I have been doing taxes for more than thirty years and have had my own practice for the last nineteen.
I love meeting people and doing their taxes for them. A lot of people are afraid of the IRS, and it’s great being able to take that area of stress out of their lives.
I am currently doing about 600 returns a year and I’m looking forward to helping a lot more people.
Now I wasn’t always this happy about my job. In fact, six years ago it was quite a different story. I didn’t look forward to coming to work every day. I felt like I was banging my head against a wall and was wondering why the things I wanted to be done weren’t getting done in the office.
At that time, I got a letter from a CPA in Texas who was a Sterling client. In it she described what it was like before she got some help from Sterling: overworked, overstressed, not getting done the things she wanted to do in life. It sounded like she was talking about me. Well, that letter sat on the corner of my desk for the next three months. Every time I would look at the phone, I would look at that letter.
Finally, in the fall I gave Sterling a call and life has been better ever since. L. Ron Hubbard is a genius. Once you understand his management principles and start applying them to your office, you can’t help but succeed.
Since becoming a Sterling client, my income has grown 66% and profitability has more than doubled. I am no longer a renter. Last year I built my own building and now have it fully rented out.
This summer’s new venture is creating a payroll service for my clients. Right now I am working on all the office procedures and training manuals I will need for that service. Even if they use QuickBooks, a lot of clients are still afraid of making mistakes with payroll and having to deal with the IRS, state taxes, disability, unemployment, medical and all the other aspects of it. That is why I am venturing out into this area. It will take one more area of stress away from my clients and let them concentrate on building their own businesses rather than trying to keep up with all the payroll regulations. From a business standpoint, it will also give me another steady source of year-round income and it is a service we can offer where I don’t personally have to do all the work.
Of course, like other tax practices, we do still live by the tax season; but even that is much better than before. When I started my practice I used to work a couple of 36-hour shifts every week during tax season. Now I am working half the hours, but my profits have had a major increase during tax season. I come into the office at nine and am in bed every night by eleven. No more staying up till the wee hours and then dragging myself back into the office at five or six. My weekends are not hectic. I have a family life, go to church every Sunday and generally am free to create my own life.
The best part of the program, though, doesn’t come from bettering your bank balance or getting a good night’s sleep. It comes from getting control back over your life, knocking out the stress and disorganization, and improving your relationships with those around you.
Any business depends on the people in it, and with the Sterling program, you become better at dealing with those around you. This extends beyond the office walls to the others who matter most in your life. My relationships with my family are so much better now. My daughter is now my friend and I am so grateful for that. Even if I had gotten nothing at all out of the program business-wise, that relationship alone would have made the program worth every penny.
Mary Seitz, E.A.
