When Dr. Shawanda S. Moore’s 21-year-old son and business partner was murdered in 2020, she threw herself into her work. In the process of dealing with her grief, she grew their New Orleans-based tax firm and grossed over seven figures in three months, she claims.
She did so by reorganizing and coaching her team, and Royal Financial Services enjoyed the company’s best year financially.
Moore, philanthropist and author, often goes by the moniker the Tax Doctor. As the founder and CEO of Royal Financial Services, a small Black business started by Moore and her son, Shaun, she pushed the company to earnings of $1.5 million in one fiscal quarter, according to Moore. Although the company, launched in 2010, revealed the earnings for the fiscal quarter ending in March, the revenues have not been confirmed.
She was able to boost sales by implementing new work strategies, procedures, policies and daily motivation tailored to grow her company and the people that work for her. The inclusion of corporate encouragement was a concept inspired by her son, who, before his death, always pushed her.
Royal Financial Services, which bills itself as a “one-stop shop” for tax and financial advising, provides support to individuals looking for assistance in the following areas: individual tax preparation, business tax preparation, business coaching, growth analysis and strategies for finances, financial literacy and more.
Moore has not only helped her own employees but has provided coaching to her software partners, assisting them to grow their tax businesses in 2022. She tells Black Enterprise that over 10 of these associates grossed twice the amount of earnings over the last fiscal year. She has made her methodologies available through workshops and several books.
She has even taken her brand and created her own software, opening up new avenues as a business-to-consumer company with products that aid in direct coaching and training. The software ranges in price from $450 for a basic tax preparation coaching kit to $3,500 for an all-inclusive group tax couching package.
Moore is also expanding her online tax company, Royal Tax Box. Royal Tax Box, a company that allows individuals to prepare their own taxes, is further extending her corporate fingerprint in the market space. That strategy may prove a strong one for her since even before the pandemic, the IRS has noted that at least “90 percent of individual taxpayers” would file electronically.
Moore also uses her company site to sell the five books she’s authored: “Introduction to Tax Preparation;” “The Tax Doctor Saves Christmas,” “Budgeting and Saving with the Tax Doctor,” “Starting a Business with the Tax Doctor” and “Small Business Records.”
Moore points out that 30 percent of all her book sales proceeds are funneled into a scholarship fund set up by her company for graduating high-school students on their way to college and/ or working to start their own businesses. The inaugural 2021 recipients, a total of two, received assistance with their books and supplies.
As a community stakeholder, Moore annually hosts a series of givebacks such as Thanksgiving Food Baskets, Christmas Toys Giveaway with kid activities, Youth Seminars, Stop the Violence Rallies and School Supplies/Uniforms Giveaways. Before the pandemic, she provided youth and adult seminars on entrepreneurship free of charge to those who wanted to participate.
For Moore, her work and her community efforts are all in honor of her son.
