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What if your business is worth less (or more) than you think—because buyers don’t pay for sentiment, they pay for cash flow? We sit down with CPA Mike Helton and senior tax manager Alicia Holloway from RG & Co. to decode the “big, beautiful bill,” revive your understanding of EBITDA and multiples, and lay out a simple, disciplined operating system for a cash‑intensive RTO model.

We get practical fast. You’ll hear why 100% bonus depreciation (effective January 19, 2025) can be a gift or a trap depending on whether you fund inventory with cash or debt. We explain the interest limitation reset from EBIT to EBITDA and how that shift can unlock deductions for leveraged operators. There’s also a timely win for teams: an overtime premium exclusion that puts real money back in employees’ pockets. Along the way, Mike and Alicia translate the tax code into store reality—inventory that comes back, cost of goods through depreciation, and the constant need to reconcile cash and tie your POS to the balance sheet so the P&L can be trusted.

If you’re thinking about valuation, this is your blueprint. We walk through normalizing earnings, converting EBITDA to free cash flow, and how risk—customer stability, management depth, documentation, bankability—drives your multiple. You’ll learn what quality-of-earnings reviews test, why clean books raise price and speed deals, and how today’s buyer universe (private equity, family offices, operators) approaches RTO cash flows. For builders and new owners, we share the first tools to buy: a reliable POS, QuickBooks Online, and daily cash reconciliation. For everyone, we emphasize KPIs, margins, and a balanced buy/collect rhythm that keeps growth funded without starving cash.

Stick around for candid talk on advocacy with APRO and FRDA, the role vendors play in keeping the industry strong, and why RTO remains resilient through economic cycles. Subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a review with the one KPI you check every day—what would you like us to unpack next?

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