Rocky Lalvani joins us to discuss the ironic twist that businesses need to focus more on profits and Stephen Patterson tells us how to guide your business through a recession.

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:
Well, welcome to another edition of Practical Tax with Tax Attorney Steve Moskowitz. I'm Chip Franklin, and this is where we talk about issues surrounding taxes, and obviously that's a wide area, and it covers everything from individuals to multinational corporations and everything in between. And also, of course, you'll find this on our Ask a Tax Attorney segments, there are spaces in between that we try to fill in the cracks on the show, and Steve does a great job, and we love having great guests. Our next guest today is someone who can talk a little bit about what we love to talk about, which is profitability. And he's taught this to business owners for years. He teaches them how to ensure how they get paid and make a profit a priority. As a certified profit first professional, he implements these profit first systems and we'll talk about that coming up in just a second. Rocky Lalvani joins us here on Practical Tax. I'm laughing because I hope I got your name right. I didn't ask you in advance. Did I get it?

Rocky Lalvani:
You did wonderful, Chip. Thank you.

Chip Franklin:
Well, that's good because I took me a while for Moskowitz, but I don't mess that up anymore.

Steve Moskowitz:
You did perfect, Chip.

Chip Franklin:
All right, so let's talk about, you said the profit answer, man. Let's kind of jump in with a question, and obviously profit comes first in business. You can't stay in business long without a profit, but there's also growing pains, hard times and salaries. How do you balance that? How do you balance the need for profit with the people and everything else that goes alongside that?

Rocky Lalvani:
We have a simple saying, profit is a habit, it's not an event. And I think too often for business owners in the back of their mind, it's always I'll be profitable when, right? I'll be profitable when I hit maybe a certain dollar amount in revenue or I'll be profitable in three years. But if they don't have a plan to get there, then I think that's a major, major problem. Yes, we have to pay our bills, we have to pay our employees, but we also have to pay ourselves. And I think this is much more of an emotional issue than it is sometimes a numbers issue because the business owner wants to pay everyone else first and they kind of leave themselves to last. And that's one of the things we're trying to say, "Hey, you as the business owner also need to get paid and you need to get paid well for your efforts. You took the risk to start the business. You put probably in more time than anyone else into your business. And yet, why are you leaving yourself to last?"

Chip Franklin:
Huh. Steve, when you get small businesses approaching you for help and consultation and tax, obviously advice, are they usually starting out or are they switching from another firm? Or did they just decide to you bring in money and grow?

Steve Moskowitz:
All over the map. People that are just in every phase that you've mentioned and then some.

Chip Franklin:
And obviously that's a great point you made because some people just love the business so much. And I think of restaurants,