Dashboard: Dear ChatGPT: Do a SWOT Analysis of My Business

welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor the great game of business I'm Lauren feldin I'm here with Jee marks welcome Jean hey Lauren how are you I'm doing great how are you doing doing very very good and enjoying August it's a relatively open month for me before I start traveling again so it's nice going down the Jersey Shore chilling out like it's just uh uh it's good I'm happy to hear that for you you uh you're usually traveling so much yeah a lot of people these conferences don't get done as much in August you know what I mean it's sort of a slower month that in January so uh so it's anyway it's nice cool so let's uh let's start with uh artificial intelligence J you've been out there tracking AI developments uh that business owners should know about all year maybe longer uh last week you wrote a piece for the Philadelphia inquire in which you looked into some specifics about how businesses are actually using AI tools like chat GPT tell us a little bit about what you found sure first of all let me give you just I want to make sure I give a take on AI right now like I you know today is Monday and and um this gets you know on Sunday I have a I had a piece that came out in Forbes um that talks about Apple Lauren right that Apple actually announced that they are delaying their a AI features they came out and announced a bunch of them uh for their uh developers conference and uh now they're going to delay them and I'm like good for apple good for Apple because their AI features clearly weren't up to Snuff and rather than being like you know Google and Microsoft who just releases [ __ ] AI products and charges for it Apple which has more integrity and is a better company um basically said now we're going to hold off until we're we're convinced this stuff is actually good stuff AI doesn't work yet you know I mean you know if you're G to buy Microsoft co-pilot or or or Google gemni for workspace I'm just telling you right now this stuff does not work I mean I'm we're doing a and I'm going to get to geni in a second okay but we're doing a webinar at the end of August where we're going to um demonstrate Google gemni for workspace right and uh because I'm hoping to sell services and help clients with it you know and Lauren Lauren I gotta tell you I mean it is so we're gonna we're going to record this webinar in advance and stream it why because we are absolutely terrified of doing it live in front of a live audience because it's so stable and unreliable it just doesn't work it's just not good and it's the same thing with Co and I'm telling you this is a person who we're in the IT world we work with this stuff it's so I mean you know that gemni and and and B and co-pilot will get better I know it's going to be an important part of our business lives but not in 2024 that's for damn sure which brings me to gen AI because the only use that I'm seeing of AI in businesses is generative Ai and there were really three products that are sort of leading the pack here it's chat GPT as you know we're all aware Google gemni that's just like not the one for workspace but just overall Google gemni and Claude by a company called anthropic which is excellent and um so I do have clients that are using these tools to help them in their business and um I wrote about it you know in the inquire last week and we should say there's nothing earthshaking in what you wrote about um it's not changing business models that's not changing the world but it was interesting it is interest it's not um the other thing it's not doing it's like no one's using it to like Propel robots to like you know replace employees or or you know generating uh you know U you know AI applications that are doing all these things communicating with customers and switching off machines and delivering products and spewing out plans without humans being a not it's none of that stuff it's none of that stuff I mean I had one woman she sells online she uses chat GPT to help her write better descriptions for her products on eBay and Etsy do you know what I mean I somebody else that uses chat GPT to you know do better job writing proposals and blogs it makes good suggestions you know emails as well uh you can use it for research I'm doing it for research you know like I I have a proposal that I'm working on right now for a client and I wanted to do like a certain like logo on it and I went to chat GPT and I said can you you know create a logo that uses this color scheme and uh you know looks like this sort of logo on a website and it did it for me I mean it's great I mean these are things that are like not uh Mission critical they're not you know if if if it screws up it's not like your business is going to have an issue yeah it's just you know but if but when it works it's fast it's good you know what I'm saying there were a couple of things you mentioned though that I that I hadn't heard anybody else talk about using it for before one was you had somebody who's using it for a SWAT analysis uh of his business uh talk about that a little bit I thought that was intriguing yeah I I I like that I mean for you know a SWAT analysis that strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats okay so this is a guy that's like a business strategist and he uses uh chat GPT not only for his own business but for clients as well you know and he's like but he he sub a bunch of information about his business um his website he uploaded financial statements to it he told me he uh you know gave it a lot of background and he's basically wait I gotta stop you there is is that a good idea to give your financial statements to chat GPT none of it is safe none of it is private and none of it secure so what do what do you think my answer is to that you know okay actually the answer might surprise you it depends I mean like this guy is uploading his proprietary information to chat GPT I mean mean you know if you were to ask him he's like listen the advice that I'm getting back is so valuable to me that it's worth the potential risk yeah of up leading this information I mean this guy runs a little um you know strategic firm I mean who gives a [ __ ] about his financial information do you know what I mean like what is he like okay there are people really out like you know I feel that way with mine like I share everything with chat GPT just like you know I'm like who's looking for my stuff what what are they going to do with it you know what I mean put me out of business nobody cares competitors employees I don't know uh salaries that kind of stuff doesn't it just doesn't concern me that much that that I'm sharing that information they all promise that they're keeping it safe and secure I know they're they're they're trying but you know it's not guaranteed okay so let's go back he gives us puts up all this information then says what are my strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats yeah yeah and it gives him back all this different advice and then he ask for advice on how to improve his business he said something interesting that I thought was was pretty cool as well he goes um and I'm looking at the article right now he's like he ask chat GPT to improve his business and it makes suggestions and then he goes to chat GPT and goes hey um pretend that you're Starbucks or you're Disney what what would what would the CEO of Starbucks or the CEO of Disney say to improve my business and he said it it blows his mind away it comes back with like advice as if Howard Schultz from Starbucks was giving him advice on his business you know that was really cool I did not try that out yet maybe you should try Lauren I mean but that why those companies I mean why would we think that the CEO of those companies was using that as an example I mean like from my company like Mark Benny off is uh the CEO of uh of Salesforce you know I'm like you know what I I I I I wouldn't mind I I would like I could upload a bunch of information about my company here's my financials here's my products here's my team here's a whole bunch of stuff pretend you're Mark Benny off what advice would you have for me and um that would be interesting to hear what chat GPT tells me it's cool isn't it I mean that's that's cool stuff I want to read that column Jean uh do that and then uh let's talk about it that's a really great idea and I'm making a note about that about you know yeah that's a really good idea um because that's something I could write about for Forbes and saying did you you know did Mark Benny off advise my business and he has no idea who I am um I love it yeah that's cool so that's what the innovative ways that people are using chat GPT and and and other uh executive AI assistants they're called now there was another one that I found interesting which is there was somebody who talked about using chat GPT to help hone the company's message um and I thought that was a a good suggestion because I think I I've just observed a lot of business owners don't tell their own story very well they they don't they're too close to it they don't know what other people find exceptional or impressive uh about it and and this is a way to to get a different you know set of eyes on it uh is that do did I understand that right yeah you did I mean I'm gonna tell you how I cheat with Chad gbt so this is this is true life so every week I write a um you know this column for Forbes it's a Roundup you're very well familiar with this uh Lauren right and um so I like to take a snippet of news a news story like apple delaying their AI right so I have a news story from I don't know cnet.com and then I give my take on that story so the new story is from their website so you know I used to read the story and then craft a summary so it wouldn't like like look like I'm plagiarizing the story but craft a summary of the story and then give credit to the publisher but the value ad was me then saying here's my take on it you know what I mean so it's you know that that was my original content I don't do that anymore I point chant gbt to that story and I and I tell it um please summarize this story in you know 200 words and it just does it and sometimes I say this looks too much like the original story please give me another summary that doesn't look like the original story and it does that is that amazing and then I summarize it I put it into the article I I cite it you saying this came from CNET or whatever but then I write my own piece to it you know as to why I think this is important for business owners and it saved me a ton of time do you ask chat GPT to tell you why it thinks it's this story should be important to business owners no that's a really good question I've never done that and I don't I don't know if I want to because I I do want to think think on my own you know what I mean like you know I think like people are reading the col you know the four people that read the column um they're they're manufacturers next month and I was specifically asked can you give us some your thoughts on Market opportunities overseas for manufacturers and I do have some thoughts but I'm I'm back and forth with chat GPT like hey you're a manufacturer um what are some great markets that you should be uh you know looking at and um you know why and you know what are some of the pros and cons of going into those markets and what do I need to know before getting into that market as a manufacturer and where do I go for resource like I'm asking a bunch of questions and it's super helpful and when it gives me answers it cites the source so I can validate it make sure it's not [ __ ] and then I can take their answers and put it into a presentation um because I know that people in my audience aren't doing this stuff so I'm doing it on their behalf they will be yeah some will but you know there's there's a a large percentage of people that like to hear somebody tell them what to do or give them their thoughts you know what I mean so sure so I it gets back to the original point that you know Microsoft Google all this you know [ __ ] AI [ __ ] that they're they're selling that's just not it ain't ready for prime time yet so you can hold off on that but chat GPT and anthropics you had a couple of other uh suggestions though that things that you've tried that I want to ask you about quickly one was that you use it to analyze your website's uh SEO yeah uh yeah tell us about that that's easy I mean I just all and anybody can do this I mean you put a uh you put your url to your website and you're like give me SEO suggestions and uh it goes to town I mean it like analyz and says you can be doing this you can be doing that you can be doing that and then remember um chat GPT so this is what's different between uh an executive AI tool like GPT or gemni or anthropic and like just Google search you you converse with it this is your buddy you know what I mean so when they give you a response back you then say you know like can you elaborate on this or I don't understand what you're saying here or how can I you know implement this and you go back and forth with it and in a conversation it gets smarter and smarter and smarter by the way future version of chat GPT uh they're on version 4.0 now but you know it will remember you in all of your conversations so the more that you're willing to share with chat GPT the more it will know and remember you so it'll be like hey Lauren you know we still losing money at 21 hats you know I got some suggestions that's it I'm going to Gemini but it'll be it'll know all of your history and um and hopefully build a relationship with you that's the uh that's the point so these are good tools they're good tools the other thing you said you did in this article was you use it uh to suggest ways to improve your cash flow yeah has that been helpful no not really okay never mind I yeah you get a lot of boilerplate [ __ ] I mean remember it's taking a lot of stuff off the internet with bunch of goofy advice that it's like oh okay I learned that when I was in high school kind of thing um but listen you know that maybe that's me and I'm being snobby about it I mean if you're just starting out or you're you don't have much of a financial background no no I think you're right I'm sure you're right not that great all right next topic uh with some trepidation uh I want to note that you wrote a piece about what are is likely to happen to small business taxes if uh kamla Harris were to become president tell us uh tell us what you found so first of all let me let me preempt this with this okay there are a lot of reasons why you would vote for president and there are a lot of uh issues you have to choose what issues are really important to you and you should be basing your vote over what those issues are and I don't think that you should be Jud I'm not you Lauren just you in general should be judging other people because their issues are different from your issues some people think some things are important that you might not and vice versa so um you I've been telling my kids the same thing because it's confusing and there's a lot of things that are out there and you just got to you got to try and narrow down to what's really important to you so you know one of the few issues that are are very important to me personally and directly are taxes you know and again judge me or not debate me or not um you know I I pay taxes and it's an important issue for me as a CPA and a business owner so um it went through a lot of the math and uh based on what you know you know you know a presumptive nominee Harris would be proposing on for her tax policy and I compared her tax policies with you know with with Trump's tax policies and my math is showing that my um my taxes would go up anywhere from 20 to 30% if um if Harris is elected and I again we're all different so it really depends on who you are but let me explain why as a business owner um the Democrats and Harris um they have their tax strategy and I you can't AR you know you can argue with it but it's their strategy and it's fair enough they want to tax the wealthier they want to tax corporations more they want to you know clear up a lot of the loopholes in the tax system they want to enforce the tax you know taxpayers um more diligently and that's their ways of of improving the tax system raising money to fund their programs and and hopefully pay down the deficit as well that's their strategy and and it's fair enough that's you know if you agree with that strategy that's fine um Trump and the GOP their strategy is very different um what Trump and the GOP wants to do is they want to make permanent the 2017 uh you know tax cuts at jobs act which was Trump's signature legislation in his first term um he wants to lower taxes for individuals and you know and corporations um with the benefit of that he says the economists that are on in his Camp say and by the way there was just as many economists that disagree that by lowering taxes uh it would it would fund growth and then that growth would generate more tax revenues and that he could use to fund his programs and hopefully pay down the for the record that that don't think there was evidence that happened in 2017 but and when when you say something like that I just want to say for the record it really depends on where you're getting your evidence from and not like I'm not like I'm criticizing you Lauren but it's just there are people that will you're allowed yeah I but they'll they'll say stuff like that I can give you 20 economists that say there was no evidence that the tax cuts of job acts had any impact and I can give you 20 economists that say yes it did and here's the reason why so if you made that statement to the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal they would vehemently disagree with you and if you made that same statement to the New York Times They would they would in incredibly agree with you so it's you can't it's tough and it's tough for a business owner because you don't know I mean you know that's what I've learned by by studying and following economists all my life is they don't know what the [ __ ] they're doing and what they're saying you know you have economist that make predictions and and assumptions and forecasts and you know they they all have their own agendas and it's just and they lean to the right they lean to the left it's really hard if you're running a business like who do you believe so I don't know now I don't know if it's GNA if it's going to have a positive impact if Trump if the tax cuts and job acts is made uh if it's made permanent but I will tell you one thing it'll have a positive impact on my taxes that's for sure I'll give you some examples right like you know the tax cuts and job act has something called the qualified business income deduction right so I think most people listening to this podcast probably know about that they do and you know if you're a pass through business you know and most small businesses are you get this massive 20% deduction on your income so you made a th000 bucks in your business $800 of it goes to your personal return that's what gets taxed well if the tax cuts and job Act expires that goes away you know if you're running a C corporation your tax rate right now is 21% uh the GOP wants to reduce it reduce it to 20% and uh but if the tax cuts and jobb back goes away it will then go up to 28% um many businesses take advantage you know we buy property plant and Equipment um the tax cuts and job acts have had has an massive more than a million dollar deduction we can take right in the first year when we buy this stuff it's already starting to be reduced and it would go away um if the if the tax cuts and job backs expires there's many other examples um and again you know is this good for the economy not is this good for the country or not I don't you know I mean again that's we can have that other conversation but is is it good for me yeah it's good for me because I I need those deductions and my clients as well and my conclusion is in this hill piece that I wrote for the hill is that if you you know if you're a business owner you are most likely going to be paying more taxes if kamla Harris is elected president you didn't say most likely okay you will definitely be paying more taxes if KLA Harris is elected president and again Lauren you might have other reasons why you're voting for KLA Harris and I you know never judge people have their priorities but if it's that reason alone you you will pay more taxes that was the point of the column questions comments songs I got personal personal attacks go ahead on the big issue uh I mean I we're not talking about who we're voting for here we're talking about specifics uh involved in tax planning policy policy right and on uh on the big issues here I think we actually agree um the two points I would say is number one uh do I think that that uh 20% deduction for business owners the pass through deduction should be extended I do um two uh do I think that uh it's if you had to bet the house that you should assume that your taxes as a business owner are going to go up more under Democrats than under Republicans yeah you should probably assume they go up more under under Democrats so we we largely agree here I have a I guess I have two quibble yeah go ahead I have one small quibble and one uh slightly larger quibble um the small quibble is just with the degree of certainty uh that you approach this you make it sound to my reading as if it's a done deal that kamla Harris is opposed to maintaining the tax cuts in the 200 2017 uh package that apply to small business owners you're right about that and I don't think that's true yeah well you're right I mean she just in the past two weeks has reversed her on many other things that she said in the past so for all I know I don't think she's ever taken a position on that I mean you know she's only been a candidate for for about 10 minutes yeah um no this is she's always supported uh the Biden tax plan and the Democrats tax plan I mean I've looked back she has supported in general the idea that the 2017 tax package was too favorable to the wealthy and large corporations you're completely right about that but I don't you know we're talking about specific here especially how it applies to small businesses and I guess my point to you is that stranger things have happened than Democrats supporting small businesses for example it happened yesterday do you know what I'm talking about no there was a bipartisan uh tax package that went and not yesterday last week actually right right right it got shot down it got shot down in the Senate it was actually it was passed by the Republican controlled house overwhelmingly and last week it went to the Senate where almost all Democrats voted for it and almost all Republicans voted against it and it fell despite the fact that it had really important tax benefits for small businesses in it am I right right well you know why they you know why the Republic the Republicans voted against it because it they they opposed the child care tax credit and deduction Provisions that were being made in that tax bill they were in agre maybe that's why or maybe they see political advantages but the fact is uh it sailed through the house which is Republican controlled it did and it would have meant you know some certainty for small businesses that I mean we you and I have talked about that uh research credit that's been a big deal you and also included for the capital expenditures to restore that so yeah it is um it did have those provisions and then you're right it got it got um shot down in the Senate and and to your point as well about um Harris I mean man and I hope listen I hope KLA Harris is listening to this podcast right now she probably is me too and so I can say to you you know you you Miss Harris or vice president Harris that like if you open yourself up to say that you're open to discussing some of these provisions and um would potentially support for example making permanent the small business tax eduction you've got you know you've got 90 days until the election you know what I mean if you were to it would be it would be such a huge difference to um moderate voters like me um who are running businesses to hear that we just haven't heard it yet so you could very well be right Lauren for all we know between now and November she comes out and says you know what I actually am in favor of some of these provisions and would support that if elected president we just haven't heard that yet well it's it's not just that you I agree with you completely on that but it it goes beyond November because you know you can say whatever you want to say uh your plans are but then you get to the reality of dealing with a new Congress we don't know what that's going to look like the horse trading begins and you know who knows where it ends up so I I it's the you know but all I can do is if if I'm writing something right now all I can do is based on the facts that I know you know what I mean and the facts this is a small quibble but I'm just I'm questioning the certainty uh than you put it here here's my larger quibble you I've told you this before there's 's no one else who does what you do and uh I think it's so important I'm so happy that I have a chance to share what you do you you you're such an unusual person given your the fact that you own a business yourself you're a a CPA so you know the numbers the way very few people who write about business uh know them when people say this when when you build up something like this you're about to sh all over me all right you're I am not I am not I've said this before and uh that's why I love doing this podcast with you um I I guess this is the the quibble I think you could have written a better column I think there were the more interesting column that I would love to read of yours is taking a look at those small business deductions and asking the question is this the way it should be or could it be improved and you you actually had a you you mentioned something in the column that you did write um about how you know let me see maybe I have the quote right here you referred to how you have clients who um that earn more than $400,000 per year on paper but take much less of that in cash because they're reinvesting that money back into their businesses and and I think what correct me if I get this wrong you're the CPA but the issue here is with that pass through even though that 20% is uh a really good deal you still wind up with a situation where a business owner who decides to re reinvest money back in their business may have to pay taxes on that money as if they're putting the money in their pocket using a bad example you're using a bad example because you and I talked about this before and I wrote about this in detail before um I forget where and it was somewhere within the past within the past year um I gave example of a couple clients of mine uh that were in that very situation um because it was when you know Biden was was talking you know his talk about the wealthy and I dug into what the wealthy is and I used to a couple examples of business owners um and I'll find that article and I'll send it to you but your point is well taken though by the way because putting that aside which I I kind of covered I can always go back to it but I I should be able I think you're right when I I could take say even the small business tax deduction I mean you know to dig into like how does that impact you know a few business I'm not sure I understand let me stop you there you said that I gave you a bad example did I get the facts wrong no no no no you gave me a bad example because you said that um you know I'm I'm assuming where you're going is that like you would like to know more about that right you would like to right you know better well no I was going to take I I think I know the article you're referring to what I was going to say is I would have liked to have seen you write about specifically how that that tax could be improved I see I see what you're saying right and I I don't think you did that in the previous one and even if you did I think it's it's you know now that we're getting into the season where these you know the the 2017 tax cuts are going to be uh expiring and we're going to have this whole big National debate even if you've said it before I'd love to see you say it again how can that be improved um you know for for for everybody but especially for business owners funny that you say that L like I don't I I never really do that kind of stuff because I don't think that anybody gives a [ __ ] to hear what I think you know you know tax policy should be do do you know what I'm saying like and and I'm not saying that you're wrong you you you did in the piece about kamla Harris you you told us that if you care about small business taxes you're definitely going to pay more under her well yeah but all no what I'm what I'm doing is I'm I'm just I'm saying based on the facts and the numbers now yeah you're going to pay more what you're telling me to do is to say well you know how can you improve this what would you suggest what would be better tax policy that's what I think you're you're you're saying you would find more interesting right yes and again I don't um I've never done that before but who better than you you know the stuff in the way most people don't it's an interesting suggestion but for example um we we take the 400,000 per year uh example you know like you're running a pass through business you're still getting taxed on that uh you know that that's just a fact and that sucks and you know you know that's a problem we don't want you know that's a problem um so you should I be writing a piece saying well instead of doing that my suggestion to you vice president Harris is you're you're you should have a tax policy that does X or Y that's what you're saying like I should make I should make suggestions of tax policy um to my readers like this is what I think would be good well not to yes to your readers but also to you know the public at large uh because you're as much of authority on this as anybody and the and the way I would put it is look this is all going to be re-evaluated I mean it's probably not going to be just an up or down vote Yes we renew all of 2017 pack uh or no we throw it all away there's going to be horse trading and you might say when that those horses start being traded here's where I would point you this is where I think this could be improved it's good angle fair enough fair enough yeah I have to give us some thought in future columns as well I mean I all I like to write about is how things impact business owners do you know what I mean like and that that's that was the gist of this column if you elect Harris and you're just in a vacu about taxes it's going to impact you because you're going to wind up paying more taxes maybe um maybe uh you but you know for me to say you know here's how we should change the tax that's a completely different type of column do you know what I mean and um and one that I have to think about whether or not I feel comfortable writing you know like if I think that my again suggesting tax policy is not something I do well you know what go to chat GPT and and explain the problem and ask how could you solve this problem what policy would improve the situation for business owners uh and and maybe the US Treasury as well no what you know you know it's funny it's you speak to people on this podcast and the people part of your group that are they represent business groups and they uh their championing policies that they think is important you know what I mean and that's what they do for a living and I think that's great you know I don't I don't do that you can talk to them interview them put it all together I still think there's no one better than you to do it appreciate that all right fair enough it's good it's good stuff anyway you're gonna pay more taxes under Harris there let's end this conversation I had a feeling I wasn't going to change your opinion on that Jee marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia choir the Washington Times the Chicago Daily haral Forbes an entrepreneur you can also hear I'm on ABC radio's ey on the world with John Bach Gene hosts two small business podcasts with payex Corporation and the hardford this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com 21h hats thank you Jean Lauren thank you we'll talk to you next week always a pleasure have a great week everybody