Unlock Financial Success: 5 Key Insights from an Accounting Specialist

Dylan Silver (00:01.105)
Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, I have a accounting specialist who works with investors to help streamline their accounting and keep track of their numbers. Stacey Seguin. Stacey, welcome to the show.

Stacey Seguin (00:21.774)
Yeah. Thanks, Dylan. It’s great to be here. I appreciate you taking the time out to talk with me today.

Dylan Silver (00:28.037)
Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show here. You’re based out of North Carolina, right?

Stacey Seguin (00:33.474)
I am, I’m in central North Carolina in Greensboro. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (00:36.657)
I tell people, I said I’ve had a lot of guests on the show, the Carolinas, I also feel like Virginia. These are areas that I’ve thought about, but I never kind of, I was like, well, I’ll just go to Florida, you know? But now I think like, well, these are really areas that a lot of people say the same thing, but there’s some beautiful areas, really a great thriving, I believe, area for families as well. And I’ve only good things.

Stacey Seguin (00:56.227)
Yeah.

Stacey Seguin (01:01.676)
Yeah, and we have the new Jet Zero development going in. That’s a super amazing airplane that’s going to revolutionize air travel. so Greensboro is definitely a great place to be in the future.

Dylan Silver (01:15.261)
So, speaking about getting started in your business, have you always been in North Carolina? Was a North Carolinian? Has accounting always been in North Carolina for you out there?

Stacey Seguin (01:26.798)
So I have almost always been in North Carolina, grew up in Raleigh. I went to college in Greensboro, left and came back and raised my family here. So there’s a pull and a draw. Back in 93, my family bought a farmhouse that was built in the 1850s and renovated it. And so this has been home since 98, 97, 98.

Dylan Silver (01:51.965)
So starting off at the top, you mentioned going to school in Raleigh. And then before we hopped on the podcast here, I believe you mentioned the mid-2010, that decade was when you started really shifting to accounting and working with investors.

Stacey Seguin (01:55.118)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (01:59.074)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (02:08.942)
Yeah, I started the accounting company. So I had started a private investigative company, co-founded that in the 90s. And that’s where I learned really that I was passionate about business. And so around 2015, I started an accounting company because I figured what’s a marketable skill and what’s something I like to do in my 20s. And my intention with My ROI was to help business owners understand their financials. When you start out as a business person, you don’t.

understand your financials generally. And so once you figure that out and you know how to drive things forward, what to change, what not to change, what those dials are, then you have start to have control. And in that first company as a private investigative company, we did not have control. And a lot of that was not just financial, but it was also mission, vision and purpose, right? And so that strategy.

Dylan Silver (02:56.125)
Mm.

Stacey Seguin (03:06.766)
that’s part of strategy. So yeah, I got back into it and realized I was fired in the kiln of life for this work. And everything I do starts with accounting, but it spreads out from there to operations and vision.

Dylan Silver (03:15.196)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (03:22.171)
So accounting is actually, I’m not an accountant at all, but I’m passionate about what I call asset management. And I say this because I’m also not managing other people’s assets just yet. But I have a mentor here in Denton. I’m about 40 minutes north of Dallas, but we still consider ourselves DFW, 40, 50 minutes. And he worked for an investment company was my understanding. And he’s always saying, know,

Stacey Seguin (03:29.07)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (03:41.358)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (03:51.185)
you gotta be an asset manager. And I’m like, well yeah, but how does this apply to me? But in actuality, I think everyone in their own level, whether you’re in business or not, you can kind of do a triage or an analysis of what are you spending money on? Is this helping you make money? And if it’s not, then what’s the real reason that you’re spending money on it?

Stacey Seguin (04:11.768)
Well, it’s not just are you making money, but it’s how much are you keeping of what you’re making, right? And if you, I found this working in the accounting space, my business owners did not understand. They understood their P &L because that was real for them, right? It had a client attached, they made money from that client, they paid for services in order to serve that client, they got money left over, they had an operation. Like that makes sense to us. Their balance sheets were rarely,

Dylan Silver (04:17.019)
Yeah.

Stacey Seguin (04:41.322)
up to date and accurate. Maybe their main checking accounts were up to date, but their credit card accounts, their loan accounts, the things that were delayed for them, they might make a monthly payment. They don’t understand the breakout of principal and interest and fees. Like it’s just one payment that comes out. That’s the only thing they’re focusing on. As a business owner and an investor in particular, you have to understand your assets and your liabilities. What’s going up? What’s going

down and does it make sense based on the decisions we’ve made. So that brings in like the CFO level work. That’s what people think they’re asking for right now is CFO. But I found that you can’t have a good CFO relationship if your accounting doesn’t match your processes. And most of our processes for accounting don’t give us the data we actually need. Right. I just talked to.

Dylan Silver (05:38.385)
Yeah, mean, Stacey, that’s a point that hits home as someone who is working right now with, in my personal business, looking at leads, right? And when I think about leads, I’m kind of going around a bend here to make this point, but you don’t just do one month and then say, okay, well, it didn’t work.

Stacey Seguin (05:51.0)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (06:01.16)
You have to look at it from like six months, maybe longer than that, you know, at least three, but I would say six, right? So you might spend, you know, thousands of dollars on leads in one month and that lead might not come anywhere until month six, because you got to follow up with people. And I, when I think about, you know, managing your financials in a business, it’s not just what is happening now, but it’s also six months from now. What will my profit and loss? What will my accounts? What will everything look like?

Stacey Seguin (06:01.365)
You

Stacey Seguin (06:07.074)
Yeah. Well, yeah.

Stacey Seguin (06:31.212)
Yeah. What will it look like and are the decisions that I’m making today having the impact that I want? And we are short-sighted, especially like we’ve got to be looking at it long-term, but often we’re dismissive of the numbers because it’s not set up correctly. I don’t want to harp on that, but like it’s got to matter and it’s got to reflect your business. And yes, it needs to follow.

the accounting guidelines of either GAP accounting or FASB. It doesn’t really matter which one you’re following because those are just standard ways of accounting for things, but it’s gotta make sense to you as the business owner. So I used to think when I was starting out that I didn’t know enough.

about accounting and reading financials to understand what I was seeing. I had confusion. I thought it was me. The reality is after I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now and four in the real estate space, it’s not me, it’s your systems and processes don’t provide you the meaningful data that you need. So it’s your systems. It’s not even you. It’s not that you as a business owner don’t have the ability to understand financials.

is that your bookkeeping process doesn’t provide you the meaning you need. And one of those reasons that that’s true is you’re relying on bank feed data to inform your accounting. And all accounting software is transaction-based.

So you have to put in the transactions so that when you get the data from the bank that says this one cleared or this one didn’t clear, it makes sense in your business because your transaction’s already there. And I’ve worked with $5 million companies that are running six entities off of bank feeds. And you’ve just got a mishmash of things, transfers going between companies and you don’t know what it’s for.

Stacey Seguin (08:29.67)
And no one can operate that way. It doesn’t matter how good you are at finances. It doesn’t matter how bad you are at finances. You can’t operate and function that way. And my fear right now is that we’re coming into a period of time where things are going to contract and it’s going to get tighter and it’s going to get harder and we have to get better. Right? And if we’re built on that foundation, we’re not going to survive things for the long haul.

Dylan Silver (08:53.339)
Let’s talk about what meaningful data looks like. So I think about how I look at everything and on my level, not a $5 million business, but for me personally, but on my level where I’m at as a real estate agent and also as a wholesaler, I think about my outgoing expenses and I think about my incoming.

Stacey Seguin (08:56.878)
Mm.

Dylan Silver (09:15.515)
profits or my incoming gross and then what the profits are there. And I think a lot of people are operating like that and you mentioned that. And then also I’ll look at my bank statement and before going into the month, you know, I have a couple graphs, I have an Excel spreadsheet or two. I might have some things that I’m keeping on the rear view like, hey, here’s some annual expenses which are going to be coming in. And then I might also have some

Stacey Seguin (09:16.864)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (09:24.558)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (09:37.391)
I call it a wish list. Like hey, if I do extra well this month, then maybe next month or two months from now, I might be able to get some high quality leads that I wasn’t looking at. I might be able to do direct mail, so on and so forth. But what is meaningful data? I haven’t heard this term before. What is meaningful data?

Stacey Seguin (09:52.236)
Well, so yeah, so part of meaningful data and I find that the investors who are succeeding with their lead generation and their deal flow and they’re making profit, they’re tracking everything outside of QuickBooks or outside of Xero, right? So they’ve got a system in usually in Excel or in Google that tells them their conversion rates and how well they’re going to do on this particular contract.

But the reality is what happens in your accounting and is there a disconnect there? So you want to follow that entire cycle through your accounting and so that your outside systems that your team are using to compare success matches what the reality is in QuickBooks. And financially, we look at it a little bit differently. Most investors, let’s take a typical deal you’re looking for.

$20,000 $30,000 in deal profit. Well, from a management accounting perspective and a CFO perspective, that might only be 2 % improvement over what you invested in that property. So yes, dollar-wise, it helps you succeed, but was it a good enough investment? That’s the kind of information that you need to have. And there are ways to set up your accounting to do that, but you’ve got to, I use customers.

in the real estate space for properties. And I’m looking at on a deal by deal basis. Did we get what we thought we were gonna get? If the numbers work out well enough, there may be things that are accounted for in accounting, but not accounted for in your dashboards and your systems offline, right? Off books is what we would call it. And so there’s usually a disconnect there. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (11:38.341)
I do want to get granular and talk about, you know, on a specific deal, an investor might come to you and they’re looking at their transactions, and I’m just spitballing here, so you might have to guide me a little bit here. So, looking at their transactions, they’re also looking at what they’re predicted to make. And then you’re coming in and you’re adding in additional feedback. What do those conversations look like and what’s the data look like and what changes?

Stacey Seguin (11:51.342)
All right.

Stacey Seguin (12:05.536)
Yeah, so I mean, sometimes it’s not really even about the accounting, it’s about the type of deal, right? And so is how well defined is your buy box? Are you doing too many different types of exit strategies? Is one exit strategy more profitable than another? Like, and so that’s one of the things that drives me nuts about, you know, real estate. I love it, but it also drives me crazy because there’s an infinite number of possibilities.

However, getting focused and really dialed into your strengths and what your team is really good at producing, you’ve got to have that financial data in order to figure that out. And so, it’s hard for me to say it’s this, that, or the other thing, but it’s really understanding the operation, what your drivers are, what your lead conversion is. You mentioned just a few minutes ago, like we’re chasing revenue usually. I need to get a million dollars or I need a…

a deal that’s going to produce 20,000. We’re chasing that, but we’ve got to really understand what are the drivers that get us there. And we’re paying more attention to the top line revenue and the bottom line at the bottom of our financials and are we in range with where we want to be. But that may not be the most efficient you can be. So how do we improve our operations in order to improve our results?

Right, and so you’ve got to understand those connections. And we spend a lot of time, I find, we spend a lot of time just accepting what is, and sometimes what is is mediocre. And we’re tolerating frustrations and things that slow us down that we don’t have to, but we feel like we have to, we’re stuck, because we’re chasing revenue and that net number. hopefully that helps.

Dylan Silver (13:45.106)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:54.203)
Now is what you’re doing, is what you’re doing, you talk about exit strategies and you’re clearly, just based on this conversation, I can tell you’re knowledgeable on the various different ways that people might exit from these deals, right? So let’s say you’re looking at rehabbing a property, of course you could do a fix and flip, you can make it a long-term hold, you can make it corporate housing, you could do short-term Airbnb.

Stacey Seguin (14:07.8)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (14:18.819)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (14:19.229)
And then also to you could get a property under contract and do what I’m doing, which is sell during the executory period and you don’t actually close on it yourself. So there’s so many different and that’s not even considering the other ones that I didn’t dive into. So there’s so many different strategies here. And is this typical for people who are accountants in the real estate space that you’re going to be talking with investors about their exit strategies and about really

Stacey Seguin (14:27.949)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (14:34.251)
Right. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (14:49.073)
getting the most bang for their buck? Or is this a niche that makes you very unique in that sense because most accountants aren’t getting into these conversations with investors?

Stacey Seguin (14:58.092)
Yeah, I think it’s something that does make me unique. not only like we’re, we’re most of my clients in particular experts at the deal making, right? They’re really good at that. They understand, they know where their limits are. Some of them, their deal making is really creative and having an unlimited number of possibilities really motivates and drives them. That’s not a person who wants a hundred million dollar company.

and no staff, right? Because the more differences there are, the more complicated the systems and processes have to be and the more support you generally need in order to do those things. So being able to, for someone like me who can say, well, this is where you want to go, this is the operation you actually have, is there a mismatch here?

That gets into the mission, vision, and purpose and the reason why the business exists. And that I find is fundamental to my being able to set up the accounting so that it makes sense to help you achieve that. Yeah, so 100 % a differentiator.

Dylan Silver (16:06.546)
You know.

It’s actually, I would say it’s probably quite rare. I don’t interface much with accountants, but I would say it’s probably quite rare and probably a reason why a lot of investors may think, you know, I’m gonna do this on my own because what is this, I think probably ignorantly, they think what does this accountant know about all the different types of strategies that I’m doing? And so how am I gonna…

Stacey Seguin (16:31.284)
about my real estate, right?

Dylan Silver (16:34.203)
what value are they gonna provide to me because I’m gonna have to explain to them, you know, seller financing subject to the existing mortgage deals. I’m gonna have to explain to them the fact that, you know, we might get into a property and now we have to change our exit strategy mid-deal because we’re realizing the rehab is throwing off our estimates on everything. And so with you being knowledgeable in this, I think it’s a really unique niche because again, I wasn’t even aware that there were

Stacey Seguin (16:52.79)
Right.

Dylan Silver (17:03.897)
accountants that that did this. I’ve heard lots of people go into maybe tangential fields. You you talk about tax strategy, you talk about like mini cost segregations and cost segregation in general. But having a financial expert who can guide you and talk about, know, well, here’s how much you’re spending on leads. And are you aware that these are where your conversions are at? And then these are the strategies that are producing the most bang for your buck, but also they’re time consuming for you.

And not only that, your holding costs are this. And then when the market changes as it has changed and now it’s taken longer and longer to sell, you’re also dealing with uncertainty. Do you want something that’s gonna be more certain? So I can imagine now these are conversations that you’re having with investors where really it’s like a sounding board for them as well.

Stacey Seguin (17:33.325)
Yeah.

Stacey Seguin (17:43.742)
Yeah.

Stacey Seguin (17:51.596)
Yeah, yeah, and it’s not just about producing a report, a financial report. It’s really helping them create the business that they really, really want, right? And oftentimes where we start as investors, we start with, just got to get to this level. I need this amount of income. It’s all very practical and tactical. And it’s like, just get started. And most of the gurus out there, especially the really loud people talking about it, it’s all about just do a deal, do a deal, get a deal.

keep doing a deal, but we can deal ourselves to death if we don’t have a good operation. So while I am conversational about exit strategies and deal making and that process on the front end, it’s really how do you create an organization that you don’t have to be the one pushing the buttons and pulling the levers. You’ve got a team behind you.

And how do you get to that next level where you can work yourself out of being that button pusher and lever puller who makes all the deals happen and you end up chained to your business. You’ve got to have a bigger vision and a reason for people to follow you and support that vision. so, yeah, it’s more than just accounting. Accounting is where it starts, but it really becomes business management 601 for me.

Dylan Silver (19:15.289)
It sounds like we need a new term. We need a new terminology like coach, advisor, accountant. And it’s tough because, as an investor or aspiring investor, I think I speak for myself, but I think a lot of investors feel this way. It’s like, well, you know, it’s difficult for me to go to this person because I have to explain everything to them. And, you know, this is not their their wheelhouse, so to speak.

Stacey Seguin (19:19.424)
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s yeah, it’s.

Stacey Seguin (19:38.926)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (19:39.653)
I can imagine, you know, you’re out there in North Carolina. Do you work with Just Investors out there North Carolina? Are you going across?

Stacey Seguin (19:44.768)
No, work, I mean my clients are in any state. So I am, I’m remote. And I own, I do work exclusively with QuickBooks online. So I do draw the line, no QuickBooks desktop. It’ll interfere with my systems and processes and slow me down. So don’t, I will convert you to QuickBooks desktop if needed.

Dylan Silver (19:49.021)
Mm-hmm.

Stacey Seguin (20:07.022)
But yeah, and I’ve worked in Xero and I’ve worked in other things, but that’s the thing that makes it easiest for me right now is to fly with QuickBooks Online.

Dylan Silver (20:18.331)
So, Stacey, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to learn more about your business and maybe get in touch with you?

Stacey Seguin (20:27.916)
So my website is www.omiroi.com. It’s O-H-M-Y-R-O-I.com. And you can connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook and where else, my Instagram is starting to grow there. So you can find me there as well.

Dylan Silver (20:47.899)
Alright, Stacy, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Stacey Seguin (20:51.586)
Thanks Dylan, this has been a lot of fun. I appreciate getting to know you.