Episode 15 - Daycare Tax Lady

About Shanita Jones 

On today’s podcast we sat down with Shanita Jones. Shanita and Jackie met somewhat randomly through connections via social media. Shanita has her own CPA firm where she specializes in child care businesses. 

Shanita has won the Two Comma Club Award from Clickfunnels using their software. 

She won this award by selling $1,000,000 in revenue using their software, a feat which she completed in a short 18 months. 

Shanita is also a fan of our program and we’re excited for the conversation today, so let’s jump right in! 

Wait.. what funnel?

Before we hop into the fun(nel) stuff, it’s important to note the foundation of Shanita’s journey in marketing. This began when she started taking Ben Brown’s Million Dollar Firms program. After excelling in the program she was noticed by Ben’s brother, Alex. 

From here, Shanita and Ben began to work together on various projects. This leads us to the beloved funnel. 

Shanita explains that when we consider the shape of a funnel, it is in the form of a ‘V’ shape. The key idea here is actually the principle of a funnel and its purpose. Considering the ‘V’ shape; it’s understood that a funnel is wide and broad at the top, then the shape narrows the closer it gets to the bottom, where finally there’s a much smaller opening for things to fall through. 

This is exactly how a sales funnel works as well. 

The broadness at the top gives access to all potential clients and prospects. ‘The world is your oyster,’ we’ve heard. Using this ideology, leading clients through a series of steps and processes produce an ideal client to ‘fall through’ the hole at the bottom of the funnel. 

It’s like this: 

A potential client is like all the different vehicle oil brands at AutoZone. Hypothetically, we can choose from many different brands of oil to put in the vehicle. Once we insert the funnel under our hood, and pour the oil in, the appropriate oil drips out of the bottom. Now, it’s important we select the right type of oil to put in the car, which is what ties the overall ‘funneling’ process together. 

Shanita does this in a couple different ways. 

• Funneling through Google/Facebook/paid ads
• Organically through educational content and speaking events 

When asked how people could learn more about Shanita, instead of providing a website, she may provide the sales funnel link. A very wise decision on her part, but what about the word ‘sales’? Sometimes, this word gets a negative stigma but not the way Shanita phrases it. 

It’s not so much about the ‘salesy’ things (as she calls it), it’s conversational and informational material about the person entering the pipeline. Essentially, it’s focused on them, not her. 

Throughout the entire process, she is able to learn more about prospects, while they are choosing to be involved, and therefore at the end of funnel both parties are in agreement that they want to be in the same conversation. A win-win scenario! 

Jackie takes a similar approach with pre-qualifying questions to ensure that those hearing the message also like the message.  

Daycare Tax Lady 

Shanita will be the first to tell you that child & daycare firms were not her first choice to provide services. Because of her experience in accounting, she was approached by a family member who owned a child care facility to help with … you guessed it… a tax/accounting issue. 

Word of mouth created its own type of funnel for Shanita, and as one thing led to another, she quickly became known as the ‘daycare tax lady’ in Philadelphia. 

Now, as it is frequently learned in marketing, identifying an ‘ideal client’ or niche is an important variable. At the time, Shanita was not a believer in the niching either, but continued with a program through Tyler Clark. 

Read more about the company he helped create, Dream Firms here. 

By persevering and choosing to continue in the program, Shanita discovered that her ideal client was working with child care centers. A full circle moment for her. 

Shanita leaves us with a key thought when it comes to building firms and discovering niches. She paints a great analogy between Corporate America and beginning a practice from the ground up. When working in Corporate America, choosing the people we work with is relatively out of our control.

However, when it comes to starting a practice from nothing, we have more flexibility to choose the people we work with. This is extremely important because work should somewhat fulfill us and provide us with energy, not take those things away. 

C.A.R.E 

Shanita and her firm provide value uniquely, especially when it comes to child care services and organizations. 

She states that their slogan/tagline/mission is: 

‘We are the accountants that care, helping busy child care CEOs build scalable, sellable businesses so that they can educate and impact the world, one child at a time.’ 

She also gives us a beautifully scripted acronym for how her firm cares.

• C: Conversation
• A: Analyze what was discussed 
• R: Review with the client 
• E: Engage/Education/Equip with all the financial information needed to make informed business decisions 

Speaking of caring, Jackie asks Shanita how she remains happy and healthy in the craziness behind the accounting world. 

Shanita and Jackie are very similar in this way. They both love to read, travel, and spend time with family. 

Shanita is the oldest of seven siblings and has 13 nieces and nephews. So, seeing them as much as possible contributes to her happiness. 

Whether it's a vacation or work related travel she loves it all. She particularly loves to attend Funnel Hacking Live, an event hosted by Russel Brunson and ClickFunnels team members. 

Learning More about Shanita & Jackie

If you found value from Shanita and Jackie’s conversation today, you can find her on Facebook. She is Shanita Jones, CPA for reference. 

She can also be found in Accountants Unlettered on Facebook. Lastly, you can access Shanita’s website Jones Taxes Online, here. 

As always, thank you for joining us and we hope you were able to listen to our episode of Concierge CPA, hosted by TaxPlanIQ. 

If you find yourself a successful accounting firm owner, or influencer who would like to be on the program please visit jackiemeyerscpa.com. 

You can also connect with Jackie on most media platforms under Jackie Meyer, CPA. 

Thanks for joining, bye for now!