Mowbray and Cherina Rowand are the definition of a power couple. In 2008, they moved to California during the recession, leading to their creation of One Stop Taxes, now one of the largest Black-owned tax companies in the U.S. Their business empire includes real estate, a Fat Tuesday’s restaurant, a restaurant in the Dominican Republic and the only Esco in Memphis, which has become the official after-party venue of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Why did you both start One Stop Taxes?
Cherina: Honestly, we’ve always been entrepreneurs. Mowbray and I met fresh out of college, and we knew right away we didn’t want to be married to the corporate America dream of 40 hours a week for the next 40 years. A friend called one day and said, hey, have you guys ever thought about taxes? We were like, hell no. Who wants to do taxes? Right. But quickly we changed our minds after we saw how much money could be made in the tax industry. Now it’s a virtual platform that has reached thousands of people all across the U.S.
What is the biggest misconception about taxes?
Mowbray: So I think the biggest thing about taxes, especially within our community, is you’re supposed to get a refund. And I know many of us need our refunds. But I always talk to my clients about, let’s try to get you away from a tax refund and get you to the place to where you have to pay taxes. But we want to make it to where it’s actually minimal. But as long as you’re getting an income tax refund, you’re really limited on what you can do past that point.
What are ways you give back to the community you serve?
Cherina: For us, we do that in the form of different initiatives, like our Black Tax Fest festival. We put that on annually, most recently at the Fountain Blue in Miami, next year, coming up here in Atlanta. That’s our initiative in the tax industry to make sure that we’re always pouring out resources, creating spaces for us to connect to, network, and to improve and scale our businesses. We also do a Mardi Gras in Memphis that’s coming up Feb. 21-23.
Why did you choose to franchise 2 Chainz‘s Esco and open one in Memphis?
Mowbray: The reason why we chose a franchise with Esco is because we celebrated there several times. We’ve been going there for the last eight years since we’ve been living in Atlanta. We thought that if we took that type of vibe to Memphis and we could add our own twist and get a great location, we knew the business would really go up. We were fortunate to find one of the best locations probably in the whole state of Tennessee, connected directly to the Western Hotel, steps across from the FedEx form.
