We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yolanda Gray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yolanda below.
Yolanda , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career
I would definitely incorporate financial literacy. While I do believe we should not totally depend on the school system to teach it children everything they should know going forward in life, I do feel that it’s impossible to teach someone else why you don’t know. Just like certain electives are mandatory, financial literacy should be amongst those “must haves” in order to fulfill credit requirements.
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
I got into my industry by being nosey. Lol. I wanted to understand taxes for myself, as I was becoming a full blown adult and had moved out of the house on my own. A guy did my taxes and listening to him was like trying to understand a foreign language. So I deduced to take an income tax course. At the same time, I’d just complete a tech school for medical billing and coding but it seemed impossible not only to find a job but to even get an interview as my screenshot didn’t meet the experience requirement time frames. So of course, the company I was learning about taxes from was hiring, and the rest is history. This was literally 20 years ago.
I provide consultations where I help people understand what adjustments to make in order not to owe Uncle Sam a payout at the beginning of the following year. I also she small business owners and sole proprietors what they can do to reduce a huge payout or maybe even prevent a payout at all.
My goal is always to help my clients understand their own tax situation. I take pride in being able to provide the services I provide, but even more so in being able to help people understand what’s going on, and being able to break things down to some level of comprehension.
My industry really is fun to me. It’s something ever changing and I truly enjoy what I do. There is always something to learn so that is an industry that never gets boring.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The main thing that helped me build my reputation and my clientele is being good to people. Word of mouth can take you very far, and I have built a reputation of treating people well and putting people first in general above all else.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing clientele for me is literally letting people know you exist. Get on Google voice search, create a social media page, tell friends and family, tell strangers what you do what you have what you sell. Let them know you exist. They will pay attention, they will eventually come your way. You may encounter people several times before they actually take you up on your offer. That’s okay. Because even those who don’t use your services could send others your way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yggtaxservice.com
- Facebook: @yggtaxprep
- Yelp: YGG Tax Prep