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Speaker 2: on them. Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of
Speaker 2: Mind the Business Small Business success Stories, a podcast brought
Speaker 2: to you by Into It QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2: I'm Janise Torres.
Speaker 1: And I'm Austin Hankwitz and this episode, we're talking to
Speaker 1: another awesome small business owner here in Tampa, Florida, and
Speaker 1: I can't wait to dig in.
Speaker 2: It has been so much fun getting to know my
Speaker 2: local small businesses and this episod eisode is no exception.
Speaker 2: We've got a very exciting topic to discuss today. We'll
Speaker 2: be talking to an incredible small business owner about something
Speaker 2: that Benjamin Franklin would call one of the only two
Speaker 2: things we can be certain about in this world.
Speaker 1: Well, Denis, if we were talking about death, that would
Speaker 1: be a very different podcast. So I'm assuming we'll be
Speaker 1: talking about taxes.
Speaker 2: Correct taxes, but not your everyday taxes. We're talking about
Speaker 2: how to manage and file your taxes as a small
Speaker 2: business owner as part two of our small Business Starter
Speaker 2: Kit miniseries. This episode, we're focusing on everything you need
Speaker 2: to know about understanding your taxes as a newly formed
Speaker 2: small business. It is not an easy subject to tackle,
Speaker 2: but it is a necessary one. Every small business owner
Speaker 2: has to be on top of it.
Speaker 1: And that's what's so great about into it QuickBooks. You
Speaker 1: have access to live tax experts on the platform who
Speaker 1: can help you organize your filings, maximize your deductions, and
Speaker 1: answer any questions you have about your taxes. But Denis,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear about some of the biggest lessons
Speaker 1: you've learned about filing taxes for your business.
Speaker 2: I would say it's definitely don't bury your head in
Speaker 2: the sand, Okay, your taxes are not going to magically
Speaker 2: go away just because you decide not to acknowledge that
Speaker 2: they are due, and it's something that you have to
Speaker 2: be diligent with. A great example for me is like
Speaker 2: I didn't even know about estimated taxes when I started
Speaker 2: as a small business owner, so I would get a
Speaker 2: nice big tax bill at the end of the year
Speaker 2: until I realized, oh, I actually have to be proactive
Speaker 2: about this and plan this out.
Speaker 3: So it's been quite the learning lesson, Austin, I'm right
Speaker 3: there with you.
Speaker 1: I think one of my biggest lessons is there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people out there that say you should have
Speaker 1: a zero dollar tax bill at the end of the year, right,
Speaker 1: And in my humble opinion, the only way that happens
Speaker 1: as a small business owner is if one you're not
Speaker 1: making any profit, which I don't know about, Eugenie, but
Speaker 1: I'm in business to make some profit. And then two
Speaker 1: if you are spending money and doing crazy deductions and
Speaker 1: amateurization all these like crazy tax strategies. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: people do that in a very great way. But in
Speaker 1: my experience, my biggest lesson throughout the last five years
Speaker 1: of filing taxes as a small business owner is it's
Speaker 1: okay to pay taxes because that means you made a profit. Right,
Speaker 1: And the money that's in your bank account after you
Speaker 1: pay those taxes is money you can do whatever you
Speaker 1: want with. And in my situation, I like to invest it,
Speaker 1: I like to spend it, and I like to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: So that's why we're in business for ourselves, right, so
Speaker 1: we can make money, pay some taxes on it, and
Speaker 1: then enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Speaker 2: That's a really good point, Austin. I recently bought a
Speaker 2: home as a self employed person, and so just understanding
Speaker 2: that those numbers matter. Right, If you're showing no profits
Speaker 2: on your tax returns, good luck getting mortgage. So it's
Speaker 2: not just about writing everything off and making sure you
Speaker 2: don't have any liability. You want to make sure that
Speaker 2: your numbers tell a story because that could directly affect
Speaker 2: the goals that you're able to.
Speaker 1: Hit one hundred percent, if it's getting a mortgage, getting
Speaker 1: business funding, or anything in between. I'm right there with
Speaker 1: you on that note. Let's introduce our small business guests
Speaker 1: for this episode.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Isabella Roussel is a proud Filipino American, a Navy veteran, spouse,
Speaker 2: and a mother of two. She's been an entrepreneur her
Speaker 2: whole life, selling candy off the back of her skateboard
Speaker 2: as a kid and running an unofficial uniform patch sewing
Speaker 2: business for members of the Armed Services while her husband
Speaker 2: was stationed overseas. Shortly after her husband left the military,
Speaker 2: they moved to Florida, where Isabella worked for a financial
Speaker 2: services firm before branching out into another small business journey,
Speaker 2: a teahouse and wholesale tea shop called Tea Bowls and Desserts.
Speaker 2: The shop was a success, and she eventually sold it.
Speaker 2: After selling her tea business, Isabella was on the lookout
Speaker 2: for her next business venture. Her mother, a master distiller
Speaker 2: in the Philippines, mentioned to her over the phone that
Speaker 2: they were making a new brand of rum, and Isabella's
Speaker 2: first thought was that she was going to be the
Speaker 2: one to bring it to the United States. So she
Speaker 2: filed the necessary paperwork for an alcohol importer business, and
Speaker 2: Seventh Sky Ventures was born. The business is now boutique
Speaker 2: licensed importer and exporter of beer, wine, and spirits. Isabella
Speaker 2: champions the ideas of economic empowerment, civic responsibility, and sustainability
Speaker 2: in business and life. In twenty twenty two, she became
Speaker 2: the youngest woman in America to achieve the Certified Ramelier status.
Speaker 2: Shortly after that, she became the first woman and the
Speaker 2: first Filipina Master Ramelier, the highest professional designation in the
Speaker 2: rum industry. Isabella, Welcome to the show. So excited to
Speaker 2: be here in the offices of Seven Sky Ventures right
Speaker 2: here in downtown Tampa. Thank you for coming and we're
Speaker 2: glad to have you guys. So let's start off with
Speaker 2: the name Seventh Sky. That's such a cool name. How
Speaker 2: did you come up with that?
Speaker 4: Well, seventh Sky came from my kids. So I got
Speaker 4: two kids and both of them were July, so it's
Speaker 4: like seven to seven, all right. But the deeper layer
Speaker 4: to that is our second child. He has actually a twin,
Speaker 4: but he didn't make it, so that where that's where
Speaker 4: the sky came from. So it's July in the sky.
Speaker 4: And in fact I named him Alfred Sky. So that
Speaker 4: kind of like gives me a whole deeper meaning of like.
Speaker 3: Listen, I can't give up on this. This is the baby.
Speaker 2: It's a starting the legacy right from the beginning. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: that's incredible. So this whole venture into the alcohol industry
Speaker 2: is not a fluke. I would say you have a
Speaker 2: whole family connection to this, Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am, And definitely not a whim that I can
Speaker 4: tell you. I'm a sugar baby. I was born and
Speaker 4: raised in a sugarcane farm in a distillery in the Philippines.
Speaker 4: And I mean that distillery has been around four decades,
Speaker 4: but my mom is still out there.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: She came out of retirement probably six seven times. And again,
Speaker 4: if it's in your blood, it's in your blood. And
Speaker 4: one day she told me they're finally going to create
Speaker 4: a bottle, own bottle of the rum that distillery is making.
Speaker 4: And in my head, I'm like, oh, man, you know
Speaker 4: who's the best person to tell the story of this bottle? Like,
Speaker 4: of course it's me. I was born and raised in
Speaker 4: this form. This was my whole childhood, my whole life.
Speaker 4: I don't have to bring out or hire a marketing
Speaker 4: person to write my spiels.
Speaker 3: I already know this is me. This is my childhood.
Speaker 4: So that's part the whole idea of the import and
Speaker 4: export thinking that I can actually bring that bottle over
Speaker 4: here and expand them in the US market.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. I love the fact that you have a
Speaker 2: connection to the rum industry being from the Philippines. My
Speaker 2: family's from Puerto Rico. We're famous for that too, So
Speaker 2: it's like, even though we're from different parts of the world,
Speaker 2: there's so much commonality, which is really cool.
Speaker 1: You are certainly no stranger to entrepreneurship. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us more about the first time you went into business
Speaker 1: for yourself and how those businesses have evolved over time.
Speaker 4: My first self project in the US was when we
Speaker 4: were deployed in Italy.
Speaker 3: We were living there for three years.
Speaker 4: We lived on base and there's definitely not many Americans
Speaker 4: speaking vendors or services.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I told my husband, I was bored out of my mind.
Speaker 4: I can't find the work over here. It's just not
Speaker 4: working out. What am I gonna do? And he's like, well,
Speaker 4: you do what you do, I'll support you. I started thinking,
Speaker 4: I'm like, in the military, you get ranking up almost
Speaker 4: every quarter, if not every quarter, and they got to
Speaker 4: change all these patches in their uniforms. We're talking about
Speaker 4: at least five patches in each of your uniform okay,
Speaker 4: from all the arrows and the hats. I'm like, you
Speaker 4: know what, let me do that five dollars per patch
Speaker 4: is apparently the going rate over there. So this one
Speaker 4: was like I just posted it in the military spouse community,
Speaker 4: you know, and in that group, and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm doing patch changing and They're like, oh, okay, let
Speaker 4: me go with you, lo and behold man, I was
Speaker 4: making cash, like just imagine, one uniform is twenty bucks,
Speaker 4: to the point where my husband's like, yo, it's seven o'clock,
Speaker 4: why are they still ringing the door? But I was like,
Speaker 4: you gotta forgive them. They just got out of work,
Speaker 4: like there's no way for them to bring their uniforms.
Speaker 4: And that service expanded to the wives because of the
Speaker 4: Chief Ball the Gallas, and they would have dresses delivered
Speaker 4: from the US. The moment it went to Italy, it's
Speaker 4: two weeks after they gained a little weight or they
Speaker 4: lost more weight, like.
Speaker 3: Can you let this in? Can you take it out?
Speaker 3: Can you put a button over here?
Speaker 4: Can you sue this little And I was registered on
Speaker 4: base with the legal office and it was called Mississpia
Speaker 4: by Isabella.
Speaker 3: That's so cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have it in your blood, that's what it
Speaker 2: sounds like. You have entrepreneurship in your blood. This was
Speaker 2: your destiny, yep, I can't run away from it.
Speaker 1: And then after that, you of course opened Drone t shop.
Speaker 1: Here in the States, we.
Speaker 3: Came up with a tea shop.
Speaker 4: It's called Teebows and Desserts, right after my husband got
Speaker 4: out of the military, and at that time, this was
Speaker 4: around twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, and we love.
Speaker 3: Milt Teese and Bobas. Nobody in the.
Speaker 4: Area was doing you brew as you order, no using
Speaker 4: of powders. We're actually using real milk. We're making bulbus
Speaker 4: on the spot. So that kind of like sparked the
Speaker 4: whole idea, and then it came to the transition point
Speaker 4: of me. You know, man, I don't think really corporate
Speaker 4: world is not for me, and that timing just came
Speaker 4: together and we actually want best tea with best of
Speaker 4: Tampa Bay and we beat our biggest competitor at that
Speaker 4: point in our first year.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing. Entrepreneurship is such a fun discovery process
Speaker 2: of just figuring out, like, what are those things I'm
Speaker 2: curious about, and then how do I make money?
Speaker 3: Join us? And we sold right before COVID. That's probably
Speaker 3: a good move.
Speaker 4: I can imagine crazily enough. From that experience is when
Speaker 4: I learned that whenever you start a business, you also
Speaker 4: want to start your exit strategy, even if you're not
Speaker 4: trying to exit. I'm like, this is how you sell
Speaker 4: a business. You sell it like a handbook. Here's what
Speaker 4: you're buying from me, here's your color scheme. It's franchise ready.
Speaker 1: So you actually have a lot of experience with taxes
Speaker 1: before you got into your entrepreneurial journey. So can you
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about your career in the
Speaker 1: financial sector.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 4: Right after I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in
Speaker 4: a trial science in the Philippines, I started working with
Speaker 4: JP Morgan Chase and the Philippines servicing the US, and
Speaker 4: then I married my husband military you know how that's
Speaker 4: going to go.
Speaker 3: You get to move around and whatnot.
Speaker 4: And then at the end of the tour where we
Speaker 4: were like, okay, where are we going to move, we
Speaker 4: moved to Tampa and luckily, lo and behold, I started
Speaker 4: working for PWUC here in Tampa.
Speaker 3: Pricewaterhouse Cooper's first.
Speaker 4: Project was handling employee tax credits, and then I got
Speaker 4: moved to a different project and ended my career there handling.
Speaker 2: Stayed in local taxes and corporate taxes. You know, one
Speaker 2: of the funny things that I've heard from a lot
Speaker 2: of folks who've gone from finance to entrepreneurship is how
Speaker 2: unprepared they felt when it comes to managing their finances,
Speaker 2: because when you're doing corporate taxes, you're not necessarily having
Speaker 2: the same experience you can translate, especially from a personal
Speaker 2: finance perspective to your business. So can you tell me
Speaker 2: where you identified some gaps in your financial knowledge once
Speaker 2: you decided to go your own way?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you start thinking about your longer term of
Speaker 4: now you're personal, Right, what's your household income? How do
Speaker 4: you take advantage of your household income? And truly, they
Speaker 4: don't really teach you that much, even in school and
Speaker 4: in the office. Right, even if I was preparing, I
Speaker 4: don't know hundreds of tax documents every year. It doesn't
Speaker 4: dawn on me to lie, Okay, this is how I
Speaker 4: should do it in my own until I was actually
Speaker 4: the one in the business figuring out, Okay, how should
Speaker 4: I file it? What kind of corporation should I do it?
Speaker 4: What kind of entity should I do it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, most of the time we kind of have to
Speaker 2: learn by the school of hard knocks, right. I can
Speaker 2: imagine that in a very highly regulated industry like the
Speaker 2: alcohol industry, it's even more important for you to have
Speaker 2: your paperwork together. What tools are you using to make
Speaker 2: sure that your books are clean and that you have
Speaker 2: all the information that you need?
Speaker 4: Yes, for sure, and definitely I've been using into it
Speaker 4: for quite some time for my other ventures as well.
Speaker 4: I've been using it and maintaining the books, not just
Speaker 4: for financing books, but we had a lot of books
Speaker 4: to maintain from inventory, the movement of in and out
Speaker 4: of your stocks. I mean, that's what the state looks for.
Speaker 4: In fact, I just had two inspections last week and
Speaker 4: one was yesterday. They inspect every single license that we
Speaker 4: have on the alcohol industry. Every alcohol beverage percentage you
Speaker 4: see in that bottle is equal to a different tax value.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yes, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: That sounds such a daunting thing to be able to
Speaker 2: maintain track of, you know, I can imagine that takes
Speaker 2: a big burden off of you, just knowing that all
Speaker 2: those systems are kind of working in the background and
Speaker 2: you don't have to be manually tracking this stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am, you have had white the journey going from
Speaker 1: industry to industry. How does tax season look different today
Speaker 1: than it did when you worked back then?
Speaker 4: No overtimes, that's one. I don't have to be going
Speaker 4: crazy for work for overtime. We had established, at least
Speaker 4: in my household a timeline. We already started figuring out
Speaker 4: all the books, so apart from Seven Sky Ventures, I
Speaker 4: also have a different entity from there, separate least, so
Speaker 4: I should be able to manage all of these things
Speaker 4: in come January. Second week of January, you know when
Speaker 4: paperwork from a third party comes through. I'm ready for
Speaker 4: my accountant before February first. And I've never had to
Speaker 4: filate ever. Almost ten years that we've been in here,
Speaker 4: doing business or without business, we've never had to filate.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So it seems like there's a lot more
Speaker 1: predictability with what you're doing now, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: more structure in the processes that you've put in place.
Speaker 1: You've gone from running sort of this tea shop and
Speaker 1: now you're doing the Seven Sky Ventures. What are some
Speaker 1: of the biggest surprises that you've experienced today that maybe
Speaker 1: just we're not happening back then.
Speaker 4: The biggest surprise is to me, I'm like, how am
Speaker 4: I able to generate this much with not having fifteen
Speaker 4: people in the payroll?
Speaker 3: That's one because you know how it is with the storefront.
Speaker 4: If you have five full time people, you got to
Speaker 4: have seven more in the back end for a part
Speaker 4: time if you don't want to be working yourself at
Speaker 4: the front.
Speaker 3: That's just how it's going to go.
Speaker 4: But in my industry, I started as an importer, an exporter,
Speaker 4: not even with a distribution. That service alone is not
Speaker 4: forcing me to have fifteen ten five people on a
Speaker 4: full time basis and we still get the same amount
Speaker 4: of revenue at the same time. Again, it just depends
Speaker 4: on how many clients you got, but the effort, there's
Speaker 4: more juice that's coming out versus me being in a
Speaker 4: store working sixty hour weeks.
Speaker 3: So that's definitely a big difference.
Speaker 1: And what about the biggest similarities.
Speaker 3: If a client.
Speaker 4: Loves you or a customer loves you is always the
Speaker 4: five star. But if they will hate you, they will
Speaker 4: just hate you everywhere Google, I don't know, yell you
Speaker 4: know how those feedback will go right and it will
Speaker 4: sting you. So to me, it's like a small client
Speaker 4: or big client, small business, big business, small brand, big brands.
Speaker 4: Every business problem is always the same. That's definitely a
Speaker 4: similar problem, and that's one of the biggest reasons why
Speaker 4: I added a distribution channel.
Speaker 3: I thought, I'm not, you know, going to see.
Speaker 4: This problem anymore, But it's it's the same problem, different version.
Speaker 2: Coming up on Mine the business small business success stories.
Speaker 4: If that worksheet folder has been organized from the beginning,
Speaker 4: there should be no reason for you to.
Speaker 3: Worry about if you get audited. The best preparation really
Speaker 3: is to be able to.
Speaker 4: File your current tax years properly, so you don't have
Speaker 4: to worry about what's coming or what has been passed.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back. Welcome back to Mind the Business.
Speaker 1: There seems to be so many more layers to what
Speaker 1: you're doing today is from a tax perspective than what
Speaker 1: you were doing before. Who taught you those layers? Were
Speaker 1: you sitting down with accountants and CPAs and learning from them?
Speaker 1: How did you become so articulate in this industry's tax landscape.
Speaker 4: It just stemmed out from what I had learned in general,
Speaker 4: lots of studying, self thought, and a combination of me
Speaker 4: asking the right people like going straight to the state,
Speaker 4: you know, going straight to the source of truth.
Speaker 3: How is this done? Is this the right way to
Speaker 3: do it? Can I do this? Can I do that?
Speaker 4: I'm not risking, you know, the question to a third
Speaker 4: party that may or may not tell me the right
Speaker 4: thing based on their experience.
Speaker 3: You'll never know that.
Speaker 4: So I just go straight to the source, and if
Speaker 4: they tell me this is how you're going to do it,
Speaker 4: they give me links on what I should be reading
Speaker 4: on a Florida statutes.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. You can become a lawyer overnight.
Speaker 1: I love that answer.
Speaker 2: I love that you mentioned reaching out to the source
Speaker 2: of truth right of like not being afraid of the
Speaker 2: government entities because they are literally there to help you
Speaker 2: be successful as an entrepreneur. I had to do that too.
Speaker 2: When I was starting my business here in Florida. I
Speaker 2: got to notice that I had to file sales tax
Speaker 2: and I was like what. So I called them up
Speaker 2: and they're like, wait a minute, what do you do?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I sell online education programs. And
Speaker 2: then they were like, you don't need to file sales tax.
Speaker 2: So I could have just been going through the motions
Speaker 2: of being anxious or preparing for stuff that wasn't even
Speaker 2: necessary just by not asking the question. So I think
Speaker 2: it's a good reminder when in doubt reach out. Okay,
Speaker 2: so navigating state level taxes is one thing, but you
Speaker 2: also have to deal with the lovely folks the federal government.
Speaker 2: So what are your strategies for making sure that you're
Speaker 2: handling both and that you have the information that you
Speaker 2: need to make sure you're on time for both of those?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so definitely one.
Speaker 4: Making sure that timeline is pasted anywhere that you know
Speaker 4: it's going to stick to you, whether it's in your
Speaker 4: fridge or in your phone. I don't care as long
Speaker 4: as we know these are the go dates, like and
Speaker 4: go dates meaning we're not just talking about the actual
Speaker 4: deadline right, go dates meaning I need this part of
Speaker 4: the thing today, I need this part of the thing
Speaker 4: in two weeks, and we got to stick to it.
Speaker 4: A dan Forday, A lot of people do processes, but
Speaker 4: the problem becomes how do you implement, do you follow?
Speaker 3: Do you stick to it?
Speaker 4: So far, if that system is not broken, it's been
Speaker 4: working for me and for my family for the past
Speaker 4: I don't know ten years. It will stay that way.
Speaker 4: But following the process is key for me.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you do proactively as a business
Speaker 1: owner to just be prepared for a federal audit in
Speaker 1: the event that one does happen, Yes, for sure.
Speaker 4: And it's about the similar way that you know organizing
Speaker 4: a folders right because at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: if you had submitted your annual tax for example, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty taxes, if that worksheet folder has been organized from
Speaker 4: the beginning, there should be no reason for you to
Speaker 4: worry about if you get audited. Right, maybe if it's
Speaker 4: already a couple of years back. All you need to
Speaker 4: prepare for is make sure you know.
Speaker 3: Where you kept it.
Speaker 4: That's the biggest problem I have with my husband, like
Speaker 4: where's my twenty twenty two taxes? Like yo, I gave
Speaker 4: you copies of everything, links to everything. So the best
Speaker 4: preparation really is to be able to file your current
Speaker 4: tax years properly so you don't have to worry about
Speaker 4: what's coming or what has been passed.
Speaker 2: So taxes can obviously vary in complexity based on the
Speaker 2: industry you're in, the state that you're operating in, but
Speaker 2: there are also benefits taxes, like tax breaks. So what
Speaker 2: have you discovered as far as tax breaks that you've
Speaker 2: been able to take advantage of in your business?
Speaker 4: So what are the biggest tax breaks that not many
Speaker 4: are utilizing, at least in my industry? Is the trade treaties,
Speaker 4: for example, is the US Mexico Canada treaty? Right, there
Speaker 4: is an existing agreement out there about what you ship,
Speaker 4: what do you cross in the border, what are the
Speaker 4: taxes and whatnots that you benefit from, And it usually
Speaker 4: comes out on those kinds of transactions like a country
Speaker 4: to country based tax breaks. We also now have a
Speaker 4: rental and that also like adds another layer to your
Speaker 4: personal taxes as a whole. So definitely read up on
Speaker 4: even the weirdest places like who knew about US Mexico
Speaker 4: and Canada trade agreement?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I think it's important to take
Speaker 2: advantage of these systems because they exist, right, So I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people are probably intimidated. They don't
Speaker 2: want to quote unquote do their taxes wrong. And this
Speaker 2: is why it's important not only to work with a
Speaker 2: great system like into a quick books, but also tax professionals.
Speaker 2: The tax code in this country is one of the
Speaker 2: most complicated in the world. So like, why would you
Speaker 2: want a DIY this when you could potentially be losing
Speaker 2: out on thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars
Speaker 2: of tax breaks just because you don't know what is
Speaker 2: actually allowed. I remember having a mind blowing conversation with
Speaker 2: my CPA where I work from home, so I get
Speaker 2: a home office deduction. But then they introduced me to
Speaker 2: the benefits of ANES Corp. And the fact that I
Speaker 2: could write off a part of my landscaping and my
Speaker 2: home maintenance and my bills. I'm like, what, you know,
Speaker 2: if more people knew this, more people would probably be
Speaker 2: incentivized to maybe not even start a full time business.
Speaker 2: But you can take advantage of these things as a
Speaker 2: side hustler too. You know, something interesting that I found
Speaker 2: out from the IRS recently is because of all of
Speaker 2: the small businesses that were affected because of the recent
Speaker 2: hurricanes here in Florida, they've actually extended the filing date
Speaker 2: by two weeks. So if you've been directly impacted by
Speaker 2: Hurricane Milton Helene, make sure that you are staying updated
Speaker 2: on any kind of accommodations that the IRS is making,
Speaker 2: because any little bit helps, especially when you're trying to navigate,
Speaker 2: restart your business, and then to think of like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I sound to find like taxes so that
Speaker 2: two weeks can make a big difference too.
Speaker 1: I have a funny feeling that you are a lifelong entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: So what is next for you beyond as we continue
Speaker 1: to scale your company.
Speaker 4: Company wise, I know we're on the growth phase. You know,
Speaker 4: I call it the exodus plan right now, Like we
Speaker 4: have a lot of our brands exiting their current places
Speaker 4: to actually move to us.
Speaker 3: It's the exodus project.
Speaker 4: But truly, for me on a deeper level as a person,
Speaker 4: like my next level is to make sure now that
Speaker 4: I have a nine year old, she has more sense
Speaker 4: to what's happening. I just want her to understand, like
Speaker 4: why sometimes I have to be home late, or why
Speaker 4: do I have to be staying up late at some night?
Speaker 4: Why am I talking in a different language sometimes? You know,
Speaker 4: why do I have to travel? If my kids would.
Speaker 3: Understand why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: That to me is the biggest thing that's so important. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because at the end of the day, we just got
Speaker 4: to be real about it. Right. Sometimes you can be
Speaker 4: very successful at business, but there's always a part of
Speaker 4: your life that's suffering, and for the most part is
Speaker 4: your family or your personal life. And I'm just very
Speaker 4: fortunate that I have a husband, you know, who's like
Speaker 4: five hundred percent supportive about what we're doing and he accepts.
Speaker 4: I guess this whole personality that this is may I'm
Speaker 4: made for this. We've tried something else it didn't work,
Speaker 4: so that to me is my next step making sure
Speaker 4: the family, the kids are out there.
Speaker 1: So you're also a master romolier, which is a huge accomplishment.
Speaker 1: Your family is in the run business. It is in
Speaker 1: your blood, just like you said. So I have to
Speaker 1: ask you what may be the most important question of
Speaker 1: the interview, what's your favorite style of rum and what's
Speaker 1: your favorite rum cocktail to enjoy? And you can't say
Speaker 1: Rob and Coke.
Speaker 3: Definitely not rom and coke.
Speaker 4: When I got into this industry, going through that course
Speaker 4: of being a master romia, we're supposed to taste and
Speaker 4: grade like hundreds, you know, we're talking about hundreds and
Speaker 4: distillery visits.
Speaker 3: So I just started to learn how.
Speaker 4: To enjoy my just like how it is neat, like
Speaker 4: sometimes with ice, sometimes without ice, but I just like
Speaker 4: it that way. And if you ask me for a cocktail. Definitely,
Speaker 4: an old fashioned is proper. But I mean you can't
Speaker 4: put it, you know, in your tea or anywhere else.
Speaker 4: Rum is rum.
Speaker 3: I'm partial to pina coladas. Place give me a pina
Speaker 3: colada or in your smoothies.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I've had a little r and D with one of
Speaker 4: the smoothie shops over here and we made a good
Speaker 4: pina kolado with their pineapple coconut smoothie added white rum,
Speaker 4: and there was like, if this could get me dried
Speaker 4: your summer drink.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, Isabella, this has been a fascinating conversation. I'm
Speaker 2: so intrigued by the background story of Seven Sky Ventures.
Speaker 2: I love your family connection to the industry. I love
Speaker 2: that your family's involved, and I have a feeling this
Speaker 2: is gonna be something that stands the test of time.
Speaker 3: So good luck to you and.
Speaker 2: The team, and I'm really looking forward to trying to
Speaker 2: cocktail once I'm not pregnant anymore.
Speaker 1: What an awesome addition, Jennie's to our small business Startukit
Speaker 1: miniseries that we're doing here on the show, Isabella was wonderful.
Speaker 1: What was some of your biggest takeaways from our conversation.
Speaker 2: You know, I really loved how she emphasized that you
Speaker 2: don't have to navigate this alone. It's a good reminder
Speaker 2: that into it QuickBooks has built in support, and it's
Speaker 2: also a good idea to take a look at your
Speaker 2: local resources just to figure out what you need to
Speaker 2: be doing from a tax liability perspective. It does not
Speaker 2: need to be intimidating to be a business owner and
Speaker 2: to deal with your taxes. But knowledge is power, and
Speaker 2: having that extra support I think is also really powerful.
Speaker 3: How about you, Austin, I totally agree.
Speaker 1: I think this idea of organization and processes everything that
Speaker 1: she had mentioned. As it relates to the timelines, right,
Speaker 1: she said that, hey, November December, we are expected to
Speaker 1: do ABC XYZ. In January, we're sitting down for three
Speaker 1: days and we're executing upon some of this organization. I mean,
Speaker 1: just having those timelines in place and those strategies I
Speaker 1: think is so important because as small business owners, we
Speaker 1: have so many things to do, so many things on
Speaker 1: our mind. We want to grow, we want to maintain,
Speaker 1: we have to do taxes. It just gets very overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and having that structure I think is really really important.
Speaker 2: I know I needed this episode when I was first
Speaker 2: starting out as a business owner, so I hope that
Speaker 2: y'all enjoyed this. You can find me on social media
Speaker 2: at Jociero Dineto podcast.
Speaker 1: And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
Speaker 1: follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 1: To get the tools you need to start, run, and
Speaker 1: grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today. While
Speaker 1: you're there, check out the latest blog post to learn
Speaker 1: more insights about managing a business.
Speaker 2: And don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen
Speaker 2: to podcasts so you can stay up to date on
Speaker 2: future episodes.
Speaker 1: We also want to hear from you, so be sure
Speaker 1: to leave us a rating and a review.
Speaker 3: See you later.
Speaker 2: Nothing in this episode constitutes tax advice. This podcast is
Speaker 2: a production of iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Molly Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Speaker 2: Nikiyah Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 1: Our head of Push Production is James Foster, and our
Speaker 1: mixing engineer is Paul Vitrulen's of Audiography