Posted by John Schenk on 3/4/10 9:48pm
Msg #325430
Are you REALLY promoting yourself?
Shouldn't we all find every title company in our areas within 150 miles from us and run our names past them? Promote DIRECTLY to title, and say MY fee is $XXX.00 w/edocs, and please send me all the business you get in my area?
Maybe I haven't been as proactive as I could have been. I have never really directly attacked bringing in title company business DIRECT. Why not? Because it takes a lot of time! Will I do it tomorrow? NO, I won't, but I think that really hitting title companies directly will improve your business. Going by and visiting with one that does a ton of business...well, first of all that's a write-off on your income tax return for the mileage, and if you get to take the main scheduler out to lunch...write-off.
During this year, as I travel to Dallas almost weekly, I'm going to work on this. I'm not only going to work in it for Title companies in Dallas/Fort Worth area, but also in my own town. I'm probably not just missing the boat out of town, but also missing the boat on some that I could get right here in river city.
Also keep in mind, you want to go to say ORLANDO, and go see a whale down there for a family vacation. There are TITLE COMPANIES in ORLANDO, or NEW YORK, or LAS VEGAS, and if you go visit a title company there, you have a business expense to deduct off your income taxes. It's a legitimate deduction, so long as you legitimately attempt to promote your business while you are there.
NOT A CPA OR A LAWYER, but just my lay opinion.
When you have a little fun, try to find a deduction. 28% of your trip paid is better than having to pay 100% of it yourself.
JJ 
| Reply by John Schenk on 3/4/10 9:52pm
Msg #325431
DOCUMENTATION is the key to Deductions. n/m
| Reply by John_NorCal on 3/5/10 12:03am
Msg #325441
Whoa......there cowboy!!!!
"""Also keep in mind, you want to go to say ORLANDO, and go see a whale down there for a family vacation. There are TITLE COMPANIES in ORLANDO, or NEW YORK, or LAS VEGAS, and if you go visit a title company there, you have a business expense to deduct off your income taxes. It's a legitimate deduction, so long as you legitimately attempt to promote your business while you are there. """
While part of what you say is true, the inference that taking your family along on a business trip and using that as a business deduction is misleading. A business trip, in order to be deductible, has to have the primary purpose of benefitting the business. Taking family members along and making it a vacation trip as well "waters down" the deductibility. That portion of the trip that is personal, such as taking family members or enjoying vacation pleasures, is NOT deductible. With the focus that the IRS has on recouping the money gap losses from schedule C filers, I would be very careful about mixing too much business and pleasure. It's CYA time for sure.
Not a CPA or a lawyer, but I am an Enrolled Agent and we spEAk tax....
| Reply by Claudine Osborne on 3/5/10 7:59am
Msg #325456
Re: Whoa......there cowboy!!!!
I believe in marketing yourself everyday in one form or another! Example..As I was traveling yesterday for a business meeting. I stopped for dinner and sitting at the next table was a notary doing a signing! As she got up to leave I approached her and we talked. She works strictly with a local TC, gave her a business card, talked about the business etc. Point is marketing yourself does not have to cost a lot of money. Maybe this notarys TC does business in my area and she could reccomend me. We have to put ourselves out there every day!
John as far as local TC I have tried for years to get "in"..They usually have their own or laying off people, and they just don't have the work. I recently attended my sons closing and the NSA is well known in this area..We talked he interviewed me and said he would send work my way..I followed up with him with several phone calls as he requested..No work yet! But this is all marketing and laying a foundation for future work..
| Reply by cawest/PA on 3/5/10 10:26am
Msg #325468
Re: Whoa......there cowboy!!!!
so agreed that we have to market ourselves, I was out of the loop for 2 years and just got back in and it is all about marketing marketing marketing yourself. Contacted several companies that used to use my services and after a slow start looks like I am out there again but not to say it is full boom but it is ok at an average of 4 to 5 a week and some other stuff in between ...
| Reply by Laura_V on 3/5/10 1:28pm
Msg #325509
Good on you!!!
You are totally nailing it.
Now I reeeeeally need to go rest er..... change and go to my notary appt.
| Reply by Laura_V on 3/5/10 1:26pm
Msg #325506
Crikey, Claudine! You are amazing, too!!!
After reading your and John's post, I think I need to go rest now.
Too frickin wonderful.
And ppl wonder why I want to do notary appts in public instead of in an office?
It's not just the little travel fee. I get asked for my business cards by others in the restaurant ALL THE TIME!!!
I keep forgetting to stock my briefcase those puppies fly out of my hands so fast.
And yes, I try to keep some in my purse. Last night: nope - none there, either. Had to write stuff on a big post it for totally cute young Russian man who had trouble with English.
Going to rest, now. bye
| Reply by John Schenk on 3/5/10 9:55am
Msg #325466
Re: Whoa......there cowboy!!!!
Definitely agree that you can't write it off 100%. Any additional expenses incurred for the family members obviously wouldn't count. If you need two rooms to accommodate the family, the second room certainly wouldn't be something your could write anything off your taxes. I understand where you're coming from, John, and agree.
JJ
| Reply by MW/VA on 3/5/10 3:45pm
Msg #325568
I hope no one takes your advice on this one, JJ. The IRS
rules on business travel & entertainment deductions is an audit waiting to happen.
The only way it is deductible if the purpose of the trip is primarily business. I have worked tax prep.
I had a friend who did at home wine tastings. She took a cruise & wondered if she could deduct the cost of part of the trip because they talked about her business. What???? It's amazing how people think.
LOL
| Reply by John Schenk on 3/5/10 6:59pm
Msg #325604
Re: I hope no one takes your advice on this one, JJ. The IRS
I think you're comparing apples and oranges. I'm talking about trips in which you are actually in pursuit of either education for your business, or for cold calling Title Co's and/or SSs. I'm not talking about being stupid and trying to write off something you couldn't justify in an audit, which I'd certainly not welcome, but also would have no problem going through one. You have to use a little common sense when you do it, and you need to be able to document where you went, the date, and whom you spoke with. HOPEFULLY, subsequent to that visit, you get some business out of it. If not, it just becomes a poor business decision, but poor business decisions don't automatically make the deduction invalid. I also go to CLE legal seminars, and in fact need to hit another one here in the next couple of months. I'm gonna write it off, and I'm not necessarily going to sit through that entire seminar. I'll get the printed material, and I'll attend the portions of the seminar that interest me in the practice that this firm does. If I want to take a scheduler or someone with a TC out to lunch, I can write off my meal and that person's meal. If Ginny is with me, I can put her on a separate ticket and pay that bill separately so as not to mix things up in case I ever get audited. I just have to be sure to document who I took to lunch and the company they are with, and yes, I'm gonna write that entire meal off for me and the TC or SS employee as it's a legitimate deduction.
You CAN mix business with pleasure and deduct it so long as you don't go overboard and keep good records, but again, THAT IS MY LAY OPINION and not tax advice to anyone on this board.
JJ
| Reply by Laura_V on 3/5/10 1:22pm
Msg #325503
OMG! Your post is smart as heck!
Holey moley, John!
Do you have marketing chops or what!?!
I have a small disagreement with one point but I have walked your talk. Absolutely.
Several years ago, smart Dorothy MI went to a networking event for TCs, LOs, and whoever else (can't remember).
She quickly realized that local TCs hate us - they see us as taking the lucrative and usually fun signings that take place away from the office. ie - they see us as the enemy. (Not competition: enemy. Remember these companies take no prisioners.)
Now it is worse since so many of them have lost their jobs due to the bloodbath they and the lenders created. So the TCs try to either take the "away" signings for extra cash or give it to a former colleague who lost her job there.
This is how it works in rural WA. Not certain about Seattle.
When I left Calif 6 years ago, the TC owners rightly saw us as a way for them to make more money. We NSAs would show up at the office in the morning, get a stacks of docs, go get 'em signed, etc, then do the same the next morning when we turned the signed docs in.
Pretty sweet.
At that time in Calif, the TCs knew they could make more $ if they kept borrrowers out of their conference rooms, etc. The owners turned lots of old conference rooms into offices and hired more ppl and made even more $.
(I have no idea what happens in Calif. Probably something else.)
Now let me get back to your HUGE marketing idea that is dead right.
Yes, work Dallas TCs. Brilliant. Work Orlando TCs. Work all those places you named.
If I still wanted to do loan work for TCs etc, I would fly to PA (if LSI is still there and paying decently) and FL and TX. That's where most of my WA signing appts came from. (Whooda thunk, eh?)
I spoke to a super smart notary friend in Chicago this morning. Someone wants to exhibit and sell my artsy stuff there at the end of next February. Yep, that's when it is super cold.
But accompanying my artsy stuff to Chicago (a city I LOVE) and finally meeting my new friend IRL? And writing almost the whole trip off? And going that amazing art museum there for fun and research?
Heck ya!!!
Bottom line, John - you TOTALLY ROCK! Good on you!
| Reply by John Schenk on 5/15/10 9:46pm
Msg #336726
Re: OMG! Your post is smart as heck!
Thanks! :-D
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