IAM1313 – CEO Helps Businesses with their Accounting and Revenue Opportunities

Earl T. Murray III is the President & CEO of The Entrepreneur’s Accountants. The firm provides training and financial consulting services to small business owners, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. Throughout his career, he has managed the financial operation of companies up to $5 Million in Gross Revenue Annually and has secured over $4M in funding for small businesses and non-profit organizations through contracts, grants, and individual giving. He has earned a Master of Arts in Financial Planning & Law from Regent University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of the District of Columbia.

• CEO Story: Used to be an accountant in the corporate world, but was laid off. Took it as an opportunity to bring his expertise to the marketplace and focus on building his own company, and Earl had a great testimony on his journey.
• Business Service: Work with clients on their taxes and filings. Back-year taxes. The tax plan minimizes tax liability. Accounting and bookkeeping.
• Secret Sauce: Business accelerator, business growth strategy. Not just looking at the financial aspect but also at the business model and seeing revenue opportunities.
• CEO Hack: Phone apps like the calendar, and Instagram reels that you can share what you do.
• CEO Nugget: The world needs your voice. The days of the small beginnings will prepare you for the bigger platforms. Continue to press on.
• CEO Defined: Influence, inspire, and Impact. Make hard decisions – hiring, scaling a business, and dealing with external people.

Website: www.theentrepreneursaccountants.com

Instagram: @etmurrayiii (Personal), @theentrepreneursaccountants (Business)

LinkedIn: @etmurrayiii/

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Transcription

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, start-ups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:47 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the So today, I have Earl T. Murray the third of the entrepreneur's accountants. Earl, it's great to have you on the show.

00:58 – Earl T. Murray

Thank you for having me.

00:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. I'm super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Earl so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's working on. And Earl T Murray the third is the president and CEO of the Entrepreneurs Accountants within SFN. The firm provides training and financial consulting services to small business owners, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits. Throughout his career, he has managed the financial operations of companies with up to five million dollars in gross revenue annually.

He has also secured over four million dollars in funding for small businesses and nonprofit organizations through contracts, grants, and individual giving. He has earned a master's of arts in financial planning and law from Regent University and a bachelor's of Business administration and accounting from the University of the District of Columbia. Earl, super excited to have you on the show. Again, talk about all the awesome things you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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01:50 – Earl T. Murray

Let's go. I'm glad to be here.

01:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. Let's make it happen then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you guys started, what I call your CEO story.

02:01 – Earl T. Murray

Wow. So, for me, I used to work, in the accounting department without I was the accountant or controller for, these organizations. And I came in to do the cleanup work, whether it was, you know, just a year or two, or longer. But That's how I really got my foot into doing, accounting for these companies. And so what really happened Afterwards is that I ended up getting fired. I got let go. And so what would really Transform that, okay, I started my first company in twenty thirteen, on the backside of me being terminated the first time. And so it was really like a mixed bag of everything that I could do. As you see, I do I've done fundraising.

I've done accounting and teaching. So I've done a number of things, and so that's what I did. I took all my skills at home, then I put them into the marketplace. And then, went back into the corporate world, I did some public accounting for a little while, worked for another company, and then after, cleaning up their financials, I abruptly ended up having to leave. They end up letting me go. And, what was so funny, Sometimes you have to know when the, when it's time for a paradigm shift in your own life and for your own business is that when The executive director told me that, there was no more money in the budget for your position, but that was the budget that I prepared.

So, if anyone knew about the budget, then it was me. And so, I tried to find a job in many places, and it just didn't work out. And I realized that, okay. This is now time for me. Instead of trying to be a CEO for one company, it was time for me to be the CFO for many. And so from there, the entrepreneur's accountants, which is my second company. I was able to do some other things with the first one. But the entrepreneur countess was born in twenty nineteen. I was able to hit the ground running to provide, accounting, tax, in advisory services to, to those small business entrepreneurs.

04:23 – Gresham Harkless

As well, I appreciate you so much for sharing your story and that journey. As somebody who was laid off once and was gonna get laid off again, I know how, you know, frustrating that could be, but I love that phrase that you use, paradigm shift, because a lot of times when you're going through that frustrating time, you're not What the next move is, you feel like that's, like, the dead end. There's no way to kinda go out of that. But a lot of times, we just have to shift gears, Pivot, change, and turn in a different direction. And a lot of times, it can redirect us into being in a better place.

04:54 – Earl T. Murray

You know, the other thing that I wanna say with that, And I'm saying this as a financial professional, but also being one in the business owner. I know that there's gonna be a lot of people that's gonna tell you, so, you know, save for your three to six months, have your savings, all those things together. And, I'm not against that, But sometimes, life will bring your way that you will build a business off of your faith, your intellect, and your grit. And that's and that was my story.

And so, You may have to take all the money out of your 04:01 k. You may have to use all your savings. You may have to, you know, use all the money that's in your bank account That's gonna lead you to get to, to be able to build in the business that you which you desire. And so, so I wanted to be able to share that because there's some There are many people who are step who are afraid to step out into business because that may be their story, or that may end up happening to them, Or there may be the current business owner that is looking to scale, and they're afraid to scale because of what their current circumstances are. And so I just say this as a word of encouragement. Just go out there and do it. You got it.

06:10 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I know I, touched a little bit upon how you work with, you know, clients and how you serve them. Could we drill down a little bit more and tell us how you serve the clients that you work with and the service you provide?

06:20 – Earl T. Murray

Sure. So as we are now, we are in the middle of tax season. So one of the services that, our our firm provides is tax preparation. And so we, work with our clients to make sure that,, their taxes are filed and filed on time. For those, there are some business owners or individuals where they have back taxes, and they're like, oh, I'm scared, to file those taxes that I've been avoiding. So we also assist you, with preparing the the back year, taxes as well. Then we work with a business owner, or individual in terms of some areas of Tax planning.

And so tax planning is to find different strategies and ways on how a business owner can be able to, Build the business that they aspire to do, but also you wanna mini you want to minimize your tax liability. Yes. We yes. It is our responsibility, to be able to pay taxes, but we don't wanna give any more than what is due. And then we also we also provide our, accounting services, accounting, and bookkeeping. And so with accounting and bookkeeping, that's where we are, tracking tracking your tracking and recording your transactions, into an accounting software.

We're preparing monthly financial statements, for a business owner, and those are gonna be primarily your balance sheet and your profit and loss statement. For, some companies, you need to see a budget versus an actual profit and loss statement as well. So we work with, clients to produce those, a statements of cash flow so you can see the changes in how cash comes into your business, because it's typically three ways on how money comes into a business owner and into a company.

And then lastly, having the business owner to see, the accounts receivable, people who owe you money, like an aging report. And so the agent report can tell you how you know, who are the people who owe you, and this is how long, it's been. And then accounts receivable, who is it that you owe, and how long has it been since then that is due? I believe that it's important for business owners to understand, these types of financial statements and not have them in their heads. You can be able to have something on paper that you can be able to build with. So, those are some of the services that we do.

There is one, is that we do what is called, like, a business, accelerator. And, what I like about that, we're able to really help the business, like, a deeper dive into the business and look and see in terms of, like, revenue growth opportunities. So it's really like a business growth strategy, which we consider is, like, our secret sauce because it's not, like, when an accounting firm would typically do.

09:25 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And I know you mentioned that you know, what core service was one of the parts of your secret sauce. Do you feel like that's Something that you're able to do is not just, you know, take that data and information, but able to translate it so that you can help people make those decisions to grow or get to wherever they wanna be.

09:41 – Earl T. Murray

And I believe that you know, when you learn more about yourself, learn about yourself, learn about your business, know more about your audience, you can be able to understand what is it that they need and, you know, look in terms of how you can be able to serve them. You'll typically find this into, like, business coaching, branding, marketing, and space. But I think what you know, is to have this within an accounting firm because we're also your trusted adviser. And so because we are your trusted adviser, we are able to give you the insight, not just financially, but also looking at your entire business model to see, revenue opportunities that you may have overlooked or to confirm what was already in your gut.

10:23 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:35 – Earl T. Murray

Sure. So for me, It's my calendar. It's me the apps on my phone. It's really like my guiding tool. It helps me to to navigate, between the different projects that I manage. It's it's everything was it it's within my iPhone. I can just it's really like a plug-and-play. I think in the in the days of, you know, social media marketing, getting people to know who you are, I like Instagram reels. It's one thing that I've it's like, I'm learning to love it.

And so people can be able to they'll get to know more information about you before they do business with you. I what they call it, try before you buy. And so you are able to share your expertise. So Someone, they may not come to me for a full accounting service, but they can learn more about what I do and how I can best serve them. Just simply by sharing information, about the issues that affect them.

11:34 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So What I wanted to ask you now is what I like to call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I usually say it might be something you would tell your favorite client. Or if you happen to be a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

11:49 – Earl T. Murray

So the the younger version of myself is to Just get started. You have everything that is within you, within your God-given skills, talents, and abilities, to be able to do what you're supposed to do. Don't be afraid. The world needs your voice. The world needs what you have, and the people are gonna come. Don't sweat, the days of small beginnings. And because, guess what? When you start, You need the small beginnings because those individuals, they're able to help you out to give you the feedback you need.

If you come if you start and you're on a main stage and without the feedback, then guess what? You'll be illiquid. So the the days of the small beginnings, the the days of the few clients that you have, prepare you for the bigger platforms, the bigger stages, to bigger opportunities. But the people that are at the ground level are supposed to help you to really help you to make the big money that you desire. So that's my nugget.

12:55 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that nugget. And to me, it definitely speaks, you know, to the journey we often Forget about it. I think, especially, we were talking about Instagram. Sometimes social media can give us those, you know, snapshots or those reels. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And do you feel like, a lot of people, and I feel like this is something that's kind of like a, I guess, a misconception. I think there's a quote that says the secret to overnight success is it takes ten years. Do you feel like a lot of people, especially probably imagine from a financial standpoint, Are not realizing the steps that it takes to actually get to where they wanna be and and you're trying to do it overnight?

13:31 – Earl T. Murray

Some some people you have to, Increase your mindset. Sometimes you need a detox of your mindset. And so, run your race. If you run your race, Then guess what? You'll eventually get there, but you have to continue, you have to continue pressing on.

13:51 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition, of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the so, Earl, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:01 – Earl T. Murray

So, to be a CEO means that you have, a place of, impact. You have a place of, influence, and you and your also place have a place of inspiration. You know, you have to be able to make the hard decisions, Whether that is to hire someone or fire someone, in terms of how you know how and when to scale a business. You have to also look into how to deal with external people. And so, there's a lot of hard work and dedication that it takes to put in to do this type of job, and it's not for everyone. And so, that's that's my definition of a CEO, Influence, inspiring impact.

14:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Earl, truly appreciate that definition, and I, of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted you to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people could get a hold of you And find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:03 – Earl T. Murray

Sure. So, I just wanna be able to say to, those of you, my fellow CEOs who are listed as podcast, Twenty twenty-two can be your greatest year ever, but you have to be able to get those ducks in a row, get your eyes dotted, t's crossed, get your financial Infrastructures in place, get you, all these other systems that are in place. In the days of technology, it doesn't cost as much as you think.

But those things have to be able to be be in place so that you can be able to to scale and see, the the growth and desire. Bring on the employees and the personnel in which you desire. And then, how someone can be able to follow me, you can be able to connect with me through Instagram, et Murray, I, or new accountants, which is also on Instagram as well. And, you can be able to find me on LinkedIn, Earl T Murray the third.

15:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make that even easier, we'll have the links and information, in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. Truly appreciate you for doing that, and, of course, appreciate you for taking some time out today, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:11 – Earl T. Murray

Thank you for having me.

16:13 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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