Hollis Fullilove is the founder and CEO of Crane Financial. Fullilove is a serial entrepreneur with technical experience in account management, consulting, small business development, and business taxation. His team of experts stand ready to provide resources for students through mentorship and tutoring programs.
Fullilove spoke with rolling out about Crane Financial, and what people with businesses should know about tax season.
Tell us about Crane Financial.
Crane Financial is a virtual accounting firm. We do kind of full-service tax preparation, tax planning, and accounting solutions. We work with small businesses, entrepreneurs, as well as individuals and nonprofits working with about 400 to 500 people on a national scale right now.
With tax season coming up, what should people with businesses be educated about?
A lot of people don’t truly understand their tax obligations. What we do at Crane Financial, we call it the blueprint. We map out what makes the best sense and what’s going to be the most efficient tax strategy for any one individual, whether it be someone who works in a career or someone who’s an entrepreneur. What we find a lot of times is, number one, a lot of entrepreneurs get caught on a day-to-day trying to make sure things are working. They can keep the lights on per se in the business, and we don’t have the ability to think a little bit longer in terms of strategy. Our goal is to take things and clear the slate, allow them to see the full scale of what it is they do, and flesh out that idea to the biggest level it can be at to be able to provide them that necessary insight and game plan to navigate through.
What are the steps you take to help small businesses with a tax strategy?
The first thing we’re going to do is break down that blueprint, and figure out who you are, what you do, and what kind of structure you need to be in from your business standpoint. What accounting system do we need to implement for you? Do you have any assets? Ultimately, the goal of that is that we can build that tax strategy. I’ve seen companies save tons of money, and I mean, thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars through implementing efficient and correct tax strategies. The thing a lot of business owners don’t see is that can’t happen on Dec. 31, it needs to happen on Jan. 1. We have to be proactive when we talk about implementing tax strategy and creating a tax plan for any client. Day one, we’re going to sit down and look at exactly what it is you have going on, who it is you’re serving, how you’re collecting money, and who you’re paying so that we can build out that accounting system.
