We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Valaise Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Valaise below.

Valaise, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear your thoughts about making remote work effective.

With technology and artificial intelligence, it has become very convenient to manage Tried and True Financial Services in a remote work environment. We were already offering virtual services pre-COVID and that is one good thing that came out of the pandemic for us. It forced people to adapt to a virtual environment and many people had to learn new ways of getting things done. All of our services are up on our website. This is where the client’s journey begins. Once they select the service they need, they are prompted to leave a deposit and schedule an appointment. The zoom meeting gets placed on both calendars and we get reminders leading up to the meeting. Our remote work process is virtual from end to end. We use secure portals to exchange sensitive information and e-signatures when it is necessary. While our virtual platform makes it very convenient to meet with clients (throughout the 50 United States), we will meet in person when requested.

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

Valaise Smith, the Founder & CEO of Tried and True Financial Services™, LLC is passionate about educating small business owners on the ABC’s of finance. ACCOUNTING, BUDGETING and CREDIT building are the cornerstones to help business owners achieve their financial goals. In the ACCOUNTING space we offer income tax planning & preparation to help ensure you pay the least amount of taxes possible and remain in compliance, in the BUDGETING/BOOKKEEPING space we help ensure you know your numbers and can produce critical financial statements and, in the CREDIT space we help build a strong business credit profile to ensure you are considered by a multitude of lenders. Simply put, Tried and True is committed to building & maintaining long-term relationships with small business owners who want to obtain better control over their finances. ​
Valaise is committed to a lifelong journey of learning demonstrated by completing various Income Tax courses throughout the years in addition to completing the Personal Financial Planning curriculum @ Oakland University. Having spent 10 + years overseeing the back-office operations, managing the compliance policies & procedures, and conducting the portfolio administration & account reconciliations for a book of business in excess of $1 billion, Valaise’s experience expands beyond the classroom.

Valaise is a member of the National Association of Tax Professionals and has earned the Enrolled Agent designation which allows her to represent clients (throughout the US) before the IRS. She is also a Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) owner as well as an Inaugural Scholar of the Goldman Sachs – One Million Black Woman Black In Business Program Cohort 1.

​​Valaise serves an array of clients and businesses in Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, TechTown Detroit, Farmington Hills, Redford, and around the Midwest.

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We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Tried and True was launched in 2015. In February 2019, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I had to put everything and everyone on hold to take care of me. That was a pivotal moment where I could have easily given up and thrown in the towel, but I didn’t. Though it was a delicate balance and a very tough time for me as an entrepreneur, the thought of giving up never crossed my mind. My support system was phenomenal and my clients were very understanding and supportive. That is why relationship building is so important to me. I realize that people do business with people that they “know, like & trust” and sometimes that requires for the service provider to be vulnerable. That was a life-altering experience that had to endure and I didn’t want to hide that from my clients. At the end of the day, I truly believe that brought us closer.

My brand colors were originally blue, gray, and white. After I survived breast cancer, I added the pop of pink in there because it is truly part of my story, my journey and who I am as a resilient businesswoman.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

My side hustle definitely turned into a full-time business and I never saw it coming! I grew up in a time when I was taught to go to school and get good grades so I could get a good job. I felt accomplished when I did just what my parents instructed me to do. Entrepreneurship was not something that I saw modeled in my family and it certainly was not discussed. Therefore, I embraced lifelong learning and I had a passion for numbers. This led me to pursue knowledge of tax law and the tax preparation industry. That turned into a seasonal side-hustle for many years while I climbed the corporate ladder.

Life was good and I was comfortable, when the financial services company I had spent over a decade working for, had to close its doors. I was serving as the Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Administration where I was responsible for reconciling a book of business in excess of $1 Billion. I could not see myself updating my resume and going out to look for another “job”, so I didn’t. I married my side-hustle skillset with my corporate experience and I launched Tried and True Financial Services™ offering income tax preparation and bookkeeping for individuals and small business owners. We are in our eighth year of business and I couldn’t be more fulfilled!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.triedandtruefs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triedandtruefs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triedandtruefs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/triedandtruefs/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/triedandtruefs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdqf_BIRHBIe5frNreAXpNw
• Yelp: https://g.page/r/CSA9g7RkaAk2EB0/review

Image Credits
Frankie Fultz Cedric Scott