Dashboard: Are We Really Going to Ban TikTok?

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor the great game of business I'm Lauren Feldman I'm here with Gene marks to talk about the things we think business owners should be following this week welcome Jean hello Lauren it is great to be here great to have you here Jean you're always writing and talking about stuff wait wait wait wait you didn't say that this was sponsored by the game of business Lauren G are you're not listening to me I most certainly did did you say that did I miss you did you're you're you're not once again you're not paying attention to me G guess I'm not focused I'm not focused but I'm sure the nice Folks at the great game of business will appreciate us doing it again we are in fact sponsored by the great game of business so sorry that I didn't hear that I was getting my notes in order carry on thank you for doing that sure Jean you're always writing about stuff that matters to business owners uh I want to start today with a story out of Montana which we don't usually do um last week the governor of Montana signed legislation Banning the use of Tik Tock effective January 1st uh there's a lot of speculation that there will be more bans of Tik Tok perhaps even at the federal level um I'm wondering what you think of this are we really going to ban an app that so many small businesses have come to depend upon yeah I absolutely disagree uh with doing that I I can't imagine I mean this seems like such a uh just a a political stunt you know to do this and uh and frankly a political right-wing stunt which is which is just silly you know obviously everybody has so much concerns about China taking over uh uh you know and owning Tik Tock you know ostensibly or indirectly and uh you know there's some kind of a security issue or privacy issue I don't see it I don't get it it's a hugely popular application um I think if the government wants to focus or the government of Montana wants to focus on security they should make sure that their servers are completely uh you know protected from any Chinese people hacking them uh rather than spending the time passing legislation on a um you know on a on a platform that so many people enjoy and use and and that so many like you said so many businesses take advantage of to not only like you know advertise to for prospective customers but for prospective employees as well so I don't listen do you go on Tik Tok Lauren are you on that or Instagram uh I am not oh either okay so I'm on Instagram and frankly everything that goes on Tik Tok eventually makes on Instagram too and and I don't post anything although I hear from businesses that it doesn't have the same impact on Instagram and that Tik Tok is a different animal and different demographics um and different approach it's just it's it's all about audience I mean Instagram like I F I don't post anything but I follow like a number of very highly inappropriate accounts um recommended by my kids and um and I laugh and I laugh and I laugh and then oftentimes I you know I get ads served up to me frequently on Instagram um not only just from big companies but from small companies as well and companies that are looking to sell their products and also to look for employees as well I get recruiting ads on it too so so those platforms are are a help for small businesses and it's just annoying to me that um that they would be shut down by the government for you know an ostensible reason I just think it's stupid well I I think there may be legitimate concerns there both about security and about the uh government of China uh owning the app and having access to um to our data and the potential for for uh influence there but you know a lot of those issues apply to to all apps I've never really UND that whole uh concept of owning the data and having influence over people so then China can feed me ads to get me to vote for a particular politician if they like is that that's the concept there there have been some efforts uh in that direction you know not necessarily from China but from other places I think it's it's something that bears watching I don't claim to be an expert on it I I I I guess I'm just I'm not dismissing it as an issue but it applies to to all social media Med and if you're concerned about privacy you should be concerned about it on Twitter and Facebook and elsewhere uh and I think we maybe we do need some regulation uh looking at that but but at this point Tik Tok has become such a part of the environment and to strip it away I mean the the one thing that I think um a lot of people don't fully appreciate about Tik Tok it is that I think it's the easiest place to get started right now to get discovered so even if you haven't been building up a following the way you need to on LinkedIn or Instagram uh or Facebook you can go on there and if you post something that people find valuable it can go viral the first time you post something that doesn't really happen on the other places very often um so you know you you read all the time about restaurants with a line around the block because they've posted something useful on Tik Tok um yeah there's a there an ice cream shop right around the corner from us um down here in Philly it's like around U it's on 20th and Sams something and um the guy runs his business off of Tik Tok and Instagram frankly I mean it's a popup shop and he announces what flavors he's going to have and when he's going to be open and all that and then I I walk by there like a line of Millennials waiting for an overpriced ice cream cone you know he has he has a model that he follows and he relies heavily on the guy's like doing he's doing bank man and he uses Tik Tok heavily for doing that and if Pennsylvania passed a law that you know forbid him from doing that that would be a problem for him and I think it's stupid well it is a good reminder that there is danger in being reliant on any one platform uh that said it's the business model for a lot of people to just rip that away is um kind of mindboggling at this point all right next topic um The Wall Street Journal published a story last week about how the IRS is having trouble keeping up with the Deluge of amended returns for small businesses is claiming the employee retention tax credit or ertc uh the IRS says it's trying to be careful because they are seeing a lot of fraud I suspect that's the result we've seen so much uh marketing aimed at small businesses trying to get them to uh to agencies H wanting to uh be hired to help small businesses promising you know maybe too much uh and maybe charging too much um what does a small business owner need to know about this so first of all um every small business owner should find out if they're eligible for the employee retention tax credit that's a given I mean I don't care what business you're in if you were partially or fully shut down during um most much of covid I think it's the last three quarters of 2020 the first three quarters of 2021 and there are even exceptions to that um you might be eligible for this ginormous tax credit that you can get potentially um by amending your payroll tax returns for the quarter that you were affected um to find out if you are eligible do not respond to any emails or text messages or calls from all these firms that are out there telling you that you're due millions of dollars uh talk to your accountant and talk to or talk to your payroll service uh about uh you know about the ertc the employee retention tax credit most good accountants and most good Payroll Services will uh find determine if you're eligible often times for free for the most part they should be able to find out uh just by asking some questions and looking at your data very quickly whether whether or not you'd be eligible and if you are then they'll go and they'll follow the process to um file the amended return if you're in the restaurant business or the retail business it's like a no-brainer because you might you were probably shut down or lock down for a period of time during covid so you absolutely should be looking into this um and then as far as the IRS having their problems processing all of this that's not your worry I mean you know the IRS going to do what they're going to do and if it takes a little bit longer to get the money then so be it but it is uh you know it's yet another pandemic program excuse me that was started with good intentions um and did serve a really good purpose but it is a uh look at us people are getting the money now you know years after the pandemic uh so obviously wasn't I don't think that was intended let alone all the Havoc that it's giving to the IRS so these are kinds of things for the next pandemic we'll just have to keep in mind yeah the fraud thing is interesting I think you know one of the things that that signals potential fraud is you know we've all heard if it sounds too good to be true it probably is except in this case the credit was so amazing so generous that it really did sound too good to be true but it was true and I think that has left businesses exposed to these fraudsters that you were referring to uh sending out you know all the emails and all the text trying to get people uh by promising even better returns than they could possibly have hope for 100 I mean don't be an idiot you know I mean you're getting like spam emails from people that are you know saying that you can you have millions of dollars waiting for you I mean you know you know talk to your accountant or talk to your payroll company that's that's all and if for some reason your accountant doesn't do this have your accountant recommend somebody another accountant that specializes in the ertc uh but don't just respond to the emails and texts or whatever uh you know marketing you're getting from these these you know these firms because they are fraudulent and they some of them are and they they can really get you into trouble because they can file payroll tax amended returns you can get the money in and then honest to God Lauren five years from now um suddenly you're getting audited by the IRS uh because it turns out you weren't eligible for the tax credit and you should be giving the money back one thing the journal article warned about is to be aware that it can take a while the IRS is moving slowly they recounted the story of one business that got their first check um really quickly thought the next two were going to come just as quickly and made plans to spend that money and then uh got in big trouble when the money didn't show up as quickly as they thought it would right next topic you recently reported in the hill that bankruptcies are skyrocketing um is that big companies and small now it is um it is the numbers themselves are are ticking up um you're rather significantly this is the piece I just wrote in the hill just it came out I think on Saturday um and it is a um uh it's not a surprise because you know now that a lot of the government funding is kind of running out the economy uh in some Industries is slower uh interest rates are higher uh there are you know know companies having a hard time you dealing with with refinancing and debt and whatever um that it is a you know it's having its P you know it's having its impact you know so there's different sources that have reported you know reported this the uh the administrative offices of the US courts uh uh you know C services that track bankruptcies or separate Services S&P Global they all reported like higher levels of bankruptcies um this year year to date compared to last year year to date um in some cases as much as 24% higher so you know that's it's a lot so you know and and you know my contention is that you know it's only half the story because I think there are a lot of small businesses out there that do shut their doors or have been shutting their doors for whatever reasons uh and are a um doing so because you and you don't hear about them you know they don't go through the you know the machinations of filing for bankruptcy so therefore they're not you know um you know they're just not part of the records but they're out of business um the only the biggest piece of advice I have for everybody is that if you are in any kind of financial trouble or you you know you you think that it's you know it's this could be impacting your business for whatever reason you know just be aware that I think back in 2019 um there's there was a new law passed called the small business reorganization act which helps smaller companies um you know you know file for uh you know reorganization under chapter 11 it makes it much easier for those smaller companies to do that and then that way they can um you know there's less paperwork there's less legal fees there's a quicker turnaround time you don't have to have a whole Committee of your creditors and all that kind of stuff and therefore you you know you can file for bankruptcy and get at reorganized and get back into business um less expensively and with less time so if you do think you're heading into trouble uh you should talk to a bankruptcy attorney and ask them about the small business reorganization act uh because it is it is designed to help smaller companies what's different about it what what does it let you do it looks at like the level of debt so I believe the numbers um I for it used to be like seven and a half if you if you owed less than seven a half million dollar of debts you would qualify for the small business reorganization Act there other factors as well so it separates out big companies following for chapter 11 and small companies and they're allowing small companies to sort of skirt some of the rules got it all right last topic um you wrote last week about the uh looming default crisis we also spoke about it last week on uh dashboard uh and you gave us um some of the same good advice both on dashboard and in your article be careful if you have government contracts be aware uh of what could be coming and also uh if possible try to try to hoard some cash uh here's my question as we get closer um do you think our businesses doing enough to make sure people in Congress understand how catastrophic this would be um I mean when this happened a decade ago there were big economic consequences even though there was no actual default just getting close was was difficult enough what do you think it is it's such nonsense all of this you know conversation going on it frustrates so many people uh it doesn't have to be you know people really question what is the purpose of a debt ceiling anyway it's just it's a lot of political ganship and as we head into a pol you know into an election year and frankly even all the debt that we have I mean it is denominated in in our currency so it does give you a lot more options for dealing with debt but that's a whole other conversation yeah also just I mean as I think everybody listening to this probably understands this money's already been spent um if there there's certainly conversations to be had about the next budget and uh th you know those are serious talks and you know that that'll get sorted out but this is about money that's already been spent it is and it isn't I mean I do agree with youy that it has already been you know in some case has been spent but you know I last week alone I was at six or seven different clients a couple of them actually do business with the federal government or indirectly with the federal government you know they they contract out to government contractors and I asked like are you like concerned and neither of them were they were like n these projects already been funded so we're all good you know so when you dig into it that you have to Define what you mean by funded uh number one is yeah if they've been funded and the money has been you know spent by the government you've got it in your bank account and you're working on the contract good for you that's fine but you know just bear in mind that if the treasury you know department has to you know make some decisions and play some games with funding in order to make sure we don't defa on debt and prioritize interest in principal payments and stop funding existing you know contracts they you know they could well be doing that so you know and and the clients that I spoke to last week weren't really aware of that you know like they they didn't really think that that's a big issue or that's going to happen to them um per se I mean I've got my contract with loed Martin and they've always been good you know and um I don't know I mean if if if the if this goes on long enough it would have that impact on businesses and like you said it would have an enormous economic and financial impact so you know and yet the re to answer your question I don't think businesses are putting the pressure on their Congressman because I just don't think they believe one that it's really going to happen and number two is that it really is something that's going to impact them and whether or not they're being naive or not that's another question you know yeah I think you're right I think there's a sense that this it's never happened before so it always goes down to the wire and that's what will happen this time and nobody would be foolish enough to throw us into default yeah I mean it would be pretty it would be pretty crazy thing to happen and pretty much guarantee that Donald Trump gets elected again you know what I mean honestly I think people would just be so up in arms if if if it went to a stage where it literally hit them in their pocketbooks you know what I mean well it's so catastrophic I I I hesitate to get into the political ramifications that's such a new world who knows which way that would fall but it it would be catastrophic and again you know the the bad stuff can happen even if we just get close that's what happened 10 years ago y absolutely right so I don't I just don't I don't think businesses are paying as much attention to it I think as they should be and I don't think that they uh because they just they don't think it's going to happen you know to them and you know listen in their defense though I do have to say I mean like both business owners I talk to were like guys my age you know what I mean like they've been around the block so I don't want to say they're like ignorant people you know what I mean they just and they could be wrong sure well also I mean this is business owners like to focus on things they can control this seems way too big not so true so true I used to when I talked industry groups you know back 10 years ago I mean I remember talking to them during the Obama times and you know about the de remember all the deficit conversations then and the national debt things whatever and I would talk to them about you know the impact that this could have and there everybody's eyes would just glaze over you know I mean because they're just like whatever I this what can I do I'm just trying to freaking sell you know you know widgets here you know what I mean so it only goes so far I guess I just we've been through so much the last few years um to to have a self-inflicted wound like this um even being threatened just seems crazy Beyond The Pale yeah um are you GNA write about it um I'm not sure if I I might be I might be out of things to write about until something new happens yeah you know what I mean so well I would encourage you to think about just making sure those in uh positions of authority know just how bad this would be if we even got close to it fair enough anything we should look for from you this week um yeah I just I just uh finished a piece uh this morning just on on the state of getting Capital um you know you know you know you know RIT right from bis two credit um sure yeah I mean they they you know his his monthly uh report of loans getting approved is starting to get concerning it's it's know that those numbers are going down and down and he just reported two weeks ago that it's you know more falling in small businesses getting loan approval and um so I wrote about that you know I talked to a few people that are out in the market and um we can talk about that next week sounds good Gene marks is a CPA who write well it doesn't sound good actually yeah it doesn't sound great it sounds good to talk to you about it uh it's not great news uh Gene marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago daily Harald Forbes an entrepreneur you can also hear him on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean host two small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford this episode was brought to you by who who Jean the the game of business the great game of business great game of business sorry okay which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more atre game.com thank you Jean thank you so much Lauren see you next week have a great week everyone [Music]