Stop what you're doing and think about your business finances—are they as separate from your personal life as your work wardrobe? If not, prepare to be equipped with everything you need to untangle that knot, just in time for tax season. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, and in our latest episode, I take you through the importance of having distinct business accounts and share a checklist that will transform your financial management from stressful to streamlined. Don't forget the incomparable Olivia Waddell will be joining me again sharing financial insights during our upcoming free webinar on March 28th.
Prepare to be inspired as I divulge the journey of transitioning Kate Walker Training to an S corp, illuminating the pathway for your own business evolution. We'll also touch on setting clear, achievable goals for Q1, ensuring you kick off the year with a firm grip on your profits and a solid plan for your quarterly taxes. Whether you're a counseling professional or a business maven in another field, this episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice and heartfelt encouragement to take control of your finances and, by extension, your future success. Don't miss Olivia's powerhouse tips; they'll be the gift that keeps on giving throughout the fiscal year. So, grab your favorite note-taking tools, and let's set the stage for a financially savvy 2023!
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Stop what you're doing and think about your business finances—are they as separate from your personal life as your work wardrobe? If not, prepare to be equipped with everything you need to untangle that knot, just in time for tax season. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, and in our latest episode, I take you through the importance of having distinct business accounts and share a checklist that will transform your financial management from stressful to streamlined. Don't forget the incomparable Olivia Waddell will be joining me again sharing financial insights during our upcoming free webinar on March 28th.
Prepare to be inspired as I divulge the journey of transitioning Kate Walker Training to an S corp, illuminating the pathway for your own business evolution. We'll also touch on setting clear, achievable goals for Q1, ensuring you kick off the year with a firm grip on your profits and a solid plan for your quarterly taxes. Whether you're a counseling professional or a business maven in another field, this episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice and heartfelt encouragement to take control of your finances and, by extension, your future success. Don't miss Olivia's powerhouse tips; they'll be the gift that keeps on giving throughout the fiscal year. So, grab your favorite note-taking tools, and let's set the stage for a financially savvy 2023!
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
If you're still mixing your business and personal money, first of all, stop it. Just don't do that anymore. Make a resolution for Q1 that you're finally going to get a separate business account. This is the Texas Counselors creating Badass Businesses Podcast with Dr Kate Walker, where I teach you Texans and non-Texans alike the latest research-based information to hit your income goals, stay out of trouble and make a bigger impact in your community. Join me and let's fill the gaps in access to mental health care and create a counseling career you'll love. Let's get to work. Welcome to Texas Counselors creating Badass Businesses, where it's all about working smarter, not harder. And here's your host, dr Kate Walker, who loves her garden. Welcome to episode 66 of Texas Counselors creating Badass Businesses. I'm going to give you some advice today about organizing those finances for tax time, but I want you to go to katewalkertrainingcom forward slash free webinar and sign up for the free webinar we're having in March 28th with Olivia Waddell. She gave us an amazing webinar last year with so many practical takeaways for organizing all of our stuff before tax time, and you know you don't want to wait until the last minute for this stuff. So listen to the podcast and then run to your computer unless you're already on your computer and go to katewalkertrainingcom. Forward, slash free webinar and sign up for Olivia Waddell. You won't regret it, you'll love it. Now let's get to work.
Speaker 1:Music. Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker. It's December 17th, but I have got to get you guys organized for Q1. Now, when I say Q, you know I mean quarter. The year is divided into quarters and so this time of year, while we're hectic and we're stressed and we're worried about things and got family coming over, I've got kids coming over later today, so I get it.
Speaker 1:This is a very hectic time of year, but you've got to set aside time to get your finances organized. It's very, very important and I know for me I'll probably end up waking up in the morning super early and try to just knock it out. Now I've kept it organized all year long. Thank you, I'm so happy past Kate, because I am so grateful that I don't know if you do this. Sometimes I'm like, oh, wow, future Kate is going to thank me. So I do that. So, hi, I'm future Kate. I'm thinking past Kate who decided to keep her books organized every single month this year and so hopefully I won't have a lot to do tomorrow.
Speaker 1:But if you have kind of neglected this for the year, then it might be wise to set aside a few hours to just really dive into it and get it done, so you can just get it out of your mind and start the new year fresh. So I've made a little checklist for you and I've shown you. I've made a list of the podcast episodes that relate to money that you might find helpful, and it's super easy to reference these. This is not going to be a long training. Today. I want you to get what you need and go, get back to whatever holiday it is you're celebrating and enjoy yourself. Podcast episode I have dropping either this week or next is how to say no, how to really take care of yourself During the holidays, and I hope you're taking advantage of that. So let's look at the checklist Now. I'm up here at the top and the checklist is below. The podcast episodes are over here and let's go through what's what.
Speaker 1:So goal for Q1 is for me anyway to know my profit from last year so I can budget for this year, and to know my profit from last year so I can plan my quarterly taxes for this year. Now I just changed Kate Walker training to an S corp. So it's a little bit different for me this year, but in the past this is what I've done. So that means, if those are my goals for Q1, that means for Q4, I have to balance my accounts for this year. Now what does it mean to balance your account? When I say that, I just picture my mom when I was a kid. She'd have that checkbook out and we'd be standing in line at the grocery store and she would be so meticulous about making sure that after she wrote that check and signed it that she went into her register, subtracted the amount and saw the balance. I don't do that. I haven't used a checkbook in a long long time. So what I use is a program called QuickBooks. A lot of folks use QuickBooks, but it's not the end all be all. But it helps me balance my accounts super fast for a few reasons I'll talk about in just a second.
Speaker 1:So the other thing. Number two Google tax write-offs. They change every year, so you can also go to podcast episode 46 with Alan Pruitt here, or you can go to episode 25 with Dr Olivia Waddell. She's helping counselors prepare for tax season and, lucky us, she's going to come back in March and talk to us again in a live webinar, and so by the time this goes live, I will have the link so you can register for that. I highly recommend you attend any webinar that she's talking to us in, because she's a counselor I mean, she's a counselor supervisor and she's also a bookkeeping expert, so it's a wonderful combination because she speaks our language and she can help us get our stuff together right before tax season, when we really need that help. So look for that dropping when this episode as a podcast drops. And, by the way, if you're listening to this on a replay and you are driving to the grocery store, maybe you're in the grocery store with the earbuds in and you're listening to this.
Speaker 1:I'm referring to a checklist, but just know I'm going to talk you through everything. So what I just referred to were podcast episodes 46 with Alan Pruitt and 25 with Olivia Waddell. But I'm actually referring to I'm going to point this way now I've got a whole bunch of podcast episodes. If you go to katewalkertrainingcom and click podcasts and then click money, those episodes will pop up and you can grab them really quickly.
Speaker 1:Number three I'm going to look at my expenses and categorize them Now. I don't have to do that because QuickBooks does it for me, but if you don't use a bookkeeping software, then you're going to have to do that deep dive into your expenses, month by month for the entire 2023 and categorize any expense that is related to your business or what you just Googled in step. Number two. Why is this important? Because this can knock down your profit, your taxed on your profit, and so if you show less profit, that's less tax. So you want to make sure you're accurate with that. Number four. You know what I'm going to say here. Number four if you're still mixing your business and personal money, first of all stop it. Just don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1:Make a resolution for Q1 that you're finally going to get a separate business account. I recommend Capital One. I don't work for them, I don't get a kickback from them, but Capital One does not charge any fees for multiple accounts, and so you can have a bunch of savings accounts, I think up to two checking accounts I'm not really sure, but they do not charge a fee just because you exist there and are a minimum balance or anything like that. Now make the goal have a business account with one debit card. That debit card, use it for all of your business expenses and that way number three categorizing those expenses doesn't have to be a big deal, because you're going to know every single expense in that account is related to your business.
Speaker 1:Okay, number five if you're still using Zell, venmo, paypal, some other online cash app, please go in there and check your privacy settings and just make sure that your client's name is not visible to the world. I don't know if you knew Venmo. You can set it to private, so not everybody knows that you went and got a massage last week, like I did. I mean, not that it would be a bad thing, right, because it's self-care and self-care is good. So make sure you check those privacy settings and whether or not a cash app or a credit card is HIPAA compliant. That's something you've got to go do your due diligence. I can give you my opinion, but if you're trying to make sure that what you're using is HIPAA compliant, just keep in mind anything that stores identifiable information may have to meet HIPAA standards. So, for example, the company that I used to run my credit card transactions for my clients it only stores the last four digits of their credit card number. It doesn't store anything. I can't go in and see their names. I can't see any addresses. So nothing like that.
Speaker 1:Number six so I'm kind of being a little snarkier. If I refuse to do number four, which was open up a separate business account, then I'm going to at least start using bookkeeping software so that expenses can be categorized automatically, some kind of a software like QuickBooks that actually learns your habits. It learns the repeating expenses and it's not asking you constantly what kind of an expense is Starbucks or what kind of an expense is Exxon. It remembers what you tell it and so when those expenses are downloaded into the software, it just does its little machine magic and then it knows where all of those go and whether or not those are business writeoffs. Finally, number seven, which should actually be number one set up auto transfers for important things.
Speaker 1:What are important things? Your emergency fund, your retirement and your quarterly taxes. Capital One lets you do that. It lets you go in there and let's say, once a month you want to just automatically pull $300 into your quarterly taxes. Well, it does that and you don't even have to think about it. Now I know books out there like Profit First might say something a little bit different. Hopefully we're all saying the same thing, because when you do just put these things on autopilot, then there's less of a chance that you're going to use the money to go by I don't know the latest big practice software when you're only one person.
Speaker 1:Or go buy new throw pillows for your couches in your office when you don't really need them right, throw pillows are like 80 bucks. Don't do that. This helps make sure that the important things are accounted for, that they happen and they don't depend on your emotional state when you're at home. Goods to have some sort of resolve not to buy those throw pillows. So seven things. Your goals for Q4 will lead into your goals for Q1. Don't forget to sign up for Olivia Waddell when she talks to us about getting organized for tax season. But in the meantime, while you're waiting for that link to go live, check out the podcast Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, and you can access that on your favorite RSS feed. We're an Apple podcast. Anywhere that you get podcasts or just go to katewalkertrainingcom, hit money and you'll be able to see all of these podcast episodes in one place.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, I hope you have an amazing holiday. I'm signing out. My birthday is December 25th too, so I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks off just to kind of relax and unwind and we'll have some amazing things coming out in 2024. I'm super excited about our speaking schedule. I'm super excited about the new 2024 40 hour supervisor training. It's looking amazing, so pretty, so many bells and whistles. I love it. So stay tuned and keep doing amazing things. You deserve to have a restful holiday season. You deserve all of the good things because you're part of the solution, thank you. Thank you for doing what you do, filling the gaps and access to care in rural and underserved Texas or wherever you are. Thank you, and I'm Dr Kate Walker. Have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:All right, I want to make sure that you know how to sign up for that webinar in January with Christina Deluna, because I know you want to make sure that you have all of the updates for 2024. And it's so easy to do Just go to katewalkertrainingcom, forward slash free webinar and grab your free ticket and share it with a friend. It's free and you get one CE. So if you're looking for continuing education, that's super cheap. You can't do better than free, right? So grab your ticket today. I'm Dr Kate Walker. Thank you so much for listening to Texas counselors creating badass businesses. Thank you to Ridgely Walker for her lovely voiceovers at our introduction and do me a favor when you get a second. Please like, share and subscribe and write us a review. That's really how we get picked up by other RSS feeds and we get this information out to the mental health badasses who need it. Thanks again, and keep saving the world with excellent therapy.