2 EROs = 50% More Revenue: Kimberlee’s Service Bureau Strategy | SBA Podcast EP 49

Baldeep (00:01) All right, welcome to another episode of the Service Bureau Accelerator Interview Series. I am here with Ross and Kimberlee Collins-Walker. Ross, if you want to go ahead and kick it off.

Ross (00:12) For sure, Kimberlee, welcome, welcome to the call, how you doing today? Very good, very good thanks. So Kimberlee, if you wanna kick it off for everyone who’s watching, maybe just share a quick little about yourself, introduce yourself, let us know how long you’ve been in the industry and what ultimately led you to becoming a Service Bureau.

Kimberlee (00:15) I’m doing good and yourself.

Kimberlee (00:32) I’m Kimberlee Collins-Walker. I’m located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’ve been in the industry since 2006. I am an accountant and so I dabbled in taxes during my undergrad years and fell in love with it. And then I met you guys a couple of years later and then I got a call about SBA and I was like, what’s SBA? You know, I’ve heard about Service Bureaus, but I didn’t know exactly. It was a hidden, like a hidden society. And then I was like, wait, you mean I can make money without actually dealing with the stress of everybody’s taxes. So that’s what made me join.

Ross (01:15) Awesome, awesome. And so where were you at like prior to joining Service Bureau Accelerator, where were you kind of out with your business? Were you just kind of still running your shop? I believe like we worked with you with like ESM way back in the day as well, right? So we’ve been working together for a little while. Yeah.

Kimberlee (01:28) Yes.

Yes, so I still had my tax office and I was just running. I was just the go to person known as a tax doctor and I just handled taxes and I never knew about scaling where I can eventually remove myself. But it always been in my mind of what will be my exit strategy where I can just oversee the preparers or either just move to something else but still keep that office running as its own machine.

Ross (01:51) Yeah.

Ross (02:02) So that was kind of the game plan for a while, right? To be able to like step back and I guess is that kind of ultimately why like being a Service Bureau was kind of the perfect fit, right? Cause you’re like, okay, now I can not only, you know, generate more fees, but I can also see another method where I can help other offices grow and like provide them software. What was kind of the overall mindset there as well with the shift towards a Service Bureau.

Kimberlee (02:24) Yes, I knew I wanted an exit strategy, but I didn’t know what it looked like. I knew I didn’t want to do nothing, something totally different. I knew I wanted to still be in the accounting and tax field. So learning about the software and Service Bureau was like, oh, this is a no brainer. Like, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Like, I already know taxes. I know the law. All I can do is sell you software and help you set your office up. And it’s nothing that I have to go study. Nothing because I’ve been doing it for over 18 years. So it was a no brainer. Like I didn’t have to, it wasn’t like I was going to open up a t-shirt shop.

Ross (03:01) Yeah, yeah, totally different business, different industry. It’s like, yeah, yeah. I think that’s a common thing too, right? I mean, even for us, like, that’s why it was such an easy shift for us as well, because we’re already working in the tax industry. We already know the industry inside out, and it’s just like, okay, Service Bureau just makes sense. It’s just, so it’s the right approach. Awesome. So what’s been your strategy up to now, you know, being in the Service Bureau Accelerator for a while now? What’s been your strategy to grow your Service Bureau? You, especially like last year to this year, there was a much larger jump than what you’ve had historically in your volume. What’s kind of been your approach? What’s been your strategy to kind of grow the Service Bureau?

Kimberlee (03:45) When I joined SBA, I was again bottlenecking myself trying to reinvent the wheel and like, let me offer these classes, which you can. But I knew where my exit was. Let me just do something that’s just easy and simple. And so last year, I just was like, let me just talk to EROs. My first year I was developing PTINs and training them and it was just like, okay, the return on that investment is going to take a while, but I need something right now along with this. So I was like, well, let me just try to go talk to EROs who’s already in it, kind of just figuring their way through it or the ones that got it, but just want to make more money on the back end. And so that was just, you know, of course with the training, that’s what that kept hitting my head. Just sell the software.

Baldeep (04:43) I have a, I recall an interesting story. So last, not this past convention, the year before, after the fee breakdown training, remember we did the fee breakdown training, it was some dinner or something. I think it was you, Kimberlee. You pulled me over. You’re like, I have this, you’re giving me all the numbers from someone, somebody that messaged you from like the fast action strategy. And we did the math on like, on your notebook right at the dinner. I think that was you. I’m pretty sure that was you.

Kimberlee (05:08) Yup, we did. That was me because I did the fast action strategy and my thing was she was with TS, the other people. And I was like, my gosh, how can I bring her over? And she was like, uh-uh. And she was like, get the bank sheet. And I was like, I got it. And you was like, nope, do this, do this, do this. Make sure it makes sense to you. And I was like, it does. And once I showed her, she was like, wait, I can get that back? I’m like, yes. And that’s what made me realize, you know what, going the ERO route is much better. Because guess what? I didn’t have to host no class for her. She already knew what she was doing. Her office was set up. She had a brick and mortar. She just needed software where she could get money back. And instead of paying $1,800, she got that $1,800 plus more back in her pocket. So that was a no-brainer. And I was so happy to sign her up and she was excited.

Baldeep (05:17) Mm.

Baldeep (06:03) Yeah, that was interesting because I remember very clearly because you just like grabbed my arm like… It was at one of the dinners.

Ross (06:04) Yeah. Yeah, it’s.

Ross (06:12) Baldeep, get over here.

Kimberlee (06:12) Yeah, I was like, help me seal this deal.

Yeah, I was like, help me seal this deal. I’m a little nervous and I’m confused on how I can make this work for both of us.

Baldeep (06:25) Yeah, well, see another thing too, right? Like in that scenario, and I think she had like a decent deal. Like it wasn’t like a big, big number, but it was enough to make a difference. And what you had to become comfortable with was making less than you would maybe normally make or try to normally make. Like where you’re like, hey, is it okay if I make a little less here? Because you know that ultimately the volume will help you.

Kimberlee (06:44) Right.

Kimberlee (06:52) Yeah, and that’s where you came in and you was like, no, just think about it. She gonna push you to that volume tier.

Baldeep (06:58) Yeah, you weren’t at volume tiers then. And so now look, this year you are.

Ross (06:59) Which you hit this year. Yeah.

Kimberlee (07:01) Yes, and I have volume tiers. I just took, I just, I said, you know what? I’ma get on the back end.

Baldeep (07:07) Yeah.

Kimberlee (07:09) And so I’m glad I listened.

Baldeep (07:12) Yeah.

Ross (07:13) That’s the, it’s always interesting hearing that from, because we’ve done a handful of these interviews now as well and just hearing people that were doing kind of like similar strategy, right? It’s like, okay, let’s do the preparer stuff or like do an academy. And most of the main reason why we talk about some of that stuff in our program is that we know that there are people already doing that that need more guidance or they want to do that and they want more guidance. But at the end of the day, it’s like, yeah, the core model is a Service Bureau. Like you’re selling software to EROs. Right? Why like, why try to go and drag someone across the finish line, showing them getting their PTIN and EFIN and how to use bank products and how to do returns. You can do that. And there’s people who do that very, very well and they kill it. Right? But the easiest way to really launch as a Service Bureau is like, just sell the software. You got EROs who have a bad deal, who already have customers who do bank product volume. There you go. There’s your low hanging fruit. They’re so easy to onboard and most of them are getting a bad deal. So. It’s cool when you see that click, right? Where you’re like, this just makes sense. This is the easy way to go. Yeah.

Kimberlee (08:12) Right.

Kimberlee (08:16) Cause like, I had flipped it, I was like, let me get a whole bunch of PTINs and a few EROs. I’m like, no, let me flip that around. I need more EROs and maybe like five PTINs. I could kind of help the way it won’t stress me too much. Or maybe one or two or none, but we’re done. Yeah.

Ross (08:29) Yeah, yeah.

Ross (08:43) Awesome. Awesome. So, looking at your number growth, like do you have, I was just kind of curious about your numbers if you’re okay sharing some of that. Do you know like what that growth was from last year to this year? Because there’s, you grew by like over, there’s like over 200, 300 bank products there that you grew by. Do you know what that revenue difference looked like just year over year?

Kimberlee (08:56) Yeah, so my first year was eight.

Kimberlee (09:06) My second, I don’t know how long I been with y’all, what, three years, four years? How long y’all, I been here since y’all started.

Ross (09:11) I think like five years now. Yeah, I was gonna say, I’m like, you’re in like the first wave. So this is year five now that we’re rolling into, but I guess four seasons, four tax seasons.

Kimberlee (09:15) Yeah.

Baldeep (09:20) I think like your first season, it was really just your office, right? And that happens, it was just like you, but you just made more money on your own stuff. Like that’s usually year one for people.

Kimberlee (09:20) But this year…

Kimberlee (09:31) But I would say this year right here, I jumped at least 50%. And I was just by pulling. I think I added two EROs. Because I was testing the water, I was like, I hope they don’t need much from me. But yeah.

Ross (09:36) Mm-hmm.

Ross (09:48) Yeah, what am I getting into with these new customers? Yeah. So revenue increased basically like 50% because that’s the other thing too, right? Is that now like Baldeep, like we just talked about, you now got into that volume tier. So now there’s even more money on the back end.

Kimberlee (10:00) Mm-hmm.

Yes. So that’s been my focus now, which I had a dream about it last night. I was like, of course, people been coming to me asking me about, am I going to host another class? I’m like, I may do it for five people who open up five offices, but I’m really focusing on hitting those offices, especially at my local area. Like, just have a conversation. Like, hey, this is me. Let me help you. Let me see where I can be better than what you get now, especially if you’re direct.

Ross (10:36) Yeah. Yeah. And what you just said is like a, that’s a key thing there. It’s like, let me help you. Let me just let me take a look. Let me see how I can help you. And that’s another thing, too. Like I was talking on the sales call last week about that, where 

Ultimately like a lot of people, I think, get a little bit hesitant being a Service Bureau or they’re like, I got to sell software. I don’t know. I’m not good at selling. I don’t know how to sell. It’s like just have a conversation with someone to see if you can help them out. Figure out a way where if you can put money in their pocket and a little bit in yours as well, it’s a win-win, right? Just help someone else.

Kimberlee (11:11) And that was the thing because the first couple of years I kept saying, I’m not a salesperson. I don’t know. I freeze up when we talk about price. But when I pulled Baldeep at that convention, it was like, it was no, like I didn’t have to really say, this what you paying, this what I can offer you. And this is what I could give you in rebates. So it wasn’t like, well, you know, we could do, it was just like they say, people lie, numbers don’t lie. So that’s my motto now. I just need to see your numbers. Let me put it together in a spreadsheet and show you the difference and let me know when you want to sign.

Ross (11:46) Exactly. Exactly. As easy as that. Well, because that’s the thing, right? It’s like when you’re, when you’re putting, when they’re going to make like multiple times more money than the cost to like get your software, like why, why wouldn’t you? Right. It’s just a no brainer. It just, it’s easy. Yeah. Awesome. So, so Kimberlee going through our training, like you’re kind of one of the unique scenarios where you’ve seen all the iterations of our program from like the very first year.

Kimberlee (11:47) Thank you.

Kimberlee (11:59) Right.

Ross (12:13) Where you probably got in and the modules weren’t even done yet, where like it’s coming soon to the paths where we had pick your path to now kind of like the revamp where it’s like foundations, seven day launch and then core trainings. What’s your experience been overall? Maybe we’ll start there just like overall with the training that we provide in the program. What has that been like for you and how’s that kind of really helped kind of change your approach or dial in your process?

Kimberlee (12:18) Yeah.

Kimberlee (12:41) The training has been phenomenal. I would say that a lot of times when you join a program, it’s kind of, okay, you with us, we’re going tell you what to do. Do it. Not here. We’re going show you what to do. We’re going to give you the templates. It’s damn near plug and play. Put your logo on it and put your numbers in it and run with it. And then of course, if you get stuck, you’ve always got videos where you could go back and you can review. Like me, every year, I don’t know why, but when it’s time to do bank applications, I got to go back to the video. Because I forget. I love that we have a great community, but we also have resources. And it’s not a company where you can’t talk to the owners. Like you can’t say, hey, I don’t understand this. Can I jump on a call with you? I’m having this issue.

Ross (13:19) Yeah. Yeah. That’s coming up coming up in a few weeks here.

Baldeep (13:23) Yeah.

Kimberlee (13:39) I’m trying to make a sale, can you tell me what I’m doing wrong? A lot of times you have to figure that out on your own. But you really have like an open door policy, let me say an open ticket policy. If you put a ticket in, it’s gonna get fixed.

Ross (13:50) There you go, there you go.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s, that’s an interesting one too, that you mentioned like being able to, you know, Hey, I need help on this sales call. Like I, you know, I’m not sure what to say. That’s a, I’m trying to figure out a way to explain this for like the audience, for the viewers. That is something that, and I’m not trying to like sort of brag or like prop ourselves up, but the reason why we can do that is because we actually know what the fuck we’re talking about at the end of the day. Right? There are, there are a lot of other people out there. There’s a lot of other programs out there where they say, yeah, I’ll give you training on this and the other, but they don’t really know what they’re doing. They’re still kind of figuring it out themselves, right? They’re still trying to figure out their own business. And then you’re trying to get help on that. And they don’t really know how to help you where it’s like with us, it’s like, well, we’ve been there. We’ve done this for years. We know how to run calls. We know how to run webinars. We know how to run advertisements. This is what we do in our business every day. And that’s what we show you how to do. So. I’m cool, you touched on that, because that’s what we’re here to do, right? Just give you the game plan and help you execute every step of the way.

Kimberlee (14:56) Yeah.

Kimberlee (15:01) And it’s a true blueprint. Everybody say, well, I got the blueprint. No. You really have the blueprint from beginning of what forms you need to have in place to executing the PowerPoint and what to do after the call. So it is really, really helpful.

Ross (15:07) Yeah.

Ross (15:21) Awesome, awesome, great to hear. And then the support, you mentioned open ticket policy, which is a, that’s a good term, good way to say it. What’s been your overall experience with support? Like again, support with us, with Service Bureau Accelerator, like whenever you need assistance, has there been any like key moments where there’s been something that was like just, you couldn’t figure something out or it was like, it was giving you a lot of anxiety and then you were able to reach out and get it solved. Any stories on that?

Baldeep (15:26) That’s a nice phrase.

Kimberlee (15:53) Yes, one, all of a sudden, all these years I had an EFIN, I never had my EFIN compromised. I was just filing taxes one day and it started, my EFIN was compromised and I freaked out. I didn’t even know. I heard you put a ticket in, I think it was Baldeep answering. He was like, no, no, this is what you got to do. He walked me through it. He sent me a one, two, three step. And I had it taken care of not only in the software, but also with the banks. And then also this year, I had a ticket with, I was trying to do something, I was in OLT and I was trying to do something, run my reports. I couldn’t remember, I knew how to do it in the other one but I couldn’t remember how to run it in this one. And so I put a ticket in like, can you help me run, can you give me a guidance on where I need to go to run my reports? Within, I know they typically say 24 hours, but I got a response probably within a couple hours of giving me screenshots and then sending me the links of how to run my reports. And I was like, oh, thank you. Because it’s good when somebody tells you how to do something, but you also have a reference so you’ll know what to do next time. And not just saying, oh, here go your reports. Well, no, I still need you to show me so I don’t bug you.

Baldeep (17:03) Good job.

Baldeep (17:09) Just so you know, if you open up the support platform, there’s a knowledge base section. Those articles are in our knowledge base. So literally our team, like we have those pre-done for the common stuff and stuff that’s not as common. So if you ever like, oh, how do I do that again? And maybe you can’t find a video for it. If you search the knowledge base, those step-by-step articles will come up.

Kimberlee (17:31) Okay. Okay.

Baldeep (17:32) Yeah, we spent a lot of time putting all those knowledge-based articles together, mainly so that people can search for it, but also more importantly for our support team to expedite responses.

Kimberlee (17:42) Mmm, okay. See, I told you I got a response within hours, maybe minutes. I know it wasn’t four hours.

Ross (17:48) We definitely aim for like minutes or like within an hour for the response. But obviously, you know, sometimes we get busy and it gets a little bit longer than that. But usually same day responses like, that’s pretty common, pretty common. It’s not rare for us. That’s what we aim for anyway. So Kimberlee moving into this year, right? I mean, we’re mostly through the off season anyways, we still have a handful of, you know, four, what are we, four months, four months now basically, till the tax season. What are you most excited about, like looking forward for this year? Like what’s been your goal? What are you looking towards? And maybe even next year into the future for your Service Bureau.

Baldeep (18:01) Pretty common.

Kimberlee (18:29) Getting more EROs.

Ross (18:31) Can you say more? Thanks. I’d say you said it straight forward. So you like more EROs.

Kimberlee (18:33) More EROs, and I know I’m working on the ads. But I do want to, I feel like I should hit my local area up first. Well, I mean, also not first, also along with the ads, just so they could put a face with the company because I know people like to do business with who they know, like and trust. And so, you know, hey.

Ross (18:43) Okay.

Baldeep (19:05) You know a good way to build that up? You run fuckin’ ads.

Kimberlee (19:12) Okay, I see it.

Baldeep (19:13) And even something like, you brought up local a couple of times, right? You could run an ad to Louisiana. And like literally, we can talk about this after the recording, so the millions watching at home don’t get all our secret sauce, but you could just run a local ad, not a local local ad, but run a state ad. We’ll talk about that after.

Kimberlee (19:23) Cool.

Kimberlee (19:30) Yeah.

Kimberlee (19:37) Okay.

Ross (19:38) Yeah, yeah, you could definitely, definitely do something like that. I would also chip in as well. There’s, I literally just got off of a call with someone yesterday. She emailed me directly and I’m looking at the name. I’m like, I have no clue. She’s on our other Service Bureau, Tax Check Pro, because we were doing like that little pilot last year, we’re like running the ads and we’re running the system just to showcase to you guys, like this is the play, this is how it works. And I must have signed her up because she emailed me directly like Ross, like addressing me directly. I was like, I don’t know who this person is, but she was asking all these questions about like potentially reselling software. So I just called her up and I just had a conversation with her and she’s like, I absolutely, I am so glad I found you guys. I love you guys, blah, blah, blah. And that came from an ad. So just again, like, you know, having to run local or like people that know, like, and trust you, you can run ads to people that have never heard of you ever before, have no clue who you are. And if you just have a good conversation with them, they’re gonna begin to know, like and trust you and they’ll sign up. So that’s the other thing as well, just to encourage you that you can get people to know, like, and trust you on a first phone call and change their business because that was kind of her scenario. She’s like, I made so much more money with you guys. I was blah, blah, blah. So again, if we’re out here just solving problems, people are gonna know, like, and trust you when you’re when you’re helping them put more money in their pocket at the end of the day.

Baldeep (20:59) To piggyback, a lot of piggybacking. So that scenario, right? When you’re running the ads and you’re speaking to people, it’s basically what you said earlier on this call. It’s like, you’re just trying to learn how you can help them, right? And that conversation is what opens up the door. So the ad just allows you, instead of you door knocking these local people in your Baton Rouge area, this will allow you to say instead of maybe having one conversation a week, well, how do I have a conversation a day? How do I have three or four conversations a day? And maybe you could help one out of four people, but that’s what you’re trying to do. And you’re just trying to accelerate that.

Ross (21:04) A lot of piggybacking on the call.

Kimberlee (21:27) Mm-hmm.

Kimberlee (21:47) Yes.

Ross (21:50) More opportunities, more at-bats, yeah. More conversations, yeah. Awesome, so, Kimberlee, we’re getting towards the end of our questions, the interview call that we have with you here today, but my kind of last question that I have, and then Baldeep will have a couple for you at the end, but my last question that I always like to ask is like, if there’s someone who is looking at joining Service Bureau Accelerator, maybe they’re looking at a few other options or looking at us as well, what kind of feedback or comments or words of advice or encouragement would you have for anyone looking at joining SBA?

Kimberlee (21:52) Okay.

Kimberlee (22:23) My advice would be SBA is the truth. There’s no sugar coating. Like they’re not selling you a dream. They’re selling you the dream. That’s the main thing. Y’all are transparent. Even with the trainings like last year you did in the conference you showed us, well, we went in and created our own Service Bureau just to show you. That even though we did it before, maybe a couple years ago, the theory still works now. So you’re very transparent. Also, you’re open. Like, at the end of the day, when I pulled Baldeep to the side, like, hey, can you help me make this sale? Like, what am I missing? He could have said, well, look at one of the videos. Like, y’all really are down to earth.

Ross (23:21) Which we do say often, by the way, just disclaimer.

Baldeep (23:24) Yeah.

Kimberlee (23:25) Yeah you do say that but I was right there in the middle of a sale so it was like okay let me let me show you where you could navigate it and that was key. You’re transparent. When you say you pay, unlike some people, like you’re really honest. You have true systems in place. And somebody asked me about SBA before and I said, if you in this tax world, because it’s real nasty, I would tell you put all your cards with SBA. You’re going to get your money and you’re going to get the reports to match it.

Baldeep (24:05) Yeah.

Ross (24:07) Awesome. Love it. And then you gave them your referral link, right?

Baldeep (24:08) That’s the big… Alright, thank you. I got one last thing for you, Kimberlee, and we’ll let you go. So, if one of the millions of people watching this at home, they’re like, you know what? I like Kimberlee, I wanna work with Kimberlee, I wanna be one of her EROs, how do they get in touch with you?

Kimberlee (24:08) Yeah!

Kimberlee (24:31) Email me, K Collins, C-O-L-L-I-N-S, three zero at gmail.com or you can call me at 225-921-2917 or you can visit my website extendedtaxsoftware.com or you can get in touch with either one of these guys.

Baldeep (24:52) All right.

Ross (24:52) Perfect.

Yeah, we’ll give them your info.

Baldeep (24:55) We’ll give them your info. So you got three ways to contact Kimberlee. All right, Kimberlee, thank you for being here. Lovely to see you again. It’s been such a long time. And we’ll go ahead and wrap it up. All right, take care, everyone.

Kimberlee (25:00) Yes.