Business Problem Solvers with Eric Alspaugh, Episode 12

In this episode of Business Problem Solvers, Eric Alspaugh speaks with Julia Carlos, co-founder of  Western Premier Business Coaching, providing bookkeeping, tax, and one-on-one business coaching and tax strategy, on a month-to-month basis.

Tune in to the episode to hear about:

• Julia Carlos’ business journey, including her education in legal studies management and her extensive experience in accounting and business operations
• The importance of setting up a business legally and tax-efficiently, recommending S corporation status for many small businesses due to its liability protection and tax benefits
• The significance of accurate financials and professional bookkeeping for small businesses, advocating for hiring experienced professionals to avoid common pitfalls
• Julia’s community involvement, including local political advocacy and educational efforts to promote financial literacy and entrepreneurship among young people

Learn more about Julia Carlos:

• Visit Western Premier Business Coaching’s website: https://westernpremiercoaching.com
• Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-carlos-5a0430276

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About Business Problem Solvers:

Welcome to Business Problem Solvers Podcast, where legal insight meets entrepreneurial innovation. Are you a startup founder navigating the complex legal landscape of entrepreneurship? Are you seeking practical advice, actionable strategies, and expert guidance to propel your business forward? Look no further. In each episode of Business Problem Solvers, seasoned attorney Eric Allspaugh takes a deep dive into the intersection of law and business, bringing you insightful interviews with a diverse range of industry experts, thought leaders, and successful entrepreneurs.

Subscribe to not miss an episode of Business Problem Solvers:

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Connect and learn more from your host, Eric Alspaugh:

• Visit Alspaugh Law’s website: https://alspaughlaw.com
• Connect with Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alspaugh
• Follow Alspaugh Law on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alspaughlaw
• Follow Alspaugh Law on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlspaughLaw
• Follow Eric on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricAlspaugh

Read the entire transcript:

Voiceover: Welcome to Business Problem Solvers Podcast, where legal insight meets entrepreneurial innovation. Are you a startup founder navigating the complex legal landscape of entrepreneurship? Are you seeking practical advice, actionable strategies, and expert guidance to propel your business forward? forward.

Look no further. Eric Alspaugh is a seasoned attorney based in the vibrant startup hub of California, and he’s thrilled to be your host on this exciting journey. In this podcast, we’ll dive deep into the intersection of law and business, bringing you insightful interviews with a diverse range of industry experts, thought leaders, and successful entrepreneurs.

From intellectual property and contract law to corporate governance and regulatory compliance. We’ll cover the essential legal topics that every startup needs to know. Our guests will share their [00:01:00] wisdom, experience, and practical tips to help you navigate legal challenges, seize opportunities, and build a thriving business in today’s dynamic marketplace.
So whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur. A budding startup founder, or simply curious about the intersection of law and business. Join Eric on Business Problem Solvers Podcast, as we explore the legal insights and entrepreneurial inspiration that will fuel your journey to success.

Eric Alspaugh: Hey Julia, and welcome to the Business Problem Solvers Podcast. It is my honor to have Julia Carlos. today. And she is an entrepreneur here in Orange County, California. She works with her husband, Rene Carlos, who I’ve known for many years. Enjoy working with him so much. And I’m really pleased to have this opportunity to share some of Julia’s knowledge about [00:02:00] business.

And I am hoping to share some really interesting stories that can help some budding entrepreneurs today. Juliet, will you just give a brief introduction about your, yourself, maybe the bio that you’ve got your accountancy degree from Cal state Fullerton or something. Interesting.

Julia Carlos: All right. Thank you for having me on the show here, Eric.
And it’s a pleasure being here. I actually, I grew up with parents who were small business owners. My mom in particular, she ran a very pretty successful business doing Plant maintenance in restaurants and different areas. And I really gleaned onto that. She had me start doing her accounting when I was 13.

Eric Alspaugh: Wow.

Julia Carlos: Yeah. It’s been a long journey of just experience and education. I did go to Cal state Fullerton. Where I met my husband, Rene he’s actually the one with [00:03:00] the accounting degree. My degree is in legal studies management.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay.

Julia Carlos: Yeah, I know. So we he’s been in the industry for 20 years public accounting.
I actually worked for a subcontractor for it was a small business. They did The finished carpentry and brand new homes and I started in the accounting department and I actually wore many hats within the company So that’s where I really got my feet wet in business Was I was the right hand person to the owner?

And he taught me legal tricks that he did in the company I did payroll I did accounting I did all these things And it all came together. And so when I graduated college I had moved on from this company. I worked in real estate for a little bit and spent some [00:04:00] time raising my daughter and educating her.

And now I’m back with Renee and with more in a full time position and helping grow the business and helping small businesses achieve their goals as well.

Eric Alspaugh: That’s great. And I’m, I want to Make sure that our listeners get to know about both of your businesses, Western premier business coaching, and what I know you from, which is summit tax and accounting, having worked with Renee on many projects over the last eight to 10 years.

And so I’m excited to, to hear about the business coaching and maybe some. Anecdotal stories like my favorite thing to hear about is legal pitfalls. Things where people really made some mistakes where hopefully we can learn and be proactive and help people avoid some of those mistakes. Or if you have [00:05:00] some great experiences to share from your prior mentoring or things that you’ve done where you’ve avoided these legal pitfalls And even hearing about from maybe some nuances in business based on your degree in legal studies, that would be great to hear as well.

Julia Carlos: Yeah. So when you’re in accounting you see every business, every industry, you have to be an expert, pretty much an expert in every industry because how you tailor a tax return, how you tailor profit and loss balance sheet, everything goes into what’s an industry standard.

Julia Carlos: And that’s how the IRS sees it as well.
What is an industry? What’s standard? What’s regular? And just knowing that makes you an expert basically in, in each of these fields, just getting to talk to different businesses, what they do, what works for them, what’s not [00:06:00] working for them. And starting with some tax and accounting and just doing their bookkeeping and their tax returns, we saw where people were making the mistakes, whether it be legally, whether it be tax wise, and we decided that.
Let’s make it a business coaching business so that we can be there for the small business because after a while you just get so sick of seeing small businesses go by the wayside and they’re just fundamental mistakes. And to coach people through this, to coach small businesses through this and help them come out on the other side is just so incredibly rewarding.

Eric Alspaugh: Awesome. Awesome.
You had mentioned that you had some, maybe some interesting statistics about small businesses and entrepreneurship.

Julia Carlos: Yeah. Let me read them off to you here. So small businesses, small business is still the backbone of the United States because 99. 9 percent of the businesses in the United States [00:07:00] are small businesses.

Everybody has skin in the game when it comes to small businesses, because even if you don’t work for a small business, even if you don’t own a small business, guaranteed you’re buying from a small business, whether it be from a store or I just moved recently in the last three weeks. And I’ve had plumbers come to my house.

I’ve had, I need to call an electrician. I, there’s so many things that need to be done and I’m not, I can’t do that myself. Sure. You know what I mean? I have to call a small business. You call the plumber, you call the electrician, you call the appliance guy. All of these are small businesses and we all have to interact with them. And so here’s another one. So 61. 7 million people are employed by a small business.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay. That’s huge. That’s huge. 98

Julia Carlos: percent of small businesses have a hundred or fewer employees and 89 percent [00:08:00] of small businesses have fewer than 20 employees. So the majority of small businesses have under 20 employees.

55 percent of small businesses are they contribute to the net job creation in the United States. That’s over half of the jobs in the United States are because of small businesses.
56, I’m sorry, 46 and a half percent are employed by a small business. And here’s where it becomes where you start seeing the difference.

The majority of small business owners are actually healthier physically and mentally than people who don’t who are not small business owners. Employees. Employees are happier. 21 percent happier who work for small businesses [00:09:00] and willing. Yeah. And the thing is in a study the majority of people said that they would even take a 5, 000 pay decrease to work in a place where it makes them happier.

And if you have 21 percent more happiness, you’re going to have more productivity, which means higher profits. Why are you in business? Yeah. You want to serve the community. You want to serve your clients and your customers. But at the end of the day, you’re there to make a profit. And if you have employees who are happy that it can help you make that profit.

Eric Alspaugh: Got it.

Julia Carlos: Yeah,

Eric Alspaugh: that’s great. That’s I’ve never heard that. That is useful information and an encouragement. For me and for hopefully our listeners who are interested in making that leap from a garage inventor or maybe tired of the mundane [00:10:00] work that might not be as rewarding because there’s long timelines before milestones are reached.
And I, everybody gets to judge how they value and measure happiness on their own. So it’d be interesting to get that citation from you and we’ll include that in the notes. Cool. That’s really interesting.

Can you share any of those maybe funny or anecdotal stories of legal pitfalls good or bad that you’ve worked on and you don’t have to, don’t protect the innocent.
Don’t disclose any names.

Julia Carlos: I don’t know if there’s any. Funny, but definitely there’s a lot of legal pitfalls and really when you start a business, you want to set yourself up right legally.

Eric Alspaugh: Sure.

Julia Carlos: And the next step is how are you set up tax wise? Because every year you’re going to have to pay taxes.[00:11:00]
and different taxes. But setting yourself up legally to protect yourself is the most fundamental thing. And I think where people really mess up I say mess up, basically, yeah, mess up. They are, they’re making a lot of money and they just don’t know, you go to school, I’ll give you an example.
Let’s say a gym owner. They’re amazing. They work with, he works with Professional athletes. And he’s one of those guys where he goes, he’ll tell you, give me somebody who has a torn ACL and I’ll get them back in six weeks. They have a 34 million contract and everything. And unfortunately they can’t read a spreadsheet.
They don’t know what a profit and losses. They don’t know that they should be an S corp to protect themselves and their equipment. They’re just every all their liabilities to protect their assets and having that S corporation protects [00:12:00] you, gives you that liability protection over your assets, but it also gives you tons of tax benefits.

Eric Alspaugh: Sure. Sure. That’s that’s a real practical application. I’m sure it’s. Specific to various industries. Probably for most small businesses, but are there any particular industries that benefit from S corp elections, whether it’s a service based industry or manufacturing or a professional trade?

Julia Carlos: I think everybody benefits from it.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay.

Julia Carlos: And the reason and tax wise and would know more about the liability protection, but tax wise it’s based on how much you make, basically. So you, once you start hitting a certain threshold, having the different, whether you’re a sole prop, [00:13:00] an LLC, or an S corp will make a difference of what you’re paying in taxes.

Eric Alspaugh: Sure. Okay. Thank you. So that’s generally you like that vehicle for your clients, you like to recommend that.

Julia Carlos: I do. And the reason why is because by default and LLC is a partnership.

Eric Alspaugh: Yep.

Julia Carlos: And if you’re a single shareholder it would just make sense to go straight to an S corp.

Yes, there are certain industries. Let’s say maybe restaurant owners, you have many partners, they could benefit from an LLC just because it, the profits are getting split and then they, it’s a pass through entity. Sure. When you’re in, you have the single member LLCs now, but it just makes sense to go straight to the S corp. If you’re an owner, single owner.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay. [00:14:00] Yeah. Cool. Very interesting. I have a question on that, but I’ve lost it. I’m going to circle back to that. So those are our anecdotes. Oh, I know what my question was. So at what stage And I know this varies, but at what stage should a startup business approach a tax expert?

Or what should they budget or allocate? And let me ground this question in my own personal business. I probably spend 15, 20 percent of my resources on accounting functions for my business. What do you see across various industries? And when and how much should startups allocate to tax planning and entity planning and go, feel free to run wild on this one.[00:15:00]

Julia Carlos: Yeah. So typically in a startup, you’re not making as much money. And it’s something that you could theoretically do on your own. If it’s not, if you have under. a certain amount of transactions. So let’s say you have 10 transactions a month, maybe 20 transactions a month. It’s something that you could probably track for free.
If you have Sprite, like Excel. Or, yeah, a spreadsheet. We always recommend QuickBooks online. It’s something that we can tap into. We can see if you provide a service, if you have a building and you have equipment, and I use the gym owner and that’s. Doctor’s offices, dentist offices they all have equipment.

So when you have equipment, it’s best to have somebody who, a professional, a tax professional, bookkeeping professional. And I say [00:16:00] that not loosely a bookkeeping professional doesn’t. You doesn’t do taxes. If they only do bookkeeping, they don’t touch taxes. We do both. So we gear the balance sheet, profit and loss, all of that, all your books to do a good return to save you money on the return.

And it’s one of those things where, every business should have a good attorney, right? They should have professionals who, because you’re not a professional in that capacity. Not everybody has a degree in accounting. Not everybody knows how to do a spreadsheet.
Not everybody, they’re a professional, they’re an expert in their own field. So it’s one of those things where, you know, the old saying of what is it? A person who represents themselves has a, is a fool, has a fool for a client.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah, absolutely. I know I butchered

Julia Carlos: that. I know I butchered that.

Eric Alspaugh: No, that’s exactly right.

Julia Carlos: And I don’t mean to demean [00:17:00] anybody, but the fact of the matter is that, you know how to go and talk to a judge, how, how the legal aspect of things worked in it work. And it’s just like how we know how the tax. Aspect of a business works.
We can go and talk to the I. R. S. And you have so many people who are like, Oh, I want to save money and I don’t want to pay for an accountant or I don’t want to pay for a bookkeeper and it’s just money every month or you know that I don’t want to pay that big fee for to have my taxes done. And let me tell you, it keeps you out of the I. R. S. Or, or if you do end up getting contacted by the IRS, you have somebody like us who knows how to approach them and knows how to talk to them to get you out of that mess.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay, see that’s we’re doing saying a stitch in time saves nine or one of those sayings applies, which is, and I just heard a new saying which is, it’s cheaper to buy it then build [00:18:00] it. Meaning, there are certain functions that we can all learn. We can go online, look at resources and try and save time and money by doing it ourself. But the older I get, I will admit. It is cheaper to hire someone that’s an expert in the industry and get it done right. So I’m, I’ll admit it.

Julia Carlos: There’s just so many fundamental mistakes that are made that we see on a daily basis. And even from bookkeepers and you really get what you pay for. And so it’s something that, that it should be on a, on your radar. Like I said, if you have a low amount of transactions it’s probably something that you can maintain on your own doing a corporate return, you shouldn’t do that.

You should get the professional. Do it for you. Okay. And in the world of DEI do it yourself and, the school of YouTube and [00:19:00] everything. And influencers and I can’t tell you how many influencers I see giving who have no background in tax at all. No certification. They’re nothing in the tax world. And they’re like, don’t pay your taxes. Yeah you should, it’s so What

Eric Alspaugh: social media are you on? Are you on TikTok? Where are you seeing this tax advice?
Julia Carlos: Oh, goodness. Reels.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay.

Julia Carlos: Reels.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay. Alright everyone, you’ve been admonished. Do not take tax, do not take tax advice from Reels. It’s official.

Julia Carlos: And I’m sure TikTok has it too. I’m not on TikTok. I’m, I stay away from that place. And it’s just a time suckle, but yeah, it’s just, it’s so important to, to find somebody who’s good, who’s qualified and really the amount that you’re [00:20:00] paying is important. So worth the amount that you’re, the amount that you’re going to save is just, it’s worth it.
Actually, that’s

Eric Alspaugh: the point. That’s the point that we should really hammer home today, which is folks. Once you get in a formal corporation get a good bookkeeper and tax strategy, spend some money on it. Get yourself educated. They might help you set up systems. It will more than pay for itself.

Julia Carlos: Absolutely. 100%. I, last year we had we got some new clients who were, they were soul props and they didn’t know what else to be. And they spent years being soul props and made all this money and paid it out in. Taxes.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah.

Julia Carlos: And you start getting to do I want to give the government all this [00:21:00] money?

Eric Alspaugh: We know the answer.

Julia Carlos: Yeah.

Eric Alspaugh: Render to Caesar what is Caesars. No, that’s see, that’s really the bottom line.
Do you have any practical tips for people who might be interviewing or to look for the right. Person for the job because you brought up a bookkeeper versus an accountant, there’s different roles in different areas of specialties.

Can you give me a summary of two or three job functions or questions that someone interviewing A tax professional ought to know. I don’t know what I don’t know. So what questions should they ask?

Julia Carlos: At the end of the day, a bookkeeper a lot of times is data entry. You’re clicking a button and your bank statements come over, your credit card statements come over and you’re doing the reconciliation and everything.

[00:22:00] And a lot of business owners don’t have the time to do that. And that’s fine. Sole purpose of an accountant is never to, they’re not there. They don’t run the business. You know what I mean? They’re not the decision makers. And even within a corporation with multiple departments, the accounting department is not a decision making department, their job, their sole function is to give you information so that the decision maker can make a qualified decision.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay.

Julia Carlos: So what I see and unfortunately, there’s a lot of different industries that have gone this route, but what we’re seeing in bookkeeping is it’s being outsourced to India,

Eric Alspaugh: okay?

Julia Carlos: And you can imagine just the fundamental mistakes that are made. By having bookkeeping done in India. And yeah, you’re paying a low monthly fee [00:23:00] and you see it as affordable, but when we go to do the tax return, it’s just so incredibly wrong and you end up paying us to fix it.

Eric Alspaugh: And

Julia Carlos: so that’s something that you want to look for. It’s not always don’t go with the cheapest route. . Ask them questions, ask them where, about the balance sheet, about the profit and loss. That’s if you do go to a bookkeeper like I said, a bookkeeper is typically data entry.

What kind of sets us apart is we’re husband and wife team. We do bookkeeping, we do tax strategy. So we strategize Off of the bookkeeping and whether you do the bookkeeping or we do the bookkeeping or somebody else does the bookkeeping we go over it. And if we need to fix it, we fix it. But being able to strategize from the books to, to save you money on the [00:24:00] backend for the, for on the tax return. Yeah, it’s critical because most bookkeepers don’t know the tax. Okay.

Eric Alspaugh: All right. So for our listeners out there, that’s a little nugget there, which is interview. Even bookkeepers and see if they have a sense of what they’re doing and its purpose and its role in the bigger picture with the ultimate role of supporting providing information to the decision makers and likely they’re concerned with the Profitability and how the tax will be impacted,

Julia Carlos: right? See some pretty egregious stuff on a daily basis. Just when I think that it couldn’t get worse, a new day happens and I see some pretty egregious things.
But the fact is even if you’re just Then independent contractor S corp, or if it’s just [00:25:00] you or husband and wife’s small mom and pop business what’s critical is having correct financials because you’ll never get.

The health and wealth of your understand the health and wealth of your business unless your financials are good and having them coach you and tell you how to read that and what to look for so that when you’re looking at it, you’re going, okay I’m down this quarter. Why am I down? Is it because I didn’t do as much sales or do I need to step up my marketing?
What do I need to do?

Eric Alspaugh: Okay. Yeah, so balance sheets very important how to read profit loss statements, all of those things. There’s an educational component.
And you tipped your hat to me and said, Hey, Eric, we’re actually teaching a program now to high schoolers and are thinking about rolling it out to [00:26:00] entrepreneurs and startup businesses. Would you like to tell us about, do you characterize it as a class or a series of classes?

Julia Carlos: Yeah.

Eric Alspaugh: What is it? And what’s its name? Give me a name.

Julia Carlos: Okay, so the name of the class and the name of the book is called entrepreneurship and small business. And I was blessed and I still am. My daughter is homeschooled.

She just went into junior high, but she is still homeschooled. She goes to an enrichment center once a week and the enrichment center. Approached us about teaching an e I’m sorry, a an accounting class. Okay. And I went, yeah that’s a good idea. I can teach that. But there’s a lot of stuff you have to learn before you can understand accounting.

So we really, Renee and I put our heads together and I thought about it [00:27:00] and I go, it’d be really nice if we could design a class where you brought all the components of, sales and marketing and finance and accounting and economics, and you put it all together and taught people how to run the business because once again and I’ll use the gym owner as an example.
As an example, and it’s not just gym owners, doctors and dentists and so many different fields. You have an expertise, you go to school in your field, but that doesn’t tell you how to run the business.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah.

Julia Carlos: And there’s so many surprises that happen to small business owners that they have no idea. They don’t know how to plan for it. And I thought, you know what? Why isn’t this being taught in schools? This should be something how to start a business, how to run a business, how to, we’re [00:28:00] talking here to the next generation of small business owners. And if there’s not,

Eric Alspaugh: what was the number 46 point something percent of people work for small businesses,

Julia Carlos: right? So we’re talking.

Eric Alspaugh: Everybody’s impacted by it.
Okay.

Julia Carlos: And in reality, you’re gonna, this country, once again, the backbone is of the, of this country is small business. Small business is still is what holds this country together. I wanted to go and I wanted to reach the next generation and train them up so that.

They’re not going to remember everything. I tell them, one day and the next day I asked them the same question thinking that they’ve remembered and they don’t always, but there is stuff that they retain or they come to me and they go, Oh, Mrs. Carlos, the fed just raised the interest rate. And we talked about that last week. And, so there’s things where [00:29:00] they, it’s clicking. It’s to get it on the radar because at the end of the day, experience is going to trump any kind of book knowledge.

Eric Alspaugh: It’s where you

Julia Carlos: get good is through experience. And I tell them, you guys, you have to be patient.
Don’t think that if you start a business in five years, you’re going to be a millionaire. And if you are great. But that’s not the majority of it. It’s years one to five is where you get good. And after that, then you can really start making money because once you’re good, then you, then everybody wants you.

But the whole premise of this was to get business owners. More savvy in running the business. And that’s what we need. We need smarter business owners. And it’s not saying that business owners aren’t smart. They’re great at what they do, but I still have people who come to me and they’re like, I can’t believe that I have to pay taxes on my employee.
And it’s yeah, you do.

Eric Alspaugh: I’ll be honest. I run [00:30:00] and I hide from financials and financial planning and data. It’s not my favorite thing to do. And so there are CEOs that have strong finance backgrounds. I think that helps businesses be successful, partitioning out certain functions. I’ll admit I’m not good at it and I don’t want to deal with it.
And think educational to help us even issue spot and know, oh, there’s something over there that I know I don’t know, and I should look for a professional.

Julia Carlos: I

Eric Alspaugh: think that having financial literacy classes in grade school, middle school and high school is essential because I think that we talk about predatory lending, or we hear about it every four years in political cycles.

And we want to get rid of loans, do loan forgiveness for particular, Industries or particular groups. And it [00:31:00] just seems like the system is set up to make us make mistakes or take advantage of our financial illiteracy. And then somebody has got to come in and fix my mistakes years later. It’s sounds economically inefficient.

Julia Carlos: And I think just even knowing that I don’t like accounting and I don’t want to do it. It sets you up later on of, I know I’m not going to do it and I know I’m not going to do a good job. So maybe I should hire somebody to do that for me rather than being under the illusion of I’m going to save money by doing it myself and I’ll figure it out.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I’m getting encouraged. I have great people in my Rolodex and I talk to them frequently, but it makes me want to talk to them today. Yeah,

Julia Carlos: And, and last week I had a call with somebody who, is starting up and she’s going, I don’t know the difference between an LLC and an S corp. And I just know that I’m a [00:32:00] sole prop now. And I don’t, and this is what’s in the book is knowing what entity to be, knowing how to protect yourself legally, how to protect yourself with taxes and long term goals and knowing, Hey, I, if I’m not out there selling my services or my product. I’m not making a profit and how many people, even business owners don’t know the difference between revenue and profit.

Eric Alspaugh: For sure. For sure.

Julia Carlos: Just I’m planting the seed and that’s all I’m doing. I’m planting the seed right now with these young minds and get them business minded and encourage that.
Hey, maybe they’re not, maybe they’re not going to go to college and that’s okay. And we need his help. Kids. College isn’t for everybody and you can still be a great business person without college. You can still be a millionaire. There’s, you want to be a [00:33:00] millionaire quickly? Own an HVAC business.
And it’s

Eric Alspaugh: one of those things

Julia Carlos: where I tell people and I tell especially these young men, If you’re not interested in college, go into a trade, find what trade, because we need trades people. And it comes down to supply and demand. There’s not enough supply of trades people to meet the demand.
And once again, it’s, we all have skin in the game. We all need electricians. We all need plumbers. We all need heating and cooling and this is what we need.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah, that’s great advice. I’m excited to hear that you’ve got that program. You’ve got a book. Do you want to plug where the book is available or your website now?
I’ve got more questions for you, but

Julia Carlos: yes we’re coming out with a second edition. We are fixing some things within the book, but we’re also adding some things, maybe taking some [00:34:00] things out that we may not. So this was really the trial run with the class and the class is going really well. I have other schools, homeschool enrichment centers that are interested in this class, which is wonderful that these parents see the need for knowing this, for knowing how to run a business.
And even if. You’re not a small business owner. The chances of you working for a small business, you’re still almost at 50%. So knowing how small businesses run helps you to be a better employee, which helps, in turn, you have a good job.

Eric Alspaugh: Just, just educationally being aware that 50 percent of the people that we’re dealing with are involved in small businesses and how we approach them might be a little bit different than some sort of a customer service representative on a phone hundreds of miles away or thousands of miles away and how we interact with those [00:35:00] individuals.
And just to be a Maybe there’s a, about a 50 percent chance. We’re talking to somebody that’s a regular person. That’s not just a tiny cog in a giant machine that’s running.

Julia Carlos: And like in the statistic that I gave earlier people who work for small businesses. Are happier.

Eric Alspaugh: That’s amazing. And they’re willing to take

Julia Carlos: the 5, 000 pay cut, just for happiness because there’s nothing, there, there’s nothing like going to a job where you feel like you’re chained to a desk and you’re just so miserable. And, you get to a point where there’s nothing’s worth that.

Eric Alspaugh: Yeah. Great advice.

Julia Carlos: Yeah. We’re working on doing videos. Teaching this class and making it as a course so that people can buy the program. So startup companies, people who are thinking about maybe not have started up yet but they’re thinking [00:36:00] about it and they want to educate themselves on how the businesses run and the taxes that are involved and where you need to protect yourself.

And we’re finding that there is some good traction there but in reality, like I said I want to see more small businesses. I want to see, I don’t want to see the big businesses, the big corporations. I don’t want to see them. With all the employees, I want to see small businesses. I want to see more of them.

I want to see smart business owners because smart business owners, they stay in business for a long time. They serve their customers. They serve their clients so much better. And you maintain a freedom in being a small business, but this country We need small businesses in this country to maintain our freedom.

Eric Alspaugh: I agree.

And that dovetails with something else I wanted to talk with you about is our community. And we’re here in Orange County. [00:37:00] And I know that Renee has told me about various political and social advocacy that he’s been involved with. And my wife and I met 20, almost 25 years ago, working on a political campaign in San Diego.

So I’m interested. To hear what advocacy that you might’ve been working on most recently. And I know you have a heart for veterans. If you want to share about your community and any charities or any nonprofits that you’re working with or supporting and want to get some attention drawn to, I’d love to hear about it.

Julia Carlos: Yeah. So really when we talk about community you’re It’s best as a small business, even if you’re not a small business owner get involved with what’s going on in your community. Talk to your, the people running your community. We are [00:38:00] good friends with the mayor of our city. We helped a couple candidates get elected onto the city council.

And these are just ways. It gives us a voice for the small business community where small business advocates will always support the small business. We know that’s what we want. We want to survive a thriving small business community. And the way that you do that is. And we were at the city council meeting last night where they were sworn in and it was great.
And so having that the opportunity to be involved in your local politics like I said, we were involved in getting a couple people elected on to the city council recently and we were at the city council meeting last night where they were sworn in and it was great.

And so having that. That voice where you have an ear that listens and you go, Hey, we’re seeing a lot of small businesses over at the talent center. And it’s just seems to be a revolving door. What can we [00:39:00] do? And small businesses help a community help a city, not just financially, but.

But the people are of that community enjoy going to small businesses, they want to go to that restaurant that, their favorite restaurant where it’s owned by, one or two owners or, and they have great food and they don’t want to go to, the chain restaurant and it’s just, or a dress shop or a jewelry store, or, there’s just so many things that make a community.

And when you just have one big business after another big business, it’s wow, where’s, there’s nothing unique about this. This is, there’s nothing different. I could go anywhere to get this stuff, but interacting with a small business owner. And, It transcends just, Oh, I’m going to go and support a small business owner because when you do that, maybe they have kids, they want to put their daughter into, dance lessons or softball, or, [00:40:00] their son wants to play football, And it goes, it doesn’t stop there. The dollar doesn’t stop there. It moves on

Eric Alspaugh: and

Julia Carlos: it grows the community and you have so many people who benefit from that 1 or the 50 that you spent in a shop, it just, it goes. to pay for other things to support other small business owners.

Eric Alspaugh: Absolutely. In supporting the community, getting politically involved that really takes people stepping out of their shell or having a passion, something that they’re interested in to get involved in politics.

Do you have any, I have a suggestion for baby steps, but I’d like your thoughts. What about joining local. Chambers of commerce, or do you have any other suggestions, different types of business networks that you can recommend?

Julia Carlos: There’s lots of different business networking groups that you can join.
And it really depends on the size of a [00:41:00] city. Your bigger cities are going to have different networking or chambers. We were involved, Renee sat on the board for our city chamber for six years. Was the treasurer and so was very involved in and civic minded in that sense. I can’t say where we’re going after that.

We don’t know, but wherever God leads us, it’s always that, that call to duty, right? It’s not just about me. It’s, what’s going to benefit the community. And you have chambers city chambers, which is great because they’re the small business voice of the city.

Eric Alspaugh: And

Julia Carlos: so you, but you need people in the city council. You need the mayor, you need different, the different people in the city, they need to be able to listen to you. And so that’s where it’s so important to get involved and to elect those officials that will listen to the small business community and to listen to [00:42:00] its citizens.

Eric Alspaugh: I agree. Are there any particular we’re through that political season by about a month now. We don’t have to talk about it for about a year before the or it’s, are we on a two year cycle with politics and elections in Southern California?

Julia Carlos: Yeah, I think so. I would say so. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We don’t have to hear the plugs for a couple of, for two years.

Eric Alspaugh: Okay. Great. Shameless

Julia Carlos: out there.

Eric Alspaugh: Oh man. Don’t get us started. Don’t get us started. So are there any groups or individuals you want to give a shout out to or make a plug for any local businesses or any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Julia Carlos: You know what? Just get out there. I know it’s so much easier buying on Amazon.
It’s convenient. But if you can get out to a local small [00:43:00] business, you’re greatly helping, not just enriching those lives of those owners or those employees but you’re enriching the lives of other people as well. You’re not buying a. A yacht or a vacation home for some rich CEO.

You’re like I said, it goes to another small business owner. So think about where you’re doing your holiday shopping. And if you can go to a small business and spend some money there, I will greatly benefit the community. And I just want to do a shout out to. To veteran services. I know that there’s Wounded Warrior Project and there’s so many out there and if you’re going to donate. Donate to your local church, donate to veterans who greatly need help during the holiday season. Put their, they, it’s the ultimate sacrifice, right? They put their lives on the [00:44:00] line for us.

And it’s just a small token of what we can do for them. But yeah give to your local church I know our church we have We donate to send the gospel out and just through the country this country and through other countries, too We want to see the advancement of the gospel.

Eric Alspaugh: Awesome. What give a shout out who’s What church are you attending and do they have a website or how would you like to? Let people know about you guys sharing the word.

Julia Carlos: So I, we attend Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo. And Focal Point could really. Use use the donations. You get every month you get a book that the pastor has picked out.
And it’s doctrinally sound, which is great, but this helps the, his radio ministry go out to [00:45:00] several different areas that may not have. Doctrinally sound churches, and we can advance the gospel through radio.

Eric Alspaugh: Awesome. Awesome. All right.

Julia Carlos: Focal point ministries.

Eric Alspaugh: Focal point ministry. Is that a group within compass Bible church in Aliso Viejo?
Okay.

Julia Carlos: Yes.

Eric Alspaugh: Love that as a shout out and hopefully the listeners will be able to participate, check them out and support your ministry. I love it.

Julia Carlos: Yeah.

Eric Alspaugh: Cool.
I thank you so much for your time. And if we get an opportunity, I’d like to. Circle back and find out more about your business coaching and how that works synergistically with the tax summit tax and accounting and give our entrepreneurs some practical tips and encourage them to get out of the garage and [00:46:00] take that leap of faith.

Julia Carlos: And I just want to finish by saying that there’s so many People that would make such great entrepreneurs and there’s a fear 30 percent of entrepreneurs have ADHD and this is a statistic that’s, it’s pretty widely out there. There’s a lot of entrepreneurs who are dyslexic. And if you think that you can’t run a business or start a business or be an effective leader, because.
If you think that there’s something wrong with you, don’t let that hinder you. Just go for it.

Eric Alspaugh: I completely concur with that. That’s very encouraging. And I think our listeners will appreciate that. And what’s the best way for people to get in touch with you if they need some of your services or want to follow up with some questions?

Julia Carlos: All right. We have a website. We will be revamp, [00:47:00] revamping it here, but all our contact information is on that website and it’s westernpremiercoaching.com.

Julia Carlos:  Okay. Andyou can reach out to me that way. I’m also at you can email me at JuliaCarlos714@gmail.com and yeah, I’d love to answer questions or just, talk to people who are starting up and if I can help and direct in any way possible, I’m there.

Eric Alspaugh: Awesome. Appreciate you being so active in the community and willing to share with my listeners. And I wish you all the best and hopefully see you and Renee soon.

Julia Carlos: Yeah, we’ll have to get him on too.

Eric Alspaugh: That’d be great.

Julia Carlos: All right.

Eric Alspaugh: Thank you. Thank you so much.

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