 Welcome back to Geeks are sexy. I'm Jason Laduke your host for the fourth Thursday I got it right this time last time I said Friday the fourth Thursday of every month take it over for Michelle Davis on the show We're back with my good friend Cynthia Nutter She is the owner of CJ Nutter Accounting, which you just started this year I mean like real recently like the last part of the year right last quarter Last quarter so and her mission is to promote and empower small business And what I really like about what your mission statement is is that you're there to protect the financial security of hard-working individuals and I know a lot of accountants I don't hear them talking about it that way and I think that's really cool that that it's not just about the numbers or the Profits, it's really about financial security That's about people right and that's what I really like about what you're doing So tell us how you got started in accounting because that story goes way back That goes all the way back to the Enron collapse back in 2001 your price man all day talk about that nightmare Yes, but tell us how you got started in accounting also when I was it was at the time where I was thinking about where like what I wanted to Study I always thought I was gonna study law and I Just remember about the time that Enron collapsed There was so much drama surrounded or you know and there was so many there were so many people that Suffered and I lived in Houston at the time. So I I watched people go home with boxes in their hands. Yeah, I I literally went to a retirement party one week and in the next week, you know, they lost everything their entire entire Savings entire all their investments were just down the tubes And they had a lot of investment a lot of holdings in Enron companies. So It was hard watching people who should have been retiring have to get jobs at Walmart You know anything to get by it was just heartbreaking for me to watch that and I Just remember being glued to the TV and anything to do with Enron. I just I didn't understand it I didn't understand. I was so young. I didn't understand what was going on It was super confusing even if you weren't young and there's a great documentary about Enron It's called the smartest guys. Have you seen it? Yes, the stuff that was going on at Enron. Well, it was bonkers. It was Arrogance and hubris and just to the to the next level stuff But so you were very confused about what was going on, right? And I wanted to understand it and I saw these people that I guess now I know that they're auditors. I was like, who are those people? That's what I want to do I want to investigate this kind of crime. This is horrible that so many lives are being destroyed because of You know just the criminal activity not only the criminal activity, but also how people will twist and bend the law To you don't even have to be a criminal in order to destroy lives. You just have to be extremely selfish and willing to hurt other people. And our legal and especially our generally accepted accounting practices are supposed to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Right. Well before before Enron That wasn't in the scope of an auditor to do they weren't supposed to determine whether or not they were subject to fraud They just were supposed to make sure that the financial statements were accurately represented And it wasn't until they passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act where It is now the responsibility of an auditor to to some degree, you know Express whether or not there was concern for fraud. Okay, and In addition to that now also the officers have to sign off on that because that was one of the That's a lot a lot of how people got away with it in the past. I didn't I didn't know I didn't know now They have to know and they have to sign off that they know exactly what's happening. They have to take responsibility. So Yeah, so you studied accounting. Yes, and then you did accounting for other people for a long long time. Tell us about that I worked in the private sector for the first part of my accounting career, and then I went into the public industry and I Helped a couple accountants develop their Bookkeeping practice portion of it. I got into tax work And So tell us why you left that to start your own firm and I went into public accounting I worked for a very good CPA out here and The way that the work was conducted was very carefully. It was he was very much in alignment with the way that I thought Caring about making sure that it was all about your client making sure that we were doing everything to protect the client Making sure that our work even though the client didn't see our work making sure that our work was protecting the client in case of an audit In case anybody came back after them When I went to work for other public accounting firms because I wanted to spread my wings to fly so to speak I Wanted to become an auditor that was always part of the plan So when I went to other accounting firms, I realized that the quality of work that these big accounting firms do It's really not it's really about the bottom line for them, which I understand you want to you want to make money We're all in business. We're all you know businesses make money. That's what we're supposed to do, right? So, right, right, so While I always looked at The quality of work is an issue I still tried to you know do as they asked me to do but it was it just became increasingly difficult to Do what they wanted me to do knowing that there was a way That I could be protecting the client in the way that I presented work because I saw so many ways that they could Not that these other companies did anything intentionally, but they just it was careless in some ways And I just always have my like like you said I always think about the individual Sounds like you you put a human face on every on every client absolutely and keep that in mind as you're as you're doing your Work for them. Absolutely. So we're coming to the end of a year. It's almost the end of 2018 We're about to start 2019. What's some advice or what some tips you might have for some small business owners or even some families? About their accounting of the financial planning coming up. What are things they should be thinking about as the new year kicks off? I think it's new. I mean, I think it's the same for every new year. Okay Get your books in order get your books in line. Make sure that you're on top of it Sooner than later, you know, and that way your CPA your accountant Can get through the tax season smoothly with you Yeah, I would just say So what does that mean to get books in line? Like what are some of the common mistakes some of the common gotchas that you see when a small business? So well one is probably if you're a small business owner and March comes around and you're like here do my taxes You're probably already behind the curve, right? Right? So what else do you see? What are some of the gotchas that small business owners, especially new small business owners might have? For their first year of going through taxes as a small business Hmm I Guess just not having every not having your Bookkeeping done for the year if you wait till the last minute to get it done It's gonna take longer and your CPAs gonna have to do Somebody has to put in the work, right? And so if you can go through a bookkeeper like myself you can go through I also do taxes, but If you utilize somebody throughout the year you prevent yourself from getting the surcharge At the beginning of the following year, right? So keep your books current, right? Keep them clean. It sounds like Save those receipts. Yep, and you can do that digitally now, right? You can save all that digitally You don't have to have all this paper hanging around, right? So keep your books current Keep them clean keep them up to date, right? Because you can do that yourself if you're so inclined to if not Absolutely find someone to do that for you, right? You're much better off spending a little money than you are spending time driving yourself crazy But have you know make sure that's done because when it does count when it could when it comes to your taxes Especially this time of year if that's not already done The account is gonna bill you for doing all that work to get them cleaned up, so So right any other any other financial tips or accounting tips for us for 2019? I would say that a lot of business owners that I see Have a hard time Distinguishing the difference between the federal tax laws and the local tax laws. Okay. Yeah, really important Yeah, that is very important. One example is, you know, if you have employees The federal government has their Outlined for what they consider an employee and then the state has their outline The states usually gonna be a little bit more stringent a lot of especially if you're in California If you're watching this in California changes this year, so, right, right, so a lot of what Business owners do is they pay attention to the federal law and they're like, okay It's an employee so I can pay them as contractor and employee taxes And then the state will come in and audit and then you'll have fines and penalties to pay on top of that You don't want to do that. So all right. Well, thank you so much for being here today Sit right there because we're gonna have you we're gonna bring the others back for our panel discussion But before we go tell us who you're looking to connect with and tell us how our audience can get in touch with you So any business owner is who I'd like to connect with that, especially business owners that are needing bookkeeper Or a tax preparer I Offer part-time CFO services as well as Staff development services So anybody who already has an established bookkeeping department in their business who might need somebody to come in who's experienced and knows how the services should present I also help their staff learn the bookkeeping processes I like to also see Who else people like this guy who do business consultant. Yeah, I'm always looking to connect with people So but but it's not about me today, but thank you so much for being here We're gonna we're gonna come back in just a few minutes with our panel discussion. I'm Jason Laduk This is Geeks are sexy. We'll be right back