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Top Tax Bracket problems - no time left!

I spoke with two business owners in one day that were both paying tax at the top marginal tax rate of 39%.

And both had no admin support.

They were doing everything themselves.

BUT they could identify there were things they couldn’t get to (like recreation and life).

I suggested they consider hiring admin support, and ASAP!

Let’s SAY some support costs $35 per hour.
(Could well be more, yes but this is just an illustration).

For 20 hours per week, over a full year, that’s:

$35 × 20 × 52 = $36,400

At first glance, the business owner always sees it as a $36,400 COST.

When really, it’s an INVESTMENT.

Now $36,400 of cost/investment isn’t REALLY what’s happening either.

On $36,400 of additional profit, approximately $14,196 disappears in tax.
(As they’re earning in excess of $180k those profits are taxed at 39%).

Meaning the amount you’d actually keep is only:

$22,204

So the real question becomes:

Would you pay $22,204 to get back more than 1,000 hours of your life each year?

That’s roughly:
20 hours per week
87 hours per month

That’s a pretty cheap exchange to be able to do more of the things you want to do!

Many business owners are still doing tasks they should have delegated years ago:
- Scheduling
- Inbox management
- Data entry
- Chasing paperwork
- Basic administration

Tasks that keep them busy but don’t actually grow the business.

We often observe that Kiwi business owners are scared to let go of money.

We’ve had to come up with many different ways to encourage them to do so. Like the above example or modelling out how many more sales to recover the investment into the new hire or equipment.

The best investment isn’t always on the share platform or pouring after tax profits into property.

Sometimes it’s the one that gives you your time back.

Once you have that time, you can spend it on:
- Sales
- Relationships
- Strategy
- Family
- Health

OR enjoying the business you’ve worked so hard to build (round of golf maybe?).

If you’re already in the top tax bracket, it might be worth asking yourself:

What could I stop doing this year if I invested in buying back my time?

Had a panic when we got this message.

A client we’ve been working with needs to get away from the small jobs.

They pay the bills but they still need a quote, a process, admin, the work done, the invoice, the chasing of non payment and the MENTAL RENT SPENT.

We wanted them to move away from the safety of those jobs to some of the bigger opportunities.

But turns out we may have sent them down the wrong path.

Typically this works out well. IF the client goes after the right work following the process.

So this message was a shock.

How the hell had we got it so wrong?

We picked up the phone.

They actually sounded pretty relaxed.

Confusing!!

And then they said
‘$12k job, $8k job, $7k job, $10k job’.

Turns out they were taking the p!ss and the next image hadn’t come through of all of the above jobs being accepted.

Phew!

The real problem is now they’ve got more work than capacity.

Well better than being in the same position with small low margin work.

Time to scale up properly.

Now they’re off to buy more equipment and hire.

Cop that unemployment 💪🏼

Another win for the good guys 🥇

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