Community Spotlight | Brittany Beall of Southern CPA

Apr 26, 2022

This is the time of year when the unsung heroes of Western Civilization get to strut their stuff and shepherd masses of stressed-out, panicky wage earners through the great American staple known as the US Tax Code. For entrepreneurs, freelancers, and contractors, it’s a whole other complicated maze of 1099 forms, Schedule C’s, and expense write-offs. Self-employed people are also more carefully scrutinized for mortgages – especially REALTORs, who particularly have a lot to navigate for their livelihoods; they’re taxed at a much higher rate and they have more liability.

Tax forms for 2022Brittany Beall is used to the managed chaos, and specializes in tax counseling and preparation at her company, Southern CPA. A large chunk of her clientele are Realtors and real estate professionals – a profession that places a lot of often complicated fiscal and management responsibility on them, on top of generating sales, revenue, and building their businesses.

“People might forget sometimes that Realtors are freelancers,” she explains. “And self-employed workers are also more scrutinized when it comes to applying for stuff like mortgages – ironically, Realtors most of all.”

Her main priority is putting the power of knowledge in her client’s hands and helping them to make better decisions and plans, because being an entrepreneur herself, she knows how challenging it can be to independently manage long-term financial security.

“I don’t want people to be afraid of their taxes; I hate that,” she says. In addition to Real Estate professionals, she also works with tradespeople and contractors – big and small companies alike, as well as medical professionals and attorneys.

“My priority is making sure you get it right and that you and your license are protected. I help people learn how to use Quickbooks, Profit and Loss reports, and set up LLC’s, which are all tools for managing their business and money better,” she explains. “I also work a lot with elderly clients, which I love to do. It’s a good feeling to give them some security and protect them from being taken advantage of. The Zoom environment has been great for that.”

“I don’t want people to be afraid of their taxes; I hate that. My priority is making sure you get it right and that you and your license are protected. I help people learn how to use Quickbooks, Profit and Loss reports, and set up LLC’s, which are all tools for managing their business and money better.”

— Brittany Beall, Owner – Southern CPA

Brittany started Southern CPA in September 2020 – right in the thick of Covid, which she almost immediately recognized as having a fundamental impact on the new normal of work life and the potential for a real, seismic evolution in the way we think of our jobs. As an independent herself, she innately understood the dynamics of both the challenges and benefits of autonomy and what was likely to follow as a result of Covid.

“I think there’s been a big generational shift in the mindset of work/life balance and wanting to have flexibility that didn’t really exist before the pandemic,” she observes. “I started my company a little mavericky from the beginning and made it so that people could work from home and online, and we didn’t miss a beat.”

Another element she felt was imperative was the relationships we as a culture have to our professional lives, and how the 9-to-5 standard simply isn’t the best option for everyone. The onset of the pandemic generated a significant swell of anxiety and even panic in some quarters, because while work hours for millions might have stopped – the bills didn’t. So the next question was, How do we earn a living? Can we earn a living? There was a fast-tracked adjustment period where it was brought into specific relief that the previous standard was inevitably going to evolve and change.

“You have to change with the evolution; if you stick with the same way of doing things, you can’t develop and progress. I’ve seen companies go under because of that attitude,” Brittany states. “What we were able to do is embrace how people work. We don’t all have the same productivity levels at the same time of day; some of us work better in the mornings, and some of us do more in the evenings. We’re unique creatures; why shouldn’t we be able to work when we’re at our peak level?”

“You have to change with the evolution; if you stick with the same way of doing things, you can’t develop and progress. I’ve seen companies go under because of that attitude.”

— Brittany Beall, Owner – Southern CPA
Like her clients, her staff is self-motivated and do things at their own pace, and she trusts in their professional ability to direct their own schedules and workloads. Consequently, they intuitively understand the needs and requirements of their clients even more comprehensively and often end up working extra hours on their own, because there’s a shared commitment. Brittany’s team is actively involved in decisions for the business and how it can be more productive; she consults and asks for their thoughts and opinions.

“I used to feel so undervalued at the job I had before I started this company,” she recalls. “I think if you force people into a set pattern that doesn’t work for them, basically out of a misguided sense of control, you’re sabotaging yourself. You’re not going to get their best performance, and they can burn out. That’s bad for them and bad for you.”

The work culture she’s created at Southern CPA enables not only a sense of empowerment, but also one of investment in making the work effective and the company thrive. Instead of an attitude of ‘it’s not my job to do that’, it’s more a sense of community that getting the job done is what’s important. When Brittany was stricken with Covid herself and out of the office for a couple of weeks, her staff jumped right into the void and took care of her workload without her even asking.

“I watch them do that kind of thing all day for each other, and it carries over to our clients,” she says proudly. “This team is always trying to figure out ways of making things easier, and that makes everything better – including for me. I love going to work.”

 

If you would like to see some of our past Community Spotlight features click here.

At Showcase  we love where we live and we love supporting local businesses, organizations and events within our community.

If you have any questions about the Ocala area or if you have a real estate question — contact us, we would love to hear from you!

 
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