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Conversations with the Inspiring Alana Tucker

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Alana Tucker.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Alana. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My story starts like many other entrepreneurs in our community. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit but I was still conformed to having a 9-5 for quite a long time. It was many points within my career and path where I always had a business on the side but still managed to hold on to a full-time job. I’ve owned a salon, a travel agency, as well as having a non-profit organization. My story into the tax business starts when I was a property manager full time, and just the type of go-getter I am I ended up going into the tax business part-time.

In about less than a year, I realized that I could do this full time and I had a passion to serve others within our community with this service of Tax preparation. Shortly after my realization, I came across TaxPrep Evolution and decided to fully commit to the business and franchise. After the first year, I surpassed and doubled my salary from my previous job as a property manager and that was the icing on the cake honestly. Although I know I made the right decision to take the leap of faith and fully commit to the entrepreneurship life, when I saw that I was capable of doubling my salary, that was my confirmation that this was for me and I was not going back to working for anyone else.

In a year, I became the top-earning and highest volume franchise owner within the company, this alone showed me I was built for this. Over the next four years, I have been in the business I have continued to receive the “Presidential Award” each year as the top-earning owner. Not only that but for 2018 & 2019, I was recognized as the #1 firm allowing me to be “Partner of The Year” two years in a row.

As my story continues and I have successfully built my business while gaining all the knowledge I need, I am now at a point in my career where I would like to teach and share my ways to success with other up-rising entrepreneurs. I’ve noticed over time not only does our community need help with tax, they always need help with the 1, 2, 3 steps of successfully building, owning, and keeping a successful business. My story is still growing and the push for me is to always be of service to our community helping with all business and entrepreneurial needs.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road is never smooth when you are an entrepreneur. There has been a lot of trial and tribulation like for us all who go on this path. Over time I’ve been an entrepreneur I’ve been able to dive in and see what was my struggles in this time. What I saw to be the most challenging was the support from others, and how soon they change as you continue to grow and soar to the next level. I was never worried about the work because I knew that’s what I signed up for as an entrepreneur, so the amount of work and little nuances to running a business was never an issue like I said I’ve always had this spirit and enjoyed this lifestyle.

Now, there were days where I wanted to give up just from personally beating myself up and making sure I do better than the next day. While feeling like this, I also felt that I didn’t have much support from some family and friends during these bursts of times of feeling down. I started to notice how others were viewing me because of my on-going success and that was a struggle in itself because it was hard for me to understand. I began to think, “Why aren’t my friends supporting?” or “Why are they acting different.” What I soon came to realize was their support wasn’t what I needed, it was what I wanted, of course, because they were family or friends.

As I’ve continued on this journey, it has come to my attention that I have to be my support, my motivation, and only I can keep my head up when I’m feeling down. During these moments in my life and the parts where it wasn’t a smooth road, I was most definitely taught a lesson within my self. Just these moments of not feeling fully supported only made me push and go harder for myself and my 13-year-old daughter.

So my advice to young women as they go on this journey to follow their dreams is to never give up on yourself and come to realize you are doing this for you with nothing to prove to anyone else. Others who do not understand your dreams aren’t going to support you as you support you. Keep pushing regardless of what others may say or think and don’t forget why you ever started.

what should we know about TaxPrep Evolution Tucker Firm? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a serial entrepreneur who now focuses on my tax franchise that I am continuing to build. I specialize in several things that all fall in the facet of business and entrepreneurship. I am a tax preparer with local and celebrity clients, I am a business coach, speaker, and specifically, and most importantly a mother, I’m known for being an entrepreneur which has allowed me to assist and help others as I have been known to turn a small idea to a grand business. I am most proud of being able to go against the grain and move forward and create a business, not only for myself but for my family present and future.

What sets me apart from others is this isn’t just a service business where I’m here to make money. I am here to help, I enjoy helping others understand their money and getting what is meant for them. I’ve created my business and clientele on my own with a very unique D.I.Y aspect to my hustle and feel I can lend the hand to others from my success. To me, the right knowledge regarding money is a way to freedom just by having financial understanding. Our community doesn’t know much and I’m here to help in any way possible so we can all break the cycle of on-going debt and poverty. I want to be able to provide my clients with a sense of freedom regarding something we can control, and that’s our relationship with money. These foundational thoughts alone allow me to be proud of my brand, name, and business while knowing it is what sets me apart from others.

Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
Yes of course. I have two sides to my family that is completely different from one another. I have one side that I have seen go through many hardships that came with pain due to the lack of knowledge regarding money. Then I have my other side of my family who I see to be a little more headstrong when it comes to business, money, and overall growth.

Seeing these two worlds as a child and into an adult made me want to make sure I never end up like one side of the family, and always strive to do better than the other side. None of this to be taken in a negative light but it was a type of motivation I received from both sides of the family. Seeing the pain and struggle of one side made me motivated to continue to work and make something for myself. The other side motivated me to keep pushing and to keep up with the best of them on that side.

My entire life as a child set me up for success with being observant of the ones around me. My mother has four children and is a single mother as well. Viewing that as a child and seeing how hard she had to work was inspirational, it was also times where I had to step up in several ways due to my mother being a single mother that I’m 100% positive benefitted me in the long run. She taught me that being a single mother is okay, and everything can and will always get done as long as you set your mind to it. What’s most important about seeing my mother as a single mother, is that now, I am also a single mother who is still managing all the motherly duties and running a business.

As I look back at my time and allow my childhood to resurface, I can easily remember my grandmother. She was very stern and direct but I knew she loved me. I remember always telling her my dreams as a child and as cliche as it sounds, she would always tell me “Don’t talk about it be about it” of course, with a smile on her facing following up with this demanding statement. That showed me that she believed in me and that I just had to do the work for things to come true.

This very statement shaped me throughout my life as I had to be about action and not just words. That dreams do come true, but only if you put some work behind it to allow it to come to fruition. Between my mother, and fathers side of the family being the complete opposite of one another, seeing my mother raise us as a single mother, and my grandma’s sternness seemed to be a great combination of teaching me how to move in the future and be motivated to be different, discipline, persistent, and a top-earning business owner.

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Image Credit:
StephanieBriana Photography

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