IAM1547 – Accountant Assists Small Businesses Develop and Implement Accounting Processes

Aneka Winstead is a wife and mother of 3 boys along with being the CEO of WATT Business Solutions, a mobile Tax and Accounting firm. Aneka received her Bachelor's in Accounting from Morgan State University in 2007 and a Master of Business in 2012. She started her career as an Accountant over 10 years ago in public accounting and has since gained experience in various industries within Accounting including corporate, state, and federal government. With WATT Business Solutions, Aneka assists individual taxpayers with their taxes and specializes in helping small businesses develop and implement accounting processes, tax plans, and tax preparation. Aneka also runs a Non-profit, WATTKids whose mission is to educate children about the basics of money and financial literacy while teaching them how to wealth build.

• CEO Story: Aneka served in the government as a CPA for 7 years. After so many years of working, in a very pressured working environment with no rewards but false promises of promotion. As a mother of 3, Aneka was tired of her job and wanted to spend more time with her family. And so in 2017, she started tax accounting, part-time while doing the daytime job. Then eventually, by a leap of faith, she established her firm full-time. Did full throttle in 2018 from 15 to 20 clients, to now over 200 clients.
• Business Service: Doing workshops that allowed her to tap more into small business owners, giving them high-level principles and guidelines. Operating with a business account. Business assets are protected.
• Secret Sauce: Having that passion and purpose and seeing the impact generation after generation. Passion for clients to sustain their business.
• CEO Hack: Calendar, maintaining, and color coding. Systems that work for you and your team make your job easier. Make sure you have people on your team.
• CEO Nugget: Always bet on yourself. Bet it all.
• CEO Defined: Being able to create a life that you want to live. Freedom. You get to decide.

Website: www.wattbizsolutions.com

Instagram: wattbiz , fination

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00:28 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, 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.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Aneka Winstead of Watt Business Solutions. Aneka, super excited to have you on the show.

01:05 – Aneka Winstead

Hello, I'm super excited to be here. Thank you so much for the invite.

01:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I appreciate you accepting the invite and looking forward to talking about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, Before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Aneka so you can hear about some of the awesome things that she's working on. Aneka is a wife and mother of 3 boys, along with being the CEO of Watt Business Solutions, a mobile tax and accounting firm. Aneka received her bachelor's in accounting from Morgan State University in 2007 and a master's in business in 2012.

She started her career as an accountant over 10 years ago and public accounting has gained experience in various industries while accounting including corporate, state, and federal government. With Watt Business Solutions, Aneka assists taxpayers with their taxes and specializes in helping small businesses develop and implement accounting processes, tax plans, and tax preparation. Aneka also runs a nonprofit, Watt Kids, whose mission is to educate children about the basics of money and financial literacy while teaching them how to build wealth. Aneka, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:11 – Aneka Winstead

I am ready.

02:13 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, What I want to do is we're 01:00 here, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:21 – Aneka Winstead

I got started around 2016. And as you mentioned in the bio, I am the mother of 3 awesome little boys. And So around that time, you know, I was just looking for after going through years of working with some for people all the time, you know, started off in public accounting. And here I am at my government job that I've been at for about 6 years then. And I'm really frustrated because I'm given a thousand percent and there is really no reward at the end. You know, they say to get a government job and you'll be straight and then they say work real hard and you'll get the promotions and you'll get everything that is due to you but none of that was happening.

And so I had my third son in 2017 and I had this, you know, this life I wanted to live with my boys. I wanted to be able to spend time with them when I wanted to and all of those things. And I wanted to be, you know, I wanted to be this certain type of mother. So I wanted to stay home more. And, you know, I just couldn't fathom being away from him that long. And so I really got tired of people telling me what I could do when I could do it when I could take off, when I, all of those things. And so, like I said, I started, I started doing taxes while I was working at my full-time job.

And then in 2017, I took the leap of faith and I left my government job of 7 years. Not that I didn't love the job. I just didn't love where it was taking me. There was nowhere to go, you know, and a lot of people look at that differently, but that is my beginning. In 2018, I went full throttle. And that 2018 tax year was my first tax year on my own. I think I had about maybe 15 to 20 clients. And that was the beginning. That was the roughest year I've ever had in my life. But I've never had a year that rough. And so I went from 15 clients to now over 200.

04:16 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I appreciate you sharing the story because I think so many times we don't see the behind-the-scenes. We don't hear it kind of like those rough years, those rough patches. But I'm pretty sure you probably feel the exact same way as a lot of times you go through those challenges. But you kind of plant those seeds or kind of even build that foundation. And that's when you start to grow and grow and grow and start to go full throttle and see those fruits of your labor kind of take off and start to bloom.

04:43 – Aneka Winstead

Absolutely, man. You know, I was I was in my own head about it. Oh, when I started, I was like, oh, too many people doing taxes, too many people doing that. And I was trying to cancel my future before it even started. And, you know, in that same breath, where I was saying it's too many people doing it, also said that, well, they're all successful.

So let me go ahead and go ahead and do it. And so I really hear that theme, I don't know if you see the memes or the people saying that it's too many people, it's somebody already out there doing it, but that's not you doing it. You're not out there doing it. And so I really resonate with that because that's how I really, you know, I had that imposter syndrome very early on, you know, and I had to really flip it. And it's all about perspective. You can look at that as a challenge and walk away from it, or you can look at it as a challenge and walk into it.

05:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of times while, of course, we go through that process of building the business and getting clients and doing all the things that you do in your business, I almost feel like while we're going through those challenges, sometimes through those difficult years or difficult periods, not only does the business sometimes get built, a lot of times we get built as well too. You start to realize a lot about yourself in addition to being able to kind of grow that business.

05:54 – Aneka Winstead

Absolutely, man. You know, you hear about those programs, those executive programs that a lot of those, you know, high-priced people go to when they want to work for those really big firms and all those things. Well, entrepreneurship is that on a thousand. You jump full force and dive into it, man. It'll grow you up.

06:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Which is why it kind of really resonated with me when you talked about, you know, do give it a thousand percent, you know, at the last position you had. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more about how you work with your clients, how you serve them. Could you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like? And we'd love to hear more about your nonprofit as well too, what you're doing there.

06:32 – Aneka Winstead

Absolutely, man. I absolutely love the work that I do in both aspects. I've had the pleasure of working with some of the most awesome businesses over my tenure in just these short 6 years. And I love the fact that they trust me. So my typical client is, not so much a startup, but it can be. I've developed tools to work with them too, but early on, you know, I was doing a lot of workshops. And so that allowed me to reach a lot of Small business owners and small business owners that are typically been in business, for maybe 1 to 5 years, the industry may vary, but a lot of them are service-based, meaning they're providing services for their clients as well. Some of them are product-based too. However, in dealing with those clients, I help with every aspect.

So, you know, when I was working for people in public accounting and in the government and all those things like that, I was dealing with big, whether I was dealing with big corporate firms or big sections in the government. It's all the same, the principles are the same. So I took the idea of bringing those high-level principles and guidelines down to the small business owners. So it may be internal controls assessment, making sure you have the proper controls in place, making sure that you don't have any fraud, waste, and abuse in your business, even though it's a small business, making sure that you set up the back office the appropriate way so that you can run it like a business. You know what I mean?

Even though you're a small business owner, according to the government, small business owners can make up to what? Maybe 8 million, I think. Is it 5 or 8 somewhere between those? So even though you're a small business in size, maybe the how many people that work for your firm doesn't mean that cash flow is small. Let's get it straight. So we want to make sure that, you know, when I work with my clients, I wanna make sure that they have these things in place, meaning they are operating like a business, they have a business account, they've set it up where they're protected and their business assets are protected and their personal assets are protected.

And so I work with them from A to about D. And then if they need me past then, then I can work with them as well. But I love to see them grow, to work with a business from its, you know, inception. Hey, I have this business, maybe not an idea, but I have this business that I'm running help me to set it up help me to put the right stuff in place, and then to see them grow to maybe change their structure from an LLC to an escort because they're doing so well in business and they need to change the way they're being taxed and you know, and then helping them, you know, with the grants and the loans and just to see them grow like that, you know, that's where I am with my business owners.

09:12 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely love that. So would you consider that to be like part of your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique? And it could be for yourself, the business, or the organization, or a combination of both, but I almost feel like your ability to, to kind of, you know, have that passion and purpose and see the impact that it can make not just today, but generation after generation. Do you think that's part of what sets you apart and makes you unique?

09:34 – Aneka Winstead

I think so, you know, because if, yeah, I think so. I'll say that. I really have a desire to help. You know, I think that I couldn't continue to do this work if I did not, you know, because they say, once you find something that you love, you'll do it for free. I don't know if I necessarily do it for free, but you know, I mean, I'll give the information and you know, I'm always a giver of information and you know, I just so much enjoy people being able to, you know, that secret sauce. Yeah, so I'm not doing everything for the dollar. You know, I'm really doing it so you can grow. You know, I'm doing it so you can get this information and so you don't always need me.

And maybe I just become a resource and you just checking in with me and you're just making sure you're on the right track. You know what I mean? And so it's not mine to keep or to charge the astronomical or in a stream of money for just so you to have it, but definitely, I feel like everything is for purchase now. And nobody really wants to give the information. I think that as a people, that's where we fail sometimes, you know, because I was a part of the National Association of Black Accountants while I was at Morgan State University. Shout out to Morgan's homecoming this week. But I was a part of that organization and their slogan is lifting as we climb.

And that has reigned in the front of my mind as long as I've been an accountant, as long as I've seen that. And so that is where I strive. That's what I strive to do. And I think with that idea in mind that I'll always set myself apart because my passion is not the dollars, my passion is the people, my passion is making sure that you're able to sustain your business, because it's twofold, you're able to sustain your business and create that lifestyle for you and your family and to pass it down if you are, if not pass it down and sell it off and to provide that income to your children or as a child to be able to have those fundamentals, you know, that you can have and that will change the trajectory of your life.

11:33 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. That's phenomenal to kind of hear that. And just a great reminder that it's not always the bottom on sometimes the impact that we're able to make with our gifts and our knowledge and our expertise. So absolutely love that. So 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 Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:52 – Aneka Winstead

Something that makes me more effective and efficient is definitely my calendar. Maintaining it, color coding it, If it's not there, it's not, I'm not doing it because I don't know about it. So the systems that I have in place, so I'm always, I'm big on systems. I'll implement a system before I hire a person. So I'm always looking for a better system that does what I need to do in my industry. And making it easier for my clients. So the CEO hack that I would offer is to make sure you have systems on your team that work for you, that make your job easier. And also make sure you have people on your team that actually allow you to be a business owner and not a self-employed individual.

12:39 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We end up feeling like we're an employee for the software rather than an employee for our own business. And that's not something you definitely want to do. So what would you consider to be what I like to call CEO nuggets? So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client. Or if you happen to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business.

12:58 – Aneka Winstead

Always bet on yourself. Always bet on yourself, man. I can go on and on as you know, as you've heard, but always bet on yourself. Yes. Bet it all. Bet it all.

13:09 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. Yeah. I love it because so many times we won't bet on ourselves and you talked about that imposter syndrome earlier on and so many times we can say that we can't do this or we can't do that because of X, Y, and Z. And a lot of times that's that imposter syndrome. But if you put everything up to ANSI and you start to really make that decision that I have this gift, I have this knowledge, this is my zone of genius, and we're going to see where it takes me. That's when really phenomenal things happen. Love those nuggets. And so now I wanted to ask you 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 this show. So Niko, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:45 – Aneka Winstead

Being able to create the life that I want to live. Freedom is the most precious thing, and that could be time freedom, that can be health freedom. Financial freedom is only one aspect of freedom, but being the CEO of my business and of my life means that I get to decide. And heavy is the head, but I get to decide.

14:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. I love that freedom and I love how you broke it down in so many different ways. Because again, like we had those gifts, those opportunities to really, you know, create and see the world in the way we hope to see it, but only by sometimes making those bold decisions, betting on yourself, investing in yourself. That's when you have the freedom to really see that come to fruition.

14:21 – Aneka Winstead

That's right. And betting on yourself and investing in yourself are 2 different things. And you might get there, you might bet on yourself, but you're like, ooh, that's too much. I can't do that. But you gotta make that investment too. You gotta make that investment to be able to grow and get to the heights that you dream of. And please don't put any limits on God.

14:39 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, and I truly appreciate that. I'll definitely say amen to all of that as well too, because it's so important. What you get for is a lot of times what you ask for is a lot of times what you'll get. So it's so important to mind our words, mind our thoughts, mind the things that we're saying because a lot of times they come to fruition for better and sometimes not for so good as well.

So truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is 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 can get an overview about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:13 – Aneka Winstead

You can best contact me on my Instagram wattbiz. My website is wattbizsolutions.com but if you want to chit chat with me on Instagram, send me a DM and I can direct you to wherever you need to go. But yeah. Oh, and WatKids has a lot of great information on the platform. So that's W-A-T-T-K-I-D-S and whitekids.org. So we have downloadable business plans for the youth. We have a bunch of information in the age range that we're speaking to on the platform.

15:48 – Gresham Harkless

I'm also gonna make that even easier. We're gonna have links and information that show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you, and find out about all the awesome things you're doing for the youth, for the adults, and everything in between and all around as well. But I truly appreciate everything that you're doing. And it is so much fun kind of wrapping with you, talking with you about so many different things.

But I think one of the things that resonates with me so much is that a lot of times we don't realize something can actually happen. It can be realistic until we hear people that are doing it. So I appreciate you sharing your story. Thank you so much for taking the lead, and doing all the awesome things you're doing. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:20 – Aneka Winstead

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

16:23 – 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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