A Day In the Life of A Student Athlete
???A day in the life of a student athlete.?What do they do??They go to school.?They play their sport.?They have meetings with their sport.?They sleep and they eat.?Every once in a while, if they have a party, that’s interesting.?But I can tell you some rules of the party.?Everyone checks their phones and their keys.??And, more importantly, the phones are for not being on social media.?Your social media, by the way, all of you athletes, and if no one’s ever told you, it is your current resume’.?It’ll be your resume’ through your career.?They will go back as far as high school to see how you behaved.?What you posted, how you acted towards others.?All social media is a resume’ for those of you that are growing into this work world.
????Student athletes have a lot to do.?They live and breathe and die by the schedule of the athletic department.?Especially, if you’re on scholarship.?So, in the off-season, what can you do??This is where I go in and I teach on off-seasons, financial and business literacy education, and how to really be in your own side hustle.?For example, my has son has been a tutor.?He has interned for tax teams.?I have had some players go out and intern in our Kansas real estate office.?So, we offer internships.?I’ve had people come out and work with us.?I have athletes right now that are doing personal training.?They’re doing physician training.?I have another athlete; he has a nutrition journal and a nutrition program.?Believe it or not, I have several athletes that have either a shoe line or a clothing line.?So, have a side hustled and be incorporated.
?????When you make money in NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), it should go into a company.?If you put that into your personal bank account in addition to your scholarship, and you’re not paying attention with CPA or tax strategist that’s really good, you could end up with a tax burden at the end of the year.
?????I’ve seen more and more NIL students be paid, not pay attention to that, put the money in their personal account, and if you’re a highly paid athlete already, and you’re on full scholarship, you’re already making all of your COA (Cost of Attendance).?You have your room and board; you have your field.?You got a lot of your gear.?You get a lot of benefits and a lot of money.
????I have seen at the end of 2021, when this was activated, student athletes have a huge tax burden.?Here’s the problem.?You’ve already spent the money.?You bought a big screen TV; you bought some jewelry.?You buy a car, you bought something that you didn’t need, but you didn’t manage the money part.
????NIL is critical, and what I have told a lot of athletes, if they have side hustles, and they’re already making legitimate LLC or S Corp money, they’re making money legitimately where they can actually do the deductions and have the business expense.?Do they really need the NIL money??Not really.?So, a lot of companies are doing it in trade.?They can trade for chiropractic services or for food.?I have a ton of athletes that have NIL, where they get a certain amount of food, 500 to a thousand dollars.?They can go to the restaurants during the month, as long as they’re active, at the right scholarship and grade.?Because if you fall out of status, they don’t get an NIL.
????So, do it in trade so that it accommodates the tax return.?Tax is going to be one of your biggest problems.?I would rather have you, or in addition, have a side hustle.?Because what are you going to do??If your career ended, what would you do??I’ve seen this over and over with athletes, who no longer will have a football career or a basketball career, because of injuries, and now, what do they do?
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????During your off-season, I want you to start learning to be an entrepreneur.?Start learning how to side hustle, how to make some extra money.?Put it in a company, and when you come home to see your family, if your family’s involved in the company, you go home to see your partners.?The day in the life of a student athlete can be how you design it.?It can be an amazing experience, or it can be kind of a stressful one.
????Some of you, you really want to target some business if you do want to make the money.?You want to target businesses that could support you, also being there.?I know of a lot of car dealerships are supporting student athletes and NIL, insurance companies, also.?There’s a lot of companies in your town that would support you in your NIL journey to making money.
????Now, as you get a little bit more mature, and you want to start thinking about where you’re going to go.?If you’re not going to go pro, what else are you going to do??Start taking some internships, and instead of being an entrepreneur, be an intrapreneur.?There are companies that will allow you, I have done this, and will continue to do this, come work with our company, and I, as the CEO and mentor, and the leaders of our company, will mentor and guide you into what part of a position of the company.?We have marketing, we have sales, we have fulfillment, we have accounting, we have tons of places for you to show up and learn.?