We’re excited about our conversation with Jasmine Young. Jasmine is a CPA, Founder of Southern Tax Prep & Services and visionary behind the Black Wall Street Expo. Check out our conversation with Jasmine below.
Please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In high school, I was one of three co-captains of the basketball team. As a captain, we got to choose the team’s uniforms, shoes, duffle bags, etc. for the season. Exhausted from looking through the catalogs and not being able to come to a consensus on what we would choose, I told the other two captains to choose whatever they’d like, and I would just pay for whatever they chose. One of the co-captains responded saying “well everyone isn’t fed with a silver spoon like you Jasmine.” This comment angered me because I didn’t feel privileged or “fed with a silver spoon” at all. I came from a normal working class family.
My mom, who is 1 of 8 children, was a seamstress at a local plant in town and my father, the baby boy of 17 children, was, and still is, a trash-man with the city. However, my parents showed my by example that financial literacy is the key to living a financially healthy and free life. They worked hard, consistently strived to learn as much as they could about the things they didn’t know related to financial literacy, and held each other accountable for the household’s finances and their spending habits. To me, this was the bare basics a solid financial foundation.
However, I realized that the “silver spoon” comment came because many around me were not getting the basics about finances that I was getting, and it was their experience that birthed the perception that anyone was getting what they were not, even if it was merely the basics, then that person was being “fed with a silver spoon.” Although initially infuriated by the perception, I chose to use it as my motivation to feed my community and all those I encounter with this same silver spoon – the silver spoon of hard work, education, and accountability that I was fed by my parents. I used what was meant to be a negative connotation to fuel my desire to become CPA and be the resource that my peers and their family needed. That desire manifested into my CPA firm, Southern Tax Preparation & Services.
Business Owners: What If This Is The Answer To Your Business Challenge?
Jasmine, what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from others? One of the most important things about me is that I love my family. I love to host and show hospitality.
While the goal of a business is to make a profit, I have a passion for helping people in any way that I can and especially through my firm. I consider myself blessed because my purpose aligns with my passion. Because my purpose aligns with my passion, I’m able to show people I care more about their financial health than how much they’re paying my firm, and it’s evident in the way that we communicate with our family members (as we call our clientele, because they’re not clients – they are family.)
Our familial culture is what sets us apart from any other accounting service provider, big or small. We’ve built this culture into the firm to provide the missing piece that so many other family members have told me they did not receive from previous accounting service providers – relationship. We have a built and steadily cultivate our relationships with each member of the Southern Tax family. I’ve learned that people don’t buy products and services – they buy you. If people trust you and know that you care, the money will come.
What is “failure” and “success” for you?
To me, you only fail when you accept things that you have the power to change and make no efforts to change them. No matter how little you may be recognized and no matter how hard it may get at times, Success is continuing to take strides to change the things you have the power to change despite internal and/or external factors that may affect how long it takes to accomplish your goal(s).
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I have a big passion for helping individuals become more financially literate, which is why the mission of my firm is spreading financial literacy around the globe one strategy at a time. What this means is all of our products and services are developed with a strategy in mind. I’ve always heard people mention that they want to “get their finances together,” but they don’t have a clear goal of what “getting their finances together” looks like, they don’t have a viable plan or strategy in place to help them reach the goal, and then they have no way to track the implementation of their plan or strategy to see if they’re even on track to meeting their goal or does the plan need to change. This is where my firm comes into place. We develop, implement, and track the implementation of strategy with you and coach you along the way.
Another way we meet our mission is through our charitable arm, The Financial Literacy Institute, Inc. (TFLI) was developed to provide educational resources to globally increase financial literacy. TFLI delivers high quality financial education and offers exceptional flexibility, accessibility and affordability to any individual striving to better their lives and improve their financial health. From budgeting to credit to taxes to life insurance to health insurance to retirement planning to estate planning and the overall importance of financial literacy, TFLI develops and presents courses targeted at each facet of financial literacy to ensure that its students master the concepts of each facet and make real-life applications using the education provided.
In addition, our Maggie & Gillis Dickinson scholarship awarded to Alabama residents that are high school seniors planning to majoring in a business-related concentration and to undergraduate/graduate students who are also Alabama residents majoring in a business-related concentration. Scholarship recipients between $250 and $1000 to further his/her education in a business-related major.
What excites you right now?
The birth of so many new business owners as a result of the pandemic excites me because that means there’s more people to teach about how they can use their business to build generational wealth!
What ONE thing would you like for our readers to take away from this feature story, about you?
No matter where you come from, no matter what you have or don’t have, you can do whatever you put your mind to and the time to do it is now. If you wait until all of your ducks are in a row, you’ll never start. Do it scared. Do it alone. Do it broke. No matter what, start now and just do it.
How can our readers connect with you?
Phone Number: 404.445.6258
Email Address: info@southerntaxprep.com
Website: www.southerntaxprep.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/southerntaxprep
Twitter: www.twitter.com/southerntaxprep
IG: www.instagram.com/yourfamilycpa www.instagram.com/southerntaxprep