LOVE, CARE & MONEY IN CANNABIS
By Mark R. Waller, CPA & Dr. Brigitte Mussack
Money is an intensely personal subject. As accountants, we often say, “Cash is king.” This is for good reason, as any cannabis business will ultimately survive or die based on how much or how little cash flows through the business.
Cannabis businesses face giant fiscal hurdles– from 280E (the lack of the ability to deduct normal business expenses off of federal taxes for a Schedule 1 Substance touching business) to expensive fixed asset buildouts, wages, and payouts to investors. So from a purely analytical standpoint, cash is essential for the survival of a business.
And yet, as money is so personal, we also know that clients' hopes, dreams, fears, joy, stress, and emotions are tied deeply to their financial success. I’m calling upon my fellow accountants (and the clients we support) to revolutionize this space in a way that can improve our lives: by incorporating love and care into our work.
Every year on “Tax Day,” April 15th, I joke that everybody should hug an accountant. But when I think about it,
it truly isn’t a joke. Accountants also deserve that shoutout as they manage the spreadsheets and hold their clients’ emotions about those numbers and analysis with care.
THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF MONEY
Accountants sometimes play therapist to our clients. When we deliver good news about their Profit & Loss statements, they often let out an audible sigh
of relief. When we have to inform clients about a large, unexpected tax bill, they may tell us how angry they feel. As accountants prioritizing logic over emotion, we sometimes respond with logic and ignore the emotional motivators of our clients’ responses and requests.
While our training might focus on logical approaches to what we frame as “spreadsheet problems,” we must recognize that our clients relate to these problems first and foremost from an emotional place. Our response shouldn’t be purely about numbers: we need to engage with the emotional relationship that we are helping clients navigate regarding the personal highs and lows of managing a business.
I feel strongly that accountants need to ensure they offer clients a space to process the precision and logic-based information we provide more sensitively. Accountants need to provide clients space to process the inevitable emotions that arise, and in many ways, they also need to carve out space for themselves to hear out those emotions their clients have tied to money.
BALANCING BOUNDARIES WITH CARE
As much as we move towards client interactions and relationships centered on love and care, part of this loving engagement requires firm professional boundaries. We must care for our well-being as we help our clients navigate theirs. Modeling boundaries is also an act of care, allowing us to respect client boundaries. At the same time, we recognize that our work together is often deeply emotional and personal since this work reflects the relationships we each have with money, success, and failure.
Reflecting on my reaction to those types of conversations, I realize that it has taken me many years to become well-versed in providing clients with the space to have those emotions without them bleeding into my well-being. It is too easy for that pit in the client’s stomach to become the knot in the accountant’s stomach. When tax season comes around, those conversations start to feel non-stop, and the to-do list keeps growing, it can have hugely detrimental effects on the practitioner’s well-being. Highlighting those boundaries upfront with clients (and clients being willing and accepting of those boundaries) can significantly benefit both the client and the accountant in the long term.
Likewise, clients should ensure their accountants can hear them and feel the range of emotions that come with working with their own money without feeling disrespected or unheard. They should ensure they partner with accountants who understand the ups and downs of running a business and are willing to hear them out with good grace.
Accounting isn’t just about numbers; it’s about people. Balancing love and care for clients with boundaries and self-care has the ability not only to help you but also to transform the industry. I encourage accountants and business owners to find ways to reflect on the emotional connection everyone has to money and to hold space for the emotions that inevitably follow. In an industry centered on financial health, we must emphasize emotional and relational health for accountants and business owners.
