816 – Getting people together: Tom talks Running Retreats

Episode 816 – Running Retreats
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody! It's Tom here with episode 816 of Screw the Commute podcast. Hey, we're going to talk about running retreats. Now, you don't have to have a big honking estate like I do to do retreats. You can do them in hotels and even a crazy yacht or something out in the wilderness all over the place. Now, if you do have a house, you can most likely get some great tax deductions for using as part of your business. And I'll be discussing that too in this episode. All right, I hope you miss episode 815. That was the top 15 mistakes people make on their websites. Any time you want to get to a bank episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. The 15 Mistakes must listen to that is 815. All right. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and you will thank me for it because you will save hundreds of hours of fighting with your computer.

[00:01:21] All right, let's get to the the deal here. Now, since the pandemic is over and things have been opening back up for a while, the idea of physical retreats is back in vogue. People are really excited to get back doing fun and empowering things, and retreats fit that bill. You can do retreats even if you live in an apartment.

[00:01:44] All right. Hotels are bending over backwards to get in revenues to make up for the great losses incurred when everybody was staying home, so you can usually make good deals using them for retreats. Also, adventure retreats are lots of fun. You can do the old fire walk, pole climbing, bungee jumping, all kinds of things, or your retreats can be more subdued, like meditation retreats and cleansing and fasting and self empowerment kinds of retreats. Now, before I go too far, I got to put a warning and disclaimer out. You probably should get insurance for whatever you plan on doing. If someone gets hurt or sick because of your retreat and blames you. You want to be covered. Also, when I talk about tax deductions, most of the things I say are very common, but you should always depend on your own tax advisors. I'm not your accountant or CPA and I'm not even qualified to be one. So get the pros to help you on this. Okay. So let's talk about tax deductions while we're at it and possible financial things that are set for your retreats. You see, in general you don't get tax deductions for your home and home expenses. The way I've set things up is that since my home, aka retreat center is obvious, I mean, it obviously brings in money to my business when someone signs up to be in my mentor program.

[00:03:17] Part of their program is an immersion weekend at the retreat center. Couple that with my podcast that runs out of here that makes money, and the TV studio here on the premises that make money. It would be hard for the IRS to say that the reasonable deductions I take aren't legit. I've had nearly 2000 people pay me to come here over the 22 years I've been here. That's a lot of people. Or I guess you could call them evidence that my income and deductions are real and not fabricated. If you're using your home as part of your retreat, most people use it during the day and people stay in hotels at night. You don't have to be a crazy fanatic and have them living in this big honking place like I do. Now, when you get really established and have a regular flow of people that want to attend your retreats, you can opt for a bigger house than you normally would have or could afford. One thing you have to consider is zoning. Running a business out of a home in many places is. And this is air quotes here. Technically not permitted. However, even before the pandemic, if you aren't creating a disturbance in the neighborhood, most people and your city don't even notice you're running a business.

[00:04:41] Now, I wouldn't try to do some kind of retail business that creates lots of traffic in and out all day. But bringing a few people into your house once a month or so and having business meetings would not even be noticed, so long as you don't take up all the parking spaces in the neighborhood. And if people are flying in, you're going to either have a Uber their way or you're going to pick them up in a limo or however you, you know, pick them up. I pick people up in my suburban sometimes. So you're not going to have a lot of cars taking up room also. Now, I'm not telling you what is technically legal and what isn't. I'm just telling you that you can make a lot of money running retreats. And just like I would say, in any kind of business, don't disturb people or neighbors who aren't involved in the business and they just want to enjoy their home in peace. Most won't even know what you're doing. Now, I always have people sign a disclaimer that if they get sick or injured, as long as it wasn't my negligence that they hold me harmless. This doesn't mean you should ignore my advice about getting business insurance, or at least what is called an umbrella policy.

[00:05:52] That's what it's called. I got one to cover me because I have protection dogs around. No regular homeowner's insurance will cover bite trained dogs. So I found an umbrella policy. That's actually what it's called. Your insurance agents will know what that means. And it doesn't have restrictions on those kinds of dogs. Now, you'd have to get one for whatever suits your purposes. Now, I've got much deeper training on this that I produced the video a while back called How to Run a Retreat Center Out of Your Home. It goes into super great detail, but I just wanted to put the idea in your head that people will pay and pay well for unique experiences, and that's what you will give them, along with the networking experience with other students or guests. Most people are really love to network, so that's part of the promotion. You'd have to get people to sign up for whatever program you have. So think about what you could do and put together a plan. I mean, start small, get out the kinks. You know, there's always things you'll learn as you actually do this that just want to make better or something that didn't work. And you could add an entirely new income stream to your business.

[00:07:08] I mean, for now going on. Well, I've been here 22 years running this retreat center. And guess what? All the students have been paying the mortgage off on this big honkin place, you know? So. So that's a good thing, too. Plus, the tax deductions you get from the legitimate things that I have to buy to take care of these people when they come. It's all it's all beautiful. I can't say there's never been any kinks or trouble. Especially when one lady, we couldn't find her, she she was on her way here and just she was just one of those laissez faire people that, you know, she was lost and didn't even bother calling or telling us. So she rolls in at midnight and we're all freaking out, like, where is she? So? So anyway, but that's something we can tease about now. But at the time it was a little crazy. But it's a great income stream. You're creating experiences. People will go tell other people and you'll get a big stream of of referrals from doing a great job at running retreats. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If you want this kind of training and a lot more, check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com, and we'll catch you all on the next episode. See you later.