April 17, 2025 • 32 mins
What if you could cut your tax bill in half—just by owning your building the right way?
In this episode, James sits down with Sean Graham of Maven Cost Segregation to unpack the most overlooked tax strategy business owners, CFOs, and firm leaders aren’t using—but should be.
You’ll learn:
- How cost segregation turns depreciation into cash flow
- Why most accountants still don’t bring it up to clients
- Who qualifies (and how much you can really save)
- Why Sean focuses on SEO + education instead of ads
- The mindset shift that helped him scale a niche service business
👉 If your business owns real estate—or your clients do—this episode could be worth five to six figures.
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This episode is brought to you by Universal Accounting - the gold standard for accounting professionals who actually want to grow firms, not just do books.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success, the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories, and Todaywe're joined by Sean Graham
from Maven Cost Segregationbased out of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Sean, I believe you have a virtual business, but
you're currently based inDetroit right now.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show, really looking
forward to hearing a little bitmore about your story.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, awesome to meet you, james.
Thanks for having me here andyeah, we are virtual, but I am
based in Detroit.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Awesome.
Are you a Red Wings fan?
Do you follow hockey at allbeing in Detroit?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I am.
You know, I kind of came here,though, like when I was, it was
right around, it was past, likethe, the nineties championships,
but I was still there for likethe early 2000s championships.
So, uh, the, the red wings arethe team I root for, but I
didn't, I didn't start gettinginto them until I was like 11 or
(01:34):
12, you know, like around thatage.
But yeah, they're, they're fun.
You know, it's been pretty lowkey for the past, like I don't
know.
It seems like almost 15 yearsnow.
Uh, maybe that's anexaggeration, but probably not
actually now that I think aboutit.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
No, they, they've, they're, definitely they've been
rebuilding.
They were so strong for thelongest time with with lindstrom
and and eiserman yeah, they're,they're on their way up,
they're.
We will turn the the tides herein this conversation, so
hopefully not everyone's jumpingoff that it's a hockey
conversation out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
But well, we got eiserman back now, right, he's.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
He's on our side again, so yeah, just not on, not
on the ice.
But they play in such a toughdivision.
I'm a big sense fan.
It's the first year they'remaking the playoffs now in about
eight, seven or eight years, soI'm super excited for that.
I think detroit's going to beright there, you know, next year
, the year after, but it's justa lot of competition there in
that division.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
They're young, cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And they got a great team coming up.
Tell me a little bit about howyou got into this role, sean.
It's a question I've beenasking some guests as of late.
Is it something you knew thatfrom growing up as a kid you're
like I want to get into taxsegregation, or how did you land
here?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, no, I didn't think it at all.
I always wanted to be anentrepreneur, like grow my own
business, grow my own company.
I went down the accounting andfinance route, the tax route,
(03:12):
because I just wanted the basis,I wanted that foundation, I
wanted that to really give methat, to gain that skillset, so
that I could have those tools togo do whatever I wanted run my
own company.
So that's the reason I wentdown the CPA route, the public
accounting route and everything.
I actually went into realestate full time and then I
realized eventually I couldbridge both of those worlds the
tax and accounting world, withthe real estate world, and
(03:34):
that's where I created the costsegregation firm.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Very cool.
How are you bridging your realestate background into what
you're doing right now?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
your real estate background into what you're
doing right now.
So for those who don't know,cost segregation is a very niche
thing within tax right andthat's where the IRS allows you
to depreciate your real estateover time usually over 27 and a
half years for residential, over39 years for commercial and
cost segregation is it's a nichething that what you do is you
(04:06):
take a building or a propertyand you do an engineering study
on it.
You break it down into all ofthe individual components and
tell the IRS like hey, noteverything is just on a straight
line schedule.
They all have differentlifespans and our goal is to
accelerate as much as possible,put as much as we can into a
(04:27):
shorter lifespan so that we canget the benefits upfront.
A dollar today is worth morethan a dollar in 30 or 40 years,
right?
So when I was in real estate, Iwas on the other side.
I needed the depreciation.
I was utilizing those losses tocompletely offset my income.
So my background is in tax, butI also am a real estate
(04:51):
investor myself and I understandwhat the goals and objectives
are.
So I think I offer a uniqueperspective because I bridge
those two worlds with the costsegregation firm.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
That's cool.
You're seeing both sides of thecoin.
So you, I feel like you have aI don't want to say unfair, but
you almost do you have a verycompetitive advantage, seeing
both sides of the coin.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, it's fun.
I love real estate, like I lovereal estate and I love being an
entrepreneur and like I likehelping people and connecting
and stuff, so it works out well.
What do you?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
love most about being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
The autonomy I'd say.
You know I like to do, I likebeing in control of my own
destiny.
I need to keep climbing, keepgrowing, keep building things
out.
I like operating, I likebuilding from the ground up.
I like the challenge of it fromthe ground up.
(05:47):
I like the challenge of it, butultimately, the autonomy over
where I'm going and when I'mdoing what I'm doing.
I have those choices and Ithink lifestyle is very
important to me.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Awesome.
What's one of the biggestobstacles you feel like you've
been able to overcome in yourjourney of being an entrepreneur
that you look back on now andyou're like, wow, I can't
believe I actually worked pastthat and I didn't let that stop
me.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh man, I mean I've been fired before.
You know, like that sucksgetting fired from a job.
It sucks.
Um, you know, I think there'ssome things where, even like
getting through the CPA license,you know it was very, very
things where, even like gettingthrough the CPA license, you
know it was very, very difficultto do, it wasn't easy, and it's
just takes like a lot ofperseverance and and hours and
stuff and it's just willing tolike sacrifice the other things
(06:35):
in your life that aren't youknow that they're important,
especially in your twentiesRight, and like from a social
perspective and everything, toput the hours in to go to go
past that.
Um, or you know, getting losinga job, getting fired and then
going, getting back on your feetand figuring out, like what you
are meant to do or supposed todo, uh, those are, you know, I
(06:56):
think everybody has those typeof challenges.
Most people lose a job at somepoint or another in their
careers, so we all go throughthem.
But yeah, it can be tough.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Absolutely.
It is the adversity and thosesetbacks that really shape and
define who you are.
So I think without them, you'realmost better off having those
setbacks and adversity everyonce in a while, just to remind
yourself like all right, I amtough, I can get through this,
otherwise it when.
(07:30):
When those things do show up,because it's inevitable it will
I don't think you're as bracedfor it.
So do you welcome thosechallenges and adversity?
Or only, to like a certaindegree, like have you?
Have you as your, I guess?
Is your threshold grown forwhat?
For when adversity is thrownyour way?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I would say I enjoy I'm.
I enjoy the risk, I don't.
I would say I'm the opposite,more of like risk adverse, and I
don't always look at it as likerisk.
I think it's like calculateddecisions, but I enjoy the
challenges.
I like taking unconventionalpath.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Interesting.
That's cool.
What's one of the bottlenecksthat you're kind of working
through or trying to solve forright now in your business?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I would say scaling right.
Like you know, I think it'slike everybody else you want to
scale.
It's a balance, but I would sayscaling into, you know, kind of
taking that next step with moreestablished companies and
working with more establishedcompanies.
(08:44):
We work with a lot of realestate investors.
We work with a lot ofsyndicators.
We do a lot in the self-storagespace and world.
But there's a lot of businessesout there, just in general, who
own the real estate, own thebusiness, and they need cost
segregation work done right, andthose could be franchises, they
could be a McDonald's location,it could be a manufacturing
(09:07):
facility, it could be justMcDonald's location, it could be
a manufacturing facility, itcould be, you know, just
doctor's offices, which we do,those dental offices.
But there's so many businessesout there and so people
associate they associate costsegregation with real estate
investors, which is true, but atthe same time, cost segregation
(09:28):
is a tool to be used bybusiness owners who own real
estate.
If you're leasing, it doesn'tapply to you, right, but if you
own a physical location, it canhelp you a ton.
You can use all that to offsetyour income, really lower your
taxes or completely negate yourtaxes.
So I think it's.
The challenge is gettingbreaking into that world more
(09:51):
and educating people andconnecting with business owners
who are probably not utilizingthis and don't realize that they
could or should be utilizing itand they think it's just a real
estate thing.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's so cool what I had a question here based off
just what you're saying how didyou get into the self-storage
space?
Because that caught myattention as we were getting
ready to get this episode, youknow, onto the calendar and
speak, and you mentioned itagain here.
(10:22):
Just as you were talking about,like that's such a on doing
something that's already soniche, like you're talking about
with the cost segregation, theself-storage units that's also
super niche.
So how did you get into thatspace?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, self-storage is a fun space.
It's a business and it has allthe benefits of real estate.
It's very similar to realestate in renting.
You're renting units, you'rerenting sheds, right.
But essentially it's a business.
You're providing a business andsomewhat of a service for
people to go store their thingsin, whether they're businesses
(10:58):
or whether they're justindividual people storing their
stuff for the residentialproperties.
Whatever it is, I wanted to getinto commercial real estate.
I was in residential realestate, I wanted to take the
leap and jump into commercialreal estate, and you kind of to
me.
You just have to choose anasset class.
So, okay, what are you going todo?
(11:18):
You can do large multifamily,you can do self-storage, you can
do office.
You just have to pick one andthen go for it.
And so I chose self-storage.
Part of it was the simplicityof it.
Like it's a very simplebusiness model, right, Like
again, you're renting sheds topeople, Like it's not rocket
science and there's a lot ofcontrol over what you're doing.
You don't have to wait anentire year to raise rent.
(11:40):
Right, Like you have theirmonth-to-month contracts.
You can operate them moreefficiently.
You can work on marketing.
You know, answer the phones,like those things are very
important and you don't have todeal with people living there.
You know plumbing issues orthings like that, so the
simplicity of it.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So that's why I chose self-storage.
Yeah Cool.
Do you have any wild storiesfrom the business, the
self-storage businesses, you'reworking with?
I mean, I'm kind of just mymind's racing to a lot of
different spots, like eitherstorage wars or I don't know.
Maybe there was like was thereforensics in teams?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Right laundering money or the drugs in there?
Stolen vehicles Do you have any?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
cool stories you're able to share from being
involved with the self-storagespace I don't, man.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No, I don't.
I don't really have anything.
I'd love to tell you something.
Maybe I should start makingsomething up.
You know, it's not the firsttime I've been asked that, but
yeah, that was like a bigbuild-up.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I was really hoping there's gonna be you know it was
like breaking bad and theypulled up the, the the door.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
There's like a bed of bills right, right, yeah, or
the vehicle's just like in therewaiting for them to jump in and
you know they can get out anduh, no, haven't had anything
like that.
You know, I think it's.
It's sometimes surprising whatpeople like will leave or
abandon or not pay for likehaving like a vehicle or
something stored there.
And it's like, what do you do?
(13:02):
Like just pay your bill youknow it's 100 bucks a month or
something like what you doing.
Why are you going to losesomething that's worth tens of
thousands of dollars over?
People have all differentsituations, so you never know.
But yeah, nothing too crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You have to be on the lookout now.
Maybe that would be like aprerequisite to bring on clients
is.
I need to like a really coolstory from something that's
happened at your facility beforewe're going to work together.
That's funny, yeah, speaking ofyou know clients and some of
the business owners.
How do you find clientsyourself for your firm?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I network with a good amount of CPA firms.
I work with a lot of CPA firmsto help them on the cost
segregation space.
I don't do tax work right solike I'm not competing with
those clients, I just do theservice, the cost segregation
work for them which they utilize, their CPA utilizes, to help
(14:03):
offset their taxes.
We do some.
You know I'm pretty involvedwith BiggerPockets.
I do a lot of real estate.
You know just I've always beeninvolved in real estate.
You know we'll go to we go to abig conference this year to
sponsor that.
We do a lot of podcasts as well.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I'm pretty well integrated into the self-storage
world and space there.
So we'll work with, like, somesyndicators and self-storage
investors.
So it's a little bit of youknow, a little bit of everything
, awesome, awesome.
Have you?
Have you guys got into doinganything around paid ads, or is
it a lot of what sounds to belike a lot of networking for
right now?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So a lot of networking, but our online
presence has really grown and weput in a lot of work towards
that.
Now we don't do anything.
Paid ads wise, like we'vedabbled a little bit, like okay,
kind of like let's see how thisgoes, but 500 bucks a month
towards Google ads, but wehaven't taken it seriously or
like really done anything withads.
(15:05):
And I think there's so muchgreen space outside of ads right
now and I'm not saying like adswork.
There's people in ourcompetitors that put out, you
see, ads all the time.
So obviously they're doing itbecause it works.
But I like the approach ofthere's a book called they Ask
you Answer and I don't know ifyou've heard of it, but you know
it's kind of it's a good book,it's pretty self-explanatory.
(15:28):
You're going to look it up theyAsk you Answer by Marcus
Sheridan and what the premise ofthe book is answer the
questions before they ask thequestions.
And I take that very, veryseriously, right, and I think
about it proactively in terms ofwhat is the customer going to
ask me?
How can I save myself the timeof going back and, like you know
(15:52):
, going back and forth and emailagain, or save myself the
commerce?
Like the conversation, but alsolike when they're looking for
things, we show up because wehave the answer to the question
already, right?
So you know, let's just say like, hey, what's going to happen to
bonus depreciation in 2025?
You Google that, well, we mightshow up because we've answered
(16:13):
that question.
We have a blog on it and we'vewritten about it.
So I do that quite a bit interms of like they ask you
answer.
Try to answer a lot ofquestions.
That helps and it's really, Iwould say, overall, like our
online presence has grownsubstantially.
We get, you know, a decentamount of organic traffic.
Um, then, I think we're justscratching the surface too nice.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's really good.
So many people, I think, whenit comes to what to write about
or what content to put out, theystruggle with that, and it
sounds like you guys are arespot on.
You're already doing it and alot of it is what sometimes it's
after they ask.
But what are the questionsyou're getting on sales calls?
(16:54):
What are the questions yourclients are asking you?
One person's asking, there's 10others thinking it, and if
you're creating content aroundthat, that's why so many people
are finding you guys.
So that's awesome to hear thatyou're doing that.
You mentioned you're creatingblog posts on that.
Is that going on your website,or do you guys also publish that
on your Google business profile?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we don't publish on the Google business profile,
which is an interestingstandpoint, like interesting
point, something I haven'treally thought of.
I do believe that, well, toanswer your question, I publish
the blog on the website, okay,but also send it, like out in a
newsletter.
Yeah, you have the newslettergoing out to clients, former
(17:36):
clients, anybody on your list.
You have the blog on thewebsite for SEO purposes, and
then we do have a strong Googlepage with the reviews and
everything.
We're not really updating it somuch and maybe we should on.
I've thought about that recently.
Like maybe we should update,you know, the Google business
(17:56):
profile more often.
But overall, like it's, youknow, I think, an interesting
thing that I've.
It's a theory, it's not a fact,I don't know for sure, but I'm
pretty sure Google likes theywill promote you more if you
have a presence on Google Maps,like meaning if you have a
(18:19):
physical location, versus justbeing another virtual company,
right, like they know that, theyknow you're real, they like
that, they like you to have anoffice.
So that's a theory that I have.
I can't really prove it ordisprove it, but that's been an
important part for us as well asjust, you know, being able to
(18:41):
have like an office and stuffand have on Google maps, even
though my team is all over.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, yeah Well, google loves consistency on
their platform and they're the,if not the largest, search
engine.
I'm sure you can make theargument.
You know there's now YouTubechat, gptbt.
Youtube is part of google.
But, um, yeah, I mean I wouldbe putting your blog there as
well.
(19:07):
It's just repurposed.
What do you mean?
So in google, you can addupdates to your business page,
which is essentially a blog oran article, but purpose what
you're already writing.
You put it there.
It's also on your website, it'salso in your newsletter.
That's just all going to tieback to your main source of
truth, which is in your Googlebusiness profile.
(19:28):
So Google is going to trust youmore.
You're going to get morevisibility that way.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So I think what I worry about there, though, is
duplicative content.
Like I don't think Google wantsyou to have duplicative content
where it's like, hey, it'sposted over here, it's posted on
Google and it's posted on yourblog.
It kind of lowers the value ofwhat it is, because they scrape
it, they see it on multiplesites, and I'm not the marketing
(19:54):
expert, but I don't know.
Maybe you tell me.
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
You can?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
repurpose it and if you don't want it to be word for
word, cause I'm I'm going toguess your articles probably a
little bit longer than I thinkit's a 1500, maybe character
limit.
It's either 1500 or 15,000.
I can't remember now.
But when you go post that onGoogle, even if you just rinse
that through chat, gpt and thenyou give your manual kind of
(20:21):
overview, you change some thingsaround, but it's the same
concept.
You have the same keywords thatare being focused on and it's
posted there.
The truth is, a lot of peopleprobably aren't even going to
read it.
On your, your Google page, sure, you have all the keywords.
So when people start typing,you know I want to learn more
about cost segregation or costsegregation firms near me.
(20:43):
Well, all of those keywords areshowing up in your article
there and it's tying toeverywhere else.
You have that concept or thatidea posted a couple of
different times.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So when you say that, do you literally mean like like
I'm just looking right nowright at my Google profile?
Are you saying like where itsays add an update?
Or like where would you postsome sort of blog?
Like that doesn't?
I've never seen anybody do thatbefore.
Is that a thing Like maybe I'm?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
just not paying attention.
Yeah, it's there.
We post every week for ourclients about, you know, said
topic for them to help out withorganic SEO, and we put it in
that update section.
It's a spot that a lot of firmsmiss, but it does.
It does make a big impact.
So if you're already in thecontent, just repurpose it, put
(21:31):
it right there.
It's just one extra spot to addit into.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
The post updates to your Google, to your customers
on Google Interesting.
Can you add backlinks to thatwhere it's like hey look, I
wrote this blog, here's the linkto it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
There is a call to action at the end of your update
.
So you want to push people to acertain landing page, you want
to send them somewhere else.
You want them to call inschedule a call directly.
You can have your call toaction.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That's awesome, I didn't know that.
There you go, I love it.
I learned.
What else can you teach me,james?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I like this Depends, Depends.
What you're interested in Couldteach.
You know could teach a coupleof things, but this has been
really helpful, you know, justlearning a little bit more about
cost segregation and what yourfirm's doing, how you help.
I would love to hear, like, ofa recent win that you're super
proud of for that your firm wasable to achieve whether you know
(22:24):
you had your hands directlyinvolved in it, if it was
members of your team.
But like what from Maven areyou guys super proud of as of
late for a win within thecompany?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Oh man, you know we haven't been on google like that
long, honestly, but just kindof thinking about that, we have,
I think, 21 five star reviews,you know, and no like four
reviews, and you'll probablytell me, right, it's like maybe
you want a poor review in there.
Just so google, like you know,they kind of like that a little
bit of mix of everything.
But right now we've got, youknow, I'll let that happen
(22:57):
organically, I'm not going toforce a mix of everything, but
right now we've got you know,I'll let that happen organically
, I'm not going to force a, youknow yeah, right, right now in
in ruffles and feathers, just toget a negative review yeah,
yeah, yeah.
no, we have five, all five starreviews, um, something that I'm
proud of.
We're building that up quickly.
Uh, we got through busy season.
(23:19):
Like you know well, it's notdone yet Sorry, april 15th is
really the end of busy season,but I'm really proud of the team
and the way they've stepped upand they're doing some great
things.
We do everything internally, sothe customer communication has
people on an individual basishave improved quite a bit.
You know, our projectmanagement's on track, our
(23:41):
engineers are learning, gettingbetter.
We're becoming even moreefficient.
So I mean there's some likereally cool things.
I think, like, if you want topinpoint something specifically,
an example would be had acustomer who inherited money,
he's like, okay, what am I goingto do with this money?
And he works full time.
(24:01):
You know W-2.
He makes, you know, maybe Ithink his wife and he make,
probably his wife and he makearound you know, a quarter
million dollars a year or so.
And so they decided to go buyAirbnbs, short-term rentals, and
we help them utilize thedepreciation on those short-term
rentals and we help themutilize the depreciation on
(24:23):
those short-term rentals tooffset the taxable income.
So, okay, you're a quartermillion dollars married, filing
jointly.
I don't know what the tax rateis, let's just say 24% or so.
Right, I'm just estimating.
Right now I don't have thebrackets in front of me, but
there's something called theshort-term rental loophole which
allows you to use short-termrentals and the IRS says okay,
(24:43):
like because you average sevendays or less, you're actively
participating, materiallyparticipating, you're managing
it.
This is an active business.
It's not like a passiveactivity that only offsets
passive income.
It's now an active thing.
It's active business for youand then you can use the
depreciation losses to offsetother active income, like W-2
(25:04):
income and stuff.
So I mean to help somebody likethat to completely wipe out
their tax bill.
Right, like that can be likepotentially a life-changing
thing like just in a year ifyou're able to save, you know
whatever.
That is 20, 24% of you know aquarter million dollars, so
you're saving over $50,000 orsomething that's like really big
(25:25):
.
So it's something that I'mproud of.
We help people like that quiteoften and we offer a service
that you know I think it kind ofgets glanced over and people
don't understand it and theyskip it.
Then we offer a really highquality product at an affordable
(25:47):
price.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
That's so good.
It's yeah, I mean any.
Anywhere you can get a taxbreak, and if you can do it
illegally, but findingprofessionals like you know what
they're doing, how to utilize,how to play the game in order to
do that, I think it's some ofthe wisest money you can invest
in yourself and in your business.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
You stole my words how to play the game.
That's what it all is.
It's all a game.
It's a tax game, it's a realestate game and I mean, if you
love the game, then you're goingto have a lot of fun
no-transcript um, you know, Idon't look.
(26:35):
I think maybe you hear this, but, like I don't, I think I can
share my experiences, right,like, rather than so much give
advice.
Everybody has a differentjourney and a different path and
I'm not walking in your shoes,so to say, but I think for me,
as an entrepreneur, what, what Irealized is that you can do,
you can have the foundation setup correctly and you can take
(26:58):
all of the same tools and pieces, things that you've learned
from accounting and sales andmarketing and networking,
project management, and it canwork in one business and not
work in another, and it couldcompletely fail in one side, and
(27:18):
then you go basically move thisshift, the same model over into
something else and it works.
And for me, I've realized that,and the reason is because what
you are selling is superimportant, obviously, but I
think it comes down to is this aneed or is this a want?
(27:40):
Wants are a lot harder to sellthan needs, like, okay, you know
, I have a.
I had a head hunting company.
I mean, I still do, but it'sbasically kind of, you know,
shut it down because my fullfocus is the cost segregation
firm, but it's like well, I wantto hire, like it wasn't always
a need, it was a lot of likeit's an emotional thing Should I
(28:00):
, should I not?
Will the benefits be there?
There's not a black and whiteand tangible thing like, hey,
here is my clear return oninvestment.
Cost segregation is like here'syour estimate, here's how much
depreciation you'll get, here'swhat the tax savings will be.
Here's the cost of the report.
Here is the return on theinvestment, clear as day.
Right, and that's so mucheasier to sell because people
(28:27):
need it, they want it, they'relooking for it and they
understand it.
So that's been my experienceand something that I think I'll
always carry into any type ofbusiness that I do.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Good.
How can people get in touchwith you, sean, if they want to
continue this conversation?
Maybe other CPAs want to get intouch where it's like hey, can
you help?
Can you help out our clientswith this?
Where can they go to find?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
you, yeah, so I created a discount link for your
listeners if they want to go toit's.
Mavencostsegcom forward slashchronicles is in your, your
website, your your podcast here,um.
And so then I know they camefrom the, the podcast, and they
were listening.
But yeah, uh, mavencostsegcomforward slash chronicles, I
(29:08):
don't know, maybe, if you'reallowed to, you can put that in
the show notes for them and youcan email me.
Sean s-e-a-n at maven costsegcom, and maven is spelled m
as in mary, a-v-e-n as in nancy.
So, um, yeah, I'm happy to talkto you.
If you want to chat, I'll giveyou my calendar link, uh, but if
(29:29):
you are a business owner whoowns real estate or you're a
real estate investor, we're justgoing to collect some property
information from you, some basicinformation, and then we're
going to put together anestimate or have my engineers in
house do the estimate for youto see hey, this is what you're
going to use, this is how muchdepreciation you're going to get
, and we'll make it very clear.
And then we can have afollow-up call if you want to
(29:51):
say, if you have any questions,and, yeah, go from there.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So good.
We'll get all of that in theshow notes so people can get in
touch with you, Sean.
I encourage everyone to reachout.
I think you'll get a ton ofvalue.
Sean, thank you so much forcoming on.
This is an awesome conversation.
Great hearing a little bit moreabout what you do and your
story.
Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Thanks, james, thanks for having me Appreciate it
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(30:36):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
(30:57):
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(31:27):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success, the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories, and Todaywe're joined by Sean Graham
from Maven Cost Segregationbased out of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Sean, I believe you have a virtual business, but
you're currently based inDetroit right now.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show, really looking
forward to hearing a little bitmore about your story.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, awesome to meet you, james.
Thanks for having me here andyeah, we are virtual, but I am
based in Detroit.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Awesome.
Are you a Red Wings fan?
Do you follow hockey at allbeing in Detroit?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I am.
You know, I kind of came here,though, like when I was, it was
right around, it was past, likethe, the nineties championships,
but I was still there for likethe early 2000s championships.
So, uh, the, the red wings arethe team I root for, but I
didn't, I didn't start gettinginto them until I was like 11 or
(01:34):
12, you know, like around thatage.
But yeah, they're, they're fun.
You know, it's been pretty lowkey for the past, like I don't
know.
It seems like almost 15 yearsnow.
Uh, maybe that's anexaggeration, but probably not
actually now that I think aboutit.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
No, they, they've, they're, definitely they've been
rebuilding.
They were so strong for thelongest time with with lindstrom
and and eiserman yeah, they're,they're on their way up,
they're.
We will turn the the tides herein this conversation, so
hopefully not everyone's jumpingoff that it's a hockey
conversation out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
But well, we got eiserman back now, right, he's.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
He's on our side again, so yeah, just not on, not
on the ice.
But they play in such a toughdivision.
I'm a big sense fan.
It's the first year they'remaking the playoffs now in about
eight, seven or eight years, soI'm super excited for that.
I think detroit's going to beright there, you know, next year
, the year after, but it's justa lot of competition there in
that division.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
They're young, cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And they got a great team coming up.
Tell me a little bit about howyou got into this role, sean.
It's a question I've beenasking some guests as of late.
Is it something you knew thatfrom growing up as a kid you're
like I want to get into taxsegregation, or how did you land
here?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, no, I didn't think it at all.
I always wanted to be anentrepreneur, like grow my own
business, grow my own company.
I went down the accounting andfinance route, the tax route,
(03:12):
because I just wanted the basis,I wanted that foundation, I
wanted that to really give methat, to gain that skillset, so
that I could have those tools togo do whatever I wanted run my
own company.
So that's the reason I wentdown the CPA route, the public
accounting route and everything.
I actually went into realestate full time and then I
realized eventually I couldbridge both of those worlds the
tax and accounting world, withthe real estate world, and
(03:34):
that's where I created the costsegregation firm.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Very cool.
How are you bridging your realestate background into what
you're doing right now?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
your real estate background into what you're
doing right now.
So for those who don't know,cost segregation is a very niche
thing within tax right andthat's where the IRS allows you
to depreciate your real estateover time usually over 27 and a
half years for residential, over39 years for commercial and
cost segregation is it's a nichething that what you do is you
(04:06):
take a building or a propertyand you do an engineering study
on it.
You break it down into all ofthe individual components and
tell the IRS like hey, noteverything is just on a straight
line schedule.
They all have differentlifespans and our goal is to
accelerate as much as possible,put as much as we can into a
(04:27):
shorter lifespan so that we canget the benefits upfront.
A dollar today is worth morethan a dollar in 30 or 40 years,
right?
So when I was in real estate, Iwas on the other side.
I needed the depreciation.
I was utilizing those losses tocompletely offset my income.
So my background is in tax, butI also am a real estate
(04:51):
investor myself and I understandwhat the goals and objectives
are.
So I think I offer a uniqueperspective because I bridge
those two worlds with the costsegregation firm.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
That's cool.
You're seeing both sides of thecoin.
So you, I feel like you have aI don't want to say unfair, but
you almost do you have a verycompetitive advantage, seeing
both sides of the coin.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, it's fun.
I love real estate, like I lovereal estate and I love being an
entrepreneur and like I likehelping people and connecting
and stuff, so it works out well.
What do you?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
love most about being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
The autonomy I'd say.
You know I like to do, I likebeing in control of my own
destiny.
I need to keep climbing, keepgrowing, keep building things
out.
I like operating, I likebuilding from the ground up.
I like the challenge of it fromthe ground up.
(05:47):
I like the challenge of it, butultimately, the autonomy over
where I'm going and when I'mdoing what I'm doing.
I have those choices and Ithink lifestyle is very
important to me.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Awesome.
What's one of the biggestobstacles you feel like you've
been able to overcome in yourjourney of being an entrepreneur
that you look back on now andyou're like, wow, I can't
believe I actually worked pastthat and I didn't let that stop
me.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh man, I mean I've been fired before.
You know, like that sucksgetting fired from a job.
It sucks.
Um, you know, I think there'ssome things where, even like
getting through the CPA license,you know it was very, very
things where, even like gettingthrough the CPA license, you
know it was very, very difficultto do, it wasn't easy, and it's
just takes like a lot ofperseverance and and hours and
stuff and it's just willing tolike sacrifice the other things
(06:35):
in your life that aren't youknow that they're important,
especially in your twentiesRight, and like from a social
perspective and everything, toput the hours in to go to go
past that.
Um, or you know, getting losinga job, getting fired and then
going, getting back on your feetand figuring out, like what you
are meant to do or supposed todo, uh, those are, you know, I
(06:56):
think everybody has those typeof challenges.
Most people lose a job at somepoint or another in their
careers, so we all go throughthem.
But yeah, it can be tough.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Absolutely.
It is the adversity and thosesetbacks that really shape and
define who you are.
So I think without them, you'realmost better off having those
setbacks and adversity everyonce in a while, just to remind
yourself like all right, I amtough, I can get through this,
otherwise it when.
(07:30):
When those things do show up,because it's inevitable it will
I don't think you're as bracedfor it.
So do you welcome thosechallenges and adversity?
Or only, to like a certaindegree, like have you?
Have you as your, I guess?
Is your threshold grown forwhat?
For when adversity is thrownyour way?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I would say I enjoy I'm.
I enjoy the risk, I don't.
I would say I'm the opposite,more of like risk adverse, and I
don't always look at it as likerisk.
I think it's like calculateddecisions, but I enjoy the
challenges.
I like taking unconventionalpath.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Interesting.
That's cool.
What's one of the bottlenecksthat you're kind of working
through or trying to solve forright now in your business?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I would say scaling right.
Like you know, I think it'slike everybody else you want to
scale.
It's a balance, but I would sayscaling into, you know, kind of
taking that next step with moreestablished companies and
working with more establishedcompanies.
(08:44):
We work with a lot of realestate investors.
We work with a lot ofsyndicators.
We do a lot in the self-storagespace and world.
But there's a lot of businessesout there, just in general, who
own the real estate, own thebusiness, and they need cost
segregation work done right, andthose could be franchises, they
could be a McDonald's location,it could be a manufacturing
(09:07):
facility, it could be justMcDonald's location, it could be
a manufacturing facility, itcould be, you know, just
doctor's offices, which we do,those dental offices.
But there's so many businessesout there and so people
associate they associate costsegregation with real estate
investors, which is true, but atthe same time, cost segregation
(09:28):
is a tool to be used bybusiness owners who own real
estate.
If you're leasing, it doesn'tapply to you, right, but if you
own a physical location, it canhelp you a ton.
You can use all that to offsetyour income, really lower your
taxes or completely negate yourtaxes.
So I think it's.
The challenge is gettingbreaking into that world more
(09:51):
and educating people andconnecting with business owners
who are probably not utilizingthis and don't realize that they
could or should be utilizing itand they think it's just a real
estate thing.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's so cool what I had a question here based off
just what you're saying how didyou get into the self-storage
space?
Because that caught myattention as we were getting
ready to get this episode, youknow, onto the calendar and
speak, and you mentioned itagain here.
(10:22):
Just as you were talking about,like that's such a on doing
something that's already soniche, like you're talking about
with the cost segregation, theself-storage units that's also
super niche.
So how did you get into thatspace?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, self-storage is a fun space.
It's a business and it has allthe benefits of real estate.
It's very similar to realestate in renting.
You're renting units, you'rerenting sheds, right.
But essentially it's a business.
You're providing a business andsomewhat of a service for
people to go store their thingsin, whether they're businesses
(10:58):
or whether they're justindividual people storing their
stuff for the residentialproperties.
Whatever it is, I wanted to getinto commercial real estate.
I was in residential realestate, I wanted to take the
leap and jump into commercialreal estate, and you kind of to
me.
You just have to choose anasset class.
So, okay, what are you going todo?
(11:18):
You can do large multifamily,you can do self-storage, you can
do office.
You just have to pick one andthen go for it.
And so I chose self-storage.
Part of it was the simplicityof it.
Like it's a very simplebusiness model, right, Like
again, you're renting sheds topeople, Like it's not rocket
science and there's a lot ofcontrol over what you're doing.
You don't have to wait anentire year to raise rent.
(11:40):
Right, Like you have theirmonth-to-month contracts.
You can operate them moreefficiently.
You can work on marketing.
You know, answer the phones,like those things are very
important and you don't have todeal with people living there.
You know plumbing issues orthings like that, so the
simplicity of it.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So that's why I chose self-storage.
Yeah Cool.
Do you have any wild storiesfrom the business, the
self-storage businesses, you'reworking with?
I mean, I'm kind of just mymind's racing to a lot of
different spots, like eitherstorage wars or I don't know.
Maybe there was like was thereforensics in teams?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Right laundering money or the drugs in there?
Stolen vehicles Do you have any?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
cool stories you're able to share from being
involved with the self-storagespace I don't, man.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No, I don't.
I don't really have anything.
I'd love to tell you something.
Maybe I should start makingsomething up.
You know, it's not the firsttime I've been asked that, but
yeah, that was like a bigbuild-up.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I was really hoping there's gonna be you know it was
like breaking bad and theypulled up the, the the door.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
There's like a bed of bills right, right, yeah, or
the vehicle's just like in therewaiting for them to jump in and
you know they can get out anduh, no, haven't had anything
like that.
You know, I think it's.
It's sometimes surprising whatpeople like will leave or
abandon or not pay for likehaving like a vehicle or
something stored there.
And it's like, what do you do?
(13:02):
Like just pay your bill youknow it's 100 bucks a month or
something like what you doing.
Why are you going to losesomething that's worth tens of
thousands of dollars over?
People have all differentsituations, so you never know.
But yeah, nothing too crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
You have to be on the lookout now.
Maybe that would be like aprerequisite to bring on clients
is.
I need to like a really coolstory from something that's
happened at your facility beforewe're going to work together.
That's funny, yeah, speaking ofyou know clients and some of
the business owners.
How do you find clientsyourself for your firm?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I network with a good amount of CPA firms.
I work with a lot of CPA firmsto help them on the cost
segregation space.
I don't do tax work right solike I'm not competing with
those clients, I just do theservice, the cost segregation
work for them which they utilize, their CPA utilizes, to help
(14:03):
offset their taxes.
We do some.
You know I'm pretty involvedwith BiggerPockets.
I do a lot of real estate.
You know just I've always beeninvolved in real estate.
You know we'll go to we go to abig conference this year to
sponsor that.
We do a lot of podcasts as well.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I'm pretty well integrated into the self-storage
world and space there.
So we'll work with, like, somesyndicators and self-storage
investors.
So it's a little bit of youknow, a little bit of everything
, awesome, awesome.
Have you?
Have you guys got into doinganything around paid ads, or is
it a lot of what sounds to belike a lot of networking for
right now?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So a lot of networking, but our online
presence has really grown and weput in a lot of work towards
that.
Now we don't do anything.
Paid ads wise, like we'vedabbled a little bit, like okay,
kind of like let's see how thisgoes, but 500 bucks a month
towards Google ads, but wehaven't taken it seriously or
like really done anything withads.
(15:05):
And I think there's so muchgreen space outside of ads right
now and I'm not saying like adswork.
There's people in ourcompetitors that put out, you
see, ads all the time.
So obviously they're doing itbecause it works.
But I like the approach ofthere's a book called they Ask
you Answer and I don't know ifyou've heard of it, but you know
it's kind of it's a good book,it's pretty self-explanatory.
(15:28):
You're going to look it up theyAsk you Answer by Marcus
Sheridan and what the premise ofthe book is answer the
questions before they ask thequestions.
And I take that very, veryseriously, right, and I think
about it proactively in terms ofwhat is the customer going to
ask me?
How can I save myself the timeof going back and, like you know
(15:52):
, going back and forth and emailagain, or save myself the
commerce?
Like the conversation, but alsolike when they're looking for
things, we show up because wehave the answer to the question
already, right?
So you know, let's just say like, hey, what's going to happen to
bonus depreciation in 2025?
You Google that, well, we mightshow up because we've answered
(16:13):
that question.
We have a blog on it and we'vewritten about it.
So I do that quite a bit interms of like they ask you
answer.
Try to answer a lot ofquestions.
That helps and it's really, Iwould say, overall, like our
online presence has grownsubstantially.
We get, you know, a decentamount of organic traffic.
Um, then, I think we're justscratching the surface too nice.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's really good.
So many people, I think, whenit comes to what to write about
or what content to put out, theystruggle with that, and it
sounds like you guys are arespot on.
You're already doing it and alot of it is what sometimes it's
after they ask.
But what are the questionsyou're getting on sales calls?
(16:54):
What are the questions yourclients are asking you?
One person's asking, there's 10others thinking it, and if
you're creating content aroundthat, that's why so many people
are finding you guys.
So that's awesome to hear thatyou're doing that.
You mentioned you're creatingblog posts on that.
Is that going on your website,or do you guys also publish that
on your Google business profile?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we don't publish on the Google business profile,
which is an interestingstandpoint, like interesting
point, something I haven'treally thought of.
I do believe that, well, toanswer your question, I publish
the blog on the website, okay,but also send it, like out in a
newsletter.
Yeah, you have the newslettergoing out to clients, former
(17:36):
clients, anybody on your list.
You have the blog on thewebsite for SEO purposes, and
then we do have a strong Googlepage with the reviews and
everything.
We're not really updating it somuch and maybe we should on.
I've thought about that recently.
Like maybe we should update,you know, the Google business
(17:56):
profile more often.
But overall, like it's, youknow, I think, an interesting
thing that I've.
It's a theory, it's not a fact,I don't know for sure, but I'm
pretty sure Google likes theywill promote you more if you
have a presence on Google Maps,like meaning if you have a
(18:19):
physical location, versus justbeing another virtual company,
right, like they know that, theyknow you're real, they like
that, they like you to have anoffice.
So that's a theory that I have.
I can't really prove it ordisprove it, but that's been an
important part for us as well asjust, you know, being able to
(18:41):
have like an office and stuffand have on Google maps, even
though my team is all over.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, yeah Well, google loves consistency on
their platform and they're the,if not the largest, search
engine.
I'm sure you can make theargument.
You know there's now YouTubechat, gptbt.
Youtube is part of google.
But, um, yeah, I mean I wouldbe putting your blog there as
well.
(19:07):
It's just repurposed.
What do you mean?
So in google, you can addupdates to your business page,
which is essentially a blog oran article, but purpose what
you're already writing.
You put it there.
It's also on your website, it'salso in your newsletter.
That's just all going to tieback to your main source of
truth, which is in your Googlebusiness profile.
(19:28):
So Google is going to trust youmore.
You're going to get morevisibility that way.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So I think what I worry about there, though, is
duplicative content.
Like I don't think Google wantsyou to have duplicative content
where it's like, hey, it'sposted over here, it's posted on
Google and it's posted on yourblog.
It kind of lowers the value ofwhat it is, because they scrape
it, they see it on multiplesites, and I'm not the marketing
(19:54):
expert, but I don't know.
Maybe you tell me.
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
You can?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
repurpose it and if you don't want it to be word for
word, cause I'm I'm going toguess your articles probably a
little bit longer than I thinkit's a 1500, maybe character
limit.
It's either 1500 or 15,000.
I can't remember now.
But when you go post that onGoogle, even if you just rinse
that through chat, gpt and thenyou give your manual kind of
(20:21):
overview, you change some thingsaround, but it's the same
concept.
You have the same keywords thatare being focused on and it's
posted there.
The truth is, a lot of peopleprobably aren't even going to
read it.
On your, your Google page, sure, you have all the keywords.
So when people start typing,you know I want to learn more
about cost segregation or costsegregation firms near me.
(20:43):
Well, all of those keywords areshowing up in your article
there and it's tying toeverywhere else.
You have that concept or thatidea posted a couple of
different times.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So when you say that, do you literally mean like like
I'm just looking right nowright at my Google profile?
Are you saying like where itsays add an update?
Or like where would you postsome sort of blog?
Like that doesn't?
I've never seen anybody do thatbefore.
Is that a thing Like maybe I'm?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
just not paying attention.
Yeah, it's there.
We post every week for ourclients about, you know, said
topic for them to help out withorganic SEO, and we put it in
that update section.
It's a spot that a lot of firmsmiss, but it does.
It does make a big impact.
So if you're already in thecontent, just repurpose it, put
(21:31):
it right there.
It's just one extra spot to addit into.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
The post updates to your Google, to your customers
on Google Interesting.
Can you add backlinks to thatwhere it's like hey look, I
wrote this blog, here's the linkto it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
There is a call to action at the end of your update
.
So you want to push people to acertain landing page, you want
to send them somewhere else.
You want them to call inschedule a call directly.
You can have your call toaction.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That's awesome, I didn't know that.
There you go, I love it.
I learned.
What else can you teach me,james?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I like this Depends, Depends.
What you're interested in Couldteach.
You know could teach a coupleof things, but this has been
really helpful, you know, justlearning a little bit more about
cost segregation and what yourfirm's doing, how you help.
I would love to hear, like, ofa recent win that you're super
proud of for that your firm wasable to achieve whether you know
(22:24):
you had your hands directlyinvolved in it, if it was
members of your team.
But like what from Maven areyou guys super proud of as of
late for a win within thecompany?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Oh man, you know we haven't been on google like that
long, honestly, but just kindof thinking about that, we have,
I think, 21 five star reviews,you know, and no like four
reviews, and you'll probablytell me, right, it's like maybe
you want a poor review in there.
Just so google, like you know,they kind of like that a little
bit of mix of everything.
But right now we've got, youknow, I'll let that happen
(22:57):
organically, I'm not going toforce a mix of everything, but
right now we've got you know,I'll let that happen organically
, I'm not going to force a, youknow yeah, right, right now in
in ruffles and feathers, just toget a negative review yeah,
yeah, yeah.
no, we have five, all five starreviews, um, something that I'm
proud of.
We're building that up quickly.
Uh, we got through busy season.
(23:19):
Like you know well, it's notdone yet Sorry, april 15th is
really the end of busy season,but I'm really proud of the team
and the way they've stepped upand they're doing some great
things.
We do everything internally, sothe customer communication has
people on an individual basishave improved quite a bit.
You know, our projectmanagement's on track, our
(23:41):
engineers are learning, gettingbetter.
We're becoming even moreefficient.
So I mean there's some likereally cool things.
I think, like, if you want topinpoint something specifically,
an example would be had acustomer who inherited money,
he's like, okay, what am I goingto do with this money?
And he works full time.
(24:01):
You know W-2.
He makes, you know, maybe Ithink his wife and he make,
probably his wife and he makearound you know, a quarter
million dollars a year or so.
And so they decided to go buyAirbnbs, short-term rentals, and
we help them utilize thedepreciation on those short-term
rentals and we help themutilize the depreciation on
(24:23):
those short-term rentals tooffset the taxable income.
So, okay, you're a quartermillion dollars married, filing
jointly.
I don't know what the tax rateis, let's just say 24% or so.
Right, I'm just estimating.
Right now I don't have thebrackets in front of me, but
there's something called theshort-term rental loophole which
allows you to use short-termrentals and the IRS says okay,
(24:43):
like because you average sevendays or less, you're actively
participating, materiallyparticipating, you're managing
it.
This is an active business.
It's not like a passiveactivity that only offsets
passive income.
It's now an active thing.
It's active business for youand then you can use the
depreciation losses to offsetother active income, like W-2
(25:04):
income and stuff.
So I mean to help somebody likethat to completely wipe out
their tax bill.
Right, like that can be likepotentially a life-changing
thing like just in a year ifyou're able to save, you know
whatever.
That is 20, 24% of you know aquarter million dollars, so
you're saving over $50,000 orsomething that's like really big
(25:25):
.
So it's something that I'mproud of.
We help people like that quiteoften and we offer a service
that you know I think it kind ofgets glanced over and people
don't understand it and theyskip it.
Then we offer a really highquality product at an affordable
(25:47):
price.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
That's so good.
It's yeah, I mean any.
Anywhere you can get a taxbreak, and if you can do it
illegally, but findingprofessionals like you know what
they're doing, how to utilize,how to play the game in order to
do that, I think it's some ofthe wisest money you can invest
in yourself and in your business.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
You stole my words how to play the game.
That's what it all is.
It's all a game.
It's a tax game, it's a realestate game and I mean, if you
love the game, then you're goingto have a lot of fun
no-transcript um, you know, Idon't look.
(26:35):
I think maybe you hear this, but, like I don't, I think I can
share my experiences, right,like, rather than so much give
advice.
Everybody has a differentjourney and a different path and
I'm not walking in your shoes,so to say, but I think for me,
as an entrepreneur, what, what Irealized is that you can do,
you can have the foundation setup correctly and you can take
(26:58):
all of the same tools and pieces, things that you've learned
from accounting and sales andmarketing and networking,
project management, and it canwork in one business and not
work in another, and it couldcompletely fail in one side, and
(27:18):
then you go basically move thisshift, the same model over into
something else and it works.
And for me, I've realized that,and the reason is because what
you are selling is superimportant, obviously, but I
think it comes down to is this aneed or is this a want?
(27:40):
Wants are a lot harder to sellthan needs, like, okay, you know
, I have a.
I had a head hunting company.
I mean, I still do, but it'sbasically kind of, you know,
shut it down because my fullfocus is the cost segregation
firm, but it's like well, I wantto hire, like it wasn't always
a need, it was a lot of likeit's an emotional thing Should I
(28:00):
, should I not?
Will the benefits be there?
There's not a black and whiteand tangible thing like, hey,
here is my clear return oninvestment.
Cost segregation is like here'syour estimate, here's how much
depreciation you'll get, here'swhat the tax savings will be.
Here's the cost of the report.
Here is the return on theinvestment, clear as day.
Right, and that's so mucheasier to sell because people
(28:27):
need it, they want it, they'relooking for it and they
understand it.
So that's been my experienceand something that I think I'll
always carry into any type ofbusiness that I do.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Good.
How can people get in touchwith you, sean, if they want to
continue this conversation?
Maybe other CPAs want to get intouch where it's like hey, can
you help?
Can you help out our clientswith this?
Where can they go to find?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
you, yeah, so I created a discount link for your
listeners if they want to go toit's.
Mavencostsegcom forward slashchronicles is in your, your
website, your your podcast here,um.
And so then I know they camefrom the, the podcast, and they
were listening.
But yeah, uh, mavencostsegcomforward slash chronicles, I
(29:08):
don't know, maybe, if you'reallowed to, you can put that in
the show notes for them and youcan email me.
Sean s-e-a-n at maven costsegcom, and maven is spelled m
as in mary, a-v-e-n as in nancy.
So, um, yeah, I'm happy to talkto you.
If you want to chat, I'll giveyou my calendar link, uh, but if
(29:29):
you are a business owner whoowns real estate or you're a
real estate investor, we're justgoing to collect some property
information from you, some basicinformation, and then we're
going to put together anestimate or have my engineers in
house do the estimate for youto see hey, this is what you're
going to use, this is how muchdepreciation you're going to get
, and we'll make it very clear.
And then we can have afollow-up call if you want to
(29:51):
say, if you have any questions,and, yeah, go from there.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So good.
We'll get all of that in theshow notes so people can get in
touch with you, Sean.
I encourage everyone to reachout.
I think you'll get a ton ofvalue.
Sean, thank you so much forcoming on.
This is an awesome conversation.
Great hearing a little bit moreabout what you do and your
story.
Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Thanks, james, thanks for having me Appreciate it
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(30:36):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
(30:57):
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(31:27):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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