Adding Up The Numbers With Tamisha Lowe-Hendricks of T&D Tax Service
Tamisha loves numbers. For 24 years, she's used her math skills to keep organizations in the black and ensure that individuals remain in compliance with the IRS. And guess what? 2020 marks her 25th year in the tax game.
Although her passion for arithmetic was undeniable, the numbers began to add up when she was forced to make a decision that yielded the greatest return of her life.
I had the privilege to sit with the CPA at her office in Katy. Follow along to discover how Tamisha transformed number crunching into T&D Tax Service LLC, a year round tax company, where she offers tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll and business planning along with business formation services.
From Part Time Tax Gig To Full Time Empire
Photo Courtesy of Tamisha Lowe-Hendricks
If you’ve had the opportunity to meet Tamisha, affectionately known as Tee, you know that she’s welcoming and down-to-earth. She has no problem sharing a business tip or uplifting word of advice, which I truly admire.
So, how did it all start? Tamisha was working in the corporate world as a human resources representative with HEB when her sister-in-law approached her with a part time job opportunity with a tax company. If you ask her, she'll tell you that this was simply a second job.
She said, “It’s gonna bring in extra money. Why not do it? Going into it, I thought, ‘I love this.’ I’m meeting new people. I’m learning things.
“How often would you work there?” I asked.
"I would work part time with this company every tax season," she said. And, I did that for a good 4 or 5 years.”
While working for this company, Tamisha decided to go back to school to hone her craft that she enjoyed so much. Then, she was approached with another offer.
“In the midst of going back to school, my sister-in-law ends up branching out on her own. She said, ‘Let’s do this together.’”
“How did you feel about starting a tax company with your sister-in-law?” I asked.
Tamisha replied, “I’m still in my comfort zone. So, I said ‘No, I’m gonna keep it as a part time thing.’ I know for sure this check is gonna come in every Thursday.”
It’s not easy to leave your job and jump into your own business. The thought of doing so was a challenge for Tamisha.
“I wasn’t raised with entrepreneurs. I was raised with the 9 to 5 type mindset. You know — you need to work for your 401K, you need to work for 30 to 40 years.”
She continued:
"Come to find out you worked all this time and that money is nothing. That little money that you sat aside for retirement is not nothing. You can’t even live off of that money,” Tamisha exclaimed.
After saying no to her sister-in-law’s offer, Tamisha started having second thoughts about starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur. In the words of Muhammad Ali:
“What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.”
“Over time, my kids are getting older and I’m getting wiser on a lot of different things, said Tamisha. “I figured I might need to kinda branch off a little bit, because that means I will make a little bit more money if I branch out and partner with her.”
“Wow. I bet you learned so much working with her,” I stated.
“In that timeframe, I learned a lot working with Yolanda’s Professional Tax Service, which is still open,” she said. “You know, learning the business, and going from paper to taxes being done on the computer. I’ve seen the changes happen in the industry and stuff like that. And, the partnership went well for a good 4 or 5 years.”
“It was just time for me to branch out on my own.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Tamisha to understand that it was time to work towards building something she can call her own.
Count It All Joy
Photo courtesy of T&D Tax Service LLC
In 2005, Tamisha fought against all odds to start her tax business in addition to working full time at HEB, being a wife and mother.
Technically, she was doing what we describe today as side hustling. She even acknowledges her sister-in-law for introducing her to the world of taxes and entrepreneurship.
“I appreciate her because it brought me out of my shell in regards to being able to do something on my own. I no longer have to actually depend on that corporate world income.
“My husband Damario always told me I had it in me. But again, we’re so stuck on that payroll check. He and my sister-in-law would always say, your business is not gonna grow unless you put 100% into it. Which I was only giving 50% because I was in the corporate world.”
To describe how she balanced it all, Tamisha gives us a breakdown of her schedule.
“So this is what I would do:
I would get up at 5 am.
Go to HEB from 6 am to 1:30 pm.
Leave there, come here from 2:00 pm until about 12:00 in the morning.
And I would do that every tax season”, she said.
“You would come here to this building?” I asked.
“Yes, I would work there in the morning, leave there and come here in the evening,” said Tamisha.
“When did this cycle end for you?” I asked. I was sitting in the chair trying to regain my breath just from hearing this schedule.
“I left my job right before I hit my 20th year. It was December 11th, just 2 weeks before my 20th year.”
Knowing When It’s Time to Subtract and Divide
Photo Courtesy of Tamisha Lowe-Hendricks
Tamisha began to describe the event that made her walk away from the comfort of her corporate job.
“A couple of things transpired on why I left. It wasn’t just because of the job, it was for personal reasons too.
“Over the years, my tax career is just building and building and building and I’m seeing what this business can do. So I was thinking, eventually I’m gonna leave. I had already started telling them, ‘I’ll give y’all about another 3 years and I’m gone.”
Right here is where we both fell out laughing. You’ve been there with your job, right? We get to a point at the job where we walk around counting down the days until we leave.
Tamisha said, “I was starting to pscyh myself up. I was telling them, ‘Nobody’s gonna treat you like I treat you. There’s only one me.’ I used to tell them this all the time.”
The breaking point for Tamisha was when her daughter got sick. The situation was taking a toll and she had to make an unquestionable choice that would change the rest of her life.
“My daughter ended up getting sick and we didn’t know what was going on with her for about 4 years. We were going back and forth to the hospitals, running tests, and getting CT scans.
She’s going through all these different shots, chemos, and different things like that until they finally realized that she had juvenile inflammatory arthritis. Then it went to fibromyalgia.
So, of course, I’m in the corporate world and having to miss work. But at the same time, I’m bringing in documentation and different things like that. It didn’t matter that I was on FMLA because they started nickpicking.
“You've been there for so long though,” I chimed in.
Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with the company. So, when they started getting nickpicky, I was starting to really weigh out my options because I remembered that I still have another income over here.”
“This is true,” I said.
Tamisha continued:
“By this time, my husband was saying, ‘Quit!’ My face was like, ‘Quit? I can’t just quit.’ He’s looking at me like, yes you can. You can quit. He said, ‘You have to know your potential. You are worth more than what you’re giving them anyway.
So why not give 100% to your own business and you can dictate when you can take off and when things need to transpire.’ ”
He was like, “Why are you sitting here making somebody else rich and sending them on vacation and you ain’t even took one yourself?”
Here is where Tamisha reveals the incident that made her do a complete 180, leave her job and not look back.
“The hospital eventually called me to let me know that the specialist we had been waiting on for the last 6 months finally had an opening. They said, ‘Somebody cancelled, do you want it?’ I said, ‘Of course, it’s for my daughter,’ she said.
Well, the same day that we had to get my daughter to the hospital, I was scheduled to be in San Antonio for an HR meeting. I called my job and told them I can’t make it.
The lady on the phone said, ‘Can you get somebody else to take your daughter?’ I said, ‘No, I cannot. ’And I said I tell you what -- I quit.
“So this was the turning point for you,” I said in agreement.
“Yes, that was just the turning point for me because, first of all, this is my child. And like I told them, just like I walked in here 19 years ago and got this job, I can walk in somewhere else and get another one with no issue, no problem whatsoever. My child can’t be replaced.”
I bet your husband’s mouth dropped to the floor when you told him about this.
“When I went home, my husband said what happened? I said, ‘I quit.’ He said, ‘You did what?’ I said, ‘I quit.’ He couldn’t believe it.
But, he had been telling me to do this anyway. My husband has always been an entrepreneur. He’s always had that entrepreneur type of mind because his family have always been entrepreneurs. So, you know, when you’re raised up with that type of stuff, that’s what you know.”
“Yeah, but it was up to you to decide,” I said.
Tamisha replied:
“People can tell you things but you have to do it in your own time and your own element to make sure it’s right for you and your mindset.”
T&D Tax Service A Family Operated Business Ready To Serve You
Photo courtesy of T&D Tax Service LLC
T&D Tax Service has been Tamisha’s baby for 10 years now. We had a chance to talk about the struggles and joys of entrepreneurship.
She even took some time to share a few tips with me. And when you listen to her speak about her business, you’ll hear that God is the center of it all.
Here’s what she had to say about it:
“I’ll tell anybody ‘til this day — owning your own business is not easy. We make it look easy, but it is not easy — not by a long shot. But I thank God for giving me the vision and the strength. ”
I thank God for humbling me. I thank God for the upbringing that I have that we have always been humble. I always looked at everybody as equal, regardless of how much money they made.”
At this point, I was curious. So I asked, “After leaving HEB, you didn’t think about going back to employment?”
“Nope,” said Tamisha. “That was the best decision that I have ever made. Of course, it was scary. But now that I look back on that decision, it was the best decision. Because when I quit, my business doubled from what I did the previous year.
I was here giving blood, sweat, and tears all day -- pushing the business, posting about it, and trying to figure out the best solutions. The year after that, the business tripled.
And, each year I learn from the mistakes from the previous years and I make them better. And, I’m still learning everyday. You know -- what to do, and what not to do.
“I mean, every day can’t be the same in here,” I said as I looked around the office. People were coming in to drop off tax paperwork and get notary services.
“Oh, it’s not,” Tamisha replied. “And that’s the other thing I tell people all the time too.
“Not one tax return is the same. ”
Tamisha continued on to explain how everyone’s tax returns are different because our living situations and scenarios are different:
“You can’t judge your tax return off of somebody else’s tax return. You can’t come and tell me my sister got $10,000 and I only got $5,000. You can’t do that because your sister may have two kids and you may have one. Your sister may have made $6,000 less than you did.
You may have paid less in federal withholding, you know what I’m saying? So every tax return is different.”
“Wow, these are things we don’t consider when it comes to taxes,” I said shockingly.
“I can tell you taxes,” said Tamisha.
“She’s very well seasoned,” says her husband Damario nodding his head in the corner.
“Yes. I can tell you taxes backwards and forwards,” she said. For example, “Somebody can bring in a W-2 and I can look at it before putting it in the system and say, you’re claiming too many dependents or you only have 1 person on there.
Or I’ll say, “Why are you claiming 9 and you only have 1? Your tax return is not gonna be that much.
I’ll tell my clients, ‘I can tell you right now what it’s gonna be.’ And they’ll be looking at me like I'm crazy. But when I go and put it in and they look at them numbers, they say you are spot on. “I’m like, ‘I do this.’
“You are a tax expert,” I said.
“Yes, and I’m an IRS liaison,” Tamisha replied.
“What’s that?” I asked.
I can speak on the IRS behalf at workshops. So, I give workshops on small business. I tell business owners what they can claim. I teach them and show them what they can and cannot do in regards to what they can write off.”
Photo Courtesy of T&D Tax Service LLC
“This is awesome because people don’t know what they don’t know,” I said.
“Exactly,” exclaimed Tamisha. I have businesses that've been in business for so long and they didn’t know that when they have an LLC they need to do 2 different taxes. They need to do a business and a personal tax.
I will ask, ‘How are you still in business and you don’t know?’ I always hear, ‘Nobody told me.’ So, I’m constantly educating and teaching.”
You’ve been running T&D Tax Service for 10 years now, how has the business grown locally? I asked.
“A lot of my clients are referrals and people from when I was working for the other companies,” Tamisha said.
“So over the last 3 years, the clientele has built. And that’s from me posting on social media, that’s from me networking, that’s from me getting out and coaching and helping people. And, when people feel comfortable around you, the only thing they’re gonna do is refer.”
We even talked about the challenges of social media and how putting yourself out there as a business owner can be a pain.
Oftentimes, we go into business thinking, I love doing what I love, so I’m gonna sit here and do that one thing all day. Unfortunately, business doesn’t work that way.
We never consider that we have to put ourselves out there and actually introduce ourselves to people.
“And I didn’t like to do that,” said Tamisha. “Even though I was in HR and can talk until your ears are blue, getting out is different compared to you standing in front of people that you have to work with everyday.
When you have to say hi my name is Tamisha, I’m CPA of T&D Tax Service, I offer tax services and more, you’re thinking, what are they gonna say? Oh, here’s another tax person. I already have my tax person.
“I say, that’s fine. I tell people all the time, what’s for me is gonna be for me. And it’s enough business for us all. There’s an H&R Block right across the street.”
To wrap up our meeting so Tamisha could go back to being the tax queen that she is, I had to ask her one last question, “Was it hard going from employee to business owner?”
“It was hard, she said. Because I was trying to figure out the balance.
But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wouldn’t trade no heartache. I wouldn’t trade the arguing, the fussing, and I wouldn’t trade the knowledge that my husband and sister-in-law gave me.”
Understanding that T&D Tax Service is a family operated business, Tamisha enlightened me on some of the family that sits under one roof with her in the office.
“Now, if you had come in here 6 years ago, I would’ve told you, it’s all me. I realized that I can’t do it all. So I had to learn to delegate and hire.”
In 2015 Tamisha hired her cousin, Wymekia, to do data entry. Her cousin got excited because she didn’t even realize that this was her 5th year working at T&D Tax Service.
Tamisha said, “See, that shows growth because that means I’m able to help them and they’re able to help me. I’d rather help my family than hire a stranger off the street, knowing my family needs help.
My cousin does data entry, and my grandmother does administrative work. At my other branches, I have some family and some close friends.”
Under the same roof you’ll find other members of Tamisha’s family such as Damario, owner of Carters’ Courier Services and her brother Brandon, owner of Bayou City Operations. They all step up and pitch in to help each other when needed.
“Some people say, I did it all on my own. No I didn’t. This is all family in here. And like I said, it don’t be easy at times, ‘cause me and my husband go neck and neck sometimes.
And it’s not bad neck and neck, it’s just that he’s focused on his, I’m focused on mine. We’re all moving around, and we're all doing things, and it’s nothing bad by it. We just have to focus.
I understand that. But you can feel the different business entities in here, even though they are all under one roof.
“We all get along perfectly, said Tamisha. Every business that’s in here helps with something. Even though he’s trucking, he’s a courier and also a process server. So if i have checks or something that needs to go out, he delivers ‘em.
If he needs a notary and Brandon’s not here to do fingerprinting, we can do fingerprinting for him. We all can do notary. It’s just different things that we tie in together. It all blends.
“We have to build our own empire in order to be able to survive. That’s what we’re doing and I love it.”
I can’t wait to share more of Tamisha’s story with you in the first issue of Kin + Dignity Magazine. You can beat the rush and reserve your digital subscription for the year right now!
We’ll talk about what her life was like after she quit her job, how she determined what services she needed to offer, and what classes she took to expand her knowledge.
Make sure you follow and support Tamisha and T&D Tax Service on all social media outlets. And when you need tax info, call the office at 281-856-6568 or 713-820-0038 and email tanddtaxservicellc@gmail.com.
