From $150K to $500K: How Shauntee Tripled Her Service Bureau | SBA Podcast EP 30

Ross (00:00) Awesome.

Baldeep (00:01) All right, we got another Service Bureau Accelerator interview series. We are here with Shauntee Billups and I have Ross here as well. Ross, if you want to kick it off.

Ross (00:11) Yeah, so Shauntee, thanks for jumping in to have a little chat with us and hear about your story with becoming a very successful Service Bureau at this point. Yeah, so always a pleasure. Real quick, Shauntee, maybe you want to kick things off and give us a little breakdown of kind of like your story, like your experience in the industry, you know, the good and the bad and the ugly, because we know there’s a lot of that. And then kind of like how you ended up hearing about or finding Service Bureau Accelerator and what ultimately kind of made you make the switch.

Shauntee (00:22) Thank you for having me.

Shauntee (00:38) Yeah.

Baldeep (00:46) Well, we have another funny story that maybe we talk about now.

Shauntee (00:50) No, that we’re not, no that we’re not, we’re not getting to that today. We’re not doing that. Thank you. Thank you. He will not let me live that down.

Ross (00:50) No, no, no, no, no, we’ll leave that. We’ll leave that off. We’ll leave that. That’s in the past, Baldy. That’s in the past. All right. I want to, I want to. Yeah, I will. I just want to hear Shauntee about your past experience in the tax industry.

Baldeep (01:01) Yeah.

Shauntee (01:07) Okay guys, I have been in the industry now, this is my 17th, ending this season will be my 17th season. I’ve been a Service Bureau for eight years. The beginning, like I was forced into being a Service Bureau because my Service Bureau was horrible. And I’m naturally a trainer. So I got into taxes with corporate and then I actually relocated to Georgia and I didn’t know anything about professional software because I was just doing it in corporate America and so then I was kind of doing it on the side. Lost a lot of money because like the banks and you know, TurboTax and stuff, they changed the laws. Like you can’t get other people’s money in your account, lost like upwards of 40 grand. And I was like, I have to figure this out. So fast forward, got some professional software with the Service Bureau that I thought just had my best interest. And baby those backend fees, he was robbing me. And because I came from corporate, I’m really good at training because that’s what I did in corporate. So like I was training, helping him build this Service Bureau. We’re growing, doing all the things. I’m the support for them and his office manager actually was just like, you’re so loyal. Can I have a conversation with you? And I’m like, no, I didn’t know what that was about. Because I was kind of like sub Service Bureau because he was like, I appreciate you giving me all the fluff. He was really making so. So here’s the thing. I’m all about everyone making money. But don’t get over on me. Because once I find the light, and you guys are the light, I’m gone. I have to be like, and I even tell people as they’re joining, like as I’m like scouting and getting new people on, like I will follow up. My follow up is crazy. So I have people that I worked like six months. I’m like, what’s going on? I’m like, are you more loyal to them than yourself? Which one is it? And so even, I can relate to that because that was me. I’m like, well, I’ve been with him. He’s been with me since I first started, kind of drifted off. But I found out about that backend and how I wasn’t getting any. And I had an incident where someone broke into my tax office actually. Broke into my tax office, it was a mess, so I had to move. And he actually gave me $7,000 of my backend money that I didn’t know it was a backend and was like, you do so much, I appreciate you and he gave it to me. And so I’m like, my God, you helped me so much. The office manager was like, no love. Do you know how much money you made him? She’s like, absolutely not. So fast forward.

Ross (03:37) Yeah.

Baldeep (03:43) Ha ha ha.

Ross (03:45) That was it. That was it. You just got a fraction of the action on that one.

Shauntee (03:48) Yeah, she was like, and I wouldn’t talk to her. Like literally she pulled up to my office one day and I was like, I just want to tell you this because no. And she’s like, you’re training, you’re doing all these things. And I’m kind of a person that that’s like, hey, we locked in. So I’m not charging you for training. I’m not charging you, which isn’t like that’s you guys taught me a lot. That’s what I say. So anyway, fast forward. I’m trying to think, was it Facebook or was it YouTube? I don’t even remember what it was, but I saw an ad that you guys had and it was like, like pause, no. Let me say this. I went to another Service Bureau before you guys and the thing about them were they charged me per license. So as I was growing, it was good, but a lot of people that come to me are either they’re experienced and they need strategy to grow or either they’re new to the industry, right? So it’s like no kind of a medium, but that’s most of my people, right?

Baldeep (04:48) No in between, no in between, yeah.

Shauntee (04:50) It’s really no in between for me. And so for the people who are just teaching you on your fresh, sometimes that license fee can be a lot. That’s what I’ll say. So I saw you guys at, got in on a call and I was just like, wait a minute, say this again. I’m like, wait a minute. No, that was what the unlimited got me. And then just honestly, although I’m a trainer, because that’s kind of what sets me apart from other Service Bureaus because I do the service part of it and I’m training them, I’m training their teams, etc. Kind of like an office in the box if you say like you don’t have to train you can offer training that’s kind of my thing but I was never really good at sales so I thought but after sitting through y’all training I’m a beast at sales and I was actually kind of good at it but I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing so you guys kind of taught me the psychology of sales that’s what I’ll say more so you know what I mean yes yes yeah.

Ross (05:09) That you’re doing math like immediately like hang on unlimited licenses.

Baldeep (05:53) Well, making it more of a conversation and how do you structure that conversation to make them go through the journey of the ultimate end result.

Ross (05:57) Yeah.

Shauntee (06:00) Yeah, let me tell y’all that when that light bulb went off it’s been like great from there. So that’s my story. And y’all are amazing and I’m forever indebted to you guys. I just got to get this group thing because a lot of my time, I do a lot of one-on-one and I need to free up some of my time so I can make, I still want to offer not to water down, you know, the value, but I need to find a balance with that. And I know I need to do more group stuff because I do a lot of training and coaching instead of one-on-one because yeah, look.

Baldeep (06:23) Yeah.

Ross (06:24) Yep.

Baldeep (06:32) Yeah, I mean that like literally that’s what we do, right? Obviously we do a lot of one-on-one calls, but Ross can speak to you a little bit how we structure that for sure.

Shauntee (06:35) No.

Ross (06:35) Yeah.

Shauntee (06:40) Yeah.

Ross (06:40) Yeah, I mean, like I was just gonna say I was gonna say the same thing where it’s like, well, it’s kind of that’s basically how we modeled it. Like we were just we just had a call with someone like the previous hour. And that was kind of something that she was hitting as well, because she like really wants to pour into her into her people. And she’s like, I’m doing a lot of one-on-one. But as I grow, it’s like I don’t have that time. Right. Like your time becomes your most like valuable resource that you have. And it’s like, I can’t just give out this time everywhere. So shifting to the group is always good. But you can still offer coaching and mentorship, right? But it’s just, the format is just, you’re just gonna change the structure where the group coaching calls that you do are like group mentorship calls, right? Where you’re doing these things. You could do, instead of having to do 10 one-on-one sessions, you could have two weekly calls that everyone can attend, right? And then if people need additional support afterwards, have them, I don’t know if you have a ticketing platform or even just an inbox where it’s like, send your questions here over email, and then you can still support them when you have the time for it, but that way you can really choose when you’re spending time to do the support versus people taking time on your calendar where you have to block that hour and show up or then they fucking no show you and then you’re like, so. So that’s a good kind of hybrid model, right? Where you can do the group and then you can still the one-on-one on the backend.

Shauntee (07:14) Mm-hmm.

Shauntee (07:52) Don’t get me started. So that’s kind of where my I like what you said. I like what you said.

Baldeep (08:00) And then to kind of add to that, when you’re looking at how you’re running these one-on-one calls, what you’ll start to realize is that the content or the topics that you’re discussing are continuously the same, right? Maybe some tweaks here and there, but they’re continuously. So what you do is when you actually make those, so I don’t know if you noticed this year, our weekly coaching calls are structured around the offer, marketing, sales, fulfillment. And those are standard weekly. There’ll be variations in those, but what you do is now you have those structured calls and have those people join those structured calls and you maybe do them twice a week, maybe for however you want to do it. Depending on how many topics you want to cover. But then specifically for the one-on-one, how we started handling, obviously the scaling of it is, okay, hey, you have a question about offers or you have a question about marketing. Like this time of year, that’s what the questions are about. Cool. Just put in a ticket, let us know exactly what you did. Give us a breakdown of this, this, and this. Cause if they don’t provide that, then they didn’t do the work. Then they could just go to the group call, right? If they provide that and did the work, then okay, cool. We can hop in on a one-on-one. So those are the, those are the things you have to start balancing with your time. Cause we used to get a lot of, and you probably get it. You’ll get a, we used to get a lot of tickets or people saying, Hey, I need a coaching call. And it’s like, cool. But then they haven’t gone through any of the stuff or they haven’t attended any of the things. So.

Shauntee (08:17) Some variations, but they’re the same variations actually.

Shauntee (09:08) Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah.

Ross (09:14) Yep.

Shauntee (09:16) Yeah.

Ross (09:29) Yeah.

Shauntee (09:26) Anything. I get it all the time and I’m like, hey, so I want you to go back and do the work and then we’ll come back. So you guys just gave me confirmation. And look, I’m going to need a coaching call so we can come up with a strategy. What I can, what I’ve, what I’ve come up with, the other thing that I started implementing is like the metrics for each person. So like, don’t kill me when I say this, but this is what I was doing. I learned like last year, which is a good thing because it got me, I totally didn’t do any taxes, that didn’t exist for me because I was pouring into here, which I’m fine with that. Like that’s the goal anyway, but I was kind of forced into that goal. And if I’m forced there, the tax office money that I lost, I need to make sure I’m making it over here. It can’t just be like training and Service Bureau and coaching, all that stuff grew, but I still miss that. So that’s why I’m like, okay, we have to find a happy medium. I think the thing that I struggle with, well, that’s what I was going to say. I was meeting with them for the people who showed up. I was meeting with them weekly. I’m not doing that anymore. I have three people.

Ross (09:33) Alright, send in the ticket, show us what you’ve done.

Baldeep (09:39) Hahaha

Ross (10:29) What like one-on-ones like individual weekly? Yeah. Yeah, that’s a lot.

Baldeep (10:32) That’s a lot, yeah.

Shauntee (10:33) Yeah, because I’m really good with strategy like the crazy part is and sometimes I can do it for myself but I get like a mind block with myself and I can do it for everybody else. It’s the weirdest thing. That’s why I need y’all. But so what I noticed is when I did their metrics, I did how much you showed up, how much you did this, I’m like, okay, no, let’s you don’t even we’re gonna put you into bi-weekly, weekly is premium and you’re gonna pay for that. You’re gonna even we’re gonna up third the price for this, we’re gonna do group. The thing that I struggle with so I scale back on that not so much one-on-one because you can still help them, a lot of people come to those calls and we get off because they haven’t done the work because I always give work, but the thing that I kind of well I’m not gonna say I struggle because I don’t struggle, the thing that I have, I was having a hard time with in the past and I’m still trying to figure out is how not to, I don’t ever want my one-on-ones to feel cheated. So like in these group settings, I don’t want, and I don’t want to hold back either. It doesn’t make kind of sense. Like, so I feel like, why am I paying you for one-on-one if you’re going to get it in the group? And so in my mind, I was like, well, the difference is you give them what, but you don’t give them the, like the one-on-one is like the strategy for their office and no strategy for their office on the group. Cause I’m like trying to figure it out.

Baldeep (10:46) That’s usually how it works.

Ross (10:48) Yeah.

Ross (11:35) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ross (11:48) Exactly, right? It’s like you’re, yeah, the one-on-one, you’re tailoring it directly for their exact scenario and them and like giving them the actual like specifics on what they need to do individually. Like I totally get what you mean, but at the end of the day, like kind of what Baldeep said is like, do you document or like, or take any notes or like log kind of like what information was discussed when you have these one-on-ones with your team? So I…

Shauntee (12:15) They get a sheet with everything we went over.

Ross (12:17) Perfect. So what I would, I would have someone go and like, if you have a VA or someone go through and like, look at all that and summarize, like what’s the most common topics, themes that we’re discussing. And then you can figure out those, like that’s what Baldeep said, right? Like when we were doing one-on-one with people, people are like, I need a strategy call, we always start, we get on the call and be like, well, okay, so what are you selling? And they’re like, well, I don’t know yet. It’s like, well, like, okay, I can’t give you a marketing strategy. I can’t help you with sales. I can help you with anything if you don’t even know exactly, right? And that was about 90%. Yeah, so that was about like 80% of the conversations would just kind of stop there where I’m like, okay, you need to go make an offer. And then it got to the point where it’s like, hey, whenever people ask for a coaching call, we’re like, sure. Provide us this information, show me what your offer is, and let’s start with that. Again, show us that you’re doing the work. You can make those filters, right? Yep. Yep.

Shauntee (12:40) I get it. You don’t even know what you’re selling. And then you get the people like, I’ll sell everything. It’s like, no love, you can’t do that.

Shauntee (13:04) No, I get it. And I tell them like it used to be me. You guys used to have to do this to me. So I get it. But once that light bulb goes off, it’s like it works. Just do what I’m saying, please. I promise it works.

Ross (13:14) Yeah.

Ross (13:23) Yeah. So that’s all, that’s all it really comes down to, right? It’s still doing like the, doing the mix of still being able to offer the group, provide lots of value there as well. Always. Right. And then the one-on-one is, you know, for the people like, yeah, I mean, you can, you can provide, you know, a higher ticket if people want that time on your calendar. But ultimately like what we’ve ended up doing, cause we don’t have like paid one-on-one mentorship because we, again, we have kind of our process kind of figured out now where we can filter people very quickly and put a little bit of barriers to our calendars. But then there are a handful of clients that we have, more than a handful now, but like there’s a lot of clients. Like if you ever email us and need a strategy call, we may be like, Hey, what’s your offer real quick? And then, all right, I know you’re doing it. Here’s the link. Like let’s get on the call. Right. A lot of people, you know, we’ll just do that and we may ask something or if I know I’ve had a ticket before like Nicole, we had a call with Nicole the other day. Last year she had a handful of tickets back and forth with me and whenever she kind of needed another quick little strategy call I was like, yeah, here’s my link. Cause I know that you’re putting in the work, right? So that’s where the shift can start to happen when you identify those people who are like, who are performing, they’re putting numbers on the board and you know they’re working, that’s where you wanna allocate your coaching time because you’re gonna win when they win. And that’s the cool thing about this business model. It’s like, you help your customers grow and scale, you directly benefit from it as well. So it’s like, yeah, I got time for you, because you’re gonna actually go and do something with that hour strategy that I’m giving you. So yeah, awesome. So let’s kind of move forward a little bit. So in the program, you found Service Bureau Accelerator, you saw some ads, you’re like the software deal was great. You mentioned the sales training, everything you went through. Was there anything else in our training program that you, what would you say you enjoyed the most about going through our training? I mean, you’ve seen, I guess a couple evolutions of it, right? Cause we had the seven day launch, right? You saw that come out. Yeah.

Shauntee (13:52) You guys are good with, you’ll get back to me quick. You.

Shauntee (14:15) Who are actually, yeah.

Shauntee (14:21) Who are actually, yeah.

Shauntee (14:29) Makes sense.

Shauntee (14:41) Yep, I like it.

Shauntee (14:53) Amazing.

Shauntee (15:09) Yeah, I’ve saw a few evolutions of it. That’s one of the things that I love. Like, you perfect something. And you guys don’t even kind of wait till the year is up, to be honest, which I love, because again, you have to copy the right cat, so of course, you know what I mean? So, no, I’m being serious. So you guys just, from marketing to, you teach me too outside of sales, how to build the framework, because like, naturally, just being honest, like people come to me. That’s a natural thing, right? But if I’m all over the place or, you know, I’m a person that like people just kind of I don’t want to say dump on, but they tell me all their stuff. But it’s like, how do we how do we close this sale? Like, OK, that’s fine. But I don’t at one point, I was the person that I’m fixing everything for you. I’ve done this because I’ve been a Service Bureau for a while and I was tech support and all the things for all the people. But you’re still not with me. I’m not making any money. So you guys gave me that shift between nice and business I’ll say. So I’ll just say framework. Like I can’t say sales and support. Like every year you guys send that survey. I’m like I don’t know how can we get better? Just stay, just keep doing what you’re doing. Like literally, like no literally.

Baldeep (15:26) Heh.

Baldeep (15:53) All their problems.

Baldeep (16:10) Yeah.

Baldeep (16:26) I think I think one of the I think.

Ross (16:29) Your answer was like just keep doing what you’re doing like I got and I got no notes.

Baldeep (16:33) If I remember correctly, we had a conversation and I think it’s kind of what you’re touching on about you were selling mentorship packages and I’m like, why the fuck are you selling something to people that aren’t under your Service Bureau? Like if they’re not with you, like I have this conversation a lot and you’re not like we’ve had it with multiple people and the second they make that shift their numbers just skyrocket because you’re, you’re worried about, I’ve given up potentially, let’s just say 30 grand of coaching potential. And it’s like, look, if they want it, they’re gonna get it. And now you’re gonna ultimately benefit on the backend, which the…

Shauntee (16:44) Who are not with, listen.

Shauntee (16:55) No, literally.

Shauntee (17:00) Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

Shauntee (17:06) And you guys taught me, let me say that. That’s actually, thank you for saying that. You taught me, which I knew anyway, but a lot of times I think we’re more so focused on that front number, which that matters. But that backend, like I said, outside of sales, the strategies, like I will never, okay, I don’t know. I ain’t giving too much thoughts away, cause y’all gonna watch this, y’all. And I can’t get out of it. But it was just this one thing that y’all gave me. And I’m talking about, it went crazy.

Baldeep (17:13) Yeah.

Baldeep (17:18) Yeah.

Baldeep (17:35) At the convention? Yeah. So…

Shauntee (17:36) Yes, yes, you know what I mean? So literally, like it’s just so much bigger than sales. It’s just like a shift in mindset because typically I’m always the person for other people. So I finally found my people that can do it for me.

Ross (17:48) Yeah, yeah.

Baldeep (17:48) Yeah. So for those of you guys listening on this, I’m not gonna say what the strategy is, that’s for members. But when we were at the convention last year, which the next one, if you’re watching this at any point, it may have already passed, but it’s for members only. At the convention, we do what’s called a fast action strategy in our group, right? And throughout the trainings, there’s little fast action strategies, this and that and that. And one of the goals of the convention is how do we have people sit here and make money while they’re here? Like, aside from, cause people go to these things and they get all this bullshit. Like, no.

Shauntee (17:54) Do not give it away, that’s for us.

Shauntee (18:20) Mm, it was good.

Ross (18:24) Rah-rah motivational and then three days later it drops and then they’re back to where they were before.

Shauntee (18:25) It’s not fluff.

Baldeep (18:30) So our goal is always like, all right, cool. You’re going to be here. You’re going to potentially buy what we’re selling there. If we’re selling something that year, we sold something this year. We’re not going to sell something, but all right, you’re there. We want to make sure people leave here and get an ROI on their trip, right? Regardless of you buy something or not, how do you leave here? You’re gonna all right with the trip.

Ross (18:49) Outside of like the sentiment of like, oh, I learned a lot. It’s like, no, no. Can we actually put money in your pocket?

Shauntee (18:51) No, seriously. That’s the other reason too that I really love you guys because it’s no fluff. I love that I can be me and I love that you can tell me get your shit together. I don’t know if I can say that. I think I can because yeah, okay. Because that’s what people need sometimes. I don’t need you to fluff me. I need you to like guide me and help me do what I need to do because sometimes we just get in our own head and get in our own way. But yeah, that.

Baldeep (18:55) Yeah.

Baldeep (19:03) Yeah.

Ross (19:05) Of course you can.

Baldeep (19:13) Yeah.

Baldeep (19:17) And I remember that day, because when we did the thing later on after lunch, I think I went over and I’m like, how did it work for you? Because I knew it was going to work for you. Your shit was blowing up. You had hundreds of comments, maybe 200, 300 comments, I think, by the time that weekend, that day was up or more. And then really it was just, yeah.

Shauntee (19:26) I was like, my God.

Shauntee (19:34) Yes, it was really good. Actually, to be honest, that was a big shift for me after the, after the convention. It was, it was.

Baldeep (19:42) Yeah, we start putting more numbers on the board after it. Look, numbers show, like we’re not, we haven’t dove into it, but you had a significant increase and a lot of it I think came from that. That one strategy kind of opened the door for the conversations and cool. Yeah.

Shauntee (19:55) I agree. And it’s funny because now, like literally, I’ve had like six people this week ask me about mentorship, but they have something somewhere else. And I’m like, yeah, no. And they’re like, but last year, I was like, yeah, that was last year. But feel free, if you want to switch, who are you? Are you, what are you? Are you direct? Like, that’s the question. And then once they tell me like where they are, and out of that six, I got two to convert.

Ross (20:09) Exclusive.

Baldeep (20:16) Yeah, you guys start having the conversations.

Shauntee (20:22) So they’re like, I’ve heard what you’ve done. I saw I’m like, that’s it. I can’t, we’re not doing that anymore. I’m so happy you gave me that clarity because the money is good. Look, the money is good on the but the backend is even greater because if you’re coaching them to do all the things, just give me a little piece of it.

Baldeep (20:32) Look, the- Yeah.

Baldeep (20:40) Yeah, exactly. Just a little fraction of the action, right? That’s…

Ross (20:42) Yeah, yeah. And and and more often than not, you’re also going to give them a better deal, right? So it’s like it’s like a win win win.

Shauntee (20:48) Absolutely, always. That’s the other thing you guys teach us. It’s awesome.

Baldeep (20:49) Yeah.

Ross (20:54) Yeah.

Baldeep (20:54) Yeah.

Shauntee (20:55) I tell people all the time, I’m like, here, let me tell you this, because you know, you give us the, there’s different levels to your group. You know what I mean? And I tell people all the time, I’m like, I can plug you in, but then you lose me and you choose. I said, they’re probably the only thing that I know and like two other people that are gonna provide you because they’ve kind of trained me to do a lot of stuff that I can bring it back to you guys. Literally, I tell, listen, you can go right through, they’re awesome. If you want this, if you want that but then you lose me so you have to pick and choose and then if you, if you don’t know how to do no numbers you might not, now just play, okay let me be quiet, okay I quit.

Baldeep (21:03) Yeah.

Baldeep (21:27) They don’t have you. They don’t have you. That’s the thing. Yep.

Ross (21:28) But then you don’t have me. Exactly.

Baldeep (21:36) Hahahaha!

Ross (21:39) That’s not, it’s so funny though. It’s so true though, cause it’s like, you know, people, people will worry about that a lot about like, oh, there’s competition. It’s like, look, it like people buy you at the end of the day, like, yeah, the deal points, what you’re gonna have to offer, like, yeah, that all has an impact. But at the end of the day, they’re buying you and you’re, what’s going to make people stay or leave. Right. And you know, like even even Lisa, right. She, she refers tons of people. But there’s a lot of people who just stay with her because they’re like, well, I like you and I like learning from you and I’m staying with you. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Shauntee (22:04) Mm-hmm. That’s what I, like literally you are your, you are the brand. So no, that’s definitely it. I’m like, I have no issue. You can go, but you know that it can’t be both ways, because it can’t.

Baldeep (22:16) Yeah. And that’s ultimately comes down to that conversation. Like, hey, if you’re with me, you get access to this. If you’re not, you don’t, right? Like, we have conversations with people who are, like, they come through our thing and they’re with the client. They’re like, we’re like, hey, look, we can’t, like, we can’t tell you what they’re going to provide. We can’t tell you what they’re selling. This is what we sell. This is what they sell. Really like, hey, cool, stay where you are. Right? Like, if they like it, they’re going to stay. They’re buying that person, right? So, yeah.

Shauntee (22:23) Yeah.

Shauntee (22:35) Absolutely.

Shauntee (22:45) I do have, but I don’t know if you’ll ask that. I actually have another good problem that people are like, that’s a good problem. But then it’s really not that maybe you guys can help me with, but go ahead. We could, I can talk about it publicly. No, I just didn’t know if we were like time-based. So my other…

Baldeep (22:55) Cool. You want to talk about it publicly or you want to talk about it later?

Ross (22:56) We can, we can.

Ross (23:02) We could, we could, we could, we could maybe, well, I mean, yeah, I guess we could go through it quickly. I’ve got a handful more questions, but we got time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it.

Baldeep (23:04) Love it.

Shauntee (23:08) It’s quick, it’s quick, yeah, it’s quick and we can touch on it later when I put my ticket in. Look at that. Listen, no one wants to buy, it’s so crazy because I always tell people and people ask me, low ticket offers never work for me. They only buy high ticket and I’m like, hey, here you go, buy it. They don’t want it.

Baldeep (23:10) Okay.

Baldeep (23:27) Low ticket. Okay.

Shauntee (23:36) They won’t buy it. I’ve tried it. It just doesn’t work for me. The only time it works is if it’s like a birthday sale. And I’m like, get this software for this. They don’t buy it. And I’m just like, people are like, that’s a good problem. I’m like, I want another little stream.

Ross (23:50) Is that, is that, are you like, where you marketing that, is that advertising like to your, to your followers and your fans and.

Shauntee (23:54) But that’s because I sell really academy mentorship. I’m not really a software seller. Like I tell you all the time, don’t, you ask, I have software, but I don’t sell software, if that makes sense.

Ross (24:01) Yeah. So, so, that, so that’s it, right? It’s a, it’s a, it’s a product market miss because you’re like, and by marketing, I like your audience, right? It’s not in line with your audience, what they’re looking for because they’re coming to you for that mentorship and all that stuff. And if it’s just software while it’s missing really the core component, why people are wanting to buy. And there goes my video. So let me switch real quick. So let me switch to, am I still in… why isn’t my other camera available? Huh. Well, I’ll finish that thought anyways. We can just switch the camera on someone else. But yeah, it’s missing the audience, right? And so if you, if you try low ticket, the better way to do it is to go after a different audience. So that would be like running ads to EROs, like running ads on Facebook and Instagram, like running ads to the public because then those EROs who are looking for that or who are wanting just software, they’ll find it. Yeah, exactly. So it’s just that’s just the disconnect.

Shauntee (24:19) Like it never works.

Baldeep (24:24) Something happened. There we go. Your different camera.

Shauntee (24:24) I’m like, something happened.

Shauntee (24:56) They’ll just, they’ll get it. That makes sense? Cause literally I’ve tried everything y’all say in there. I’d be like, this is my thing. This is where my heart is. Like I can’t even, if I wanted to just sell software, I don’t.

Baldeep (24:59) Yeah. And then, and then as.

Baldeep (25:13) Yeah, it’s a different, it’s a different, essentially it’s a different offer. It’s a different, different marketing channel that you’re going to bring them through. And then the other thing too, so like that’s a different audience, right? So say you’re running ads and you’re bringing those people in through that. They don’t really, those people aren’t going to know you for the other things you offer. So that’s, so that’s also could be a lead into the low ticket leads into your high ticket mentorship package. Right? So a lot of times what you could also do is say you’re doing a free discovery call, right? Hey, run your software, low ticket thing, and you’re jumping on a call, because we still don’t recommend just sending them to a checkout page, because there’s too many. Yeah. Yeah. So as you’re talking to them, that lead in.

Shauntee (25:17) Yeah.

Shauntee (25:27) No, that makes sense.

Shauntee (25:46) Mm-hmm.

Shauntee (25:50) You know I don’t do that. I believe you. That’s the other thing. I teach my people. I’m like, stop wanting. Don’t put it up. Get on a call with them. Like, you know, I’m good.

Baldeep (26:03) Even they may not end up even buying that product that made that discovery call may turn into like, Hey, you’re getting hosed here, here and here. You’re only doing 75 returns. Well, why aren’t you at 300 or what? These are the challenges you’re facing. Now you could actually set them up for a high ticket sale. You could turn a low ticket to a high ticket sale on that discovery call, close or subsequently later on. Yeah. Yeah.

Shauntee (26:17) Yeah.

Shauntee (26:23) That makes sense. So that makes sense. So we may need to talk ads because I was like, I’m not against them, but I’m like, that’s not for me. My people. But that makes sense what you’re saying because they don’t know me. The people that know me, they don’t know me. That makes total sense.

Baldeep (26:32) That’s not for, yeah, that’s not, but you’re gonna run, yeah.

Baldeep (26:40) They don’t know you for that, right? And then what you’ll also do, even if you run ads to your quote unquote high ticket thing, those people still don’t know you. So your sales process is different than the people who’ve known you, right? That’s why we really focus on those scenarios. Well, we’re not charging for these sessions, right? I’m just, I’m just, but guess what?

Shauntee (26:54) And this is why y’all get paid the big bucks, okay? Look. No, that’s the great that’s that’s the wonderful thing about it. Look, I’m like, just don’t change. Just don’t change. Okay.

Baldeep (27:07) Look, all you just need to double your numbers and I’m happy. You double your numbers, you’re happy, I’m happy.

Shauntee (27:10) That’s the goal, you guys see it here when we’re back next year. He’s gonna let you guys know they’re gonna double, I’m not even, I just told y’all.

Baldeep (27:18) Well, yeah. No.

Ross (27:21) I believe it. I believe it.

Shauntee (27:23) I told y’all they didn’t believe me last year and then boom. So stay tuned.

Ross (27:27) Well, it’s not we didn’t believe you. It’s just that we’re a little jaded by a lot of talk in the industry, a lot of a lot of talk from like just in general, people will say people will say things and actions speak louder than words to us. So it’s like, OK, cool. I, you know, I hope you do. And then we see it’s like, hell, yeah, you did it.

Shauntee (27:32) All right. Okay.

Shauntee (27:38) That’s true. I’m with you.

Baldeep (27:45) You know, if I had a nickel for every time somebody said, I’m going to do this, you know? So for us, it’s always like, cool, no worries, show and prove. Same thing that happens with us when like, we will speak to people in the industry and I’ll give them a target. And over the years, they’re like, no, it’s not going to happen. And then this year, it was funny, somebody from one of the banks was like, so where do you think you’re going to end up? And I told them and they’re like, well, you’ve been right every single year I’ve asked you this, so I’ll probably believe you. So it just takes the… you just gotta show and prove. Yeah.

Shauntee (27:49) I’m with you.

Ross (27:51) Yeah.

Shauntee (28:17) You gotta build that trust. You gotta show and prove. I get it.

Ross (28:20) Yeah, yeah. Cool. So do you want to, how, how open are you Shauntee to sharing just like, well, we won’t talk like specific numbers, but just like some revenue like the especially the growth from like last year to this year. You OK with sharing a little bit about that? OK.

Shauntee (28:38) Yeah, so Service Bureau wise, prior to SBA, I probably brought in about maybe a, I’ll say maybe 150 or 200,000. This year, I’m probably a little over a half, like 500, yeah, so.

Baldeep (28:59) Half a million, yeah. I mean, it tracks with the numbers that you put on from this year to last year, and then even talk about prior. Yeah, I don’t see a, I don’t see.

Ross (29:02) Or half a million.

Ross (29:07) Yeah.

Shauntee (29:08) Yeah. So like literally you guys, yeah, it was, and sometimes y’all are awesome. It’s just like, hey, if you tell me, I promise you, I can follow directions very well. Like I just need a little, I be stuck, but I love a good strategy and then just implement it and just getting out my own way. Cause what I see a lot of us, we just want to do it. We don’t want to reinvent, like stop trying to reinvent the wheel and just do it. So when I stopped trying to do that, y’all were able to help me skyrocket. So yeah, I’m praying for my, my million dollar year really, really soon. That’s the goal.

Baldeep (29:20) Hahahaha

Ross (29:23) Yeah.

Baldeep (29:27) That’s the big one.

Baldeep (29:43) I don’t think you’re.

Ross (29:44) You’re not far off at all. Yeah. Yeah. You’re very close. That’s awesome. So in two years went from a quarter to half a million. So basically doubled the business. Yeah.

Shauntee (29:45) That’s the goal.

Shauntee (29:51) Hmm.

Baldeep (29:54) She said like a hundred something to half a million. That’s more than double. Because before she joined us, because she was an existing sub Service Bureau, whatever the scenario was, a Service Bureau. Well, so that increases your profit margin, right? So like…

Shauntee (29:57) Yeah.

Ross (29:58) Oh yeah, yeah. Right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s right.

Shauntee (30:01) Yeah.

Shauntee (30:06) Your unlimited license, like that’s like, I don’t even think people understand like what that means. That makes a big difference. And it may seem like it’s a couple of hundreds, like whatever, but it makes a difference.

Baldeep (30:15) Yeah. Yeah, especially in a scenario where…

Ross (30:17) That’s.

Baldeep (30:23) It makes a big difference because like regardless, so depending if you’re paying $100 a license or $800, it doesn’t matter what the number is. The challenge becomes like, it’s not a problem for the ERO that’s doing well and growing. It’s a problem when you’re bringing in a lot of people that are just starting out and now all of sudden they, maybe you’re charging them a thousand bucks or 1500 bucks or whatever you could get at that, at that ticket amount, right? But if half of your revenue is going to license, now that makes your margin very thin, right? Yeah. And then now all of sudden, now all of a sudden, you’re like, whatever you charge upfront is 100% yours and you’re not being, we’re not even billing you the license fee on the backend after the fact. So it’s 100% yours and you could keep doing it.

Shauntee (30:41) Starting.

Shauntee (30:58) That was me. That was me.

Ross (31:00) Yeah.

Shauntee (31:11) Yeah.

Ross (31:13) Which then also means it unlocks growth potential and growth opportunity because now instead of having that overhead, instead of that money going out of your business, you could take that and then reinvest it into more marketing and more advertising. So now you can compound and you can build on that, right? Instead of having that expense where that money’s just gone. So definitely opens up a lot more scalability in the business. Cause that’s what, that’s literally why we have it. It’s the most scalable thing in essence, right? You can, yeah, yeah.

Shauntee (31:40) It was like an unlock for me. Because like I say, either my people already have something and they’re trying to scale or they’re kind of new. And so what happened is a lot of new people when they’re just starting, maybe they hit their, you know, maybe you’ll have a superstar, maybe you won’t. So I’m eating up those. Yeah, so that was good.

Baldeep (31:44) Ha.

Baldeep (31:58) Yeah. And then you’re paying for it either way. So… Yeah, no, I get it.

Ross (32:06) Awesome. Well, I think a couple last questions here for you, Shauntee, and then we’ll let you go again. Thanks. Appreciate you jumping in and having a good conversation with us. I think the last question, I don’t know if we asked this, was just asking about support in our program. I know we kind of talked about some things that you can do to help you with your group and everything. But what’s been your experience with our Service Bureau Accelerator support, like the portal, the ticketing, working with our support team as well?

Shauntee (32:08) Mm-mm.

Shauntee (32:32) Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Like, like just amazing. Like even new people because of course like in the community you guys built like we’re all, we’re pretty knit tight like we have we know each other like you know what I mean and so like when, when I build relationships within the SBA community like and when they’re newer they’re like how do I’m like you know you just put a ticket in they will literally answer it like, I’m like, I promise you, it’s not, just put a ticket in. So no, it’s really good.

Ross (32:37) Just that, just one word.

Baldeep (32:39) Ha ha.

Baldeep (32:59) Yeah.

Baldeep (33:06) I think a lot of people are afraid of the ticket when they’re starting out because they’re just, it’s either…

Shauntee (33:10) But the thing about it is because here’s the thing, it’s just like the tax industry. We’ve been scarred. When you think about it, people are asking for help. I told you, I had to become literally, that’s why that office manager for that old Service Bureau, I was like, you guys. So if something was going wrong, if something, they’re coming to me, I’m doing this, and they’re not even with my office. They’re just under, we’re all under the same Service Bureau. So just being honest with you, I probably don’t even utilize it as much, only when I’m bringing a new office in. Because I’m so used to having to do everything and figure it out alone. But you guys have made me feel way comfortable like I’m like hey, I need help. I got this client, I don’t want to lose them. What can I do and literally? They’re like, but let me tell you something, Baldeep has helped me save some deals, okay like.

Ross (33:31) Mm, right.

Baldeep (33:55) Yeah, we’ve structured some deals!

Baldeep (34:02) Yeah.

Shauntee (34:03) Yes, yes. So that’s another thing. Like, that’s why I say, amazing, just keep being y’all and keep getting better. And I’m here.

Baldeep (34:04) Yup.

Baldeep (34:11) You always bring me a unique deal or two here and there.

Shauntee (34:16) It’s like, I can’t make this up.

Ross (34:20) Awesome.

Baldeep (34:22) That’s interesting.

Shauntee (34:22) But support is amazing. Like, I don’t, there’s really no other word. The response time is fast. If you want, let me, let me kind of give the people the deeps. Response time is very quickly. Again, it’s not cookie cutter. There’s like actual solutions. Yeah, you guys are amazing. Honestly.

Ross (34:45) Appreciate it. We’ll let the support team know that too. We always give them shout outs whenever we can, because they do do a really good job, so that’s great.

Baldeep (34:45) I appreciate that.

Shauntee (34:49) You.

Shauntee (34:53) They’re really sweet and they will follow up because I’m the infamous of not, there was like an email that says is everything done or did we help you or something like that and I always leave them on read and they’re, I apologize. Just let them know that I’m gonna do better. Okay, I feel so bad. I’m like, I’m sorry. Yeah.

Baldeep (35:02) Yeah.

Baldeep (35:08) Hahaha

Ross (35:08) You’re not, you’re not alone on that. Like, hey, we just want to make sure before we close it out, because sometimes we would close out a ticket and be like, I’m not done yet. It’s like, well, OK, what, like something else comes up? OK, sure. Let us know. Now it’s all good. So what’s your, what’s the ultimate goal? Like I know. I mean, I think we kind of talked about a little bit, but I want to, I want to hear a little bit like I know specifics like if you have a specific goal for this year, I think it sounded like just you want to double again.

Baldeep (35:16) Yeah.

Shauntee (35:19) Mm.

Baldeep (35:36) Double.

Shauntee (35:37) Yeah.

Ross (35:37) What’s your ultimate goal like three, five years from now with your Service Bureau?

Shauntee (35:45) Three, five years, three, five years. Three, five years definitely will be a, no, I’ve planned it. So I’ll say three, five years, I’ll be a multimillionaire at that point. But I will have a very, that’s funny because I’m a, I’ll say a manifesto but I believe in like speaking things into existence so I do these exercises all the time. But I would be like, I can say thousands of offices at this point because like I know the growth for the following year will be hundreds of offices and the goal is thousands and just have that balance between hey group and one-on-one because that’s my biggest thing like I have the one-on-one down pack, I can tweak some things, the value is there but actually just making sure that my group, the group situation is better because you know group is less of my time. You get it. And then just with me, the other thing outside of coaching is compliance. Just, we’ll talk about it, maybe doing some partnering things because I do have something that’s really, really needed in this industry to keep the people safe. So that’s on my checklist. But I was waiting until we go in person and that’s all I got.

Baldeep (35:46) She hasn’t planned it yet. We’re gonna have to…

Ross (35:46) Yeah, yeah, just one year at a time.

Ross (36:36) Yeah.

Baldeep (36:51) Yeah.

Baldeep (37:16) We go in person, okay. Got it. Get ready for a pitch there, Ross. I’m just, she’s gonna try and sell us. Just gonna try and use our strategies.

Ross (37:21) Always ready. Always ready.

Shauntee (37:25) I have the numbers. I have the numbers. I have the numbers. I have the numbers. I’m pitching now, so I have the numbers.

Baldeep (37:31) We’ll talk when the recording’s off.

Shauntee (37:34) Okay.

Ross (37:35) Awesome. So on that note, then very last question for you here, Shauntee, and we’ll let you go. There’s more and more opportunities now for people to get into a, to become a Service Bureau, right? You know, it’s become a lot more popular in the industry. If someone’s looking at joining the Service Bureau Accelerator, what would you kind of suggest to them? What would you say to someone who’s looking at joining this group?

Shauntee (38:01) The proof is in the pudding. It’s not just me. It’s not like whether you’re a first time person who’s never done Service Bureau, the program that SBA has, you can dive right in and be successful. Whether you’re someone like me who has been in Service Bureau prior, again, you don’t know everything. You can dive right in. SBA is, you guys have built something phenomenal, just being honest with you. And I’m like, I pray, and I’m just being serious and I know I’m a little silly. But I pray that what I’m building can be like you guys are responsive. Like it’s just amazing. It’s amazing. The support, like don’t, don’t wait. Don’t second guess it. It’s a great program. The value is there in so many different ways. The support is there. You’re not left hanging by yourself. And even if you can’t get to them because everyone tries to get to them and Tamar, even if, even if you can’t, the community that they have us in, it’s very helpful. Like we’re not competing with each other. We’re literally helping each other. So yeah. Join.

Baldeep (38:56) You.

Baldeep (39:08) No, I appreciate that. To your thing, we’re very accessible, right? Like, people can get to us if the ticket’s right. Look, how many tickets I’ve hopped on and just called the person, like, no, this is what’s going on, we’re getting it solved or whatever, right? Like, we still hop in on them. I will say one thing, because you touched on something and I just want to close it out with that. Existing Service Bureaus. Like we brought over a fair amount of existing Service Bureaus to our ecosystem, right? And some of them, they come through, they’re like, hey, am I really gonna learn what I need to learn? They’ve gotten their deals from wherever they’ve gotten their deals from and the person that provided to them just gives them the software, doesn’t actually know how to train them. And I actually see a lot of people in like your position, right? Like you came, you had a certain amount of volume, right? But now all of a sudden it’s like the fundamentals were already there. So now it’s just taking like, okay, what you learned or didn’t know and just accelerating and put gas on the fire. Like, but people in that scenario, existing Service Bureaus coming over that have a foundation and infrastructure, they end up growing a lot faster just because a lot of that learning curve’s out of the way.

Shauntee (39:22) Yeah. Yeah.

Shauntee (40:07) Mm-mm.

Shauntee (40:17) No, literally, literally because a lot of the like, I know backend numbers and things of that nature. So I don’t have that, but now I can tunnel in to like, like I told you guys, the framework, the structure and the sales, the flow of a call because I’m everywhere. You know what I mean? I’m not everywhere. I’m very structured. I, okay. I don’t give the way to sauce, but I do the things. You know what I mean? Get the pain points, do what I need to do. Yeah.

Baldeep (40:37) Hahaha

Ross (40:41) You run a discovery.

Baldeep (40:44) The sauce is in our sales training.

Shauntee (40:44) Literally, literally. Like, listen, for me that was golden, because that’s really what I was missing. Like, you hear people complain about like, why? Why, I can do it myself? Yeah, if you’re not trying to grow, like, that’s what I always tell people, like, and that’s literally, they’ll be like, why do you say that? I’m like, I mean, if you’re not looking to really grow and you just need tech support by all means. And when you say it like that, you kind of reverse the conversation. Like, well, what do you mean? So, like I say, forever grateful, whether you’re new, whether you’re an existing, I promise you, like I say, I was a Service Bureau for five, six years before I got with SBA. And they have made me literally probably triple my business, honestly speaking. So.

Baldeep (41:00) Yeah.

Ross (41:03) Hahaha.

Baldeep (41:13) Yeah.

Baldeep (41:30) Awesome. All right. Well, I think that’s a good way to wrap it up. If somebody is like, hey, I want to work with Shauntee and I want to grow my tax business and all this stuff, where could they find you?

Ross (41:31) Thanks.

Shauntee (41:41) They can find me IG, it’s Rich Off Taxes. That’s me. Facebook, I am Shauntee Billups and everything is just Rich Off Taxes. Even though I’m Luxury Pro, that’s the brand.

Ross (41:49) There you go.

Baldeep (41:49) Yep. Okay. Rich off taxes.

Baldeep (42:00) Yeah, that’s the slogan. The slogan and the brand are two different things. Awesome. We’ll go ahead and wrap it up. Thanks for being here, Shauntee.

Shauntee (42:03) Yeah. Yeah.

Ross (42:08) Cool. Thanks for jumping in.

Shauntee (42:09) No problem. Thank you guys for having me.