EXPRESSTAX and my involvement

As you’ve probably read, my parents own an EXPRESSTAX franchise. After working for H&R Block for several years, they decided to jump into the tax preparation business with both feet. They’ve done remarkably well over the past 4 years. On their first year they did 300 returns and 600 on their second year. In year three they opened a second office and did a total of 900 returns. Finally, for their forth year they completed 1200 returns. Are you seeing a trend here?

Since I’m still interviewing for another job, it only made sense that I come and work for my parents as there is great potential fro growth. My parents have dabbled in different forms of marketing over the years. They’ve done some small mail outs, radio, newspaper and phonebook ads. They’ve also done a referral program that has been successful. No matter what they have done, they’ve grown by doing 300 more returns than the previous year. Since I’m here, I’m going to try to double that number for them with some targeted marketing.

The biggest barrier preventing mom and dad from just exploding is that they’re still a small mom and pops operation. Once tax season begins, they’re just swamped. The marketing they’ve done has either had to be cheap (they couldn’t afford too much in the early days) or easy since they only had so much time. I come to the table with some experience in marketing, mass mail outs and things like this. I also come with a lot more energy (advantage of being young). So, for the past week, I’ve been putting together an aggressive marketing campaign . We’ll be doing two 8,000 piece direct mail pushes to a targeted audience within 1 mile of each of the offices. We’ll be targeting all small businesses that incorporated in 2007 (my dad’s awesome with corporate returns and a heck of a lot cheaper than the traditional CPA… and often more accurate). We’ll also be doing a sticky note blitz (yes, 12,500 annoying sticky notes on the driver side window of cars in parking lots close to the offices. We also have a few other partnerships with businesses, organizations needed to raise money and local fire departments and police stations (hopefully). In addition, Sara and I are going to make phone calls to all 1200 existing clients inviting them to come back as well as a "Thank You" postcard that will go out to all clients for the last 2 years. With just running the basic formulas of 1-2% returns on mail outs, and similar results of other efforts, bringing in an extra 300 clients/returns is very attainable. That’s the 300 I’m going to bring due to my involvement with EXPRESSTAX. We’re assuming that we’ll grow by the standard 300 from existing methods that my parents have been using for years and have produced 300 new clients/returns for 4 years. So, that’s 600 new clients/returns which brings us to 1800 returns for the year. My big goal is to break the 2000 return barrier… which is also very attainable. If this happens, it will be a banner year for EXPRESSTAX Valdosta and I will definitely have earned my keep. In addition, if I bring in 300+ returns due to my marketing efforts, my financial situation will be just fine which buys me plenty of time on the job hunt if I need it.

So, I feel like I’m in a really good place. I’m very thankful that I have such a good relationship with my parents and they’ve given me the opportunity to work with them. Working for them allows me to stay sharp and flex my entrepreneurial muscles and develop other great skills that will help me no matter what I am doing.