What are the key takeaways from this Entrepreneurs On Fire episode?

Key insights include: **Qualification Criteria:** Businesses with 500 or fewer employees qualify through three pathways: 20% revenue loss, full or partial shutdown, or supply chain disruption. The supply chain disruption amendment opened eligibility to approximately 80% of businesses, including unexpected cases like law firms citing courthouse closures as supply chain issues.; **Credit Structure:** The program offers $5,000 per employee for 2020 and $21,000 per employee for 2021, totaling up to $26,000 per W-2employee. Unlike PPP loans, this is a refundable tax credit requiring no repayment and no restrictions on fund usage, processed through amended 941-X payroll tax forms within six to eight months.; **Professional Gap:** Most CPAs and payroll companies do not inform clients about ERC because 90% of tax professionals handle only 1040 and 1120 forms, not payroll credits. Payroll companies typically do not amend 941 forms. Businesses must proactively seek specialized ERC providers who work on contingency, charging 15% only upon successful credit approval.

What did Josh Zieglowsky discuss on Entrepreneurs On Fire?

Josh Zieglowsky explains the Employee Retention Credit program, a COVID relief fund providing up to $26,000 per W-2 employee to qualifying businesses. He details eligibility requirements, application processes, and how his company has recovered over $1.8 billion for 9,000 businesses nationwide. Key topics include: **Qualification Criteria:** Businesses with 500 or fewer employees qualify through three pathways: 20% revenue loss, full or partial shutdown, or supply chain disruption. The supply chain disruption amendment opened eligibility to approximately 80% of businesses, including unexpected cases like law firms citing courthouse closures as supply chain issues.; **Credit Structure:** The program offers $5,000 per employee for 2020 and $21,000 per employee for 2021, totaling up to $26,000 per W-2employee. Unlike PPP loans, this is a refundable tax credit requiring no repayment and no restrictions on fund usage, processed through amended 941-X payroll tax forms within six to eight months..

How long is this episode of Entrepreneurs On Fire?

This episode is 19 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Entrepreneurs On Fire

Getting Business Owners 200K with the ERC Credit with Josh Zieglowsky: An EOFire Classic from 2022

February 15, 2026

19 min episode · 2 min read

Josh Zieglowsky

Episode

19 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Fundraising & VC, Sales & Revenue, Product & Tech Trends

AI-Generated Summary

Published Feb 15, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Qualification Criteria: Businesses with 500 or fewer employees qualify through three pathways: 20% revenue loss, full or partial shutdown, or supply chain disruption. The supply chain disruption amendment opened eligibility to approximately 80% of businesses, including unexpected cases like law firms citing courthouse closures as supply chain issues.
✓Credit Structure: The program offers $5,000 per employee for 2020 and $21,000 per employee for 2021, totaling up to $26,000 per W-2employee. Unlike PPP loans, this is a refundable tax credit requiring no repayment and no restrictions on fund usage, processed through amended 941-X payroll tax forms within six to eight months.
✓Professional Gap: Most CPAs and payroll companies do not inform clients about ERC because 90% of tax professionals handle only 1040 and 1120 forms, not payroll credits. Payroll companies typically do not amend 941 forms. Businesses must proactively seek specialized ERC providers who work on contingency, charging 15% only upon successful credit approval.
✓Business Impact Range: The program serves businesses from one employee to 499 employees. Examples include a food prep company receiving $40,000 with four employees, a pizza chain obtaining $400,000 to fund two new locations, and a Baptist church recovering over $3 million, demonstrating scalability across organization sizes and types including nonprofits.

What It Covers

Josh Zieglowsky explains the Employee Retention Credit program, a COVID relief fund providing up to $26,000 per W-2 employee to qualifying businesses. He details eligibility requirements, application processes, and how his company has recovered over $1.8 billion for 9,000 businesses nationwide.

Key Questions Answered

•Qualification Criteria: Businesses with 500 or fewer employees qualify through three pathways: 20% revenue loss, full or partial shutdown, or supply chain disruption. The supply chain disruption amendment opened eligibility to approximately 80% of businesses, including unexpected cases like law firms citing courthouse closures as supply chain issues.
•Credit Structure: The program offers $5,000 per employee for 2020 and $21,000 per employee for 2021, totaling up to $26,000 per W-2employee. Unlike PPP loans, this is a refundable tax credit requiring no repayment and no restrictions on fund usage, processed through amended 941-X payroll tax forms within six to eight months.
•Professional Gap: Most CPAs and payroll companies do not inform clients about ERC because 90% of tax professionals handle only 1040 and 1120 forms, not payroll credits. Payroll companies typically do not amend 941 forms. Businesses must proactively seek specialized ERC providers who work on contingency, charging 15% only upon successful credit approval.
•Business Impact Range: The program serves businesses from one employee to 499 employees. Examples include a food prep company receiving $40,000 with four employees, a pizza chain obtaining $400,000 to fund two new locations, and a Baptist church recovering over $3 million, demonstrating scalability across organization sizes and types including nonprofits.

Notable Moment

Josh reveals he discovered ERC while seeking stimulus for his Wyoming oil business after crude prices dropped to negative $30 per barrel in 2020. Despite consulting tax professionals and payroll companies, none could help him access this program, leading him to research independently and eventually pivot his career focus.

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Episode Transcript

Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by HighLevel, the all in one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down getting business owners $200,000 with the ERC credits. To drop these value bombs, I brought Josh Zaglowski in the EOFire Studios. Josh has been instrumental in getting ERC potentially to a $30,000,000,000 valuation. In today's financial, we talk about how ERC is not a loan. You don't pay it back. How it was designed to help business owners recover from the pandemic and owe so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Josh and ours. Sponsors. Fire Nation, are you ready to make 2026 your best year yet? I believe it's time to start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and president Trump's son Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com/eofire. Again, request life changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com/eofire. Are you ready for the ultimate all in one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software, say hello to our featured partner, HighLevel, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Josh, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? And I would say something that people disagree with is I'm always telling people to take your shot. And sometimes people don't take their shot, and they continue to kinda stay in a shell for a long time, and they don't take that risk. But what that builds is regret. And, I always say we regret the things we don't do. We we don't regret the things we've tried even though it's becomes a success or a failure. So I would I would say that's my top one. I love that. I took a shot ten years ago at Fire Nation, and I'm still taking shots every day. And as I mentioned in the intro, we're talking about getting business owners $200,000 with the ERC credit. And I wanna just start off, by asking what the heck is the ERC credit? I think the biggest overview is during the pandemic, there was the PPP and EIDL. This is the last COVID relief fund, stimulus package that's available to business owners, yet I would say 70 to 80% of business owners don't know about it. I would say that's probably the case, so let's learn about it. Awesome. Love it. How I even really discovered it is, I was looking for stimulus money for another business I have or or had per se. And Biden I found out Biden amended this, And I talked to a couple tax people, couple payroll companies, and no one could help me. And and believe me, I thought …

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