Built it with your hands. Built it yourself.

What you're actually navigating

A truck that should probably be replaced before the warranty's gone. A shop you've been leasing for fifteen years that you should probably own. An S-Corp election you've been told about but never made — or made wrong. A retirement plan you don't have because nobody told you what actually fits a small shop. Equipment depreciation you've been doing the easy way instead of the right way. A 1099-vs-W-2 question for your crew that the IRS would disagree with you on. A workers' comp policy that hasn't been requoted in eight years. A 401(k) you set up at the bank when you started and have been adding to without thinking about it. A succession question — what happens to the business when you stop showing up — that keeps getting kicked down the road.

Most advisors don't engage with any of this. They want your IRA. They don't know what to do with the rest of it.

We engage with all of it. Because all of it is your money.

What a year with us looks like

January. Slow time of year. We sit down with last year's returns — your business's and your personal — together. The big question: did the S-Corp election we made two years ago actually work the way we expected? Reasonable comp set right? Distributions taxed correctly? We adjust for the year ahead. We also revisit your retirement plan: you've been funding the SEP, but the Solo 401(k) we discussed last summer would let you put away more this year given the projection.

March. Spring ramp-up. Equipment review. Your work truck is getting up there. The decision: replace it now and take the full Section 179 deduction, finance it and preserve cash for the busy season, or run it another year and risk a breakdown during peak. We model all three — what each does to your cash flow, your tax bill, your retirement plan funding capacity.

June. Peak season. Crew has expanded to handle the workload. One of your guys you've been treating as a 1099 is actually filling a W-2 role by IRS standards. We flag it. The fix: convert him to W-2, restructure his pay so it's neutral to him, and get ahead of the audit risk before it becomes one. Workers' comp gets requoted while we're at it — your employee count has grown.

August. A piece of land next to your shop comes up for sale. Could be storage. Could be expansion. Could be a rental. We model all three against your debt capacity, your cash flow, and your retirement plan funding for the year. Your real estate broker handles the deal. Your CPA handles the entity structure. We focus on what it does to you — net worth, tax position, what gets sacrificed, what gets gained.

September. A guy who used to work for you wants to buy the business — or part of it. He's been in the trade for fifteen years and you trust him. We model what an owner-financed sale would look like, what staying on as a consultant would look like, what walking away cleanly would look like. Your attorney drafts the LOI. We focus on the math and the lifestyle implications for the next ten years.

November. Year-end. Cash flow's been strong. We max the Solo 401(k), accelerate two equipment purchases for Section 179 (because you actually need them — not just for the deduction), set up charitable giving from the business, and adjust reasonable comp before the year closes. We also revisit the long-term plan: with the September conversation in the back of your head, do you want to take it seriously this winter, or push it to next year? Either is fine. We're not making the call for you. We're making sure it stays on the table.

Throughout. When a customer doesn't pay, when an employee gets hurt, when an opportunity surfaces — the financial implications run alongside the operational ones. We're typically a text away.

What this compounds to

The work isn't dramatic. Each decision is small. But the compounding is real.

Every year, the wrong S-Corp comp split gets caught and fixed instead of compounding into an audit. Every quarter, a tax payment is right instead of triggering a notice. Every equipment purchase gets timed for the right tax year. Every crew decision gets weighed against the rules that actually apply to it. Every real estate opportunity gets evaluated with the personal wealth picture already in view.

Over ten years, the difference between a tradesperson with this kind of engagement and one without it is measured in six figures of taxes saved, retirement funded, and wealth structured — and a business that's actually saleable when you're ready to walk away from it.

The actual value isn't any single decision. It's the accumulation of decisions made well, made on time, made by someone who understands both your trade and your wealth.

How the relationship runs

You text or email when something comes up. The texture is different from a desk job — you might call from a job site between calls, send a photo of an equipment quote, or text us mid-week when an opportunity moves faster than the formal calendar. We're typically same-day on text, next-day on email.

Quarterly, we sit down to look at the bigger picture — usually around your estimated tax payment timing. Annually, we plan the next twelve months across the business and the rest of your life.

We coordinate directly with your CPA, your attorney, your insurance broker, and your equipment dealers when relevant. You don't have to be the project manager of your own professional team.

If this sounds like your life

If your wealth has been mostly in things — equipment, real estate, the business itself — and you've never had an advisor who actually understood any of it, we should talk.