Value Over Volume: The $200K Tax Blueprint | SBA Podcast EP 36

Baldeep (00:00)

All right, welcome to another episode of the Service Bureau Accelerator Interview Series. I am here with Shana, Jasmine, and Ross. Ross, if you want to go ahead and get us started.

Ross (00:12)

For sure. So welcome, Jasmine, welcome Shana. Hope you guys are doing well, thanks for joining in. So if you guys want to maybe kick off the call — I don’t know which one of you wants to open for us — but if you wanted to start, just kind of introduce yourselves, maybe a little bit of background on your experience in the industry and what ultimately made you end up being here with Service Bureau Accelerator. Go ahead, Shana.

Shana (00:39)

Okay, hey, I’m Shana. I’ve been in the industry professionally for probably like ten-something years. But I was with a service bureau before I started my own service bureau back in 2019 — I think it was 2019. And who I started under was not good at all. They didn’t help out, they didn’t do anything like that. So I went up under a friend of mine.

And she was teaching me different stuff and she’s like, “Girl, you’re doing good, so I’m going to put you on with my people.” Then I met Bobby. Then I had contacted Jasmine because Jasmine had already been getting software from me. And I was like, “I need some help because this is hard and I know what it takes.” So from there, we’ve just been scaling, doing what we need to do. Jasmine has been a wonderful help — 100% wonderful help — and we go from there.

Ross (01:36)

Cool, awesome. Jasmine, you want to introduce yourself? Maybe share a little bit of your story as well.

Jasmine (01:41)

Sure, I’m Jasmine. I’ve been in the tax industry professionally for eight years, almost nine years. We started our service bureau together in 2022, so this will be our third full year. The first year we were a sub-service bureau, and then we ventured out to just become our own service bureau.

I think we’ve been scaling fairly quickly — faster than we probably thought we would. But we’ve come to the point where now we are starting to learn our value in the industry. So being in the SBA program has really helped us kind of knock out our value asset propositions and things like that. So now we’re starting to see where we can grow even more. Initially, I really had no thoughts of being a service bureau. It really wasn’t on my radar. I was just doing taxes, didn’t really mind. And then, but now we’re here, so.

Ross (02:47)

Awesome. I’m just curious on that — did Shana kind of pull you in? Like, “Yo, come on”?

Jasmine (02:53)

Not really dragged me. It was just like, “Hey,” because like she said, she previously had a service bureau. She was moving as a sub under her friend. And actually, it started with like a whole EFIN thing. And then she said, “Why don’t we just partner?” And then I said…

Ross (03:18)

That works. And then Shana, what was the reason that you wanted to kind of shift into the service bureau industry? Was it just kind of like that natural next step? And like you said, who you were with kind of guided you?

Shana (03:29)

I’m allowed to curse? Okay, because I was tired of getting fucked over by other service bureaus. I was tired of getting fucked over by this other service bureau. They weren’t telling me nothing. I’m thinking I’m getting something, but I’m not. And then it was a money situation. They held up my money — like, a lot of it. And I was like, “Hell no, I’m not about to get fucked over no more. I’m about to start my own shit.” So that’s what happened from there.

Baldeep (03:59)

Well, a lot of times it comes down to the money situation, for sure.

Ross (03:59)

That’s what it was, yeah.

Jasmine (04:05)

Always money.

Ross (04:05)

Yeah. Which is, you know, pretty easy to avoid if you just don’t get greedy. Like Baldeep says on the coaching calls many times — greedy pigs get slaughtered. So that’s what happens. Cool. So you guys have now been at it for a little while within our program, and your first year you put up some pretty solid numbers on the board.

And then last year there was some growth, but this past season was huge, right? Your numbers — looks like you more than doubled your volume year over year. What happened? What was the strategy? What’d you guys do? Share a little bit about that.

Shana (04:58)

Jasmine, you can go because I want to say something, but I don’t know if it’s…

Jasmine (05:02)

Let’s just say it!

Shana (05:05)

The strategy is, honestly, as I said, I didn’t know what I was doing and I needed help. Jasmine is good at systems — putting shit in place, being organized. That’s not me. That is not my expertise. We started understanding what people really want in this industry and started giving it to them. People started seeing us and were like, “Oh, that’s Money Bag,” and it just started going from there. I really think it was just like — we had this one photo shoot. When we did that, everybody was like, “Shoot, I want to get with them and see what they’re doing.” Of course, hate comes with it too. But we marketed to the right people, and once we got the right ones, everything started scaling — especially when we saw the people under us accomplishing their goals. That makes us feel like, “Okay, we’re doing our job.” And then the volume speaks.

Baldeep (06:19)

One thing I’ve noticed from you guys — I’ve seen you grow from where you came from — is you just got more clarity on what you’re selling.

Jasmine (06:36)

That’s definitely a part of it. One thing we’re constantly working on is that a lot of times we’re the second choice. Somebody went somewhere else last year, got royally screwed over, and then they come back like, “Dang, I should’ve gone with you the first time.” Well, yeah. So we see a lot of that. What we’re working toward now is being the first choice. We lead with value. I don’t think you’re ever going to get free or $77 software from us again. If you can’t pay the price, I’m sorry. Because we saw that we’d sign up so many people, and those numbers weren’t matching. When we increased pricing and led with value, we got more quality EROs versus people who just wanted to jump on. I’d take 20 EROs putting up numbers versus 100 where only 20 do something, because 80 got free software — it’s a waste of time and effort.

Baldeep (08:25)

You said a couple interesting things there. Feeling like you’re the second choice — that happens. People go somewhere that looks cheaper and realize they got fucked over. That happens to us too. Like how many people said, “I should’ve joined you guys, but they offered the same thing for a thousand dollars cheaper,” and then it wasn’t. So that’s going to happen regardless. A lot of that just comes up when you start putting in pricing. And your second thing — leading with value — you guys do a good job with branding and marketing. The more you push that type of content, the more you’ll become that first choice.

Ross (09:28)

Yeah, especially how much more you mentioned about listening to what people want and putting that package together — you’re finding your ideal customer. That happens over time. Even with SBA, our offer stack has evolved every year, constantly tweaking to make it better and more specific. That happens with you guys too. The other thing, knowing from our last call, is really getting that focus dialed in — exactly who you want to work with and what exactly they need. When you get dialed in, you become that first choice because they see exactly what they want. You guys are already seeing it — look back, analyze your numbers, and double down on what works. That’s awesome. Marketing and strategy-wise, you’re really strong on that.

Ross (11:08)

Are you open to sharing a little bit of numbers? We don’t need to give away everything, but do you know what your revenue is looking like this season?

Jasmine (11:20)

You want something funny? I have no freaking idea, and I don’t care — not that I don’t care, but I just don’t look until it’s report time. I think Shana looks more.

Shana (11:39)

I don’t think about it until after the fact, like, “Dang, I’ve got to run these reports real quick.”

Ross (11:44)

That’s fair. Are you okay if we do a little bit of math? Just ballpark?

Baldeep (11:55)

I mean, I know the exact numbers.

Ross (12:13)

So roughly — transmission and service bureau fees — you’re looking well over $200,000. That brings a smile?

Jasmine (12:29)

Okay, you did pretty good. I have no idea.

Baldeep (12:32)

Including service bureau fees, yeah, it’s over that.

Ross (12:37)

And that’s not including rebates either. So yeah, you’ve got a solid service bureau going — multiple six figures. Knowing what you know now, dialing everything in, you can easily double again next year. Especially between the two of you, that’s totally achievable.

Ross (13:51)

Maybe just share your experience a little bit going through our training program, going through the coaching calls and things like that. What’s been your experience? Were there any major key moments or big takeaways?

Shana (13:52)

Okay, I’ll say something. I’m starting over again since I got my own login and all that. What I did like the last time we went through — I loved how you actually broke everything down, putting packages together. That was good because it gave me a whole different idea of other things I want to implement within our company. I liked that you did that, took the time to do that, to be exact. That really stuck out for me.

Ross (14:26)

I love that you said that because that part is what the majority of people skip past. They watch it, but they don’t do the work. And that’s like — you’re creating your product. Without that, you can’t market, you can’t sell, you can’t onboard. Nothing else matters. It doesn’t have to be written in stone; you can always tweak and expand it. But you need that first before you move forward into marketing. It also gives you time to take ideas from your customers and keep building.  

____

Jasmine, how about yourself? Any comments you’d want to share on going through the training?

Jasmine (15:47)

When I first got on the training platform, it was confusing because I was just trying to click through and figure out where to go. But I think I’m one — I don’t know how many others do — but I literally go through the training, then go back through it. If I’m implementing something in our business, I try to search for it in a previous training. And I think I’m probably on like 80 to 90% of those two-to-three-hour calls. Especially when it’s like building the offer stack — I’ve heard the call before, but as we’re shifting what we’re doing, I felt it was important to hear it again. I like that we have those trainings, and that actually influenced us to change how our trainings and our software packages are structured for EROs versus service bureaus.

Ross (17:05)

Yeah, I love that. A lot of top producers say the same — they go back through the training multiple times. Each time you learn more. That’s huge.  

Now, one of the last sections we like to ask about is support. There are a lot of EROs and service bureaus not getting the support they need. Can you share your experience with our support platform — ticketing, help, all that?

Jasmine (18:36)

Y’all ticket system — I use it for every question! I do like the automated reminders that let us know when a ticket will close — that’s really helpful. We actually mirrored that in our own ticket system. For example, we have categories for bank account updates, what type of ticket it is, prioritizing high, regular, or low priority. It helps us structure our own.

Baldeep (19:34)

Yeah, ticket categories are important when people actually fill them out, though. Do they select it?

Jasmine (19:38)

I made it mandatory. Y’all’s isn’t mandatory.

Ross (19:44)

Yeah, it’s mandatory — just making sure they select the right one! Like when they’re asking about software, but the category is training.

Jasmine (19:52)

Right.

Ross (19:56)

Awesome. Have you guys gone through the goal-setting module? Have you come up with your goal this year?

Shana (20:25)

Weee! Jasmine probably did it, but I haven’t. We haven’t done it together.

Jasmine (20:32)

Well, I did it on the call, so yeah.

Ross (20:35)

Cool. What does that look like?

Jasmine (20:38)

We set a goal on how many resellers we wanted, how many service bureaus, and how many EROs we wanted — new, not current, because we’ve retained most of our EROs from last year. New, we don’t want more than 10 resellers and service bureaus combined.  

We agreed we didn’t want more than seven service bureaus. We currently have four. So seven service bureau goal, three reseller goal, and 18 EROs last year. We wanted to double that to 36, but we rounded up to 40. So 40 EROs plus the 10 resellers/service bureaus makes 50 new.

Ross (21:54)

Got it. And for the smaller numbers — is that a bandwidth thing, where you just want to pour into fewer people?

Jasmine (22:11)

Yes.

Jasmine (22:20)

Because we realized we couldn’t just drop people into being a service bureau. We failed horribly at that the first time. So I’m glad that person is with y’all now.  

We realized it needed to be a step in between — at least a year cushion to show them the backend of being a service bureau and kind of wean them in versus just immediately doing it. That’s why we have that hybrid model in the middle.

Ross (22:55)

Got it.

Baldeep (22:55)

Yeah, people overlook the challenges. The time and effort it takes to support that when you don’t have the infrastructure — it’s time-consuming. The trade-off for lower revenue per product doesn’t make sense. That in-between step will definitely help.

Jasmine (23:28)

Yeah, so we’re not putting people into service bureau until they’re absolutely ready for our hands to be off. If you still need help with every little thing, that’s why we have that reseller option.

Ross (23:42)

Yeah, that’s perfect. And for service bureau and reseller — are you leveraging that as a kind of graduation thing from EROs?

Jasmine (23:54)

We have a growth plan, but only if they want to. What we have for EROs is almost like a fork in the road.

Shana (23:57)

Mm-hmm.

Jasmine (24:08)

Do you want to add more revenue by adding more services — credit repair, business formation, all that? Maybe you don’t want to build a team or be a service bureau. We have a growth plan for that. Versus those who want to build a team or sell software — their growth plan goes to reseller.

Ross (24:26)

Cool. And do you offer the reseller or service bureau package publicly if someone asks?

Jasmine (24:35)

We do, but they have to have an onboarding call.

Ross (24:39)

Right, to qualify them and make sure they’re a fit. Got it. That’s great — giving customers the next step keeps them from looking elsewhere. That’s really cool you’re implementing that.  

Shana (26:04)

But I do have a little comment. It’s a lot of people out there that want to jump off the porch and be a service bureau but don’t have what it takes or they’re not producing. Like, okay, start off baby steps. Let you be a reseller. But it can be a headache, especially when they don’t know what they’re doing.

Ross (26:27)

Yeah, I like the way you’re approaching that — start with reseller. You’re not gatekeeping, you’re teaching basics before the full backend responsibilities.  

Jasmine (26:51)

And that’s how we explain it — the difference between reseller and service bureau for us is whether or not we do your enrollments and handle your support. That’s where we are now.  

What we did evolve our reseller program to for the upcoming year is a co-branded reseller. We’ll purchase the sub-service bureau through the marketplace and brand it, because now everybody wants their logo on something. Everybody wants “my software.” But we know they’re not ready to do enrollments. That’s why I was asking last time, Ross, about giving them software access without account hub access. With the co-branded reseller, they’ll have their logo, but we’ll still handle the backend.

Ross (27:54)

You’re still operating the service bureau.

Jasmine (28:23)

Yeah, everybody wants that look. And that’s kind of the thing. I’m not saying anything, but I don’t see other service bureaus doing what we do — they act like they do, but okay.

Baldeep (28:54)

That’s gonna happen. So many people say they sell the same thing we do, and then you see it — it’s a bunch of garbage. Happens all the time.

Jasmine (29:00)

Exactly. And I’m like, okay, whatever.

Ross (29:02)

Yeah, it’s just one two-hour Zoom that “includes everything we do.” Nah, not even close.

Jasmine (29:10)

Yeah, and I’m starting to see people now offering EROs every software. Like, “You can have both.” We did that last year, and now suddenly everyone’s doing it. I said it. Yeah, I know it’s recording. I don’t care.

Ross (29:25)

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. I know it’s annoying — happens to all of us.

Jasmine (29:34)

I’m just saying, everybody was pushing people to one software, and I was like, “No, y’all can have access to both. You need both, get both.” Now everybody’s like, “Both.” Okay, whatever.

Baldeep (29:51)

All right, who says we don’t start drama on our YouTube channel?

Ross (29:55)

We didn’t — it was Jasmine.

Shana (29:57)

This is going to be on YouTube?

Jasmine (29:57)

Good luck!

Baldeep (30:01)

All right.

Ross (30:02)

Awesome. Last question for you. If someone’s looking to join the Service Bureau Accelerator — there are more and more options these days — what would you say to someone thinking about joining?

Shana (30:24)

Go for it.

Jasmine (30:24)

I think y’all provide all the support to really make you a successful service bureau. But you have to put the work in. If you’re expecting someone to hold your hand through every little thing and you’re not willing to put in effort — if you just want to be a service bureau because everyone talks about backend fees and money — then you might want to go elsewhere. This isn’t the place for you. SBA really exemplifies growth and action. You have to take action. You have to be a self-starter and self-sufficient. Y’all give us all the tools, but if you leave them in the toolbox, the house isn’t going to get built. You have to put in the work and effort.

Ross (31:11)

Love it. I like that analogy. Shana, anything to add?

Shana (31:18)

Pretty much the same thing she said. I just told somebody this recently — you’re with a good team right there. From day one, I’ve loved how y’all handle business. You’re knowledgeable. Some people just sign on people and don’t know them from top to bottom, but y’all actually get to know the person. It’s like starting a good relationship that makes them feel comfortable, like they can trust you. You’re not always getting someone new who doesn’t even know your name. You feel at home. I feel comfortable here. That’s what it feels like.

Ross (32:02)

Awesome. Love it.

Baldeep (32:02)

All right, I’ve got one final thing for you guys. Somebody watching this on YouTube says, “Hey, I want to work with these ladies.” How do they find you?

Jasmine (32:21)

You can find us on all social media at @taxmoneybag. You can email us at info@taxmoneybag.com. You can call us at 877-2-TAX-BAG. You can go to our website: www.taxmoneybag.com.

Ross (32:39)

Perfect. Love it. And no cell phones — that’s your business line. That’s perfect.

Jasmine (32:46)

No, no cell phone, yes.

Baldeep (32:46)

They’re too smart for that, yeah. All right, guys, thanks for being here. We’ll see you in a few weeks at the convention.

Ross (32:55)

We’ll see you soon.

Shana (32:55)

All right

Jasmine (32:55)

I’m excited.