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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Leo Wehdeking speaks with Jake Alexander, a tax planning expert specializing in services for business owners and real estate professionals. They discuss the importance of proactive tax planning, the integration of AI in tax services, overcoming business challenges, and the significance of building strong relationships in both personal and professional life. Jake shares insights on scaling his business and the lessons learned from past challenges, emphasizing the need for solid relationships and a focus on high-value services.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jake Alexander (00:00)
we were doubling in size every year for about three to four years in a row, which was great, but.me having kind of more of a sales and marketing background and more of like an entrepreneurial vision for building the company. I wasn’t so concerned about building the infrastructure underneath. like systems and processes were pretty lacking at one point. And when it was 2023, we kind of hit like a tipping point where things went, things went pretty south for a while and it, it
cost us a ton of money, we lost a ton of clients, we lost a ton of employees and partners, and I don’t need to get into all the sticky details, but it was a very expensive, pricey, costly example, and it was a lesson that I had to learn, and as a company, it’s made us better. We’ve made a lot of changes since then, and we’ve actually made major changes to our business model where…
prior to all this happening, we were really more of a volume play. We were looking at the number of clients, the number of tax returns that we could do, the number of employees, and not really focusing on high value, high margin work at the end of the day where after this happened, it’s caused us to really get focused on tax planning, which is the services I was describing to you previously there where at this point, we have systems upon systems, upon processes, upon processes of how
everything works from like onboarding a new client to billing, to follow up, to renewals, you name it, we have a system for it. And it’s at a point where we work with a fraction of the clients that we used to, which is less work, quote unquote, not really, but it’s way less clients for way more revenue and way more profit, which in my opinion is how you build a successful business, which is one that you wanna go to every day, not showing up.
Leo Wehdeking (01:24)
sign up for it.Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your podcast Leo and today I’m joined by someone that I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Jake Alexander, who’s been serious, who’s been making serious moves ⁓ in the real estate industry. Jake, I’m glad to have you here, man
Jake Alexander (03:34)
Yeah, thankyou Leo, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Leo Wehdeking (03:37)
Hey, that’s excellent. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from you and how you’re approaching your business. If our listeners, you know, they want, you know, to learn something from you, from your business, what should you tell them?Jake Alexander (03:52)
I would tell them that proper planning is essential. We’re in the accounting and tax industry and there’s nothing like being proactive and working ahead of time. I will tell you from experience, it’s a lot better than letting those things go to the wayside and then trying to get caught up for multiple years. So being proactive, working ahead, that’s the way that you really save money in our business.Leo Wehdeking (04:11)
That’s actually cool. and you know just to make our listeners a little bit more familiar with your world with what you do You know, can you give us a short version on what what’s your main focus these days?Jake Alexander (04:25)
Yeah, we specialize in tax planning for business owners and mainly real estate professionals.Leo Wehdeking (04:30)
Alright cool and in what markers are you operating in right now?Jake Alexander (04:35)
all across the US. Our company, we’re based out of Tampa, Florida, but our company runs virtual. We have clients all across the country.Leo Wehdeking (05:29)
Love it, love it. Jake, something that actually caught my attention about the way you’ve been able to help your clients when it comes about tags. Can you tell us a little bit more and be more specific on ⁓ how do you keep them, keep helping them in the way that you do?Jake Alexander (05:49)
Yeah, absolutely. Our A plus level of our service is what we call tax plan plus implementation. And so a little bit about the way that process works is we dive in, we get copies of your past two years tax returns, we have a lengthy conversation to understand as much as possible, and then we also have a questionnaire that we have our clients fill out.And so from all that information, we put together an actual plan. And this is your tax plan. It’s an actual document that we create and present to you. The document is very thorough. It’s usually between like 12 and 20 pages. And typically there’s between like…
a half a dozen and a dozen tax strategies on there that you’re currently not using. And what the plan does is it describes in detail what these strategies are, how to implement them, and then if you do, it actually ties a number amount of tax savings to those tax strategies as well. And so we design that plan, we deliver it to our clients, and then we offer a series of up to four follow-up meetings prior to the end of the calendar year to, I would never say hold their hand, but basically hold their hand and walk them through how to actually implement all those strategies so they can maximize
their tax savings. That’s the A plus version of how we work with our clients.
Leo Wehdeking (06:54)
Hey, actually that’s not easy, especially, you know, these days and in Florida. I’m pretty sure that you have a bunch of clients, you know, that they do their taxes late or sometimes they don’t even know how to do them. I was one of them.Jake Alexander (07:07)
Yep, around this time of year is extension season. we do have a separate department, which is our tax preparation department, where their main responsibility is compiling timely and compliant tax returns for clients, which is totally fine. You know, we have clients who do extensions every year. That’s not what we recommend, though. If you want to proactively save money on taxes, the way you do that is from getting ahead of the bus and working in the current year before the end of the year. That’s what we recommend, definitely.Leo Wehdeking (07:34)
All right, that’s cool, Jake, I have actually one question that ⁓ I wanted to bring up. you know that these days, all of these companies, they’re offering AI automation into their services, right? Are you a person that is actually looking to ⁓ implement that in your company, or are you implementing it as we speak right now?Jake Alexander (07:57)
Absolutely. want to say we, everybody in our, in our company uses AI on a daily basis. In my opinion, it’s amazing of what it can do for research purposes and, you know, taking what used to be.two to three hours of internet research for us and condensing it into like 10 or 15 minutes. So we’re absolutely embracing it and using it on a regular basis. I think with any new technology, there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. So if you are a client and you’re doing your own tax research with AI, I would say that’s great, but you definitely wanna have that stuff verified through a professional and make sure you’re working with somebody who can guide you in the right direction. So absolutely, we’re embracing it and using it in the opportunity in
industry I think is massive because it it’s amazing because it frees us up a little bit more to be that trusted advisor with our clients and to actually have conversations with them and give them strategies as opposed to spending countless hours reconciling a balance sheet or you know finishing those final little tedious things on a tax return so absolutely we’re big fans of AI we use it on a daily basis
Leo Wehdeking (08:53)
youAll right, all right. Jake, and can you tell me a little bit about what’s been the key to keep your business, your tax business running smoothly?
Jake Alexander (09:45)
The key to running smoothly is to keep on fighting through the good times, through the bad times, through the hard times. Business is, you know, it’s crazy and there’s always gonna be things that come at you that are unexpected and it’s really to face each one of those challenges as a new opportunity to earn new clients, find new referral partners and find new opportunities. So I think it’s really embracing the challenges because…You know, there’s times when you own a business where it feels like they’re never ending or they’re endless. I’ve gotten to a point where I embrace that stuff and every new challenge is really just a new opportunity. So that would be my biggest message there.
Leo Wehdeking (10:20)
Alright, yeah, I totally agree with you, man. I totally agree with you. Alright, now, every operator that I know has a moment when things got real, alright? Maybe a deal that went sideways, maybe some bad taxing or returning taxing, you know, anything that went sideways or a time that you had to pivot fast, you know, do you mind sharing one of those moments?Jake Alexander (10:45)
Absolutely, I’ve got one that definitely comes to mind. This is back in 2022, 23, you know, without giving you the huge long backstory, but when I started this business in 2016 and we grew really fast, you know, getting new clients and finding new areas of revenue and that sort of stuff was never really a challenge for us. And so we were at a pointwe were doubling in size every year for about three to four years in a row, which was great, but.
me having kind of more of a sales and marketing background and more of like an entrepreneurial vision for building the company. I wasn’t so concerned about building the infrastructure underneath. like systems and processes were pretty lacking at one point. And when it was 2023, we kind of hit like a tipping point where things went, things went pretty south for a while and it, it
cost us a ton of money, we lost a ton of clients, we lost a ton of employees and partners, and I don’t need to get into all the sticky details, but it was a very expensive, pricey, costly example, and it was a lesson that I had to learn, and as a company, it’s made us better. We’ve made a lot of changes since then, and we’ve actually made major changes to our business model where…
prior to all this happening, we were really more of a volume play. We were looking at the number of clients, the number of tax returns that we could do, the number of employees, and not really focusing on high value, high margin work at the end of the day where after this happened, it’s caused us to really get focused on tax planning, which is the services I was describing to you previously there where at this point, we have systems upon systems, upon processes, upon processes of how
everything works from like onboarding a new client to billing, to follow up, to renewals, you name it, we have a system for it. And it’s at a point where we work with a fraction of the clients that we used to, which is less work, quote unquote, not really, but it’s way less clients for way more revenue and way more profit, which in my opinion is how you build a successful business, which is one that you wanna go to every day, not showing
Leo Wehdeking (12:30)
sign up for it.Jake Alexander (12:50)
putting out fires, having all these crazy things happen all the time too. So that’s the in a nutshell version of that story there.Leo Wehdeking (12:58)
All right, hey man, I’m very happy you know that that you share that with us because not many people like to talk about those kind of things you know. But actually for me you know that’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term all right. So let me ask you this okay.What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you?
Jake Alexander (13:24)
The next real goal for us is to grow and scale our tax planning services. That’s where it’s the highest revenue, highest profit service that we offer, but it’s also the highest problem solving, most needed service to our clients. So it’s where we really get to know our clients.on a deeper basis and we can offer that proactive relationship to them, which is what all clients are looking for, right? The majority of the clients that we sign up for that service, they thank us. They say, I’ve been looking for this. Like, I’ve been expecting my CPA
Leo Wehdeking (13:46)
Mm-hmm.Jake Alexander (14:33)
do this kind of stuff with me for years, but they just don’t. in reality, it’s because they weren’t offering that level of service, but it’s really to grow and scale that as much as we can because we love doing it. We’re really good at it. We get really great feedback from the clients that we offer it to as well. And so, you know, whenWhen I think back to 10 years ago of when I started the business, I thought two to three years into it I’d be retired on a beach somewhere relaxing, having the whole thing kind of run itself. In reality, it doesn’t work like that. So if I got to show up at the office every day and I got to work with clients, that’s the stuff I like doing. I’m really good at it and I’m really passionate about it. And so we want to do as much of that as possible with as many great people as possible.
Leo Wehdeking (14:51)
ThankHey, that’s cool. That’s cool, man. And by the way, don’t give up on that dream. All right, you can still make it. Exactly, All right. Look, the next move that you want to make in your business, you know, can either compound things or create cows depending on how you play it. All right. Now.
Jake Alexander (15:18)
Maybe one day, right?Leo Wehdeking (15:32)
I know a lot of people are listening are either earlier on their journey or looking to level up. So I think they will benefit from hearing this. When it comes about building up relationships like the way you do and growing up your network, what’s the biggest difference for you?Jake Alexander (15:50)
With relationships, mean relationships are key to making everything work, you know from the the relationship you have with your spouse to Business partners to clients. I mean to everything if I can not to go back because I don’t want to live in that whole You know 22 23 chaos period that I was telling you about but when I was going through that stuff I I had to have good relationships with friends who are entrepreneurs with other business owners who had been through crazy stuff to just like Talk me off the ledge and tell me you know none of themNone of told me it was good. Like none of them said great job for doing that. But a lot of them told me like, man, I’ve been through stuff like this too. You’re going to be okay. Like what you should focus on is X, Y, Z. You know, and people that are there to kind of talk you off the ledge and talk you through things. mean, having solid relationships is what…
is what everything’s really about, you know? And then having a solid relationship with your spouse is absolutely paramount too because owning a business is great, know, being a business owner is awesome, I love it, but at the end of the day, my family, you my wife and my kids, they’re the ones who gotta deal with me on a forever basis and when I go home, I wanna have a great relationship. Yeah, I wanna go home and have a great relationship with them more than anything else in the world and so having good, solid relationships is paramount to
Leo Wehdeking (16:53)
Yeah, on forever basis.Jake Alexander (17:05)
everything and then you know right before we started filming this you asked me you know about networks and all that sort of stuff I’m constantly trying to expand those networks too and so right before this I was actually looking at some other entrepreneur business owner networking and marketing you know mastermind type groups here in our area too so I’m always having good relationships is key but always being alert and ready to take on new ones is really important as well.Leo Wehdeking (17:10)
Okay.Yeah, man, I agree with you. that’s something, are something that you cannot fake, you know? The way you told me like, hey, I reached out to some of the people, you know, that I knew, that I know, to help me out to see if they have been through the same situation that you were going through at that point. And it helps.
it helps. Also because if you have very good relationship with the people that you work with and the people that you do businesses with then you can go home you know and have a good relationship with your family because it’s what it’s all about relationships not even at home and at work they’re they’re they have the same importance for me okay because it’s it’s your your day to
day, you know, like you go to the office, you need to be good at the office, you go back home and you want to be, you know, the happiest dad possible, right? And also the best and also the best husband.
Jake Alexander (18:23)
not still stressed about all the stuff.Yeah, and
not still thinking, and that was a thing I struggled with for a while too, is that I would get home, but I wasn’t really home. I was still mentally at the office and still trying to do deals and analyze things and all that kind of stuff. So understanding how to have, it’s tough, right? But understanding how to have a good balance when you are a business owner of, this is business time and this is personal time. To me, it’s something that was a challenge, it’s something I still kind of work on on a day-to-day basis, but to me is of the utmost importance too.
Leo Wehdeking (18:48)
Mm-hmm.All right, very good, very good. I’m very happy that you actually shared that with me. All right, before we wrap up Jake, if someone wanted to reach out to you, know, maybe collaborate or learn about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
Jake Alexander (19:09)
Yeah, our website is www.actionaccountingusa.com. That’s www.actionaccountingusa.com. That’s the best way you go there. There’s a book an appointment link right on the front page. There’s also tabs with resources, videos to our social media, all that kind of stuff on there. If you go to our website, there’s a plethora of information. And then there’s a book an appointment calendar link right on the front page that goes right to my calendar. I would encourage people to go there. Check us out on social media a little bit.And if you’re interested in having conversation, we would love to go there and book an appointment.
Leo Wehdeking (19:42)
Alright, perfect. Well, listen Jake, I appreciate your time, your story, and also your perspective, alright? Now, we need more people in this space who are actually doing it the right way, the way you do it, okay? The way you support your clients in your business. Thanks again for being here, and for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed, alright? We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Jake who are out there building real businesses, alright? We’ll see you on the next episode.Bye. ⁓
