Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda

Unknown Speaker 0:00
The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford management group and smart time consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you may hear do not necessarily represent the views of K u and v Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:20
Hi, this is Leah Crawford.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
And I'm Rhonda Nolan.

Unknown Speaker 0:23
Welcome to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show. We're here for you and we're ready to go. Let's do it. Good morning. Las Vegas morning. Rise and shine. early bird gets the worm so they say right. That's right. Right. Right. Right. Leaving that golf course like you would at six o'clock tea. That's right. It's a black tea. Hmm. All right, Rhonda. We we knew a new radio station. We don't want a new radio station. We are. I'm excited. I'm excited to meet our new to introduce ourselves to our new listeners. Rhonda, tell them what you do. Tom, tell them more about yourself.

Unknown Speaker 1:00
Well, this is the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show. And I am Rhonda Nolan. I'm a marketing and sales consultant. I help small to medium sized businesses as well as nonprofit nonprofits and what do you help them do? Oh, I help them set up their nonprofit, I help them fundraise. I help them do events. I do everything

Unknown Speaker 1:18
they need to be done. Everything needs to be done. All right. All right. So my name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner of Property Management Group. We are an accounting and tax practice located in downtown Las Vegas. While I've been in the valley now for about 16 years. And I help micro small businesses in their endeavors to become well to become business owners. But while they're in business helping to maintain, so we do accounting, and we do taxes, and we also do tax resolution. We also started doc prep service so we can get it backwards for people that want to incorporate it. You want to incorporate that nonprofit and after incorporate the nonprofit we send you to Rhonda so you can get help writing grants and stuff like that. We're here because we want to assist small businesses and just have a conversation about small businesses, women in business because we are two women in business. This is not the side job. This is not the part time job. This is the job. This is the the job, the job, this is what we do. This is what we do. This is how we live. So we just like to have a conversation and talk about what we do, how we do it and possibly answer some questions and concerns. And just have a conversation at least once or twice a month about what it is to be in business. Right now. We're in this COVID pandemic. Yeah, we are. We are in this pandemic. And we've been in and now for about almost what six months, six months, it's been six months, it's been six months. Six months, my birthday was the day we shut down I will never I will never forget my my birthday, the day we shut down. And what I can say is if you this this time for me has been growing. Because I had to look deep and impossibly reinvented and learned a whole bunch of new terms. Learned how to get stuff in order quickly. Learn how to process applications, expeditiously read between the lines and manage because we don't know what other side of this looks. We don't know and life is consistently changing. It helped me to embrace change. And not to be fearful of it and to be okay with in the walk and walk and glory. gotta wear mask wear masks, I can tell you Nevada masks. We need to mask we need to put the mask on when you go into the stores when you're out in the bow because we want to be safe. And if it's mandated let's do let's go ahead and move forward. So that this two shots so this who can pass and Rhonda What have you learned during this pandemic? Cuz I know me you had a conversation?

Unknown Speaker 3:50
We did we did. I learned how strong I was. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. You could go either way. Okay, you could do great, or you could do bad. But one of those things you have to you have to think about is that you have to turn lemons into lemonade. Well, the

Unknown Speaker 4:08
thing about it is, is that when you say that, because you can do great, and you're right, or you can do better and your right. Mindset is the mindset, the mindset, the mindset, and I know we talked but let's let's go over one of our conversations. The mindset, what, what changed your mind, because I know at first this was very frustrating, and it was scary because we didn't know

Unknown Speaker 4:29
it was scary. It was hard when you call me and we discussed it. I had a mental breakdown, melt down for about two hours. Then I pulled myself together and figured out hey, you're smarter than this. Figure out how to pivot your business you say That's right, they should think How are university baby but anyway, back to the heart story. You I had to figure out what I needed to do to keep my business open and to keep my business profitable so that I could maintain the rent the lights and insurance and everything that goes with being a business owner, even a business open so I had to think about what could I do quickly, very quickly, pivoted my company. And I decided to start selling PPE equipment to small businesses here in Las Vegas, who decided they were going to open up. And that actually worked for me until I could figure out how to get to my clients and talk to them about the services I was provided. Because

Unknown Speaker 5:19
in this talk about that, because I know me, you sent me both Rhonda and I have been working together now for over almost almost two years. And I know that we we had some plans for 2020. And we we mapped out the budgets, we had the plans, we were and we were achieving our goals we were we were doing the things that we put in place than this happens. So for you, it's events. So with no contact, no events, right? It changes everything for you.

Unknown Speaker 5:45
Right. So that was that was a product didn't tell you guys earlier, the other arm to my company is live event management, right. And basically, I had a great book of business this year for live events, where my clients all across the country. However, when COVID hit, that meant that my clients did not want to move their events from live to virtual. So basically, I lost all of that business, I was actually, in a sense, put out a business of that arm of business. So now I've been blessed, because I've done such good work with my clients all over the country. They have tuned have turned me on to other nonprofits and other organizations that do need my services. So I was able to bounce back,

Unknown Speaker 6:23
you're able to bounce back. But it was scary, though. And you're you were able to walk through it. And what would you say about your support people that you hang around?

Unknown Speaker 6:31
The people around me were very supportive. You know, when I bounce the idea of you're starting a PPE company and doing new things, new ventures, they were like, Yeah, you can do it, you should do it. I'm the first one to sign up. What services do you offer? So it's great when you have positive people around you? Who can support you and let you know that they have your back at all time. And it's just a beautiful thing. I don't do Nancy naysayers, okay, I don't even have you, I try not to have that type of energy in my circle. You should have positive energy around you. Because even though this is a hard and rough time, and I know there's some businesses out there that could not reopen and have not bounced back yet. You still can. You just have to determine what direction you want to go in and pivot your business. But it can be done. All is not lost.

Unknown Speaker 7:17
All is not lost. All is not lost. And I want to say thank you because I know we had a lot of conversations because when idle first started idled economic injury, disaster loan, PPP, the payroll Protection Program, just understanding because when I tell you every day, it changed four times a day. And by the end of the day, it was something different. The next morning, it was something different by the end of the day, it was it was just a lot. And we were able to cut everyday talk and then working through it and talking and working through it and then trying to figure out how do we because we are entrepreneurs. So it's not, it's not like, and I pray for those that were furloughed. But they got unemployment checks, right? And different things like that, as an entrepreneur, you know, I tell what I eat, right? I kill what I eat. And the scary part for me was not knowing, first of all, if that was an essential or non essential business, right? And then after doing some research, okay, well, accounting were essential, so we can be open. But then it was the concern with bringing clients in with all the you know, you don't know and me and staff were just like, Okay, well, you come to work. I'm glad it's just two of us at the office at the time, you come into office, I work from home, and then we'll communicate which caused a whole bunch of issues because now I have to get my house ready again, to work from home and to be able to communicate with the office. And you know, people don't use fax machines, but I'm old fashioned. So I need my fax machine. I need everything so that I can send documents back and forth. And then we're emailing scan and using my cell phone. And just making sure I can communicate with clients. Along with the fact that well I had I actually had an amazing COVID Because my children were here they came from DC because since everything is virtual, they're like well we can go to Vegas. And we can stay in a house with mom and we can figure it out. So for two months, they basically transition my house with all these workstations and we just, we just made it work. We we built a routine around what we were doing. We had a work day they had little routines. This is when your office is open, this is when your office is closed, this is your space and they tried to make my space like my office. And I I want to say I know they can't hear me but thank them because the love that they poured out just coming in changing my diet, helping me to understand I can cook because I know that's what I told you I learned during COVID That I can cook and that the kitchen is not just the extra room in the house that you want. Right it is space that you actually can use. But learning and making me now I want to remodel the kitchen I want it to be this fabulous place where we can have fruits and vegetables, especially with the tree that we saw with my son you know the tree. I got it. I want to have a garden in the house so I can pull the fruit off the tree and go here cut it up the fruits and vegetables and just do different things. But it was about having positive energy around me because there were clients that were struggling, that didn't know and consistently trying to talk to them to get them to understand. You know, there is another side to this, I need you to go in dig deep and find out. How is it service viable? Can we make it through because I know when the nails last pose, I was devastated. But as soon as they open toe nail salon hair slump, first appointment, but I know those business too, they were struggling because of the new requirements that they were required to follow in order to bring their customers back. And restaurant owners same thing, you know, the new requirements that they're required to follow to bring their customers back in. But I want you to know that guys, just stand stand in it because one that not only stand in it, but embrace it. Change is I mean, it's it's a change, reinvent what you're doing it, it like Rhonda said, dig deep, and find a way to make it work, find a way to make it work.

Unknown Speaker 11:04
If you have a storefront business and you haven't applied for the SBA loan, you should absolutely do that. Because that gives you extra money to make sure you can keep your business open and pay your workers because we know you're working at 50%, especially the restaurants, we know you're not at 100% capacity. And we know that you probably need to be at 100% capacity to pay everybody and to run your business. Since you're at 50% capacity. us as consumers, we need to support those businesses to make sure they can stay around for we can get past this COVID-19.

Unknown Speaker 11:34
Right. And just and just be mindful supporting supporting the local businesses supporting local businesses because I know that for us it was this wasn't it's it's been amazing because we downtown Las Vegas, and just to see that the businesses are overwhelming around a whole bunch of attorneys anyway. So they're nowhere. They're all essential. And we just just being able to be downtown and to see some of the businesses open to walk around and support them. Because yes, you're right, they are not able to full capacity. But the SBA funds, that's what they were used for. And I would our listeners to know in other states, when we talk about, you know, when you got those SBA funds, just be mindful what you did with the funds, whether it's PPP or idle, keep good documentation, use them use the funds for your business expenses, because they were there to ensure that you were still in business. So it's okay to spend them, but spend them on your business expenses. Because we want you to be open we are our economy is dependent on so many things. It's not just one big thing. There are so many things that go into making sure that this valley operates. And I think that we have to be mindful of that. But I want to talk to about documentation, because you talk about applying for the idle loan. And some of the challenges that you've seen, with people trying to apply well, not only idle for PPP, what were some of the challenges that you saw where people trying to prop up people,

Unknown Speaker 13:01
people do not have their paperwork in order. They didn't have their business license their articles of incorporation, they didn't have business checking accounts, they didn't have business plans, they they didn't have some basic stuff that when you start a new business, you should have this thing, right. So if you're thinking about starting a new business, the first thing you need to do, if you're not already in that business, you need to do your research about that. Number one, then you need to write a marketing plan with a five year forecast. Then after that, then you have to get all of your documents in order your your business licensing your tax documents, your tax ID number, then your articles incorporation, then you go to the bank and you open up a bank, a business bank account. So all of those things you need to have in addition to that you need to have your schedule C's done, which means you needed to have your axes done

Unknown Speaker 13:53
well here and then and I want to say because it because you run you said a whole bunch of stuff, but uh no, let's let's let's let's break it down so that people understand. When you are in business when you're entrepreneur, there are several types of businesses that you could be several types of forms of businesses because you can be a sole proprietor. So there are certain things if you say you're a sole proprietor that we need to see to show that you're a sole proprietor. So as a sole proprietor, you still have to have the license with the Secretary of State to say that you can do business as a sole proprietor in the state of Nevada. And then you get you can get an EIN number, you can still get a DBA. If you are an LLC, and I hear people say, Well, I set up this LLC, my first question always is, where's your operating agreement? And they look at me, where's your operating agreement? Tell me how you said you were going to operate this LLC. And if you tell me how you want to operate this LLC, then I have better guidelines on what you said you were going to do. Because part of the part of the part of the sections of the operating agreement talks about how you go into debt and who can sign for you to go into debt and going into I mean, and when you're going into PPP and idle is going into debt, right so that the Is your LLC your operating agreement, but then as an LLC, if you made an S election, right, so if you made an S, if you're a single member multi-member, two different things, but if you made a S election because you can be a single member, multi member LLC, make the S election, and now you're doing a corporate tax return. So then there's another set of documents that you need to have. And then if you're a corporation, you know, you need a bylaws. So what I found is, people were saying that they were these things. And then when I start asking questions, because you heard when we when we were asking the guy and he, he got to, he looked goofy. And I'm like, well, well, if you say you're in business, handle your business. And that's what we do. At proper management group, you say you're in business, let's handle business, because that's the foundational stuff, then going to get the EIN number, then going to get the bank account and making sure that the bank account because I saw this, you got money going into a bank account that doesn't have the same name as the business? Yes, that's the issue. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay, and they wonder why you didn't get funded.

Unknown Speaker 16:04
And so what people didn't understand the rules of the game was that you had to turn in your information to the bank, the bank had to approve you first. That's what PPP before. Yeah, that's PPP. The bank had to approve you first before they submitted your information to the SBA, then the SBA had to look at all your documents, and then they had to approve you to the bank so that the bank could give you the loan. And folks did not have their paperwork together. I talked to many bankers, I've many banker friends, and they were like, Oh, my God, I could not believe this is a business has been in business for some time, not brand new.

Unknown Speaker 16:39
But you want to know what though, I look at it. And I'm like, I know, when people come into my office, they're like, Oh, you asked too many questions. Guess what I need to know, I need to know, because I want to know, as as as, as my friend of mine sent me all day, he was like, you know, you work for some people, you got a barrier to entry. I was like, No, I'm just asking foundational questions that we need to know to ensure that you are in business. But you are I mean, that you're taking care of your business, not running the business, but you're taking care of the business. And that's why like the dark web service became so important. And it's funny, a client came in yesterday, and young young woman had all the documents because she wants to set up this LLC, amazing business idea. And I love the fact that she wanted the information. But she really didn't know how much it cost. Because that's the other thing. You want to be in business and you think, Well, I don't want to pay I don't want to pay for services. I know my clients now that pay for accountants that pay a retainer to an account on every month, they're happy that they did some because when it came time to apply for those funds, yeah, no issues. That's right walk through clicking the documents in a document that would take normally his or her people, you know, struggling through it. But documents were an order you talking about three to five minutes they apply for SBA and PPP.

Unknown Speaker 17:57
Right? So here's the thing, when we start new businesses, we forget three areas, we forget about a marketing budget, that marketing promote your business, you forget to hire an accountant to handle your bookkeeping and you forget to hire a lawyer to look over your contract

Unknown Speaker 18:12
to look over your contract. You want to know and it's so funny, I remember growing up back east, and my uncle would always say, I got my accountant, and my attorney will speed up. That's right, that my accountant or my attorney will speed that and I love it because I became an accountant and my baby girl is becoming an attorney. Right? So we got the accountant, and the attorney will speak out. But then I also liked the community of accountants that I'm around, and just having access to them to be able to call to ask them questions. Even our stuff is very, I look at it because it's not real complicated stuff. We do very, very simple stuff. And but even I look at when you talk about a bookkeeper and accountant in our profession, you know, there's a difference. And I had to watch my language because for awhile, I was calling myself a bookkeeper and scissors. Somebody pulled me to the SOPs, I know, you know, you're not a bookkeeper, you know, you're an accountant. You know, you paid a lot of money for that degree. And I was like, did, did and pay my dues to get it. And just understanding the financial statements and how they work. Because right now the question is, how much of a wall Did you incur? from last year to the sheet? That's right. And if you don't have compared to the financial statements, as a small business owner, you think, well, that's only for big businesses? No, if you put your stuff in QuickBooks, or whatever accounting software you decide to use in that paper. No, but you can use paper and pencils, we can make it happen that way as well. But when you put your stuff in and a system and you're able to look at year over year, you can analyze the financial statements to be able to say, this is what I lost due to COVID and you can look at your I mean, well you can use it for a whole bunch of other stuff but it's specifically for knowing what to last specifically to cope because I know now a lot of brands are asking for

Unknown Speaker 19:50
that. They are as Mr. Rice say every grant is asking you most of your business. What How did COVID impact your business? What were your numbers the first quarter of today wasn't 19? And what were your numbers? The first quarter 2020? Then they say, What were your numbers? The second quarter 2019. And what were your numbers? Did you lose 50% of your business? Did you lose 25%? Did you lose? Lose 100? They're asking that and they're asking for documentation, ladies and gentlemen,

Unknown Speaker 20:15
and you're asking for documentation and what I will again, again, again, if you if you if you are I mean, want to learn more about what we do how we do it. Like I said, Rhonda is doing the events Rhonda is doing the business plans. She is also helping nonprofits with grants or more information, seven zero to 90872.

Unknown Speaker 20:38
That's 702-908-9577 I

Unknown Speaker 20:42
bought some some See, I told you, I get it wrong. I told you, I would get it wrong. Now I gotta write and speak. And I said it right? acidified on air, because I had a lot of people calling me right. It's 700 to 90895777. Again, 702-908-9577 Yes, I know. I know. And I, what I can say is, is that when we when you come into our circle, and we start to work with you, things start to happen. And I watched it because things start to happen. And I know that when we we bring clients in and we whiteboard them, we whiteboard, and then what does that mean? We we sit down and we start to dig deep. And we we dig deep, because then we start asking questions, and we play good, good cop, bad cop. And most of the time Rhonda makes me play bad cop because she says to put a smile on her face, and she just grin. And she's the nice person. And I get to ask the hard question. But when I get to ask the hard questions afterwards, she's looking at me like, if they didn't tell me that? Well, how you get that? And almost like, because you wouldn't, you made me ask the question. But with that, what we find is, there's help out there for everybody. That's there some type of help out there for everybody. It's just determining what type of help that you that you're eligible for, you know, because we came in think a client came in and he was frustrated because he wasn't getting the PPP. Well, PPP wasn't what he was eligible for. It was the unemployment portion of money. And because I'm not versed in the unemployment, I knew enough to know that PPP, wasn't it, unemployment was what you needed to do. And let me guide you to where you need to go to go ahead and get that done. Because my focus has been on small business owners, small and micro business owners. So your real estate agent, they get that to 99 ensuring that they got funds to be able to make room, the hairstylist, the beautician, the beauticians the nail techs, the the services, people just to ensure that, you know, you, you guys understood that this money is out there for you too, and nonprofits as well, and nonprofits as well, this money is out there for you too, because we understand that people might not be giving as much, right, you know, and, and you still have to provide services, even though you have to, you might have to provide services a little differently, you know, and other things to keep to keep to keep our people employed, so that everybody's not going on unemployment. And I feel like I've been blessed, and I want you to think, you know, I've been blessed, my employees are still employed, and were employed to work through the whole pandemic, you know, we changed a few things, but I think that they're happy, you know, they're happy, I'm happy. And we made it through just two, but we but we worked at it and everyday wasn't an everyday wasn't an amazing day. But everyday was a good, everyday was a good day. But if you want more information, and you want to contact our office again, my specialty, though, is tax resolution. And we'll talk a little bit about that. People have anxiety. I mean, those are an IRS that delivering stuff for about two, three months, they did they? Well, they started delivering again, because the letters started coming about two weeks ago. Everybody's at work, right? Or at least working from home, they figured out how they figured out the system and how to get everybody to work. tax resolution. So you, you hear the commercials about you know how we can save you this amount of money on you, we can do this. And we can do that what I can say a profit Management Group. I don't give any false expectations. I look at your situation, we analyze it, we see exactly where it is. But more importantly, I work with you so that we don't get so that we don't go back here. And what does that mean? First thing we do is get you in compliance, get you in compliance, if you haven't filed your returns, and I hear people say you know they're a little bit embarrassed to come in. Don't be don't be don't be if you file the returns after 1986 Because a man came into my office and said he has not returned since 1986. And I just looked at him I said you know what? We're gonna work it out and we're gonna see what all we have to do. So if you find return after 1986 Come on in the office, I'm your situation is not as bad as you think. And what we do is we walk through it and we figure out how to get you in compliance. Not only get you in compliance, but if there is a balance that's owed. Okay, so how do we budget to help you to get that balance paid and then keep you in compliance moving forward. And we spend a lot of time and spend it. And I actually

Unknown Speaker 25:05
go to classes, different things like this, they stay abreast of the new things that the IRS is offering. So that we can ensure that we are giving our clients the best possible services, we take the time. So you're not you're not just a number of us, we're not trying to go through trying to get as many people as possible. We want to provide a service that we connect with you, we understand what's going on with you. And we assist you, we are your partner, in making it through this. B, we're your partner making it through this. And I know it's a lot of anxiety around IRS and IRS debt. Because you know, you got this big Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, black and white envelope and they don't send one they might send one today and he might send it certified. What I can tell you is don't let that stuff sit. Don't let it sit, open it up, bring it, bring it to the office, you know, you have one more information 702 Now let me get my number, right, I think 702-382-5737 Again, 702-382-5737 Brenda's there we are in the office Monday through Friday from 10 until four when you call and just say hey, Brenda, how you doing? Leah told me off, she'll giggle. But she can start the process to help resolve those issues. Because what I can say is, is that it's not it doesn't happen overnight. We don't give any false expectations. And we're located in downtown Las Vegas. You can come in you can see us if you don't feel comfortable, we can do a zoom meeting. But we are there we are available, you can see us we're not on phantom on a phone that you hear on the radio. We are here in the valley providing the services.

Unknown Speaker 26:43
So today's lesson is paperwork, paperwork, you must have your paperwork in order as an entrepreneur, whether you're a sole proprietor or LLC, or S corp or whatever you are C Corp, you have to have your paperwork in order, because it just helps run, things run more smoothly. If you have an order, and things get processed quicker. As you know, there's going to be a second round of PPP. So if your business was lucky enough to get PPP the first time and you have all your documents in order so you can get that grant forgiven, then you'll be able to sign up.

Unknown Speaker 27:19
Even talk about forgiveness because forgiveness is is another thing because you have to apply for forgiveness. Maybe next time we'll talk about that because I know the applications, for the most part are not out yet. Is a form that's out where you can start to do it. We will talk about it next time because forgiveness is huge. Forgiveness is huge, just huge. Just know that if you got PPP, you got to apply for forgiveness. It's not automatic. Until next month. Yes. Yeah, I'm excited. I like this show. I like Las Vegas.

Unknown Speaker 27:48
Thanks for tuning in to talk with Leah and Rhonda show and we'll see you next time Peace and blessings.

Unknown Speaker 28:12
You have been listening to a paid program sponsored by Crawford management group and smart time consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you heard do not necessarily represent the views of K u and v Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai