Essential Tax Tips for Photographers with Tiffany Bastian

Episode 128: Essential Tax Tips for Photographers with Tiffany Bastian

Shownotes: ConservationVisuals.com/128

(Digitally transcribed, please forgive any typos)
[00:00:00] Jaymi Heimbuch: Welcome to this episode of Impact, the Conservation Photography podcast, and we have a guest that I'm super excited about because we're gonna nerd out on numbers, which I love to nerd out on. We have Tiffany Baston from Bastion Accounting for photographers with us today to dig into everything that we need to know as conservation photographers when it comes to finances, and preparing our business for tax season and all kinds of cool stuff.

[00:00:29] Jaymi Heimbuch: That is sort of, you know, the more business end of what we do out in the field with our cameras. So, Tiffany,

[00:00:37] Tiffany Bastian: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. I love this stuff.

[00:00:40] Jaymi Heimbuch: Wonderful. Well, so Tiffany, the first question that I have for you is one that I ask all my guests, and that is for anyone who doesn't know you yet, who is Tiffany in the world.

[00:00:51] Tiffany Bastian: Well I, so I'm Tiffany Baston. I am the owner of Baston Accounting for photographers, as you just said. And really what we do is we serve photographers directly. [00:01:00] I, I have created a job for myself that doesn't exist, I guess, anywhere else in the world. And that is this idea of being able to help photographers not only understand their bookkeeping and taxes, but start to be proactive.

[00:01:10] Tiffany Bastian: Like that's my mission, right? I wanna take everyone from reactive to proactive. Truly believe, , it's like the Teach Amanda Fish thing. If you can show people how to do this stuff and then it's not hard, it doesn't become so anxiety driven. And at some point, yeah, you wanna have somebody else handle it for you, but you feel confident in what's going on, right?

[00:01:25] Tiffany Bastian: So I just, I, I love that stuff. What else can I tell you? I'm, I'm a mom, I'm a dog mom. I've been married for 23 amazing years. I live in Buffalo, New York, where I don't know what's going on cuz we keep having like summer and then snow, but, you know but yeah, I just, I feel like I bring a different energy to the entire idea of taxes and accounting. I hope because I know it's not sexy and it's also , it's, it's almost meant to make you feel stupid or just so totally unsure.

[00:01:52] Tiffany Bastian: I feel like every paragraph of tax code makes you totally doubt what you just read in the one prior to that. So I'm kind of here to like break it down and help people understand that, [00:02:00] because unfortunately, it's like something we have to do, right? It's like a necessary evil to say, maybe it's not evil, but I wanna help people keep more of what they make.

[00:02:08] Tiffany Bastian: Right? And you can't do that. I always say, you can't play the game if you don't know the rules. So I'm here, I've got the rule book. I understand. I'm gonna translate it for you. That's what I do.

[00:02:17] Jaymi Heimbuch: Excellent. Excellent. Well, I will say you definitely bring a different energy to the whole game, and I knew it basically from the instant that I saw you, because I saw a photo of one of your, your branding shoes for your website with a t-shirt that I instantly sent to Joe because Joe is my bookkeeper slash regular on the show, sort of like a sidekick on the show who does all of my numbers for me, and that t-shirt is Lady in the Streets freaking the spreadsheets, and I love that t-shirt.

[00:02:46] Jaymi Heimbuch: And I've never seen another accountant wearing anything

[00:02:49] Jaymi Heimbuch: remotely

[00:02:49] Tiffany Bastian: so many comments on that. People'll like, does your shirt say? I'm like, yeah, it does. But no, it's, and like that represents my fun nature because I mean, [00:03:00] you gotta do this stuff anyway, so you might as well make it somewhat fun and entertaining, I suppose.

[00:03:03] Jaymi Heimbuch: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and a lot of my listeners are folks who are doing this, some listeners are doing this as a full-time career,

[00:03:13] Jaymi Heimbuch: but a lot of my listeners are doing conservation photography as a hobby or as a side hustle in addition to a regular full-time job. And so what I would love to dive into right away is, as you are working with photographers, is there a big difference in how you track your numbers or what you need to pay attention to if you're working on photography as a hobby or a side hustle versus if it's your full-time job?

[00:03:37] Tiffany Bastian: I mean, not really, so hobby, you know, hobby is kind of a, it is a really, there is an iris term for hobby and it's essentially like if you have a business loss, three of five years, like three, I think it's three consecutive years of five years.

[00:03:49] Tiffany Bastian: If you're filing as a business and they're saying that you're not making money, you're not profiting, they will send you a letter and kind of be like, Hey, this is a hobby. You can't deduct these expenses anymore. And essentially you [00:04:00] just have to prove like, I'm trying to make a profit and maybe not, you know, you're still growing cuz that can be the case.

[00:04:04] Tiffany Bastian: So I feel like if it's a hobby, you're not taking money for it, but if you were taking money for it, it's not really a hobby anymore. Right. Cuz the IRS wants every penny, right? So the second you take a penny from someone , the IRS wants some too . And that's even a big deal with like sole proprietorship and stuff. A lot of people will think, oh, well I haven't registered well, but you've been doing weddings for, you know, two years.

[00:04:24] Tiffany Bastian: Well,

[00:04:25] Tiffany Bastian: You've been taking money that's earned income, unfortunately, to the irs. And it's just that that filing of anything official starts to put you on their radar. But you never know. You never know when they can come back, and then you've just got a big mess. Right? So I always, lean into it being a business, even if it's small, right?

[00:04:40] Tiffany Bastian: Cause the, you know, the more you make, the more they take. But the less you make, the less they take. And you're still doing the right thing that you, you need to be doing.

[00:04:47] Jaymi Heimbuch: Got it. So essentially, as long as you collect a paycheck of any form, you're not technically a hobby.

[00:04:53] Jaymi Heimbuch: That is

[00:04:53] Jaymi Heimbuch: a, business.

[00:04:54] Tiffany Bastian: yeah, you trade a service or a product for anything. This is kinda where you get lost in all because [00:05:00] something sort of picks up and you're like, whoa, I can do this, and this is fun and it builds.

[00:05:03] Tiffany Bastian: And then before you know, you're , this is the. What I gotta back it up, back it up, pick it up. It just, and especially the creative realm, see it all the time or, you know, people don't know it's gonna take, or that they're gonna be so passionate about it or that it can really turn into something.

[00:05:15] Tiffany Bastian: And so it's sort of just, you know, like being aware of that and, and even if you're listening to this and you're like thinking about it, just get a separate business bank account and just sort of start to act as if for yourself. Just so you make, it's, you're making it easy for future. You, future year is gonna, thank you for just starting a little organized in the beginning.

[00:05:33] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right. Okay. So cause I know that anyone who's listening to this who does not consider what they do as a business might be like, oh, okay, so now I really might need to pay attention to this. What does that look like? So let's say it's someone who, in the whole of 2022 has sold a couple of prints and maybe an image license, and they've made all of maybe $300. Even with that $300, when they file taxes, they're gonna need to claim that as income, but they [00:06:00] might not be saying, oh, but I've got all these photography expenses to deduct alongside of it. They might just say, okay, I just am gonna make sure that I let the IRS know that I made $200, $300 from photography and that's it.

[00:06:13] Jaymi Heimbuch: I can leave it at that. Is that right?

[00:06:15] Tiffany Bastian: You can, I mean, I would say I'm sure you have some kind of expenses that you can figure out which is gonna make you pay less in taxes.

[00:06:21] Tiffany Bastian: Um, whether it's mileage for going to things, like, there's all these things that I would say, if you can, if you can sort that out for yourself, you're gonna, you know, you could break even then it's just you're reporting it and then you're not gonna have to pay taxes on it.

[00:06:32] Tiffany Bastian: You've, you know, counting, mileage, home office adoption, all the things. I'm sure there's, and, and in that is perfect scenario. I'm sure we could find $300 in expenses so that you've reported it, you're compliant, but you also don't know money on it.

[00:06:42] Jaymi Heimbuch: Excellent. Okay, so for someone who is listening to this and being like, Ooh, well yes, I've made $300 this year, but I haven't kept track of anything. Where do they start?

[00:06:53] Tiffany Bastian: I'm gonna say you, you most likely have deposits, at least in a bank account. Hopefully, maybe. That's where I would say [00:07:00] the, the, the number one thing anyone can do to organize themselves regardless if they're gonna do this full-time, part-time, if they're gonna be an LLC or they're gonna, whatever, is a business bank account, just a separate business bank account.

[00:07:10] Tiffany Bastian: And I'll even go so far as to say, probably not a popular opinion with accountants, but even if it's a personal account, but it's just you're putting just your business stuff, right? Like this is all that's going through there. Just so I, you know, at the end of the year you have, you can pull that out into an Excel sheet and at least you know, here's what got deposited, here's what I spent money on, and then you can get ready for taxes.

[00:07:29] Tiffany Bastian: It is not ideal, but it is better than nothing. And then you have it there because what people don't realize is when they get audited, You have to figure out, you have to have all that proof, right? And so now you're like, that's where the panic comes, cuz now you're like, well I report all this on my taxes but I, I don't have all this stuff.

[00:07:44] Tiffany Bastian: So it kind of just keeps you organized and you know, ultimately I want clients to be like in QuickBooks and I want them to be organized and I want all their stuff streamlined. But at least you have that and you can pull that and you don't have to worry about it either.

[00:07:54] Tiffany Bastian: You'll know, you know, I'm put, this is all going through there so it's okay in December. I'll pull it all out and look at it if I need to. It's not ideal, but [00:08:00] at least you have that. And then I would even go on top of that to be also like just worrying about sales tax compliance, right? If you're doing any physical prints or any type of thing, you know, there's something to be said for, and a lot of sales tax laws are a little bit different when there's like a license involved and you're giving it to.

[00:08:17] Tiffany Bastian: So just to be aware of those things. And sales tax would be the thing that I feel like a lot of people are like, Taxes. Yeah, but what the heck is sales tax? Like a lot of people want tax in one big bucket and move on, and there is all these different taxes just to be aware of, and they don't all apply.

[00:08:32] Tiffany Bastian: But there's that confidence in knowing, okay, I understand that this applies to me, this doesn't. And like I can just take a breath, like I can move forward with confidence knowing that I'm doing all that. I know that I need to be doing

[00:08:43] Jaymi Heimbuch: Excellent. Excellent. So the steps also that you mentioned, just really simple steps.

[00:08:48] Jaymi Heimbuch: Go in and just grab the bank statement of the

[00:08:51] Jaymi Heimbuch: deposit that you've made for what income you've earned. Probably go through and look at a couple of expenses that, that were photography related, directly [00:09:00] related. And so that's all you really need.

[00:09:02] Jaymi Heimbuch: If you're going into 2023 and you know, okay, well I did make some money. I wanna make sure I claim it, I also don't wanna pay taxes on it. I know I have expenses against it. Pull bank statements. And then in 2023, you can open up that bank

[00:09:16] Jaymi Heimbuch: account and just

[00:09:17] Jaymi Heimbuch: start with that.

[00:09:18] Tiffany Bastian: Like some, yeah, beginning recognizance there, just kind of going back and getting those things, and I think that a lot of times too, even in my own life, you'll go start going through those things and you'll be surprised, like, oh, I guess I did have more. Like, you'll be surprised at what you find and think, oh yeah, then this was for the business.

[00:09:33] Tiffany Bastian: Oh yeah, this was too, oh yeah, I did this thing and then, so

[00:09:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: Perfect. Well, and also for anyone listening, we did an episode earlier, episode one 15 for five steps to turning your conservation Photography hobby into a profitable side hustle. So head back into episode one 15 as well to look at some other steps for kind of getting yourself organized for the year.

[00:09:57] Jaymi Heimbuch: Also, Tiffany, you mentioned sales tax [00:10:00] and you have a really great free guide for state by state sales tax. How do people get their hands on that?

[00:10:07] Tiffany Bastian: So you can just go to ba in accounting.com. And I actually think it's just slash sales tax, but it's right on the main page there. It's the, is the there's a listing there of our freebies. We have the business expense Breakdown guide, which talks about what's deductible and what's not. And then we have the Sales tax guide.

[00:10:22] Tiffany Bastian: That was my labor blog. That was a very, that actually came out on Christmas Eve the year before last. I was working on it, trying to get, and I was like, this is my Christmas gift to the world because I, we went through every single state. And what I could add in there that may affect some people listening to is the destination piece of sales tax.

[00:10:38] Tiffany Bastian: So we have that guide broken down. The top part is like when you are in, if you, let's say you live in California and you work in California and you're doing this in California, but maybe you get a project and somebody asks you to come to Nevada or something. If we leave the state, there's different rules that apply per state, and we have that now in the bottom section of each page.

[00:10:54] Tiffany Bastian: So you can kind of be like, oh, well let me go look at Nevada's destination sales tax laws. So you, cuz [00:11:00] there is a lot of travel in photography, I mean weddings and things, and I, I'm just a lot, especially in the last two years. So it's like, oh, we all need to be aware that when we go to somewhere else, it's not like we're running away from all the rules too.

[00:11:12] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right.

[00:11:13] Jaymi Heimbuch: So, okay. I can feel if I'm listening to this episode and I'm thinking, oh my God, sales talk, oh my God, travel. Ah, this feels really overwhelming. I just wanna hire someone to be able to do this for me. At what point in your photography work do you feel like you're earning enough to really justify hiring a cpa, an accountant to work with, to be able to help you at, at what point do we come to you and say, please do this for

[00:11:38] Tiffany Bastian: I think it depends, cuz you know, we, we'll get clients who are just starting out maybe barely making anything, but it's like that confidence for them to know like, okay, that part's set up. Now I can really focus on this business. But we also get like six and seven figure photographers coming who are like, oh my God, I've been in, I'm say this, but I've been an NAS corporation and I never did this thing and I didn't do that and I'm behind.

[00:11:58] Tiffany Bastian: You know? So it just [00:12:00] depends on where you are and what it's kind of like, honestly, it's like value, right? It's like what's value to you? Is that valuable to you to get that started up front? You know, I'm gonna obviously say you should always do it from the beginning, but the other part I, I think is important is like we educate our clients.

[00:12:13] Tiffany Bastian: Like I'm not just doing everything we are, we're always working with our clients and educating them on like, what you can deduct why you can't. Because the more you know, like the easier it is to just sift through in your mind. You're not like stressed out and constantly like, I need to ask my accountant.

[00:12:27] Tiffany Bastian: We want them to learn and know and like, that's my favorite part of all this is like, our courses isn't how we teach stuff because. It is a lot. It's a lot of stuff because it's not just, you know, this, it's like maybe you're just starting this business and it's equipment and it's like, okay, what do I do in marketing and then website and then, oh my God.

[00:12:46] Tiffany Bastian: And then there's this other thing and it's enough to probably make you wanna just like burn it all down and like change your mind and just go work for, you know, someone else. And, but it, it, but I wanna break it down because it's doable. It's just like anything, it's just getting people to, you know, see that [00:13:00] just like anything which can take baby steps.

[00:13:01] Tiffany Bastian: I just, I feel like, you know, it's like anything, I'm not a photographer. Okay. I have a lot of people ask if I am, I just love photography. I love, you know, capturing moments and stuff. And I love working with photographers. I love the way they think.

[00:13:12] Tiffany Bastian: But realizing in the way they think is that they're passionate about what they're doing and all this other stuff is sort of just piling up and then it becomes stressful and then it ruins their experience and it ruin and it sort of like bleeds into everything else they're trying to do in their business.

[00:13:24] Tiffany Bastian: And so, I don't know, I just, I feel like it's a, I kind of like to say like Marie Condo of bookkeeping, like, we're gonna bring joy and we're gonna, I don't know, I just, it feels like that. So, but I, I just want people and anyone listening, like it's not, it sounds like a lot, but there's steps you can take.

[00:13:42] Tiffany Bastian: IRS is not showing up your house and arresting you. They are sending you letters like a year and two years after the fact at this point. There's nothing to, there's no emergencies in accounting, right? There really isn't. It's just sometimes, like anything, it kinda gets worse before it gets better.

[00:13:54] Tiffany Bastian: You gotta pull everything out first before you can organize into where it needs to go. But it's doable and we do [00:14:00] it every day. It can be done. We walk people through doing it. So I guess I just wanna bring like this sense of zen. It is all doable. Like anything.

[00:14:08] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right. I think that that's a really big green flag for any cpa. I've been working with CPAs for the entire time that I've had my business

[00:14:16] Jaymi Heimbuch: and before photography, I had other businesses and, and I brought CPAs in because there's so many things that I don't know, I don't know.

[00:14:25] Jaymi Heimbuch: And I've had three CPAs in my career so far who I've adored every single

[00:14:31] Jaymi Heimbuch: one of 'em, because I always found CPAs who are looking through all of my information and saying, Hey, I noticed this.

[00:14:38] Jaymi Heimbuch: You might wanna think about these three things. Or, Hey, I noticed this over here. You might wanna think about doing this. And so they're finding all of this

[00:14:44] Tiffany Bastian: Because then you can focus on your

[00:14:46] Tiffany Bastian: business. Right. And you know, like someone's gonna, they're gonna alert me or they're gonna let me know. , it's so much more. And so I should tell, you know that I am not a cpa, though I am an ea, but

[00:14:55] Jaymi Heimbuch: Oh, what's.

[00:14:56] Tiffany Bastian: So, so a CPA takes a four part exam, which I was, I was going [00:15:00] down that road and then I was like, is this what I wanna do or am I just doing this?

[00:15:02] Tiffany Bastian: Cuz after you get your accounting, you know, master's degree, that's what you're supposed to do. Like, right? Like this whole world tells us all these steps we're supposed to take. And then an EA is through the irs. So I'm an enrolled agent. I'm not enrolled with them, I don't work with them. I don't get a cool badge cuz my husband was like, when do you get your cool badge?

[00:15:17] Tiffany Bastian: When I got my certificate, I'm like, yeah, I wish. But but basically an EA takes three part exam. It's business tax, personal tax, and. Ethics. So I, and I have to take continuing education, but I can do taxes and I can help clients in all states. So

[00:15:31] Tiffany Bastian: CPAs, a lot of people will, and it's true, a lot of people are like, well I need a CPA in my state.

[00:15:34] Tiffany Bastian: And you do, cuz CPAs have to be registered in the states they work in. But an EA is through the IRS on a federal level. So we do taxes. I can help with like tax letters and such, but, you know, CPA not this an amazing designation. It's a fe of strength in my opinion. But a lot of people will get the CPA to be like a CFO in a company or other things like that.

[00:15:53] Tiffany Bastian: It's, it's like an attorney. It's not necessarily like for one thing. And then you will find CPAs that specialize in tax, but not all of them do. And I think that's [00:16:00] also a misnomer. A lot of people think just cuz someone's a CPA and they know all the tax laws, it's not always the case. So you have to find someone who, first of all, that you know, specializes in that, but your industry knowing that.

[00:16:09] Tiffany Bastian: But even like, And like what you were just saying, like they're, they're keeping an eye, they're helping. And that is not always the case in, in any industry, right? I think it's a relationship that's super important and you're kind of asking when to hire, but I think it's a matter of like also what to ask.

[00:16:22] Tiffany Bastian: Like you need to feel good. Don't ever walk away feeling like, oh, they know more than me and I don't know. I want you to walk away feeling like, okay, this person's like gonna be like the ying to my yang. This is exactly what I need. Needs to feel like a, a good relationship. And I think a lot of people, CPA relationships don't feel like that.

[00:16:36] Tiffany Bastian: They kind of just go to someone cuz they're supposed to, and then they're sort of like, not sure. And I'm so glad to hear that you've had that relationship because I think that makes the stress of all of it a lot less.

[00:16:45] Tiffany Bastian: And you probably learn along the way because someone's actually taking care of you versus just checking the box and doing it, you

[00:16:50] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yeah. Well, so I'm really excited that you just clarified for me that you're an EA and I did not know

[00:16:57] Jaymi Heimbuch: that an enrolled agent existed.

[00:16:58] Tiffany Bastian: People just assume every [00:17:00] accountant is a cpa. Right.

[00:17:01] Tiffany Bastian: And it's just like, you know, we think that every attorney knows every law.

[00:17:04] Tiffany Bastian: And we're like, no, there's, there's divorce attorneys. Like if you're getting divorced, you're not gonna go hire a car accident attorney.

[00:17:10] Tiffany Bastian: so that's what you wanna find is that niche that aligns with yours. But yeah. It's, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome because it allows me to understand it's all tax only, only a small part of the CPA exam.

[00:17:19] Tiffany Bastian: There's four tests, one small part is tax, then a CPA has to sort of continue on with their tax education. If that's when you're specialized in, I have to do all tax. And then even on top of that, it's this idea that the last two or three years, the tax laws are changing like every 10 minutes.

[00:17:34] Tiffany Bastian: So how nice is it to have somebody to help you understand if that affects you or not

[00:17:38] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right, right. Oh man. Okay. So that

[00:17:40] Jaymi Heimbuch: was really, really interesting. So one thing that you said earlier that I wanna go back into a little bit more, because I think that it will make everything feel a lot

[00:17:48] Jaymi Heimbuch: more zen, a lot less stressful, is the concept of, especially when you're working with a CPA because, or an ea, because they're gonna want to be able to see all of your numbers and

[00:17:58] Jaymi Heimbuch: be able to have that organized. [00:18:00] It is the importance of having a business account or a separate account.

[00:18:04] Jaymi Heimbuch: That is specifically for your photography work. Even if you consider yourself a hobby that you're not taking this very seriously, but money is being exchanged. Having that completely separate from your personal account,

[00:18:16] Tiffany Bastian: it's kind of like having a separate place to. I don't know anything in your house, like, I'm gonna put food in the pantry. You're not just putting the food wherever. It's not like in the bedroom, under the bed. You know what I mean? If you think about it like that, I don't know why all of my analogies are like home organizing right now, but they are

[00:18:31] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yeah.

[00:18:32] Tiffany Bastian: thing.

[00:18:32] Tiffany Bastian: But no, it's true.

[00:18:34] Tiffany Bastian: It's just knowing it's all in one place. It's all, and, and, and being able to just go to the bank and have everything there, you have all the detail that you need to prove what you've.

[00:18:43] Tiffany Bastian: It just makes it so much easier. But just having that bank account, especially right now as we're getting into like next year, we're starting fresh. Like having it all in one account it's gonna save you so much time if you ever audit it. But also at tax time, you have what you need and it's like the beginning of the next steps to getting even more organized.

[00:18:59] Tiffany Bastian: You have it all in [00:19:00] one place and you know where it is

[00:19:02] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yes, so that's a great point. We are airing this episode in January. It's the start of 2023, and so one of the first things that you can do to make yourself feel really organized, even as we're going into tax

[00:19:15] Jaymi Heimbuch: season moving forward. So by the

[00:19:17] Jaymi Heimbuch: time you file taxes next year, one of the first things you can do to feel really organized right now is to open a separate checking account.

[00:19:23] Jaymi Heimbuch: Have all of that separate. What would be two other things that photographers can do right now, whether hobby, side hustle, full time to get themselves really organized going into a new year?

[00:19:35] Tiffany Bastian: I wanna add one thing you just made me think about to help with your point there, but if, so, if you have that separate bank account and you have your, you're depositing your income in there and your expenses come outta there, you kind of know your profit a little bit,

[00:19:46] Tiffany Bastian: right? Cause that's what the balance of the account is.

[00:19:48] Tiffany Bastian: And so that's, that's what you would pay taxes on so that, it kind of, sort of gives you, I mean, again, not the idealist, but gosh, what an easy step that you've got that, and you're not doing a whole lot, but you can kind of see, [00:20:00] okay, I've got a $400 profit or I'm at, you know, and, and, and the other thing I'd say is like, people.

[00:20:06] Tiffany Bastian: So surprised at how quickly it grows. They'll say, oh, I'm doing this. And then it grows so quickly. I have clients all the time. I'll be like, what do I do now? I had no idea I was gonna make this much money. You know? So it does, I think it does happen. It does. And it, it sneaks up on you. Two other things that you could do.

[00:20:18] Tiffany Bastian: I mean, you know, I'm, I'm all into the business growth piece of it because I just, I realize there's just so much we can do, and I, because I'm very passionate about doing what you love and making a living at it, and a lot of people. . And then what happens is they get stuck in that and they forget that, oh, I can also have a retirement plan.

[00:20:36] Tiffany Bastian: Even if it's a hobby, even if it's part-time, whatever money that you put into an IRA can be deducted. Certain IRA plans can be deducted. That's on your personal return. But also you're putting money in your future. It's not dollar for dollar, but wouldn't you rather put, you know, some money in your future than give it all to the IRS right now?

[00:20:52] Tiffany Bastian: Like it's just ways of like, how do you keep more of what you make, whether it's keeping it now or putting it in your future, it's still yours. And you know, [00:21:00] and I guess I, I guess it's kind of off topic a little bit, but there is that like little cheat code where you can actually start an ira. So we are in December, you're airing this in January.

[00:21:08] Tiffany Bastian: Certain IRA plans as a self-employed individual, you can contribute in them next year and count it for this year. Like if you find out that you grew and you're like, oh my God, I owe money. I'm speaking from experience. This is the only reason that Tiffany has an IRA plan.

[00:21:21] Tiffany Bastian: This has happened to me like eight years ago. I grew so quickly and I'm like, was I was able to take money from the current year, put it in an IRA for last year even. And you can do that all the way up until you file your tax return. So you have one move left after 1231. So it's important people know that and they have a financial advisor or anyone or did they find out about that cuz that that does save you when you grow too quickly?

[00:21:41] Jaymi Heimbuch: So let me let me just make sure that I understand this fully. So, as you are growing

[00:21:46] Jaymi Heimbuch: in, like let's say in 2022, you figured out that you actually made a little more money than you

[00:21:51] Jaymi Heimbuch: thought you were gonna make. Once you're really paying attention to this now it is early 2023, you're getting ready for tax time.

[00:21:57] Jaymi Heimbuch: You realize that you made more money than you thought. [00:22:00] So you can actually put some of the money that you're earning now in 2023 into an account that you can put toward your retirement fund, and it counts toward the 2022,

[00:22:11] Jaymi Heimbuch: like last year's

[00:22:12] Jaymi Heimbuch: retirement. So you

[00:22:13] Tiffany Bastian: So then you can get that deduction to lower, again, to kind of bring down that income you didn't expect.

[00:22:18] Jaymi Heimbuch: that's

[00:22:19] Jaymi Heimbuch: Brilliant.

[00:22:19] Tiffany Bastian: that is literally what happened to me. And, and if I'm being completely transparent,, I'd rather put some of this in my future and structure this properly now instead of just hand it to the IRS and I don't get anything for it.

[00:22:28] Jaymi Heimbuch: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:29] Jaymi Heimbuch: Mm-hmm. . so,

[00:22:29] Jaymi Heimbuch: that's really interesting. So one thing is open up that separate checking account, and two, really start to think about funding retirement with some of the money that you're making, because that means that you don't have to hand it over to the irs, or at least not as much over to the

[00:22:45] Jaymi Heimbuch: irs, and you can start saving that for your future.

[00:22:48] Jaymi Heimbuch: Love

[00:22:49] Tiffany Bastian: right. Yeah. Cuz it's the biggest thing is I think that we get out of the cubicle, we get into our own thing and then we forget. Like we can have those things too. You know, there's all we can have ins, health insurance, all [00:23:00] those things are possible. And I just think it's like we get, you know, into that making ends meet and we're like, oh cool, I'm able to do this and I make a living at it.

[00:23:06] Tiffany Bastian: And we just, we just kind of stay in that circle. But there's so much more, I always kind of say, you can turn your business into the vehicle that fuels the life you wanna live. And it doesn't mean you wanna be a millionaire. Cuz that's not it. I don't, I think success means something to everybody, everybody differently.

[00:23:18] Tiffany Bastian: But whatever that is, the business can sort of be the vehicle to get you there. If you do it properly and you use it, it's, it's a tool more than anything. And I think sometimes it feels more like a, a burden because we don't understand those parts. But it's, it can be a tool so,

[00:23:31] Jaymi Heimbuch: So one thing I do wanna ask you about is, so a lot of my listeners are folks who already have a job with an

[00:23:38] Jaymi Heimbuch: employer, and conservation photography is something that they do as passion work. It might be a side hustle or a hobby. And so I wanna ask you if you already have a 401k, or you already have an IRA with your employer.

[00:23:51] Jaymi Heimbuch: And so that's already set up. Tell us a little bit about SEP IRAs that you might be able to be contributing to through

[00:23:58] Jaymi Heimbuch: your side

[00:23:59] Tiffany Bastian: I know a [00:24:00] little bit, and I'm not, I know enough to be dangerous. I have a guy for this, but there's a SEP IRA and a simple ira, and I actually think that you can do a a self-directed four. There's a certain kind of solo 401K you can do, and obviously you can do these separate of those things.

[00:24:12] Tiffany Bastian: You can have those things and, and also if you leave that employer and decide to make this, you can roll those into these things too, which I did. So once you make this full time, if that's something you're gonna do but there's, there's a couple differences in them. You can put a lot more into them because you're self-employed and the IRS wants you to save for retirement and such, but you know, savings in general, people say, I'll put $10 into account and you know, for how long? And it seems like something such a big task right now. But then it grows little by little, little becomes a lot. So if this is something maybe too you're doing as like a passion thing and maybe it's not the income you're after, maybe you just create this for that future self.

[00:24:45] Tiffany Bastian: Like what if that money is all, you just do it to a point. So this is all paying into retirement for you. So later on, you know,

[00:24:51] Tiffany Bastian: And it, it's really based on that you have self-employment income, which if you're doing anything trading a service or product for money, you do. So then they're allowing you, [00:25:00] because obviously they want taxes on the money too, but they're allowing you to then and again, I don't know which one is which, but one of 'em is 25% up of what your profit is.

[00:25:09] Tiffany Bastian: So you could put up to 25% of your profit into this retirement plan with your self employment income. Does that

[00:25:14] Jaymi Heimbuch: that's pretty amazing. And so

[00:25:16] Jaymi Heimbuch: do you have to make a certain amount in order to be able to even open one of those?

[00:25:21] Jaymi Heimbuch: Okay. So that could be a third thing to help

[00:25:25] Tiffany Bastian: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And like if this is something you wanna do as passion too, like how cool could it be just to fund your retirement from something you love doing now? That kind of is kind of a cool idea, you know?

[00:25:34] Jaymi Heimbuch: Okay. So I'm gonna go ahead and put some links in the show notes as well that are further explanation about what simple IRA and sub IRA are, so that if you're interested, if, if you're listening to this and you're like, oh my gosh, my photography could actually fund my retirement, tell me more.

[00:25:49] Jaymi Heimbuch: You can hop in and and learn some more about that as well. So for the listeners who are already in conservation photography full time, this is something that they do a hundred percent of the [00:26:00] time and they really wanna make sure that they're getting prepped for tax season.

[00:26:04] Jaymi Heimbuch: A lot of the photographers I know will do their own taxes. Many will hire someone to do that for them. What are some of the things that they can do to really just get themselves ready to feel like they're going into filing taxes with confidence and not dread

[00:26:19] Tiffany Bastian: For sure and I wanna back up to having that separate bank account is gonna always be like, that's the first thing, cuz that's gonna already reduce the amount of like research you're doing or trying to get everything together. I mean, I wanna take people from the days of here it is, January, February, holidays are over and now you are in the receipt boxes and you are just trying to find what's what, and you're trying to go through statements and you're literally just telling yourself how I can't believe I'm here every year.

[00:26:43] Tiffany Bastian: I say I'm gonna be or. To erase that scene, have that separate bank account, that's gonna help a lot. But really it's just, it's getting organized. You know, knowing that a lot of tax forms come in the mail still. And so, just creating an organized space for that. And there's the idea of doing your own taxes or you know, having someone do them. And that's completely [00:27:00] preference.

[00:27:00] Tiffany Bastian: I think it's based on your situation and how complicated it could be. QuickBooks is actually gearing itself in the programming to be able to sort of push all your data into TurboTax for you. Like that's something they have coming.

[00:27:11] Tiffany Bastian: So now you could print your reports from there and we could map it and show you like what would go where. I don't know when it's coming, but I can definitely tell they're making all the changes so your accounts all mapped to a line that would be on a tax form.

[00:27:21] Tiffany Bastian: And so, you know, in that is another thing I believe in is that systemizing, right? So even, you know, having your separate bank account, but even the QuickBooks, like even if you got QuickBooks, then you have your bank connected there. Now things are going into there. Now you're able to categorize your expenses, because even if you have that separate bank account, you're gonna need to figure out what categories those things go in. Right? So this can sort of be your next level if it's happening for.

[00:27:43] Tiffany Bastian: Then you're kind of, then you're actually more aware if you're looking at it each month. There's that next element, especially for full time. Now you're looking at your numbers. You don't have to necessarily know what they mean to be like this, you know, crazy account mind person yet. But you start to be familiar with what's coming and going and, and it's, it is, it's like, you know, baby steps into these things, but then it [00:28:00] starts to make sense.

[00:28:01] Tiffany Bastian: But I, I really, it's just, it's that organization piece. It's making sure you have everything and you've accounted for everything. Mileage can be tracked. There's the home office deduction. Things to just think about to make sure you don't miss out on those deductions that you can take meals.

[00:28:16] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right. right. That is something, so I do have QuickBooks and so I have the app on my

[00:28:20] Jaymi Heimbuch: phone and I have it just set to auto track. So every time it

[00:28:23] Jaymi Heimbuch: tells that I'm driving,

[00:28:24] Tiffany Bastian: a dream

[00:28:25] Jaymi Heimbuch: tracking miles. And then yeah, I just swipe one way for personal, another way for business, mark

[00:28:30] Tiffany Bastian: Yeah. And you can even start to tell it every time I go to this address, that's my PO box, that's business. Every time I go to this address. And you can, it'll start to know. Like, I love that about, you know, a lot of people struggle with, with QuickBooks. It is again, like we were talking about before, you know, when you're starting your photography business, you have all this stuff, you're learning, advertising, equipment, whatever.

[00:28:47] Tiffany Bastian: Then you got counting, well then you've got this program, right? So when you're learning accounting and this program, and, but the thing is, it can be done. It's just walking through the steps of it. It's just like any app, you know, I think any of us [00:29:00] online anymore know all, we're inundated with CRMs and apps and all these things.

[00:29:03] Tiffany Bastian: So but being able to have it work for you, like, almost like you may not need to hire, you could learn how to maintain this to yourself till you get to a certain volume where you're like, okay, I don't wanna spend, you know, one day a week working on my books anymore.

[00:29:15] Tiffany Bastian: I'm gonna have somebody else do it. But It's like trying to get everything automated. I don't know. I just believe in systems so much and they're so helpful to, for the things that you are, the mundane tasks that you have to do over and over again. You can do so much of that

[00:29:28] Jaymi Heimbuch: I know that often, you know, as we're conservation photographers, , this is a industry that can be really tough to make a living in, and so you're really thinking critically about expenses. But I do believe that QuickBooks, if you are full-time, is one of those expenses that pays

[00:29:41] Jaymi Heimbuch: for itself. It's, it's weight in gold because, like you said, you could spend, especially if you're not doing a ton, a ton of transactions, you could spend two or three hours a month categorizing all of your expenses and you know exactly what's going on with your funds.

[00:29:56] Tiffany Bastian: It almost pushes you to sort of have to make a little time to [00:30:00] sort of just kind of monitor what's going

[00:30:01] Tiffany Bastian: on. It's kinda like the next step. You have that separate business bank account and you can look at it once a year or get ready for taxes, and then it's like you can connect that to QuickBooks and everything can come in there and you can start to categorize and know what's going on.

[00:30:13] Tiffany Bastian: It's, and then build the next thing.

[00:30:15] Jaymi Heimbuch: Absolutely. And the other thing too is if you are doing this full time and you have different verticals, so let's say

[00:30:21] Jaymi Heimbuch: one vertical is you're running tours and workshops, one vertical is your licensing images. One vertical is you're doing assignment photography shoots. You can utilize QuickBooks to understand how much each of those things is actually bringing in, how profitable it is and where to then invest your time

[00:30:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: depending on what you wanna do.

[00:30:39] Jaymi Heimbuch: So like that aspect

[00:30:41] Tiffany Bastian: Because you create financial reports and yes, people, you know, will say profit and loss, which is also called a p and L, which is also called an income statement because nobody, you know, just to make everything exciting, they have to have a million , names for something. But essentially it's just your income and expenses.

[00:30:56] Tiffany Bastian: But I always tell my clients like, this is for you. Okay, it's [00:31:00] for you. And it's so that you know what categories your stuff is in for taxes. Nobody else, the IRS doesn't care how your PNL is laid out. This is for you. And then so it's like, well, what do you wanna see?

[00:31:10] Tiffany Bastian: How do you wanna see it broken out? You know, some of our clients, like they contract other people and they wanna see their contractors by name listed under the contract. And so now they can see that every month or you know, and I guess you know, that kind. Relieve some stress knowing you're building this report for you.

[00:31:24] Tiffany Bastian: It's not like it has to be compliant with some sort of standard. You're not a publicly traded company. It's for you to kind of understand what's going on in your business. And then once you build it that way, then that data is really quickly categorized and now you have this, this really powerful tool for yourself.

[00:31:38] Tiffany Bastian: But yes, the income splitting is great.

[00:31:41] Jaymi Heimbuch: Well, one more tax question

[00:31:43] Jaymi Heimbuch: before we dive into some other,

[00:31:44] Jaymi Heimbuch: , education side of things that you do, which is a question that everyone always asks, and that is, can I deduct the value of the images that I donated to a non-profit? So let's say you volunteer with a non-profit and you donate a set of 10 images and you give [00:32:00] them a licensing agreement, and normally you would license those images for like, let's say $500, and, but you just donate it to them.

[00:32:06] Jaymi Heimbuch: There are so many photographers who say, well then I can deduct $500 come tax time. Is that true or is that not true?

[00:32:15] Tiffany Bastian: That is false. So you can only de ever deduct what you have spent on something and you can never deduct your time. So you know, the biggest thing is like cuz we get this a lot too, people, I give a lot of pet photographers, so they'll do like an SCA event and they're raising money and it's like they can only deduct the cost of what it was to go there.

[00:32:35] Tiffany Bastian: And then even in that scenario, cuz it's sort of more like a donation thing, is that that income really isn't there. You don't wanna count that income is your income if you're donating it too. So you wanna be mindful. What some of my clients will do is they'll actually have people, they'll be set up at like the S PCA and they'll have.

[00:32:50] Tiffany Bastian: People make the donation directly to the spca, a get the service from them, and then their cost is a deduction. But they have gotten so much marketing out of that. Now people know who they are. So it's, again, [00:33:00] always, I always kinda like to think about, you know, how you would, if IRS was sitting here and they wanna know what you were doing, how would you describe this?

[00:33:05] Tiffany Bastian: How would you explain what you were trying to do here? But yeah, you can deduct the value of anything. It has to be the cost. So it would be whatever that the print cost was for that.

[00:33:14] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yeah. Which I, I'm really glad that you clarified that. And that is something that a lot of us do is we set up some sort of fundraiser with a, a

[00:33:22] Jaymi Heimbuch: non-profit or like a calendar fundraiser. And one of the best pieces of advice that I got from my old CPA is when you set up your calendar fundraiser, make sure that all of the donations are going directly to the

[00:33:35] Jaymi Heimbuch: nonprofit. Don't handle any of the money, because if you receive it, guess what? You're paying taxes on it.

[00:33:41] Tiffany Bastian: Mm-hmm. and you can't donate it. Like it's, there's no such thing as a business donation. I have a blog post called this. You can only do personal donations. You can structure it through your business if you have to.

[00:33:51] Tiffany Bastian: Like we have to sort that out. But there is no such thing as a business donation. So I

[00:33:56] Tiffany Bastian: directly having them is, is perfect. Otherwise you can do it on your personal return. But we just [00:34:00] gotta work through the transactions to bring it off your books and put it in your pocket so that you can donate it.

[00:34:05] Tiffany Bastian: And

[00:34:05] Jaymi Heimbuch: Okay. So I'm so glad that you clarified it because I feel like I'm always the Debbie Downer, and then I second guess myself too, because

[00:34:11] Jaymi Heimbuch: people are like,

[00:34:12] Tiffany Bastian: Join the team sister. Like, I always like, lemme just do, I tell them there's no such thing as business.

[00:34:18] Jaymi Heimbuch: Well, cuz we always have that question pop up, like, oh, I'm gonna donate these images so I'm just gonna deduct it. Like, you could do an Inkin trade and so therefore you can deduct the, you know, your licensing.

[00:34:29] Jaymi Heimbuch: And it's like, no, you can't. You could deduct how much gas it took for you to get to the shoot to

[00:34:34] Jaymi Heimbuch: go take images that you

[00:34:35] Jaymi Heimbuch: then donated, but you don't get

[00:34:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: to donate and then like deduct what you would

[00:34:41] Tiffany Bastian: And you, you could deduct the cost of the print and you could deduct the, maybe you went to the event and you had to get a table and a sign and all, and that's advertising, in my opinion. So something I always do like in some of my trainings is I, when we're walking through the tax forms and one of my modules is the tax module.

[00:34:55] Tiffany Bastian: We go through every single tax form, and one of them is I show them, do you see that there is not a line on either of these [00:35:00] forms for donations? There is not one line on a Schedule C or an 1120 s tax form for business that says donation. So that is our huge unfortunate like clue that they're not and I, I I just, it's not, but it's huge, especially like in the pet photography area. We have a lot of clients in that area and it's a huge thing. And, and you know, similar to you guys, like they're trying to do things for animals and that's a huge way that that industry, they can help, you know, their, what they're passionate about, but it's, it's trying to help them structure that properly.

[00:35:31] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So you've mentioned quite a bit. The education that you do,

[00:35:36] Jaymi Heimbuch: and I know that recently you've even launched a membership. So for people who are listening to this and they're thinking, okay, I really wanna get my ducks in a row.

[00:35:44] Jaymi Heimbuch: I take conservation photography seriously, not only for the impact that I can make through the images that I'm making for conservation causes, but also I really wanna take this very seriously for myself as a photographer. It's something that I want to have at [00:36:00] least break even, or I might be able to make a career out of this.

[00:36:04] Jaymi Heimbuch: What does that look like? I wanna get educated. So tell us more about the training that you do for photographers,

[00:36:10] Tiffany Bastian: So we just launched the membership. It's called The Legit Photographer, and the first whole phase is going through like, what is business structure? What does that mean? If I'm an s corporate or if I'm a DBA or sole proprietor, like if it's just me, you know, what do I have to do?

[00:36:24] Tiffany Bastian: And it's talking about do you need to get registered? You know, some local governments require you to have a business license or certain licenses, especially in this industry cuz there's a lot of parks and places and things that you have to register or you have to get a license to shoot there.

[00:36:37] Tiffany Bastian: So like, we kind of go through all that.

[00:36:39] Tiffany Bastian: We talk about insurance, we talk about like, all the kind of, things that people forget about and don't realize that when they become a business and they have to worry about that. We have an entire walkthrough sales tax, how it works, what you have to do, what if you've been collecting sales tax but you never registered and paid it, or one of these scenarios where you're just figuring this out.

[00:36:57] Tiffany Bastian: Now, there are things states do these VDA [00:37:00] agreements. We do 'em all the time with clients to help you get caught up and they, they don't charge any penalties and fees and they'll help you get honest with them. But we go through like all that kind of, kind of building the foundations. I call that piece.

[00:37:10] Tiffany Bastian: And then we go into getting, doing the things like how do you form llc? How do you do the s corporate? How do you get a tax id? I walk you step by step through all that. The next one is really going through QuickBooks, how to set it up.

[00:37:20] Tiffany Bastian: I give you the chart of accounts to import. I walk you through getting my discount on QuickBooks and like how do you set it up? What goes in your company information, what goes in the chart of accounts? I walk through how to do everything, how to link it to your bank account, how do you categorize, and then we go into and how to integrate it.

[00:37:35] Tiffany Bastian: And then we kind of go into like maintenance mode. My favorite, like the routine maintenance, like making a list. Like what are you doing weekly for your bookkeeping and your taxes? What are you doing monthly?

[00:37:44] Tiffany Bastian: What are you doing quarterly? Like getting yourself on a routine so you can maintain it. And then we go into like phase five is more like growth. What if you want, you know, I don't know if this is in your industry, but a lot of photographers will wanna buy a studio or they'll wanna rent a studio. So like, well should you rent or buy?

[00:37:59] Tiffany Bastian: What does the [00:38:00] accounting look like? What does that mean for you tax wise? Like bigger topics of growth. And, and then tax planning as well. And you get my access to my tax planning software I use through me and we plug it into your QuickBooks. Like, cuz I love automation. And you can like go through and you're gonna have all your information come in and I'm gonna show you how to do all that.

[00:38:16] Tiffany Bastian: And then you can actually do that thing we were talking about. Whereas you can say, well what if I put $500 in the step ira, what do I save? And it gives you the information. So like, I'm all about these like apps and, and systems, but this is what we do for our clients one on one. And all I'm doing is taking that and teaching you how to do it because we do it in our sleep.

[00:38:34] Tiffany Bastian: I can show you how to do it and then you can take care of it till you don't want to anymore. But it's gotta get taken care of somehow. So you might as well make it nice and you know, organized and you know, sort of streamlined so you don't have to maintain it so much. But the foundations piece is my favorite.

[00:38:46] Tiffany Bastian: Like we have a module where I go through literally. The 10 to 40 tax form and a Schedule Z and that in this way, that that's like, it sounds probably like not fun for anyone, but you actually walk away going, oh, I know what that line means. Oh, I [00:39:00] get how that happens now. So later when we're talking, you know, what lines pertain to you?

[00:39:04] Tiffany Bastian: You know, or think, it just, I think it builds a foundation. So I, I, I kind of make it so you have to go through this foundational piece because everything else then makes sense. But I just, obviously you can see, I guess, super excited about it. I love it. But it is, it's just, it's just broken down into pieces and they sort of build off each other, then after that, I feel like you have some, you're empowered and you have some skin in the game, and you don't have to be afraid of it or just nervous by it or anxious.

[00:39:28] Jaymi Heimbuch: Right, right. So essentially, if a photographer joins the legit photographer membership, the first thing that they're gonna learn is, what are all these different business structures? Which one is right for

[00:39:39] Jaymi Heimbuch: me? And how do I set that up? And then you're gonna dive into, okay, well

[00:39:44] Tiffany Bastian: What

[00:39:44] Tiffany Bastian: are the taxes I need to know? And like, what are like, because again, like I was saying earlier, taxes, sometimes the big bucket and people don't realize that there's federal income tax, there's state income tax, there's sales tax, there's self-employment tax, and I break it all down. I explain it what it is, and they're bite size too.

[00:39:59] Tiffany Bastian: I, they're [00:40:00] not like these big long hour. I'm like, they're like 10, 15 minutes is the longest lesson in there. Most of 'em about five minutes. But it goes through the things you need to understand and I think it just gives you a list of things to consider that you might have not thought about. Especially that licensing piece, like getting the licenses to shoot places.

[00:40:14] Tiffany Bastian: People don't realize that, you know,

[00:40:16] Jaymi Heimbuch: Yeah. So if you are just getting started in this, there's a whole foundational element that's, that's pretty amazing if you've been doing this for a while. Even if you feel really solid in that area, it sounds like, then the next phases could be really amazing for letting you know how to get yourself really organized.

[00:40:33] Jaymi Heimbuch: How to make

[00:40:33] Jaymi Heimbuch: sure you you know what you don't know.

[00:40:35] Tiffany Bastian: And I, and I do weekly calls, so I'm like there to help. Like, cuz I also realize this is not like a theory class I have to be engaged. You know, we do, we do calls where we're screen sharing and I'm helping somebody figure out their PayPal situation at QuickBooks.

[00:40:46] Tiffany Bastian: Like how these two linked together, like I'm hands on. Because this is just one of those areas that you need, that you have to be able to show people, I'm teaching you a software and I'm teaching you some concepts, some accounting really. And then, you know, being able to help you see that. But [00:41:00] that's the best feeling is like when somebody's all organized, they're like, oh my gosh, oh my God.

[00:41:04] Tiffany Bastian: I like actually feel legit. And that's why we named it that

[00:41:07] Jaymi Heimbuch: Excellent. So in terms of time investment, overwhelm and pricing, if

[00:41:13] Jaymi Heimbuch: someone's thinking, oh, I love the idea of being able to go and get all trained up and understand exactly what's going on with the business side of my conservation photography, but I don't have a lot of time and I'm scared to invest money.

[00:41:25] Jaymi Heimbuch: Tell us about that aspect of the me.

[00:41:29] Tiffany Bastian: Well, and I created this because for that reason, right? We'll get clients all the time and we'll do calls with them and they're not at a place where they want to hire us to do everything. And I'm like, well, how can I help you? In a way that's like having an accountant in your pocket, right? We have a community also connected to this.

[00:41:43] Tiffany Bastian: So like maybe you have questions like you can handle it yourself and then you're like, oh, well what does it mean if this happens? Or if I do that tax wise, like I can help you in, I will say like a group setting, but still having that, like you were saying earlier, like that accountant resource still somewhere in your life

[00:41:57] Tiffany Bastian: I think it's like having an account in your pocket, having that [00:42:00] confidence in knowing I have someone I can ask that can explain this to me. Like, I think that's amazing.

[00:42:04] Jaymi Heimbuch: What is the investment for the membership?

[00:42:07] Tiffany Bastian: So it's 1 97 a month right now. I think it will be going up in 2023, just because the, the content you, you have so much in there, but it's also new content. We have a monthly master class, so we've had we had a pricing master class, and these are all other photographers successful in their industry or their area, teaching on topics in there.

[00:42:25] Tiffany Bastian: So it's really great to get sort of a well rounded thing, right? So it's like, I have the business, I'm getting it organized, and now I'm thinking about these other things like, am I priced right or am I going into this niche or things like that. So I want it to be this community where people feel supported and that they, I don't know if they have a professional on their side, that's myself, but then that you have a community of other people who are really trying to do the right thing and be compliant and, and grow their business in a way that feels good, but is also like, they're not just handing it off to somebody else, like they're involved and engaged.

[00:42:55] Tiffany Bastian: I think there's just an element of business, like even myself, right? I always wanna be engaged in a part of my business, [00:43:00] you know?

[00:43:00] Jaymi Heimbuch: I absolutely a thousand percent agree. Normally in this podcast we're talking about all of these things that have to do with actually the work that we do behind the camera and with the camera and getting images out into the world.

[00:43:12] Jaymi Heimbuch: But a really important part of what we do and a really important part of taking ourselves seriously as valuable contributors to the world through our photography, is having all of these systems and structures in place so that we feel legit, we feel confident, we feel secure, and we know that the income that we are making, we get to keep as much of that as possible because, Many of us are rolling that right back out and

[00:43:37] Jaymi Heimbuch: reinvesting it into doing really important things with our photography to help conservation causes. So I know that this episode is a little bit more on the business side and the numbers side, but all of this stuff is really, really important to talk about, and I'm so grateful that you're there as a resource specifically for photographers, because doing your work as a freelance photographer is very unique.

[00:43:58] Jaymi Heimbuch: And so to have a [00:44:00] resource out there with an expert who gets what this industry looks like is amazing. So thank you so much for choosing us photographers as your.

[00:44:07] Tiffany Bastian: Yes. No, I love it. And I just feel like allows me to serve better too. Like when I'm focused on one thing, I can do it really well. Right? Because like that sales tax guide for example, like the second that I was like, we're going cuz we did creative entrepreneurs for a while and, but I only took photographers, I just didn't wanna say it cuz I know anyone nicheing down knows that feeling.

[00:44:26] Tiffany Bastian: And then we finally did. I'm like, wow, we've said it, we might as well make the sales tax God I dreamed of and we went all in. But it does and it helps us help you guys. And we, and I love that we have a lot of experience with all the different CRMs possibly being used. I could, I could talk all day long about the pros and cons of each one.

[00:44:42] Tiffany Bastian: They all have their, you know, and I love that. And I feel like that just brings so much value to photographers in ways that I think is unexpected.

[00:44:48] Jaymi Heimbuch: Mm-hmm. .Wonderful. So for anyone listening who's like, I need to go explore more, where do people go to find you?

[00:44:54] Tiffany Bastian: So bastion accounting.com has everything. And there's actually a chat box on there and that is me. So like if you jump on ba [00:45:00] county.com and you have a question about anything, that is me. I have a little chat box here. It's me talking with you.

[00:45:04] Tiffany Bastian: So I'm there for questions. Anything

[00:45:06] Jaymi Heimbuch: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, all of the links that we've mentioned will be in the show notes, so if you're listening, just scroll down and you'll find a link to the show notes where you can get all of these resources tiffany, thank You, so much for your

[00:45:18] Jaymi Heimbuch: energy, your

[00:45:19] Tiffany Bastian: fun. I'm like, so now I'm all inspired again. It just fires me up.

[00:45:25] Jaymi Heimbuch: Excellent, excellent. . Well everyone, thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you again next week.