Excerpt from a YouTube panel (Mark J. Podolsky; Feb 15, 2021) where hosts including Matt Forbes and Scott discuss running a land-investing business. This chunk emphasizes the rapid financial growth of the business, the critical need for proper accounting/bookkeeping (warnings about a 'shipwreck' if delayed), examples of messy records undone by a bookkeeper, unexpected large sales totals ("over 800 grand"), and endorsements of structured training (flight school and Scott's accounting course).
Chapters
So in addition to questions, we love fielding questions. What do you want to. What do we want to hear about Matt Forbes?
Deals, baby. Deals.
Yeah, we want to know the numbers. So any of you who've done deals this week, throw out. Throw out the numbers or just. Just we want it. We want to. You to share your success with us because it fuels the fire of the land.
Geek Hive mind in hive mind.
I'm not sure I like the hive mind. You know, only thing I remember watching this really cool. I don't know if it's a DC comics, but Arrow. You watch the Arrow, and they talk about Hive in there, and I think it's like an evil connotation.
Hive. Oh, I got crap after last week's episode because my wife is like, you don't know? We've never heard hive mind. I'm like, no, I don't. I still don't know what you're talking about. I'm like, since. First of all, since when do you ever watch Nightcap A and B?
Hi, Anne Marie. We know you're watching.
It's because Anne Marie and I vox so much. We pick these things up from each other.
So that makes sense. That's good.
That makes sense. Kim Gibson is here. Hi, Kim. How are you? Nice to see you. Comments from someone saying flight school and Scott's. Scott, Todd's accounting course are going awesome. Wow. You're in flight school and the accounting course at the same time. Somebody's taking action.
Yeah, that's highly recommended. I waited, like, two years before I took the accounting course. Don't, don't. Don't do that. It's a bad call. Don't do that.
Don't do that.
Don't do it. Don't do it.
Why Forbes? Why not wait to take the Accounting for Land Investors class by Scott Tao?
Because your business is a complete shipwreck financially if you wait.
Well, you know, Matt, good point, though. And what I think people don't realize is how quickly this business can ramp up. So you start out, you're like, hey, I just got a deal. You know, it doesn't matter. Why do I need Geek Pay? Why do I need an accounting? I got, like, two properties, Matt. Like, why, you know, Scott, do I nearly need that? But the thing is, what happens overnight? You consistently mail and the deals pile up. Then you start getting the sales. Maybe it's a little slow. I know some of you out there in the beginning struggle with the sales, but once it happens, it's off to the races, and then you're like, oh, my God.
Yeah.
What do I do now? But if. If you built it, like, you know, with, like, this solid foundation, it can grow. And. And I think that's probably talking about.
Dude, I wish I had, honestly, because I had no idea. We had our accountant last year, and he, like, at the goal line, did everything that needed to get done. Taxes, all that, Right? And then I was like, yeah, so, well, I'll have you teach me how to do this. I'll finally do this. I'm not gonna do it ever. Literally, I'm never gonna do.
Sounds good to want to do it, though. Doesn't it feel good? Like, yeah, I wanna get into that.
I'm gonna take the accounting course.
I'm gonna do it.
All right, who's the man? Listen, it's absolutely a shipwreck. And I love Excel, and I love all that stuff, and I refuse to do. Took our bookkeeper three and a half months to undo the damage that was done. Now she's really good. And our accountant finally was like, yeah, this is perfect. But the one thing that I didn't have as I, you know, as I finally got this business going was I never really knew. I was like, well, how much money are we making? I'm like, I don't really know. Like, I'm making enough to pay to buy the next property.
Yeah.
And that's how we ran it. And he showed me the QuickBooks numbers, and I'm like, well, these aren't right. I'm like, we didn't do, you know, over 800 grand worth of sales. And he's like, yeah, he did. It's right there. What do you mean you didn't do it? I'm like, well, huh? He's like, yeah, you have X numbers of hundreds of thousands of dollars that's owed to you. He's like, you. He's like, are you. Do you not realize you have a real business? I'm like, I don't think I do because I have, you know, $8.47 in my account. He's like, oh, God. He's like, you're so painful. Yeah, okay. But that's. If I had known this all the way along, I think it would have helped keep. Keep me going, you know, which is.
A good point, too, because people often ask about. People can help you with the books. And I think one of the biggest things, one of the one quality you want with them is communication. And in constant checking in, you don't want to have it where it's the end of the year. And it's like, okay, we need you to tell us about all these expenses. Like, what happened back in March.
Oh, my God. Will not know. Like, literally, if you're new and you haven't done a couple, you got, like.
$10,000 that came in here, 8,000 here and 6,000 there. What was that from? I have no idea.
No idea. Matt, you made $24,000 right there. What was that from? I've not. Chris. I've no. I have no idea to say.
But stick around with this business long enough, and you'll realize that those things pile on top of each other, and that's a good thing. I love what Mark always says. New problems, good problems. Right. It's not a bad problem to have to figure out how the heck you brought in $24,000 in a month or. Or in a week or whatever it might be. That's. But it still is a problem. You got to solve it. It's a bad problem.
It's a good problem, but it is still a problem. And you can't go back. Like, the problem is you get busy. And so you're like, yeah, whatever, accounting. What do I care? I'm selling land. This is awesome. And then one day, you're like, holy God. I have a buddy in the business, and they're all over this. It's tight. Like, when I grow up, I want to be, you know, this person, right? And he's like, yeah, I. You know, he. He doesn't use lob. I forget who he uses to mail, but he's like, yeah, I sent him a check for, like, almost $10,000 in December. And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, I just. He's like, I was gonna have to pay taxes on all that, so I just pre did it, and, you know, ended just with a credit, and I'm gonna mail over the next couple of months. Nice. I'm like, oh, so you're so ahead of it. You get to make informed decisions.
Yeah.
Wow. That's a thing. That's really cool.
That's a thing stuff right there.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Listen, the reality is there's a way this business works, right? I mean. Sorry. I'm Scott.
Okay.
But, like, the flight school, the format. When we first started, some of us, there was no flight school. It was just, like, there was. You get good at land investing, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the flight school brought a format and a structure that allowed you to really scale. I mean, don't get me wrong. Before the flight school, we were still taught how to make a ton of money, a ton of money buying and selling land. But what Scott did with the flight school is built this sort of. It's really is a recipe. And I can tell you because for a while, because I didn't go. There was no flight school when I started, Right? So then hanging around with Scott and finally he's talking about these different things and then realizing that, yeah, there is a better way to structure this business, and that's what he teaches, and it allows for this growth we're talking about.
