Sean McCall - Business Credit: The Secret Sauce of Business Growth
In this insightful episode, Sean McCall, a business credit coach, highlights the crucial role of managing cash flow for small businesses. Emphasizing the importance of building business credit seperate from ourselves. Sean provides practical step-by-step insights to optimize growth and financial stability.
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Email at Sean@jgalt.io
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Transcript
Hi and welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we have with us Sean McCall. He is a business credit coach and he helps small businesses optimize cash flow and growth management. Welcome to the show Sean. Really happy you're here.
::Thank you. Happy to be here.
::Kind of a different coach for us to have on and you deal with people helping small businesses manage their cash flow, which is like we were talking before we got started about how important that is you want.
::To talk about that.
::A little more.
::Yeah. Well, what? What you.
::See happen with. With small businesses it really even mid to large size business. Every company at some point needs capital and it could be to weather a storm, you know COVID obviously comes to mind that that companies needed cash flow have a friend that had to shut down his printing business.
::Were all the all of while the country was shut down, but he still had to maintain buying, you know, $100,000 paper every month that he wasn't using. And to maintain his account. So the mission at J Galt and what I do is to.
::You know, Council and coach, small business owners that that when they need the capital have the ability to get it. That's not tied to them personally. So what I mean by that is we want the business to borrow the money and not the person. So there is something called a corporate veil that that resides between your personal finances and your business finances.
::So when you set up a company in LLC or whatever it is, that protection is there to protect your personal assets. But when you start commingling funds, that protection goes.
::Away. So we're trying.
::To get them to not run. If you're a, say you're a plumber and you want to hire 3 new 3 new technicians for your company.
::We don't want you go.
::Down to the Chevrolet dealership or.
::Ford or wherever it.
::May be and.
::And sign for those vehicles, because now you've got at home. Most likely your vehicle, your spouse's vehicle if you have one.
::And now you've got.
::3 more all on your all on your Social Security number and that's not the way it has to be, so that that's our mission is.
::To is to 1st of.
::All make people aware of that. That is a possibility and show them how to do it. Essentially, we're taking the techniques and tactics that Wall Street uses and has used forever and showing them to Main Street.
::And that's why you don't see anyone at Walmart or Home Depot's board of Directors running down to the car dealership and using their Social Security number. Right. You know, Walmart wants to buy a bunch of paper towels. They go to Procter and Gamble. They have them shipped there. They sell them. Then they pay Procter and Gamble.
::And it should be any different for any local business that you see anywhere in the.
::Yeah, the rules were set up to help us not.
::Not to make life more difficult, but a lot of a lot of coaches I know they get into the business because they want to help people and they're not really entrepreneurs and they don't really understand all the INS.
::And outs of.
::But the decisions that they're making in the tax ramifications, quite frankly, and the legal ramifications of the things that they're doing.
::No doubt, I mean this, this this.
::Position for me.
::Was born out of out of experience.
::So I come from a completely different background. I I'm from the media sports industry. My wife is in the tech technology sector and we had a friend that owned a chain of restaurants or local restaurants. What really chain? Just he had four. He had five of them and they wanted to sell 2. So he mentioned to me one day.
::Back in 2016.
::That we should buy one of them, that it was a profitable business. It'd be easy peasy, you know, had a had a general manager on staff and been there for eight years. Everything was hunky Dory so.
::We bought it, you know, we borrowed a half $1,000,000 from the SBA.
::Which was great, but the downside of that was it tied up all the equity in our home. It tied up our retirement savings. It tied up really any access to cash that we could get at all and it was all tied to the restaurant. So that's fine. You know you fine. Instead you're going to service it. Not a big deal.
::But then what happens is you know you need a new grease trap in the back, and that's $40,000. You need a new. You know, we needed to get new kitchen equipment. That's another 30,000.
::Dollars we had to.
::Rebrand that was $75,000, so more and more debt was piling on to us.
::And then COVID came.
::And we were like, uh oh.
::So we survived.
::COVID and you know we went, we got back into business. But where our where our location was.
::Very, very, very.
::Concerned citizens that weren't ready to come back out to put into public, and we have some we had. We had one of our one of our affiliate restaurants, it wasn't mine but it was up in a or country part of town. I'll, I'll say they flocked back, you know they could care less but where we were it was super slow and we were bleeding money and bleeding money. So we eventually decided to close.
::UM.
::We didn't sell it.
::But we were.
::Fortunate enough to have gotten PPP money from the government and E IDL loan and a couple of grants which you know not completely, but by and large got us mostly out of debt.
::So then I.
::Was looking around for what to do and started thinking about it and I thought to myself.
::Well, you know I'm a fairly smart person and I know my wife is 10 times smarter than.
::Me. But we didn't know any other way. Then all that debt we had to borrow it personally. So then this opportunity came along to start coaching people. What I'm doing, I thought to myself, you know, we were fortunate that that we were able to weather that storm and you know, even if even if we hadn't have received the government assistance, we probably well.
::That we would have survived, but there's so many people that work their.
::Entire lives take a.
::I always like to talk about, you know, electricians or plumbers, that they're great technicians, they work for a big company. There's a company here called superior plumbing.
::Great company. They, you, you worked there for 20 years and you've got your craft done, you bust out on.
::Your own.
::And then you know.
::Sometimes through your own fault, but many times not, not through your own fault. You don't make it.
::And it happens. You know, you, you know, the statistics. How many, how many small businesses don't fail. So if your business fails, you shouldn't lose your home. You shouldn't lose your college, your kids college fund. You certainly shouldn't lose your retirement. You've worked your entire life to get it. So that's our goal. And it sounds a little corny, but it's really we like to say we're rescuing small businesses.
::At a time.
::And frankly, it's something I'm super passionate about.
::Because I've lived it.
::And I've never had a position professionally that I did that I wasn't absolutely passionate about. So that that's why we do what we do and it's really, it's really mostly education.
::Yeah, and it's.
::This is so desperately needed because your story is just like.
::So many other stories out there. People don't understand that, you know, doing business under your Social Security number is.
::Not usually in your best interest and it's.
::Not that hard to get an LLC.
::No, you get your.
::LLC, and there's a there's a, there's a. There's an old proverb that says something about planting a tree. You know, the best time to do it was 20 years ago. But if you didn't do.
::It then the best time is now, so we'd love to get in to start speaking to business owners when.
::They're getting ready to launch, but it's never too late.
::And it's just never too late. And the beautiful thing about what we do is we're setting up the companies and I don't want to make this sound like it's salesy. But what? What we want them to do is be able to lay their pillow on the bed at night.
::And know that if an opportunity comes along to grow their business, they have the capital to go do it.
::And conversely, if something terrible happens to them, whatever, you know what could be remodeled, it could be COVID that they're gonna survive that too. And that's the piece of mind that every small business owner, I think if you've ever owned a small business, you've had those nights.
::You know, almost every business owner I know has had that. They're lying there at night. They're going. Oh, wait, I'll choose a restaurant cause I'm familiar.
::With it. Let's see.
::I've got payroll is going to come out on Thursday. My rent. Oh, wait, that's $15,000 that's going to come out on Wednesday. I've got to pay all my regular deliveries. I got to pay that and all the other bills.
::And next thing you know, you know you're going well. Shoot. I hope I have.
::A really good week because if I don't come Monday morning, I'm going to have to. I'm going to have to get online in my personal.
::You know, Bank of America account or wherever you bank and transfer that money into my business and no one wants to do that. You know, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and going back and forth the better thing to do is have it set up in advance. And so, you know, you've got a business line of credit. It's not tied to your house, it's not tied to your social. It's tied to the EIN of your company. And when you need it.
::It's there for you, and that's the Peace of Mind that I want small business owners to have because I did.
::It I mean we were.
::On vacation several years ago down in.
::And you know my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and all the kids are out playing. I'm looking at the app on my phone going late. It's Saturday. How? How Friday night go because Payroll's coming out on Monday.
::I'm stressing about it and it's supposed to be vacation and that's that, and it doesn't have to be that.
::Way so if.
::Anything. I just want people to understand that there's a way to not tie yourself to that and a way to get out of it and it's not. It's not expensive. It's not hard. You just have to know what you're doing.
::And that's what we do. We provide that knowledge.
::So do you actually provide the financing too? Is that part of what?
::No, we have an affiliate company that if someone's in a pinch you know they if they came to me today and they said Sean I need I need $30,000 we have a company that that it I don't work for them but it's part of our part of our umbrella that can do those types of loans.
::And we, you know, that's only, well, whoever needs it, you know that they can do what?
::They want to.
::Do, but that's not what we we're there to get them prepared to get a better financing opportunity down the line, so.
::We're not a bank to answer your question.
::OK, I was just kind of curious about that. But as far as.
::Coaching people on.
::What exactly do?
::You, coach, let me let me explain. Let me.
::That's the neat part. Let's say.
::You came to me and you owned them.
::OK.
::Doesn't matter what you do, so you own.
::The florist shop.
::We put you into a SAS product in your software that you know as a service, so it's not like we don't sell you quick books and say go to town. So you put into a portal the product that we have and you're taking through a seven step process.
::To build your business credit and business credit goes from zero to 100. You know, whereas your fight, your personal credit score 350 to you know 900.
::And at when you come on board, you're assigned a business credit analyst that that sits down with you, looks at everything there is to know about your business. Does a very deep dive on it, finds out where you are, where you want to go.
::And creates a plan for you to go through those through those seven steps and the first step is you they you know, they do that, they analyze it and then we want to make sure that the vendors and lenders that you're currently doing business with are actually reporting to the three credit business credit Bureau.
::And this is where business owners that try to do this on their own get sideways only 7% of the lenders and vendors in the country. So think about that 93%.
::Only 7% report to the three business bureaus. The other 93% don't. So you can have a great relationship with someone you've been doing business with for 20 years, but if they're not reporting to Dun and Bradstreet for you or Equifax business, you're not getting any credit for it.
::So we're going to make sure you're registered with Dun and Bradstreet. You're registered with all the.
::Proper credit bureaus.
::And then we're going to start now, we don't look at your, we're not going to look at your books unless you want us to. We're going to, based on your situation, we're gonna. We're gonna start applying on the very beginning it. It's lower in accounts. Think of something. I I'd like to use an example of if you were buying your office supplies from online, from Office Depot.
::We're going to tell you and to get a an Office Depot business account that you can get tied exact just strictly to your EIN, you start utilizing that and then you utilize more of that and then you grow and grow and grow and you as you get through the.
::Process by the time you get to step 7, your business credit should be at an 80 and at 80 and above.
::The world is your oyster. You can go into a dealership and sign and drive just on the on your companies EIN. No personal guarantees, no stress at night, and the really the secret sauce is your walk through that process. All of our lenders and vendors provide 100% transparency to our to our clients.
::So when you look at, let's say, we tell you to go.
::That a.
::You know a Lowe's card or whoever it might be, you're going to see, you're going to see on there. Here, here. Are there underwriting guidelines? How long you have to have been in business, the type the.
::Amount of revenue you, you.
::Have to have and everything, so you're not going to. We're not going to instruct you to apply for anything that you don't know 100% for sure that you're going to get approved.
::And it's about utilization. So the more you utilize the credit, the faster it grows. We're not asking anyone to go into debt. That's certainly not what we want you to do. We're starting by spending the amount of money that you're.
::Already spending, and certainly in the beginning, you might have to have a personal guarantee, but the goal is that you get, you know, down the line you're going to pay those.
::Pay those off.
::And that process takes about nine months.
::To do and along the way, just as a you know, as a side note, you know you're not alone. You have that credit analyst, but you also have access to a fractional CFO that will work with you to look at your books if you want them to and help you make business decisions, you have access to a CPA for the same.
::The same thing you have access to an attorney.
::And all of those people are at no additional charge at all. It's a lifetime membership, I'll call it with us. So your business needs change from wherever your you are and your, your, your, your, you know, the business status of your business. Now you could be at the ending of the life.
::Cycle you could be starting.
::And the other thing you know, business credit transfers with in certain situations with new owners. So if it's a key man, it's your company, it will transfer. If it's a say, you're a relative, it'll transfer. If I were to buy your practice it, you know, kind of out of luck.
::But that's, you know that that's just that's how it works and it's not, you know, the neat thing about it is not it's not hard.
::It just you have to know how the order in which to do it in and you have.
::To know what?
::Vendors to use and we won't do business or allow it. Well, you do whatever you want.
::But we won't.
::Put our any vendor in front of people that are working with us unless they provide that 100% transparency, that's a that's a deal breaker.
::So that's. That's how that process works. You know, I've seen we have a we have a client, we always talk about, she has a she had a trucking company as a trucking company and she had, you can imagine a couple of big rigs, long haul drivers. She had a recommended credit line of $1500.
::It just.
::When she came to us.
::And you know, like you see on the commercials, this is an ordinary, but at the end of nine months, she had $750,000 worth of available credit solely on her company. She's able to buy and buy new vehicles, give fleet cards to all her drivers, which she had been putting on her own personal American Express, put a new roof on her building, and she's flourishing.
::It's not, you know, it's not that hard. It's uh.
::The thing about it, it's intentional.
::Right. So think about when you remember when you were turned 18 and you started getting all the credit cards in the mail that you certainly didn't need nor.
::Could you pay?
::I actually didn't experience that because I'm old.
::They didn't have.
::Credit cards credit cards are fairly new thing. Most people don't realize that, but if you were born before, say, probably 1980.
::Credit cards are.
::The common usage of credit cards wasn't what it is today.
::Oh, right. No, no, I get that.
::Had, like American Express and.
::Yeah, I graduated College in 1990, and when I did, I did receive a couple of credit card offers in the mail, which I owe $1000 here $1000. They're great. I can go out on the date. I mean, have any way to service that debt the point is that personal credit happens whether you like.
::It or not, you know you.
::That you're getting judged no matter what you do on your business side. It's got to be intentional.
::Or you won't have it. I have a client that that was in business here for 20.
::Successful print that that, that printer I was telling you about. And he had a he had a like a 30 credit score business credit score.
::And he was like, where do I sign, you know? And he's been a great customer now for a couple of years.
::Yeah, there, there are a lot of people, me included, that never really even realized that there was a difference between business credit and personal credit.
::Yeah, you know what they don't talk about it and you know, and I'm not this. I'm not saying anything negative about community banks which I love or any or national banks, but the bankers job that.
::At Bank of America, even the business bankers job is to sell you a business credit card or a business.
::A business checking account or give you one of their lines of credit. They're not there to, to coach and to counsel. They're there to sell. That's their job.
::But the key difference when you think about a because it happens to me almost daily, someone will say, Sean, I have a I have a corporate card.
::Do you?
::That's awesome. Let me just kind of see it and if it's got the company name on it and it's got their name on it, it's a hybrid card. It's not truly a corporate card. A corporate card would say ABC plumbing, period.
::And that's not what Bank of America is out there trying to sell.
::So that's, you know, The thing is.
::Well, they don't want to have.
::When you deal with the bank, the bank is looking for an asset exchange and.
::They want something that's secured somehow or another, and if your business is.
::And that's the whole thing about building credit is it establishes that you are responsible with your.
::With your transactions and that you're doing well enough that you can service your debt.
::Right.
::Debt can be a trap.
::Where you can, if you're spending money and you're not using it to.
::Increase your return on investment.
::It's a recipe for disaster. That's what happens with all the kids when they get out of school and they get all these credit card.
::Applications and they go on dates instead.
::Of paying for the gas for their car that they're going to have to use to go.
::To work, and that's something they're going to spend that money on anyway. But they're and they pay it all the way off at the end of the month.
::Because it's something they were doing anyway.
::They can build their credit.
::It's yeah.
::And you know the thing with I mean being responsible with it doesn't matter which business or personal credit is super important. And now I'm actually working on a book about, you know, that's one of the chapters is managing, you know being a good steward of that credit because.
::You know, having it's great and you know, we tell people all the time we don't have a, a business credit, Pixie dust wand, you know the scores are calculated much differently on the business side than they are personal. You know there's not a lot less you know debt to ratio types of things that they look at. It's on the on the business side it's really utilization.
::And on time payments.
::So if you're paying your bill, they like they like you, pay it early. You know, the earlier you pay it that the better and the higher you the higher it gets you get to you know, the higher tiers of the business credit but if you don't pay your bill on time, we can't help you.
::You know you can't get 5 cards and then and then then you're not there. If you're not paying the bills, it's like any, you know.
::Did they tie them a lot to accounts receivable?
::Still doing that?
::You know you can, you know, you can borrow against your account accounts receivables with some of the lenders that they don't really look at that as much when they're when they're building.
::Your credit score.
::But that's, you know, that's a very good point. You know, one thing that we talked about a lot. I'm, I'm so happy you pointed. You brought that up is if you have you know 90 days worth of accounts receivables out there and you're say you're a roofer.
::Local roofer and you get 5 new roofs that you need to put on, but you're not going to get paid for. You know, all these accounts for 90 days you, but you need the material to put the new roof.
::You know, have the line of credit. It's tied to your business. So you can go get that money and grow your business and the, the, the ultimate thing about it too. I mean it's just it's like, hey, you're gonna get better rates and better terms too, usually 10X the amount. If so if you and I were to walk into the bank, we're going to get X amount.
::If you're coming in as with a with a 80 plus business credit score, you're gonna get 10.
::Times that at a better interest rate.
::So you know, I go around all these, all the, you know, networking groups, you know, B and I and all those types of things. And you have your 60 seconds that you get to stand up and.
::Keep your you know.
::Your elevator spiel.
::And mine simple it's. If you can name one good thing about using your Social Security number to finance your business. I want to know what it is.
::One good thing.
::I can't. I mean, I don't know.
::What it would be?
::Yeah, I don't either like.
::You know, and you, you know, the thing, the thing in the and having been a small business owner is.
::You cannot. You got to control what you can control because there's so many things you can't control.
::And it don't get upside down. Personally, with your personal finances. And I mean, I I've seen companies.
::You know, they get, they get like that they go out of business and you know you see people get divorced, you see people lose their.
::Bombs, you see, you know, and very unfortunate cases. You know, people commit suicide because they've lost all their money and their kids now can't go to college. And their wifes left them. And none of it has to be that way. You know, I'm not trying to get melodramatic about, you know, finances and business, but it is what it is.
::And you know, we don't want to see anyone go out of business, but if you got to file bankruptcy, might as well be on your company and not on.
::Not on your, not on your personal life.
::I mean, I know you know controversial subject and everything, but you know, love him or hate him. Donald Trump's filed bankruptcy about a 900 times and he's still living. He's still living at Mar-a-lago cause.
::Yeah, I know.
::And running for president.
::Yeah. Yeah, so.
::That's kind of what we do in a nutshell. You know it it's really selling, it's really selling the insurance of Peace of Mind. You know, if you're not out there worried about.
::About that piece of.
::It you have much more time to focus on your craft and building your business, you've read a book called The E Myth.
::Well, you, you.
::Take a peek at it sometime. It's a it's a quick read, but it talks just about how the small business technician, the operator leaves at that plumbing company, starts his own or her own.
::But they're so adamant about doing the job.
::Everything's got to be perfect.
::But they can't do everything. You know they can't be they. They don't want to give up that that position to become the business owner.
::You know, so you can't do it all. So take what you can't. You can out of your worry, wart.
::Hat and just get it set up. You know, it's not hard to do and. And so you, you know is for your listeners we I provide a free.
::Counseling session to anybody that wants it over zoom or you know the phone however they want to do.
::It and in that.
::I'll tell them, you know, I'll ask them about their business and do as much discovery as I can and give them all the free advice I can. You know, if they're, you know, if they want to engage us in business relationship, that's fine, but if.
::Not I'll you.
::Know provide them with a free business credit report that they'll so they'll know where they stand.
::And that's just, you know.
::It's not very, it's not a. It's not a sales pitch, it's just an education to tell them something they might not have known. And you know, if they, if they find something interesting, then you know, maybe we talk, talk shop and how we can work together.
::Because, you know, I see it all.
::The time I had a guy.
::I talk a lot, so pardon me but.
::How did dude tell me one time a younger guy and he was, you know, several months ago? Oh, man, I've been in business eight years.
::I did $2 million last year in revenue. I've got X amount of employees. I'm with solid as a rock when it comes to credit.
::Said OK, I hear you. You know, let.
::Me. Do you let me just let's just see.
::So I pulled his credit report and he was sitting down at 25.
::So he had good credit. It was his personal credit. That was good. It just wasn't tied to his business.
::So you know, in his case, you know, he learned something he didn't engage with me. But I didn't. Didn't matter to me. He learned something a lot of times, they'll say, well, I'm going to go out and do it on my own and to give it a shot and.
::And they usually decide they want the help.
::Sometimes it's just cheaper.
::In the long run, to pay for the help upfront.
::It's a lesson it's taken me many years to learn, but you know.
::Well, yeah, yeah, it is.
::You can't be the best at everything.
::Know and what you but what you can do is when you do engage with someone and you know.
::This sort of.
::Coaching, consulting space. And when it comes to finances, if it's not me, I mean, if it's just find someone that truly cares.
::You know about you and about your business. There are so many sharks out there, predatory lenders, and I don't want to see anyone fall prey to.
::That and we had our restaurant, it was every other day I would get a call from someone of the merchant credit lenders who wanted, you know, I put $40,000 in your account tomorrow and we'll just take the take the fee out of your.
::Your transactions every night off.
::Sounds great, right? I mean, I don't have to go through the loan process, no underwriting and get the money you know, couple of days. Well, yeah at 30% by the time you're done paying, you know and they take advantage of people like a lot of companies do they take advantage of people that are in desperate need.
::30% is a lot.
::People, people are universally.
::Bad at math these days. Which?
::Is why would.
::You go to restaurants, they tell you what 15 or 20 and 30% is for tipping because people don't know how to tip. They don't know how to do percentages.
::It's amazing.
::It's I.
::Boggles my mind, but it doesn't surprise me when I see those kinds of things happening.
::Which is, you know, better for servers, I think.
::Well, you've got to.
::Read, you know, I mean, I noticed the other day at a restaurant. It was it was had a big line.
::For the tip.
::And then I read a little closer and it was there was already a service fee.
::In there.
::And I I'm a I'm.
::A pretty generous tipper.
::It's just kind of in my.
::Nature, but I don't know if they're already taking 15%. I'm not going to give them another 25 on top of it.
::Right. So you know, it's just throughout history and look at the, you know the up you know lease to own furniture companies that that'll you can go get a couch for $100 a month and that $1000 cost you $8000 by the time you're done with it or the dirt car lots that.
::You know, there's a shiny new import that that someone can't afford. They go get and they pay 10 times. What? That car that's already 10 years old is worth.
::Just do.
::Business with someone that that you know like and trust and that really cares about what they're trying to do.
::Pay attention to what you're doing, you know, ask questions. It's OK. And information is valuable.
::Even bad information is valuable if you get enough of information. In general, you're able to discern which is which is which.
::You don't have to buy from the.
::First person you talked to.
::No. And you know I'm a big disbeliever in Google reviews because they I just don't trust them. But ask them for some clients that you they can speak to.
::Hey, who? Who have you dealt with before? I mean, you know, do you have you worked with any plumbers or any HVAC people? Sure. Mind if I?
::Give them a call.
::Well, if they have a problem with it, they probably just don't want you to talk to them.
::You know I.
::Had it the other day, I had an attorney.
::Well, he was a difficult one, but he we finally got it done. But he wanted to talk to four clients.
::And I called those four people up and said hey.
::This guy named Ken's going to be calling you, if that's OK, and he wants to talk about your experience with us.
::I don't want to know what you're going to say or what you're not going to say, just if you're good with it. Kind of give your number out. And I did. And he called them all.
::And then he ended up.
::Engaging our services and this this gentleman happens to be a.
::You know, I talk about the trades all the time, but this this guy is a personal injury attorney and he's pretty. He does really well, but he doesn't know when he's going to have a case and you know, so they're up and down with his cash flow. And he was doing just that, that he was borrowing from his home line of credit to pay his associates and to pay his paralegals and to pay his rent and all the other things. So now he's built, he's building this business credit.
::Profile so he can he can just do it.
::On his firm.
::You know, and there's other kickoff side benefits like lower interest rates.
::You know you have a you have a high business credit score, you're going to get better. You're going to get insurance rates, you're going to get.
::You know, and anyone can pull a business credit report. I you know, it costs money. I that's I put it out there. I can do that for people for you know. No cost. But you know you.
::Might have a.
::A vendor you want to work with and they may pull your credit.
::And if they do and you have a great business credit score, you're going to get better terms with them. You might get 60 days versus 30.
::So the benefits of it far outweigh the nominal cost it cost to do it and with our product and our, our, our program it takes the end user all of about 3 hours a month to work it. It's not like they're sitting in front of computer.
::Coming out of the field or out of whatever they do.
::It's really plug and play.
::Becoming a bookkeeper.
::Yeah, it's plug and play, you know, and with, with, with the, I think it's overused, but with White glove service, you know, because I always talk about this. I got like a QuickBooks when we had that restaurant and I don't know the first thing about how to run QuickBooks. I might as well be trying to teach Latin. When I was looking at.
::The thing I would have gladly.
::Said had some. If I had, could have gotten the QuickBooks program and had someone on the other end like we do and helped me walk through it the whole time.
::It would have been great. Instead, I just hired A hired a CPA to.
::Handle all the you know all the.
::Books. Yeah, I'm a bookkeeper. I was a bookkeeper for a large part of my life, and I've done quick books. I was around in the accounting world when doing stuff online. First came out.
::It confuses the heck out of me. It's just like.
::It's not intuitive.
::I know it's very popular, but it's not intuitive.
::No, no. You know and the other, you know, you know from, from your background you get your P&L for January sometime in middle or late February and that's like driving your car backwards, you know through the rearview mirror, you don't know.
::Is much better to know where you're going, how the what the road looks like. And I, you know, I failed to mention this as part of part of something else. I also provide is a it's a no cost, a cash mapping software that is easy to use. I'm like I'm like some of the county software and it literally they create as many maps as you want.
::Personal and business. So you know when your money comes in exactly where it's going.
::Is it? Is it a bookkeeping software? Is it?
::It's a. It's not a bookkeeping software, it's a you know what? I'll send you. I'll. I'll send it to you and let you.
::See what it looks like it's.
::I would love that.
::It's a it's a program, but it's not. It's not where you don't have to sit in and put.
::You know, rent and it.
::It it's, it's pretty, it's pretty.
::It's also plug and play and you know we use that data at the end of at the end of every year with us, we provide you with a business valuation of your company which.
::You know, sometimes all the things we add the add-ons, I forget about them.
::It's an, it's.
::A full broker.
::Level business valuation it's a 30 page document that tells you where your business is.
::And you know relation to the, you know your geographic area what those businesses are valued these days and what you could turn it for which is great for someone that's looking to maybe borrow against their business or to or to sell it.
::You know, so it's a.
::Right.
::So does it pull off your like your bank account and?
::Your credit cards and stuff.
::Yeah, yeah. You set everything up. I I'd love to send you a copy of it, but I just want, you know, anyone that.
::Wants to wants to get a free consultation. I think it's pretty valuable the data plus the credit report.
::It's just not something in in if you just Google business credit, you're going to see a lot of disinformation out there, a lot of things that aren't true.
::And again, it's not rocket science. There's it's just there's facts and there's people that just don't know.
::Everything else.
::Yeah, yeah. But I'll tell you what I really, I really get a lot of enjoyment out of out of doing this. It makes me happy to know that.
::That it's just, it's just a little more security for the people out there risking it. We were talking about before this started, you know 99% of business in this country is made-up of small business operators and over 60% of the of the employee workforce.
::Is it is that and that's sometimes it.
::It drives me crazy when people start talking about we gotta tax the rich tax, tax, tax, corporate America. Well, great. Well, corporate America is, is Walmart and it is Costco and it is the big the big folks. But it's also.
::You know Keegan's public house on Barrett Parkway here, where I live in in Kennesaw, GA. It's.
::It's, you know, my friend's pest control company and my buddies other little restaurant and my friends.
::Plumber down the street.
::Foundation all I mean. So when they raise those corporate taxes, they're not immune to it.
::At all our governments, you know.
::They're worse off.
::Then, then everybody, then those big companies, because they.
::Don't have the.
::The manpower to deal with the tax laws that are there, you know they're there to help you, but they they're just like they're paying way too much in taxes because they don't have the staff.
::Or the funding to spend the time and energy that those big corporations have.
::No they don't.
::So it's really.
::It really hurts them way more than.
::It does. And if you think if you think for one second that Walmart pays corporate taxes, it doesn't matter what they change the rate to all. There's they raise their prices.
::The big companies.
::An extra dollar or whatever it is that, but the you know, my, my friend, I mentioned a minute ago that owns the little restaurant up the street. He can only charge so much money for.
::6 chicken.
::Weeks, you know, before consumers just aren't going to pay it.
::He's out of luck.
::And then he's out of business.
::For sure. Yeah. And the, you know, being.
::You know, small, small business operators have so many issues that they deal with every day and it.
::You know, everyone allowed people that aren't that aren't business owners, they, you know, whatever path you choose in life is great. You know, that's.
::I don't judge anyone, right, but they always think ohh that guy owns his plumbing company or his, you know, his electric. He owns that electrical company. I see their signs all over town. He's rich backing up the Brinks truck.
::Yeah, no, most likely not. You know, we talked about what huge percentage of companies go out of business and you know and that's where we come into play. You know, 82% of those are due.
::To cash.
::Flow that's not.
::What cash flow be your be the your cause of.
::Causing them, but I don't like to talk about the negative. I'd like to talk about the positive. I like to look at it is, if you have access to capital this, you're just not gonna kill you and you can grow your business and or and.
::Scale your business.
::And make everybody happy and wealthy and hire people and.
::You know, keep the money in the community, you know, love shopping, local, supporting the local businesses and the, the more that that local business is better, they're doing, the more people they can hire, the better the local economy is and the happier the town is.
::So that's, you know, that's what it's about. If you're if you're sitting there, you see in a lot of a lot of the trades companies they you know, they grow a lot of times about buying.
::Their competitors. So when they hear that, you know, bills getting ready to sell his electrical company, they've been competing with for 20 years, wouldn't it be great to know that?
::They could just.
::They knew they had the money to.
::Do it they.
::Didn't have to.
::Go sit around and wait and get the underwriting and.
::Go through all.
::Those things that they had access, they knew they were already approved and they were.
::Ready to roll?
::That is, that is such a Peace of Mind that you can't put a price tag on it.
::Empowering this and it, it really does help everybody else when small businesses succeed, the community thrives and it grows because people see, you know, the small businesses doing well. And so they open small businesses.
::And just having access to information about how to do that in a smart way, really it can turn the tide on how.
::How communities?
::Cities. Towns.
::Yeah, that's the theme. Yeah, well, yeah, you know, it's and it's just The thing is just, you know, if you do it the proper way you remove one less hurdle for yourself.
::Because sometimes it's too late. You know, if you get in a.
::I have a friend of mine. Unfortunately they ended up losing his business because he was doing those bad loans.
::You know, he had three, three location.
::Restaurant and one of them was doing terribly and the other two were doing well and he was he was.
::Taking money from the two, they're doing well and propping up the second one, but sooner or later you know he that that wasn't working. So he started getting those high interest loans. Next thing you know, the guys, you know, $400,000 in debt, it's some ridiculous interest rate to the point where.
::You just.
::Yeah, you.
::You can't. Again, you can only sell so many, so many hamburgers to make it or widgets or whatever it is you happen to sell.
::Yeah, and it's easy with.
::High interest rates to get upside down fast.
::Oh for.
::Sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when I'm not doing.
::$3030 for every $100 you borrow, having to pay $30 back. That's a lot.
::Yeah, and you know, and you make the minimum payments and the principal never goes down and it never goes down and.
::I don't know how much time we have, but I love to tell the story. I've got a, a friend that had a.
::You know, Federal Express sells route. You know, they people, you can buy a route business or federal express, right? So he had he started small, grew, grew, grew was out in Oklahoma, ended up with 30 locations, 3030 routes. So we had. So we had 30.
::Trucks. And he started when he started, he had an 850 credit.
::Score Personal credit score.
::He sold his company. So we're not crying for him, by the way, he is he sold.
::It for.
::A good deal of capital, but he his personal credit was down to 350 when he sold it. He had no idea.
::That and the reason is the banks and his company was doing great. I mean the company was profitable but it be had all this personal debt and it doesn't matter how much money you're making, the banks are only going to give you so much credit. So in his situation he wouldn't have even been able to refinance his own home.
::Do you imagine?
::You got a guy owns. Owns a great, successful business, is about to be a millionaire, cause he's going to sell it, making gobs of money. But he can't refinance his own home because it didn't fit the peg didn't fit in the correct hole with the banks.
::And that was because he didn't set it up properly in the beginning. But even if later down the line and started, you know, separating.
::Business is it, it's.
::A great example for you to share exactly what you're talking about.
::And it's, you know, it's real. It's not, it's not. It's not a chat GP, GPT thing. It's a I know it's a real it's a real story. You know my printing friend, that's a that's a true story. He Pats 60 years old, he's going to retire in a couple of years and he didn't want to walk away with any personal debt on that company no matter what happens so.
::Off it goes, and a lot of people get they're mistaken or, you know, they think they don't need it because they, they've got their own great personal credit and the company is flush with cash.
::I say great if your company's flush with cash and you're not worried about cash flow. Awesome.
::But why not have a good business credit score? Again, it goes back to my question. I use it the networking groups they there's tell me the downside.
::To it. Because same thing if a great you mentioned a minute ago using, using credit wisely to grow or do whatever you want to do only you service it properly right? So it's that same person who's got all this money in the bank and they're doing really well. But here comes the competitor they can buy or they're going to want to.
::Buy a new building. They're you know, they.
::Why not use someone else's?
::Money, as they say.
::You know.
::OPM and use it a better interest rate instead of taking the cash out of your business when you could use that money to, you know, invest or do whatever you want to do.
::I give up one of my very first.
::We like, I like to call them rescues. My first rescue was a friend who started a.
::One of these, you know, glass windshield repair companies, you know, so you get a rock in your windshield.
::And he.
::Comes out and it's like magic. I don't know how.
::They do that.
::But he has he learned how to do his trade on Google and, you know, and YouTube videos and study and study and studied and got himself a mentor and left his corporate job.
::He was downsized and I don't know what year it was and, you know, had a house and had two kids and.
::You know everything and worked and worked and worked and so now he's got a he's got one location and he's doing really well, but he he's came on board with me because he wants to do just that. He wants to buy three more locations buildings he wants to own the buildings without having to rent them. So in in a year or two he'll be able to do just that.
::All on his company's EIN without any personal guarantees he'll have. Then he'll have four locations. He wants to get those things staffed up, build them, run them for another five years, and sell those jokers and move to Florida.
::But he and he's not going to do it with any of his own money.
::So that's.
::Yeah, that's the way to do it.
::You know. Yeah, there's no, there's no. And people always ask me, well, who's the who's your ideal customer?
::Hate to say it, but anyone that owns a business you know, I think the caveat is if you're if you've got a board of directors and you know you're.
::A company like that? Probably not, but.
::If you're.
::You know, if you're a one person, look, man, shop. It doesn't matter it the number of employees doesn't matter, it's.
::It's the small to mid cap businesses are or our sweet spot.
::Just trying to get them to get them to focus. That's the that's the hard part, you know.
::Really cutting through the clutter. If someone could show me.
::How to do that? That would be great.
::I hear you.
::I think mostly it's just getting people to understand.
::That it's available to them.
::That I think there are so many people out.
::There that are.
::Maybe they're coaches, because that's primarily who I talked to, but.
::They they're starting out or they've been around for a while. They don't really realize that.
::As coaches, they are entrepreneurs, they are small businesses and they are hiring people. I mean, they hire VA's, they hire.
::People to help them with advertising, they have.
::They have expenses and all of these things can be handled in a way you know that.
::Could benefit them a lot more than running everything on their personal credit.
::Yeah, I have a friend who he has a he has a corporate job, but he wants to leave that job in a couple of years and he wants to get into the.
::You know, buying real estate and having tenants and get a big portfolio of rental properties, but he doesn't want to borrow using his social. So he he's a client and he's just putting his cell phone.
::And his office supplies and little things like that. But he, he'll get. He'll build. He'll build up that business credit and he'll be able to do just that. He'll be able to sign. He'll be able to get real estate without.
::His Social Security number sounds crazy.
::But it's true.
::It's totally doable.
::So, Sean, how do people get in touch with?
::Thank you.
::Well, you can e-mail me. It's Sean, which is Sean at jgalt.com. So sean@jgalt.com.
::You can call me. My number is 404-431-1263.
::It's funny, I always tell the story. I grew up in the South, just where I live now. My name is Sean. You know, SAN yummy school teachers called me in the third grade. Is Seon Sane Seon Sean?
::It's like what?
::What are people saying? I said to one teacher in the IT was like in the third grade. Have you ever met anyone named seen in your life?
::And you haven't today, it's Sean. So it's yeah.
::So those two ways I always answer my emails and if I don't answer a phone call, you know text is.
::Fine too. I will call right back.
::I don't want to sound like every other Joker out there, but this is not a.
::Five day.
::A week job this is. This is when people have time to talk, especially when.
::When dealing with small business operators, they're busy, you know, so it doesn't matter to me if it's 6:00 in the morning or 8:00 at night or Saturday, as long as I'm not at a soccer game, whatever we want of my kids.
::So what's the one thing you hope that the audience takes away?
::From our conversation today.
::The one thing.
::I say and it's simple is just don't go into personal debt to run your business. Just don't do it unless it's absolutely mandatory. Don't risk your home, your savings, your, your college funds when you don't have to. That's really it and if you.
::And if you if you want some guidance along that way, I'm more than happy to help. Again, I'll you know the consultation is a no charge type of deal and they'll learn a lot from it.
::And it's less of me talking about me and more.
::Talking about.
::Their business too. So that's it.
::This has been amazing. You've.
::You've given me so much to think about personally and.
::I really appreciate.
::It thanks for coming on.
::No, I enjoyed it. I I'm very grateful for the.
::For the time and the opportunity just to you to speak to you and hopefully this helps someone out there and again, I'm here, I'm here to help, you know, but.
::And I'm also just so everyone knows I'm an honest engine. If we're speaking and I and I don't think it's a good fit for.
::You I'll tell you straight out straight away because I'm not going to waste your time and I've, but even people that are in that position, I and I talk to them all the time. It's not like I cut them off.
::You know, I have a gentleman that calls me three times a week. He's probably 2 years away from being able to even start his.
::Business. But he just wants to hear.
::Things and learn, so I don't mind helping him out is you.
::Know no big deal, so, but you know, I see people come to me. Hey.
::I don't have any money, I.
::Don't quite have a product yet.
::But I've got my LLC. Yeah, that's not a client for me yet, so.
::Alright. Thanks Sean.
::Yes, ma'am.
