Today we’d like to introduce you to Tevin Harrell.
Tevin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
July 11, 2016, I was called about an idea to start a tax licensing company, where we lead tax clients to mobile tax preparers. “Don’t wait in long lines to get your tax returns done. We have people who will meet you at your house, coffee shop, McDonalds, or wherever you want to meet.” I’m very open to new ideas and opportunities, so I started to entertain the idea and visualize how this would work. At the time, I had just accepted my first engineering job in Dallas, TX and was fully engaged in Dallas’s young professional life. Every single day when I got off, I worked on the business. 8:00 to 5:00 at work, 5:00 to 2 AM is working on the tax company. We started to look for potential franchisees, and it became harder and harder to build the business, because being from Alabama, all of my resources were in the South East. I only worked at my first real job for about four months and was already contemplating moving back to Alabama. Late October Afternoon, I get a facetime call from my girlfriend, now wife, who was finishing her degree at Auburn. I can still hear the silence as I stared at the screen of the positive pregnancy test, and at that moment, I knew my destiny was to move back to Alabama.
So I moved back to Alabama, no job, a kid on the way, back at home with my mom, I knew I had to make this business thing work. We end up with about 150 licensed tax preparers all over the United States. We started with trying to license it out and then just had to do mass hires on Indeed. A lot of these people didn’t have their own computers or laptops and that’s when I came up with a “Crazy” Idea. What if we could allow people to upload their information on an app, submit their tax information to tax professionals and/or CPAs, and virtually get their tax return filed from home? The idea was considered crazy in 2016 because over 76% of people were still walking in physically to get their tax returns done. We talked to developers, learned security and regulations protocol, created a tax school and got our own software. The parent company worked on the tax licensing side and I focused on the mobile app to preparer application. I strategically brought together a small team that I met at my time in Auburn to help me build this idea. Muyiwa Aladebumoye (process and Leadership), Justin Robinson, (Vision and Marketing) and Jordan Ward. (Graphics and Media) We talked to developers with our parent company and were able to get the first mobile app that would securely allow you to send information through an app and go to an interface of a real tax professional. We were now ready for business.
Our first year in business, we personally did about 100 returns three years later we have done over 300 returns in the first two weeks. We have million dollar clients, corporate partnerships, our own tax software, and are on our way to well over 1000 tax and accounting clients.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha Ha, No way! When we started accepting returns in 2017, people did not trust submitting their personal information online. (crazy right) Keep in mind. This was right before Turbo Tax became a common household software. The preferred method of filing was at your H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, ETC. Fortunately, our clientele were millennials who were willing to test out this new method. Once we started to acquire clients, we tried to expand exponentially to 150 preparers across the US. We used TV Commercials and different forms of advertising to drive traffic to all of these people and even had commercials on BET. We expanded too quickly. We didn’t have enough staff to take on that kind of volume. Sometimes it would take weeks to get a quote back. The next year we scaled back dramatically and used engineering approaches like Six Sigma Problem Solving, PDCA, Juku (Speed Management) and Lean methodologies to improve the process. Once we had it figured out, we were able to take it to the next level.
Taxx Wiz – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
TaxxWiz is an innovative tax preparation and accounting company that was the first company to allow people to upload documents to an app and get them to a licensed preparer to make sure you are getting the biggest refund possible. We are all virtual with footprints in Alabama, Downtown Atlanta and Texas. But we have clients all around the US and even outside of the country. We partner with individuals and small businesses alike to offer strong tax preparation services, bookkeeping, financial, and accounting services. Our philosophy is simple. Fast, accurate, Honest fun, innovative, and always working in the best interest of our customers.
The thing that I am most proud of as a company would have to be its continued innovation and its brand as the fun tax company. Seeing how much we have grown from the pure word of mouth and true relationships with our partners. What sets us apart is that we are the most innovative tax company in the US. We are not money focused but relationship and partnership oriented. We will always be first to the market with the newest ideas and will have a lot of fun with you while we do it.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success as happiness. Our client’s feedback and joy when they tell others is when I know we are successful. With the business I’m looking at the return customer ratio. As well as the referral to online marketing ratio. The more referrals and growth I see lets me know what we are doing right or wrong. I demand excellence when it comes to our customers. Personally, As long as I am happy with what I’m doing, and I am doing something that genuinely makes other people happy. I will always consider that as a success.
Contact Info:
- Website: mytaxxwiz.com
- Email: support@mytaxxwiz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Taxxwiz/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taxxwiz/
- Other: app.mytaxxwiz.com
Image Credit:
Jordan Ward
FWD Digital
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