In this episode of Business by The Books, reformed corporate CFO and founder of Kickstart Accounting, Inc.’s Danielle Hayden gets honest about a tough but essential topic: Are you building a business that’s truly healthy, or one that’s just trying to pay as little as possible in taxes?
Danielle breaks down the real costs of trying to make every expense a “business expense.” From dinners and vacations to board meetings and the Augusta Rule, she shares the financial habits that could be holding you back from long-term success and how to fix them.
Key Takeaways:
- Showing Zero Profit Isn’t a Badge of Honor: Trying to pay nothing in taxes might save you in the short-term, but it can hurt you when you need a loan, want to sell your business, or attract investors.
- Every Meal Isn’t a Business Meal: Unless the goal of your meeting is actually business-related, that dinner date with your spouse or lunch with your family where you mentioned work isn’t a deductible expense.
- Your Family Isn’t Your Board of Directors: Why real accountability partners and advisors are essential for growth, and why mixing family with “board meetings” on vacation doesn’t count.
- Use the Augusta Rule Wisely: Just because you can use your home for meetings doesn’t mean you should. Consider whether that setup establishes the professional environment you need for connection, collaboration, and innovation.
- Build a Business for Value, Not Just for Tax Savings: Your CPA works for you. You get to decide: Are you optimizing for paying less in taxes? Or are you creating a business that thrives, grows, and generates true wealth?
Topics Discussed:
(00:00) Intro: What Your CPA Wishes They Could Tell You
(02:26) The Problem with Turning Every Expense into a “Business Expense”
(03:29) Why Your Family Vacation Isn’t and/or Shouldn’t Be a Business Trip
(06:35) The Augusta Rule and Creating Professional Business Environments
(08:23) Choosing the Kind of CEO You Want to Be – Tax Savings or Long-Term Business Value
(10:03) Outro: Like, Share and Subscribe!
Resources:
KSA Tax Partners | https://ksataxpartners.com/
Book a Call with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book-a-call/
Connect with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/Kickstartaccounting
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@businessbythebooks
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc
Episode Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;12;25
Danielle Hayden
Here are the things that your CPA wants to tell you, but they don't want to hurt your feelings. And I am going to go for it. And we are going to have this difficult conversation today.
00;00;12;27 - 00;00;39;16
Danielle Hayden
Last week, my team got an emergency phone call from one of our clients. Our client was trying to secure a loan and needed us to move their expenses from business expenses to personal expenses. And the reason that this was an issue was because for the last five years, our client has been operating her business to save as much money as possible in taxes.
00;00;39;18 - 00;01;03;02
Danielle Hayden
She wanted to pay as little money in taxes as possible, which means showing no net income. It's really not healthy as a business to show a net income of zero or even losses, just to pay zero in taxes. Now, what happened for my client is that because she had so many years of losses and low net income, when she went to go find a loan,
00;01;03;04 - 00;01;27;05
Danielle Hayden
she was not approved. And although we combed through 2025 trying to move business to personal and back and forth, this is a game that I don't want any of you to be playing with your financial statements. Every single business owner has the option to take business expenses to lower their net income of your business. Your net income, that's what you're going to pay taxes on.
00;01;27;06 - 00;01;55;03
Danielle Hayden
And so CPAs are walking this fine line with clients year over year. We get it. Nobody wants to overpay in taxes. But when you are working so hard to minimize your tax liability, you are forgetting that you want to create a healthy, sustainable business so that you can take on new loans and investors, sell your business one day, and create a business of value.
00;01;55;06 - 00;02;23;12
Danielle Hayden
Now it's your responsibility as the CEO of your business to decide, are you running the type of business where you want to take as many expenses as possible so you can pay as little in taxes as possible? Or are you the CEO who runs a healthy, profitable, sustainable business that owns their role in the economy and balances paying taxes with profitability?
00;02;23;15 - 00;02;46;11
Danielle Hayden
So, here's a few things that I see every year. Stop making every expense in your life a business expense. I get it. Maybe you and your spouse talked briefly about your business at dinner, but not every meal with your spouse, not every meal with your family, not every meal on your way to or from the office or to the studio.
00;02;46;14 - 00;03;13;07
Danielle Hayden
They're not expenses. Stop making every meal that you eat out a business expense. If it's truly a business meal where the goal of the meal, the meeting is business, then it's truly a business expense. If the goal of connecting with that individual was personal, I'm connecting with my spouse, I am taking them out on a date, then that meal,
00;03;13;10 - 00;03;46;24
Danielle Hayden
it's not a business expense, even though my business came up and my business came up because let's face it, I love to talk about my business, but it's not a business expense. Stop making every expense in your life a business expense. And this includes travel. We recently had a client who came to us to say that her mom, her husband and her daughter, that she is making them her board of directors so that when they go on vacation that they can have a board meeting for the business and the whole vacation can be a write off.
00;03;47;01 - 00;04;09;23
Danielle Hayden
Let's face it, your family is not your board. Your daughter, she's probably not giving you great business advice. Your mom, unless she is actually a business consultant, is probably not sitting on your board. Let's stop making every trip you go on with your family a business expense. Your family is not your board of directors. I want to challenge you to
00;04;09;25 - 00;04;38;01
Danielle Hayden
go find a real board of directors. You, as the CEO of your business, you deserve to have a board, and I want you to have better individuals on your board than your mom, your spouse, and your children. Your board should be there to nurture and to challenge you and your business. And when you go for a board meeting, you're not bringing your whole family because, let's face it, you're not going to have a great board meeting. When I am going on a trip for work,
00;04;38;03 - 00;05;02;12
Danielle Hayden
I leave my family and my personal life at home so that I can be focused and step into my role as a CEO and have an amazing board meeting and connect with the people that I need to connect with so that I can grow my business and be the CEO that my business deserves. And we're not going to be able to do that with my family as my board.
00;05;02;15 - 00;05;30;07
Danielle Hayden
This also goes with travel for conferences. I hear business owners every day obsess about trying to find conferences where they want to go on vacation to the point they're only taking vacations where they can go on a business conference. Guess what, you guys? My family, they don't want to go to the same destinations year over year, and I actually like to go on vacation with my family.
00;05;30;10 - 00;05;54;08
Danielle Hayden
And so I don't want to have to leave for parts of the vacation where I have to go and attend a conference. When I am going to a conference, I am going to learn and grow as an individual. And that part of that travel time is checking out of my personal life and checking in as a CEO so that I can learn and develop and grow as a business owner.
00;05;54;11 - 00;06;20;20
Danielle Hayden
And if I'm taking my kids and my spouse and everybody with me on every conference that I'm going on, I'm not giving them the best version of me and my family deserves that. And I'm not doing that conference justice, and my business? My business deserves better than that. So stop making every family vacation a business expense. You don't have to find a conference that is going to align with your vacation.
00;06;20;23 - 00;06;49;25
Danielle Hayden
Find the best conference that you want to go to this year and go and own it and learn and grow as a CEO. And then take your family on vacation and be the best mom or father that you can be on that family vacation. Lastly is the Augusta rule. So several years ago, I had brought my team into Cleveland, and we were a much smaller business at the time, and we did actually use my dining room table as our business conference room.
00;06;49;28 - 00;07;14;17
Danielle Hayden
And you guys, this was actually a amazing trip. We got a lot accomplished. Tons of ideas and content and it was a great trip. However, my kids came home at 3:00. They passed through the dining room. My husband came home at the end of the day. The dogs needed to be let in and out of the home. And at this point in my business, I don’t want to bring my team into my home.
00;07;14;20 - 00;07;44;19
Danielle Hayden
My home? It's my home. This is where I get to rest and relax and be, right? I don't have to be on and a CEO at home every day. And when my team comes into town, we now find a proper office space that we can have amazing strategy sessions; TVs, whiteboards, the type of environment that is going to lend for us to be creative and connecting and to strategize.
00;07;44;21 - 00;08;15;06
Danielle Hayden
So we no longer use my home year for Kickstart Accounting, because I want to run the type of business that uses space outside of my home so that when I'm here at home, I can relax and be home and here, and my business, I'm going to equip my team with the professional setting that they deserve. And so I want to challenge anybody who's looking at the Augusta role,
00;08;15;09 - 00;08;45;05
Danielle Hayden
does it really apply to your business? Does it really apply to your home? And do you want the type of business that conducts business in that way? I want you as a business owner to decide what type of business you want to run. Do you want to run the type of business where you're putting every personal expense, vacation, meal through your business, and therefore you are showing low profits and high expenses?
00;08;45;08 - 00;09;13;00
Danielle Hayden
When you do this, you don't know the health of your business. You don't know where you're spending money personally or through the business and where to cut back. And when you go for a loan, you're going to have to justify every single one of those expenses and why you are not showing a profit. Or do you want to run the type of business where you are able to straighten your spine, and to be the CEO of your business, that you are going to show healthy spending
00;09;13;01 - 00;09;41;01
Danielle Hayden
that is only business related, so that you know the true health of your business, and that you can create a business of value that shows profit year over year, that pays the business owner through reasonable salary, through compensation, through payroll, clean and clear draws. Decide right now the type of business that you want to run because you’re CPA,
00;09;41;01 - 00;10;07;11
Danielle Hayden
they work for you. They want to make you happy. And if what makes you happy is to pay as little as taxes as possible, they're going to do everything they can to help make you happy. However, you get to decide what type of business you want to run. Is this for tax or is this for value? I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Business by The Books.
00;10;07;12 - 00;10;47;12
Danielle Hayden
Don't forget to hit like and subscribe! This is the number one way we can help other entrepreneurs find this podcast, because here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., it is our mission to help entrepreneurs understand their numbers, get access to this information, and grow and thrive in their business. So please help me, help other entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can finally grow and thrive.