IAM2494 – Wealth Builder Helps Clients With Tax Planning and Preparation

Speaker 1

00:00 - 00:12

So what I do is I take a person and I say, Hey, no, first of all, let's start with the basics. Let's start with the taxes. The tax is the base. You know, that's like, Hey, we'll save you money on taxes.

Speaker 1

00:12 - 00:28

The average American pays about 40% in taxes. So what we do is we try to capture that 40% and then we say, okay, well let's now build a budget. That's where our financial coaching program comes in. So once we do the taxes, we say, okay, well, Let's get into other things.

Speaker 1

00:28 - 00:51

We sent out a survey to the client. It's a needs-based analysis survey. Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place.

Speaker 1

00:52 - 01:06

Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. Hello, hello, hello. This is Gretch from the I am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today.

Speaker 1

01:06 - 01:13

I have Jeff Badoo of Badoo Tax Services. Jeff, it's awesome to have you on the show. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely a pleasure to be on the show.

Speaker 1

01:13 - 01:31

Pleasure to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Jeff so you could hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Jeff Badoo is a serial entrepreneur and a wealth multiplier. He's a licensed certified public accountant and the founder of Badoo Enterprises LLC, which is a multinational conglomerate that owns several key companies.

Speaker 1

01:31 - 02:01

His marquee company is Bidu Tax Services, LLC, which is a CPA firm that specializes in tax preparation, tax planning, and tax representation for individuals and businesses. Another key business is Bidu Investments, LLC, which is primarily a real estate investment company that acquires residential and commercial real estate properties in areas such as the South Side of Chicago in efforts to restore traditionally underserved areas. Jeff, are you ready to speak to the IMCO community? I certainly am.

Speaker 1

02:02 - 02:09

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business. Yeah.

Speaker 1

02:09 - 02:32

So I, you know, I first started a business in general when I was five years old, you know, I was, um, selling, selling products, mainly it was candy. And basically, you know, what happened was that my family is filled with entrepreneurs. My dad is a real estate developer. My mom is, Real estate also does some retail and she's also a cosmetologist specialist, aka a hairstylist.

Speaker 1

02:33 - 02:53

So with that in the blood or in a family, I wanted to be in business. I wanted to be someone who was in the business field. So I chose accounting because accounting is the backbone of business. So to take it a step further, senior year in I'm sorry, freshman year in college.

Speaker 1

02:54 - 03:07

That's when I started building my business plan and budget tax services. You know, I just wanted a tax firm. Um, I wanted something that I can have as a foundation. Um, because I knew that working the whole corporate America, corporate jobs wasn't for me.

Speaker 1

03:07 - 03:24

It was, you know, it just didn't feel like it was for me. So I started a business plan freshman year in college and I kept building and building and, you know, I was doing taxes on the side for free. You know, I was volunteering at tax clinics. family, friends, Hey, I'll do your taxes for free.

Speaker 1

03:24 - 03:44

I'll even pay to do the taxes. You know, that's how dedicated I was. Um, and then fast forward in 2016, September 16, 2016, I quit my full time job. And then I launched by new tax services, which is now a, you know, a tax firm that has 1500 clients or so, um, across all 50 States and in five different countries.

Speaker 1

03:45 - 04:02

And it was a very fast explosive company, which has led to other companies. So it's the, it's the, You know, it's the breadwinner of the enterprise, but it's also led to other companies being started as well. Nice. You know, one of the big things that, um, I'm happy about is I also was young and selling candy.

Speaker 1

04:02 - 04:21

I'm glad we weren't in this same territory. So we didn't have any competition going on, but it's great to hear people that have those kinds of entrepreneurial kind of seeds planted early and then are able to blossom into the awesome company that you have. So, um, I wanted to drill a little bit deeper and I know you touched on a little bit. Could you tell us a little bit more on how you're serving the clients you're working with and some of the things you're doing?

Speaker 1

04:22 - 04:41

Yeah, so I'm a wealth builder. And I'm somebody who allows people to see that they have limitless resources when it comes to their finance. So what I do is I take a person and I say, hey, first of all, let's start with the basics. Let's start with the taxes.

Speaker 1

04:41 - 04:51

The tax is the basic. That's like, hey, we're saving you money on taxes. The average American pays about 40% in taxes. So what we do is we try to capture that 40%.

Speaker 1

04:52 - 05:03

And then we say, OK, well, let's now build a budget. That's where our financial coaching program comes in. So once we do the taxes, we say, OK, well, let's get into other things. We send out a survey to the client.

Speaker 1

05:04 - 05:14

It's a needs-based analysis survey. And they say, oh, hey, I need an introduction to so-and-so. Sometimes we are that introduction. Literally, they know, because they get introduced to the tax firm.

Speaker 1

05:15 - 05:41

So we do the taxes. And then we start doing some financial coaching, some introduction. And overall, what we do is we take a person who, for one, was overpaying in taxes, and then we sort of restructure them financially in a way where they can leverage the resources that they have in order to grow, multiply it into massive wealth. We're not just thinking small, hey, put in a mutual fund and let it grow.

Speaker 1

05:41 - 05:51

No, that's not what we're doing. We're saying, you're building something. Let's go out and buy two real estate properties every year, even one property a year. And we're taking that.

Speaker 1

05:52 - 06:02

And we're also building that turnout into multi-generational wealth. So we also teach the kids as well. So if the person has kids, we usually want the kids to be in a meeting as well. That way they're learning.

Speaker 1

06:02 - 06:42

And so what we're doing is we take somebody, we do their taxes, and we ultimately turn that money that they save or whatever money they have, and we turn it into wealth that can build for an endless amount of generations. I love that. I appreciate that tremendously because a lot of times, you know, you, you have kind of like those one offs where you get your taxes done, but you're not really thinking, you know, longterm about what exactly you are, you know, getting those tax savings for, but to be able to have everything kind of under one umbrella or under a couple of umbrellas that you have, uh, that allow people to not only just, you know, be able to take care of tax, cause literally everybody has to do their taxes, but also ways that you can empower them.

Speaker 1

06:43 - 06:50

in order to be financially empowered for themselves, but also for, you know, multiple generations, it sounds like. Exactly. Absolutely. Nice.

Speaker 1

06:51 - 07:11

And would you consider that to be like your secret sauce or what you feel kind of distinguishes you and sets you or your organization apart? Yeah, it's definitely one of the secret sauces is that we don't just do taxes. Um, our clients, they know us for taxes. They know that, you know, I'm a CPA, you know, that we run a tax firm and we do taxes, but literally they know on the backend, we do a lot of other things.

Speaker 1

07:11 - 07:26

I mean, on my, If you go to my personal website or my bio, it reads that I'm the owner of an enterprise. So that's a rebranding tool that we're using. But at the same time, most people just know me for taxes. So that's definitely a secret sauce that a lot of people don't know.

Speaker 1

07:27 - 07:42

But what separates Body Tax Services, which is the breadwinner or the marquee company, is we have four competitive advantages. First one is we educate our clients a lot. We do newsletters, podcasts, articles, books. I mean, we do a lot of stuff for free.

Speaker 1

07:43 - 07:53

We give it out for free. You know, we don't even charge anything for it. So we're saying, Hey, get the education you need. And the reason why we do that is because we want to educate our clients and makes their lives easier.

Speaker 1

07:53 - 08:07

It makes our lives easier. Uh, so that's one thing is we, we really, that's what the firm was founded upon was education. We've seen that a lot of these tax firms weren't doing anything with taxes. Um, they were just, Hey, come in and do your taxes and that's it.

Speaker 1

08:07 - 08:17

We'll see you next year. So we wanted to have a comprehensive overview of everything. So we do more than just the taxes. We train them or we educate them on a lot of other things, too.

Speaker 1

08:18 - 08:30

Second is we're very flexible. So we have 95% of our work is done virtually. We use portals, mobile apps. We're primarily a technology company, really.

Speaker 1

08:30 - 08:47

That's what we really are. So instead of going into somebody's office, sitting there for two hours, waiting, we just don't want that for a client. We want the client to be comfortable, send them their stuff. They can go away for a few hours, a few days.

Speaker 1

08:48 - 08:55

We send them via secure portal. They get the results back. They send payment. Taxes get filed.

Speaker 1

08:55 - 09:03

We send them after tax season survey. And so we're very digital, very flexible. And we actually track many millennials. That's our target market.

Speaker 1

09:04 - 09:22

The third competitive advantage is that we have access to a lot of people, a lot of resources. You need a real estate agent, an insurance agent. You need a money manager, an attorney. Whoever you need in your overall financial network or legal network, we can always provide that for you.

Speaker 1

09:22 - 09:36

Last but not least, longevity. Average age for a CPA or a tax owner or whatever you want to call it is 60 years old. At 60, I think you're approaching retirement age. So we don't want that.

Speaker 1

09:36 - 10:01

For me, I'm a 26-year-old individual. that's been able to build a firm. And even, you know, not to say knock on wood and all that stuff, but even if I was to leave this planet today, my firm would still operate and run the same way it is currently, because I've taught other people how to do the same thing. We have about 21 independent contractors now who are taught how to run the firm basically.

Speaker 1

10:02 - 10:23

So that's one of my other goals is to eventually be able to, you know, comfortable enough to where, I'm not even running a firm. I mean, I'm still doing what I have to do, but as far as the day-to-day, I have other folks who can handle that. So those are our four main competitive advantages or the seed resources, plus in addition to all the other things we do. Nice.

Speaker 1

10:23 - 10:51

I definitely appreciate that because it's important to kind of understand those competitive advantages because you understand what kind of makes you unique because a lot of times, you know, when you build a business, you don't, you know, are thinking strategically on how to create the business or even, you know, have that tax refund you might get back. So it was great that you have that built within your business, but also helping to empower those clients that you're working with as well. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

Speaker 1

10:51 - 11:01

And this might be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient. Yeah. So I'm the guy, I'm known for automation a lot. I'm the four hour work week guy.

Speaker 1

11:02 - 11:19

So I use virtual assistants a lot. I use virtual folks a lot, you know, and just, and just so people understand is I really don't want people to get confused. They think virtual means a robot. Virtual just means that you're not sitting down with this person next to your office.

Speaker 1

11:19 - 11:39

It just means that it's somebody else that's in the Philippines, India, Vegas, wherever they are. So I have a virtual assistant who's in the Philippines right now, who's doing some work. She's sending out surveys to all of our clients. I have a receptionist who, while I'm doing a podcast like this, they're picking up my calls right now.

Speaker 1

11:40 - 11:57

And then I also have remote folks in India who prepare some of the tax returns and come back. We review them, make sure it's all good. They're very, very good at what they do. Um, so what I do is I utilize automation and virtual, um, technology a lot, just like our calendar booking system.

Speaker 1

11:57 - 12:10

You just count me, for example, um, for all of our, if a client wants to book a meeting, they just go on a website, boom, they can book it. We don't have anybody that oversees it. It's all automated. Automation is my, definitely one of the, CEO hack.

Speaker 1

12:11 - 12:18

Yeah, I definitely think that's a great CEO hack. And in case in point, we're doing this interview. I'm out right outside of DC. You're in Chicago.

Speaker 1

12:18 - 12:27

So that's case in point. Another example of virtual and the power of it. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice.

Speaker 1

12:27 - 12:37

Or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self? I would say get a coach as early as possible. Get somebody who knows what they're doing. more than you do.

Speaker 1

12:37 - 13:02

I mean, especially if you're starting out, you don't know anything. You might think, you know, something, you know, the technical aspects of your business, that's why you're in business, but you don't really know anything. So for me, what I know now, like last year, I know a thousand times more than I did last year compared to this year. So, you know, I have a nice business coach who coaches me on a lot of strategic and tactical related, um, activities, um, or functions.

Speaker 1

13:02 - 13:28

So now I'm becoming more strategic as opposed to the tactical day to day person. You know, so if I was, if I was to tell anybody and I, and I do, you know, small business coaching, entrepreneurship coaching mentor, but get, get a coach, get somebody that knows how to do something better than you do merit or model. And then you can say, okay, well, I'm going to go out on my own. And even that's why I like franchises a lot.

Speaker 1

13:28 - 13:41

I like franchise businesses a lot, actually in my firm, instead of franchising, we do what's known as licensing. So we license the rights of our firm to other people. They can run their firm. They pay us a nice commission every month or a nice percentage.

Speaker 1

13:41 - 13:57

So yeah, definitely get somebody on your side who knows what they're doing. Absolutely. Depending on whatever your environment is, that determines how successful you'll be. So like you said, somebody that is better at what you do at X, Y, and Z, whatever that might be, you're able to learn from them.

Speaker 1

13:57 - 14:12

And just sometimes by being around them, you just automatically step your game up and step your level up. So I think that's a great CEO nugget. And 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.

Speaker 1

14:12 - 14:27

So Jeff, what does being a CEO mean to you? Yeah, a CEO is a leader who can inspire others to perform their best at all times. A CEO is somebody who can put a team together and have everything running smoothly and in the right way. You know, a CEO is not a boss.

Speaker 1

14:27 - 14:36

You know, it's not somebody who just bosses people around. I actually hate the word boss, actually. Absolutely. That's the true definition and example of what a leader is.

Speaker 1

14:37 - 14:58

And kind of like along the mindset or along the lines of the e-myth, where you actually are empowering people to be leaders, to be able to develop themselves because you are comfortable enough to do that and you also are doing that. You know, I definitely agree with that definition. I appreciate you for sharing that with us. And Jeff, I truly appreciate your time.

Speaker 1

14:58 - 15:15

What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and our listeners know, and then how best they can get ahold of you. Yeah, so I would say just a few nuggets, five steps to starting a business. First and foremost, you have to know it's something that you want to do. It's tied to your purpose and it's tied to your passion.

Speaker 1

15:16 - 15:24

That's the first thing. You don't start a business just to make money. You start a business to make an impact. It has to be something that you really want to do.

Speaker 1

15:24 - 15:40

Second step is you do research on that industry. Um, third step is you build a business plan around that and that research. Fourth step is you test it to a few clients or a few markets. And then last but not least, you launch a product or service to the mass market.

Speaker 1

15:40 - 15:48

So that, you know, just five, five steps and then how best people can get in touch with me. Yeah. I mean, Email is best. I mean, you can email me.

Speaker 1

15:48 - 15:54

You can also text me. I always put my phone number out there. 7 7 3 6 7 9 7 1 9 8. Once again, 7 7 3 6 7 9 7 1 9 8.

Speaker 1

15:57 - 16:09

That's probably the easiest way to shoot me a text or call me email. Um, jeffbadu.com is also my personal website. Absolutely. I would definitely, you know, echo that as well.

Speaker 1

16:09 - 16:17

And Jeff, I truly appreciate you again. We'll make sure to have that information and those links in the show notes as well. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day. All right.

Speaker 1

16:17 - 16:33

Thank you, sir. Thank you for listening to the IMCEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. IMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Speaker 1

16:33 - 16:53

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I Am CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.