Rutledge: Independent artists and professionals should get a degree in accounting
Tom Rutledge · Accounting Is Not a Numbers Game - Tom Rutledge on Why · Apr 10, 2024 · at 25:43
Tom Rutledge, co-owner of hospitality accounting firm RDMS Group, explains why learning accounting is vital for independent creators and business operators.
0:00 / 0:14exact quote · 15.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“If you're good, if you want to be a photographer or a violin player and you are going to be independent, get a degree in accounting. It just helps the language of business. It generally speaking, it's a very useful tool. Like I said, it's like learning Spanish.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Tom Rutledge
Rutledge: Franchises are best owned by lawyers because they are purely contracts
“Franchises are best owned by lawyers because it's all contract.”
Rutledge: High California labor costs break fixed pricing models of national franchises
“In California, that same exact model that that franchise built, you need six people to do this volume in this place would lose money due to our cost of labor. So I'd have to figure out the franchise or model, but with maybe four people where they say I need si…”
Rutledge: Accounting is a foundational dialect of business, not a numbers game
“Accounting isn't a numbers game. It's a language. It's like learning a dialect of Chinese. It's like learning Spanish. It's like learning French learn. It is the language of business.”
Rutledge: Neglecting data is a primary flaw of struggling expert leaders
“Getting into the data is not, is something I think a lot of people who have expertise but fail in leadership, that's one of the primary flaws they have.”
Rutledge: Service businesses lack SaaS scale and exits but offer strong margins
“It may not have the scalability or exit values of like SAS programs, which I know you have a background in and all that kind of stuff, but You can't argue with margin. It is definitely there.”
Rutledge: Hospitality franchisees are often trapped in expensive closed-circuit sourcing contracts
“They may find a like product for a lot less money, but the franchisor has a deal where they're getting, you know, margin on what you buy, and therefore you're in contract to get things, even if it's not in your best interest, or you have to buy the, again, spe…”