We were lucky to catch up with Maria Alvarez Escalona recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maria, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

I arrived in this country, like many immigrants; In my case, I left my country, Venezuela, leaving the comfort I had and I was already settled with my husband and children. When I arrived, I had high expectations of how to start in this country and I only heard him tell me: Maria, what you studied in your country stayed there, you only come here to clean and work hard, here we have to forget about our professional experience, although I had my doubts I began to believe it; However, one day (3 months after being in this great country) I had to take a taxi and that man (one of the many angels that God has placed me on this path), began to speak and asked me what I was doing, I I told him nothing, that for now I was taking care of my children (they were on vacation), he asked me where I was from, I told him Venezuela, he insisted and asked me what I am, I answered nothing; Because I remembered what he told me that my profession was not going to be used here, the gentleman insisted and told me that he worked in Venezuela, what profession did he have? I incredulously told him that I worked in the administrative area and did not give more details, because I did not want to cling to my profession; Mr. smiles and tells me: “right now when you get home you will search on google, social networks for Latino tax offices, taxes that speak in Spanish and you call and offer yourself as a volunteer, explain that you want to learn how to They do taxes in this country and after there, you make your way, it’s up to you”, I told him I don’t speak English and he told me to try it, as soon as I got home I did what the man had told me, I did it I talked with my husband and he supported me (because we knew that at this moment the priority was not going to be income) and not a week went by, where the man from a Latino tax office attended me and gave me the opportunity for an interview ( another angel), I went 45 minutes from my house, super excited, and full of Faith and Hope, the Lord of that office was interested in my experience (which I was not so explicit, because the comment always came to me here you are not going to emerge) and I remember perfectly when he told me: “I can only offer you a part-time and I can pay you $9.00 an hour, it would be from Monday to Wednesday, let me pick you up at the other office in Charlotte that is closer to your house…” I couldn’t believe it, because I was willing to not charge and that they put me to do whatever, in less than a month my ex-wife who owns the other office called me and she hired me, that was in the middle of August, she already works in a hotel, I spoke with the manager and I asked him for those 3 days and I kept the schedule from Thursday to Sunday, Mr. accepted and I started on a Monday in September, by the end of that year they transferred me to full time and in February my boss opened another office where she sent me in charge from Wednesday to Saturday and the rest of the week in the main office.
Well then I continued studying, due to my profession and experience in Venezuela, everything was very easy for me, I retired from that office due to a personal situation and to study English, then I worked in 2 more tax offices, I continued studying tax, accounting, payroll and last year 2022 in May, I told my husband and told him I am ready to become independent and support our Latino community, which he supported me and that was when Tax & Business Services LLC T&BS was born.
Today I am grateful to God and the Virgin who always accompany me and guide me and all the people involved, I have a lot of Faith that this family project (even if I am the one who shows my face) will continue to grow and support our community.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are an accounting firm to support all entrepreneurs and those who want to become independent. We do federal and state taxes, both personal and business.
We register the company and we take the accounting – tax part.
We are open throughout the year and we have a continuing education membership to be updated in the accounting & tax area and provide better service to our clients.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The main challenge for me was learning to become independent. The time that I have worked, for almost 20 years, I was under dependency, where I fulfilled a schedule, my assignments and received my payment, which was the 15th and last of each month.

Any advice for managing a team?

I left my country to maintain my principles, I did not lend myself to conducting fraudulent businesses and because of my profession, because I am a believer in God, I know that the best thing is to maintain loyalty, fully comply with the laws and have honesty as a priority in order to be able to rest and look my children in the eye.

Contact Info:

• Website: Esta en proceso de diseno
• Instagram: @taxbusinessllc
• Facebook: Tax & Business Services LLC
• Other: What’sapp 3217468610