Small Business and Taxes with Ryan and Ornella

Nov 17

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Small Business and Taxes with Ornella and Ryan
Our host is Ornella Yovo, Financial Trainer, who is joined by Ryan Granville, a former IRS agent and small business auditor and no, founder of Xpert Financial Care. Join Ornella and Ryan as they dive into the world of small business and taxes in the time of COVID.

Podcast Notes

Ryan is an entrepreneur who owns two businesses and he is a member of an investment group.
Ryan is originally from Guyana, in South America, and when he was growing up, he had a hard life. He needed to survive off what he made in his small business. He was told school was important, and he spent a lot of time studying, but after school, he helped his mom run her store. She sold perishables.
As Ryan got older, he learned more about inventory management and dues. When Ryan moved to America, he focused on school. When he was thinking about what to study in college, his grandma told him he should challenge himself with accounting or finance.
His junior year of high school, Ryan got an internship at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and he learned about finance and taxes and he was sold. He was accepted into the School of Management at Binghamton University and graduated in three years.
When Ryan was working at the IRS, he was pushed to work for himself. He got very upset with the tax system, because it was not built to help small businesses and entrepreneurs, and he didn’t feel right about auditing people who didn’t know what they were doing.
Ryan resigned from the IRS and started his own tax and financial services company. Ryan helps people set up the structure of their business in a way that makes the most sense for them.
The first loan that was available during COVID was the PPP, Paycheck Protection Program. There was a lot of backlash from individuals that didn’t have their business set up correctly. Sole proprietors who didn’t have any legal formalities in their businesses received much less money than businesses set up as partnerships or corporations. Many small businesses didn’t qualify for any funds.
People who didn’t qualify for the PPP were able to later apply for the EIDL, Economic Injury Disaster Loan. This loan is not forgivable, but individuals qualify on their gross income.
Many individuals do not have business checking accounts, DBA (Doing Business As) certificates, or business tax ID or license, and those people were not able to accept the funds the SBA approved.
If you want to operate as a small business owner/freelancer, go to your County Clerk and get a DBA certificate, which will allow you to open a business checking account. This will allow you to accept funds for your business.
If you operate as a freelancer or sole proprietor, the first thing is to understand the rights you have. Get an EIN number that your sole proprietorship will operate under. This is free at irs.gov. Second, get advice from an accountant, even if it is only an hour or two of their time. Third, set up a business bank account. Fourth, if you cannot afford an accountant, use Quickbooks or an affordable app.
To find a bookkeeper, ask other people in your community or search on Facebook and Instagram.
Questions to ask a bookkeeper:
- How long have you been working as a bookkeeper?
- Do you do this full time or part time?
- What is your background?
- How many clients do you maintain and what size are their businesses?
- What services do you provide to help me grow?
Pre-COVID, many people wanted to start a business, write off expenses, and pay no taxes. Now, people are realizing they need to be a legal entity, they need insurance for their business, and they need to make sure they have someone to help them understand what they are doing.
COVID showed people that funding is available, but businesses need to be profitable and they need to be a legal entity in order to qualify for help. Questions from clients are more in depth now, regarding taxes, business structure, and growth.
Stop trying to be perfect. Take your idea, start it, and grow it. When you get the idea, act on it.