Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Lane.
Laura, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It started back in High School, 12th grade year, when I made a choice to take an elective in bookkeeping instead of Algebra. That was the decision that brought me to my career choice of wanting to become an accountant. After working in several different areas of the financial industry, it furthered my motivation to become an entrepreneur. In 1993 I decided to start preparing taxes manually for family and friends as I worked my way through community college for my Associate Degree in Accounting. While going to school, the need for my help to prepare taxes became increasingly demanding, and I acquired quite a few clients in the second year.
While balancing this demand and school, I was able to learn about E-filing and how to acquire a system that would allow me to electronically process tax returns. Off to the races it was. I formed my first DBA, “The Right Lane Tax Services” in 1995 and the business literally took off by way of word of mouth. It became very family oriented and I began to teach my daughter and her friends along with my family members how to prepare taxes. The clientele grew beyond my small vision at the time. For the next four years, business grew so tremendously I had to stop working full time and only took on 6 month assignments from temp companies to continue working towards my life goals for my family. The business just kept growing to the point I had to train more of my family and close friends to prepare taxes so I wouldn’t have to turn business away.
In 2002, knowing that I had all the signs of a successful tax preparation business, I attempted to take a full time job at a Major Title Company as an Escrow Accountant. Only to determine I would have to retire in 2004, because I could no longer leave the employees I hired to assist while I worked. As of 2005, I became a full time small business owner and I renamed the business “The Right Choice Financial and Tax Services”. It is now a fully functioning Tax Preparation and Bookkeeping Firm that serves small businesses within the Houston community. By the Grace of God, whom I give all the Glory to, it has been 28 years that we have been serving and sharing not only within the Houston and surrounding areas but beyond. We prodly provide our skills and knowledge within the financial industry with integrity and dependability. I hope that my story will encourage and motivate our community, that with great vision, all of us can succeed if we just follow the path of our vision.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always challenges in life, however if you only highlight the struggles you can never appreciate the growth and how they make you stronger. I can truly say that without persistence and consistency when pursuing my vision, it may not have been possible. The mere struggles that come to mind seem unreal, but I am still standing. I did not have a mentor or an instruction manual, or even the internet and social media as we have today. I did the absolute best with what I had, and business consistently grew. Tax preparation is a seasonal business, therefore the turnover was and still is the struggle in this industry. That is why one of my goals is to always offer the tax preparers more value for working for me, and my clients more services that add value to their everyday life.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Right Choice Financial and Tax Service is a full functioning Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation business. We are known for and specialize in “Superior Customer Service”. Superior Customer Service is so significant to the way we do business and the core of who we are. We believe that customers are earned by the quality of customer service given. We have built a family oriented and customer friendly brand that cares for each person who walks through our doors. That is our brand.. We want every person that comes in contact with TRC to experience that Superior Customer Service.
We pride ourselves in being well learned in the industry and desire to be life-long learners, and we try our best to share the fullness of our understanding and knowledge with our clients in every interaction. We lift the stress and burden off of individuals and small businesses by way of offering our expertise in accounting, bookkeeping, organizing and formatting their business structure. Our 28 years of knowledge, skills, education, dependability, and integrity is what sets us apart from other typical tax preparation and bookkeeping businesses. We are reliable and you can always depend on us to be there for you throughout the year and not just the tax filing season. We had a client to tell us “you don’t see many in this industry that aren’t in it for the hustle of it”, and he is right. Our goal is to encourage and educate our clients to excel! Our clients are the best part of our days!
What were you like growing up?
I was a very curious person. I was raised in a very small town in the state of Louisiana and there was not much to be desired. My oldest brother and oldest sister had a strong motivation to pursue a better life and decided to visit the state of Texas a few times and landed jobs in the process. They came back to tell us how big the state was and how they would be able to take care of us because of all the opportunities that were available. At the very young age of 10, my family relocated to Houston, Texas. I was totally overwhelmed with the size of the city and was extremely excited that I could actually see myself become someone important to the community. I always had a very friendly personality and love meeting new people. I noticed at that very young age that I was a people person and thought that somewhere along the way I would be serving people in some capacity. I was very intrigued with getting an education, because I knew I would need to know how to read and write If I wanted to succeed, and that wasn’t popular from where I was from, I was different. So I was one of those children that gave my mom no trouble whatsoever about going to school or doing my school work.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@trcfinancialservices.com
- Website: www.trcfinancialservices.com
- Instagram: @trcfinancialandtaxservice
- Facebook: www.facebook/TRCfinancialservices
