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