In my old school oversized spiral bound sketchbook with heavy-weight paper, I spend time off-screen writing with a 0.9 mm Pentel mechanical pencil customized with BB soft lead, where I regularly set and track my periodic goals, life planning, and project conception sketches. My longtime project Architect on my studio team calls this sketchbook the Money Maker. On March 3, 2024, the note at the top of the page read, **"Have you bought your Bitcoin today? $72,994"**.As a Spring Semester BTC class of 2021, I loved to buy some BTC at the top. Thinking about a remedy for this “talent” what followed on the sketchbook were some ideas for shifting money flowing through my business, BTC, every two weeks. 

#### **I now had options.**

Starting in 2024, I had new options to design my personal business strategy after we reworked our partnership agreement for our established professional architecture firm with the help of our attorney and tax account the year before to mitigate the problems of 50/50 ownership. 

The business is established and is a survivor of the dot com crash, 9/11, the 3 years after the crash. We have established clients and make a modest profit, and we enjoy focusing on them to get architecture built for them. Through the grind, we stayed ahead but did not thrive. 

We changed our corporate structure to retain our original S-Corp status, which allowed us to pay direct and indirect expenses. My partner and I then transitioned to operating as two separate LLCs, each managing one of our studio tribes. We've also planned for future studios to bring in new disciplines or incubate more experienced staff

 who can sell enough architecture to support a studio of their own. To manage our studio profit, we have an operating agreement that allocates 30% of our cash-based studio profit to the firm, with the remaining 70% distributed to the individual studios. The architecture firm pays us its monthly management fee directly into our LLC bank accounts. Once the payment is transferred, we have the flexibility to decide how we're paid by our LLC. From that account, I manage our W2 income through a payroll company and allocate the remaining funds as a distribution among tax savings, studio equity and personal spending. 

The result = is a little more autonomy to design the best way to retain the profit from energy spent in my business life. 

**Capturing the flow** 

In my Money Maker sketchbook, I brainstormed ideas for both personal and business, seeking to think creatively about leveraging our new entity to capture new cash flow opportunities that I could invest in Bitcoin (BTC). By setting up our LLC business account, I could now organize our equity to let it grow without having to convert our profit to BTC immediately, thereby avoiding capital gains or W2 income taxes. My 2024 strategy consisted of three initial moves, which I will elaborate on in more detail after six months of operation. 

**Treasury** 

I set up a business account for my studio's corporate treasury with [Unchained Capital](https://unchained.com/), utilizing the new EIN for our management LLC. I had previously retained studio profit from the previous year, anticipating the benefits of the new entity. This process was very satisfying, as I was able to transfer our equity into a business account, eƯectively moving it out of the bank and I can see the scoreboard of the growing equity. However, one of the less enjoyable aspects was that my bank couldn't wire directly to Unchained, requiring me to visit a bank, which involved driving to these empty buildings and filling out some paperwork during the hours they happened to be open. After you have jumped through the flaming hoops and moved your fiat into BTC at Unchained, I don't like the lack of control about when Unchained buys BTC. Although, I do like that I don't have to use an intermediary exchange. 

**Tax Savings** 

I pay myself a reasonable W2 income using a Payroll service, and then allocate the remainder of my monthly take-home pay as a distribution. Since the payment is a distribution, I must set aside a percentage of my income taxes. Previously, I would simply transfer money to a Tax Savings bank account. With the new system, I can set up a business account in the name of my LLC at [River](https://river.com), and automatically transfer funds from my LLC bank account to the River business account on a monthly basis. This setup allows for a DCA (dollar cost average) strategy with 0 cost. My strategy is to continue buying Bitcoin for next year's taxes. I understand that River will be oƯering business accounts with a 3.8% interest rate, paid in Bitcoin. When the subsequent bear market returns, I will make an educated guess about the ratio of interest-bearing assets to BTC tax savings account to ensure I'm prepared when paying taxes on profit made in a bull year that is taxed in a bear year. 

**Personal Spending** 

The move involved switching my monthly spending budget to Fold, which allowed me to earn Bitcoin rewards. I started using Fold at the end of 2022 to earn BTC rewards for my spending. Although Fold isn't as exciting as it used to be (I miss the gamification aspect of spinning up 5,000 Sats for a coƯee purchase!), the math still works out, and I can accumulate a few bucks with my personal spending. A further evolution came from listening to [Jack Mallers on Episode 245 of The Bitcoin Standard Podcast](https://saifedean.com/podcast/245-strike-with-jack-mallers). Jack was talking about how he lives on a Bitcoin Standard by paying bills with Strike, a service he can access now, but customers don't. As I thought about how cool it would be to keep my monthly expenses in BTC, a metaphorical 2 x 4 struck my brain. Wait a second - I realized that I can buy Bitcoin on Fold and easily exchange it for fiat in the application. I could start living like Jack, starting this month. With this month's spending money transfer to Fold, I bought Bitcoin! As the month goes on, I convert funds as I need them and use my debit card for expenses. Thank you, Jack, for the thought. I'm sorry to be so slow. 

With our personal W2 and distribution side organized, we are now working to create ways to capture a portion of our business income cash flow in Bitcoin (BTC). Accepting BTC payments 

As an established business with a shared and overworked bookkeeper, I believe the personnel and accounting workaround to dip our toe into Bitcoin is to accept pre-project consultation and initial payments using [Zaprite](https://zaprite.com) initially. This will allow us to educate our clients on the benefits of using [Strike](https://strike.me) and Bitcoin for payments, and to showcase how the process is more trustless than traditional payment methods like ACH and credit cards. By doing so, we can encourage clients to adopt this new payment method and reduce our reliance on traditional payment systems. Our goal is to make the transition to Bitcoin as seamless as possible for our clients, while also allowing our internal staƯ to become proficient in handling the process. To achieve this, we will be using the discount strategy on Zaprite invoices and will be directing our limited cash flow of BTC directly into our business treasury account. Status: we have set up the Zaprite integration but have not yet received payment.

 **BTC payment client education** 

Once our payment strategy is in place, I plan to update our website with a blog that explains how the payment system works and markets our approach to clients. Specifically, I want to highlight that we accept Bitcoin as a payment method and provide clients with the option to choose this payment option on the first invoice they receive from us. By doing so, I hope to spark interest and enthusiasm among clients who are familiar with the benefits of using Bitcoin and want to learn more. With our payment system up and running, we can begin to make a more significant transition away from traditional fiat payment methods and towards a more decentralized, trustless payment system like Bitcoin. This will be a "Titanic like" shift, but one that we believe is necessary to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on the growing demand for more innovative and secure payment methods. 

**Beyond implementing a payment system** 

I am considering setting up a new studio that operates on a Bitcoin Standard (BTS). This idea combines concepts from other readings, such as value pricing and the principles outlined in "Winning Without Pitching" by Jeffrey Gitomer, with the idea of creating a branded house configuration of services that we can offer through the new studio. To research and develop our service product, I plan to use my existing studio's BTC equity and not debt. I will then create a focused website to highlight the new service product. To support the new studio, I will utilize my existing studio staff on projects, as part of their unitization. I also plan to offer sweat equity profit sharing to interested staff who will contribute to the bootstrapped research and development of the service product. I will work with a separate bookkeeping group to report results to our umbrella company. One of the key goals of this experiment is to track the diƯerence in administration costs between the new studio and our existing operations. This will provide valuable insights into how to make the BTS model work for our business without going all-in. Additionally, the new studio setup will serve as a comparison experiment to help us determine when it's time to fully transition to a BTS for the business. By testing and refining this model, “we” (I will have some ammunition to help the others) can make an informed decision about whether to adopt the BTS for all aspects of our business. 

The journey to implementing a Bitcoin Standard (BTS) is like a house renovation, where clients live through the process. In our industry, renovations are often more complex than new builds, and the process of evolving an existing business to a BTS is similar. We must navigate the challenges of not disrupting an established system or overwhelming staƯ with new systems and processes. To avoid disruptions, we need to identify a "temporary roof" - a stable foundation that allows us to continue operating while we refine our BTS model. Most importantly, we must listen and be willing to pivot our process for those interested, whether from within our studio or from outside, on how and what we offer. 

HODL on