We recently connected with Cassandra Galan and have shared our conversation below.
Cassandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?
When I first started my business in 2018, I have always been remote/virtual. With great technology these days, it has worked out perfectly. I use a secure client portal where my clients are able to submit their information and documents, e-sign theiragreements and returns, and make payments as well. This has been extremely helpful especially with me being only virtual because myself or my clients don’t have to go anywhere in order for us to work together. Another thing I do a lot are Zoom meetings. Since I don’t meet my clients in person, I still like to build trust with them and have meetings via Zoom to learn more about them, allow them to learn more about me, and to talk about their tax situation.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Before I started my tax & bookkeeping business, I was an insurance agent. I sold auto insurance for different brokerages and worked for a few big name companies as well. But eventually I started a family of my own, and like most mother’s, I wanted to spend more time with my kids. I started my own business so that I could have more time with my kids whenever I wanted. I’ve always been great at paperwork and organization, which is why I went with doing taxes and bookkeeping. I had a mentor when I first started which helped me tremendously anytime I had questions or needed help.
What makes me a little bit different is that I specialize in the Beauty Industry. I love helping solo beauty professional’s set up their business correctly for taxes, streamline their processes, keep their finances organized, and knowing and understanding their numbers. What I find in the beauty industry often is that most starting out treat it as a side hustle and don’t think about the financial side of it and how that affects them when it comes to taxes.
The tax code is changing constantly, ever year and sometimes even mid-year, there are are bills and laws that pass that affect our taxes and how things are reported. This is where I come in and educate them on how all of these factors come into play and how we can prepare for them through my services.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Transparency and honesty. When it comes to the tax or accounting industry and general, and just like any industry, we have bad seeds as well. There are always those spreading misinformation, or making promises of saving so much on taxes, getting high tax refunds, etc. But for myself, I take a lot of pride in being very honest and transparent. I will always do the best I can for my clients to legally save them the most and legally lower their tax burdens, however I will never do anything illegal or unethical. I also inform my clients why it’s best they also keep it that way, by doing everything correctly. Nobody wants government agencies coming after them, levying bank accounts, or putting liens on their property because they thought they could save by doing something they weren’t suppose to.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
When it comes to social media, branding is crucial in my opinion. If you always have different colors in your posts, different fonts, it just doesn’t look nice. It looks like you’re all over the place, giving the assumption that YOU are all over the place. For myself personally, I use a media agency that provides me with templates that already have the fonts and design in place, all I have to do is add my colors, photos, and information. Another way I’ve built my audience is making sure all of my social media and website are optimized to my niche. To learn this, I hired a coach. Even though it was something so simple, it was information I didn’t know. You want to make sure that ALL of your social matches and says the same thing. Having a cover photo, your bio filled out, what you do and who you help. And again making sure the branding for all of that matches as well. Don’t we expect big name companies to have all of their marketing the same? If they don’t we instantly assume it’s a fake page or a scam, we have to treat our own social media and marketing the exact same.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cassandragalan.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/galanconsulting
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/galanconsulting