we’ve both listened to, because I have heard that.

[00:28:46] I know exactly who you’re talking about. A book that I recommend over and over again is The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. That’s, if you’ve ever heard the term zone of genius, that’s where that is coming from. That was not only so beneficial for me and my business, but it also, I really try and apply that to my clients too.

[00:29:03] And I’m like, please don’t do that. Please let us do that. I want you to stay in your zone of genius too, for your clients. Um, so that’s something that I really love. Um, we should all be millionaires by Rachel Rogers, , for women. I, that book really just changed. My mindset as someone who is a mom and a business owner, how I approach my business, how I approach help, how I approach thinking about my time and, and rest.

[00:29:32] And so that one’s just, um, a fantastic book. And then I would say my last recommendation is going to be everything is figureoutable by Marie Forleo. I was like, she, Says it like, like, uh, like that is who I am as a person. Everything is figureoutable, whether it’s for a client, my business, for my kids, like literally the way that my brain works is everything is figureoutable.

[00:29:56] And I was like, she just put a phrase to it. And so, um, I think, yeah. And so I just think that. We are so resilient as business owners. We really are. We do. We figure things out. And I think that sometimes we need to have more faith in ourselves than, than we give, especially as women than we give ourselves credit for.

[00:30:18] Oh, who not how by Dan Sullivan is also a really great book. Um, if you haven’t read that one, um, that one has definitely, that was, that one definitely made me think about. How I delegate better, how I outsource better. And we actually are in the process of hiring someone for our firm right now, who I think is going to be more expert at technical tax research than I am.

[00:30:43] And like, that’s a little scary as a business owner to say, I am intentionally bringing someone on who is smarter than me in one specific spot. But I’m also so excited for that, for what that means for our clients. That’s

[00:30:55] Juli Baranik: amazing. Yeah. I, that’s always been my motto through my corporate career. My business career is I surround myself with, and my podcast, frankly, but I surround myself with people that are smarter than I am.

[00:31:05] And so I can learn from them, glean, and then I’m constantly, you know,

[00:31:09] Kimberly Tara: getting smarter myself. 1000%. 1000%. I love that. Awesome.

[00:31:14] Juli Baranik: So you’ve accomplished a ton through your business, your family life, your all of it, right? But how do you define success? What does that look like

[00:31:21] Kimberly Tara: for you? Success for me is Knowing that my kids know that they are loved, that they are cared for, that we’re here for them.

[00:31:35] I need those reminders sometimes because I really do have my business to be able to be a present mom. And that’s just really important to me. So knowing that, I’m there for them, I’m there for the little moments, not just the big moments, and that. That is how we support our clients as well. And so really leaning in, that’s how, that’s what our team believes.

[00:31:59] That is how we want our clients to feel. And so leaning into. a firm that serves their clients so well and we’re making an impact and we’re fulfilling our mission but I’m also a present mom for my kids each and every day as much as I can be doing the best that I can getting to have the best of the both worlds but also um really being there for my kids.

[00:32:27] Yeah. And

[00:32:27] Juli Baranik: that, that’s huge. That’s what they remember. I mean, I remember when my kids were little, I have three kids also. And, you know, when they were little, I was actually working as a nurse, um, on the weekends, ran my business during the week. And I was working night shift, not sleeping and busting my ass personally.

[00:32:42] And like, they remember I wasn’t there. They remember I was sleeping, you know, and they were really little and you do what you have to do at that point to survive. But you know, that’s why I made shifts in my career to be able to be home with them, be, , present. And I think that’s really powerful.

[00:32:58] Yeah.

[00:32:58] Kimberly Tara: I need to remind myself of that. Cause I actually really love what I do. So sometimes I’ll find myself like wanting to sneak into my office on a Saturday because, because I want to work. I love what I do. And it’s like. No, Kimberly, you’ve built this business so that you can go to the playground with the kids, you know, so reminding myself of that and that, uh, we’re in a little bit of a tough season.

[00:33:15] I’m sure you can remember that. And so sometimes I really want the escape to my office, but reminding myself that it won’t always be this way. This

[00:33:23] Juli Baranik: too shall pass. And if you had the attention of the whole world for five minutes, what would you tell them?

[00:33:31] Kimberly Tara: I would tell them. that you are capable of whatever you set your mind to. Don’t let anyone tell you differently that you are not good enough, that you can’t do this, that you’re not smart enough, that, you need help or you’re less than. I think that That comes from working with so many women who come to us and they just feel defeated, especially in the finances of their business, of their personal life.

[00:34:04] Whether they’ve deferred everything to their partner or spouse over the years, or they feel like they’re not part of the, the good old boys club. And I just want, I really want every woman to know that. That she’s worthy of the success that, that she’s creating for herself, that she is deserving of people who are true partners and support her and answer the questions that, you know, I’m so tired of hearing the, um, this is going to be a dumb question.

[00:34:34] No, there are no dumb questions. Ask your question and find a solution. safe, supportive space to get it answered. Um, because that’s how we change the world. That’s how we change our kids. That’s how we change the next generation and we, and we make it better. Yeah, that’s what I want to, that’s what I would leave the world with.

[00:34:50] I love that. That’s

[00:34:51] Juli Baranik: so powerful. And how can listeners support you in your work? Where can they

[00:34:55] Kimberly Tara: find you online? Yeah. So I would love it if you would uh, connect with me on Instagram. I’m at Tara CPA firm. I. You will not see me post a ton, ton. I’m not a big social media person. We we’re on there.

[00:35:07] Occasionally you’ll see some kiddos, some really cute kiddos, get some really good tax knowledge, but I actually love the voice DMS on Instagram because there, for me, there is just something about, about voice that is so much better than, than the written word. And so I love the voice DMS on Instagram.

[00:35:24] Juli Baranik: Awesome. Awesome. And we’ll have all the links below so everybody can come check you out. And this has been awesome.

[00:35:29] Kimberly Tara: Kimberly. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for sharing this word about empowering, you know, women, especially with, with financial confidence, it’s, it’s just such an important message.

[00:35:39] So thank you for being willing to share it. You’re very

[00:35:42] Juli Baranik: welcome. That’s just your, your, um, inspiration of, you know, what would you share with the world? It takes me back to when I bought my first car, just a quick story. But, um, my dad took me to the dealership to, you know, buy my first car and I had saved up all the money.

[00:35:56] All the money was mine, like everything. Every penny of it. And this was like such a big moment for me. And I remember the salesperson wouldn’t even talk to me. Like he just looked right over my head to my dad. Totally. And I remember being furious at that moment and I ended up buying the car anyway, but like, you don’t, you know, it shapes how you go through your life.

[00:36:15] And it gave me so much confidence through my life. And I share this with my daughter, like, you know, we did things differently with her and she was buying her car and she negotiated. She learned those skills and she’ll tell you what they’re going

[00:36:27] Kimberly Tara: forward. I do all the finances in our family and I negotiate our vehicles.

[00:36:31] Like don’t, you know, I’m not, I’m not here for this. Uh, we had somebody watching a quick, my quick story. We had somebody watching our daughter. So I have three boys and then a girl. And she was like, Oh, look, Vivian’s learning. My office is upstairs. So I went downstairs for like a drink. And she’s like, Vivian’s learning how to match socks.

[00:36:49] Vivian is 14 months old. So Vivian was just like looking at the colors and putting, I was like, You did not do this with any of the boys. I was like, don’t you, don’t you teach this girl how to match laundry and think that just because she’s a girl that she has to do the laundry and the cooking because Like that kind of happened to me and not in a bad way with my mom, but like, it was just like, I was a girl and my brother was a boy and I was responsible and he wasn’t, I’m like, you better, when the boys get home from school, you better be teaching them.

[00:37:15] Yeah. Right. Like, I’m just not here for it. Y’all like you are, you do not have to only match socks. If you want to, you do you and you match the socks if you want to, but if you want to be the one in charge of your finances and you want to be the one negotiating those car deals, you step up and you can do it because you are absolutely capable.

[00:37:33] Juli Baranik: Absolutely. I love it. So if you found this episode helpful, please do share it. That’s how people find us. And you can find me at seven figure builder. com. And thank you, Kimberly, for being on today. This was a lot of fun. Yep. Thanks. Awesome. And I will see you guys on the next episode.