Episode 13 Small Business Profit and Taxes with CPA Shannon Spencer Shareef

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:02

Hi Shannon,

Shannon Spencer Shareef 0:03

hey, Zaakirah How are you?

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:06

I'm good! How are you?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 0:07

I'm good.

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:09

I'm so happy that we get to have another conversation. We haven't really talked since the Just Love Cafe coffee visit.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 0:18

I know, I know it's good to build relationships but I have to do a better job at keeping in touch right?

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:22

uh huh, uh huh. But I know you're busy. You got you got wife, you got wife and mother duties.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 0:29

Yes, yes. And entrepreneur duties and you know, sometimes laundry duties and you know sometimes you know, plants and plants outside duty. So yeah, it never ends the fun never ends.

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:42

So I guess just tell me more about well first tell me how did we meet?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 0:47

How did we meet? So both of us were part of Nicole Walters $1k1day program. And then when we graduated, we were both part of the Yacht Club. And so somehow, some way through our connection in Yacht Club, I realized that you live close to Nashville, Tennessee, and that's originally where I'm from. So in 2019, I was trying to be a little bit more intentional about doing things and meeting people and establishing relationships. So I reached out to you and also to Taiisha and said, Hey, you know, I understand you're in the Nashville area. Let's get together just so we can meet up as, as Yacht Clubbers.

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:29

I think we connected first, I think. And then I was like, Oh, wait, there's somebody else here!

Shannon Spencer Shareef 1:34

Yes, yes. Yes. You told me. Yeah, Taiisha's here. She's in Murfreesboro as well. So yeah, I had the opportunity to meet to two fellow Yacht clubbers

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:43

Perfect. Yeah. And then um, yeah, we just kind of connected. it was just, it was great too I would say with obviously you're native, you live in Atlanta. And I was sharing how, you know, my family, basically is from Atlanta. And I'm always there, which how did we cross paths?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 1:59

Exactly, exactly. It's a very small world. It's a very small world.

Zaakirah Muhammad 2:04

Yes, it is. So I guess, tell me more about your world. What do you do?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 2:10

So what do I do? Well, first, you know, I'm a mom, I have two amazing little girls They're nine and 11. Jaida and Nadia, they give me a run for my money, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am married. So I am a wife as well. So my husband, Jamil (Reginald) is a very supportive husband. He's my biggest cheerleader when it comes to my business. And then I'm also a daughter and a sister, I have a very supportive mother and sister who support me in all of my professional and personal endeavors. So I'm first all those things, then I'm an entrepreneur. So I have a firm called access financial management LLC. And I've had it for about 10 years now. But it's always kind of been like the side hustle, until most most recently became my full time, business. And so with Access Financial Management, I am a CPA. We help small businesses and individuals to minimize their tax liabilities, while maximizing their business profitability, and their individual cash flow. Then last but not least, I'm also a philanthropist. So I really believe in giving time and money into the community. So much so that my husband and I just started a new foundation called edge foundation. And my husband is heavy into acronyms. So EDGE stands for excellence, diversity, growth, and education. So what we hope to do with this foundation is to create a lot of STEM based programs, and expose it to children who don't have the ability to have STEM in their school. So we're just now getting the ground work on the foundation. So I'm excited to see what it will do next year.

Zaakirah Muhammad 4:00

I'm excited too. I really love STEM. I think for me and my business, that's where I eventually want to go in, you know, charity side of the world. I want to give back to the kids, because that's where it starts. It starts with the kids.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 4:15

Exactly, exactly. And so my my children's school, they actually have a STEM program, and I work with their foundation. And just to see my children be excited about STEM, to come home and try to do experiments on their own is very encouraging. But the unfortunate part is not everybody has that program in school. So we just want to make sure that for those students that don't have that exposure to stem that we somehow provide it.

Zaakirah Muhammad 4:41

I love it. Perfect. So you talked about your husband, but how long have you been married?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 4:47

Hello,

Now. Wait a minute, it's been since 2006.

So about 13 years. Yeah, it'll be 13 years in October.

Zaakirah Muhammad 4:59

Okay. Okay, well, Happy anniversary.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 5:05

Happy early anniversary.

Zaakirah Muhammad 5:11

So now Why did you start? Why did you first start Access Financial?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 5:17

So why did I start Access Financial Management? At the time, I just passed the CPA exam. And I think my husband and I, we were we were just dating at the time. But what we found was that in our network of friends and associates and co workers, there were a lot of people who are employed, but also entrepreneurs on the side. And there was this gap in service providers, meaning, they didn't want to go to the PwC or E&Y or even a regional CPA firms for tax and accounting services. And they didn't necessarily want to go to the H&R Block or the Liberty Taxes of the world, they wanted to have someone who could provide a quality service for a good price, and still give them the tax services and accounting services and advisory services that they needed for them being an employee as well as their side businesses. So that's when I created access financial management, which is why I say initially that our focus is on small businesses and individuals just to help them balance out being an employee, and also being an employer as an entrepreneur.

Zaakirah Muhammad 6:32

I love it. Yeah, definitely important, because

I've heard it somewhere that entrepreneurs and sides hustles are going to be the new corporate. The new big thing.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 6:44

it's my thought is the new corporate gig because I mean, corporate America has been shaken to the core so many times that nothing is stable anymore. And so you know, hey, if you're going to go through the cycle of corporate America, you might as well go through the cycle of entrepreneurship.

There's no stability anymore.

Zaakirah Muhammad 7:03

Yeah,

Yeah. So what, What did you learn the most when you were I guess just Even today, you know, cuz I'm sure you started before Facebook was really big, and our internet world was really big. So what did you learn along the way?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 7:20

What have I learned along the way, as far as building my business, is that word of mouth is key. Word of mouth is key. So before Facebook, and Instagram, and doing Facebook ads, and doing Instagram lives, and even Zoom, the program that we're using now, it was word of mouth. And so when I spoke earlier about my husband, being my biggest cheerleader, I truly meant he is my biggest cheerleader. And when I started my business, he was, of course, my first client. But then he went, and he also spoke so highly about me to his coworkers. So I started having his co workers, as clients and they would speak to their friends. And before I knew it my client base had grown to almost 100 clients, including business, and individuals, so word of mouth is key, but the main thing is being able to serve, because if you're serving well, then people will refer you to their friends and their family. So the key has been for me, and the growth has been making sure that I do my best to serve well, so that other people will continue to refer.

Zaakirah Muhammad 8:33

I agree, I definitely think service is important. And service is really the root of you know, everything and, you know, following your purpose.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 8:43

It is it is it really is.

Zaakirah Muhammad 8:45

So,

What should we know about the new tax changes?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 8:53

Oh, do you really want to know?

Zaakirah Muhammad 8:55

Not really, but We gotta talk about money.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 9:00

I mean, well, I mean, otherwise, why am I here? Right? So the main thing, and I guess I have a point for individuals and a point for businesses. for individuals first, um, everybody, pretty much the majority of Americans has done their tax return 2018 tax return. And you are either pleased by the results, you were either upset about the results, or maybe you were just nonchalant you like, whatever it is, it is. But whatever your reaction was to the results from your 2018 tax return, whether you had a liability or refund, owed more than you anticipated, or receive less as a refund than you thought you should. Now is the time to do tax planning. Tax planning is not doing your tax return, seeing your result and saying I'm not happy with that. Let me get some more receipts. tax planning is taking the step back and looking at your total financial situation, and actually putting a plan in place, so we can help minimize your tax liability. Now, that also applies to businesses. Businesses need a tax plan as well. But the one thing that I will say as it relates to tax reform and businesses, is that entrepreneurs and business owners really must understand their entity structure. What are you? Are you a sole proprietor? Are you a single member LLC? Are you an S corp, a partnership or C Corp? Because the tax reform was primarily beneficial to C Corps. Now, there were some avenues and some things that were introduced as part of tax reform, that were beneficial for small businesses such as s corps and, and single member LLC. But the majority of the benefits went to C corps. So as part of that tax planning that I spoke about with individuals, you also want to do that with businesses as well. So if you're currently in a tax situation where your tax rate exceeds 21% Do you want to remain in that tax situation whether it's an S corp, or a single member LLC? Or would you rather convert to being a C Corp, where your tax rate is only 21%? It's those kinds of things that were introduced as part of 2018 tax reform that needs to be part of your tax planning. And again, now is the time to do it

Zaakirah Muhammad 11:30

That was a lot of great information.

So now you know a lot about your stuff. But sometimes, when we know so much, we tend to get in our own way with imposter syndrome, doubt, fear, things of that sort. So what would you say initially stopped you from not necessarily launching, but just taking your business to the next level?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 12:01

Well, a couple of things that kind of get in my way. Now we get personal. One is I'm a solopreneur. So I do everything. So I am admin, I am IT, I am the preparer, I am the reviewer, I submit, I do the wrap up I do the filing, I do everything. And by the way, my kids are nine and 11. They should be doing some filing for me at this point in time. But nevertheless, I'm a solopreneur. So I do everything. So the one thing that I know that I need to do to continue to scale my business and to grow my business is to bring on some help. You know, I can still focus on the returns and making sure that my clients received the quality service that they deserve. But for other tasks, such as admin and IT and filing...

Zaakirah Muhammad 12:49

and marketing

Shannon Spencer Shareef 12:53

I can hire someone to do that. Yes.

I can hire someone to do that. So I will say that if it came to launching or taking my business to the next level, that will probably be one of the hiccups. One of the things.

Zaakirah Muhammad 13:05

Yeah, the support system and having an assistant.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 13:10

Yes.

Zaakirah Muhammad 13:11

Honestly, every guest that I've had on my podcast so far has has talked about the how helpful having an assistant has been.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 13:19

Yes, yes. But I think for me, it's almost kind of like

My husband calls me a control freak. I don't necessarily agree with that. I just like to take ownership of everything, it doesn't mean that I don't drop the ball sometimes because I'm not perfect. But it helps to have everything somewhat in my control, just to make sure that if the ball drops, it doesn't drop that far. So you know, part of my growth, my personal and professional growth, is learning to let go a little bit more.

Zaakirah Muhammad 13:51

Yeah. Okay. So we all going to still be on a personal track. But

I see your last name up there. Yes, in the back. But I know that it's an Arabic style name. Right. You know, that means your husband's a Muslim?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 14:09

Yeah, so my husband's Muslim, but I am Christian. So we have a very diverse background when it comes to our religious beliefs.

Zaakirah Muhammad 14:19

Okay, and so I know how it will hide it that I'm good. Obviously, this is, you know, the month of Ramadan. So how did that you know how the conflict if the conflict how, you know, how do you make it work?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 14:33

Now, it actually doesn't conflict. So to give a little bit of background, especially from my husband side of the family, they have a lot of diverse religions within their family. So it's not out of the norm for any one of them to marry someone who is outside of Islam, or who is not Muslim. But I find that it works for our household. As I mentioned previously, I have two daughters, nine and 11. And they get the best of both worlds. So they may attend church with me on Sunday. But when it comes to certain events, or certain holidays, like Ramadan, or like Eid, they always have the benefit of my husband having the ability to explain the meaning of those holidays to them. So in my opinion, they get the best of both worlds.

Zaakirah Muhammad 15:20

I love it. I love it. So what is Um, let's see what is now Profit First is how about you tell me more about Profit First and how it helped you.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 15:34

Profit first. Now, let me give a disclaimer, I'm not a profit first professional. So I can give like a general idea of what I believe that profit first is about, but typically, when you have a business, you have your revenue, you have the money that's coming in. And then you have your expenses, which is your money that's going out. Anything that's remaining, after all expenses have been paid is known as your profit. And typically, for entrepreneurs, that's when we pay ourselves. So we made sure that all the expenses for the businesses are paid before we pay ourselves. Well, profit first kind of takes that equation, and it flips it on its head. So you're still collecting your revenue. But instead of pay your expenses, first, you're paying yourself out of your profit first, hence the name profit first. Because as an entrepreneur, you don't always have to make the sacrifice of making no money after all the bills are paid. Because after all, you have personal expenses of your own. Profit first helps to give you another way to think about your income and expenses to make sure that you are very profitable at the end.

Zaakirah Muhammad 16:47

Okay. Okay. I like that. I like that. I need start paying myself first.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 16:51

You know what?

Yeah, I think everybody should apply to, you know, the methodology of profit first, because everybody has bills to pay. Everybody wants to make a little bit of money. Hmm.

Zaakirah Muhammad 17:01

And it's like, it sounds like the monetary version of self care.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 17:06

Yes, yes. I mean, yeah, you're going to take care of yourself financially first, before you take care of your business. Um, but yes, it's making sure that you are being rewarded for the service that you provide for the work that you do. I mean, you would never go work for Coca Cola and work for them for a year for free. So why would you work in your own business for free without making sure that you're taking your profit first?

Zaakirah Muhammad 17:35

Mm hmm. I love it. Now, what are the books, website, programs, what else really kind of helped you? Because of course, you know, knowledge is power. And the more we learn about our selves, as well as our businesses, it really helps us to succeed.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 17:50

So one of the things I try to do, and I don't do it a lot in reading as I look at the Harvard Business Review, and so I got a subscription. And I can't say that I read every magazine from cover to end. But I try to pick up on certain articles that I think would pertain to me and my business. So as a quick, very quick example, in the latest issue, they were given an example of how you want to make everything easy for your end consumer. So they gave an example of a guy who was using a printer, he needed to print a piece of paper, and his ink ran out. And so his level of frustration, because the ink ran out, he had to go out to the store, see if they had his particular ink cartridge, they didn't. And so the manager had to go to the back, and they didn't have it in the back. So they had to order it. And it arrived at his door like two or three days later, two or three days later than when he really needed it. So at least the client disgruntled. Instead, what they were proposing is, hey, if he can log online to staples.com, or to Officedepot.com, find his ink, order it, have it shipped to him or sent to him within a matter of 24 hours, that that greatly releases some of that stress. And there are other caveats they had along the way. But how, how can I apply that to my business? So when I'm looking at my business structure, are there any items that I could streamline to make a process simpler, and a little bit more enjoyable taxing isn't really enjoyable to my end client? So um, so yeah, the Harvard Business Review is really good with articles. And then sometimes just looking at books by like Tim Ferriss tools of the Titans. And just reading some of those passages. Again, I haven't read it from cover to cover, but just reading some of the passages of the books, the four hour workweek, those kinds of books can always be applied to any kind of business.

Zaakirah Muhammad 19:57

I love it. Yeah, no, I mean, for me, I've even began to have a consistent schedule of, you know, obviously, cause I do still work a part time job So that kind of requires me to work four hours, four days A week

Shannon Spencer Shareef 20:10

Yeah.

Zaakirah Muhammad 20:12

So it's also it is the end of the month. And one thing that we did take away from our

class is to celebrate the small wins. So why, why do you think that's important? And what have you gotten from doing that?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 20:28

So yeah, you gotta celebrate the small wins, because otherwise you feel like you're not making progress. This is a small win for me. I have never done a podcast. So this is exciting for me. Now, don't Don't you know, you see the face. I'm smiling. But I'm nervous also on the inside. But this is a win for me. And it's very good to acknowledge the small wins along the way, because Sure enough, there's going to be some disappointments. But as long as you're grateful for the things that didn't go, well, then it kind of lessens the impact of those things that did not.

Zaakirah Muhammad 21:07

Mm hmm. I agree. I agree. Yeah, because sometimes we can get overwhelmed by what didn't go how we remember the traumatic thing before the positive thing.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 21:18

Exactly, exactly. So celebrate the small wins. So Well honestly celebrate everything. Celebrate every day, the fact that you are awake and that you know, you can see and the birds are chirping and you can breathe fresh air. Be thankful for those things because those are small wins as well.

Zaakirah Muhammad 21:36

Absolutely. So where can we find you on the web?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 21:42

Ah, you want to find me on the web?!

Zaakirah Muhammad 21:44

I do!

Shannon Spencer Shareef 21:45

You can Find me at ShannonShareef.com. Now you really can't see my T shirt but it has my full name. I'm going to rise a little bit. So Shannon Spencer Shareef is my name. But you can find me at Shannon Shareef. You see the spelling up there, Shannonshareef.com or if you want to find me on Facebook or Instagram, my handle is @ShannonShareefCPA, all one word. You can find me anywhere.

Zaakirah Muhammad 22:10

So is this also where we can find out more about your services for access financial?

Shannon Spencer Shareef 22:15

Yes, you can find out anything you want to about me and Access Financial Management LLC as Shannonshareef.com

Zaakirah Muhammad 22:22

I love it. Well. Thank you, Shannon.

Shannon Spencer Shareef 22:27

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited about this opportunity.