1st Call BNI

Alright blog readers I am back to work updating you on the latest goings on here in beautiful South Orange County (trust me it is really just as great as it sounds down here).
As you may have so astutely deduced by reading the title listed above this week we had the pleasure of hearing from our own Scott Eaton. Scott is another long time resident of San Clemente. Do you see a trend here? Our group is made up primarily of lifelong or long time residents of the cities where they do business. This says something about the way they do business especially around here where word about shoddy workmanship gets around fast, and the guy (or gal) in town to make a quick buck can do just that, make a quick buck before people realize how they do business. All they can do then is pack up and move on to the next place they can make a quick buck. The fact that Scott has been here for 15 years and people still trust him is a good place to start when talking about the type of work he does. Trust me I know. As the new guy here in San Clemente trying to build my practice with the goal of staying forever I know that the trust that builds over that period of time can only be purchased with quality workmanship over a long period of time. But let me move on before Scott complains that I am making old guy jokes about him.

Scott is an interesting guy with more life experience in his little finger than I have in my former offensive lineman frame. (there I go with the old guy stuff again....ok, ok I'll stop). But who else do you know who might think it was a good idea to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on his honey moon. He may tell you it was his wife's idea, but at some point he had to agree to go. Scott by his own admission is "perpetually curious". The more I get to know him the more I find this to be true as he is not only a wealth of information on a wide array of subjects, but is also full of questions when he feels like he has found an area where you may be an expert. It is this attitude that I believe has kept this lifelong thrill seeker excited about income tax accounting when lesser men (myself included) would have jumped from the tallest building in beautiful downtown San Clemente long ago rather than see another tax code change.

All that said Scott's presentation was geared to who needs an income tax specialist in a time when we may ask, "Doesn't everyone just use turbo tax?" Now there is no way I can do it justice, but Scott likened three of the kinds of clients that need his services by showing us a different small primitive weapon he had collected in his travels and telling us how the people who used each had a very specific purpose that was manifest in the design. (See what I mean - How am I supposed to compete with that.)
The first group included property owners and investors. The lay person who may have a second or number of properties as investments or otherwise. Through his experience he knows that these people have very specific questions that the answers to change all the time. Things like "What is my basis?" and other terms that if you are one of these people can make a difference in you income tax. They were like an African bush machete or something......see I told you I was going to screw this up. I see a shiny blade and my mind goes somewhere else. Sorry Scott.
The next group were sole proprietors and small business owners who need to know how to squeeze the very most out of their deductions and do things like figure out depreciation on things like equipment and such. The solution to their problems was represented by a curved Nepalese army knife. Kinda like the Swiss army knife for Sherpas I guess. Lots of uses of which I remember none. Must have been because all I could think about was - Dang those are all good questions for my business, I wonder what the answer is.
Finally he talked about how he could help a successful small business or corporation with very specific questions like, "Should I incorporate?" , "How can I cut self employment tax? , and "How can I put more money into my retirement account?". For this he had a very pointy knife used to pierce chain mail armor, dull on the edge, but very sharp at the point.
All in all a very informative keynote presentation that really illustrated the skill that Scott has when it comes to his field and a friendly reminder of who not to mess with in this group.

Great job Scott! I look forward to you preparing my taxes this year and hope I can get you to bring some props should I ever get audited.

Visit Eaton's Income Tax online at www.EatonsTaxServices.com or by Clicking Here