She Hit $100K Without Even Using the Training | SBA Podcast EP 48

Baldeep (00:01) All right. Yeah. We’ll go through it.

Ross (00:01) Awesome. Yeah, yeah, we’ll go through. So we’ll start now. So…

Shemika (00:01) You ask me the questions, right?

Ross (00:07) Awesome. All right. Well, yeah, Shemika, thanks for jumping in to have a call with us. We were literally just talking before we hit the record button. We had to save it. So you had basically opened a ticket with us. And you’re, you know, talking about the convention and how excited you were to go because you had such a huge growth. And I was like, yeah, we got to jump on a call with you and kind of hear a little bit about your story and what and, you know, where you came from, what your scenario was before joining our program and where you’re at now. So you were just about to dive into it. And Baldeep was like, hang on, hang on, let’s get started recording. So you want to, yeah, tell us a little bit, like you mentioned like the first year when you got started, you were up under someone else. If you want to just kind of give us a breakdown of like where you came from and what the scenario was before joining our program.

Shemika (00:39) Come on.

Baldeep (00:39) Yeah.

Shemika (00:51) So basically, when I started, I came on with a team already. A team of probably about 30 people. But I didn’t know anything about Service Bureau. I just knew I wanted to do taxes, train a team, and build off of that. So I didn’t know anything about the Service Bureau. So the first year, I signed up with another company thinking, OK, jump into the Service Bureau thing. And I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was with someone and I didn’t know the back end. So they was making all the back end, but I had all the people. And once I found out about a Service Bureau, I met you guys, joined you guys. But that first year, I did not know that I didn’t have my EFIN. I didn’t know I didn’t need an EFIN to be a Service Bureau, right? So I still joined forces with somebody else. They still was getting all that. I still didn’t know that back end. So they was just getting over and over and over. So finally, when I got with that last person, because I’m just trying different people, but I still was with you guys. But my mentor was like, hey, you gotta be with me, you gotta do this. Then now they was killing me with fees in the back end and making my people leave. And so I just joined and had my own Service Bureau. But from that, it’s just made my team grow. Just because I started, like I said, with 30 something. I probably have now about 72 people. But I don’t focus on the Service Bureau side. That is the thing, the selling software, the things on the back end. That’s more so of what I don’t know. I just been doing this based off of me growing a team on my, not gonna say popularity, just because people know me. I’m like, okay, because mostly everyone that’s on my team is handpicked from me. I haven’t done any much recruiting, but I know that I see the recordings, I see it. I have not, I’m not gonna sit up here and lie. I have not done, I don’t know if this interview is gonna be good for your thing. I know what I’m supposed to do but I know I was like okay I’m gonna take a whole month and go through everything from the beginning to the end and really need guidance because I know what my capability can do. If I did this not doing anything from you guys other than having the software, think about what I can do if I just actually put my hours in it. So I can’t sell you what this program have done for me, it opened my eyes. I met people that I’m seeing like, okay, let me get serious about this. And I know, I signed up for Tax Nitro, but I didn’t do nothing. You know, I get in there, it’s those things I didn’t because I am so, I’m hands-on. It’s like, get me in this room and show me this. I don’t, I need accountability. I need all of that, but I can do my team and they produce them. You see like this year, that big jump and that’s just off my team.

Ross (02:03) Yeah.

Ross (03:14) Yeah.

Ross (03:32) Yeah.

Ross (03:41) Mm-hmm.

Ross (03:46) Yeah. So your team, those are, I’m assuming those are all like preparers, like independents that you have kind of like working under your office. Okay, cool. And then how did you end up doing the setup? Like, cause you mentioned like you didn’t have an EFIN. Was that like another ERO that you were kind of working with that you set up the software license for? How did you structure that?

Shemika (03:51) Mm-hmm. Yes.

Shemika (04:03) So even that’s actually set up wrong because I did not know when I signed up I did the whole little video y’all did and so the EFIN is actually my daughter’s, which is fine. I put my, I thought you had to have an EFIN. So I put my daughter’s information, but my name. So I know I was telling someone at the beginning of the tax season and it’s like we could change it later to put it on you. You know, but it’s like her…

Ross (04:15) Okay, yeah.

Baldeep (04:28) You’re talking about the Service Bureau. Yeah.

Shemika (04:29) Yes, to match you guys, yes. And so I didn’t know, because I thought you needed to have an EFIN. And then once I got it, I was like, I could just get mine. But later I went ahead and got my EFIN. I just didn’t, when I tell you, I didn’t know. I was more so the first year. I’ve only been doing this since 22. And so the first…

Ross (04:38) Ha ha.

Baldeep (04:39) Yeah.

Ross (04:49) Mm-hmm.

Baldeep (04:51) Well, so with us, you just finished your second tax season with us. Prior to that, I guess you were with different people too.

Shemika (04:58) Yes, so yeah, I was with Refundo, but I was with a person with Refundo. And then I was with them at first. And then later, I got with different mentors that actually just ripped me off and didn’t teach me what I needed to learn.

Ross (05:04) We’ll have to beep that out.

Baldeep (05:18) Yeah, I mean, we see that’s very common in the industry. We just see it’s like, hey, the person that’s training you is making you use their software, which is a model. It’s a good model. But if they’re not giving you the value that you need, and then their only thing that’s happening is they’re marking you up like max fees and keeping all that money, it’s not a long-term relationship.

Ross (05:19) Yeah.

Ross (05:41) Yeah.

Shemika (05:42) Exactly, exactly.

Baldeep (05:44) That’s what we tell you guys in like our training calls and stuff is, yeah, if you do that, you’re probably not going to keep clients for more than two years. All right. You have to be a bit more reasonable on the fees. But no, that’s a very common thing we hear is that scenario that you just said where it’s like, Hey, this person, they made me stay with them because like in your case, right, they provided an EFIN for you, right. Or they did that. Right. So you really had no choice. So understandable.

Ross (05:55) Yeah.

Shemika (06:07) Yes.

Ross (06:11) I was just curious too on that. Like, do you remember what your fees were? Like from the software that you had previously before you kind of moved all the volume under with us. Was it about 300?

Shemika (06:21) $300 in the back end and 300 and because and I went to the person was like hey I know what the Service Bureau fees are because I’m in it but I’m willing to work with you to get the education and to elevate. I get the team I’m you know but they was like, well, this bank offer had this extra and it was like $300. And I’m like, I can’t do that. And then that’s when I was like, okay, no more. And I switched all my people this year, late last year, and then the rest of it this year.

Baldeep (06:24) $300.

Ross (06:30) Yeah.

Ross (06:53) Yeah.

Baldeep (06:53) All right, so I’m going to, yeah, because you did a massive jump. You did a massive jump from, so you want to have a little fun exercise here of how much more money you’re going to make off of just doing that. We’ll do a little quick math. You’re about $300 in total bank product fees, right? So let’s subtract the bank. What bank do you use? Or what do they use mainly?

Ross (06:57) Yeah, because you…

Shemika (06:59) Yes. Yes.

Shemika (07:08) Yes. Yes.

Shemika (07:17) I did both, Refund Advantage and Serve.

Baldeep (07:19) You did both. So let’s just do 42.95. Cause that’s in between the 44 and the 39 of the Refund Advantage and TPG, right? Let’s try and keep it simple. You’re on Slayer, I’m assuming, right? Cause you picked, said two. All right. So let’s subtract the base fee at 21 and then bank that. Okay. So did you keep the fees the same to your customers and now you’re keeping it all or like, what did you like? Let’s just do that math.

Shemika (07:27) Okay.

Yes.

Shemika (07:45) Yes, yes, I kept everything the same.

Baldeep (07:48) So that leaves $236 essentially. Okay.

Ross (07:54) Yeah, I was going to say I was looking at your fees. I think you went down. Yeah, you went down. Yeah.

Baldeep (07:57) Okay, all right, so what did you, let’s just do that then. What did you go down to?

Ross (08:03) Average is like, well, I think it’s about…

Baldeep (08:06) We’ll just do average. Yeah, because you didn’t get any of this before. So OK, so I see the average. I’m looking at the average. 71 total. So do 71 minus 21. And then average of 98 there. OK. So how many bank products? 661. You’re up $97,828 if everything funds, right? Because you got Service Bureau fees already that got paid to you. You’re getting those in real time. Plus…

Ross (08:12) Yeah, like…

Baldeep (08:36) And now this is all back end. Yeah. So you should be looking at, you should be looking at roughly, obviously like we don’t know until everything funds and gets paid. You should be looking at an extra $33,000 just in add ons kicking back to you plus your volume and extra another 5,200. It’s almost like 40 grand. You should just see in just back end incentives. Maybe more. Cause there’s Audit Protection. Yeah. That doesn’t even count that. I didn’t get that. Yeah.

Ross (08:39) Hahaha.

Shemika (09:06) Okay, okay. And the Audit Protection is what?

I learned that one. Right, and they never, I learned all this later, you know.

Ross (09:12) I was about to say, I was like, there’s another bucket too there on Audit Protection.

Baldeep (09:15) Yeah. Yeah, all of that stuff’s going to you. So like you already got your Service Bureau fees, right? You got those in real time throughout the season. The Doc Prep fees, the EFIN fees, those go to the EROs, which in this case is you, right? So you got that already. But yeah, you’re getting a nice, nice big check of money you’ve never seen before, essentially. Okay. Interesting.

Ross (09:18) Yeah, yeah.

Shemika (09:36) Exactly. Exactly.

Ross (09:37) Yeah. Yeah, I think like, I mean, you’re, I think overall, like total all those numbers, you’re well over six figures in like all of the fees combined, right, that you never got any of before.

Baldeep (09:45) Oh yeah, easily.

Shemika (09:46) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then on commission on, majority of my team, I get commission off of them anyway. So I just, please, so yeah, over six. Yeah. Yeah.

Baldeep (09:53) You’re doing splits. Yeah.

Ross (09:55) Yeah.

Ross (10:00) Awesome. Yeah.

Baldeep (10:00) Yeah, outside of the splits and all that, you’re well over, you’re crossing a hundred grand just on your Service Bureau this year for sure. Cool.

Shemika (10:06) Yes. Yes. Yes, compared to right. Yes. Now I just need to get the software packages and all that together.

Ross (10:08) Nice. That’s huge. That’s huge. Yeah. Congrats. That’s a lot extra money in the pockets, right? Yeah.

Ross (10:21) Well, you know what? I mean, look, at the end of the day, Shemika, like what you’re doing already works, right? Like at the end of the day, as a Service Bureau, your main objective is to increase your bank product volume. How you do that, whether it’s just continue to grow your team and building more, like building preparers and like growing your team or going and selling software to EROs, like whatever, whichever way, there’s no like right or wrong way to do it. Like what you’re already doing works really well. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t suggest slowing that down at all, but you could always look at also like marketing and advertising to EROs as well. But like your game plan already works. Like you’ve got solid volume there, so there’s no reason of stopping that. If anything, it would just be, okay, maybe I wanna move away from coaching and training people and building my team, and maybe I just wanna sell software, but ultimately what you’re doing works. So I wouldn’t suggest stop doing that, right?

Baldeep (10:51) Yeah.

Baldeep (11:08) A couple, yeah, we never tell you to stop doing what’s making you money, right? So like that’s the important thing. Obviously a couple of concerns with that model is it’s your EFIN, your daughter’s EFIN, right? Whoever’s EFIN it is, it’s liability, right? So, but here’s another thing to the flip side and how you leverage, we call it, I don’t know if you’ve seen it in our trainings, we call it the preparer development strategy, right? So that’s essentially what you’re doing.

Shemika (11:13) Okay.

Shemika (11:23) Yes, and that’s what I’m, yes.

Baldeep (11:36) One way you could start moving to that other direction is your prepares, your tax preparers that you have on your team. There’s nothing stopping you from saying, hey, go get your own EFIN and I’ll show you how to build your own team. And you could keep a hundred percent of your prep fees now. Right? Like there’s, you could essentially funnel EROs from your preparer development strategy. You’re just creating them. Yeah. And yes, you will not make those splits anymore.

Shemika (11:53) Yes.

Shemika (11:58) That’s my goal. Yes, that’s my goal. That’s my goal.

Baldeep (12:05) And you probably don’t want to, you don’t want them to feel like you felt under that other person. Right. So yeah. So you have like 70 something people now, right? You keep building that up. You could probably take 10 or 20 of them that performed and said, Hey, you guys are ready to just go build your own teams, go do your own thing. We’ll set you up. I’m setting you up with software. I’ll show you how I train and develop team members and all that stuff and let them build their teams. You’ll see that that ends up building your volume significantly faster. Because now it’s not just you, now it’s not just you. You have 10, 20 other people that are out leveraging exactly what you did.

Shemika (12:12) Right, right, right. That’s what I, exactly. So that’s what I want to do, get them to get down.

Shemika (12:27) Yes.

Ross (12:44) You leverage.

Shemika (12:39) Yes.

Shemika (12:48) Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, and that’s the goal. So the preparer development, which I have not looked at, but I’m going to do it.

Baldeep (12:54) Well, it’s what you’re doing. No, so you don’t even need to look at it. It’s what you’re already doing. You’re already doing it. You just have to cross the next line of how do I take these people that I’ve already developed and just show them how to get an EFIN and build their own teams? Like you’re literally showing them to do what you did. You’re showing them how to get their own EFIN and build their own preparer teams and you’re providing software and coaching. That’s all you’re doing. So it’s not rocket science.

Ross (12:56) Yeah.

Shemika (12:59) Yeah.

Shemika (13:06) The name.

Shemika (13:13) Right, right, okay.

Shemika (13:19) Okay. Okay.

Ross (13:21) Yeah.

Baldeep (13:23) You’re just literally taking the same group of people and you’ll obviously bring, like you’re already talking about how you’re going to bring more, recruit more people, build your team more. You just take a portion of those people and just slide them over, slide them over to your… Yeah. You just set them up on the software, just like you set up yourself on the software. You just set them up in an office. They put in their EFIN, you reach out to our support team. They can help you set up an office and show you how to do all that. Right. So because…

Shemika (13:35) And they would just use my software, right? Okay.

Shemika (13:44) Yeah.

Shemika (13:49) Okay, okay. And I have like one person, I’m sorry. I have one person that actually wants their own software.

Baldeep (13:54) Yeah. Now go ahead.

Baldeep (13:59) Like branded, well, there’s options for that too. Yeah, there’s options for that too. We have all of that stuff in the marketplace, but if you have questions, we could open up a ticket about it. We could talk about it later on, but yeah, all those options are there for you. It’s just because you’re not familiar with certain things, you’re just kind of moving. You don’t know what to ask yet, right? You don’t know what to ask yet, which is, which is fine, which is fine. Yeah. But we have all those solutions. So at any time you’re like, Hey, this is what I’m looking to do. This is what I want. This is what I, this is what I want to know is how this is possible. We could answer all that stuff for you. That’s not a problem, but no, you did good numbers. And I think the first step for you is just to move some of those preparers, make a mirror. That’s your first step. And then keep doing what you’re doing.

Shemika (14:02) Okay, okay.

Shemika (14:08) Okay.

Shemika (14:17) Exactly. Yes, right.

Shemika (14:48) Thank you.

Ross (14:49) Yeah. Yeah, it’s definitely working. So keep at it. And then I saw the ticket that you had. You had to cancel. You have something come up for the convention. You weren’t able to make it.

Shemika (15:00) Yes, someone’s getting a surprise wedding and…

Ross (15:05) You gotta, you must be there.

Shemika (15:09) And I was trying to because what date was that again? July the 11th.

Ross (15:16) July 11th or something like that. 10th, 11th, something like that. 8, 9, 10.

Shemika (15:20) Cause it was like I can only come maybe like two days and not the full days. And I was like, I might as well just not try.

Baldeep (15:27) The actual days is the eighth and the ninth and then the, yeah.

Ross (15:29) 8th and 9th.

Shemika (15:33) Yeah, because I have to, I will only be available for the eighth and not the ninth.

Ross (15:40) Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s too bad. It’d be good to have you there. So there’s going to be a lot of stuff that we’re going to be covering that’ll really help you kind of like get the gears moving. But at the end of the day I was just pulling up your training account just to kind of see where you’re at with everything. It looks like what I would definitely suggest for you is…

Shemika (15:45) It’s our world sometimes.

Ross (16:02) Go through, like your foundations, you’re almost done there. You might have like one or two last videos that you have to check off just to mark complete. The system should send you an invite to the seven day launch. I would go through that seven day launch program and just kind of go through that and just think about how you could create a program for your preparers. Like think of it, like what Baldeep was saying, right? For those top producers, those preparers who are putting up the biggest numbers and figure out what kind of a program you could put together for them. Like what would you include? What would you show them how to get an EFIN, how to grow a team? Like what would be all those things and put together a little bit of a package so you can go to them kind of right now, especially after season and you know, start putting that bug in the ear. We’re like, Hey, now that we’re in the off season, here’s how you can move forward in the industry, get your EFIN, start your own office. And here’s how you can build a team. Just like how I was doing where, how I brought you in, you can do the same thing and kind of just show them the exact same process that you did. Right. So I would go through that, go through the seven day launch and just think of it in that context as you’re going through the training and kind of like map stuff out and you’ll have a game plan coming out of that seven days where you can go and start talking to your preparers, find out the top producers and get them to start moving forward. So…

Shemika (16:57) Right.

Baldeep (17:14) Yeah. Well, you should know who the top producers are. I’m sure you know.

Shemika (17:14) Got you. Yeah, I do. I do.

Ross (17:18) Yeah, you got the short list, you know.

Shemika (17:21) And look, they don’t want, once they get in there, get their EFIN, they are excited about that, but they like, I don’t want to leave because SWA is my company. I want to franchise it to where, you know, I was getting into the building to where my top people have their own location, but it’s still SWA with me using the taxes. And that’s what they kind of want to do because they kind of want to stay with me, you know, that’d be great.

Ross (17:36) Yeah. Yeah.

Baldeep (17:42) Yeah, that’s fine. You could do that. All of that’s possible.

Ross (17:46) Yep. The other thing too, the other thing too I’ll mention as well is like, this is just an option for them. Right. Like some people are like, well, some people don’t want to be preparers. If they don’t want to or they just want to stay as a preparer at the end of the day, if they want to stay as a preparer, they’re like, I’m not quite ready yet. All good. Right. That’s fine. Let them stay where they’re at. But at least with some of them where you feel like they’re ready, open the conversation. If they’re feeling the same way, then it’s like perfect. Let’s get you moving forward because you’re showing them the path. Right. You’re showing them the path in the industry. And like you said, a lot of people want to stay with you because they’re getting that guidance or getting that value. So just leverage that and for the people who it’s going to be a good fit, set them up, move them forward and show them how to grow as well.

Shemika (18:03) Yes.

Shemika (18:19) Yes.

Ross (18:20) That and for the people who it’s going to be a good fit, set them up, move them forward and show them how to grow as well.

Baldeep (18:25) You’re better off being the one that opens the conversation, because if they were already thinking it and you don’t bring it up, they’ll go find another solution.

Shemika (18:32) Exactly, okay. Conversations with my one on ones. Okay.

Ross (18:36) Awesome.

There you go. Well, look at that. So from a bad deal to six figures plus in your pocket now moving the volume over here. So that’s a nice success story in its own right. So awesome.

Shemika (18:44) Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Baldeep (18:51) Well, that paid for itself. We only charged you what, two grand?

Shemika (18:55) Right, right, right, right. And that first year was like, oh, and I didn’t hit it. And I was like, okay, you got to pay this renewal. Y’all was like, I was like, I was all over the place. But this year, I didn’t…

Ross (18:56) Hahaha.

Baldeep (19:01) Yeah.

Ross (19:05) Oh yeah, I guess you would have had the renewal. Oh yeah, I mean you had enough fees on the back end there. That covered the renewal easily as well, so you’re good.

Baldeep (19:06) Oh yeah, you didn’t hit the… Yeah, so for…

Shemika (19:12) Yeah, yeah.

Baldeep (19:13) Yeah. So for those guys, we don’t typically, we don’t charge renewals for software, but if you do less than 200 bank products and you want to stay in the coaching, then there’s a thousand dollar fee. Software you keep even if you don’t want to pay that thousand, but the goal is look, the way we look at it, if you have a Service Bureau and you’re not doing 200 bank products, you have the, exactly, so there’s no point in training you for, for no, I guess reciprocation, whatever the word is, I don’t know. It’s like, we make money off bank products too. So, it’s all a win-win. Currently, you’re right now, you’re in that range and it’s not final yet. Like this is like pulling raw reports and kind of assembling it. We won’t know until everything is all said and done, but it’s roughly, it’s give or take 20. Right? So it’s usually not that far off.

Shemika (19:23) Yeah.

Shemika (19:33) What you here for?

Shemika (19:43) Right. Right, right, right. Yeah. So how many did you say I had?

Yes.

Ross (19:54) 660.

Shemika (20:01) Right, right, right.

Shemika (20:07) Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my goal is to double that for next year, yes.

Baldeep (20:10) But yeah, no you…

Baldeep (20:14) Oh yeah, you should have no problem doing that. Especially if you just continue on that pace and you get some of these EROs to, or these preparers to become EROs and build their teams as well. You get a good two or three people that do that model well, you should be well past 2000. You just actually gotta do the work, right? That’s it.

Shemika (20:28) Okay.

Yes. That’s what I got and that’s what I’m dedicating this, look next week I said I’m dedicating the whole thing to go through everything. Even I was gonna go back through it because I was excited in the beginning but then when it comes and you started like okay let me just do this all over the place and I’m like the tools are right here, let me function and get this or what you guys, y’all do a great job of giving all the tools. I read this book the other day, if you give yourself an hour a day, you know, to apply this and I have not, when I say I may jump on the call here, sometimes I’m busy doing this and not, but if I actually commit and do this the rest of this year and dedicate, I know I can scale my team to double that for next year.

Ross (20:50) Yeah.

Ross (21:17) Yeah.

Baldeep (21:17) Yeah. And you have a good foundation already, right? You’re not starting from zero. And so literally what we all said earlier, just apply the seven day, do the seven day launch. An hour a day is all you need. It’s actually structured to be done in an hour a day. It’s actually, yeah. So you’ll be fine. Yeah. He must’ve read the same book.

Shemika (21:20) Yes.

Ross (21:20) Yeah.

Shemika (21:32) See? That was a good book then. Right, okay.

Ross (21:32) Yeah. Yeah.

By design. Yeah.

Shemika (21:42) I look, somebody gave me about millionaires mindset of a millionaire, mindset of short long-term wealth, rich or something or poor something like that. Yeah.

Ross (21:53) Yeah, no, just go through that. If you did want to go back through foundations as well…

Shemika (21:56) Okay.

Ross (21:59) Like you said, kind of like go back from the start. If you do go back to foundations, if you just wanted to kind of a refresher of like the Service Bureau model, start in the second chapter of that foundations. The chapter is called Service Bureau Foundations. But start on that second chapter, because the first chapter is just kind of about SBA, making sure you know how to get support, you know how to, all that. It’s just like standard stuff. But the second chapter is going to be like, let’s break down again. What is the Service Bureau? Your roles, responsibilities. How do you generate revenue? All that kind of stuff. So and that’s like the most important probably chapter I would say. And then the third chapter is going to be getting into like the game plan on like what are we going to do. And then from there move into the seven day launch and just yeah, hour a day. Plug it in, you’ll be good to go. Awesome, cool. Well, awesome speaking with you Shemika. Yeah, great to hear your success and results you’ve gotten so far just by putting the fees in your pocket at the end of the day, right? So that’s always a huge win. So yeah, awesome. Well, yeah, great speaking with you. Thanks again for jumping in and yeah, hopefully we’ll, I mean, I’m sure I’ll see you on the coaching calls and maybe hopefully we’ll see you at next year’s convention. There you go. Awesome. All right, great speaking with you. Look forward to speaking with you again soon and yeah, have a great rest of your day. Take care. All right, bye-bye.

Shemika (22:15) Okay.

Shemika (22:20) Out of time.

Shemika (22:34) Okay.

Shemika (22:44) Yes. Thank you.

Baldeep (22:46) Nice.

Shemika (22:56) Yes, yes, thank you so much.

Shemika (23:09) Yes, dedication is there now. Dedication is there. Yes, thank you guys so much.

Shemika (23:19) Yes, ma’am. You too. All right, now let’s…