Show Notes
Eric asks: "Tax season is destroying me. My CPA asked for a simple summary. It should have taken an hour, but it's taken three days. My CPA warned me she'll need extra time—that's $200 extra. What does your record keeping system look like for someone who doesn't want a full bookkeeper?"
In this episode, Scott reframes Eric's problem (you're worried about $200 but burning thousands in time), explains why business owners spend $10,000 of time to save $2,500, and shares a vibe coding example of a business owner spending hours prompting AI to replace $3,000/year software. You'll learn the love/okay/loathe framework, why you need to let go of things you're not good at, and what a real bookkeeping system looks like (weekly calendar block).
The bottom line: Either hire a bookkeeper or block it on your calendar weekly. Stop spending thousands of your time to save hundreds.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get your business unstuck. And the way that we do that is we answer questions, your questions on this show. I'm Scott, your host, and today's question comes from Eric. I have to tell you guys something. I love Eric's question. Here we go. Tax season is destroying me. My CPA asked for a simple summary of my income and expenses.
It should have taken an hour, but it's taken three days and I'm not done. I have stuff scattered across email. have expenses in my bank app, receipts in a desktop folder. My CPA already warned me she'll need extra time. That's $200 extra I'm paying because I was disorganized all year.
What does your record keeping system actually look like for a small LLC owner who doesn't want a full bookkeeper? Okay. Look, there's so much in this question. That's why I love it because there's so many things in there. First of all, have to chuckle, ⁓ Eric. I have to chuckle because your focus is on the $200 you got to pay for the CPA.
but you're missing the thousands of dollars worth of your time. Like, come on. You see, the lack of a system, you're putting the lack of a system as the concern, but it's not the system. It's that you're not valuing your time. And as a business owner, that's the most precious thing that you have is your time. You you've heard the saying, time is money. I mean, that's not anything new, but you're worrying about the lack of a system.
I worry about the lack of your value of your time. You see, look, here's the deal. In my rule, my rule is simple. If I'm not good at something, I have to let it go. That is, that's the first thing I have to do. If I'm not good at something, I have to let it go. And that really comes back down to me knowing me. And it also comes back to me accepting the fact that I cannot be good at everything. I cannot wear every hat in my business. And neither can you.
In Fix This Next for real estate investors, look, yes, it's for real estate investors, but if you're not a real estate investor, I highly encourage you to read it anyway, because the things that I talk about in that book apply to every single business. And one of the things I talk about in there is the relationship between things that you love, things that you're okay at, and things that you loathe, okay? And the reason that you're not doing your bookkeeping on a regular basis is because you hate it.
you loathe it, you want to avoid it, you'd rather just deal with it at the end of the year. And look, there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with that. It just means that that's not, it's not in your wheelhouse. It's not the thing that you're good at and you should not do it. Okay. So if you're not going to do it, then you need somebody else to do it. And that brings me to the, to the last line in there. What does a system actually look like for a small owner who doesn't want a full bookkeeper?
Well, if you're not going to have the bookkeeper, then you have to do it. And that means that you have to prioritize it. But it comes back to this time thing. You see, I have to laugh because, and I see this in myself, I see it in other business owners. It's not any one individual. It's collectively, this is where business owners struggle, is business owners would rather spend $10,000 of their own time to save $2,500.
that they will spend $10,000 worth of your time just so that you don't have to a bookkeeper. Bookkeeper's a couple hundred bucks a month.
Maybe 300, maybe that's pushing it. That's pushing it. Maybe a couple hundred bucks if you find the right person. But you you've spent three days. I hope that that's not three days straight. I hope that it's like maybe an hour a day for three days. I hope that it's not three days straight. You don't say that. But see, here's the thing is that we have to value our time.
I'll tell you another place I see it today as I see it with this whole concept of Vive coding. Vive, Vive coding. And the thing about Vive coding is that this is where business owners, they now have the power to develop their own software using AI. So they'll sit there for hours on end and they'll start to tell the machine, the AI what they want. It will go through and start to build it. And next thing you know, they're not having to buy as much software.
People are cutting their software expenses by doing that. Okay, look, I get it. I understand it. I talked to a business owner the other day. He spends $3,000 a year on this one software. He spends $3,000 a year on this one software and his team uses it. He told me that it's vital to his company. It is vital to the culture of their company.
He also told me he doesn't want to spend the $3,000. He wants to create it himself. And it's possible. He told me, he's like, yeah, it looks fantastic and everything. But then he was telling me that he was stuck on a problem and he spent with the AI, he was working through it. He spent three hours feeding content or questions or suggestions into the AI to get around this little struggle that he was on.
And I had to stop them. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, you spend $3,000 a year on the software? He's like, yeah. I said, but yet how many hours have you spent trying to code your own version? He's like, no, no, AI is doing it. I said, I understand AI is doing it, but you just told me that you spent three hours trying to solve one problem, prompting AI to solve this one problem. He's like, yeah. I said, what is your time?
$1,000 an hour, $2,000 an hour, $100 an hour? What is your time worth? And he looked at me and he started nodding. He understood. See, if you value your time at $1,000 an hour, or you can go and make $1,000 an hour by working in your business, to chase three hours of your time to save $3,000 a year, and it's not even finished yet. You see, we're getting hung up with the
getting hung up with trying to save money at the cost of our own time. And that's the bigger problem. Eric, that is the bigger problem. Now, if you don't want to have the bookkeeper, then what you really need to do is you need to create a bookkeeping system, an accounting system. And that is how you ask the, that's the last thing that you asked is what's the system look like?
Well, the system looks like the fact that you're going to sit down once a week and you're going to do the bookkeeping. That's what it looks like. Not once a month, not once a year. You're going to sit down every week at the exact same time, pick it on your calendar. Friday at 1 p.m., one to two, you're going to block it off. You're going to show up for that meeting. Just like it was any other meeting, you're going to do the work. If you're not going to have the bookkeeper to do it,
then you have to do it, but that means you have to commit to it. It needs to be on your calendar. And if it's not on your calendar, it's not going to happen. This show happens, I'm going a little meta here. This show happens because it's on my calendar and I show up for it. And it's the same thing that you have to do for something that you're going to do in your business that you're not going to pay for. All right. I appreciate the answer, the question here. If you have a question, I want you to go to Scott.
Todd.net forward slash ask, put your question in there. Let's see how we can get you unstuck and I will see you in our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get your business unstuck. And the way that we do that is we answer questions, your questions on this show. I'm Scott, your host, and today's question comes from Eric. I have to tell you guys something. I love Eric's question. Here we go. Tax season is destroying me. My CPA asked for a simple summary of my income and expenses.
It should have taken an hour, but it's taken three days and I'm not done. I have stuff scattered across email. have expenses in my bank app, receipts in a desktop folder. My CPA already warned me she'll need extra time. That's $200 extra I'm paying because I was disorganized all year.
What does your record keeping system actually look like for a small LLC owner who doesn't want a full bookkeeper? Okay. Look, there's so much in this question. That's why I love it because there's so many things in there. First of all, have to chuckle, ⁓ Eric. I have to chuckle because your focus is on the $200 you got to pay for the CPA.
but you're missing the thousands of dollars worth of your time. Like, come on. You see, the lack of a system, you're putting the lack of a system as the concern, but it's not the system. It's that you're not valuing your time. And as a business owner, that's the most precious thing that you have is your time. You you've heard the saying, time is money. I mean, that's not anything new, but you're worrying about the lack of a system.
I worry about the lack of your value of your time. You see, look, here's the deal. In my rule, my rule is simple. If I'm not good at something, I have to let it go. That is, that's the first thing I have to do. If I'm not good at something, I have to let it go. And that really comes back down to me knowing me. And it also comes back to me accepting the fact that I cannot be good at everything. I cannot wear every hat in my business. And neither can you.
In Fix This Next for real estate investors, look, yes, it's for real estate investors, but if you're not a real estate investor, I highly encourage you to read it anyway, because the things that I talk about in that book apply to every single business. And one of the things I talk about in there is the relationship between things that you love, things that you're okay at, and things that you loathe, okay? And the reason that you're not doing your bookkeeping on a regular basis is because you hate it.
you loathe it, you want to avoid it, you'd rather just deal with it at the end of the year. And look, there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with that. It just means that that's not, it's not in your wheelhouse. It's not the thing that you're good at and you should not do it. Okay. So if you're not going to do it, then you need somebody else to do it. And that brings me to the, to the last line in there. What does a system actually look like for a small owner who doesn't want a full bookkeeper?
Well, if you're not going to have the bookkeeper, then you have to do it. And that means that you have to prioritize it. But it comes back to this time thing. You see, I have to laugh because, and I see this in myself, I see it in other business owners. It's not any one individual. It's collectively, this is where business owners struggle, is business owners would rather spend $10,000 of their own time to save $2,500.
that they will spend $10,000 worth of your time just so that you don't have to a bookkeeper. Bookkeeper's a couple hundred bucks a month.
Maybe 300, maybe that's pushing it. That's pushing it. Maybe a couple hundred bucks if you find the right person. But you you've spent three days. I hope that that's not three days straight. I hope that it's like maybe an hour a day for three days. I hope that it's not three days straight. You don't say that. But see, here's the thing is that we have to value our time.
I'll tell you another place I see it today as I see it with this whole concept of Vive coding. Vive, Vive coding. And the thing about Vive coding is that this is where business owners, they now have the power to develop their own software using AI. So they'll sit there for hours on end and they'll start to tell the machine, the AI what they want. It will go through and start to build it. And next thing you know, they're not having to buy as much software.
People are cutting their software expenses by doing that. Okay, look, I get it. I understand it. I talked to a business owner the other day. He spends $3,000 a year on this one software. He spends $3,000 a year on this one software and his team uses it. He told me that it's vital to his company. It is vital to the culture of their company.
He also told me he doesn't want to spend the $3,000. He wants to create it himself. And it's possible. He told me, he's like, yeah, it looks fantastic and everything. But then he was telling me that he was stuck on a problem and he spent with the AI, he was working through it. He spent three hours feeding content or questions or suggestions into the AI to get around this little struggle that he was on.
And I had to stop them. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, you spend $3,000 a year on the software? He's like, yeah. I said, but yet how many hours have you spent trying to code your own version? He's like, no, no, AI is doing it. I said, I understand AI is doing it, but you just told me that you spent three hours trying to solve one problem, prompting AI to solve this one problem. He's like, yeah. I said, what is your time?
$1,000 an hour, $2,000 an hour, $100 an hour? What is your time worth? And he looked at me and he started nodding. He understood. See, if you value your time at $1,000 an hour, or you can go and make $1,000 an hour by working in your business, to chase three hours of your time to save $3,000 a year, and it's not even finished yet. You see, we're getting hung up with the
getting hung up with trying to save money at the cost of our own time. And that's the bigger problem. Eric, that is the bigger problem. Now, if you don't want to have the bookkeeper, then what you really need to do is you need to create a bookkeeping system, an accounting system. And that is how you ask the, that's the last thing that you asked is what's the system look like?
Well, the system looks like the fact that you're going to sit down once a week and you're going to do the bookkeeping. That's what it looks like. Not once a month, not once a year. You're going to sit down every week at the exact same time, pick it on your calendar. Friday at 1 p.m., one to two, you're going to block it off. You're going to show up for that meeting. Just like it was any other meeting, you're going to do the work. If you're not going to have the bookkeeper to do it,
then you have to do it, but that means you have to commit to it. It needs to be on your calendar. And if it's not on your calendar, it's not going to happen. This show happens, I'm going a little meta here. This show happens because it's on my calendar and I show up for it. And it's the same thing that you have to do for something that you're going to do in your business that you're not going to pay for. All right. I appreciate the answer, the question here. If you have a question, I want you to go to Scott.
Todd.net forward slash ask, put your question in there. Let's see how we can get you unstuck and I will see you in our next episode.