Strength in Numbers with Marcus Crigler

Episode 61: Why Your Business Feels Tight Right Now (And What to Fix) with Bentley Pugh

• Marcus Crigler • Episode 61

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If your business feels tighter than usual with less cash, slower deals, and more pressure, this episode is a must-listen!

For today's episode of Strength in Numbers Podcast, Marcus Crigler sits down with real estate investor Bentley Pugh to unpack what’s going on behind the scenes when a business starts to feel squeezed.

Listen as he discusses taking full accountability, resolving cash flow issues, and returning to the fundamentals that built his business in the first place. He also breaks down how he’s restructuring deals, improving financial visibility, and why strong operators win by adjusting when the market changes.

Enjoy the show!


You’ll Learn How To:

  • Manage cash flow during a business slowdown
  • Adjust deal structures to bring in faster cash
  • Build multiple income streams within real estate
  • Stay disciplined with proper cash management


What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

(01:48) Introducing Bentley Pugh and his background

(04:34) How infill lot development works in Seattle

(05:59) Why rising interest rates slowed the market

(07:31) Adapting your business instead of blaming the market

(09:44) Land deals are more complex than traditional flips

(11:57) Competition and challenges in land acquisition

(13:29) Avoiding shiny object syndrome in business

(15:09) Vertical integration and deal optimization

(16:33) How Bentley got into private lending

(19:24) Bentley's "One Big Deal"

(20:28) Choosing cash flow over quick profits

(25:07) The importance of detailed budgeting per property

(26:55) Creating a forward-looking cash flow tracking system

(30:08) Bentley's advice for better results in business


Who This Episode is For:

  • Real estate entrepreneurs who are tired of being broke
  • Investors dealing with slower deals or tighter margins
  • Entrepreneurs who feel plateaued in their business
  • Anyone struggling with inconsistent cash flow


Why You Should Listen:

This episode serves as a real-world reminder that small decisions can add up. Taking your foot off the gas, ignoring your numbers, or bending your own rules can slowly create pressure in your business.


Connect with Bentley Pugh:


Connect with Marcus Crigler:


SPEAKER_02

You can't take your foot off the gas. And I did. And so I'm a hundred percent accountable for uh where I'm at. It's not a bad spot, but it's not where I'd like to be. Right. I think we say getting back to basics a lot, but there's a reason why we say getting back to basics. I mean, like a couple of times I bought properties that don't cash flow, even though I put a good amount of money down, and that was sort of a rule that I had. So if you ever get into trouble, you just don't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Strength in Numbers, the podcast for real estate entrepreneurs who are tired of being broke and not having control of their finances. If you're ready to finally take control of your money, slash your taxes, and start building real wealth, you're in the right place. And now here's your host, Marcus Krigler.

SPEAKER_00

Hey there and welcome to the Strength in Numbers Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping real estate entrepreneurs just like you finally take control of your numbers so that you can stop living deal by deal, month by month, and start living the life of real estate you truly desire. My name is Marcus Krigler. I am the founder and CEO of Beck CFO and CPA, the CPA firm that is helping produce this podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Beck CFO and CPA, where we help people make money, save money, and build real wealth in real estate. We do that through our accounting, tax, and CFO processes that are specifically geared for real estate investors just like you. If you have any or want any information on Beck CFO and how we can help you make money, save money, or build more wealth, reach out to BeckCFO.com, B E C C F O.com, and get in touch with us there. Today's episode is going to be a fun one. I've got Bentley Pugh from Seattle, Washington coming on. And he reached out to me and said, Hey, I want to chat with you about the things going on in my business, how my business is structured. We've slowed down a little bit. We're having some cash management issues and we're we're strategizing around that. I want to kind of share with you and your audience how we are affecting our cash flow and our cash management in our business today, even though our business is slowed. So I think you're going to really enjoy this episode with Bentley Pugh. Welcome back to the Strength in Numbers podcast. I've got Bentley Pugh with us today. Bentley is a real estate entrepreneur out of Washington, the state, Seattle, Washington. Old CG buddy. I met him at Collective Genius several years ago. He had a we were having a little uh conversation before we started. He had to kind of refresh my memory at that. It'd been a little while since we actually got to shake hands. But excited to have him on the podcast, excited to hear what he's up to and excited to learn a little bit about his business. Welcome to the podcast, Bentley. Hey man, appreciate you having me. Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's been a long time since we chatted and caught up, but talk to me a little bit about what you're doing today and kind of maybe the process that got you where you're at today.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think uh right now it's you know, I'm in development or infill lots, and and it's sort of like multifamily. I feel like it's one of the hardest hit things right now for our sectors. And so uh we're struggling. I think it's just sort of like it has to, it's sort of like it's just time will only heal it, if that makes sense. So um, we're just sort of trying to put deals in, being conscientious of cash flow. Typically, what we do is we we target infill lots and then we have an assignment on the front, and then we get all the listings on the back, and usually it's a multiplier. You know, we do one deal, maybe we make 30 grand up front, and then we get two and a half listings on the back that are maybe each unit's like 800 grand or something like that. And and so now we're just adjusting on cash flow items. So maybe we're willing not to take the listings and get more cash up front, or if I can negotiate, maybe the deal is too tight and but there's room for all the listings. I'm saying, hey, give me some money up front and we'll credit it on the last listing. So really conscientious of cash flow, of productivity, seeing the other factors in the world of what's going on, you know, that we can affect or can affect, or you know, just all those things, you know, and just having conversations with myself a lot.

SPEAKER_00

So sure, yeah. So you're saying things have slowed down a little bit for infill lots. And I guess for those people that don't quite understand that business model, help me understand that business model and help me understand why it maybe it slowed down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02

Well, an infillot is, you know, so in Seattle we have oceans on one side and mounds on the other, and so they're underutilized lots, you know. So for example, you have a single family house and maybe it's got rezoned to multifamily. We're mainly single family investment guys. So we do townhouses, or everybody else in in, you know, the US is starting to do ADUs or DADUs, the detached accessory dwelling unit. We've been doing that for like five or six years, you know. So actually, last June 28th, you know, there's a state mandate and they really just eliminated single family zoning in the city of Seattle. So now every single lot is at least a four-unit site if it complies. You know, I mean, if it's obviously a 3,000 square foot lot, it doesn't work. We can determine the highest and best use of each lot. As opposed to like a rehab or an agent, you'll they'll go in and say, you know, what's my ARV? You know, what do I got to do? And you sort of back into your number. We're looking at multiple units, tearing it down, different scenarios, whether it's rehab, rehab with one unit, rehab with two units, scraping it. I mean, when I put a pro forma together, you know, there's probably three or four different scenarios right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. So what's the story with that market? Why has that market gotten tougher? Is it zoning that's made it tougher? Is it just uh sheer demand? What's causing the slowdown?

SPEAKER_02

I think it's climate, you know. So, like, you know, ever since the Fed raised the rates on that Memorial Weekend, you know, things are just that just sort of changed everything. You know, capital is just sort of the fuel to everything in real estate. If you don't have capital and you don't have cheap capital, project goes over, you're toast. I think the political climate here, you know, I mean, we have blogs out, but trees are a huge deal. And I love trees, but you know, when you're developing, it's just a challenge. You know, they want more housing right now. But every tree that is, you know, six inches in diameter needs to go on a survey and you have to have an armor support on it, you know. So it's it's extremely difficult to get around, and you can't cut them down. You have to go through a process. And then, you know, people are cautious when buying, you know what I mean? So I think that you know, the the B and A players who don't need me money, you know, they're just sort of sitting on the sidelines. Maybe the C players can't even get loans right now. Yeah, the only person that's making money, I feel like in the last three years, and I I mean we're all making money, but you know, are the banks, right? People are extending things, days on market are higher. So that's that's sort of what's going on.

SPEAKER_00

Sure. So when you look at kind of your business as it sets today, what is it that you think needs to happen in order to kind of shift things back into the right direction? Whether it's you've got to shift your business or whether you just got to kind of wait for things to settle out. Like what is kind of your plan for handling that?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think we need to bring in, I think, you know, number one is I'm accountable for regardless of wherever we're at. There's people thriving and there's not people thriving. Sure. And I think that, you know, I could have pivoted better. You know, when I look at our just sort of like when we talk about marketing, you know, you know, you want a table and you want sort of, you know, each leg to have like a marketing channel, you know, I look at that as my revenue. So we've done pretty good on that. But I think we just need to get more some salespeople that are aggressive, that are aligned with just being able to put deals together, you know. I think we put people in in the wrong seat, I would say. And we know better, but sometimes it's just easier. It's sort of like leaving somebody on the team too long. You know, they should probably go, but you know, you just it's like you know what's gonna happen if they take off and what you have to go through, and as far as who's gonna take that load and really ramping somebody on. So I think we need to get some more help on the sales side, and and I think that just sort of starts there. And then we're getting help on the marketing side. So we have some help on that, but just exploring different, I guess, business development opportunities, you know, whether it's marketing or you got to test and fail.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it makes total sense. So with these sales people, sounds like you had some salespeople in the past. How many sales members, sales team members do you have in your team? Or how many did you have in the past?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, we're a pretty small group, so we have like 10 people overall, and maybe there's like four or five, you know. I don't want something massive, you know, I just want something efficient, less stress.

SPEAKER_00

And you know, four or five sales guys, how many infill lots were you expecting them to do?

SPEAKER_02

You know, typically when it's ramped up, I would say we can do about 40 to 50 acquisition deals a year, but it's extremely competitive in the core of Seattle, and that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that makes sense. So an acquisition guy, they'll generally maybe acquire a property a month or something like that. Yeah, a couple, probably. Yeah, that makes sense. Makes sense. And right now, just you just can't find the right people to do it. It sounds like it's more than just going and negotiating, you know, an acquisition price. It it sounds like it's about structuring deals about as much as it is anything.

SPEAKER_02

I think, you know, if I'm comparing us to like a rehab company, you know, they can sort of it's pretty simple where you have your square foot and your square foot cost to rehab and your ARV. I mean, we're talking about it's more complicated. So I think the ramp up period is longer. They have to have the right mentality, they have to be patient with building up a pipeline. You know, you have to know about water, sewer, how one less unit affects the purchase price. How does a tree affect the purchase price? Do you have a weird unit, you know, because there's a tree in the middle of the site and you can't cut down where it's you obviously want this box in its own backyard and you sort of pull in, but if it makes the site sort of discombobulated where you're looking at somebody's bathroom or something, you know what I mean? It just I mean, the key to real estate is just buying right. And you have to know all of those different things in land acquisitions to have conversation and then the code. And then, you know, you have to be up on the code. You know, what's the benefit to the seller and what's going on? And you know, I mean, Seattle just, you know, adopted a measure with trees where it's up to the city's discretion on a tier two tree. And and so, I mean, that's a big deal. You know, you have the tier one tree is like this big redwood, and you're like, I can't imagine anybody's gonna let anybody take that down. There's tier two trees sort of in the middle, and it's like, what's in the middle of the lot? You know what I mean? And and so now it's up to a third party. And what if you hit them on the wrong day or connect with them, or they get a divorce that week, or somebody passes? You know, I mean, it's not black or white as far as the decision process. So it's with that uncertainty, you know, we're not buying those lots.

SPEAKER_00

Is there quite a bit of competition in this sector of real estate? You know, a lot of people, you hear a lot of wholesalers out there, you hear a lot of flippers, and you even hear a lot of more and more land wholesalers out there and land flippers, if you will. But you know, the way you're doing it right now, it sounds like you're acquiring a property, finding the builder, showing them the opportunity within the property of you know how to maximize the units, how to clear the land, water sewer, make sure the water and sewer can basically give them a, in essence, potentially a shovel ready lot in a lot of cases. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I I would say more is we've negotiated a price that we feel like makes sense term. So, you know, we negotiate long closing so they can get their entitlements done. So when they get their loan, they're out of pocket less money, so the price is more attractive. We can run a feasibility on it, like a high-level feasibility. But obviously, we always want anybody who's buying something to do their own, you know, feasibility so they're just confident and knowing what they're getting. We tee it up, essentially. But there is a lot of competition in this space. Yeah, you know, there's wholesalers that are just out there as well that you know send letters that muddy the water that really don't know how to run a feasibility. So if if you and I are talking to the same guy and you're like, well, hey, I got an offer at 600 and I got an offer at 550, well, they're gonna go with you, but more than likely you're not gonna perform, if that makes sense. So there's there's a lot of that. Seattle is still a very desirable area. I mean, when you when you think about it, we have the top three companies in the world out of there. So the economic are just unbelievable. Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, a lot of tech hubs up there came up there to poach sort of other talent. So it's high price points, people coming out of school making 150 grand. I mean, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, it's definitely you've got some opportunity. Have you ever thought about whether you know that model is the right model for you anymore? Or is that always, or you just feel like it's the right model, we're just not doing it the right way. Both.

SPEAKER_02

I think you always got to look in the mirror, and and when you're you're not succeeding as well as you'd like, you sort of look in the mirror and say, How do I I pivot or adjust? You know, and then I'm like, you know, maybe this model's wrapped, you know, washed up. I think it's there's people gonna do it. And then I think, I don't know, what are we been lending for the last three years, so that's I mean, it's the easiest thing I've ever done in my career, you know what I mean? And they're they're pretty good returns, and and so we've just sort of tacked it on to some of the things we do as far as the so we're trying to always diversify and always grow different revenue streams, but I think it's what we know, and until we sort of, you know, transition to something else fully, you know, that's sort of what we're stuck with, I think, you know, because I just don't want to have the well dry up completely. Sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, you got to be careful with the shiny object syndrome, right? You know, you don't want to get into a spot where, okay, well, this isn't working for a short period of time, and so now I'm gonna get out of it and go find something else and call those revenue chasers, right? If you generally don't have a very good business or very strong business, and so it's one of those things that I I commend you for being in it and continuing to drive it. Obviously, you know it really well. I think the hard part here, right, is training those salespeople to the level at which they need to be trained to acquire that property, right? Because there's just so much into it. I almost wonder if it's not an easier model if you got a little bit more vertically integrated, if you could do some of that entitling and doing some of that rezoning work and maybe win on the back end of that a little heavier. What have you ever thought about doing any of that?

SPEAKER_02

I entitle our own projects, uh, some of them, you know. So we, you know, essentially have the acquisition team and we're trying to do 40 to 50 projects or I would say land acquisitions a year that we assign or take down. We probably take down, you know, maybe 20% of those right now. And then, you know, we lend money, and then we have a builder partner that we partner with, and then we have a portfolio. So, you know, we have sort of all avenues of of this covered, but you know, really it's all about the deal. I mean, the the lead provides the deal and we can make a fee on it, we can get a listing on it, we can loan on it, and it's the hardest thing to do. You gotta drop what you're doing, you gotta go compete. So, really, to my core, I'm a salesperson with ADD. So, but uh, I've been fortunate where I've been doing it a long time and and uh uh been fairly successful, and and we've you know sort of branched off to other partnerships or line items of revenue.

SPEAKER_00

So you said that you are doing some hard money lending a few episodes recently where the investor has turned into a hard money lender of some sort or private money lender of some sort. Talk to me a little bit about that process, and and you said it's the easiest thing you've ever done. That's got to perk a lot of people's interest and perks my interest for sure. How did you get into it? And then why is it why do you feel it's so easy?

SPEAKER_02

I'm just in the mix of real estate for the past 20 years. I've been doing this. So, you know, it's another byproduct of my original product, you know what I mean? So I have a qualified deal, I can qualify the individual, maybe I already know them, you know, and it's sort of plug and play. If I take it back, then it's like it's not a big deal to me. It's in my wheelhouse, you know. Some I mean, if they take it back, I'm not worried about it at all. So that's why it's convenient, I would say. And in ease. And then, you know, as far as like the returns on and stuff like that, I mean, it's not rocket science, you know. We just I mean, there's a lot of it's convenient for the borrower. Sometimes maybe it helps our deal, and maybe you know, we try to charge two points and ten percent interest and ten percent down, and then they fund their own rehab, always in first position, but I don't do draws or anything like that, just to make it simple, you know, and then we have six or seven month terms, and yeah, that's it. So we have you know, six or seven loans going out of time, and you know, my goal is to figure out how I can expand that because I'm telling people no, and it's taken a while to get up to you know this amount and this process, but we have a good process and it keeps on evolving each year it gets better. So I'm super fortunate about that for sure.

SPEAKER_00

I gotta think that you know, you mentioned you had your real estate, you got a little real estate portfolio as well, and you've got the hard money lending, and then you've got, you know, obviously your land business, but the land business is a little slow, and sounds like you know, from the start of this conversation, we were, you know, there's some cash flow issues trying to accelerate cash into the current period. But I got to think that having that real estate portfolio in that hard money lending business has got to be helping you with the cash flow management and keeping the business going the right direction.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean it it absolutely supplements everything or subsidizes. So yeah, it's a big help. You know, the portfolios here don't kick off a ton of cash, but they appreciate like crazy, you know. So most of the stuff when I see a good deal, I take it down as far as uh it's a land bank, is what I call it, you know, where I can develop it in the future. So, you know, when I need a project, after I'm done entitling something, I just sort of plug it into the process, you know. So we're on track to hopefully do like one project a year, you know, right now. I mean, typically we do more with our builder partner, but you know, that's sort of one of our strategies.

SPEAKER_00

So when you say you're doing one project a year, like one big entitlement project a year, is that is that what you mean? What does that mean? What is when you say we're doing one big deal, how do you do one deal like that?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I wouldn't say it's one big deal, you know. So I have a builder partner that we're building units and and selling as far as that goes, and then and then to pick away at sort of cash flow and strategic plan as far as all of those different things we're working towards. But you know, we'll build a project and sell half of the units and keep half of the units. So it could be a six unit site, a five unit, or you know, whatever we feel comfortable with. I mean, really, it's sort of a a deal by deal case, you know, what's fairly close to our house, what has the best margins, what's an easy site that doesn't have trees or slope or or something like that. So yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_00

So in that scenario, you're not only doing the land, but you're also doing the ground up build with your builder partner. And then in that scenario, you're also gonna sell three or maybe sell a few of them and then keep a couple of them so that you have some legacy wealth uh money there. Why make that decision? Why not just keep all the money yourself and not keep the house? Why not just pocket the cash?

SPEAKER_02

This is all a journey, right? But I I would say that you know, to get out of the daily grind, I'm not looking for cash, I'm looking for cash flow. Yeah. So I I guess I would say sometimes if the market's like pop in and off the hook and I could get an extra hundred grand, then then I'd probably consider that. Right. But sometimes you just got to be disciplined, like, no, I'm I'm looking for cash flow. And I don't think like the cap rates in Seattle, it's it doesn't have the best cash flow, but but I don't have time to go to Missouri or or somewhere else and revisit a market and learn that. And you know, it's sort of plug and play. It's I can take what I do, what I know, and plug it in and make a play on it and manage it. And it's probably it probably does more good to my balance sheet than my cash flow, but there's a tax advantage on some of that stuff. So that's what I'm able to do for what's on my plate. I would like to go buy a bigger building somewhere else or or do something, but I think just where I'm at with you know everything and time management, I just don't have the time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, that makes total sense. No, it's it's funny that you say that because there is that give and take, if you will, right? Well, my market doesn't cash flow that much, but then go into somebody else's market, or I don't really know that much about it. So then I got that risk. It's interesting because at the end of the day, cash flow is a function of the debt on the property, right? And so when you're able to get into a property at a wholesale price and you're able to build it. At a certain cost, and then you're able to sell some off and profit. Then your ability to really pay that principal balance down, you're in it for less than market value already. You know, you've got some property, you've got some cash available that you might have sold your other units from. So you could be in a really nice basis position, which is, you know, kind of what you were talking about. Hey, it really makes my balance sheet look good. Cash flow, yeah, it's okay. But I also, you know, if I need to go get a cash out refinance, I can probably tap a several hundred grand there without having a tax bill. And then having the IRS kind of support this strategy by offsetting my taxes made otherware, other places. Yep. So it's I love that strategy. I think it's I think it's really, really smart. I think it's a good way to, especially once you get to that time in life, right? I think there's a a point in your life where you're really hustling and you're really trying to get your your situation dialed in. And buying a bunch of real estate is probably going to take you backwards, right? But there's a point, there's a switch that happens where it's like that same real estate, if I'd have bought it two years ago, I'd have had to sell it and I'd have lost money on it. But now I can keep it for the next 20 years. You know, it made 3x in value, it's going to give me a little bit of cash flow, it's going to have the principal pay down that I wanted. But most of us don't realize when they're buying real estate, if you got to sell it within the first two years, you're probably not making any money on it anyways. That's right. Because all your interest is going or all your payments are going to interest, right? You're not having really any principal pay down. And then you're going to recapture all of your taxes back. And so, you know, you got to kind of be careful with that. And it sounds like you're doing it smart where you're like, okay, I'm going to buy a few of these of what I can handle, what makes sense, what makes you know what looks good on my balance sheet, but not too much. I'm not going to overdo it to where it's absolutely killing my business and my other strategies that I've got going out there.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. I'm trying. That's all I can do. You know, it's it sounds good, but there's always hiccups and and um for sure. But uh yeah, we're trying. We have sort of a plan and we're trying to execute it, and we're doing pretty good so far. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. I love that. Let's talk a little bit about cash management before we jump off here. It seems like in real estate in general, cash management is so paramount. And you started off the conversation kind of talking about some of the strategies that you were looking at, whether it's you know, more money up front, less money on the back end, whatever that looks like. When do you make that decision? When do you say, okay, now we've got to shift to getting more cash in the business quicker? We've got to do this a different way. What used to work as far as bringing cash in consistently, it's not working anymore. We need to shift how we're looking at it. I guess maybe the better question is when should you make that decision? And maybe versus when did you make that decision? Did you feel like you made it on time or was it a little bit too late? Was it early enough? What do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think one is is you know, sometimes we get lazy, but I used to so I have a budget for my company and we project it out to the friggin' T. And then what we used to do is have budgets for every single rental property. Yep. And I didn't do that. And I had some assumptions and I friggin' blew it, and I was just being lazy. But I'm putting that, I mean, that opened my eyes to really what's going on. I mean, yeah, I had a fixed fee for uh utilities for some of the tenants, and it was working probably two or three years ago, and now it cost me $1,500 or $2,000. So I would say that the budget is critical for each entity and each property. And then what I would say is just when we're talking about cash flow, you look at your PL monthly and the percentage of what you're supposed to generate versus not generating, you're like, all right, you know, how do we get cash in?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So adjusted that way when you don't see revenue coming in. And then what I would say is is when you have you know three projects going on and it costs you $50,000 to entitlement, entitle something, and then you have loans over here and and you just have a lot going on. At some point, you know, you got to be like, you just can't wing it. And you know, all of this stuff starts, you know, at the bottom, and then you progress, whether it's wholesaling, and then you do your first flip, and then you sort of get into new construction or multifamily. And then once you've sort of made it there, you start thinking about like tax savings and all this stuff. I mean, I was thinking, you know, what am I going to say about tax savings on this thing? And I'm like, I know a little, but not a lot. You know what I mean? I've had some good talented CPAs that that have all always done me right. What I'm actually really in the process right now is we used to have this cash flow sheet, which is pretty remarkable. And we sort of tie it to our budget. And it's sort of an actual, it's like, what's in that account? When is a loan coming due? If we have $50,000 going out of entitlements in February for this project, you know, we got to deduct that. You know, and then we're conservative saying if we have a loan paying off in June, maybe that $400,000 is coming in or whatever it is. But I mean, it's sort of like a live document and it goes out a couple of years, you know, and so we have each entity, each bank account, and you know, it just sort of paints a picture visually of what's going on and what you're hoping to happen. And we're saying hoping, like hopefully my loan gets paid off. I mean, yeah, but but that's sort of how we manage decision risk and being predictable.

SPEAKER_00

Right. That makes all the sense in the world. If you're going to, you know, it's interesting. One of the things that doesn't work when trying to improve your cash position is putting your head in the sand. And what you're doing is where you're saying is no, no, no, no, no. Opposite. You need to dive deeper in your budgets. If you're used to doing a company budget, get to where you're doing property budgets. If if you don't have a cash flow tool that's monitoring your cash flow, do that. And I agree with these 100%. Like these are the things that I could be setting here making the same speech. And I'm glad that you are, because that tells real estate entrepreneurs that are listening to this what actually has to happen in real life business ownership, right? And you're right. There's been this, and this isn't just you, you've used this terminology a little bit a couple times today, which is lazy. And I don't know if it's lazy, but it's just this there's a lot of business owners in real estate that took their eye off the ball, right? And not the big ball, it's just the little balls that kind of they were just a little bit of a pain here and a little bit of a pain there. And then eventually that all adds up to being, okay, wow, we're missing our marks, we're missing where we want to be. And so it's really smart of you to just get back to the basics. Hey, I need to get back to it's not being lazy, it's just doing the stuff you don't want to do. Like nobody wants to do with numbers, nobody wants to deal with finance, nobody wants to do with a budget, but everybody wants the results of what comes of that, right? Of okay, I'm on budget, I know where my cash flow is. You know, I'm sleeping well at night. If I don't know where my cash flow is, if I don't know where my budget is, or if I do know where it's at and it's just not good, I at least know I can attack it. But what you don't know, you can't attack and you can't solve for, and that's really the entrepreneur's downfall. And so I love that. I think that's really, really good advice. Um, and I think it's really, really good advice for us to kind of finish off on because I think that's really big good stuff. So, my last question here that I want to ask you, you know, it might be just uh uh the same thing you just said, because it was really good advice, but I always end this podcast because my big saying is this better decisions equals better results. If you get better at making decisions consistently, you will get better results consistently. So if you were to give anybody some advice based on your situation and where you've been, what better decision could somebody make today to go get better results tomorrow?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I guess if it's my situation, I would just say, you know, you can't take your foot off the gas. And I did. And so I'm a hundred percent accountable for uh where I'm at. It's not a bad spot, but it's not where I'd like to be. Right. I think we say getting back to basics a lot, but there's a reason why we say getting back to basics. I mean, like a couple of times I bought properties that don't cash flow, even though I put a good amount of money down, and that was sort of a rule that I had. So if you ever get into trouble, you just don't have to worry about it, you know. And I probably have about four of those, but it adds up over time, you know. So it's like I can't tell you how many people, when they make decisions, are hoping for the best. You know what I mean? When the market's going good and maybe somebody's making a million dollars, it's you can go from making a million dollars real quick to zero and it smacks you around. So I always tell people just because you make money doesn't mean you have to spend money. You know, when I started out in real estate, I made like 150 grand and I was just like, I'm king shit, you know, and right, and then it's like, what happened? Well, I you know, I used to own a landscape company, so I was out there cutting edges again, you know. Right, you know, so I think it's just use your resources. You know, I talk to people a lot, talk to them about my problems, and somebody always has a solution that I can sort of lean on, like, hey, what a fantastic idea. And uh CG, I mean, I'm not in there right now, but I'll get back in there. I mean, the the relationships that you know I have with you and other folks in there, I mean, they're just they're just so critical. Make sure you have a good network. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Penley, it's been awesome to have you on the call today. It's been a joy to get to catch up again. And I look forward to hearing from you soon. Look forward to hearing uh how things are going. I'm sure they're going in the right direction. Your head is on the right way. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, reach out to us next time the episode goes at the Strength in Numbers podcast. All right, see you next time. Wow, I really hope you enjoyed that. And I hope you could really tell some of the things that Bentley was focused on in order to get his business right sized again, right? Improving his marketing channels, improving his sales team. And then one of the biggest things, and he talked about this, you could kind of feel it in the episode where he got excited about it was getting into the numbers, getting into the budgets, getting into the property budgets, getting into the cash flow forecast, understanding where cash is actually going so that you can make the right decisions, right? And so that's what we are doing at BeckCFO every day. If you are interested in working with a CPA firm that actually helps you make better decisions so that you can get better results, reach out to us at BeckCFO.com. We would love to help you out. Guys, until next time, keep making better decisions until you get better results.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to Strength in Numbers. If you're ready to take control of your finances and start building real wealth in your business, be sure to schedule your free discovery call with markets at BECCFO.com to get started. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next episode.