Hello, everyone, and welcome to the PAT Accounting Podcast with me, your host, Vicki Clark.

I'm going to help you get to grips with your finances, save you lots of money and take the stress out of doing your tax return.

So let's get going.

So welcome, welcome, welcome.

My name is Vicky, if you don't know who I am, and I am one of the directors of the Pet Accountant and we are an accountancy firm that helps pet businesses all around the uk.

Obviously, it was the start of the tax year a few days ago and we have probably had the most tax returns sent in by clients in the first week than I think we have ever had before.

So thank you so much for doing that.

Everyone has been on the ball getting those in.

Thank you so much from our lovely clients and just bear with us because we've got a lot.

Everyone's been super organized right onto what you're probably all going to want to know.

So on Thursday, I think it was last week, I did a live on Instagram, on Facebook, to launch the Pet Pro Expo.

Now, if you haven't seen this, then just have a little search of the group on social media and you will find the link to put your name on the wait list.

Now, you're probably thinking, why am I doing the Pet Pro Expo?

Why is an accountancy firm doing the Pet Pro Expo?

Now, my thought process behind it, I've been in this industry now for the last few years.

Some of you have known me since the start of the Pet accountant back in 2021, and I've got to know, obviously all the pet business owners and had chats of endless chats with clients around different matters.

And there isn't currently or, as far as I'm aware, a business conference that incorporates everybody.

So that means whether you're a groomer, a walker, a boarder, a vet, a physio, farrier, whatever it may be in the pet world, there doesn't seem to be a pet business conference dedicated to helping you guys with the businessy stuff.

Now, this isn't going to be a finance conference, do not worry.

It would be the most boring conference in the world.

It's not going to be all finance.

The reason I'm doing it is because there isn't one out there at the minute and so many might get dedicated to groomers only.

Some you might get dedicated to trainers and still they don't really touch on the businessy stuff.

It's more the practical side, like for the trainers, the practical side of training for groomers.

You know how you do Certain cuts or certain dogs.

So that's why I wanted to do it, because I think a lot of pet businesses put a lot of emphasis and time and money on doing their qualifications and then spending a lot of money on furthering that, but not actually thinking about, well, hang on a minute, you know, how do I get my business to grow?

How do I make more money?

You know, and ultimately, if you're doing this, you're doing it well, a lot of you, some people do as a hobby, some people don't need the money and that's fine.

But a lot of people are doing it because they want a business and they want to grow the business.

They want a successful business.

And that is why you need to work on and at least invest in the business side of stuff, which I know can be quite daunting for some people.

I know from the account side, people find it really hard and even just calling an accountant is quite difficult.

So we get it.

But we need to start investing in yourself.

You know, you are the biggest asset for your company.

At the end of the day, you are the driving force, you are the company.

So we need to start as business owners, investing in ourself.

And that is what brought on the Pet Pro Expo.

I wanted to put on a conference, if you want to call it that.

I want to put on a conference that is going to give you really meaty, juicy topics that are actually going to help you grow your business, make more money and also help you as an individual.

So that is my aim as a conference, that you guys come out with that and you go, you know, bloody hell.

You know, I'm like motivated now to go back to my business and do X, Y and Z.

I've got all these ideas in my head.

I know what I need to do now.

I've got some great tips.

I'm going to go away and I'm going to implement them.

Or even maybe you might speak to, or you might listen to one of the speakers and go, actually, do you know what?

I'm going to do one of your programs because I really enjoyed it.

It did resonate with me and I think I need to work on that part of my business.

Now.

What we have on the day is 10 expert guest speakers.

That is right, 10.

Now, we could have got less and made them talk for longer.

However, I do think on average people will switch off after about half an hour and no one wants to speak or listen to me and Lee rabbit on about tax for an hour.

So what I've done is each guest speaker is going to have a shorter slot and is going to talk to you guys around different topics.

Now a lot of these guys you will know because they're in the industry, they, you know, work with pet businesses.

They're not just random people that are plucked off the street.

I've done research into who I want and the topics that I want covered that are actually going to help you guys.

So there was 10 speakers on the day.

So the event is on the 15th of November, which is a Saturday in Birmingham at the east side rooms.

Now this event venue is 10 minutes walk from Birmingham New street, so short distance from there.

It does have an adjoining hotel if you decided that you wanted to stay there.

And I'm currently in the process of trying to get some discounts off the rooms for that if you did.

So I will keep you updated with that.

But it's a very, very swanky venue.

You will get on the day, you will get breakfast, coffee, so you'll get pastries and coffee on arrival.

You will have your lunch as well, provided you will get a goodie bag.

And you will have in a room 10 guest expert speakers that are going to talk you through various topics.

Now to give you an idea of the topics that we're going to be covering, it's stuff like pricing.

Really, really, really important topic.

One that is chatted about all the time.

No matter which group that you go in is people discussing their pricing.

And the person that we have will, they will be revealed soon.

I'm not going to tell you now but the person we have for pricing is epic.

So you really, really, really, if you struggle with your pricing, you need to come because this person knows his shit.

We have a money mindset coach.

Okay again, she's amazing and I've done a money mindset course myself.

A was eye opening and trust me, it's going to, that is going to be good.

And that one is probably my favorite topic of the day because it will really help you as an individual which will in turn help you with your business.

So we've got pricing, we've got money mindset, we've got mindset and business.

We've got people talking about.

Obviously my mainly are going to be there talking about knowing your numbers.

We've got pensions, investments, we've got HR, we've got social media, we've got AI, we've got Facebook ads, we've got YouTube.

Like honestly the 10 people that we have are really, really good and you're not going to want to miss it.

And the most important Part of this whole event is that it is going to help you personally and you for your business.

You are going to come away with that, armed with ideas, with motivation.

You're just gonna be like, right, I'm gonna do this.

And then at the end of the day, you get a chance to network with everyone that's there.

You're gonna be able to network with the guest speakers, have a drink, you can stay over or you can go home.

That's absolutely fine.

And the event is also going to be live streamed on the day, so we only have a select few in person tickets.

And I know it's already popular because there's nearly 300 people on the wait list to get the early bird SP only have 200 seats in person.

Now.

It is going to be streamed live, so we will sell some online tickets if needs be so that people online can watch it.

If they can't necessarily make it to the venue because it's been streamed live, everyone will get a recording of the day.

So you don't have to sit there frantically making notes of everyone you know that's there and you're trying to sort of go, oh my God, oh my God, I need to write this down.

That's a really good tip.

It's going to be recorded so you don't need to stress about that.

You will get a recording of the whole day on a platform that you can access for the next 12 months.

Not only that, it's still going.

This is how good this is and I'm very excited about it.

I have literally jam packed this full of stuff for you guys.

So leading up to the event, when you purchase a ticket, you will get put into a private Facebook group.

Okay?

In that Facebook group will be everyone else who's joining, so you can have a chit chat amongst yourselves.

But also the guest speakers will be in there as well.

The might answer some questions in there.

They're going to give you a little sort of tidbit of what they're going to be talking about leading up to the event.

But also I have sourced another block of experts in their field to give you talks or seminar, online workshop, whatever you want to call it leading up to the event.

So you will have one a week for eight weeks leading up to November, because I'm so generous.

We're even going to record those and put those on the same platform so everyone will have access to those as well.

And again, these aren't going to be random people just plucked out of thin air, you know, talking about crap.

These are going to be really, really good business topics that you guys need to know if you're serious about growing your business and making more money and have more money in your back pocket.

Okay, this is the time now to start investing in yourself.

You know, forget about doing another course on, you know, grooming, a bedlet and terrier or another training course that's going to teach you how to do some training aspect with the dog that is not going to make you money.

Investing in yourself as the asset, the main asset of the business is what's going to make you guys money.

So please, please, please, if you're sat there thinking, I hate my job, I don't know why I've done it, I make a ton of money, but actually by the end of the month I don't have anything in my back pocket.

What am I doing wrong?

If you're that person, you need to come.

If you're the person that's sort of a bit burnt out, please come.

If you're getting sick of your job and you don't know what to do, please come.

If you're worried about your future and you know what you've got saved away or what you need to do, if you need to retire or if you get sick or whatever, please come because we're going to cover that.

If you're crap with your social media like I am, please come because we're going to cover that.

It really, really, really, and I can't stress this enough, is going to be an event that's really, really going to get into the nitty gritty of the topics and help you guys.

And honestly the team I have, I can't.

Will it wait to release?

It is.

Honestly, they're so good and you guys are going to clamber.

Read more to get a ticket.

Sorry.

The dogs are sparked in the background.

Always on queue when I'm doing a live.

So 15th of November in Birmingham.

It's a one day event.

There was only going to be 200 in person tickets.

We already have nearly three people on the waiting list for the early bird ticket.

The links are floating about.

I know some of the speakers are going to be holding their own competitions at some point as well.

So you might get some freebies from them.

Just because there's more than 200 on the list, please don't think, oh, I'm not going to bother because I'll not get one.

Like I said, there's going to be online tickets available as well.

And you never know, some of those people might decide they're busy or they've got the plans.

So please, please, please, if you want to be in a chance of getting a ticket, get yourself on that wait list.

I'll put the link again in the group, although I think you'll probably be able to find it pretty easily.

But I'll put it in and just pop my name on there.

When you do that, it logs with my system.

And what I'm going to be doing a week after next is calling everybody individually on that list and going through the day in a bit more detail.

I will reveal who some of the guest speakers are and I want to make sure that this event is going to be perfect for you.

You know, it's not going to be one where they're just going to get tickets sold willy nilly.

And I want to make sure that this event is going to be perfect for you, which is why I'm calling everybody individually to make sure and that is suitable for you guys.

So you will get a call from me.

If you're not a client, the number comes up as a Carlisle number 01228.

So please don't not answer.

And if you want, when I've called you to get a ticket, you also have to secure it there and then because I will be moving on to the next person and once they run out, they run out.

And then the only way left would be to get an online ticket.

There's going to be loads more information coming out in the next few weeks, like who the speakers are, what freebies we've got, who the sponsors are.

It's, you know, there's so much more to be revealed, but I just wanted to give you guys the reason as to why I'm doing it and who it's suitable for.

So if you are that person that's a bit stuck in a rut or you want to learn more about social media, or you just want to be in a room full of pet business owners that want the same thing and network speak to the guest speakers as well.

After it's finished, come and have a bite to eat in the pastry just.

Or just come and have a drink with us on a Saturday night, then it is going to be perfect for you clients of ours as a perk because it is us running it will get first dibs on the tickets as well and they will get a cheeky little discount from us as a perk of being a client for the pet accountant.

Um, so I will be bringing clients first and then everyone else on that list who for some reason isn't a client of ours.

If you do want to become a client, then obviously just get in touch with Tegan and give us a call.

But any other questions you guys have got, feel free to put them in the group.

I'm not going to be revealing my guest speakers as yet, but I will very, very soon.

But the array of topics alone are going to be unreal.

So just to give you a recap, if you're just joining us, we've got knowing your numbers with yours truly.

You've got social media, you've got finance man's mindset, you've got business mindset, you've got goal setting, you've got someone discussing work life balance, we've got pensions, investments, we've got HR stuff that people need to know about.

If you're looking at hiring staff, there's just like, there's so much pricing.

We've got loads and it's going to be really, really good.

And the speakers we've got are amazing as well.

My mouth's really dry.

I think it's us because usually I share this.

Speaking.

How much will the ticket be?

That is a very good question, Sarah.

We're still putting some little things together.

Just waiting for a couple more things from the venue and I will reveal, I can promise you, that the tickets will be under £200 for the day.

So I know that much.

It is an allowable business expense, so you can put it through the books.

If you're staying at the hotel because you're not local, you can also put that through the books and your travel to the venue.

So make sure that you do put that.

However you're recording your figures, whether that's on a spreadsheet or software or paper, just make sure that you get all this down.

Obviously, if you're local to Birmingham and you book a hotel, that's not going to be allowable because you could go home.

But if you're like me and you're traveling from Newcastle, then I certainly will be claiming my mileage and my hotel costs the same with Lee from Carlisle.

So just make sure that you put that through.

And like I said, it is all an allowable business expense.

When I call everyone the week after next, we will give you a firm price, but it's definitely going to be under £200, which is cheap as chips for what you're going to get.

Trust me.

You've got breakfast, lunch, 10 guest speakers, you've got a recording of the event itself, you've got another eight guest speakers doing online seminars leading up to the event in the private Facebook group, which you will also get recordings of and you will get a chance to get yourself a spot on the waiting list for next year's event if you are there, which will be even bigger and better and then the one after that will be even bigger and better again.

The reason it is so cheap is because it is the first event and.

But I have jam packed it full of great people and lots of stuff for you and like I said, you will get a little goodie bag with loads of stuff in it.

You'll get a lanyard when you arrive with your business name on.

It is going to be probably the networking event of the year.

There's going to be a lot of good people there and I just, you know, I really want you.

Even if you buy an online ticket and you can't make it, I want this to be, you know, a big business event where people go and go, do you know what?

I really want to grow my business.

I want to make some more money.

So I want to listen to people on important topics that matter that are going to help me.

So whether that is you personally and how you deal with money, how you deal with your finances, you know, are you in the right mindset or is it the business side of it and you need to get your pricing sorted or you crap with social media or, you know, I, I mean look at the things that have been grown online at the minute with the AI dolls.

I'm literally obsessed.

If anyone knows me, I'm crap with technology and I've just been bugging leave the last two days because I've just massed.

Well, I've just really come across Chat GPT.

I know it's been out there for ages, but I'm a bit slow to the uptick.

But I was.

You can make these dolls, make yourself look like a doll, which has just been hilarious.

But you can also do social media posts on there, you can write blogs on there.

It's amazing you can write policies on there.

Like some accountants use it to do stuff with their Excel spreadsheet and it's just mind blowing for me.

Like I don't get how it does it.

Like I just don't get it.

But it's so much quicker if you're a person that's like, oh, I'm really crap my social media and I don't really, I can put a picture in but then I don't really know what to put in the writing bit at the top.

Well, ChatGPT does it for you.

You might have to tweak it a little bit so it sounds like you and it's quite Americanized, so you do have to tweak it, but it takes seconds and it's just copy and paste and you think, bloody hell, job done.

So there will be someone there as well talking about AI.

So we have that covered.

We've literally got it all covered.

Work, life, balance, pricing, numbers, like there's nothing there that I can't think of that would need to be there.

And like I said, they are top notch guests as well.

So you will not be disappointed.

It will be money well spent.

And like I said, if anyone has any other questions other than who is it?

Because I will reveal that soon and then please just pop it in the group, send me an email, but just get yourself on that wait list and I will be calling everyone next week with regards to payment as well.

You will have payment options, you will not have to pay for it upfront.

So if you wanted to pay over three months, then that is absolutely fine.

Spread the cost.

Obviously the event's not till November so you've got plenty of time.

Please don't worry about.

Given the fee up front, we will do payment plans so you can spread that out for you.

So don't worry about that either.

And like I said, we'll get the ticket prices out there, but I can guarantee you it will be under 200 pounds, which is a billy bargain.

Has anyone got any questions for me at all?

If not, like I said, this is just a little bit of a info.

Give me a bit more info.

I will reveal the sponsors, I will reveal the guests.

They're gonna say have their own little competitions running in the background as well.

So there is a chance to win so much and be at the first event.

This is going to be a yearly thing and so be the first to get there.

It's going to be big because it is the first one.

You're going to get lots of stuff and I just want you to be able to come away from that event going, yes, I've learned something.

And give me all the feedback, please, on the day.

It'd be great, but I'm very, very excited.

It is like a little baby passion of mine.

I've wanted to do this for years and just never had the time to do it.

And I thought, you know, what with everything changing in the world and you know, all the changes in the government and pricing and you know they're taking all this money off you, I thought now is the time.

Yes, this is instead of a Spanish retreat.

Because the Spanish retreat came out just really expensive for people.

And I get that the hotel was like mega expensive and then the flights and it just was going to end up costing like 10 times more than a UK event.

So I thought, I want it to be accessible to everybody.

So do you know what, let's just do one in the uk.

That's not to say that a Spanish retreat won't come later down the line.

I still want to do that with maybe a smaller group of people so that we can help them more on a personal level rather than being a large crowd.

Although there'll only be 200 people at the event in November, the Spanish retreat will go ahead at some point, but I might tweak it slightly.

But I thought, why not get one that's more accessible to everyone?

We've tried so hard to keep the prices down because I get, you know, when some of these events come out, there might be 1400 quid a ticket or there might be 500 quid a ticket.

And as much as you want to do it, you know, the price, it just prices you out sometimes.

So we have done our absolute best to get the best of the best, as cheap as I can possibly get it.

And like I said, the tickets are going to be under 200 pounds, which, for what you get is an amazing value.

And like I said, if you want to pay installments, that's absolutely fine.

We will organize that for you.

Sarah, I hope you are.

If you're interested in the Spanish retreat, I might do that next year.

But to be honest, you know, my attentions are focused obviously on my day job of doing everyone's tax returns, but also making this the best event that it can be and make sure that it happens year on year for people.

It'll be updated every year, different speakers, or sometimes maybe the same speakers, but on a different topic.

But I want it to be good for you guys.

So this is what I'm focusing on in the uk, accessible to everyone, fairly priced.

And like I said, it is a business expense, so make sure you put it through the business.

And if you do want to come, but last thing, just get yourself on that waiting list because I will ring you.

And I have a feeling with the emails I've had, someone emailed me saying they were getting a ticket and they were coming from Australia, so no excuse if you're in the uk.

Yeah, she's coming from Australia, bless her.

And we've had a couple of people from Ireland as well, so I have a feeling That I won't even get to release this on general sale before the tickets sell out in person.

So please, please, please make sure that you're on that waiting list so that you get a call from me.

Like I said, don't worry.

If by the time I get to you, the tickets are sold out, we will live stream it at the event so you can watch it online so everyone is covered from everywhere.

Right, I'm gonna go and get some more tax returns done.

Like I said, guys, if you've got any comments, please just put them in the comment section.

And me and Lee are in Sunny Bernardholm next week.

Not just for a holiday.

I wish.

We do a business review every year.

Last year we went to Philadelphia to go to the Grooming Expo in Hershey.

It turned out not to be that great.

There was a language barrier, funnily enough.

So this year we are going to Benidorm.

And if you don't do it and you want to do business review, it is a very, very good and efficient way to start your tax year.

Because we go through everything in minute detail.

We have a spreadsheet, funny enough, and we will compare what we set out to achieve last year, our goals, everything.

For every part of the business, we had a target and a goal.

And then we basically go and do it the year after and we look back to say, right, yes, we've managed that yet.

We've done that yet.

We've hit that target.

Or no, maybe we were a bit short on that.

What can we do to make sure we hit the target this year?

And it takes a long time.

It does take two or three days because like I said, we go through it in minute detail.

Goal setting is one of the topics at the conference.

And I think the reason why I've got a goal setting one is because it is so, so important.

Otherwise, how do you measure anything?

Like, how do you.

You've hit anything if you don't have a goal.

So we set goals for every part of the business.

We go through everything from top to bottom.

We make a new column on the spreadsheet.

We put our goals for this year and that is what we use and that's what we work towards.

And then next April, we'll do the same thing.

Rinse and repeat and see where at and whether we've hit the goals and what we need to do to implement them or change it or add something in.

So if you don't do that, definitely worth doing because it keeps you on track as well and it's something you can refer to refer back to in the air.

Right, I'm gonna go because my mouth is really dry.

If you've got any questions, let me know.

If not, have a fabulous week, enjoy the sun and I will be calling you guys who are on the list as soon as I'm back and I will release the guest speakers when I'm back as well.

I might drop some hints next week whilst I'm in Benidorm.

I'll do a few lives in the group and I'll drop some hints to see if you can guess and if you guess it right, I'll tell you who it is and then, yeah, we'll go from there and hopefully we will make it the best event for 2025.

And like I said, yeah, we will speak to you guys soon.

Get yourself on the waiting list and enjoy the sun.

Stay safe and I will catch up with you guys next week from sunny Benidorm.

All right everyone, take care.

Thanks for watching and I'll speak to you soon.

Thanks for listening.

If you've enjoyed my podcast, don't forget to subscribe for me and if you want to speak to me, please visit my website@www.petaccountant.co.uk and if you'd like to join my Facebook group which is full of like minded pet professionals, then search accounting for pet professionals in Facebook and I will see you there.