Is That Deductible? It Depends: "Fort Worth & Family Medicine Residents"

Proud Parents

As some of you may know, my oldest son, John, is a second-year family medicine resident at the JPS residency in Fort Worth, Texas. My wife and I are incredibly grateful to be the parents of John and his amazing wife, Cheyenne, as they navigate through life with great success. Of course, it's special to me that John chose to follow in my footsteps and become a family doctor.

But what makes me even more proud is the character and quality of the young man he has become. Both he and his wife are charming individuals who have a wide social network. When this is combined with their high emotional intelligence, their potential knows no bounds. Whatever community they land in after his training will be fortunate to have both of them. Like most doctors, he has an altruistic mindset that tends to make the place where he will live and work a better place. Doing good wherever you go is simply part of the package when any member of our tribe lands in a community.

Walking In Your Shoes

As it turns out, John is my inspiration for writing my best-selling book “Doctor Incorporated: Stop The Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy” and in turn, it became the inspiration for starting this SimpliMD community.

How was he my inspiration? Because I wanted to offer him my best fatherly advice to help him succeed and flourish in his career as a doctor.

I have a tender spot in my heart for wanting to help all physicians thrive in our modern marketplace and avoid the scourge of burnout. I am passionate about our profession, believing it to be one of the greatest on earth. Based on my personal experience, I am driven to illuminate a path for our tribe that will lead you to your best life.

John and his wife are guest writers in this blog as part of our "Walking In Your Shoes" series, where they chronicle their professional and personal lives during residency. These popular posts provide readers with a glimpse into the intricacies of life during the last stages of training. John has now acquired his medical license and has set up his own micro-corporation in Texas, known as a PA. Next month he will start using his new business for moonlighting at a rural hospital.

John has learned a lot from observing my personal journey in medicine and is in the process of sorting out what his own professional micro-corporation will look like in his career. He is far more advanced in his thinking about it than I ever was at the same age. Not only does he have his micro-corporation up and going, but his wife, who is an accountant also has some small business side hustles going. Their entrepreneur spirit and drive provide some unique perspectives on his final preparation for becoming an attending physician.

I believe many doctors can relate to their journey and would find their posts interesting.

In order to help me spread the word about SimpliMD, I ask you to take a moment to invite your friends to check out their latest blog post here or sign up to join our SimpliMD virtual community here.

Visit to Fort Worth

During our last visit to Fort Worth in the spring, we came up with the idea of hosting a meeting at his home to discuss the business of medicine with any of his classmates from residency who were interested in gathering together. He had observed that, like most doctors, many of his classmates lacked knowledge in personal finance and small business competency. However, they were also keen on learning practical information in these areas as they prepared to embark on their careers.

So we conceived a SimpliMD hosted low-key dinner provided at John and Cheyenne's home, along with some small group discussions, would be a great idea.

We targeted a date in the third quarter of 2023 and started working towards our vision of meeting with residents. There were several things about this meeting that appealed to me, including:

• I enjoy meeting with residents because sharing my message about micro-corporations through SimpliMD is a critical element in laying a strong foundation for a successful career launch. Since over half of doctors now have more than one job, understanding the benefits of a micro-corporation for maximizing job stacking is a powerful concept to discuss with new doctors who tend to be business illiterate.

  I take great pleasure in connecting with residents and fellows and assisting them in pro-actively building a solid foundation for their careers. I truly believe building starting a micro-corporation is an essential element that will help them preserve their professional autonomy, improve their financial well-being, and help them avoid burnout throughout their career.

  This is why I have made resident and fellow membership to our SimpliMD community so accessible at just $10 annually, and it also why I worked with my professional network to slash the cost of starting a professional micro-corporation in half for residents.

• John is an agent for SimpliMD, and this webinar-meeting provided me with the opportunity to work directly with him on this project. The collaborative nature of our work is incredibly rewarding as we connect professionally to provide valuable resources for the SimpliMD community.

• John started his own professional micro-corporation (PA) in Texas in past month. The webinar provided him with a personal business purpose for our visit to his home as he hosted the SimpliMD event—and connected with his peers about the business of medicine.

• I thoroughly enjoy spending time with John and Cheyenne during our visits to Fort Worth. It's always a pleasure to socially connect with them even while conducting business, especially since we only get to see them a few times a year.

The Webinar

On Friday, we dedicated some time during the day to set up, prepare, practice, and finally execute the webinar. The feedback to me from John, Cheyenne, and Ellen was invaluable. Ellen skillfully managed the video and audio during the meeting, doing a splendid job. Cheyenne quickly went out and grabbed our catered meal for our guests, while she and John served as welcoming hosts.

We had a fantastic turnout of residents and their spouses, making it a splendid time together both formally and informally. It was delightful to speak to and connect with the residents afterwards. The JPS residents impressed me with their youthful optimism, winsome personalities, bright intellect, and eager desire to learn. It was truly enjoyable to mingle with such a remarkable group.

Multiple doctors were watching the streaming webinar online, including participants from the East Coast all the way to Hawaii.

Overall, the evening went well, with just a few minor technical glitches. I also had the opportunity to make enjoyable connections with several young doctors. Additionally, I recorded some excellent material that can be shared in the future with our SimpliMD community.

Saturday Exploration

I have reserved Saturday morning to meet with residents on a one-on-one basis.

After that time block, we enjoyed a great farmer's market at the Clearfork Trailhead. Then, John and Cheyenne treated us to a wonderful brunch at a scrumptious biscuit kitchen. We returned the chair rentals and then had a productive SimpliMD coaching-business meeting with John and Cheyenne to review their micro-corporation, they should consider how to set up the books, create expense reports, and discuss common deductible business expenses that they are likely to encounter. We accessed the micro-business documents that we provide to our SimpliMD clients, which can be found in their online toolkit. We then walked them through how to effectively utilize these tools.

It was a deeper dive into coaching them how to operate their new PA, after they had reviewed their corporate documents the previous day with Benjamin Hughes, JD, LLM who is with SimpliMD's legal network. One of the reasons I love connecting our SimpliMD members to Ben is because of the concierge-level care he provides when setting up a micro-corporation. He not only sets it up properly but also carefully walks through each document, explaining how to operate your micro-corporation effectively.

Afterwards, we took some time to relax, play games, and then we headed out to eat at a Texas BBQ joint. The food was excellent! We had hoped to watch the Notre Dame game on the bar TV, but since we were in the midst of TCU territory, all the monitors were showing the TCU game. We just came back to their house and then experienced an incredibly exciting win for ND. John and I are both avid ND fans, so it was a lot of fun to watch the game together and celebrate the victory together.

Sunday Wrap Up

The entire weekend flew by! John had to start his ICU rotation at 5am, and Cheyenne kindly drove us to the airport to return home to Indiana. It was time to get home, reload for a busy clinic week, and prepare to travel to Tulsa the following weekend. I would be speaking to the family medicine residents at In His Image Residency about whole person care.

Is That Deductible?

The answer to the question about business expenses is that it depends on the specific business purpose of the activity.

This entire weekend was filled with SimpliMD business activities. Thus I created an expense report and included the deductible activities. I used the SimpliMD credit card for everything which allows for everything to be tracked separately. Keeping your personal funds and micro-business separated is highly important for several reasons.

This was a straightforward analysis because almost everything we did over the weekend qualified as a deductible business expense. This even included my wife, Ellen, as it was necessary for her to accompany me to the meeting so that she manage and operate the technological aspects of the webinar.

After spending nearly $2500, the weekend came to an end.

It was nice to have a business trip that included a lot of contact time with John and Cheyenne!

If you are an attending physician who would like some help setting up your micro-corporation, please reach out to me at SimpliMD and I can help you connect with one of the members of our legal professional network.

If you are a resident physician who wants to set up a micro-corporation, first make sure you have your medical license set up in your state and and then let SimpliMD help you build your micro-corporation here.

If you are interested in being coached on how to live your best life through a micro-corporation, reach out to me here.

And if want to just the next step in your micro-corporation competency journey, become a member of our SimpliMD community today!

Tod