Profit aside, what business goals should drive successful businesses and should you ever consider advising a high school student to attend a trade school over college?

Episode Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm.

Disclaimer:
The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation.

Chip Franklin:
Welcome again to another edition of Practical Tax with Tax Attorney, Steve Moskowitz. Steve, it's interesting that you talk probably to as many individuals as you do businesses, which is the bigger part of the Moskowitz LLP practice?

Steve Moskowitz:
Both, because we're mostly dealing with business people. But besides dealing with the business, we deal with their taxes personally, and there's such an interrelation. And then usually there's a relation with the spouse, possibly the kids. So, it's not just, "Oh, we'll do the business and they'll do something else," the individual. We look at the whole package, what's best for the business, what's best for the individual.

Chip Franklin:
That's great. I mean, and that brings us to our next guest, is Dr. Jane Gardner. She is a business specialist and a strategist who has been doing this for more than 30 years and nice enough to join us here on Practical Tax. Good to have you here, Dr. Jane.

Jane Gardner:
[inaudible 00:01:17].

Steve Moskowitz:
Hi Jane.

Chip Franklin:
What are some of the guiding principles for business objectives other than profit? I know profit is the one, but what are some of the other ones? And both of you just jump in.

Jane Gardner:
Oh, I'd love to talk about that because it's about people too. We have to put in the people place and I really believe that a lot of CEOs that I'm working with are beginning to do that. And not only to do that, but beginning to see that it increases their profits when they become more caring, more understanding, more valuing of their employees, they work harder, performance goes up.

Chip Franklin:
Steve, you've had hundreds of employees over the years. Do you find that that's part of it with the people that you hire, as well?

Steve Moskowitz:
Absolutely. And one of the things I pride myself on is I have a number of colleagues and we've worked together for over 20 and 25 years and in today's marketplace that says something. I very much believe in the people and, as far as a business goes, of course, profit is super important. But when you care about things like being green, when you care about doing good social things, the irony is not only do you feel better and you're doing a good thing on this earth, the irony is you actually do wind up making more profit. And I see that. And sometimes there have been some individuals that I've dealt with that were in their business for a long time and let's just say that they were a little gruff and they knew how to do something. And I said, "Well, the way you're treating people, do you know why you have nine different assistants during one year? There's a reason for that. They're not lazy or stupid. It's not them. It's you buddy." And-

Jane Gardner:
Oh, Steve. That's a hard one. That's a hard one to come up with, isn't it? It's about you. Oh, whoa.

Steve Moskowitz:
I've been in California for over 30 years, but I moved here from New York City and in New York we were direct. And although people out here have made me nicer and I want to give them credit, and there's colleagues of mine that have taken some of the New York out of me and made me nicer,