At first glance, a stroll down Lindo Lane in west Morgan Hill depicts a typical residential neighborhood with single-family homes and manicured front lawns.
However, a closer look at one beige, two-story house in particular reveals a burgeoning tax preparation and bookkeeping business that seconds as the home of the self-made industry leader who founded it 15 years earlier.
“This started as just something to do when the kids were in school in my spare time, “ said AdminBooks CEO Renee Daggett, who went from being a stay-at-home mom (she now has two adult children) doing the bookkeeping for her husband’s construction company to winning accolades as one of the Top 15 “Firms of the Future” in a worldwide contest by Intuit.
“I’m still in shock,” Daggett said of the prestigious recognition. “To me, it’s validation of the hard work of our whole team.”
Surprisingly, Daggett never had to leave home to accomplish it. Not too shabby for the self-starter whose knack for detail and numbers also saw her teaching the Quickbooks software program to other adults for some extra coin before founding AdminBooks.
Her firm, still run on the ground floor of her 125 Lindo Lane address, now employs 16 full-time number crunchers (six on-site and 10 working remotely in several different states). They assist 55 monthly bookkeeping clients and 350 consulting customers on an as-needed basis, as well as 50 payroll and 500 tax preparation clients.
“When I first started out, we were Quickbooks-centric….Then, my clients asked, since you’re doing my books, can you do my taxes?,” said Daggett, who took that bit of advice to heart and went out and got her tax preparation license. “I love numbers. I love taking a client’s chaos and creating order.”
Daggett, who earlier had earned her elementary education degree from San Jose State University, went to work in a small makeshift office designed by her husband in 2002. Word began to spread and the former stay-at-home mom gradually began picking up client after client. Meanwhile, her husband was busy expanding the office space little by little over the last decade. He’s converted all of the downstairs rooms into business areas, and even built an extension onto the house.
“I was a business owner previously so I know the client perspective. That’s where my heart is. I prepare their books as if they were my own. I prepare their taxes as if they were my own,” Daggett said. “I explain and educate them on their tax situation and give them options and the consequences of those options so they can be more in control.”
Hand in hand with her expanding clientele, Daggett grew her AdminBooks workforce by “investing in women who want to work with me because I can’t do it all on my own.” And just as she bettered her own position while diversifying her work skills, Daggett did the same for her employees.
“Having all smart women to help, I just couldn’t do this without them,” said Daggett, stressing AdminBooks’ workforce age diversity. One employee came in fresh out of college, another who was advancing in her career and others returning to the grind after raising a family.
Handpicked employees like AdminBooks tax preparer Misty Wolsfeld, of Morgan Hill, a former bank manager who was looking to re-enter the workforce after leaving for eight years to raise her children. Hired as an administrative assistant four years ago, Wolsfeld “found an aptitude for doing taxes, and it just grew from there” as she also earned her tax preparation license.
“That’s happened over and over, where they come in as an administrative assistant and then get that experience in taxes and bookkeeping and climb the ladder,” Daggett said.
On the bookkeeping side, manager Nikki Mulder is “the head honcho,” according to Daggett. Mulder was looking to jump from a part-time job with another firm to a full-time gig four years ago as her kids became older. In her current duties, she check ins with bookkeepers working in the office and most remotely in places such as Idaho, Nevada and Houston.
“I think we’re a pretty positive crew here,” said Mulder, who has three children and five grandchildren. “We’re always learning new things all the time.”
That lifelong learner mindset starts at the top, according to Wolsfeld.
“Renee is always looking 12 months down the road, what processes can we improve and what can we do to get there,” said Wolsfeld, with admiration for her inspirational boss. “Renee is a really great mentor for us. She’s really invested in furthering our education.”
Building for the future
Daggett’s proactive, nurturing work ethic is turning heads and changing the landscape in the tax preparation and bookkeeping industry. She’s helping to take tax preparation into the 21st century.
The entire AdminBooks team will attend the QuickBooks Connect conference this November in San Jose, where they hope to further educate themselves on all the new technologies being offered. Daggett has already turned AdminBooks into a paperless, secure, cloud-based tax firm. “Renee is a thought leader in our industry,” Wolsfeld said. “She is leading the pack and demonstrating where accounting will go in the future.”
Daggett has given webinars on the topic (her last drawing 800 listeners); was invited to be on a panel with InTuit in November; authored a self-help book titled “Your Financial Flight Plan: Pilot Your Business to Profitability”; and kept the door open for any new opportunities to promote her brand.
The Firm of the Future contest, which is in its third year, recognizes the most forward-thinking accounting, bookkeeping and tax firms that are able to best showcase how they see the value of the cloud, use business models to better value their expertise and grow their practice with modern marketing techniques.
“A lot of tax preparers are older and getting close to retirement,” Daggett said. “I want to educate people on tax preparation and make this an attractive and fun industry for them to consider.”
