Dan Franks calls himself a lifetime serial entrepreneur (not necessarily out of the womb). He started building websites for clients while in middle school, he started two podcasts, and together with three partners, he launched Podcast Movement, the largest conference in the world specifically for podcasting, and from there they branched out into single-day regional events, and even a six-day cruise dedicated to podcasting.
Dan is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and I wanted the accountant’s perspective on what entrepreneurs should and should not do when starting their businesses and managing their money. Dan discusses some of the worst and best things entrepreneurs can do as far as money is concerned.
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Key Segments

[00:10] Get Laser Focused. I advocate for people, if they’re passionate about what they’re doing and want to succeed, to get laser focused. Go through the valley of immersion, and dedicate yourself. There have been times when I let other things get in my way. The serial entrepreneur started grabbing for more shiny objects when I should have been staying laser focused on what it was I was working on or what my goal was. Stay laser focused and dedicated.
[02:45] Dan is a lifetime serial entrepreneur. Dan refers to himself as a lifetime serial entrepreneur on his webpage. What does this mean to him? From a business perspective, Dan’s brain is always turning and coming up with things that might be worth trying. Early on, Dan was able to turn his interests and passions into businesses. Some made money and some didn’t.
[03:30] Dan was building websites at 13. When he was about 13, Dan was a fan of professional wrestling and wanted to keep up with stories and who had won matches, but he found that a lot of the smaller federations had no websites. He became the web guy for some of the smaller federations and then branched out to some of the wrestlers directly. From there, he began to build websites for other (usually sports-related) businesses.
[05:30] Dan cofounded Podcast Movement. Dan is one of four co-founders of Podcast Movement, the largest conference in the world specifically for podcasters. Podcast Movement was started in 2014 and doubled in size in 2015. Small regional meetings have grown organically to serve additional segments of the podcasting community. These smaller events capture the essence of Podcast Movement on a small scale. The next thing is a six-day cruise for business podcasters.
[10:05] Dan has started two podcasts. Dan’s two podcasts are Entrepreneur Showdown and Men Seeking Tomahawks. Entrepreneur Showdown was his first podcast (now dormant). He and his co-host were trying to get away from generic podcasts about entrepreneurs in an attempt to get different information out of their guests. They did this by picking a topic the guest had recently covered and using that as the topic for the interview. Men Seeking Tomahawks is nothing about business and best described as guy-talk; surprisingly, they found that many women listen too.
[13:10] Dan is a Certified Public Account (CPA). Dan previously worked at one of the big four international accounting firms but now works for a mid-sized, tax-only accounting firm in Dallas. He scaled down to work with entrepreneurs and small business owners. He works with clients on tax, payroll filings, payroll maintenance, and bookkeeping.
[16:50] What is an entrepreneur’s formula for accounting disaster? What are some of the stupidest things entrepreneurs do as far as accounting is concerned, and what is the best formula for creating a disaster?
[17:05] The number one mistake is combining business and personal finances. From the beginning, open a business account or at least a separate personal account (or even a credit card) that is only for business. This will keep you out of a lot of trouble. The last thing you want is to have everything mingled together. Keep a clean pa