Dr James, 9s:

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Dentists Who Invest Podcast with a new face for the podcast and, I'm very pleased to, Mr Arun Sachdev, specialist accountant and also a specialist accountant to dentists as well. Looking forward to get to know Arun as this podcast progresses. Arun also has an interesting story whenever it comes to setting up his own squat. I know us dentists call dental practices squat, but yes, squats exist in other businesses, guys Newsflash okay, Arun going to be talking about that in just a second as well, which is fun, and this episode is going to be more of a meditative, reflective episode on when do we actually spend our wealth and when do we save a little bit. When do we actually spend our wealth and when do we save a little bit? Because it's very easy to get caught up in the numbers and try to reduce our tax bill by reinvesting and all of those things, but then also what that means is sometimes we don't actually have any capital to spend on the things that we love anyway. More on that in just a second, but before we jump straight in, how are you today, Arun?

Arun, 1m 7s:

I'm good, I'm good, James, nice to see James, nice to see you.

Dr James, 1m 10s:

Hey, it's cool, man. Listen, I know we've been meaning to get Ron to do an episode for ages, so I'm glad that that's finally happened. And, Arun, you were telling me a little bit about your story before we came on camera today and I was like, whoa, okay, we've got to save this for the podcast, Arun. So then, what it means is, while you're going through this story, while you're going through this story, while you're telling us this story which, from what you told me, sounded really interesting and it was a little bit of like a how can we say, uh, you, you know an experience which grew you as a person and made you see things in a different way, and I was like, right, save it for the podcast. So then, whenever you're telling me, my reactions can be authentic and hopefully reflect the viewer or listener as well. So, yeah, anyway, let's talk from me. How about we jump straight in by with a little bit of a bio about yourself and that story, so the viewers get to know you a little bit and know a bit about your background?

Arun, 2m 3s:

yeah, sure, sure so. So my firm is called Dentotax um we've recently set up that as a new brand of our firm. Our firm is called Satchchebs Chartered Accountants. So it's founded by my grandfather in 1973. That came about because my grandfather was an accounts lecturer in India and he was invited over by Solihull College to come and teach um accounting, came over in the late 60s and was doing that job. 1972, um britain joined the eu and this new tax called vat was introduced. Um most dentists don't need to worry about vat, a few will know what it is um. So a lot of the local businessmen, a lot of sole traders who used to drink with, would say look, can you do our vat for us? Um, our accountants refused to do it. He said look, I'm just, I'm just a teacher, I'm just a lecturer. Um, I don't actually do the stuff, I just teach it. They said look, come on, like a lot of these people were illiterate. Um small, very small businesses um wouldn't be able to do their own back returns. So my granddad, after a bit of persuasion, a few pints and maybe some uh pound notes, uh got exchanged um reluctantly agreed to do these about returns and, as you can expect, kind of six months to a year later he's making more money doing bat returns and accounts than he was any from the college. So he, um, packed in his job, called um his sons over, one being my dad, and they set up this business 1986. Dad qualifies and they set up this business 1986. Dad qualifies he takes over the practice 2011. I qualify, I take over the practice. Um. So yeah, we've been going 52 years this year. Yeah, third generation. Uh, chartered accountant, um, but yeah, it was a normal practice. Um, you know, our clients were local small businesses. Um, when I was at university, I lived in the same block as a bunch of dentists and got to know them quite well, and so I graduated a bit earlier, because dentistry is a five, five year course and mine was a three year course. By the time I qualified, they had also, um qualified to be leaving their their VTs and became associates and said look, can you do our tax return? I said, well, I've never, never, done a dentist return before. Um, listen, no, no, you, you've got to do it. Um, so I did it. Got their tax bill that was lower than most their other, um, friends, because, look, everyone got paid the same during VT and the few months that you're a sole trader for after VT, everyone is roughly the same. But my mate's bills tax bills were lower than everyone else's and that actually naturally started a progression. Decided to do a stand at the dentistry show in 2010, 2011. Um, that went really well. Uh, again, another stroke of luck we were put next to dr bob cunner, who I'm sure, um, all your listeners will be familiar with, and at the time his stance he was the new thing in botox. Um, he only employed 10 out of 10 models, to be honest, and we're next door, so his stand was absolutely heaving and we're just getting loads of new dentists just coming off of his stand rolling onto us. Um, and that's how it started. And now we kind of um, we have over 100 associates, probably 20 dental practices, a handful of hygienists and therapists. Um, so, yeah, we're pretty, we're pretty big in the game of dentistry. So we set up Dentatax just to separate it from our core business, um, and yeah, we just did the show, um, in May. It was very, very fun. Uh, we had this speed reaction game and a load of sweets, um, which always surprised me how many dentists love sweets. Um, yeah, that's quite, quite ironic. Um, but yeah, it was yeah, great show and yeah, we've got a lot of high quality dentists that we're proud to represent hey, man, top stuff, you know it's.

Dr James, 6m 6s:

It always fascinates me and interests me. We're all literally big kids at heart. Right, just give us some sweets. Okay, absolutely. And some sort of game in which the the prize or reward is to win those sweets. And uh, yeah, we're a sucker for that and I can't say I'm an exception. By the way, just for the record as well, I'd be there at that stand. I need to get myself to these flipping shows. I keep saying I'm gonna go and I never get wrong to it. So that is the agenda for the back half of 2024. I'm throwing that out to the airwaves and throwing it out to the universe, so I have to commit to it now anyway, Arun. So thank you for sharing your story. Was there more to it, your story, or?

Arun, 6m 42s:

is that that's the kind of, that's the, that that's the, the tradition of the business. Um, you know, like most dentists, you know you can get in a bit of a rut. You know, being an associate and, um, doing the mundane, and that's kind of similar to what happened with me. Um, my dad always said, you know, qualifies an accountant as similar to you guys, qualifies a dentist, and the world is your oyster. So I did what he said and I qualified and I said, dad, where's this oyster that you've been promising me? They said, well, look, I'd bought my first house because you've got a house. I was engaged to my wife, you've got a missus and you've got a good job. You know that's enough. Um, and I thought, okay, you know, our firm was earning, on a good year, 30, 40 000 pounds. And, uh, he said, well, what more do you want? That was a bit of a, that was a bit of an eye-opener. That was 2011. That's well, actually, that that isn't enough for me. That that's not what I'm about. That's, that's none of what you've said. Or, obviously, I love my wife and my house and stuff, but that doesn't interest me. I want to do something big. That was on a Thursday, on a Friday, friday lunchtime, I used to go do the banking, drop the checks off at our local HSBC, which is up the road from the practice. And I popped in there and I just had this argument, not argument, this discussion with my dad about wanting something bigger. Our practice was basically the garage next to my parents house. That was our practice, so no one really knew it was there. So I went to HSBC bank the checks and she says oh, Arun, just to let you know, we're closing the branch at the end of the month. And I went oh, it's about time you need to refurb this place. No, no, we're not. We're not refurbing it, we're closing the branch. Like this branch will be closed, rather than worrying about where I'm going to bank the checks, my first question was well, what are you doing with the branch? I said oh, we don't know. They'll probably sell it. As soon as I got home I ran my mate who worked at hsbc. I said I need you to find out who works in your estates department. Right, get me a name and a number. I'll be later. He calls me. He says I've got this name for you. I don't know how important this guy is called him. I said look, you're selling the branch, uh, hsb branch in tile hill in coventry. He said, yeah, uh. I said, uh, I want to buy it. So well, we're thinking of getting this agent involved. The agent will do viewings etc. Etc. We might put it to auction and I forget all that. I'll give you an offer now to take it off your hands. You don't incur any of that cost. He says all right, what's your offer? I said my offer's 150 000 pounds and he went okay, let me come back to you. A week later he calls me back. He says um, I've spoken to, we've had a board meeting. I've spoken to them. We can't do it for 150. Well, we'll take 160, right? Yeah, that's a good deal, on the condition that you let us keep the cash point and we'll pay you rent for it for five years. Well, um, yeah, I think I'll take that deal. So within um two, three months did the deal and I earned this hsbc branch and the plan was obviously to move in there, gut it all out and, um, that would become the offices. So move in, start gutting it out, the whole building just collapses. It collapses in on itself it actually fought.

Dr James, 10m 6s:

Okay. So when we say collapse, we mean it crumbles the literal structure of the building.

Arun, 10m 10s:

Yeah, I mean the roof became like like a c-shape. I mean it's like a bow, it's like a boomerang and there's, there's oh, it was, it was a disaster. And the builder's basically saying we can renovate this building for you, but it will be cheaper to knock it down and rebuild it. I thought, okay, fine, so call hsbc. I know you've just signed this contract about the cash point, but I need you to to um, get rid of your cash point. Well, why would we do that? I said well, because I need to knock the building down, and if I demolish this building, you can't have your cash point there. And they said no. They said if you actually try and demolish the building, we'll sue you. So for five years that was that was the term of the lease for five years I sat um basically paying a mortgage, paying business rates on this building which was just rotting. It was literally rotting. I was getting abusive letters in the post about you're ruining the, the area. Um, I stupidly put our sign up saying Satchel of Chartered Accountants coming soon, so everyone knew it was me um, and, yeah, we had a complete, complete disaster for five years. I was stuck there and, honestly, I was being sued left, right and center because people would walk there's basically between the office, there's a pub and a council estate and people basically get drunk at the pub, walk through the office trip and hurt themselves. Where there's a blame, there's a claim or vice versa, and so, yeah, I think I've got sued like three times, um, for whatever reason. So it cost me rent, it's costing me interest getting a little bit of rent, and it's just my wife's just distraught. She's like please sell it, please sell it. But I knew that if I could get planning permission, but I knew that if I could get planning permission, that building would revolutionize my business. It wouldn't be the normal practice that my dad was running. So I bared my time. 2016, 2017, came by, applied for planning permission, got planning permission, kicked HSBC out and, yeah, managed to get planning permission, kicked HSBC out and managed to get planning permission. But the builder that we appointed he was just messing me about. I was getting pulled from pillar to post. In the meantime, my biggest client, um, instructed me to come to Dubai. He was basically putting on an event at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and I think he had um Craig, david, rick Ross and Buster Rhymes all performing at this event. He said I need you to come here and basically make sure no money goes missing. So we did the event. It was great. And the last night we went for dinner and I've never been to Dubai. I'm a boy from Coventry hardly left the West Midlands and we're sitting in Dubai and we're sitting in the marina having a drink. And he says to me he says when do you want to sort your life out? And what do you mean? He goes are you just going to be a normal accountant from Coventry, your whole life working at your mum and dad's garage? And I went yeah, I mean it suits me fine. Yeah, I get paid two, three hundred pounds of tax return and you know I earn what I earn and I've got a little house. He goes oh, you sound like your dad, you need to do more. He says just look where we are. You know we're sitting in the Burj Khalifa, overlooking the fountains, drinking a whiskey, which things like 50 pounds a glass, because it's so expensive there. And he goes when we land if you don't sort that building out, I will leave you as a client. I thought I'm not going to take my risk on this, because he's my biggest client. He paid me a lot of money, um. So I landed and my father-in-law was at my house, um, my wife, um, obviously more comfortable, and I'm away that he's around. And so I landed and he said I'll see you later. My father was in construction and I said don't go anywhere. Can you build this building for me? He went yeah, that's what I do for a living. I said I know you're my father-in-law and I know it's going to be a difficult year and I'm going to be shouting and screaming can you build this building for me? Because, yeah, I can build it. I said, all right, within three weeks the builders went in and we knocked the building down. Problem was I didn't have any bloody money, so I need half a million pounds to build this. So I went to the bank. They got my chance at accounting, got a reasonable track history, and everyone said no. Every single person said no. That what the hell am I going to do now? And so literally I begged borrowed and steal. I went to everyone that I knew and said can you lend me some money? And some people said yeah, I've got five grand. Can you do me a business plan and this that did that. So if you've got five grand, it's not going to help me. How much do you need? I need a hundred grand. I need five people to lend me a hundred grand. And God knows, James, how I did it, but I managed to do it and in a year we built that building and on the 1st of September 2018, we left the garage and moved into this building and if you ever get to see it, I mean it's a pretty cool. But in there is my accountancy practice, a barbershop and four flats, all built just off the back of my client threatening me. But sometimes you just need that push.

Dr James, 15m 14s:

You need that.

Arun, 15m 14s:

Kick up the arse and the reason for the barbershop is I know this is an audio podcast, but you can see me on camera. I've got a beard and I have had it for 10 years, as most people do. And have you ever seen the film Inside man?

Dr James, 15m 31s:

I have not Not heard of that.

Arun, 15m 33s:

It's got Clive Owen in it and he basically robs a bank from the inside. He basically hides in the bank and robs it in the leaves, but in there the guy whose bank it is, he has built his own barbershop in his bank. So when the private investigator comes to see him, she's he's having his beard done in a barber chair in his own bank. And I said to my wife at the time I'm gonna do that. She said why? I said well, I've got to drive half an hour to get my hair cut. I'm gonna sit there and wait, then the guy does my hair, then I'm gonna pay for parking, then I'm gonna come. It's three hours. I said I should be able to just decide I want my haircut and beard this second, go next door and do my beard and hair. So when I built the building I built the barbershop.

Dr James, 16m 21s:

Oops, sorry, something just popped up on my screen. It was a video in the background. Sorry for that little interjection. You were saying about the barbershop.

Arun, 16m 31s:

Yeah, so I built the barbershop. So I kitted it out, put the chairs in and I built this barbershop and then put an advert out Does anyone want to own a barbershop? You can basically lease this building off me. Yeah, and the building being an idiot, leave it blank it. And the barber the builders being an idiot, leave it blank it. Can be a bakery, it can be this. I said no, no, I need a barber shop, I need to have my own barber shop. I can't be wasting time every four or five days getting my haircut. So, yeah, built the barber shop, built four flats, and that was probably the best investment I ever made. And we were no longer a small accountancy practice, you know, representing local businesses. We became a pretty dominant force with clients doing 40, 50, 60 million pounds in turnover, dental businesses, three, four, five, six practices and, like I said, every 100 associates, 20 plus practices. And all because of that one moment where I thought I I have to do this, otherwise it's just not going to happen life is short man like, and you know people.

Dr James, 17m 40s:

People talk about risk a lot and I see risk in a completely different way. I'm like you know what, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. You know it's like. Aren't you better off taking a leap and, you know, experiencing how that might look and potentially benefiting from the upside, versus staying where we are, we hope, our whole life and risking the fact that we never get to experience life on our terms and get to experience a life that's as fulfilling as it could be to ourselves? You know, because it's like it's like this. It's like, you know you either have one hell of a result or you have one hell of a story. It's how I look at a lot of this. Yeah, right, and I'm gonna be like, right, what am I going to enjoy more when I'm 85? And you know, for me, that's why I see things. It doesn't mean everybody has to see things like that. It's just how I see things and that's what plays in my head whenever there's an opportunity in front of me. Of course, the thing about opportunity is it looks like risk at the time, doesn't it? It's only really whenever you look back in the rearview mirror that you say, actually that was a good thing, that was was an opportunity. And I want everybody to remember that. Risk, that's the thing about risk. It's actually potentially an opportunity, but you never realize that until you actually take the leap, roll the dice, make the move, and then you find out later. Elsewise, everything just looks like risk. You only really discern those things when it's happened and when you've rolled the dice.

Arun, 19m 3s:

Yeah, happened and when you've rolled the dice. Yeah, yeah, and there were plenty of people to tell you especially if you get it wrong, um, how it was your fault and how you shouldn't have done it, um, but generally they're the people who've never taken the risk themselves mind-blowing man.

Dr James, 19m 15s:

But I think, at the same time, though, I definitely used to be a lot more like that until I, uh was in a was and I was in certain places in my life where I had to do something or I was like, right, well, I literally I'm in a corner here, I just have to do something, and then it was only when I was put in that squeeze zone and then I did those things, that I was like, oh, this is actually reframed how I see these things a lot. So I just really hope that if anybody out there is thinking about doing something, that they don't have to be like me and be put in that position where they had no choice but to roll the dice and to, well, yeah, yeah, you know how can we say, do the thing. That was risky inverted commas, um, because it really did reframe how I saw that. But listen, you know it's been interesting to hear your story, Arun, and that definitely puts a lot of things into context. And you've been through your own. How can we say, like you've been through this business journey that a lot of people, well, they have been through or maybe they will go through someday. So what I'm saying is that you've gained experience on that front and you take that to your clients and it probably affects how you have those conversations with those clients as well. And you know what that's interesting? Because the main thing we wanted to talk about today is, whenever it comes to tax, whenever it comes to saving money, if we just look at the numbers, it's very, very, very myopic. We're looking at it through this one lens and we have to decide to. And if we look at something through one lens, we're certainly not appreciating the whole picture. And you can spend your whole life trying to reduce your tax bill as much as possible and, yeah, you'll have a low tax bill and yeah, you can talk about that on a friday night to your mates and all of that. But have you actually lived a life that's fulfilling? Have you ever had the opportunity to spend a little bit and do the fun stuff? And how do we make that call? That is such an interesting thing to delve into.

Arun, 21m 10s:

Yeah, yeah obviously the opening part of that would be well, you've got to get your structure right. You know, understanding, sole trader, partnership, limited company, um is your, your first gambit, what your life plans are, how much you need to live on? Um. You know, a number of people come to me and say, yeah, I set up a limited company because I pay less tax. Okay, but you do realize you can't take the money out of the company. What do you mean? I said, well, you have to live on 50 grand a year. Can you live on 50 grand a year? No, my mortgage is more than 50 grand a year. Okay, so who advised you to go limited then? Well, the guy in the pub said if you go limited, you pay less tax. Okay, well, maybe don't always listen to the guy in the pub. Take professional advice, um, but there's certain things we can do, which, um. You know restructuring the shareholding of limited companies, classic one, um. And you know there's ways, with enough planning, um, although hmrc are currently looking into it, um, ways you can use your parents to potentially pay for your children's school fees. It's a good way of extracting money. But, yeah, lots of different ways that we can apply planning to take the money out, but the tax cannot be the driver of how you run your business. You know, I just told you about our office but a number of really well-to-do dentists who decide to pull up in a Nissan Leaf and I know they're into cars and I said what have you brought there? They said, well, it's a Nissan Leaf. These are the capital allowances and this is the benefit in kind tax. That's great, but when it's cold and it's February and it's miserable, you look out the window. You've got to go to work being an associate and, let's be honest, you probably don't love being an associate because, yeah, but I love the money. I said, and with that money you bought in this underneath is your hair, but I save on tax. So, yeah, that that can't be the driver. So I'm very personal relationship with with a lot of my clients and so, look, any accountant can do the numbers. That's the easy bit and, quite frankly, that's the boring bit. Um using my experience and knowledge from other industries um to bring that in and help clients um decide what do you want to do with this money? What do you want to do with this wealth? Do you want to grow it? You want to reduce your liabilities. Do you want to spend it?

Dr James, 23m 27s:

um, that's really where we have the relationship and that's really where we can advise what's right and of course it's going to be from here right and where I'm pointing to right now for people who are watching this on or listen to the audio broadcast. I'm pointing to my heart and what I'm saying is that it's very much a field thing, as much as anything else, and I just think that if we think about it too much with our logical brain and reducing the numbers, then actually there's a lot of life that we miss out on, a lot of living yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Arun, 23m 58s:

I would give you a classic classic story happened during covid. Covid was really good for us. Um furlough scheme was quite complicated, so we did quite well at that doing um seable applications, bounce banks, you name it and we couldn't spend the money. Um. So we ended up with quite a bit of cash and I had two choices. Your interest rates were low. I thought probably not best to um pay off debt at this, at this moment in time, and um I went and bought a car, which is which is madness, let me think about it. Yeah, to spend. So I bought a lamborghini. And to spend that money on a car rather than paying down my mortgage, putting money aside for school fees and paying off the loans on the office and buy to learn some properties that we've got, would have been the right thing, and that's the accountant answer, isn't it? The accountant answer is pay off debt. That's going to reduce your interest. It's going to reduce your interest, it's going to increase your profits and you'll be able to retire earlier. But, in the grand scheme of things, what's the point in retiring with no debt when you're 70 years old? You've missed out. You've missed out on life. Those opportunities are not going to be there when you're 70, you have to just take it. I was talking about my dad earlier. You know my dad's philosophy was just invest, invest, invest, um, and then 56 died. Well, what's what's the lesson there? The lesson is actually life is short and yet we can give you all the advice you want and save you tax within the law all day, but if you're not going to live your life, you don't enjoy the money or what we're doing it for and you know what it's.

Dr James, 25m 38s:

The eternal quandary, isn't it? Have you ever heard the expression or saying? I know, I don't know who this is by, or even if it can be attributed to someone, it might be an anonymous quote. So the expression goes capitalism is jam today or more jam tomorrow. Yeah, what they mean by that is, the more you hold your breath, the better payout you can be. Breath, the better payout you can be, the better, better payout you can have whenever it comes to your money. But, at the same time, that logic only really holds true providing we actually make it, providing we actually get there and providing we actually remember to cash out at some stage. The eternal point and but, but then, of course, the flip side is where we're just flipping with our money and we just blow it all. Basically, so you know when you're this way. This why this podcast is really interesting, because you actually sit and have these conversations with people all day long. So is there any wisdom or any logic or any rules of thumb that you can give the audience today from those conversations to help them figure out whether they're one or the other, or they've got the sweet spot right in the middle where they've got a little bit of balance on that front.

Arun, 26m 43s:

I think every, every client and every situation is different. It's same with dentistry. You know, I'm pretty sure every root canal that you get is not the same, otherwise be really boring, um, I'll give you a classic example. I've got a client who has been working his nuts off on his practice to save it for his son. His son is is a dentist, um, but has shown very little interest in taking the practice over. And my client calls me all the time he goes. I don't understand. I've done this for him, I've done this for him and I've said that, made this practice, and he's just not interested. Why is this happening so? Well, you didn't do it for him and if you did do it for him, you're a fool. I didn't quite say that to him, but you can't expect others to buy into your dreams. I said if he's not interested, sell the practice, take your money. That's a practice worth well over a million pounds. Just take your money, tax them. That'll be fairly minimal and most will be at 10. Take your cash and enjoy your life. So what about him? He will be fine. He's a qualified dentist. He will make six figures for the rest of his life. Don't you worry about him. Focus on you. I've got two daughters. Um, they're still quite young, but I said to my wife, I said I will leave them a little bit, yeah, but there's no way I'm basically going to work my ass off for the rest of my life just to leave it to them. Right? I want to spend my money and, um, yeah, that's the best advice I give to clients I don't, don't forget to live. If we can incorporate your living and find a way of bringing that into the business and having, you know, using those costs to reduce your tax, and of course, we're going to do that um, and that's what that's probably our skill set is is using these allowable expenses and teaching our clients to be a bit more savvy with their expenditure. Um, but you have to. You have to live your life. You can't just save and save for a day which may never come. You know, ai is a massive threat to a lot of industries. Um, we don't know what the last 10 years, 10 years ago, we didn't know what life would be like now. We didn't know about coronavirus, we didn't know anything that was going to happen. And in 10 years time, the world will be very different, you know, will dentists be required? Will accountants be required? Who knows? You'd be a fool if you just saved up all that for a day where you can't take out your money, you can't enjoy your life.

Dr James, 29m 11s:

Boom. I think it's just about having some real words with yourself and thinking, right, what actually is my goal here? Words with yourself and thinking, right, what actually is my goal here? And if my goal is to give my asset to somebody else, or if my goal is that I feel like there is some sort of higher purpose that I'm serving, where there's some instance of altruism that guides all my decisions or thoughts, just like the situation that you described just then, does that person even necessarily value it in the same way you do? Yeah, perhaps they do, but also perhaps they don't. You can't assume. It is what I'm saying. So that conversation is so important and just remembering to yourself that actually, yeah, life is short and there's only so much time that I have on this earth. There's, there's just, there's a sweet spot, you know, and it's one of those things, Arun, it's there's no right or wrong, are you with? I'm sure you'll agree, you know, because what's right and wrong is relative to the person and what they really want. But at least, if we can have these conversations, well, what it means is that people have more information through which they can make decisions, and their decisions become empowered rather than disempowered, or rather than decisions that we are just arbitrarily making without any really overall goal or objective yeah, yeah, 100.

Arun, 30m 31s:

I mean one of the biggest things I've done for a lot of my clients and it's something that I think I've done them a favor, and a lot of times they'll probably sit back. I think that I haven't. A lot of times I've talked associates out of buying a practice and becoming a principal because there's this, there's this thing in dentistry, isn't there that as an associate, you're giving 50 to your um, your principal, and you speak to the principal. He's giving 50 to the associate. One thinks the other's screwing them, the other one thinks the same and so yeah, that's true, yeah and you speak to the associate. So what's what you want to do, I think, is I want to have my own practice. It's okay. I've read. I've known you for 10 years. You've not once bought your tax return paperwork before the 25th of january. You got one job right. In terms of running your business and you can't even get that done on time. And you're telling me you're going to be in charge of seven people's wages and PAYE and your limited company accounts and dealing with the bank and dealing with covenants and dealing with insurances and dealing with employee law. I said yeah, yeah, yeah, but I have financial freedom. So do you reckon you're going to be working every weekend just understanding your business? And let's be honest, you're not that inspiring. You're a great dentist. Yeah, you're very good at what you do, but are you really going to inspire your associates to push harder? Are you going to get your team together and do, but are you really going to inspire your associates to push harder? Are you going to get your team together and say, this is what we're going to achieve? We're going to turn this practice into that? You're not that guy.

Dr James, 32m 7s:

These conversations sound like some frigging real talk right here.

Arun, 32m 13s:

Yeah, I get it. You're looking out for them.

Dr James, 32m 15s:

No, it's a good thing, but it's just interesting. It's great man.

Arun, 32m 23s:

Yeah, because the easy thing would be stuff that. Yeah, buy that practice. That's great, because you're now a 600 pound a year associate. I'm gonna turn you into a 600 pound a month practice. Um, but I can't do it. You know I can't do it. It's very clear. You are not designed for business. Yeah, you're a great dentist. Keep being a great dentist, a classic one, especially kind of. In the world that we live in, we promote people for the sake of promoting them. You know, a guy could be really good at stacking shelves in Sainsbury's. Really good, he's really good at knowing where the stock is getting out the back and putting it on the shelves. He lines up beautifully and because he's good at that. You know what we do. We make him a manager, but he can't manage people. The guy can't put three words together. But because he was good at the job, we move him up. And guess what? He's not a very good manager. The people now he's in charge of day that they're not happy. He's not happy and he leaves. So I think it's important that people know their skill set, they're really honest with themselves and say well, actually, who am I? What am I actually able to do? What are the skills that god has given me and how can I utilize those skills to give me, give myself, the best life possible? Um, and that's quite a hard thing to do because a lot of us try and convince ourselves with something that we're not. You know, I know my skill set very, very clearly. I I've been running my business for 20 years. I know the things I can't do. Yeah, I'm very disorganized, I'm a bit scatty, I just do whatever job is put in front of me. I've got no structure to that. But now what I do is I employ someone who is very, very good at that and I focus on the stuff that I am good at, which is selling BDM. I'm basically the BDM manager in my own practice. But you ask me about invoicing and you know HR and policies and this I haven't got a clue. I haven't got a clue. And a lot of associates are like that. They think that they look at their principal thinking that he's basically taking 50 percent of the money and he's always on holiday. It's just not true and they find out. Unfortunately, they find out the hard way. They buy the practice and they realize they make less money now than they did as an associate, working five days a week, turning for nine, about leaving at five o'clock and not having anything to worry about no, listen, I love the real talk.

Dr James, 34m 33s:

I really do, because how many accountants will actually go there and you're looking out for them, ultimately, and you're not necessarily saying don't do it, you're just saying, hey, do you know what? I've seen these situations, I've seen when it works out and I've seen when it doesn't work out so well, and perhaps there's a little bit of wisdom I've gained that I'm willing to share with you right now, and that's where you're coming from effectively. Yeah, exactly exactly boom. Anyway, Arun, listen. Thanks so much for your time today on the day problem who invest podcast, because I love these like slightly more philosophical episodes. Um, and the reason is it's so easy to get caught up in the numbers side of things and purely the finance and say, if I put my money in this account and it's going to appreciate by this interest rate, I'll have this much whenever I'm 90. Yeah, but you're also 90. Do you know what I mean? life has passed you by yeah, and this is the thing and this is no. You know, I just want to be very clear. Every respect for our elders, you know 100, but where I'm coming from whenever I say that is, you know. We gotta account for that, make provisions for the future. However, we also got to balance that out. We're living a little bit more in the moment, which is why these conversations are really valuable. Arun, you're an accountant, but with a twist in that you have these conversations and you keep it real and you do the business planning side of things. Arun, if anybody listening this podcast today wants to reach out to you, how would they be able to get in touch with you?

Arun, 36m 2s:

yeah, so you can find me on linkedin. I'm pretty active on on linkedin, um, otherwise, yeah, such devs, chartered accountants, um, and dental tax just just google those and you and you'll find us. Um, and yeah, don't be, don't be afraid, don't just just don't be shy, reach out. Yeah, we love to hear from prospective clients and see if we can help them achieve their dreams. Awesome, my man listen, aaron.

Dr James, 36m 27s:

Thank you so much for your time today. I'm already looking forward to our episode, our next episode. Much love, my friend. Hope you have a great Tuesday and we'll speak soon. Thanks, James, good to see you.