# Brand Building: They built the largest Black-owned tax preparation service in the U.S., scaling to 1,000+ virtual locations.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 9 Jun 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/7f082bc4-e284-470e-93c6-b47000fc0c03/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Cherina & Mowbray Rowand. 🔷 Interview Summary Cherina and Mowbray Rowand—co-founders of the Rowand Group and creators of One Stop Taxes—share how they built the largest Black-owned tax preparation service in the U.S., scaling to 1,000+ virtual locations. They discuss: • Their entrepreneurial philosophy • Their complementary roles as partners • The transition from brick-and-mortar to a virtual franchise model • Scaling strategies, team building, and infrastructure • Wealth-building through diversification (restaurants, real estate, hospitality) • Their creation of the Black Tax Festival to educate and unify entrepreneurs The conversation blends practical business strategy, mindset, and community impact. 🎯 Purpose of the Interview The interview serves several key purposes: 1. Educate aspiring entrepreneurs • Demonstrates how to start, scale, and systematize a service business • Highlights real-world lessons in scaling, hiring, and structuring companies 2. Promote economic empowerment • Focuses on helping underserved communities access: • Entrepreneurship • Tax knowledge • Financial systems 3. Showcase a scalable business model • Emphasizes low-barrier entry franchising and virtual platforms 4. Inspire through lived experience • Shows how vision, persistence, and partnership can create generational wealth 🔑 Key Takeaways 1. Entrepreneurship = Service + Ownership • Entrepreneurship is framed as serving people first, then building a business around that service 2. Complementary partnership is critical • Mowbray = visionary (ideas) • Cherina = implementer (execution systems) • Their success comes from balancing vision with structure 3. Scaling requires evolving your team • What works at $1M won’t work at $10M+ • Businesses must upgrade: • Attorneys • CPAs • Systems 4. Systems > hustle • They scaled by creating a repeatable system and training others • Their franchise model enables others to replicate success 5. Virtual model unlocked growth • Eliminating physical offices reduced cost and increased reach • Their early adoption of virtual tax prep became a major advantage 6. Timing + vision = breakthrough • They launched virtual tools before mainstream trust in digital transactions • COVID accelerated their already-built infrastructure 7. Lowering barriers drives scale • No startup cost, free training, and back-end revenue sharing allowed rapid adoption 8. Marketing starts with relationships • Begin with: • Warm network • Strategic partnerships (car dealerships, apartments, etc.) 9. Financial literacy is a wealth gateway • Many entrepreneurs lack: • Proper documentation • Financial systems • Their platform and events aim to fix that gap 10. Community + recognition drive engagement • The Black Tax Festival builds community, education, and motivation • Recognition (awards, visibility) encourages performance 11.…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: My gas or gas are The co founders are the
[0:03] Speaker 1: Rowing group. They used to be in LC now there
[0:06] Speaker 1: it's called I'm gonna ask them about that and division
[0:08] Speaker 1: areas behind. One Stop Tax is the largest black owned
[0:11] Speaker 1: tax preparation service in America. Were more than one thousand
[0:15] Speaker 1: virtual locations nationwide and the creators.
[0:18] Speaker 2: Of the Black Tax Festival.
[0:20] Speaker 1: They have expanded their business portfolio into restaurants, real estate,
[0:24] Speaker 1: and hospitality.
[0:26] Speaker 3: Wow, we got a lot to talk about.
[0:27] Speaker 1: This is a money making conversation for real Please work
[0:30] Speaker 1: in the Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
[0:32] Speaker 3: Sharina and Muwbray Rowing. Thank you so much. We're glad
[0:36] Speaker 3: to be here.
[0:37] Speaker 1: So you guys are entrepreneurs, Yes, sir, I'm gonna start
[0:40] Speaker 1: with you.
[0:42] Speaker 3: What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
[0:44] Speaker 4: And so it means to me entrepreneurship being able to
[0:47] Speaker 4: set your own path. It means being a servant to
[0:50] Speaker 4: other people. And that's what I define entrepreneurship as finding
[0:54] Speaker 4: a service, finding how you can serve people, and then
[0:56] Speaker 4: you can ultimately build a business around around their service.
[0:59] Speaker 4: And so I just try to be better at that
[1:01] Speaker 4: than most people.
[1:02] Speaker 5: Now.
[1:03] Speaker 1: Seraina, when he says that building a business, yes, you
[1:08] Speaker 1: guys are partners.
[1:11] Speaker 2: Let's talk about that business first.
[1:13] Speaker 6: He's definitely.
[1:15] Speaker 1: I always feel that you gotta have a business to
[1:18] Speaker 1: expand the business, right, that's all scaling. So you guys
[1:21] Speaker 1: are scaling now, but in the early stage, what was
[1:24] Speaker 1: your vision for the business?
[1:26] Speaker 5: Well, Mowbray is our visionary. Mowbray is the big idea guy.
[1:29] Speaker 5: He always is coming up with the way. He's a
[1:32] Speaker 5: big idea guy. Right, He's always like, Babe, I got it.
[1:35] Speaker 5: And for me, I'm the implementation person. I'm going, Okay,
[1:38] Speaker 5: if we're going to go from A to Z, this
[1:40] Speaker 5: is the way we have to get there. And so
[1:42] Speaker 5: that's kind of how our dynamic dynamic has always somehow, somehow.
[1:46] Speaker 1: She complimented herself in that and that, like you, you
[1:50] Speaker 1: always got these ideas, but she got to come in
[1:52] Speaker 1: and clean up.
[1:55] Speaker 6: What it was.
[1:58] Speaker 3: I'm glad you said it. Say that, but.
[2:01] Speaker 1: That's a good thing because my wife does that to me.
[2:04] Speaker 1: And I would tell you, I don't want to listen
[2:05] Speaker 1: to her. She'll talk about Rachelle, you're just slearning your words.
[2:08] Speaker 1: You're talking too fast. I go whatever, but whatever, whatever,
[2:11] Speaker 1: And I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes I'm taking notes,
[2:14] Speaker 1: you know, not on here, but I'm taking notes.
[2:17] Speaker 3: How do you know?
[2:19] Speaker 4: I always tell the look, I know you're going to
[2:21] Speaker 4: figure out how to do it, but let me get
[2:23] Speaker 4: the vision out first, right, and then once I get you,
[2:25] Speaker 4: then start asking me questions.
[2:27] Speaker 3: But how you gonna do it? How is it gonna work?
[2:28] Speaker 3: I ain't thought about all their parts here.
[2:30] Speaker 4: I'm just trying to see if I want to do
[2:31] Speaker 4: it first, and so yeah, I kind of cast the vision,
[2:34] Speaker 4: make sure that there's something that I know we want
[2:36] Speaker 4: to do, and then we start figuring out the pieces
[2:39] Speaker 4: of it. She want to figure the pieces out before
[2:41] Speaker 4: we get the idea out first.
[2:43] Speaker 3: You know.
[2:43] Speaker 1: I agree with her, you know, because a lot of
[2:45] Speaker 1: people jump out there on faith. But I would say
[2:48] Speaker 1: that's cool, but please jump with a plane. That's right,
[2:51] Speaker 1: Please jump with a budget, because I would tell people
[2:54] Speaker 1: that when you start a business, there are three things.
[2:56] Speaker 1: You should have an accountant, lawyer, and if you have
[3:01] Speaker 1: employees HR those are and people want to cut corners
[3:06] Speaker 1: on all three of those. Now, being a person, Marlberick,
[3:10] Speaker 1: you know you're you're expanding along with SHARENA outside of taxes,
[3:15] Speaker 1: which means that you're picking up employees, real estate, restaurants.
[3:20] Speaker 1: We're gonna get into individuals and also gonna get to
[3:22] Speaker 1: the Black Tax Festival, which is another contractors and all
[3:26] Speaker 1: those things. And I know that I'm not looking at
[3:28] Speaker 1: just two people, y'all, not the two main operations. So
[3:32] Speaker 1: when I say the word accountant, I say the word
[3:35] Speaker 1: our CPA, our bookkeeper, I say the word legal, I
[3:39] Speaker 1: say the word HR.
[3:41] Speaker 3: What do you say back to me? You know, I say,
[3:43] Speaker 3: it's got to have it all.
[3:45] Speaker 4: And you know, you talk about scaling what we have
[3:48] Speaker 4: when we first started the business ms McDonald and what
[3:51] Speaker 4: we have to have now we have. Now we have
[3:52] Speaker 4: to have a new attorney. Now we need a new CPA.
[3:56] Speaker 4: Like the same thing that works at one million dollars,
[3:58] Speaker 4: it's not the same thing they work at ten million, fifteenth.
[4:00] Speaker 4: And every stage I didn't realize either. At every stage
[4:04] Speaker 4: we needed to kind of up the team a little bit.
[4:06] Speaker 4: And so yeah, and so we had to allow people
[4:08] Speaker 4: that you know, to even know more about certain things
[4:10] Speaker 4: that us to can kind of help us with some
[4:12] Speaker 4: in some of those arenas. We needed a big time attorney.
[4:15] Speaker 4: We had to get a different CPA as we grew
[4:18] Speaker 4: the business and stuff. So those have been key key things.
[4:21] Speaker 4: It's surrounding with a real quality team as a business
[4:24] Speaker 4: begins to scale, because it's hard to scale without it.
[4:27] Speaker 2: He's pretty calm and cool. He sharna talk to me
[4:30] Speaker 2: about your.
[4:31] Speaker 6: Oh my goodness.
[4:32] Speaker 5: So originally I was the HR, the attorney, right, it
[4:38] Speaker 5: was all me.
[4:39] Speaker 6: In the beginning.
[4:41] Speaker 5: Like you said, Esentially, you get to the point where
[4:43] Speaker 5: you realize, hey, we need professionals in here. And I
[4:46] Speaker 5: got to fire myself from some of these jobs, and
[4:48] Speaker 5: so that's what I started to do. It's like, hey,
[4:50] Speaker 5: you know, we need a team. And you know, over
[4:53] Speaker 5: the years that team.
[4:54] Speaker 2: He said years, talk about years.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but when you really started being you know,
[5:00] Speaker 1: you all started with a party in too.
[5:01] Speaker 2: You got to start this the roots.
[5:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, when you start bringing people out.
[5:04] Speaker 2: What was that year that it clicked kicked in?
[5:08] Speaker 5: So we started doing taxes in twenty ten, okay, just
[5:11] Speaker 5: mom and pop motory and I. We had an office
[5:13] Speaker 5: in Memphis, Tennessee, and we were just you know, learning
[5:16] Speaker 5: how to do this industry. We didn't have a ton
[5:18] Speaker 5: of support, we didn't have a ton of training, but
[5:21] Speaker 5: we had a lot of drive, right, and so we
[5:23] Speaker 5: got to work put our heads down for a few years,
[5:26] Speaker 5: and the business was growing, but.
[5:27] Speaker 6: Not at the rate we wanted to.
[5:29] Speaker 5: We knew we wanted to scale, but we knew that
[5:31] Speaker 5: that wasn't going to be just us going out and
[5:33] Speaker 5: getting more customers.
[5:34] Speaker 6: So by twenty fifteen, we had the idea.
[5:37] Speaker 5: Of saying, hey, listen, it's not just us that want
[5:40] Speaker 5: to make a lot of money during the first part
[5:42] Speaker 5: of the year. Taxes is a different industry from a
[5:45] Speaker 5: lot of things we've been able to see, right, And
[5:48] Speaker 5: so when we found that concept, we said, what if
[5:50] Speaker 5: we put a system in place to show other people
[5:52] Speaker 5: how to do this, And so we started one Stop Taxes,
[5:55] Speaker 5: the franchise model. We started teaching people how to do taxes,
[5:59] Speaker 5: how to structure their companies so that they could be profitable,
[6:02] Speaker 5: how to find customers in their marketplace.
[6:04] Speaker 1: And it grew from there because we said a thousand
[6:07] Speaker 1: virtual locations. Yes, now now we're talking about you said
[6:11] Speaker 1: twenty ten, you said twenty fifteen. Were those were those
[6:15] Speaker 1: brick and mortar stores at the time. Yeah, okay, talk
[6:18] Speaker 1: about the brick and mortar financial model versus the virtual
[6:23] Speaker 1: financial model.
[6:24] Speaker 6: Oh, it's night and day.
[6:25] Speaker 5: Right Starting out, it was you know, paying all the
[6:29] Speaker 5: money out upfront, trying to figure out if the tax
[6:32] Speaker 5: season was going to be able to sustain you for
[6:34] Speaker 5: the rest of the year.
[6:35] Speaker 4: Right, right, Yeah, So those were things that's kind of difficult,
[6:38] Speaker 4: you know, trying to you know, you got a virtual
[6:41] Speaker 4: a brick and mortar business, right where you got three
[6:43] Speaker 4: months you got to make money, but you got to
[6:45] Speaker 4: pay these bills for the rest of the year.
[6:47] Speaker 3: So it's just.
[6:49] Speaker 1: Like that.
[6:50] Speaker 4: So it's hard to scale with that type of model,
[6:53] Speaker 4: and it's hard to teach someone else how to start
[6:55] Speaker 4: their model when it costs so much money out of pocket. Right,
[6:58] Speaker 4: And so that's where we came what a franchise franchiser?
[7:01] Speaker 3: Right?
[7:01] Speaker 4: But what if we can remove the doors and windows
[7:03] Speaker 4: and make it to where you can do everything online,
[7:05] Speaker 4: do it all from an app.
[7:06] Speaker 2: Now we're talking visionary talk now, right.
[7:08] Speaker 4: Right, because I'm thinking I'm talking about this before you
[7:10] Speaker 4: got apps, before people.
[7:12] Speaker 3: Got smart phones. This visionary talk.
[7:13] Speaker 4: Before people even trust taking pictures of their documents on
[7:16] Speaker 4: a cell phone.
[7:18] Speaker 2: Right, visionary talk come with are you crazy?
[7:20] Speaker 3: Right? What are you talking about? Yeah?
[7:22] Speaker 4: Ball, anybody nobody gonna take youay documents and sending stuff
[7:25] Speaker 4: in you andybody, I ain't sending my ID on them
[7:28] Speaker 4: stell phone anybody and nobody going.
[7:30] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Posing no money right exactly.
[7:33] Speaker 2: Right the phone.
[7:34] Speaker 6: Nobody's gonna trust you right.
[7:36] Speaker 3: Before everybody started doing it. This sounds crazy.
[7:38] Speaker 1: Let's go to faith now's faith comes because because you know,
[7:42] Speaker 1: when you're a visionary, people tear it down. So where
[7:46] Speaker 1: did y'all go where they were tearing down when it
[7:49] Speaker 1: was called you crazy? When they would call it but
[7:51] Speaker 1: still borrow money for.
[7:54] Speaker 3: Somebody.
[7:56] Speaker 7: You don't want to miss an episode of Money Making
[7:57] Speaker 7: Conversations Masterclass, So right now follow a subscribe to Money
[8:02] Speaker 7: Making Conversations.
[8:03] Speaker 8: It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app.
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[8:11] Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere.
[8:13] Speaker 8: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[8:18] Speaker 8: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Master Class with me
[8:22] Speaker 8: for Sean McDonald.
[8:24] Speaker 4: Process one stop, one stop Texas went from brick and
[8:27] Speaker 4: mortar to virtual. Right, ok, mom and pop, let's talk
[8:30] Speaker 4: about twenty fifteen. You expanded, when did the virtual aspect?
[8:35] Speaker 1: Was that before more covid because COVID has been a
[8:38] Speaker 1: landmark of all conversations I've had with small entrepreneurs or
[8:42] Speaker 1: any business. Did you do it before COVID or after COVID.
[8:46] Speaker 4: So we started in twenty ten wanting to be virtual.
[8:50] Speaker 4: So even when we had the brick and mortar stores,
[8:53] Speaker 4: we always had a virtual component, okay, right, we always
[8:55] Speaker 4: had people other places singing. So it was kind of
[8:58] Speaker 4: slowly transitioning to a from twenty ten had the brick
[9:02] Speaker 4: and mortar locations, and then we realized we opened up
[9:04] Speaker 4: brick and later locations and people weren't coming in them.
[9:07] Speaker 4: This when I realized too about marketing just opening up
[9:10] Speaker 4: a store. People don't just come into a store because
[9:12] Speaker 4: you open it. And so we opened up brick and
[9:15] Speaker 4: mortar stores, no customers came in, right, And so we
[9:17] Speaker 4: was like, that ain't the way to go, babe. All
[9:19] Speaker 4: this costs, you know, customers, it's not it you know
[9:22] Speaker 4: what I mean, Son, that.
[9:25] Speaker 1: Was your clientele or minorities or so they have that
[9:29] Speaker 1: block mentality, you know, first quarter, don't worry about the
[9:33] Speaker 1: rest of the year, you know, especially, So that's a
[9:36] Speaker 1: problem too, right, So you have to deal with your
[9:38] Speaker 1: income being shuttered maybe eight months out of the year, right.
[9:43] Speaker 5: Right et absolutely really so again, tax season is a
[9:46] Speaker 5: very seasonal business. But again for us, as we started
[9:51] Speaker 5: to grow the franchises twenty fifteen, we started with a
[9:55] Speaker 5: few stores. By the time we got to twenty nineteen,
[9:57] Speaker 5: there were one thousand franchises in the system, and pre COVID,
[10:02] Speaker 5: you know, the world shuts down and we're already in place.
[10:06] Speaker 5: We already have all these stores that are primed and
[10:08] Speaker 5: ready everything, And so that just kind of changed the
[10:11] Speaker 5: game for us, and it helped so many families within
[10:14] Speaker 5: our ecosystem not have to have the same struggles as.
[10:18] Speaker 6: That everywhere experiencing virtual Yeah.
[10:21] Speaker 1: Virtual own became virtual right world became zoom world became
[10:25] Speaker 1: I don't mind looking at you talking about my business
[10:28] Speaker 1: over a small over a phone or or monitor. Now
[10:32] Speaker 1: you're talking about you have one thousand virtual locations.
[10:37] Speaker 2: How does that work?
[10:38] Speaker 4: So from the very beginning, we wanted to make it
[10:40] Speaker 4: to where people could be at home. I can sit
[10:43] Speaker 4: at home on my couch, get my taxes done, and
[10:46] Speaker 4: if Mr McDonald's my tax person, I can send him
[10:48] Speaker 4: my documents.
[10:49] Speaker 3: He can prepare them from the house. I can sign
[10:51] Speaker 3: from my house.
[10:52] Speaker 4: And neither one of us have to go anywhere, and
[10:55] Speaker 4: so we built out a platform that does just that.
[10:57] Speaker 4: I can take the pictures on my phone. I can
[10:59] Speaker 4: selecture aim in an app. The documents are going to
[11:02] Speaker 4: come to you. You can prepare them right there, send
[11:04] Speaker 4: it back for signature.
[11:05] Speaker 3: I can sign it.
[11:06] Speaker 4: My files is in my in my inbox, in the cloud,
[11:10] Speaker 4: and neither one of us has left home.
[11:12] Speaker 3: I got my cash advance in my pocket.
[11:15] Speaker 6: My stuff is done, tax refund deposit.
[11:19] Speaker 4: No waiting in line, no no driving in traffic, and
[11:22] Speaker 4: the const.
[11:25] Speaker 3: Oppressive because accounting is neither of your background, correct, right,
[11:31] Speaker 3: Not really?
[11:32] Speaker 4: I got a business degree. I took some accounting classes,
[11:34] Speaker 4: but I was terrible.
[11:39] Speaker 3: Okay, So we talked about a business model.
[11:41] Speaker 2: Exactly did you guys create it?
[11:43] Speaker 1: But from an advanced standpoint and it's from a standpoint of,
[11:48] Speaker 1: like they said, from personal experience, how could I make
[11:51] Speaker 1: it easier for me and then share it through a
[11:55] Speaker 1: business model? And that's why I, you know, I have
[11:58] Speaker 1: to commend that because that takes a.
[12:00] Speaker 2: Lot of goods. Yeah, talk to me.
[12:04] Speaker 4: Yeah, it took a lot of goods to be able
[12:06] Speaker 4: to give people something they never heard of before. Because
[12:08] Speaker 4: when you tell a person we own a virtual tax company.
[12:10] Speaker 4: They're like, what is a virtual tax book? Like, what
[12:14] Speaker 4: is it? Yes?
[12:14] Speaker 3: You know what I mean. People still, like I said, right,
[12:18] Speaker 3: heard it all, and I'm aware.
[12:20] Speaker 1: I'm kind of aware of it because you know, AI
[12:23] Speaker 1: apps and stuff like that. But especially when you two
[12:25] Speaker 1: guys would start, you know, they were just you know, hey,
[12:29] Speaker 1: social media was kind of still ramping.
[12:31] Speaker 3: Up, wrapping up.
[12:32] Speaker 2: Right.
[12:32] Speaker 4: Yeah, we started before social media, right, we started, So
[12:35] Speaker 4: we started where which is good though, because we know
[12:38] Speaker 4: belly to belly. These kids they don't know billy to
[12:41] Speaker 4: belly anymore. Right, even in the app world, even in
[12:43] Speaker 4: the AI world, you still got to go talk to people.
[12:46] Speaker 4: You still got to understand some belly to belly billy
[12:49] Speaker 4: relationships with people. And so we can teach people the
[12:52] Speaker 4: old school side of it, and we know all the
[12:54] Speaker 4: new school stuff and AI to tech and all this
[12:56] Speaker 4: stuff as well too, But in order to make it
[12:58] Speaker 4: really successful, you really got to be do all of it.
[13:01] Speaker 4: And so that's kind of how we hedged our bit.
[13:03] Speaker 4: We win and show people how the old school way
[13:05] Speaker 4: and the new school way, and then you put it
[13:07] Speaker 4: all into an app and a platform, and they just
[13:10] Speaker 4: took off COVID happen.
[13:11] Speaker 1: I'm speaking to the co founders of the Rowing Group,
[13:14] Speaker 1: the visionaries behind the one stop the largest black owned
[13:17] Speaker 1: tax preparation service in America with more than one thousand
[13:20] Speaker 1: virtual location These are franchises, Yes, sir, How does one
[13:24] Speaker 1: get involved?
[13:25] Speaker 2: How do they contact you?
[13:27] Speaker 5: We used to come from a network marketing background, you know,
[13:29] Speaker 5: when we were in our twenties. That was one of
[13:31] Speaker 5: the first businesses that we were in. So there were
[13:33] Speaker 5: a lot of things that we loved about that industry.
[13:35] Speaker 5: So when we created the platform, we created it with
[13:38] Speaker 5: that model in mind, and so we don't have any
[13:42] Speaker 5: startup costs to get going. We train for free, we
[13:46] Speaker 5: provide all of the tax software. We put people in
[13:49] Speaker 5: the system because we believe that if you truly take
[13:51] Speaker 5: what we're teaching you, you'll go out and you'll make
[13:53] Speaker 5: money and then we can split up on the back
[13:56] Speaker 5: end and you know, it's no problem. And so that
[13:59] Speaker 5: has really been one of the reasons that we've grown
[14:01] Speaker 5: so fast, is that we've lowered that barrier, that point
[14:04] Speaker 5: of entry barrier for most people so that they can say, hey,
[14:07] Speaker 5: if I have a lot of drive, but I haven't
[14:09] Speaker 5: found the thing that will work for me.
[14:11] Speaker 6: Maybe this is it.
[14:12] Speaker 5: And so once op taxes has been there for a
[14:14] Speaker 5: lot of people over the years.
[14:16] Speaker 4: Well, you know the websites absolutely one Stop Taxes dot com.
[14:20] Speaker 4: It's one to.
[14:21] Speaker 3: Stop Taxes dot com. Yes.
[14:22] Speaker 1: And when you go to that screen or go to
[14:24] Speaker 1: that website, what's the process what.
[14:27] Speaker 3: Do they click?
[14:28] Speaker 4: It's going to right in the middle of stage. It's
[14:29] Speaker 4: going to say build my business online. It's right as
[14:32] Speaker 4: soon as you go in the middle of the page,
[14:33] Speaker 4: right there, and you can get clicking on the about
[14:35] Speaker 4: if you want to just get more information. Our direct
[14:38] Speaker 4: phone numbers and everything is on there as well. Our
[14:40] Speaker 4: phone numbers are our Instagram and if you want to
[14:42] Speaker 4: just go in there and just sign up and get started,
[14:44] Speaker 4: you can do that as well too.
[14:45] Speaker 7: And it's like if you don't want to miss an
[14:47] Speaker 7: episode of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, So right now, follow
[14:51] Speaker 7: a subscribe to Money Making Conversations.
[14:54] Speaker 3: It's free and you can find.
[14:55] Speaker 8: It on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
[15:00] Speaker 8: you get your podcasts.
[15:02] Speaker 2: Please don't go anywhere.
[15:03] Speaker 8: We'd be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[15:09] Speaker 8: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations master class with me
[15:12] Speaker 8: for Sean McDonald.
[15:14] Speaker 1: Now, when you started, you're an LLC, Yes, sir, now
[15:17] Speaker 1: you're an S group it's Court.
[15:19] Speaker 2: I apologize.
[15:20] Speaker 3: That's cool. Why did you shift? Well? Initially, yeah, well
[15:24] Speaker 3: initially it was just her and I.
[15:25] Speaker 4: So we didn't have any employees, we didn't have any
[15:27] Speaker 4: k on's, we didn't have anything that needed to flow
[15:29] Speaker 4: up to us or anything like that. And so as
[15:32] Speaker 4: we begin one business, you know, you know, just two
[15:34] Speaker 4: of us entrepreneurs. But as we began to have all
[15:37] Speaker 4: these other entities, Black Tax, Fitts, Marti Garard and Memphis,
[15:40] Speaker 4: the restaurants, multiple restaurant groups, and.
[15:43] Speaker 3: So then we have to start having k one.
[15:46] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:46] Speaker 4: Yeah, we got all these entities that we have, and
[15:49] Speaker 4: so the case we needed something where all this could
[15:51] Speaker 4: flow back up, and we had to change the whole structure.
[15:54] Speaker 3: And so there's all types of tax advantages when you
[15:56] Speaker 3: when you switch to es Court.
[15:58] Speaker 4: But when it was just us too, you know, we
[16:00] Speaker 4: know is just LLC in the beginning, right, and so
[16:02] Speaker 4: a lot of people, most.
[16:03] Speaker 3: People, let me give me a business.
[16:04] Speaker 4: LLC is better than nothing, right, But as a business group,
[16:07] Speaker 4: we have to also again have to change with.
[16:09] Speaker 2: It, you know, So how does one market a virtual.
[16:13] Speaker 6: Tax company virtually?
[16:16] Speaker 5: And so we teach people how to one tap into
[16:19] Speaker 5: their warm market, because we believe that, again, your customer
[16:22] Speaker 5: base should start out at least a little bit warm,
[16:25] Speaker 5: familiar people that want to support your business. So we
[16:28] Speaker 5: teach them how to approach that warm market. But then
[16:31] Speaker 5: we start teaching them how to go out and align
[16:33] Speaker 5: strategically with other people that.
[16:35] Speaker 6: Can send you more customers.
[16:36] Speaker 5: If you're in the tax industry, you have a lot
[16:38] Speaker 5: of different industries that can funnel and feed into that
[16:43] Speaker 5: customer base. And you can also help those customers or
[16:46] Speaker 5: those businesses.
[16:47] Speaker 6: As well with your customer base.
[16:48] Speaker 5: And so we teach people how to go strike up
[16:51] Speaker 5: partnerships with a dealership, a car dealership, or daycare or
[16:55] Speaker 5: an apartment complex and different places where people often come
[17:00] Speaker 5: at a certain time of year and say, hey, I
[17:01] Speaker 5: need a lump sum of money.
[17:03] Speaker 6: I need to be able to have a down payment for.
[17:05] Speaker 5: A car or moving expenses, and now we have a
[17:08] Speaker 5: resource to be able to get that to them.
[17:10] Speaker 1: So is there an onboarding process to get a virtual
[17:14] Speaker 1: one stop?
[17:15] Speaker 4: Yeah, So we built in this platform a whole learning
[17:19] Speaker 4: management system, so you actually go through all the different
[17:21] Speaker 4: steps from how to prepare taxes, how to get customers,
[17:25] Speaker 4: what do you do, how do you work the system?
[17:26] Speaker 4: So yeah, once you go through this complete training, then
[17:28] Speaker 4: it's all online at your own pace. Then we go
[17:31] Speaker 4: ahead to issue you out all the email addresses and
[17:34] Speaker 4: give you access to the software and we kind of
[17:36] Speaker 4: finish your your onboarding process.
[17:38] Speaker 2: Once you complete the training and orientation.
[17:40] Speaker 1: Let's go to something big. Like I said, we're not
[17:42] Speaker 1: gonna talk about the morticle. That's first time I hurt bart. Okay,
[17:45] Speaker 1: but Black Tax Vest Yeah, how many years?
[17:50] Speaker 6: So this is our tenth annual event.
[17:52] Speaker 2: Okay, why did it start?
[17:54] Speaker 1: And why was their need for the Black Tax Festival
[17:57] Speaker 1: which is in Atlanta, Georgia.
[17:59] Speaker 4: Collect right, So that we started it because we all
[18:01] Speaker 4: of our stories are virtual for the most part, and
[18:04] Speaker 4: so a lot of them, you know, they would sign
[18:05] Speaker 4: up virtually all across the country. We never met them before,
[18:09] Speaker 4: and so it was we needed something to bring everybody
[18:11] Speaker 4: together where we could be able to meet. We can
[18:14] Speaker 4: we can put our arms around and we can give
[18:16] Speaker 4: them recognition for what they've done and we get to
[18:18] Speaker 4: hear their stories.
[18:19] Speaker 3: And I'm telling you, well, you.
[18:20] Speaker 4: Hear some of these stories of where these people were
[18:22] Speaker 4: when they heard about this business and what has happened
[18:25] Speaker 4: in their life because of it. I mean, it just
[18:28] Speaker 4: melt you down. I mean, is it is an amazing thing.
[18:30] Speaker 4: And so once we started doing that, it just became
[18:33] Speaker 4: important for us to do it every year and it
[18:34] Speaker 4: just kept getting bigger. But now people push and work
[18:37] Speaker 4: hard because they want the recognition in Black taxes.
[18:40] Speaker 3: Right. You know, people don't get recognition on their jobs. Right.
[18:42] Speaker 4: You don't get home a lot of times right now
[18:44] Speaker 4: with the words recognition, how are you recognizing people?
[18:47] Speaker 3: So there's a whole award show that we do, right.
[18:49] Speaker 2: So it's a Black Tax Festival and there's an award show.
[18:55] Speaker 6: Yes, So two days is all conference content. We have
[18:58] Speaker 6: the Iris coming out to give updates.
[19:01] Speaker 5: We have so many different speakers coming to share business opportunities,
[19:06] Speaker 5: to share their secret sauce on how they've been able
[19:08] Speaker 5: to grow and scale their businesses. And so we curate
[19:11] Speaker 5: this room so that it can be a resource to
[19:13] Speaker 5: everyone that attends, whether you're in the tax industry or not.
[19:17] Speaker 5: If you're just an entrepreneur, this is a great room
[19:19] Speaker 5: for you to be in to just soak in the knowledge,
[19:21] Speaker 5: network with people on a high level and hopefully leave
[19:24] Speaker 5: with better than we found you. And so that's always
[19:27] Speaker 5: our goal at Black Taxs.
[19:28] Speaker 1: Okay, so if I'm looking for a tax person, I'm
[19:30] Speaker 1: looking for entrepreneurship, I'm looking for a bank law, I'm
[19:34] Speaker 1: looking for anybody that can help me at scale. Those
[19:37] Speaker 1: are the type people that's going to be at the
[19:38] Speaker 1: Black Tax verst. I was assuming that, but I think
[19:40] Speaker 1: that's the purpose.
[19:41] Speaker 4: Coreer sir, absolutely, yeah, and so yeah, we definitely want
[19:44] Speaker 4: to attract all those types of people, and like we're
[19:46] Speaker 4: bringing you out our bankers from Chase to be able
[19:48] Speaker 4: to talk to people about actually, how do.
[19:50] Speaker 3: You kind of banking you need?
[19:52] Speaker 4: Because one of the problems with us, and it just
[19:54] Speaker 4: pays me so much, but we are left out of
[19:57] Speaker 4: the rooms because we don't have the proper paperwork, we
[20:00] Speaker 4: don't have the proper financials, and so we're underserved, we're
[20:03] Speaker 4: under insured. And so we're going to bring out people
[20:06] Speaker 4: within these different alliances so we can start kind of
[20:08] Speaker 4: helping bridge some of this wealth gap. And so that's
[20:10] Speaker 4: a big part of Black Tax Fest because us, as
[20:12] Speaker 4: tax professionals, we're the ones that help bridge the gap.
[20:16] Speaker 4: Why because we're the ones do the tax returns for everybody.
[20:18] Speaker 3: What does that opening day look like? Walk me through
[20:21] Speaker 3: each day.
[20:22] Speaker 5: On Thursday, we'll start with what we call Breakfast with Bosses.
[20:25] Speaker 5: It's a networking breakfast with some of the amazing business
[20:30] Speaker 5: leaders that we've been able to meet here in the
[20:33] Speaker 5: Atlanta area. So Thursday and Friday is full of content
[20:36] Speaker 5: like that, activations, things that people can can go to,
[20:40] Speaker 5: breakout sessions, get workshops in how to.
[20:42] Speaker 3: Use AI and business these types of things.
[20:45] Speaker 4: So to your point of just all types of different
[20:47] Speaker 4: business owners, Like we talkt we go through how do
[20:49] Speaker 4: you really use AI in your business? How do you
[20:51] Speaker 4: regardless of the industry, Like how do you take it
[20:54] Speaker 4: and help you scale your business? Like how are you
[20:56] Speaker 4: using SEO to become an expert in your market right
[20:59] Speaker 4: and to come to the top for Google searches? And
[21:01] Speaker 4: so it's a lot of things. How you use in
[21:03] Speaker 4: business funding? What kind of bank accounts that you have
[21:05] Speaker 4: business financials? Like how do you really go get business
[21:08] Speaker 4: credit as an entrepreneur, Because there's a lot of things
[21:11] Speaker 4: floating around of what business credit looks like, which is
[21:14] Speaker 4: we access to funding which all of.
[21:15] Speaker 3: Our business owners need. But what do you really need? Right?
[21:18] Speaker 4: Do we know what a personal financial statement is? You
[21:20] Speaker 4: know the tax returns is needed, profit law statements that
[21:23] Speaker 4: you got to have. Like we start teaching us really
[21:26] Speaker 4: what's needed to go into these banks and go be bankable.
[21:30] Speaker 4: I think we start moving the needle. So that's what
[21:32] Speaker 4: we kind of do those first two days. Last day
[21:34] Speaker 4: we bring it off with the gala and we have
[21:36] Speaker 4: a little fun. We're gonna bring Rick Ross is gonna
[21:38] Speaker 4: be our keynote that day. Q Parker is gonna come
[21:40] Speaker 4: in and you gonna come in and do some QQ
[21:45] Speaker 4: did our wedding for us, one of my good one
[21:48] Speaker 4: of my good buddies, and he's gonna come you know,
[21:50] Speaker 4: bless us, you know, with some music, you know what
[21:52] Speaker 4: I mean. But yeah, yeah, So the last day is
[21:56] Speaker 4: the awards. We get recognition to all types of people.
[21:59] Speaker 1: You know, categories are there. How many awards are distributed
[22:02] Speaker 1: in one of the.
[22:03] Speaker 5: Eight categories of the Tax tight and Awards. So everything
[22:07] Speaker 5: from top Revenue extream to Marketing Guru and everything in between.
[22:13] Speaker 1: There's a thing I like about interviewing people who are
[22:17] Speaker 1: have a visionary approach to what you guys are doing
[22:20] Speaker 1: is that you're scaling outside the original plan.
[22:23] Speaker 3: You're also into real estate, you're also into restaurant.
[22:27] Speaker 4: Why right, So after the tax business got to a
[22:29] Speaker 4: place like we felt like it was time that where
[22:32] Speaker 4: we could start beginning to diversify, right, And then so
[22:34] Speaker 4: we started looking at different restaurants because we you know,
[22:37] Speaker 4: we love to travel, we love to you know, service
[22:39] Speaker 4: people provide great experiences with people. And so we bought
[22:42] Speaker 4: the fat Tuesdays they went off ready bring and well
[22:45] Speaker 4: that us you where. So we bought one and we
[22:48] Speaker 4: took it to Memphis, Tennessee. But we we purchased the
[22:51] Speaker 4: last franchise before they stopped franchising. Okay, so we bought
[22:54] Speaker 4: the rights to the Tennessee market. Shortly after that, two
[22:57] Speaker 4: chains in his group and Snoop started franchising Esco here lunchally.
[23:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you bringing up so many days, Snoop, Snoop
[23:06] Speaker 1: be there, She's gonna be there.
[23:08] Speaker 4: And so yeah, Snoopy, two chain start franchising Esco. So boom,
[23:11] Speaker 4: we bought one of those, and then we took that
[23:14] Speaker 4: to Memphis as well too, and so again just kind
[23:16] Speaker 4: of going back there, giving back to our hometown. Even
[23:18] Speaker 4: though we live in Atlanta now, we still go back
[23:21] Speaker 4: there and we give back.
[23:23] Speaker 1: Well, the beauty of going back to a community customer
[23:28] Speaker 1: service business they don't normally have, knowing your market share,
[23:33] Speaker 1: being a big fish in a small pond.
[23:34] Speaker 3: All those things, all those things.
[23:36] Speaker 2: Marketing is cheaper, right.
[23:40] Speaker 3: The brandish cheaper Snoop couln't believe the right that we
[23:42] Speaker 3: was playing at right next to the fed exploring.
[23:46] Speaker 1: Right, because yeah, I know, right across the street is
[23:49] Speaker 1: like the hotels right across the street exactly where you
[23:52] Speaker 1: really all.
[23:53] Speaker 3: This is what you're paying.
[23:54] Speaker 1: And fed Ex's right there are constant floor of traffic
[23:57] Speaker 1: and you're right there.
[23:58] Speaker 3: And Atlanta you'll be five times Oh.
[24:00] Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and let alone trying to advertise, let alone
[24:04] Speaker 1: insurance and all that good stuff.
[24:06] Speaker 2: So with that being said, what is the future for
[24:09] Speaker 2: your brand?
[24:10] Speaker 5: Oh goodness, so many things coming down the pipeline. We
[24:14] Speaker 5: have a few restaurants over in the Dominican Republic and
[24:18] Speaker 5: so we love being over there.
[24:22] Speaker 3: Yeah that's thing.
[24:25] Speaker 5: But yeah, we we have some restaurants over there, and
[24:29] Speaker 5: we bought a yacht over there to be able to
[24:31] Speaker 5: rent out for experiences to people as well. And so
[24:36] Speaker 5: you know, as we look at the next few years,
[24:39] Speaker 5: you know, we're trying to convince the kids.
[24:40] Speaker 6: Now, hey, you know, what do you.
[24:41] Speaker 5: Guys think about going and hanging over at the beach
[24:44] Speaker 5: for a little while for a few years.
[24:46] Speaker 6: But you know, who knows, who knows? Always moving on.
[24:49] Speaker 1: I've been I've been doing money by conversation match classes.
[24:53] Speaker 1: Twenty seventeen, first black couple ever came on Shall said
[24:57] Speaker 1: the word yacht. It just blew right past it like
[24:59] Speaker 1: they said it like because they've said it a lot.
[25:03] Speaker 1: They've said it, ball brids Sarena have said the word
[25:06] Speaker 1: yacht so much they just like saying pento, Okay, continue
[25:12] Speaker 1: with the stoat.
[25:13] Speaker 4: And so like now we're a place where we really
[25:15] Speaker 4: want to drill down into the restaurant scale. And so
[25:18] Speaker 4: as we scale, we want to kind of dig into
[25:20] Speaker 4: because their first restaurant, Esco Restaurant, I mean, I mean it,
[25:24] Speaker 4: we did a million dollars the first six weeks.
[25:26] Speaker 3: Congratulation opened up.
[25:28] Speaker 4: And so now I want to be able to see
[25:30] Speaker 4: how do we take these restaurants, what's when new concepts
[25:32] Speaker 4: can we get We're gonna finish developing all the restaurants
[25:35] Speaker 4: in front of the FedEx Form and so we'll own
[25:38] Speaker 4: that entire strip there of restaurants in funding fed ex Form.
[25:42] Speaker 4: There's three three total restaurants that we're gonna open there
[25:45] Speaker 4: in the next twelve months.
[25:46] Speaker 1: Before we go one stop taxes. How we reach out
[25:50] Speaker 1: on that, How we reach out for one stop taxes?
[25:53] Speaker 5: Start your own virtual franchise with one stop taxes at
[25:55] Speaker 5: one Stop Taxes dot com. You can give us a
[25:58] Speaker 5: call at eighty five two one to eight ninety three
[26:01] Speaker 5: if you have any questions. We have a great team
[26:02] Speaker 5: there to answer anything. Yet.
[26:04] Speaker 1: Congratulations and thank you for a lot of we to
[26:07] Speaker 1: have a great honist conversation and you're talk about your
[26:10] Speaker 1: business and realize that hey man, hard work, planning.
[26:16] Speaker 3: And love and.
[26:17] Speaker 2: Faith it's right can get you there.
[26:19] Speaker 3: Well, we thank you for having us. It's been awesome.
[26:22] Speaker 2: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[26:24] Speaker 3: Awesome. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Now.
[26:26] Speaker 1: If you want to be a guest on my show,
[26:28] Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation Masterclass, please visit our website Moneymakingconversations dot
[26:33] Speaker 1: com and click to be a guest button. If you're
[26:35] Speaker 1: a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, a nonprofit.
[26:40] Speaker 2: I want you on my show.

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