3 Proven Strategies to Sustaining Profitability

Ali J. Taylor 0:32
All right, hello, hello. Welcome to the very first Wednesday wisdom series here. I am Ali J. Taylor. I'm the founder and CEO of wisdom and Wayfinder, where we help licensed professional service brands get to a clear path for growth and profitability. And the whole thing with the Wednesday wisdom series is that listen, unless you've discovered the secret to everlasting life or immortality, you don't have enough time in the world to make all the mistakes and learn all the lessons there are about running, growing and scaling a business. And so I've spent the last 10 to 15 years of my professional life, developing relationships with experts and professionals who are at the top in their field in different areas. And being able to bring in those people to address certain problems, situations that come up inside of a business. And I am very fortunate to have one of my favorite new people that I've met recently. She's also my cousin from Krypton, we have a shared love of Superman, and Super Girl. But here with me today is Tina Meeks from scoring services. Tina has a diverse in in depth knowledge ranging from financial controller to it data analysis analyst. In this segment, she will be sharing three proven strategies of mastering sustained profitability in various industries in the last 20 years, which allows her to solve problems in weeks that would require small to mid sized businesses to hire a group of eight to 11 positions in the same collaboration efforts in 30 days or less. I told you she was Superman or Supergirl before I met it. And so say hello, Tina.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 2:17
Oh, I love it. Thank you, Ali, for all the kind words. Thank you. Hi, everybody. It's a pleasure, Ali as well. Thank

Ali J. Taylor 2:25
you. Yeah, of course, of course. Well, again, thank you for being here today. And so I'd like you to just share a little bit about how you got started in your business. What's the thought behind story like, how do you get started, and you know, what inspired you to start this business?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 2:44
Well, I've always been a problem solver ever since I was four years old, learning how to French braid, one of my friends hair. And then I realized I had a knack for technology when I was at started computers in school at 15. And then started really getting the computers have a job and then program my first memory writer, typewriter 18. So I just evolved from there became a problem solver. And then I ended up in accounting 20 years ago, after building an, you know, an ERP or business system, ERP they call them. And I learned accounting. And then I felt that, ironically, my obsession and addiction to gaining profitability by watching data straight through and back again, also was offered with timing, reporting and visibility, fixing those problems, and the profitability was the benefit. So it was very interesting. And I've done it so long now on every position, I'm always trying to streamline and figure something out and solve a problem reduce man hours, that's just like my addict. And it's just been interesting. So I figured, well, I've done this so much with other businesses, imagine how many businesses that can help being a consultant. So if you're a man,

Ali J. Taylor 4:01
yeah, that's awesome. And it's interesting how our paths have sort of, sort of aligned in that same way of just wanting to solve problems. And you sort of pick up all these different skills because you see a new problem and you're like, Okay, well, let me figure out how to solve that. You can see the benefit to the other people. And so you just keep adding all these different skills and superpowers, if you will, to be able to help them. So yeah, so tell me a little bit more about, you know, why financial services and why, and particularly for the wisdom and Wayfinder audience, I focus on licensed professional services. So that's, you know, the insurance agencies, the accounting firms, the law firms, you know, chiropractors, therapists, like all of those different types of brands, but why did you get into the accounting part of it and what is it that you see for businesses in terms of profitability and growth?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 4:58
Well, the accounting part of like counting the financial part of it as an umbrella is, what is the benefit of what I do? My focus is streamlining processes, fixing processes, whether it's through the system and also day to day processes, because those two components along with an input the right employee in the right seat, or is what's valuable, really in profitability. So if you have a system you're using, and some companies depend on how much bigger they are, they have two and three systems that are integrating with each other. Well, who's keeping an eye on that integration? What about the enhancements when a code is changed? You someone's got to be knowledgeable to know when that code gets changed to look at any hiccups, because then you've got bottlenecks going on with data, transactional data, and that's affecting your income. And you may not know it, you know, reports, updating reports, and then your day to day processes. So how many people out there have standard operating procedures that they have for their company and keep them updated? So as times change, so does your standard operating procedures or aka SOPs, as those change who's updating them, so you've got turnover, new people coming in, you don't want to keep reinventing the wheel, because if it worked like a well oiled machine, you want to keep that well oiled machine going, no matter who comes in and getting, you know, the right people in the right positions, the financial part is just the benefit, because I have a lot of knowledge on that part, and reference to the profitability the costing a lot of your clients, for example, or fee driven Ali. So these also need to be looked at and you know, you got market strategy you want to look at in reference to I do have clients that are attorneys, property manager, real estate investors, those are all fee driven companies. So you also want to value your fee schedule, how long has it been? Since you've updated it? How often do you do a market survey? So there's a lot of other things that are looked at, and it's all part of my systems and processes, and then reducing expenses to maximize your profitability when it's all said and done. So that's really what I what I love to do. It's more it level driven, but the benefit is the accounting component of it all.

Ali J. Taylor 7:13
Yeah, that's really fantastic. And, and I'm just imagining a business owner listening to this being like, yeah, yeah, I need to do all that I need to do all that, like everything you said, like there was checking off a box. But it's like, where should? Where do they need to get started? Right? Because I can guarantee if you're asking a business owner or busy business owner about standard operating procedures or systems checklist, it's somewhere in there floating around in their brain, or it's on a napkin somewhere in the bottom of their drawer, if they don't have any of this stuff. Maybe they hired somebody a while ago, and it's buried in some email. But if they were going to try to do this for this year, you know, 2024, what's like the first thing that you would recommend for them to do?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 8:00
The first thing we need, the first thing they want to do is you have what I focus on my strategy. One is let's look at how much is hitting your age receivables report, where's your billing at right now is any of your billing manually being done? Are you behind on getting the billing in, and then you want and then of course, I focus on fee structure or cost accounting and where you are depending on what industry you're in, in reference to that. So that's that's the three components were the look at those focus on cash flow first, because then when we get the cash flow coming in, then the rest of it, you know, the rest of it is then we get into the expenses, then the standard operating procedures, because we got to get some normal consistent patterns going in, in your day to day operations. Because you do want to focus on the finance and handling the customer service and make sure you're delivering the product, the end stage that is feedback, I apologize, the end stage of operating and making sure that you know you have this consistency going forward. And of course, I'm just not abandoning effect either. Once I come in and I get the cash flow, then we look at all the expenses and I have my my army with me as we call the Justice League, I have a bunch of business referral partners and I will bring them in with their value and their expertise to get you re quoted looking at your policies. Let's look at this. Let's look at this expense. And so we're looking at that to see where our expenses and then the third strategy is keeping up with you making sure you know looking at your expenses, making sure that you're getting tax strategies taken off, because a lot of times at the end of the year they're so exhausted, you know every business owner that I've ever met and there's no fault because it's not their cup of tea. Every smile that's on my plate for next week. And before you know it we're at Tech season, we're at the end of the year. And now we've got to get everything ready for taxes, and they're so overwhelmed. And the CPA doesn't have time to answer 50 questions that you should have and had all year long. So then you get to that part, and you're like, Just do it. And then all of a sudden, because of that lack of ability to be able to get that done, you are probably paying for five to six times higher in tax tax to Uncle Sam than he probably should have. So having someone like me come in and literally see it from the very beginning all the way through your processes and back and monitor keep you healthy, and sustainable. You are, I promise you, you will pay much less at the end of the year, and I pretty much my position would pay you literally two, three times less than what you would have paid to Uncle Sam. So there's great value in that. And then just imagine the holidays, right? Most people are wanting to spend time with your family. But a lot of people in the finance world are dealing with urine processes. Just imagine all of that going away, and your staff being able to just focus on thing today and have that time with their family and have someone like me coming in and keeping you healthy and sustainable. Basically, you know, that person behind the curtain just keeping you going and less stress, work life balance and profitability who doesn't want to have more money in their pocket at the end of the day?

Ali J. Taylor 11:24
Yeah, I don't know anybody who would say no to that. Yeah. So there's there were a couple of things that you said there that I really loved, especially with, you know, I talked about, you know, growth and profitability and a clear path to growth and profitability. And I think there's two ways to get there for growth, right, you can either grow through expansion, which is either increasing the prices, increasing the number of customers that you have increasing the frequency at which you're selling your products or your services, there's a growth through expansion. And then there's the growth through contraction, which is reducing those expenses, you know, mitigating those risks, or, like you said, in terms of, hey, if we get all these processes in place, first, and we have, you know, we review, whatever you're paying for your insurances, or for your different policies, where you're freezing your fee structure, we can reduce the amount that you're paying to the silence, but ever greedy partner, that is Uncle Sam. Everybody's business, right? So I really love what you said about those two things.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 12:31
Yes, definitely. I mean, Uncle Sam gets enough, right? You need more money in your pocket in order to stay as successful and get to your legacy business that you started out. However, that was two years, six years, 10 years, 20 years, whatever that is.

Ali J. Taylor 12:48
Yeah, yeah. Can you tell me so can you share with me, you know, a particular example of someone that you did? Have that sort of result with it? What? Not necessarily in their business, but on the other side of their business? What did they get to do that they weren't able to do before, because they were so locked in and trapped by their own success of their business. That you were able to help them do that?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 13:16
Yeah, um, well, I have a current client, who is in the legal field. And he has been doing it all on his own, since he started the company and how he has done that on his own. So I started with him in September, mid September. And again, what I want to stress is small changes make big differences. We started off with heart, we started with the age recording, making sure the billing was there, we tackled that, then we were able to bring in an assistant, a legal assistant, I was able to train the legal assistant, get them started, take that off his plate, let him focus on his legal side. Then once we got that we were able to do some automation, get some things automated and had that ability to do that. While I continued to work on the collections and billing and kind of get customized with their his customers. And then as of Monday, we now brought in a second legal system. So it's a new thing. So literally in just a few months, he's he's blown away. He's like, I cannot believe how I did this all by myself. And now I have you know, you you know you as a consultant, kind of guiding me through what I need technology wise, we're about to implement the phone system for him. And just bring in now into assistance, get them trained, you know, find the right people for the right seats, and then get them trained and then building this the standard operating procedures as we go and now we're getting ready to fully automate on an intake level side. All his social media has been updated. So again, all of this is mid September, and we've really started focusing middle to end of October. So We're now at February 7. So you just imagine the impact is pretty quick, you will notice a difference very fast. Small differences, small changes make big differences.

Ali J. Taylor 15:11
Yeah, that is so cool. And I'm sure one, he probably just looks so much younger, right? Because he's actually getting sleep now.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 15:23
Yeah, it's it's important. I mean, he has two young, young young daughters, and he's married. And you know, you want to keep that work life balance, you know, it's so very important, because you will eventually burn out and just get exhausted. And that's my thing, I look at the overall the overall picture of where we can tackle first, that's going to make the greatest impact, then we go to Strategy two, then we go to Strategy three, for long term goal. And it works every single time with anyone I've ever done in any industry of any professional at any area, it works. It's not that hard. It's just finding that right person to make all the puzzle pieces match up. Because every in that and you know, you hear people always say, Well, I'm just stupid. That's technology's just not my thing. I said, you know, it's ever stupid. It's an inexperience. It's a new experience. And it's not your cup of tea. So why would you want your lawyer? Why would you want to deal with technology? Or finance? Why would you want to deal with finance, that's my area. That's what I love to do. I love to watch the profitability grow that call that an addiction, call that an obsession. That's what I do. When I see that happen. And I can cash forecast and project and double and triple your your company. That, to me is well worth everything. Because I know, in the end, that's what matters is keeping you sustainable in the current climate that we're in right now.

Ali J. Taylor 16:48
Yeah, I'm so glad that you say that, like, because so many business owners, I don't know, I don't know where this idea came from. I know, I certainly subscribe to it. For a while when I was getting my business started. It was like, No, I have to do everything, I have to hustle, I have to grind. I'm gonna learn all these different areas of my business. And there's just that feeling of shame. Like, I can't ask for help, right? Because then maybe I'm not a good business owner, maybe I don't have any business, you know, being a business owner. And so I love what you said about it's not You're not stupid, you're just inexperienced. Because yeah, if you're a lawyer, that's the thing that you went to law school for. That's the thing that you wanted to develop that expertise in, you shouldn't know be a tech takut expert, you shouldn't be an expert, all these other aspects of your business, that's where you got to hire those people. But you can't hire those people, unless you have the funds to do that. And you don't have the funds to do that. If you're wasting more time than money to get the right people get those right processes in place so that you can actually get to that place to do that.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 17:58
Right. And that's the number one thing that is a shock factor. You know, my daughter has been a successful entrepreneur for eight years. And I wanted her to focus solely on her passion of what, why she's doing what she's doing. And I never wanted her to lose that. And I guess that was, you know, she was my inspiration starts gorgeous, just like more people need you for what you've done for me and what you've done for everybody else that people don't even know, Mom, you got to get out there and do this, because you can help so many people, you're so knowledgeable, and she never had to focus on more or, you know, on the financial side, we brought in a part time person, she never thought that the small changes I made made a big difference. And she went from 26,000 to 107,000 in sales in less than three years. So it's proof but you know, it does happen. You just got to find that right person that can see the overall picture of the business, and then make those changes, just make those changes that are needed and trust the processes.

Ali J. Taylor 19:03
Yeah, absolutely. Well, so I know one of the things that you were, we had talked about a while back was how, I guess you taught a lot of the kids in your neighborhood about finances and stuff. Can you share a little bit about that briefly? Oh,

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 19:19
yeah. So you know, me being in the finance world, my children, I always gave them the good, the bad, the ugly and whatever their father was disabled. very young age. He became disabled when they were three and five. So I always knew I grew up very poor in the city of Philadelphia, you know, born and raised in Kensington nama Kensington girl will always hold those roots but I learned a lot from that world. And my you know, I knew we were really poor. You know, I knew we were really poor and and I wanted to make sure that my kids understood how to handle life struggles, whether it was good or bad or whatever. So I taught my daughter was able to balance you No checkbook at 13. My son, they would know if things were tough financially, they had a little board, they would write their little wish list on and we weren't honored if we could never sheltered financial struggles with them at all. And then their friend's parents, you know, didn't share that. And the kids would come over to the house or whatever. And I was like, Oh, Mom, could you show them how to write a check? Mom, can you? Can you share this. And then as these kids went into college, and then the financial aid, I was helping them with their financial aid, and I was helping them with doing credit cards and car getting car loans, and it just kept escalating before I knew it. And many of them were now successful. It's just the little things that make a difference. Don't shelter your kids. And financial literacy is very important for me, because kids need to know from the very beginning about financial understanding and not when they're an adult, because that is the that's not the time to hit them with the shock factor. Yeah,

Ali J. Taylor 21:00
we spent, we got taught so much about how mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, nothing about how to balance a checkbook, nothing about how to do financing, nothing about how to do taxes, like in high school. That is 100%, the thing that is necessary today. And God, I wish there were like a million Tina's running. Back when I was in high school, because I can only imagine how much difference a lot of people's lives would be right now, we wouldn't certainly wouldn't have a student student loan crisis, if people were just more educated, more aware of what they were getting into and signing those contracts, you know, they might have said, Hey, I don't actually want that. Or maybe I don't want to go this traditional path, maybe I might want to explore, you know, entrepreneurship or going to a trade school or something like that, you know, something to give them more options, more freedom inside of how they want to earn their money. And then what they want to do with that money once they get it.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 22:00
Yes, definitely that shiny penny into the city, the whole, you know, we talked about this, that sales pitch terminology. And that's I think, kind of like some of my limiting beliefs I had on that word sales is because of that, that, look at this little card, this is what it's going to do for you. And this is and you know, they sell it to them as this glorious thing. And then before you know it, they maxed out a card, and now their credit shot when they go to get married or buy a car and you're like, oh my god, that happened when I was in college. And they're still dealing with the the damage to their credit, from their inexperience of getting credit cards and college and whatnot. So that's the thing that that always bothers me when I hear the story. And then I work with trying to help someone repair their credit. I don't do it as much now that the kids are old, or you know, much older. But back then I was I was the driving force. If someone had a financial issue, I helped anybody that needed me.

Ali J. Taylor 23:00
Yeah, but I'm also sure that that that plays a part in businesses today, especially if they're trying to qualify for loans or get funding. A lot of those, you know, those mistakes from an experience will crop up and affect their ability to get that funding that they need.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 23:16
Yes, and that's the that's the biggest thing. See, only a lot of times they will tell you why they're denying you. But I know why they're denying you. I can look at your financial health what your p&l is, you know, I have comedy and analogies. And what do I explain so your p&l, it's looking crazy, it's an EKG machine, we're your KPIs, that's what I call a thermometer. So if you relate to things like that, then it's not too overwhelming, because that's not their term terminology depends on you know, once you get to the big corporations and stuff, and then you've got that everybody understands that language, but they don't understand it. And when your p&l Looks like an EKG machine, and you've got some write offs, it doesn't matter. You're gonna get denied and extension of credit, you're gonna get die from loans and good, I don't understand I made you know, say $200,000 in profit this year, why am I being denied? That is why

Ali J. Taylor 24:12
Yeah, cuz it's not your ability to make money. It's your ability to manage manage debt, I should say,

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 24:18
correct. Manage the income and the expenses that are going in and out. And as long as you look like you are getting it together, and you have that health, that's what matters. It's the it's just like your credit score in a lot of ways. It's just like your credit score. You've got to maintain that stability and sustainability in order to for a bank or an investor to look at you and go okay, they're not as high risk because you're checked off on a box based on your risk factor, how long you've been in business, what industry you're in, and all of that other you know, that other stuff so yeah, and they a lot of business owners don't understand that either.

Ali J. Taylor 24:56
Yeah, that just for my or I just had a thought In terms of, you know, a lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs are risk takers. And they might have the appetite for risk. But that doesn't mean that everybody else does, especially the banks. Yeah. So I think sometimes there's a disconnect between, well, I see the train, I know what it is that I'm calling for, I know how this can work, while everyone else is looking at, but these are all the ways that it can fail, and you just haven't done enough work to mitigate the risks and all the ways that the business could fail, to make me want to invest in it. And I think there's a place where business owners kind of, you know, it takes a lot of ego and sort of confidence, almost a little delusional, in some ways, especially as economy in this environment, say, like, Yeah, I'm gonna go out on my own no safety net, I'm gonna jump off the cliff, I'll build my plane on the way down, it takes a little something to be able to do that. And if you want to get other people on board, you have to do as much as you can to bring that level of safety that to bring that level of confidence in terms of the risk and managing that.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 26:07
Right. Right. And, and just know, it's okay to ask for help, right? If you happen to get to a point that you're so far down, and what I see a lot of times is between that two and six years, right, right, where you're kind of coming out of your small, you know, you're in your small business, and you're starting, then then between your six years where you're, you know, trying to expand or grow or whatever you're trying to do. But there's that that stability issue that's coming up, you may have had high turnover, but don't know why. Or all kinds of work, have it maybe had to do some cutbacks, or some changes, and turnover is not healthy in itself. I mean, that's very, that's expensive to someone and hire them and train them. And that's the thing people need to look at, it's okay to ask for help. That's what we're here for. We're here to help keep you sustainable and financially growing, because nothing makes me happier than to see that. And I know you can call it whatever you want to call. But that's just what I love to do. It's just the greatest reward for me to be able to offer that to a business.

Ali J. Taylor 27:14
Yeah, same. Same I'm drinking out of my mug, it says be the guide. So this was back from when I was a story brand certified guide with Donald Miller. And a whole thing of function of that marketing and messaging piece was that you as a business owner, your business is no longer the hero of the story, your customer is the hero and that you want to play the guide. And so when we were when we were on your Summit, five areas and World Summit last Saturday, you know, you talked about how I show up as like a Sherpa, like climbing up the mountain with people side by side. And so I hear that with you as well in terms of yeah, we're we're guides were shoulder to shoulder with people, guiding them to the next level guide them into the next area of growth and development inside of this business. I think so many business owners just carry around a lot of sort of internalized shame, about asking for help, or having to admit that, hey, you know, I don't feel qualified in his area, or, you know, I'm really good at going out and selling the business, but I have no idea how to manage your team, or manage the finances of it so that people really understand that it is okay, as a business owner to ask for help. I don't care how many articles or op eds have been written about, you know, billionaires that are that are hit her in our economy right now. They didn't do it without help. The whole segment,

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 28:46
right, even though it looks like they didn't There's people behind the scenes. And that's, that's, that's what I always was, you know, I was the wizard behind the curtain for so many years and my little fishbowl, now I'm in the big ocean, swim, and swim and swim and down the Jetstream with the turtles. And it's just been a great, great experience to learn about a lot more businesses and help you know, help them grow and prosper and get to that that area that they want to be in because that's the that's the value you bring to this economy right now. And anything that we can do, I'll link in our Super Girl and Superman mentality. That's what it's all about.

Ali J. Taylor 29:25
Yeah, well, speaking of superheroes, right? A lot of the superheroes they kind of get that conviction through some type of tragedy that occurred, right with Superman. It's the death of obviously his planet but also the death of podcasts. With Peter Parker, it's the death of you know, Uncle Ben. So for you, can you share like a critical moment in your business that was like a challenge and obstacle that you had to overcome? That really cemented the clarity and a vision and a purpose that you Have for your business now.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 30:03
Well, yeah, I think the the the challenges I've had is really growing a new network, right my network and my fishbowl was great everybody knew me I was you know referred here referred everybody knew me now I'm in a bigger network on there longer in you know little Burlington, North Carolina now nationwide. You know, some people know me globally. So it's that part of it is the network broadening your horizons and finding the right people right? Sometimes it's may not be the right people in your same city or the same state you do have to broaden because there's all this stuff big world out here. big ol Goshen, no fishbowl. And so just learning that and networking more, with more, folks is what what I had to learn. And believe it or not, I'll a getting on camera and speaking to people, because who has the time to go to every door now though? Hello, I'm Tina Meeks here. Welcome. Well, we don't have that time anyway, you know, we don't have that time. And we don't people don't read newspapers as much. So you can't put those little inserts we probably remember from the 80s and 90s. So now it's very important for you to get out there and get your face on camera and let people know what you do. Because people people have to know and see you and say, Oh, wow, she is real. And then eventually you can touch me and say yes, she's real. But that's how it is. It's like if you're afraid to get on camera, and you're a business owner, and you're out there servicing your community, it's going to be vital to the health of your company, because people need to see you, they need to know you, they need to like you, they need to know that you can solve their problem. And if you can't get on camera, there's going to be a problem to be able to speak to people.

Ali J. Taylor 31:48
Yep, I can tell you right now that that piece that you said right there is gonna get clipped and it's going to be shared over and over and over again, I will try a lot of the businesses back when I was focusing on the marketing stuff with Dell marketing design studio. In terms of advising clients, and I had about luck, you got to get on camera. There's a lot that I can do in terms of behind the scenes and graphics and creating stuff and all that but people need to see you they need to hear directly from you, they need a hearing in your words. If you're relying on chat GBT or AI or all these other tools to sort of outsource your identity and your presence, it's just not going to be successful, successful or sustainable in the long run.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 32:39
No, and you are you're dead right there it has to be because anybody can write a beautiful paragraph about you to be able to be confident in what you do to offer that service. Because if you are not confident and lack that ability to speak, even though you can master it right behind the scenes, trust me. But if you're not confident enough to implement that, and make that happen, for them, there's somebody else's, they're gonna find that it's gonna be able to do that same service for the same price, most likely, and they're gonna go there, because that's just what it's about. It's a different world now than it was 1020 years ago. People want to visually see you.

Ali J. Taylor 33:22
Yeah, they want to, they want to be able to connect with you, they want to be able to get a sense of who is it that I'm gonna be handing my money over to? Who am I gonna be handing over my, you know, my business? My, you know, if you're somebody who's doing my wills, estates and trusts or whatnot, who am I handing over those documents and relying upon to set me up? In all the ways that I need to be set up, you know, secure my future, like, who am I really doing that business with. And if you're not able to put your ego aside to be able to say, like, I get it, people don't like public's public speaking, they hate the sound of their voices, they don't like the way that they look on camera, that's fine. But when it comes to really having your skill, your expertise to be out there, people need to be able to see that even if it's just one video of you talking and just really demonstrating the breadth and the depth of your experience and your knowledge. And that's all the time you get it. The fact that it's out there and people can come back to it, right? We live in this digital world where those things can go on a perpetuity. If you can just make that one asset. It will do so much more for your business. And we make our jobs easier to

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 34:34
write exactly. And trust me I'm I'm the poster child of not wanting to get on camera. I had seven people on my business. I didn't have I didn't hardly use Facebook, Instagram, all of my stuff was locked down. So trust me, I can guarantee you it's very tough to come out of that but you have to break that because you can do it. You know, you can definitely do it and be nice I mean, or you weren't nor not whatever you choose.

Ali J. Taylor 35:04
Yeah, I think it just comes back to that thing we were talking about in terms of being a guy, when you put aside your ego, and you're like, who is it that observing, right? What do they need, if you can get over yourself to be in service of other people, that's what's gonna make your business really successful.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 35:25
It's what it's about serving others, right? You help if you help yourself, you'd help strengthen your client base, you bring in more positivity throughout your employment, your team, through the community, it just, it just ripples, and then you're taking it home for your family and you're showing all of it greatness, that you are, you know, just exude operating out of yourself, and you're no longer in that position you're in and you're showing some prosperity and growth and profitability, nothing makes someone more happier knowing that they've got somebody right there with them hand with shoulder to shoulder this to fist right there with them. Because that's what it's about. Yeah,

Ali J. Taylor 36:09
that's what we need. I feel like it's so many different ways. Like, there's so many resources that are out there for that the government does provide for small businesses, but for you to get access to them to even find out about them. Sometimes it feels like you're like you have to go through a labyrinth. Like you've got to answer you know, the riddles three in order to get access to the resources that you really need. And so I love, you know, like what we're doing here, being able to make this more accessible to people, so they can get access to other people's wisdom and experiences and stuff they have. And so my next question for you is, so for your, for your business for your company, what is the vision that you have for what you want to accomplish this year?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 36:56
Um, yes, my vision is to grab, you know, be able to service more companies in different industries. My focus, of course, is the licensed professionals, the property management, the attorneys, small, firm attorneys, real estate investors, but I do work with midsize to larger corporations if needed. I just continued it. But you know, whatever I can do to help and then continue to grow my team. I've definitely have, you know, a roster of people looking forward to working with me, and I'm honored for that. People that have known me for years that would say, if you ever started a business, let me know. And so, you know, I'm calling all those people and they are on standby. And it's just the greatest feeling to know that you made such an impact as a leader or team lead and a company that you work for people that know, you know, my daughter or whatnot, it's a great feeling to know that I have people that are so ready to work with me. And I don't like to say work under me, because I don't look at the superior inferior thing. It's a team effort. I always say that it takes a village score II is not going to be successful just by Tina beats alone. It's going to take my entire team, and all of the collaboration of everybody's mindset to make everything success. So I continue will continue to grow. I'm looking forward to going to a narco, which is the National Association of real estate property management conference in Charlotte, the end of this month. And so I've kind of get my heels wet a little bit in that arena. And yeah, so possibilities are endless. I really look forward to continuing to work more outside of North Carolina as well.

Ali J. Taylor 38:38
Yeah, awesome. Awesome. All right. So I have one more question. But before we get to that, if somebody wanted to work with you, you know, what's the where should they go? What do they need to do? Do you have any kind of like offer for anybody that's watching this?

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 38:55
Yeah, yes, I have a calendar on Calendly. You should be able to find all the access to it on my website. It's for E one to e services.com. And I have two sections. One is for the mid size to the corporations, I offer a 30 minute discovery call. And then I have for the sole sole solopreneurs solopreneurs. And maybe the smaller companies. We do like a 15 minute review to see what their needs are and then we go from there. But I offer those free because my thing is to make a difference. And talking to you is where that where you start. That's the first step to prosperity.

Ali J. Taylor 39:37
Awesome. Awesome. All right. Well as our conversation comes to a close, what is one piece of wisdom that you would like to leave our audience with? For the journalists in their business? Oh, a

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 39:51
lot of good wisdom. Hmm, well, you have only one I would say Have fun, laugh, have a sense of humor. And no matter what happens in any event, or any day, find the positive. In your day, don't go to bed with a negative attitude, find the positive what I call the silver lining and everything. Nothing is ever a mistake. Nothing is ever I shouldn't, you know, shouldn't have done that wrong choices. Everything is a learning experience. Just take whatever comes at you and say, wow, I've learned something new today, and ended with a positive thought in your mind and move on. That's what I say.

Ali J. Taylor 40:39
Yeah, that's a great piece of wisdom. I think a lot of people would do themselves a favor, by just finding something to you know, be grateful for laugh about at the end of the day, because you got to because you got to get up and do it again tomorrow.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 40:56
That's right. Yes. I'm always a character. Never a dull moment around me. I always have something funny or comical, or, I mean, being in the world of finance, I guess I had to develop that funny bone.

Ali J. Taylor 41:09
To be a pretty, it could either be a dry topic or depending on the state of somebody's finances, it could be a very devastating topic. So that sense of humor. really necessary.

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 41:21
Yeah, you want to relax them as best you can without giving them a cup of brandy or whatever. We want to relax them on. I want to keep them well, well above to answer questions and yeah, just have a sense of humor about it. It's okay. It really is okay. At the end of the day, it's going to be okay. It always will be.

Ali J. Taylor 41:41
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, Tina, thank you so much for joining me today on no points. No Wednesday wisdom series. This is Ali J. Taylor from wisdom and Wayfinder and I will see you next week. Thank

Tina Meeks, SCOREE Services, LLC 41:55
you, Ali. Take care everybody.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai