Dr. Allen Miner: Everybody, welcome. This is Dr. Allen Miner here with the UAC Best Practices podcast. I’m flying solo today without my partner, Dr. Brian Capra. We have a fantastic member of UAC, Don Rasmussen. He’s been a part of UAC for well over a year now, he’s also one of our success partners with his company, Quartermaster Tax Management, and we’re talking best practices here for chiropractors and Don, the first question is your shirt. I used to be in C12 many years ago. And an amazing group, I was also in a CEO group called Vistage. There’s also several members in UAC that are part of a group called EO or YPO. I realize right away, a lot of the profession might not know about these groups, they’re familiar with chiropractic coaching management groups, but not these… I don’t even know what you call on these peer groups, if you will, so a little bit briefly down about C12. How long have you been in it, what’s it done for your business? What is the concept of it?
Don Rasmussen: Yeah, it’s actually, like you said, it’s a peer group and I’m surrounded with other men and women who are CEOs or owners of businesses, and so what we do, I call it iron sharpening iron, Allen. The way I look at it here, I’m going there, I’m spending a full day, and so it’s a commitment from that perspective, but I really look forward to it every month, because what I do, is I get an objective perspective on my business from a different view. So, I have real estate construction, I mean a developer, I have a wealth manager in there. We have someone who owns a bunch of franchises, Five Guys and Fries. There’s a plethora of expertise there, one who has a plumbing company, so they come with a different view than just someone in the industry. Because what happens is you get a re-heated perspective when it comes from the same industry, so like I said, I covet going there each and every month and spending time with these men and women to be able to talk through some challenges. We do a core business plan, so we present, they come and interview my staff so that I get…
Don Rasmussen: And that’s what I did today. So, I had my shirt on is we went over and interviewed the wealth manager’s staff, because a lot of times as business owners, as you know, we have blind spots, and sometimes our employees are intimidated to come have a conversation with us. But because like we interviewed their staff anonymously, we can give… When we come and meet again here another week and a half, we’ll be able to come back and his name is Chris, give Chris a lot of perspective, both great feedback as well as maybe some corrective, and you generally don’t get that, and we’re brutally honest with each other.
Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah, it’s… A few things come to mind. One is, it’s really an opportunity, these groups to step out of your business and work on your business instead of in your business. Another thing that I think a lot of successful chiropractors and even not successful chiropractors start to realize is it gets lonely being an entrepreneur, and these groups, guys, are in your community. There are C12s all over the country, there’s Vistage groups, there’s EO. We used to do the same thing in C12 and the same thing in Vistage that they’d come in and interview our staff and you would get more insight into your business, good and bad and ugly, as you said. For me, Don, it was we actually had, I think you were in our New Mexico event, and we had Mitch Colvin who had been in my Vistage group, who runs a big supplement company, Vitality Works. I don’t know, I think he’s a $200 million business now. I used to sit there and listen to 50 and 100 and $200 million business owners talk, and I was the small fry in the room. Well, in chiropractic, I had become the thousand-a-week clinic owner, so I was kind of the guy teaching people and I realized that wasn’t helping me at all.
Dr. Allen Miner: I need to get back in the room whereas the little guy. And that’s also what UAC does for chiropractors, is there are so many people doing big things in the profession that are in that room, and that’s why we see a lot of people come in and join UAC. But I want to talk, Don, about best practices, and what are you seeing. I know you serve a lot of chiropractors in the chiropractic industry; you help them keep more of the money that they make, and what do you see as best practices? What’s something that somebody listening could apply today or something that is easy for them to do that they need to have an awareness around?
Don Rasmussen: Yeah, so the two things that come to my mind, Dr. Miner, is number one is get a second opinion. And so, I’ve owned three CPA firms, sold my last one six years ago. When I have a conversation with someone, I let them know that not all CPAs and accounting firms are the same, and I’m effort we get quite a few referrals because they don’t have the time to slow down and really give you proactive advice on how to mitigate your tax liability. So, the reality is, it’s like going to a doctor. You go see your MD and he says, “Listen, you need to have back surgery,” or a shoulder surgeon. Well, I have a rotator cuff, so I said, “I appreciate your opinion. Let me go to my chiropractor,” and I’ve been getting it treated in shock wave therapy and all this stuff, and it’s much, much better. But if I didn’t get that second opinion, I’d go under the knife and have other issues down the road, and so I really believe that’s number one. And number two, there’s a book by Mike Michalowicz, it’s called Profit First. You’re probably familiar with it.
Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah, got it right behind me there.
Don Rasmussen: I did. The other thing too is we find is a lot of doctors that I talk to, they’re all about being great practitioners and clinicians and helping their patients, but not so much on the business side. And Mike Michalowicz has quite a few books, Pumpkin Plan, Clockwork. But all these are really great perspectives of how to run a business and be intentionally about being profitable. Because I’ll talk to DCs all the time, that we would get down there to their PNLs, we look down their net income, and they’re like, I don’t know where that money is at, but they’re having to pay taxes on it. So, if you don’t have a plan, well, what’s the old saying? Its people don’t plan to fail. They fail to plan.
Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah. That was my first experience, one of my early years in practice, Don, is I had an old CPA say, “Well, congrats, you had a great year, but the bad news is you owe 15,000 in taxes,” and I said, “I don’t have 15,000. What are you talking about? Where is that?” And he said, “Well, it’s an accounting profit.” And then the next year, we grew. And he said, “Well, good news is you grew, bad news is you weren’t as profitable, and so the good news, you don’t have to pay taxes.” And I said, “Well, I’ve got money in the bank this year, I don’t understand.” So, I innately started… I learned to watch cash flow in the bank and no money going out, and when I discovered profit first, it was a system that made…
Dr. Allen Miner: That makes sense. And I had read wealth books my whole life. I’d learned about the envelopes, and we always pay ourselves first and ties, and then we have education accounts, and we have a fun account and our expense account, I’d never considered that for our chiropractic practices, never. And all of a sudden, after reading Profit First, I had seen what happened at home with our wealth account as we diligently put money into it over the years, it was an aha moment of, oh, you should be siphoning away profit in your business and keeping expenses in one place and income in another place, and a place for taxes. And it really… I’m glad you bring that up because that book changed our business life, and a lot of chiropractors, again, don’t know about that.
Don Rasmussen: And I use it in my own practice, and so we set aside 10%, it goes into profit, where I’m writing off every dollar that comes through. One last thing I’ll say as far as best practices is I’m amazed, I’m astonished and about how many CPAs are not having conversations at least on a quarterly basis with their DCs to look and see how they’re training for the year. Because what happens, a lot of them wait till December, say, like you said, they sit down with their CPA and they said, “I got some good news, and I got some bad news for you.” And by meeting on a quarterly basis or reviewing your P&Ls on a routine basis, whether that’s monthly or quarterly, you can start making a plan on how to address the income and making sure that’s not… Money’s does not fall through the cracks. So, there’s a lot of things there, and I’m amazed, like I said, how many DCs don’t. I mean, a very successful chiropractor I can think about Virginia, three practices, and his CPA is like four months behind getting him P&Ls. And I said, “Well, here’s a problem with that. It’s like for me to make a recommendation based upon four-month-old information, it’s like going and then putting you on EKG and say, “Well, this is four months old, but we’ll work with that,” it’s the same situation.”
Dr. Allen Miner: And Don, I know you’ve got… We don’t have time to unpack it here, but for anybody interested. Again, as I said. Excuse me.
Don Rasmussen: Bless you.
Dr. Allen Miner: Pardon me. Thank you. You help keep more money in doctor’s pockets, and you have a toolbox full of dozens and dozens of different strategies that you can help deploy. And a lot of times chiropractors are in survival mode, but then when they crest out of that and all of a sudden, they start making money and start having to send off bigger checks to the government, somebody like you gets very interesting because you help them keep more of that money in their pocket. Without going in depth, just what are you comfortable sharing of some of the ideas and things you help your clients work with to keep more money in their pockets instead of the tax man?
Don Rasmussen: Absolutely, so matter of fact I was just on a call with a UAC member here, little bit ago. So, it could be anywhere from a cost segregation study for if they’re into real estate. It could be, we use film tax credits, which are great solutions, solar tax credits, a great solution. Of course, research and development. And then there’s some more advanced stuff that we can get into, some charitable planning, some charitable holding companies, and things such as that, that I always tell my clients, the more money you make, the more sophisticated planning is going to get. But again, and I will say the last thing is, I had a PI attorney out of one of the northern states here, refer one of his clients over to me who was doing very, very well, has 10 clinics and such. But they have a conversation with me on December the 5th. And want me to help reduce their tax liability. So, the other thing I would just say here, the earlier the better, right now is kind of our prime season to advise people because we have between now and December 15th to address their ticking tax bomb. The earlier, the better. You can make plans, but December is not necessarily the best time to do that because your selection is very, very minimal.
Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah, makes sense. Well, last question we always wrap with Don, UAC, what’s the experience and being a part of that group been for you? What’s it meant for you?
Don Rasmussen: Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. My wife and I had this conversation here recently. Not being a chiropractor, even though I’ve been involved in the chiropractic industry for seven years and have a lot of friends and clients, it’s interesting to observe the camaraderie between… Just like a big family. So, every time, and I’m a newbie to the family, I’ve been a little over a year now, so it’s a little bit more of a, I wouldn’t say a challenge, but a little bit more of a process for me. I know you and I know Mark and different ones like that, but when I notice and I sit back and observe is, man, I’ll tell you they congeal so tightly and it’s like family really, is what I noticed about that. And you bring great speakers and interesting, and really to challenge the DCs where they’re at, and that there’s more out there. And like your friend out there in New Mexico, we just had the UFC World Champion there or this past time, and so it’s really exciting to hear all that.
Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah, I think that’s… Including you, everybody in that room is, the purpose behind UAC is to change humanity. And we know the more impact we each have in our own roles with our different businesses and companies, the more impact we have, and there is a philosophy. The neat thing is, there’s so many different people from different corners of chiropractic in the room, but there’s still that underlying philosophy and that why and that purpose behind what we do, and it really does… I even found when I was in my Vistage and C12 groups, I really grew to love those people like brothers and sisters. It’s still a different thing than when you get in the room of chiropractors and different chiropractors doing different businesses and people serving chiropractors like yourself, but it is a different energy than some of these other groups, so we’ve loved having you, Don. You’re a great member and you contribute a ton, and where do people find more about Quartermaster? Can they Google you? Is there somewhere to reach out if they want to?
Don Rasmussen: You can go to quartermastertax.com, real simple. Just go in there, you go our website, and we offer everybody a 15-minute consultation just to get on there to see if there’s anything we can do to help you, and if there is we’ll tell you, if there’s not, we’ll tell that as well. So that’s why I always encourage people just to get on the 15-minute call with one of my team members, and like I said, tax planning and R&D are really our focus. And last thing I will say, we’re not interested in becoming your tax preparer, that’s why I sold my last practice. So, we work with a doctor and his CPA or her CPA, because they have… Most people are very happy with who they work with, and which is fine, they just need that extra second set of eyes here on how to bring that tax bill down.
Dr. Allen Miner: Absolutely. Thank you, Don. We appreciate it.
Don Rasmussen: Thank you, Dr. Miner. Pleasure talking to you again.
Dr. Allen Miner: Sure thing.
Dr. Allen Miner: Bye-bye.
