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Nick: (00:21)
Alright, what is up everyone, welcome to the Million-Dollar Sellers podcast. I’m your host, Nick Shucet. Today we’ve got Jeremy and Jason on the call from Ecom CPA. What’s up, guys? How’s it going?
Jason (00:34)
Great Nick, how are you doing?
Jeremy (00:34)
It’s good. Big week so far.
Nick (00:36)
Nice. Good week. Yeah, man, it’s exciting times where I'm at. It’s warming up, so you know, everyone's just getting outdoors more. Life is getting a little more enjoyable with the sunshine and stuff like that. So, I'm definitely enjoying that and just got moved into a new office as well. Like I was telling you guys right before we started recording, but things are good.
Is anything new going on with you guys at the moment?
Jeremy (01:05)
Yeah, It’s a... I mean, we just finished up our busy time of year for tax season, and we're kind of heading into doing some tax planning stuff for our clients. So that's always fun for us.
Jason (01:20)
Yeah... we've been working on a few exciting things for our clients. We like to get input from the people that we get the privilege to serve. It helps us create what fits for them in being able to... like it enables scale. And so what we continually heard from our clients was we hate that there's a silo between accounting and tax departments. They just wanted simplicity.
Like, they're tired of having to repeat themselves as entrepreneurs. So we're working on this new model—we've already rolled it out, and our clients are really enjoying it. Where we have just a CPA, that's a certified CPA that they engage with as a single person at the company. And so you don't ever have to repeat yourself like they understand your taxes and all the moving pieces from a compliance perspective.
So it's really fun because nobody else has done this. And so like we're breaking new ground while at the same time giving our clients exactly what they said. And it feels good to do that. We're super agile and that's one of the things I love about working here.
Nick (02:18)
Nice. That's exciting, man. I love that you guys are working on that. Like I've had some negative experiences with bookkeepers and accountants and CPAs in the past where you just... you're never talking to the same person. And you know, those details and stuff like... it's a lot to kind of process that information and to have to do it over and over again is definitely frustrating.
Jason: (02:42)
Yeah, totally.
Nick (02:45)
So yeah, I'm excited to dig into what you guys do at, you know… at Ecom CPA, you guys have been involved with the group for a long time. Everyone had nothing but good things to say about the work that you guys do and all the great times we have at the events as well. Like, you know, Jason came out to his first event at Jackson Hole.
It was really good meeting him and Jeremy. I feel like we've been hanging out for years, man. We've been surfing in Mexico. Like we've done all these snowboarding, like all these cool things, man. And it's always great seeing you. So you know, I just kind of want to give the listeners an idea of like... how did you guys get here? Like, how did you get into this unique space of eCommerce?
Jeremy, why don't you go ahead and take this?
Jeremy (03:30)
Yeah, I can kind of talk to it. So I've kind of known the power of eCommerce for a long time. And so, like, when I was in college getting my accounting degree, I had an Amazon store and eBay store, and this was like in the 2000s.
Jeremy (03:46)
So really, like... really early on Amazon, like the crappy website and everything. I don't even know if I can remember if they had advertising. But I kind of saw this, like I could be anywhere in the world and reach customers all over the place, through Amazon or eBay or just online in general. And so I kind of had this passion for eCommerce and saw that.
And so you know, I went out into the workplace, like a good human being, you know, like they train you to be.
Jeremy (04:21)
And so like I worked at big firms, I worked at small firms. I kind of worked in the private industry too. Worked for Nike for a while. And you know, eventually, I kind of got into the tax side of things, how to practice in the Portland area that I kind of built up and exited from that. I also, I guess if you step back a little further, I had a custom ski pole company.
“I could be anywhere in the world and reach customers all over the place, through Amazon or eBay or just online in general.”
Nick (4:43)
Okay, Nice.
Jeremy (04:45)
It's called flavored Sticks, or it was called flavored Sticks. That you know, was fun. But I also found it challenging... I really found it challenging to source products and the back and forth with quality and it just really didn't work out. For me, I think, sometimes I still think about that, but you know, I really kind of had this passion for eCommerce.
Jeremy (05:11)
And so you know, while I was working at a smaller firm, I kind of had a little bit of a side hustle on Upwork and I just kind of started working with people who were in eCommerce and really finding out what the pain points were. So, you know, things like inventory, accounting, sales tax, like how do you get the data out of... from Amazon without, you know, blowing up your accounting system.
And so I kind of really... you know, there was just a ton of organic interest on Upwork, for these eCommerce-specific services. And so you know, that kind of gave me the courage to leave the firm that I was at and launch Ecom CPA as a full-fledged kind of service with employees and so forth. And, you know I feel like accountants in general are slow to move you know, with the changing times.
And so you know, that kind of... that differentiates us a lot from other accounts in that we know the pain points like I said, the inventory accounting, how do you get the data from the systems? What's FBA? I mean I've had clients come to us that their accounts don't even know what they're talking about, in that regard. So, you know, it's really... eCommerce is here and it's obviously still growing.
And so you know, we're just... we're digging in and growing with y'all.
Nick (06:47)
Man. I love like... just how there are so many things that you tapped into to kind of end up where you're at, like the Upwork marketplace and the Amazon marketplace and like your traditional, you know, education and how it all kind of came together to get you where you are now.
And you know, it's great to have someone who's kind of ahead in the trends or like on par with the trends in this industry, cuz a lot of stuff... like the states just figured out sales tax like a couple years ago for eCommerce.
Like, you know, there's still some states that are catching up, like the government is still catching up on this industry and what's happening and we need CPAs like you guys to be able to handle our Amazon business, our crypto stuff and you know, all these other things that are going on.
Jeremy (07:36):
Yeah.
Nick (07:37):
So, man, that's cool, man. Well thanks for sharing that story with us. Jason, let's hear a little bit about you. Like how did you end up in eCommerce and working with Jeremy?
Jason (07:50)
I didn't have a passion for eCommerce, which is interesting. I should have. I worked in an industry where there were products that big companies didn't want to use anymore, so they just sent 'em to a warehouse and I'd go grab 'em and throw 'em on eBay. I made quite a bit of money like... cash doing it, but I didn't see the opportunity.
It was just kinda like this side thing like the opportunity opened up, but I didn't... I was almost blind to how awesome eCommerce was. My background is technology and that really is my passion.
Jason (08:19)
And I didn't think when I got into helping people evaluate products or services that it would ever really be services, I thought it would always be technology. I was in enterprise technology sales.
Jason (08:31)
And so when COVID hit, I lost my job at a technology company and one of my friends has built a couple of successful eCommerce companies that scaled zero to 60 million in a few years and had started a full-scaled digital marketing agency, as well as like there was a technology component, a technology that we sold there and asked if I wanted to come join him.
And I'm like, I don't even know eCommerce. And so I got involved and the more I got involved, I saw what an empowering business model it was for individuals to be able to build something, not just here in the United States. But it's amazing to me that anyone from anywhere can start a business and, you know, create an LLC in Wyoming or Delaware and launch a business and become successful and take their family out of poverty.
And so I started to get a little bit excited about it, but digital marketing really wasn't my thing. When I applied to Ecom CPA, I thought it was a technology company. I was like, Ecom CPA. I thought it was like a platform to sell technology to eCommerce business owners. So I applied and during the first interview, there was something different about the culture at the company and what they were building.
"Anyone from anywhere can start a business and create an LLC in Wyoming or Delaware. Launch a business and become successful and take their family out of poverty."
Jason (09:57)
And then the way that they're managing the company stood out the most. Jeremy and Elisa were the two people that I engaged with. I just felt like there was something different in place. And what I learned later was that the company uses an operating system called the 'chart and business model.' And so many businesses just don't have accountability systems in place or ways to capture systems and processes that create efficiency.
And there's a ton of ways and they don't know how to communicate as a team. And I just felt like there was something different. So I was like, well, it's not a technology company. I probably am not gonna move forward with this, but I decided to take the second interview. And then as I engaged with the team more and more, I just felt like this was it.
This is what I want to do.
Jason (10:18)
And Jeremy talked about what he was building and it's been amazing in the same way that we... I talked to a guy yesterday, he launched a new product and he was doing $20,000 a day after week one on Shopify and stocked out immediately. And can't keep the products in stock. When you do that with the product, you know, you have a market fit.
And it's so exciting for me at this company because I talk to people and the market fit for what we're doing, like this new breed CPA firm offering that we're creating in conjunction with eCommerce sellers, you know, saying this is what's most important to me. This is what I need to see. Like the market fit is perfect. We get new requests and we go and try to implement those requests, but it's really the same as somebody launching a new product.
And it’s just about finding traction right away in the marketplace, we've got so much traction and then we're doing things that other firms aren't. So it's fun. We're like breaking new ground. One of the most challenging things to do. And there's a lot of growth pains that come with that, but we're having a blast,
Nick (11:17)
Man. That's awesome. It sounds like you're pretty excited to be where you're at Jason that growth just gets you pumped up, man. I can see it.
Jason (11:27)
it is. The challenges, but then the problems that get solved. And the impact that it's having on people, especially those that are planning to exit. It is so fun when we talk to people that are excited. That's probably the situation that I get the most excited about because a lot of people go through that and will just pay the taxes on the capital gains.
But we've got all these vehicles that we're familiar with and opportunities to eliminate those capital gains taxes. And so, it just feels good not to say, “Hey, it costs this much”, and say “Here's an ROI for anything that you would pay us for.” And that's really the premise.
The cornerstone of the business is how we save our clients money so that the costs of compliance, that goes... get knocked off the list instead of being one of the top two or three expenses in the organization.
Nick (12:12)
Amazing. Well, we're excited to hear more about some things you guys wanna share about saving people money, but I want to know more about this operating system that you guys have going on. I haven't heard of this one, a lot of MDS members are familiar with it... you know, like EOS. They talk a lot about that. What was this one called?
Jeremy (12:34)
Yeah. Basically, the coach is Alex Sharpen. And I think I know some of the people in MDs were in that group as well. It's similar to EOS, but just a little bit different. And so it's very similar in that you have kind of an annual target broken down to quarterly things that need to happen to get there. And then you have monthly things you gotta do to get to the quarterly and, you know, it basically breaks it down to the week level.
Jeremy (13:06)
And so, that's kind of how... when we take these lofty things like creating a CPA advisor program where you have one point of contact. You don't have to manage our team, which is a huge pain point at other firms or just in general. Like how do you... it's kind of a lot, you know when you think about that, it's like, we gotta change completely the way we work.
So if we set it as an annual target or a quarterly target, then we can think through what needs to happen each week to move us along on the greater hold. So that's kind of part of it.
Jeremy (13:45)
The other side of that is you know, with employees we have kind of monthly assessments that happen. We have weekly check-ins, so there's kind of this framework to make sure that people... through the life cycle of being an employee, meaning they get onboarded in a certain amount of time. We make sure that they're moving at the pace that we want.
And that we continue to check in with them. We just don't set, 'em free you know, in the company.
Jeremy (14:14)
So those are kind of the two main pillars of this kind of strategic way of thinking that we use. I kind of... the reason we kind of went that route is that when I worked at other firms, the strategy was just like ‘survive tax season and try and crank out a bunch of tax returns and help you make money’. So I kind of wanted a different way of thinking about doing this, which then helps us serve our clients better.
Nick (14:49)
Nice, man. I love it. It's like... it's so cool to watch the community grow with the partners and the members and just see how much value we can really provide to each other just because like, you know, we're all entrepreneurs for the most part. We're just like using different tools to get the things that we want, but we all need, you know, this structure this way that we operate to really get where we want to go.
And it's great to be able to share value in that way as well. How do you guys... where do you guys really fit in day-to-day in the business? Like Jason, what are you doing day to day when you come into the office and then Jeremy, you can let us know what your day-to-day looks like too.
Jason (15:35)
I try to... I, my goal is singular, it's to create a frictionless environment for people to evaluate whether or not we're the right partner for them to help them get to the next level. And so it's so many times when you engage somebody, it really has to do with the culture at the company. But we have this mentality of... we know what our right fit is.
It's not like... we could close a lot more opportunities in terms of bringing on clients. There are a lot of times when I could have brought on a new client to come on board and work with us, but we say no when we don't see that it's a good fit. And that's... that's that market fit that I'm talking about. But also understanding what our superpowers are.
So to engage with people in a way that feels good is simple to come to a quick conclusion as to whether or not we could be the right partner for them.
And then sometimes just to tell 'em, we're not the right partner, but here's somebody that you could talk to. That would be like, we don't leave people hanging. We're really firm on making sure that we build bridges whenever we have the opportunity to do so because that can be valuable to cross over later.
Nick (16:42)
All right, man. That's great that you're able to focus on that one big thing, man. That's huge. That's a great position to be in.
“We're really firm on building bridges whenever we have the opportunity to do so because that can be valuable to cross over later.”
Jason (15:50)
It is. I mean, I guess there is an addition to that, which is taking the feedback that I get from clients and passing that over to the operations team to come up with new ideas on ways that we could better serve our clients. And then develop a standard for making sure that the information that a client shares with me during the engagement process, if they become a client they don't have to repeat themself again.
So just having systems and processes to capture that conversation so that when the accounting team takes over, they know exactly what's happening. They review the notes. We've got some good systems and processes built around that so that the client can just... It feels better when they start than having to go and tell somebody their whole story over again.
And so we really are like... we wanna get outta the way of entrepreneurs doing their best work and make it easy for them to work with us, but with a very high level of confidence. Like, there's no question about the work that we're doing in the background, but they know they can focus on fixing the supply chain or building resilience in their business. And then they know that they have the best possible partner for tax compliance and saving money.
Nick (17:57)
Amazing. Love it. So, Jeremy, why don't you tell us a little bit about... why did you choose Jason for this role? Like, I've had a few conversations... had a conversation with Jason about sales. I really like his perspective on it. But yeah. What was it that led you to bring him in?
Jeremy: (18:26)
Yeah, I think Jason... I think he has a really good vision of where he wants to take things and he's not afraid to dive in. So I think that's a huge superpower. And he is also... I really liked, it because I don't want to... if we're not a good fit for a client... while you know, that ideal of bringing on more businesses is enticing, but if someone's not a good fit, then I don't want to set us up for failure and I don't want to cause bad reviews or something like that.
You know People, so you know his willingness to kind of build that route, I think is super exciting and, you know, he's got a... his attitude is... it's always upbeat and you know, kind of raises... you know, we're accountants.
Jeremy: (19:10)
So it's, yeah, oh, not every, I mean, you know not everyone's like super exciting and uplifting. And so I think you know, most, I feel like most of the account firms don't have someone on the sales side really. It's like, it's the CPAs doing the sales, which You know I think it's... to me, it's unscalable. And then you're giving out a lot of free advice you know, which is kind of our super power.
So yeah, really his vision, his upbeat attitude, and then willingness to dive in and serve our ideal client.
Nick: (19:57)
Nice. Yeah. I like that. He's bringing that perspective to the table, really finding the right client for you guys. A big piece of that puzzle is unfortunately turning people down and that's hard to do but it's great to have someone on your team that's clearly looking out for the best interest of the company in the long run.
Jeremy: (20:18)
Yep.
Nick: (20:19)
Jason, why don't you tell us a little bit about your sales perspective? We chatted about it in Jackson Hole and I just really thought it was cool and I think it would be great for the listeners to hear it.
Jason: (20:29)
It's really simple. I mean, if you think about it from the perspective of how you as a buyer and a lot of our buyer behavior is shaped by having engaged with companies like Amazon and the purchase being so simple and you just think about being a human to people. I don't even think about sales. If you've got the right product or service and there's a market fit, you don't have to be desperate.
And so many salespeople are desperate and there's this theory that you have to understand all these methodologies. And I do, I've read all the books, and I've been through the training. And what I've found is that sales aren't that complicated. There either is or isn't a fit. And you need to know at least as much as the business that you're serving about that industry in some ways.
“If you've got the right product or service and there's a market fit, you don't have to be desperate.”
And so being good at creating a frictionless environment has to do with being able to provide advice and guidance in a way that the person trusts you right away. And I think that's the goal. It’s just like, building enough trust for the person to have an open conversation for them to be relaxed enough. When you work with salespeople, you're often just like “This dude's gonna try to get me.” I'm not trying to get anybody.
You know, I've said this to Jeremy, my interest in life is just as much the client as it is our company. And so for some owners, they'd be like, well, that is unacceptable. You need to be just as concerned. But I think it creates a special bond with people when you're talking about the opportunity to come and work with the company when you can feel that there's that concern.
Jason: (22:05)
And so this is something that's taken me probably 15 years, like from the time of first reading how to win friends and influence people, like just learning. It's more about philosophy and just like really caring about people. And, there is definitely... to engage with clients in a way that I see as being most effective from a sales perspective, you have to have a certain level of intuition.
And that's what I try to... My main goal when I'm talking to someone is to uncover every possible area of opportunity. But then making sure that anything that could come up later in terms of cost for that client is covered. Initially, a lot of firms will just be like, we bill it $250 an hour and they're so robotic. And it's like, they don't wanna do anything to build the relationship.
“My main goal when I'm talking to someone is uncovering every possible area of opportunity.”
Jason: (22:53)
And though they'd be fine with just bringing you on as a client. And then on the back end saying, “Hey, we didn't get to know you well enough at the beginning of the process. And this is gonna be an extra $5,000.” I know that I've lost deals because I tried to dig a little bit too deep, but I refused for it to come up on the back end and the operations team had to deal with it like, “Oh, by the way, this is gonna be 5,000 more dollars.” Like nobody wants to hear that.
And so we're able to operate. Jeremy has given me Liberty to operate in a way that feels good. Like I can do it with integrity and we're not desperate. We just go out and we find the right people that are the right fit. And those people come on board and it's been so much fun just to see the impact too, that it's having on businesses on the back end.
I mean, I'm a year into this with no background in finance and I've learned a lot, but I think we've found the right match. It's gonna be easy to grow the company. But more importantly, what we're finding is our service to customers is becoming more and more appreciated, which is really the end goal.
Nick: (23:53)
Amazing man. Yeah. It just sounds like your perspective on the whole sales situation just really eliminates a lot of issues that could creep up from bad sales tactics, you know, at the top level. So I think, you know, operationally, you're just doing one of the best things possible for, you know, your department for the operations department, for the company as a whole.
And it would be great to see, you know, more and more people just adopt that sales philosophy of having those open, honest conversations with integrity and you know, being okay with walking away or saying no, because at the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with that. I think a lot of people kind of feel bad in certain situations and some salesmen will play on that, you know, that guilty feeling. So yeah, man, super cool.
Thanks for sharing that. You know, I hope some people pick up on that and kind of, you know, start to think about having those conversations with their team members. So Jeremy, what does your day-to-day look like at the moment? Like what, what are you doing?
Jeremy (25:01)
Yeah, so, you know, kind of as the CEO my job is... you know we have department leaders and so my job is to make sure that they're able to deliver to our clients and anything that's hanging 'em up. My job is to help them figure out how to get around that, how to solve that problem. I'd also say, I like to... you know, I'm on the tax planning side.
I don't know. I just have so much in a nerdy kind of geeky way. I have a lot of... to me it's like a challenge to figure out whenever I look at a client, it's like, I know. I know there's so much you know, when we have our... an ideal client, we can save them a ton of money in taxes usually. And so I just... it's like a challenge to me to get in there, to look around, to you know, to identify all these strategies.
So you know, for some of our bigger clients, I do a lot of that and play around in there. And then I get to go to fun events. Yeah.
Nick (26:07)
So cool. And I could tell, like, both of you guys like lit up when you got to talk about what you do and what you enjoy doing in the company, and that's just like such an amazing place to be, man. That's exciting. Well, what have you guys been able to accomplish Jeremy? Like when did you start Ecom CPA? How many people do you have in your industry now?
And like, what has this structure and, you know, think what has this done for your company?
Jeremy (26:33)
Yeah. So, I mean, like I mentioned in the story, it was just me on Upwork, side hustling after my day job. And so, you know, that really grew...
Nick (26:44)
And that was what year? What year was that when you started?
Jeremy (26:46)
Yeah, I think that was in 2018. Okay. And so then you know, basically a year of side hustling, and then that kind of gave me the courage to go off on my own with this. And so 2019, you know, that's kind of a year we started and you know, basically now we're at we just had our 16th employee.
Nick (27:13)
Okay.
Jeremy (27:14)
And so you know, scaling up, as kind of far as how the team looks. We have someone that leads tax, we have someone that leads accounting, and then obviously Jason on sales, and then we have you know, our operations team as well. So that's kind of the... the top level and then obviously have senior and people down below them who helped you.
The day-to-day work with everyone else on top supervising, making sure the quality's really good. On the tax side, I'm... the team is really good at what they do and I'm... the quality of work that we put out on the tax side, you know, the tax compliance side I think is really... to me, it's really important.
Jeremy (28:06)
And so I'm... I feel like bragging a little bit about that. The team you know, and what they do, when we have people come in, we're looking at their prior returns. And we're just... when someone doesn't understand eCommerce, then the amount of mistakes that can be made is substantial. And, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're not… I wouldn't expect you to know the ins and outs of the tax return.
And so having a team that's really solid, I think is super important.
Nick (28:41)
Man, you did that all pretty quickly. You know, got... Jumped out of the day job, and started building your team. That's awesome, man. And now you're up to 16. You said department leaders?
Jeremy: (28:55)
Sixteen total employees.
Nick: (28:56)
Sixteen total employees. Awesome, man. That's you guys,
Jeremy: (29:01)
It's a remote team. You know, we can get...
Nick: (29:06)
Do you guys have any... Do you guys keep track of any fun numbers? How much save in taxes last year?
Jeremy: (29:13)
Yeah.
Jeremy: (29:15)
The one I'm most proud of, last year we identified over 11 million in tax savings for... and my goal for 2022 is to get the 20... we want 20 million and maybe we're thinking too small.
Nick: (29:27)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy: (29:28)
Jason, I don't know if you have a number
Jason: (29:31)
I already, yeah, I've been aiming at 30, but...
Nick: (29:34)
Nice. I love it, man. It's fun setting those big goals.
Jason: (29:39)
Nick. What's interesting? Any business owner who listened to Jeremy talk about the department should have picked up on one core thing. When he talked about the department there is one that some would say is missing, right marketing. So we've had a lot of organic growth. Jeremy built some really good relationships with referral partners and people have talked about us.
Jason: (30:00)
Well, we've... you know our site does pretty well for conversions and incoming leads, but we haven't really had to do a lot from a marketing perspective because of two things, the work ethic of the team and the market fit that there is the need for what we're doing in the... in this space. We're aware that the next levels all require a certain level of marketing.
And we're building that out now. But it's just been amazing for me, having looked at how much companies can spend and for an eCommerce business owner, you look at the cost of conversions from a marketing perspective and that number, is one of the largest expenses by far in the organization. And so it's just, it's really nice to be doing what we're doing.
It's not easy. But yeah, when he... when I found out that the lead flow was what it was and that... and just have seen how things have gone, I'm just like this people are asking for this, they want it, and then we've been reshaping it, which is to me the fun part.
Nick: (30:56)
Yeah. That is such a great way to just get more business... by people just talking about you saying good things. And it always surprises me. How many people kind of miss the mark thinking about things other than just being open, honest, and doing what you said you were gonna do? Right? Like sometimes just doing those three things gets you ahead of the pack.
It sets you apart right away, especially in a service-based business. Like you guys where you're kind, you're building these relationships with people and, you know, trying to save them money and stuff like that. It's just so great to actually feel like a more human connection with the other person.
Jeremy: (31:39)
Totally.
Nick: (31:39)
Yeah. And that's why, like, you know, you guys come out to the events, we always have such a good time there. You know, how has MDS kind of impacted you guys personally, like Jason, I know you just came out to an event. But yeah. Let us know how MDS has helped you guys from a business and personal perspective.
Jeremy: (31:58)
Yeah. I mean, MDs have been a huge benefit to our company as well. I mean, obviously, you have the client... whatever bringing on new clients has been great. But I think you know, I think the real power is being part of the community and such that... We're not like selling people, really we're going... being present at the events, bringing value when we can.
And just, you know, being part of the community and saving people money on taxes. And it's not a... like I said, we don't have to really do marketing. You know, when we're part of that community and are just known for being good at what we do. And then obviously the events are so much fun. And you get to do it with people that you like being around, that talk the same language.
So I always, you know, come back refreshed and excited and... it's people that talk the same language yeah. As well, so…
Jason: (33:06)
The part that I talked about having a sense of what's happening in the industry, To me that is the core component of being able to connect with people. And after leaving the company that I was at before, I immersed myself in eCommerce just, cuz it's just such a fascinating opportunity for companies. It's harder to build now. It's not as easy as it was back in the day we heard about... old Amazon days, but it's still a great opportunity.
And I don't ever wanna lose a sense of the struggle that people have or assume that we are more of a solution than we really are to their business. So going to the events allows me to tune in, I'll just listen to conversations about problems that eCommerce business owners are facing. And so we know our place, right?
Like sometimes when somebody has a product or service, they assume too much about the problem that they're solving in particular, rather than understanding what all the levers are in a business.
Jason: (33:58)
And so I wanna know what all the levers are and I don't wanna try to insert myself where I don't fit. Like if somebody's having supply chain issues and for them to hire us, it wouldn't make sense. It's okay for me to say, “Hey, I think we should circle back around on this. You need to get your supply chain fixed and then we can engage.” But it... the last event, the partnership opportunity to visit with brands like Heyday and Getida.
And to meet those people and hear about solutions that they're trying to provide and the opportunity. Just to hear the eCommerce business owners talk about some of the things that they're encountering. It allows us to keep our finger on the pulse and I refuse to ever let that go. Like if you let that go as a business, and there's no other CPA firm right now that goes to events like we do and does what we do with the same attitude.
Maybe they go and they've got a booth and they set it up and they're there to like... but we go in a different way. It's like really to go and connect with the people who are out there grinding and building these eCommerce businesses.
NICK: (34:54)
Wow. I think you guys are doing a great job. You know, at it. It was great. It was really good meeting Jason at the event. We connected. And Jeremy and I always have a good time. So you guys are, you know, out there, like actually taking action on these things that you guys talk about and it's refreshing to see it, especially in the industry that you guys are in.
Like you mentioned Jason. So what's on the horizon for you guys? Like what you know, you guys mentioned some goals around saving money on taxes. What else is going on within the company that you guys are working on?
Jeremy: (35:29)
Yeah, I think... I think our biggest kind of initiative is that CPA advisor. That role that we're talking about, that single point of contact for our clients. And so you know, really our focus on the year is to build that out. And then on the tax, you know, on the tax planning side, we're always looking at... what options do we have as far as tax savings and really it's building the team out.
So our latest hire is a talent acquisition advisor. And so all that you know, really for us, people are like that's our inventory of the business, meaning without it, we can't survive. And so I'm kind of excited about that. To have someone just... all they do is focus on people and getting world-class people to come in and help. While Jason, you know, talks with people and gets good feeding clients.
We always have, obviously we have to deliver. And so that's kind of what my focus is on, is to get kind of our HR side of things going and figure that out. And so that's kind of what my focus is on. I don't know if Jason, you have other... obviously you have other things as well.
Jason: (36:46)
Yeah, mine is. Mine has been creating something. So as we scale we bring on other reps that go out and have conversations. I like that they have everything that they need to be not just successful, but super successful. I mean, we've got such a good product or service fit.
It's not hard to engage with people and for them to see the value yet, it's been my experience in most organizations that they're under-prepared and they undervalue the sales team and the revenue-producing part of the business. It's just been a negative experience for me most of the time. And so I've been building out the infrastructure systems and processes and things within technology automation, within technology to really create scale.
I mean, I haven't shown even Jeremy or Lisa, the two leaders in the company, how much I've built, but I've got a ton in place so that when we do get this talent acquisition specialist grabbing the right talent, I can go grab new customers as fast as we need. There are probably a thousand people we could go out and have conversations with right now that would be ideal clients that could benefit from our services.
But we've gotta make sure that we've got all the right people in place, the right people on the right seat that get it, want it, and can do the work.
“But we've gotta make sure that we've got all the right people in place. The right people on the right seat that get it, want it, and can do the work.”
Nick: (38:04)
I like it, man. What are some of the tools that you use to… you know, manage your projects, manage tasks, build those automations?
Jason (38:12)
Hubspot is where I live. I mean, we've got a project management tool from an accounting perspective called carbon, and then we've got other systems and pieces.
Jason (38:24)
We use Zapier to automate things sometimes, but..it's simple. We keep it as simple as possible. We don't wanna have complexity in the organization. So from a sales perspective, for me, it's creating content that we can share with people and just ways to correspond that are simple. And then setting timelines for expectations.
Understanding there's a lot of moving pieces. For when a client we've got probably right now, seven or eight different clients that are gonna start accounting in the next month. And so you could say, well, the team can handle the work, but then how does the onboarding go?
Jason (39:01)
And so I kind of have to gauge like, and set expectations on the front end and tell these clients like, “Hey, you don't need to sign the proposal right now, but you know, if you did, it's gonna take us this amount of time before we can get started.” So doing some of that forecasting on the amount of work that we can hand over to the teams, how that could happen, and then making that handoff seamless as well.
I mean, I talked about that a little bit, but it is very important to me if a client comes and they feel like we're the right fit.
Jason (39:28)
Their gut feeling is “I want Ecom CPA to be a partner.” I'll go back and listen to the meeting on Zoom twice take notes capture all the most important pieces and make sure that the team knows that they need to look at that because when the client comes on board, we need to be ready to go.
So mine has been building systems and processes and expectations for what the reps will need to do on a daily basis to go out and be able to help clients... keep helping clients the way we've been doing.
Jason (39:55)
And we do anticipate growth this year. As we start to get the operations team scaled up. We'll be bringing on... I'll be bringing on some people. One or two people probably before the end of the year, just to go out and get them at least familiar with how we're engaging with people.
Nick (40:09)
Amazing man, sounds like you're on your path to hitting a home run with that. I'm excited to hear what you're able to accomplish. You know, down the line, man. Nice. So what's on the horizon personally? Like I know, Jeremy, I think you mentioned maybe getting some surfing lessons and stuff. Like I know Jason, you've got some interesting hobbies as well.
Like what's it look like for you guys, on the personal side this year?
Jeremy (40:41)
Yeah. So I've kind of always had it on my bucket list to get better at surfing. You know, obviously, I went with you, but...
Nick (40:48)
That place was tough to learn because the bottom was very... it was very sharp. It was like...
Jeremy (40:58)
A little Sketchy. I know you guys all got... a couple of people got cut out for sure. But yeah, I don't know. I just have always thought surfing's so cool. And so I want to be able to ride some pipe or whatever you call it. I don't know, playing, but get
Nick (41:12)
The barrel man. Yeah.
Jeremy (41:14)
Getting the barrel. That's right. That's always fun. What else? I mean, mountain biking, you know, I'm in Southern Oregon, so summer's gonna start here. So that and backpacking with the family. So like real backpacking, not like in an RV or something. with packs and then hike out, you know, where there's no phones or anything like that, so...
Nick (41:41)
Yeah. Well, it's such a good feeling to unplug and do that for a couple of days. I haven't been able to do it in a while.
Jeremy (41:49)
Yeah, we don't get too many trips in, but I wanna... as our kids are getting older, I think it's I think it's time, so
Nick (41:57)
Yeah. The kids need that, man. They need to know what that feels like to get outside and unplug a little bit.
Jeremy (42:05)
Totally.
Nick (42:06)
Jason, what about you, man? What are you working on these days?
Jason (42:09)
I'm strange Nick. So a few years ago I realized that life is short. And so I did this exercise where I went and I looked at the average life of a person that's healthy. And I backed all the way to the year that I was alive and set goals for each year. And so I think my whole mission is just growth as a person, that makes every single person that's a part of my life better, like in some way.
And there's a reality when you're around people who are a lot smarter than you. You start to just see all these areas of growth and opportunity. And so it's in part eliminating the noise and focusing on the specific things that you wanna fix. And, right now one of the things that I've been working on a lot is listening better. I'm... I seem to listen well and pick up on what people are saying, but just listening better is the thing that I'm working on.
That's really... my passion is growth as an individual, as a husband, as a coworker, as a friend to people, as a stranger on the street, like, you know, you can change, you can change somebody's day with the right smile.
Jason (43:16)
And so that... I like race cars. I've got a car, it's almost a thousand horsepower. I'm looking to trade it right now for an even more powerful car. I just talked to the dude this morning, he's got a 1300 horsepower car up in Minnesota and I'm like, let's trade even up.
Jason (43:29)
And so working on that, but we... my wife is from Romania. And so she's in school still, but we're hoping to build a house over there and spend some time working remotely. I mean, there's a little bit of a difference in time, but working remotely it's something where we could go spend some time in Romania and hang out with her family.
So that's... the main financial goal right now is just to kind of get things moving in the right direction. I do some consulting on the side of technology companies on how to build out their sales department. And so keeping myself challenged until life is no more while growing.
Nick (44:01)
Nice, man. It's exciting. I remember you and Corion from uni brands talking about the cars and building stuff. And it was exciting listening to you guys chat about some of that stuff. Yeah, man. So that sounds like you guys have some great personal goals as well. Excited to see you guys at another event soon and just hear about how all of it's going.
Before we wrap up, like, why don't you let the listeners know a little bit about who your ideal client is and how they can reach out to you guys for more information,
Jason (44:35)
Jeremy, you could cover the ideal client. You have a great feel for that. And I'll go into… I mean, for me it’s… You can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm there, I'm active. I love following people and integrating into their business life watching what’s important to them getting to know them there.
And then also, Nick, I think you could just share my email address and anybody that wanted to get in contact and see if there's enough overlap between what they're working on and what we provide to our clients, our current clients, I'd be happy to have a conversation.
Nick (45:04)
Yeah. We'll drop that email in the show notes.
Jeremy (45:09)
Yeah. I would say, I mean our ideal client... you know whatever we're accountants, so number-wise, obviously, that makes things simple, but there's also other components, you know, number-wise, obviously over a million dollars in gross sales is important. And then, you know the bigger the net, the more we can usually save in taxes.
And so, you know that's really important, obviously eCommerce only we like multi-channel, you know, meaning Shopify, Amazon you have a brand you're selling through different channels. We like that complexity cuz we can be more valuable. We still serve Amazon.
Nick (45:49)
That's a strong state... That's such a good statement. We like that complexity
Jeremy (45:53)
Yeah. I love... you know when I look at the accounting market, I've always said, I don't want to be H and R block. I want... I want to go after the super hard stuff. And to me, eCommerce taxes are hard because you have a state income tax. You have on the other side you have a sales tax, you know, and both of those have nexus standards.
So I won't get too technical, but that stuff gets missed all the time. And so you know, we like that complexity of that stuff. So the more complex, the better. And we have, you know, we have clients with 22 entities, we have clients with really complicated stuff. And so we like that
Nick (46:40)
A client with 22 entities.
Jeremy (46:42)
Yes... Yep. I mean, that... that just means the attorneys were driving a lot of it, but okay. I mean...
Nick (46:52)
I like how you have a lot of insight into that stuff, man. I remember you did a call, you did a workshop. It was like, I forgot the title.
Jeremy (46:59)
Yeah. Top five tax savings. Yep.
Nick (47:01)
Yeah. One of them was like family planning for your estate or something along those lines, I believe.
Jeremy (47:06)
Yeah. I mean, you know, as an entrepreneur, where do you put your focus? So, you know, knowing what to do... kind of set yourself up for you know, succession planning or exit planning, things like that. Or just, you know, how to make sure you transfer your wealth. If something were to happen, how many times do people... no one expects to die, but it's obviously gonna happen to us.
And so, you know, if you think about a lot of eCommerce businesses, you can scale to 10 million just with one person and a bunch of contractors, but if something were to happen to you, what... how do you make sure that continues and you leave something for your family as well. So, you know, and that's...
Nick (47:49)
That’s a pretty important part. About what you guys do that you don't... that's easy to forget about. And that's huge that you have such good insight... I mean, at the end of the day, it's kind of the reason why we're doing what we're doing. Yep.
Jeremy (48:05)
Totally. You know? Yeah. So that stuff goes into the kind of the tax planning realm of things so...
Nick (48:12)
Awesome. Jeremy, before we sign off, I just feel like there's some tip you could give, something you've seen that pops up, like over and over. That's like to you, it's simple, but people overlook, like, what is that one thing that you see... even at people that are doing over a million in revenue where it's just like, man, I wish they would do this one simple thing.
It would make, you know, XYZ so much more simple.
Jeremy (48:35)
Yeah. I think... I mean, Jason will kill me for giving up one of the secrets as he always does, but one that's so easy for people is the ‘Augusta rule.’
Nick (48:46)
Okay.
Jeremy (48:48)
And You know, I did, I shared this at our kind of top five things. It just... it's really easy to implement. So if, basically you're allowed to rent your personal property to anyone including your own business for up to 14 days a year tax-free.
And so, you know, if your business has events, strategic planning, meetings, Christmas parties, or something at your house, or if you have multiple houses at another house, then your business can pay you those 14 days... up to 14 days a year and that's tax-free money.
So, you know, if your house let's say... an Airbnb rents for $500 and you say, well, I'm gonna... I've been able to identify 14 occurrences where I've rented, you know... the business has used my home, then I'm gonna take, you know, I'm gonna take a deduction, you get a deduction for $7,000 and then you get a... you get $7,000 in your pocket, that's tax-free money.
So, you know, that's one of the little small kind of easy things we pick up on when we do tax planning. So, you know, that's money back in your pocket and you get a tax deduction, so...
Nick (49:59)
If that's the stuff you're giving away for free. I can only imagine what you're doing behind the scenes.
Jeremy (50:05)
Yeah,
Nick (50:06)
That was a good one. Thank you for sharing that.
Jeremy (50:08)
Yeah. And the other just one other easy one is, you know, on exit planning when people are selling their business, you know, that's oftentimes the largest event you know, for tax purposes. So there are a lot of things we can do to save people on taxes. And so anytime anyone's doing that, you know, we have brokers that send us people, you know, to talk with us, to see what we can do, but there's usually tons of money we can save depending on the goal. So...
Nick (50:37)
Awesome. Good stuff, man. Thanks for sharing those tips. I really appreciate you guys coming on. It was great to catch up since I saw you guys last in Jackson Hole and I look forward to chatting again. Thank you for coming on guys.
Jeremy (50:51)
Yeah. Thanks, Nick. And we appreciate the MDs community. We do very much.
Nick (50:56)
Yeah, man, it's been great. I know we get to meet such great people. It's been great connecting with you guys and I always look forward to seeing everyone at the next one.
Jeremy (51:04)
Yep. Excellent.
Nick (51:06)
All right, fellas, have a good one.
Jeremy (51:08)
All right. Thank you.
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