Mastering Business Financials with Sara Lavdas: Insights from a CFO

Summary

Wake Up to Wealth Podcast: Mastering Business Financials with Sara Lavdis

Episode Release Date: June 18, 2025

In this insightful episode of the Wake Up to Wealth podcast, host Brandon Brittingham welcomes Carson and Greg Hurleen, alongside special guest Sara Lavdis, to delve deep into the intricacies of mastering business financials. The episode provides invaluable advice for entrepreneurs and business owners aiming to transform their financial management practices and achieve long-term wealth.

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1. Introduction to Financial Mastery

The episode kicks off with Carson Hurleen expressing gratitude to the listeners and highlighting the podcast’s impressive growth:

[00:54] Carson Hurleen: “…we are number two in the United States in investing and we just cracked the top 19 today in business. So can't thank you guys all enough for supporting us…”

Carson introduces Greg Hurleen, their Chief Financial Officer (CFO), praising his expertise in financial management:

[00:54] Carson Hurleen: “…definitely one of the smartest financial minds… Sarah Lavdis, who happens to be the watcher of all the money for all the things that we do…”

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2. The Crucial Role of Financial Organization

Carson emphasizes the importance of proper financial advice and back-office management for business success:

[03:29] Greg Hurleen: “…entrepreneurial types have a kind of brain that's geared more towards sales necessarily… they should be focused on doing that if they want to be profitable… Otherwise you're just running blind.”

Greg highlights how many business owners neglect financial organization, leading to potential blind spots in profitability and growth.

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3. Cost Segregation: Maximizing Tax Benefits

A substantial portion of the discussion revolves around cost segregation, a strategy to accelerate depreciation deductions and reduce taxable income.

What is Cost Segregation?

[06:51] Greg Hurleen: “It's basically where you walk a property and tell you what are the individual pieces that make up that property… you break it down into something that has a less depreciable life… so you can write off in the current year.”

Greg explains that by segregating costs, businesses can depreciate certain components of a property over shorter periods, leading to significant tax savings.

Benefits and Practical Examples:

[08:14] Carson Hurleen: “…if we bought a $350,000 residential rental and we did a cost seg… what’s the math? Roughly $60,000 write off.”

Using a $350,000 property as an example, Carson illustrates how cost segregation can lead to substantial write-offs, thereby enhancing cash flow and profitability.

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4. Corporate Structures for Tax and Liability Management

Greg discusses the importance of choosing the right corporate structure to optimize tax liabilities and shield the business from unnecessary taxes:

[10:01] Greg Hurleen: “…we use S corporations… it allows you to set aside a piece of your return as more of an investment return as opposed to straight up ordinary income… shielding yourself from payroll taxes… about 15.3%.”

By utilizing S corporations, businesses can classify portions of income in a way that minimizes exposure to self-employment taxes, thereby retaining more profits.

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5. Understanding and Managing Financial Statements

The conversation shifts to the critical need for business owners to comprehend their financial statements, particularly Profit and Loss (P&L) statements and balance sheets.

Common Financial Misunderstandings:

[15:26] Greg Hurleen: “…people really don’t even understand what an asset or a liability is… whether to lease or buy a vehicle… basic financial concepts that a lot of business owners struggle with.”

Greg points out that many entrepreneurs lack fundamental financial literacy, which hampers effective business management and decision-making.

Real-Time Financial Monitoring:

[16:31] Greg Hurleen: “…technology has gone a huge way of allowing you to do it in real time… online-based bookkeeping, fractional CFOs…”

Carson and Greg stress the importance of real-time financial monitoring to make informed, timely decisions rather than relying on outdated financial data.

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6. Practical Steps to Financial Organization

Carson offers actionable advice for business owners looking to get their financials in order:

Step 1: Separate Personal and Business Finances

[28:07] Greg Hurleen: “…do you have a business account or are you running everything through your personal accounts?”

Ensuring that personal and business finances are distinct is foundational for clear financial management and accurate reporting.

Step 2: Seek Professional Financial Assistance

[30:33] Greg Hurleen: “…reach out and ask for, hey, how much does it cost for me to walk in and talk to you…”

Hiring a CPA or a trusted financial advisor can provide the necessary expertise to organize and interpret financial data effectively.

Step 3: Educate Yourself on Financial Statements

[31:19] Carson Hurleen: “You need to understand the basics of how to read a profit and loss statement, how to read your balance sheet…”

Understanding the basics of financial statements empowers business owners to make strategic decisions and track their financial health accurately.

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7. The Consequences of Poor Financial Management

Greg and Carson discuss the potential pitfalls of neglecting financial organization:

[21:04] Greg Hurleen: “…if you don’t have accurate financials and you’re trying to ever exit a situation, you will not be able to…”

Without accurate and organized financial records, businesses face challenges in securing investments, obtaining loans, and achieving favorable valuations during sales or exits.

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8. Final Advice and Encouragement

Carson wraps up the episode by reinforcing the importance of financial discipline:

[33:05] Carson Hurleen: “…you have to do the research to figure that out, because that’s all. You cannot run a business effectively without doing this stuff and having your back office. You can’t turn a blind eye to this without having it buttoned up.”

She urges listeners to take proactive steps in managing their finances to ensure business success and personal peace of mind.

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Notable Quotes

• Greg Hurleen on Entrepreneurial Focus:

  “[03:29] Greg Hurleen: ‘…If you don't organize it from the jump, you're just running blind.’”

• Carson on Financial Discipline:

  “[21:04] Greg Hurleen: ‘…if you don’t have accurate financials and you’re trying to ever exit a situation, you will not be able to…’”

• Carson's Closing Thoughts:

  “[33:05] Carson Hurleen: ‘…you cannot run a business effectively without doing this stuff and having your back office buttoned up.’”

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Conclusion

This episode of Wake Up to Wealth underscores the paramount importance of mastering business financials. Through expert insights from Greg Hurleen and practical advice from Carson Hurleen, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of essential financial strategies, including cost segregation, optimal corporate structuring, and the necessity of real-time financial monitoring. By implementing these practices, entrepreneurs can enhance their profitability, minimize tax liabilities, and position their businesses for sustained growth and success.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Cost Segregation: A tax strategy to accelerate depreciation deductions.
• S Corporations: A corporate structure that can help in minimizing self-employment taxes.
• Accruity & Horizon Trust: Trusted partners for financial services and self-directed IRA accounts.

Takeaway: Proper financial management is not just a backend necessity but a strategic tool that empowers businesses to thrive and achieve their wealth-building goals. Investing in financial expertise and maintaining organized, real-time financial records are critical steps toward unlocking your business's full potential.

Transcript

[Brandon Briningham]

This is Wake up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Briningham.

[Carson Hurleen]

Hey, everybody, Let me tell you about my good friend, Carson Hurleen.

[Sarah Lavdis]

The Wake up to wealth podcast is.

[Carson Hurleen]

Proud to be sponsored by Carson. Carson helped me build my family banking system.

[Sarah Lavdis]

What I've seen Carson do for people.

[Carson Hurleen]

It gives them back their peace of mind. If you want to get your mind and your money right, email my good.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Friend [e-mail] to learn how you can.

[Carson Hurleen]

Become your own bank today like I have.

[Sarah Lavdis]

All right, everybody, we are back for.

[Carson Hurleen]

Another episode of Wake up to Wealth. And cannot thank you guys enough for continually supporting our show. The last one we put out, we're at 71, 000 downloads in about hours. This morning. We just got the updated rankings. We are number two in the United States in investing and we just cracked the top 20, actually 19 today in business. So can't thank you guys all enough for supporting us coming back, rating the show, downloading the show, telling your friends about it. It's because you guys supporting us that we've had massive, massive growth. So thank you so much. We're going to continue to get really, really smart people on the show. Way smarter than me every episode. Which leads me to my next GU actually happens to be my cfo. Hopefully she doesn't yell at me during this podcast, but definitely one of the smartest financial minds, even though she pretends that she doesn't have one that I've ever met. And that's Sarah Lavdis, who happens to be the watcher of all the money for all the things that we do. Thank you for being on with us today.

[Greg Hurleen]

You're welcome.

[Carson Hurleen]

So give people just a two minute background of, you know, before you were with us, some of the stuff that you did.

[Greg Hurleen]

Sure. So I am a Certified Public Accountant, CPA. I started doing that about 20 years ago. Started in D.C. northern Virginia, and worked on, at that time, the largest real estate transaction in the United States, which was how much? 4 billion, I think. And so did that. And then realized I'm not a great city dweller. I like people in small groups, not large ones. And so I moved over to the eastern shore of Maryland. I worked with another public accounting firm for about 10 years, which is where I met you and Rich. And, you know, after a while I was on the partner track, but I decided I'd kind of like to take a step into the private side. Still mostly real Estate is my game. So you guys were a perfect fit for me. And we've been together for five years. Yeah, five years.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah. So, you know, one of the things, you know, from coaching a lot of business owners and, you know, just learning this myself, you know, just if you wouldn't mind, touch on, like, how many people are just, like, not getting good advice or not handling the back office correctly and just like, how important that is to run a business, because it is. It is rampant.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah. I mean, people, most of the time, entrepreneurial types, have a kind of brain that's geared more towards sales necessarily. Organization.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

So they have a great idea, they might have a great product, they might provide a great service, and they're focused on doing that, and they should be focused on doing that if they want to be profitable. So oftentimes they come behind what they've done to try to figure out, oh, what did I do now? How can I organize it? So it's really hard for those people to realize they need to organize it from the jump. So if you can get a partner to partner with you from the beginning of your career to say, hey, you've got these great business ideas. Let me come behind you and make sure that it's all coming together in a profitable manner. Otherwise you're just running blind. So just trying to figure out how to make sure you can allocate that in your budget from the jump. Someone who can be the organizational bones of your structure.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah. And so, like, another thing too is I think that one of the biggest misnomers or. Or just what people don't understand is like, having your shit together versus not having your shit together and having your shit together and getting good advice. You have a great ability to lessen your burden or on taxes or even avoid taxes through a number of different, you know, things. Cost segregation, corporate structure, things of that nature. If you wouldn't mind, just kind of two things. Talk a little bit about cost segregation because, you know, we believe in that. And then also kind of what you talked about the other day when you talked to my group, if you wouldn't mind, touch, kind of on a little bit of, kind of corporate structure of how you can kind of structure your businesses to kind of from liability and also tax liability.

[Greg Hurleen]

Sure. So one of the biggest things that I started using early in my career was cost segregations. And initially we were only getting, you know, 50 cents on the dollar for a cost segregation because it was only 50 cent. 50% was allowed to be taken off in the first year. But it would be really profitable for someone who's, you know, buying a commercial property with the larger amounts. But as the, you know, as the economy grew, and tax writers understood that like, that is something that's great for the economy is to allow people to write off these larger property purchases because it moves things along. They brought in 100% bonus depreciation, they brought in 179, section 179, and made more assets available for those write offs. And so the cost segs are just phenomenal now and you can use them on smaller purchases. So initially for our group, we use them on a large, multifamily 7 million doll transaction. And it was great. But in the last five years, six years, we've been using them on almost anything that we buy in place and Service. So even $100,000 rental property, it's worth it to put the time in to do the call seg. If you, if you're planning on holding the asset for, you know, more than a few years, mostly like up to five years, it's usually you get your, your worth out of that.

[Carson Hurleen]

Let me ask you a question really quick. If someone's listening to this and they don't know what a cost segregation is, what is it?

[Greg Hurleen]

It's basically where you, you pay an walk a property and tell you what, what are the individual pieces that make up that property? So from the jump, you need something that says, hey, this is what the building is worth and this is what the land is worth. And usually you can use either a professional to appraise, or you can sometimes use the tax records themselves to get that determination. But then someone else comes in and says, okay, so of this building, how much is the roof, what are the windows worth? Um, and really what you're looking for is to try to break it down into something that it has a less depreciable life. So instead of depreciating over 27 and a half years, which is what the entire building would have to depreciate over, you break it down into five year property, which then you can write off in the current year. Currently you can only get, sometimes you can only get 60% for that write off. If it falls under section 179, you can still get 100%, but there is tax codes coming through that's bumping that back up to 100% for.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah. So this is not taxable advice and no one told you to this. But if someone's listening to this. Just a rough example. If we bought a $350,000 residential rental and we did a cost sag. Just generality. No one's holding you to this. What. What do you think that ends up being Is. Is rough numbers of a tax savings?

[Greg Hurleen]

So a lot of people will say, first of all, you got to break it down to the land. And that's usually at least 20% off the top is not depreciable at all.

[Carson Hurleen]

Right.

[Greg Hurleen]

But then you take the rest of that 80% and you can write off at at least 20% in the current year if the bonus jumps back up to 100. So you could get 20%. So again, you know, I don't do.

[Carson Hurleen]

Math on the spot, but yeah, so let's say, let's. For easy math, let's say that we said the land was 50, so now we're at. We're at 300. So 20%, we could say roughly $60,000 write off.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah, that's about the math.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah, that's about the math.

[Carson Hurleen]

And then if you're quote, unquote, real estate professional, that $60,000 loss, correct me if I'm wrong, goes against your active income. Yes.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yes. In a, in a very simplistic version of how that happens. Yes, it can go against your active income. And most of the time, if you're a real estate professional, you'll be able to write it off in the current year. If you aren't, cost can still be valuable to you.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

It just means that you'll. You'll probably push that loss for further down the line when you can take it, when you actually have income to offset.

[Carson Hurleen]

Got it. So if you're out there and you're in real estate, and if you have ever been in the room with me or you've ever coached with me, you know that I stress that you should be buying real estate at a minimum to try to offset some of the income that you have, because you're not. You got to pay it anyway to the irs. So why not put it in an asset that can help you actually generate wealth over the long term. So another thing, one of the things that you've done for us is you've structured our kind of corporate structure in a way that gives us less liability, number one, and then kind of less tax liability. I don't need you to go into crazy detail of everything, but if you could give just our listeners kind of a high level of what that looks like.

[Greg Hurleen]

Sure. So the main vehicle that we use for our operations, not our rental properties, not to own the actual properties, but our operations, where you earn commissions from your real Estate transactions where you buy and sell active inventory of real estate, new homes, flipped homes, we use S corporations to do that. And basically what that is doing, it's allowing you to set aside a piece of your return as more of an investment return as opposed to straight up ordinary income. And so it allows you to shield a portion of that income from self, self employment taxes or payroll taxes is what, what it ends up being structured as. So that's our number one vehicle for shielding ourselves from unnecessary tax. It's not avoiding, it's just basically you're placing a value on an investment return that if you don't structure your business correctly, you don't get to really make that segregation.

[Carson Hurleen]

Got it. And so that, that gives us a decent break on potentially taxes we would normally pay.

[Greg Hurleen]

Correct. It just, it makes it so that you're, you're basically making a top level amount that you can subject yourself to these payroll taxes and then the rest can be more of an investment return. So it just shields you from. And then that's usually about 15.3%.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

So it is, it can be a substantial savings when once you hit a certain rate of return on what you're making.

[Carson Hurleen]

Got it.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Hey. This next segment is brought to you by my good friends at Rocket League AI. That is Rocket League AI.

[Carson Hurleen]

If you're in the real estate business.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Especially investment side and you need a platform platform that can run your real estate business and talk to leads through AI when you're not able to talk to them and can qualify and get to all the leads you can't get to. Plus it has a amazing piece of technology with a called lead detector that helps get all the people that come to your site and not opt in to opt in to turn into a lead. These are my good friends at Rocket League AI. I'm part of this company as well. I use it to run my real.

[Carson Hurleen]

Estate business, my real estate investment business. Go check them out again.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Rocket League AI.

[Carson Hurleen]

And thank you guys for sponsoring the segment. So another thing is when I talk to a lot of people and I tell them that they got to get their, their house in order financially as far as the back office, a lot of people just don't, they just don't understand it. They don't understand it at all. So let's just say they go and they, you know, they go to an accountant or CPA or whatever and then they're starting to get in their financials in real time. What do you, what do they, you know, if you could just say two, three things Your average business owner, you know, just call it real estate. To make it simple, what do they need to understand in their P and L, what do they need to be looking at?

[Greg Hurleen]

Mostly they, a lot of, a lot of business owners have their hands around what they would call cash flow. Yeah, but that's not necessarily what your income is like. I mean, a lot of business owners, they don't totally understand how debt works, how it can work for you or against you. So this is something a CPA can advise you on. They can help you figure out, hey, should I, should I put this in an llc? Should I put it in multiple level llc? Sort of like our structure set up so you can potentially bring in outside investors. At any given point. There's just, there's so many things that a CPA can say, hey, you know, these are the, this is a simple way to do a couple of things in your business to make it a lot more organized. And they usually what one of the greatest, I don't know what you would call it. They're basically reminders. So, so they annoy, they are there to annoy the shit out of you. Like if you aren't doing something, it's usually, you know, they need to, you need to provide them with something. And if you aren't providing them with something, they annoy you and annoy you until you give it to them. But if you don't have that person to annoy you about organizing like yourself, then you won't do it and you won't realize what, what your actual income statement looks like because you're not, you're not pulling it together, you're not organizing it.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah. So what do you think is like, you know, is it, is it. I mean, this is stuff that some people don't understand, even get or understand. But if you're advising a business owner, like should they go to figure out your customer acquisition cost, you know, looking at your balance sheet, understanding what your true cash flow is, like, what do you think are the one to two things? And maybe this goes back to your, your CPA days of what most business owners don't understand that they really need to understand to run a business at a high level.

[Greg Hurleen]

Really, it's, it's more of like the category categorization of what they're doing. So oftentimes, you know, they'll, they just won't understand from a financial perspective what something means. And that's not to say that they're not smart or educated in any manner. It's just that they don't they can't deep dive into what their financials look like.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

So if you can't, if you don't have that knowledge, then you have to ask someone else, what do you think?

[Carson Hurleen]

What do you think is an example of that? What would you see? What do you think was probably one of the most common ones that you think people didn't get or understand when you're in the CPA world?

[Greg Hurleen]

Well, a lot of times people really don't even understand what an asset or a liability is. So like, you know, you go to buy a vehicle or lease a vehicle, should you lease it, should you buy it? Like even something as simple as that analysis, someone, a financial person can help you do a lot easier. You know what I mean? It's not just, hey, oh, my monthly payment's going to be a thousand dollars. Well, cool, well, what happens at the end of that lease or what happens when you go to sell that asset? It's a, it's, it's a, I mean it's just the basic financial concepts that a lot of business owners struggle to get their hands around because they're, they're a lot better at other things.

[Carson Hurleen]

Right. Selling shit and Right. You know, not, not having the back end buttoned up.

[Brandon Briningham]

Right, right, right.

[Carson Hurleen]

So another thing too is like one of the things that I kind of learned was having your financials in real time. Right. And I think you can speak to this from the CPA world, but I'd love for you to touch on that of most people are looking at their financials in past tense. They're not looking at it in real time.

[Greg Hurleen]

Right. And so, so, I mean, technology has gone a huge way of allowing you to do it in real time without spending a ton of money or even a ton of time. Like there's a lot of, you know, online based banking, online based bookkeeping, you can hire a fractional cfo, which is a lot, you know, might fit your business needs a lot better and your budget. So there's so many options out there now that there didn't used to be. But the key is giving someone else access to something that you normally would not want them to have. Right. So that's the, that's why you pay financial experts more than normal, is because most of the time they're extremely trustworthy people. Do you still need to look at your own stuff? Absolutely. But if you're getting that monthly updates, you're looking at it in real time. They're, they're inside your books already on a daily basis. They're Categorizing things for you. They're, you know, calling out, hey, did you mean to double your budget on this advertising item? Instead of waiting, you know, a month later to look at it, or six months, then you can't change the contract that you didn't know you even signed up for.

[Carson Hurleen]

You can't make decisions in real time because you're looking at data. Past tense, right?

[Greg Hurleen]

Exactly. So it's someone who's looking. And I mean, I haven't gone out and done a ton of research on this, but I mean, as you know, you love AI and I know there's stuff out there for, you know, looking at financials in this way. So again, I think it's getting cheaper and cheaper to have someone looking at your books. Even if it's an AI generated product that can at least spot those fluctuations that you just don't have time to do yourself.

[Carson Hurleen]

How important is it for somebody to look at their P and L and like really dissect it like we do every month?

[Greg Hurleen]

Extremely important. I mean, it's so easy to sign up for things nowadays and not know that you're spending. I mean, I know I'm the only person that would probably care about $8 a month, but it adds up.

[Carson Hurleen]

And that's why we hired you.

[Greg Hurleen]

It's like literally there's sometimes that you sign up for contracts and that's for the rest of your life unless you can figure out, unless you even know it's there. So. So it's extremely important to look. I mean, I. We've found things where people have invoiced us incorrectly and they have your credit card, so they just swipe it. You know what I mean? So if you're not looking at it timely, there's a chance that these, you know, these folks will not give your money back because everything's based on a time when you have a contract.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah, and another thing that if you guys are listening to this, that I would give you advice at is it's kind of one of the things that I do, which, I mean, I fucking hate this shit, but it's part of the game is like looking at where are we spending money and why? And does this justify, does the money just that we're spending justify the actual outcome or the roi? Now there's some things that you spend money on that you need to operate from your business that's not necessarily income generating generating thing, but it supports it. But there's been many, many times when, you know, I mean, we do this a lot. I mean, we do this consistently. We look at our financials consistently and we say, this doesn't make sense. Or this doesn't make sen. This doesn't make sense. Or at one time it might have been a luxury and the market changed, the. Whatever changed, but I just don't think a lot of people do that.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah, I mean, and I think part of that is like, you know, we look at it monthly, but also we deep dive at least every six months.

[Carson Hurleen]

Right.

[Greg Hurleen]

You know what I mean? Just to say, hey, has our trajectory changed on what we're looking to do? That one thing that we talked about? Oh, yeah, no, we definitely need that six months ago. Do we still definitely need that today? And it changes, you know, all the time. So looking at the monthly, at least on a surface level is essential. And deep diving, you know, minimum of every six months is. It will help you with your business.

[Carson Hurleen]

So you've, you saw this from the CPA world, You know, it's just, it's still. And if you're listening to this, I'm going to give you shit. There's a lot of you that are listening to this that will not do anything with the advice that we're giving you right now because it's stressful. I mean, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's all kinds of things tied to it. But what I will tell you guys is the peace of mind that you will get of knowing all this stuff in real time where you can make an actual legitimate, real decision based on data, not how we do as visionaries, which is based on feeling and how we're feeling at the time. But why do you think it is that there's so many people, because you saw it in the CPA world too, that just don't ever get this shit right. They don't ever figure it out.

[Greg Hurleen]

Well, it's, it's the thing that you don't like to do. I mean, it's. It's just like, you know, going to the gym, like we talk about all the time. But, like, it's better if you have someone who says, hey, are you meeting me at the gym? Or hey, I've hired this trainer, I'm spending this money, I have to go. Do you know what I mean? A CPA is, is the same concept, like, it's the friction in your business that you do not want to. You don't want to look in that direction, you don't want to do it. So you have to have a partner that forces you to do it. And, you know, you get through it. And then once you get to a point where you're like, oh, this isn't that hard because you're just doing it in smaller increments. Once you get the initial push over the initial, you know, hey, look at my full set of books. Make sure everything looks right. Once you're through that initial push, then it gets a lot easier, especially if you're doing it on a monthly basis. That's why a lot of people, a lot of businesses only have that relationship with their CPA once a year. And that makes it harder because you're looking backwards for the whole year. You're trying to remember what happened in January a year before, and maybe it's September a year later, and you don't know. It makes it impossible.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah, you don't remember and you don't know. Another thing you know, as it relates to all this is, you know, there's like, there's there's so much misinformation. Like, how would you say to someone, which, by the way, if you guys are listening to this, we can introduce you to accruity. That's a relationship that we believe in. But if someone is in a market and, like, they don't know what to do, who do I hire? How do I hire? Like, what the hell do I do?

[Greg Hurleen]

Well, a lot of. A lot of that your best advice can usually come from, you know, your competitors will probably know where to go. Your. Your peers will know where to go. I mean, you can do a Google search and a great accountant. But the thing is, is now it's not limited to your local area. Like, accruity can. Can work with anyone. Yeah, a lot of my peers who I went through public accounting with, they work for firms that, you know, do national work all over and.

[Carson Hurleen]

Right.

[Greg Hurleen]

So it's. It's easier to find the, the key with narrowing down who you want to hire. It will probably be a price point. You know what I mean? Like, figuring out if you want to go. A lot of times CPA firms are now just based on packaging. So if you want the monthly interaction, this is how much it costs. If you want a quarterly interaction, it's a little bit less. So maybe you just dip into it and say, hey, let's start with the quarter, get it within our budget, and then we can start looking at it monthly after that. Once you know that you're getting your money's worth, which you normally always do.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Hey, what's up, everybody? This next segment is brought to you by Greg Hurlen and my good friends At Horizon Trucks. Greg's a guy that I trust and a real estate partner of mine. Greg's company, Horizon Trust was founded in 2011, has over a billion dollars in assets. And what they specialize in is helping you get into a self directed IRA account that you can leverage to do things beyond traditional investments so you can invest in things like precious metals, real estate, private lending and so much more. So a lot of people are not aware that you can can do this with your retirement account. And these are the guys that I trust. They do a single low annual fee, no hidden fees. They provide exceptional services. I know them and I trust them. And they are a licensed custodian governed by the IRS and the Department of Labor. So they've got the proper compliance and.

[Carson Hurleen]

Maintenance of your accounts.

[Sarah Lavdis]

These are the guys that I trust. These are the guys that I would refer you to. So if you're interested in finding out more of how you can use your IRA to unlock all kinds of different ways for you to invest it, these are the guys that I want you to talk to. So here's where you got to go.

[Carson Hurleen]

To check them out.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Www.horizontrust.com BrandonB so they know you came from me. That's www.horizontrust.com brandonb.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah, so here's another thing that I want to tell you guys, guys, real world advice. So one of the things that we've started to do is look at companies to invest in and invest in companies. And I will tell you guys from real world experience, the first thing we're going to do, the first thing I'm going to do is get their financials and send it to Sarah. And I'll tell you guys, there's a couple times when I can't get financials right, can't even get them because they don't exist. Or when we do get them there, they paint a picture that is not real. And it may not be. It's not that they're being dishonest, they just don't know. Yeah, right.

[Greg Hurleen]

I mean the last few that we've looked at, it's a function of them not understanding whether an asset is part of their business or not. Like, are they selling us their personal house? Like they're not, they're not totally sure. So I mean it's, that's where you really have to like, you have to do it from the jump. You've got to look at everything and say, if I'm trying to sell this business, how do I structure it so that I can actually have an outside person Come in and look at everything I want them to see without, you know, without it being an issue with everything you own being titled in the business.

[Carson Hurleen]

So that's where I was going is right. For a lot of business owners, part of the dream is I want to exit this company at some point or I want to sell it or whatever. And what I will tell you is you're going to get absolutely crushed on your valuation or you might not even get evaluation because somebody says you don't have a real business if you don't have legitimate real time financials. And not just today like you're going to. A lot of people are going to look at your trailing 12, you're trailing 24, you're trailing 36 months because they, they want to know where you've been and where you're going. But if you don't have legitimate actuate accurate financials that make sense, you're gonna have a hard time getting outside money, getting anybody invest in your company growing or even borrowing money if you need debt to grow. But you damn sure ain't gonna sell your company. And if you do, if someone's willing to pay to, to buy it because they see the, they see the upside, but they know they're going to deal with the mess, they're going to whack you on your value.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah, that's exactly. You know, if you don't have accurate financials and you're trying to ever exit a situation, you, you will not be able to, no one will buy it if they're, you know, if they know what they're doing, they won't buy your business.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah. So number one, you guys can't hire her. So we're not going to give you any of her information how to get in touch with her. Plus she don't want to talk to any guys anyway. She's an introvert. She don't want to talk to people. Good that I convinced her to come on here today. But I'm going to do this a little bit different. We kind of end, we kind of do the show, the ending the same way every time. But this one I'm going to do a little bit different. Like what would you give people? So for, for a lot of people that listen to this, like this is overwhelming, right? Like this is overwhelming for them to think about, especially if they're the visionary. Like give them, hey, here's two or three pieces of advice just to get your shit together. You need to go do.

[Greg Hurleen]

I mean, the first thing you can do is print out your bank statement for your business. Like, do you have a business account or are you running everything through your personal accounts? That's. You know what I mean? You gotta sec.

[Carson Hurleen]

Which we didn't touch on that, but. But that's a good point. Like it should be completely separate. You should not be running your personal life out of your business.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah, that's. I mean, happens all the time. But print out your bank statements and say, hey, if I gave these to someone else, would they understand what's happening in my business? And if they did, you're already. You're already doing pretty well because you could usually give your bank account access to a trusted financial advisor. And they can go through and be like, hey, this looks like what's happening, and you guys can talk about your picture. That's your first step. You know what I mean? And if it's a disaster, then you gotta change what you're doing to figure out, you know what I mean? Like, you gotta get the personal out of there. You've gotta. To make sure you've got, you know, recurring expenses that make sense.

[Carson Hurleen]

You know, you made a good point that I didn't think of touching on, but I want to touch on it since you brought it up because there's a lot of people in here that are operators that do this. So we looked at a company not that long ago to invest in, and the owner was running about half a million dollars of personal expenses throughout a year. And I got in and I'm like, well, hey, you know, here we have an issue with this and here's why. And he didn't understand it. And I said, okay, so cool if we come in and we invest in your company, are you going to pay yourself less? And it's like, well, that's not real because, you know, I was paying myself. It's a damn expensive.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Your business.

[Carson Hurleen]

That's how anyone's going to look at it. So you can't. That half a million dollars, major business, half a million dollars less profitable. Right. And so a lot of people don't look at it because they look at it as one. It's the same to them because it's them, but it's their business. They don't separate, so to speak. Church estate. I'm glad you mentioned that because I've looked at P L so many times when they're like, well, you know, but 300,000 of it I'm paying myself. It's an expense.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah, it's. It's an expense. Especially if you're. If you're not Structured as, like, we use s. Corporations. So you can clearly see, hey, that was a wage I was paying myself, right? To perform what I'm doing for the business. And then everything else is some sort of return of capital. It's easier to segregate. But if you're just running everything through your business, it's just. It's not. It's not a good. It's not a good policy, that's for sure.

[Carson Hurleen]

All right. That was a good piece of advice. What's another one?

[Greg Hurleen]

Oh, Lord, I don't know. I feel like I've talked about all of them.

[Carson Hurleen]

Just figure like, you know, fig someone is. Their shit's a mess, right?

[Greg Hurleen]

We.

[Carson Hurleen]

I don't know what to do. Yeah, I hear what you're saying, Brandon, Sarah, but I just don't know what to do. All right, I got the first one separate church and state on the bank account. What do I do? What should my second step be?

[Greg Hurleen]

I mean, it's easy enough to reach out and ask for, hey, how much does it cost for me to walk in and talk to you? You know what I mean? Like, walk in and talk to.

[Carson Hurleen]

Go find a professional to help you.

[Greg Hurleen]

It could just be some sort of bookkeeper or something, someone that you can develop a relationship with, that you would trust. And if you can, like, I can't tell you exactly where to find those people, but they're out there for sure.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

And, you know, set up that first appointment and say, hey, what do I need to bring to you? And then they'll let you know, you know what, what you need to bring. And that's just getting everything together that you think has to do with your business, your credit card, auto payment, you know what I mean, A rent, rent, income, any of that, just getting everything together and placing it front. In front of someone who has the. The eyeballs trained to look at all of that and make a clear picture. That is. That's a great first step.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yep. And then a third one, I'll answer this for you, is you got, you. You need to. And listen, all the information that you ever needed is out there now. You need to understand the basics of how to read a profit and loss statement, how to read your balance sheet. Before we even get into the intricacies of cost of goods sold, you know, any of that kind of stuff. Simple things you need to understand. You need to have a balance sheet, you need to have a profit and loss statement. You need to understand how to read themselves for yourself as an own. And if you don't understand that you need to do the research to figure that out, because that's all. That's where it all starts. But you cannot run a business effectively without doing this stuff and having your back office. You can't turn a blind eye to this without having it buttoned up. So if you guys don't go do this, you're not running a business. And a lot of times when I coach with somebody and they don't have this together, you know, and I'll say, well, how much money did you make last year? And they'll say, well, I can tell you how much money I got in the bank, and it's you, dude. Yeah.

[Greg Hurleen]

No, that's not the answer.

[Carson Hurleen]

That's not the answer. Yeah, that's not the answer.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah. And. And you know, you're gonna have sticker shock when you go to look for someone to help you, but it's.

[Carson Hurleen]

You have to.

[Greg Hurleen]

It's what you pay for what you get. So.

[Carson Hurleen]

Yep. You have to. I mean, you. You don't have a choice. It's a cost of doing business, and it's an. It's an investment in your piece, number one, because you're going to get your peace of mind. And then. We didn't talk about this yet today. I won't go deep on this, but the other thing that you gotta worry about is the IRS could show up one day, and if you don't have your together, that could be painful.

[Greg Hurleen]

It's. It's painful whether you have your together or not. Yeah, it's. Yeah. If you don't, then it's gonna. It will be extremely hard for you, and you'll have to pay someone to do. To do it, and it'll probably cost three times as much as it is.

[Carson Hurleen]

Because you don't have it together.

[Greg Hurleen]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[Carson Hurleen]

All right, well, we gave you your financial lesson today, and hopefully you guys got an immense amount of value out of this. But as basic as some of this sounds, some of you guys are running a business and not even operating at a basic enough level on the financials. And you have to. To graduate to, you know, junior varsity and then varsity, and then you want to go play in league. If you don't understand this or figure this out, you need to, because you can't get there without it. And if you guys need an introduction into accruity, reach out to me. I'll do it. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your advice and help today.

[Greg Hurleen]

No problem.

[Carson Hurleen]

All right, guys. Appreciate you as always. Appreciate you tapping in and listening. And as always, we'll we'll keep bringing on way smarter guests than me so we can help you guys every day. Wake up to Wealth. Appreciate you guys.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Hey, are you ready to take the next step towards home ownership at Responsive Mortgage, the guys that that we trust, they make the process simple and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a first time home buyer or looking to refinance, their expert team is to help guide you every step of the way. With competitive rates and personalized solutions, they find the right mortgage fit for you. Visit responsivemortgage.com today and let them help lead you home. And these guys, Responsive Mortgage and Mike Benton are my friends and they're a sponsor of the show Show. So we trust them. Reach out to them for all your mortgage needs. Tell them I sent you.

[Brandon Briningham]

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of Wake up to Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume Podcast. This way we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review on Apple Podcast and tell your friends about the show. It is how new people find it.

[Sarah Lavdis]

Us.

[Brandon Briningham]

Until next time.