In light of the impact of the pandemic, technology has been reactivated and re-imagined. TechTuesday invites technology industry experts, app developers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts for a learning call to discuss key tech know-hows, challenges, and innovations.
Watch #techtuesday Episode #7 and meet Dennis Harabin of Relax Teams
Hosted by: Jonathan Katz of Business on a Browser
Dennis Harabin is an NJ-Based CPA who is passionate about technology. He is the Founder and Owner of Relax Teams and he loves helping small business owners to retain more of what they earn so that they can pursue their passion. He customizes effective tax plans unique to each client's values, goals, and passions.
Always Come From A Place of Help
Instead of working with large companies, Dennis likes to work with the 30 million ‘other guys’ or small business owners out there, the people who do the Schedule C, and the people who no one else wants to work with. He realized that people who do this have the same problems and the same issues over and over again. For small business owners, there’s just not enough time.
It made complete sense why they couldn't get someone else to do it and it’s because they want to just be good at what they do, they want to focus and be an expert at what they do, but they don't really have that back-office team or the people to support them in what they need to do.
For Dennis, it's more rewarding to work with little guys than larger institutions. He doesn’t consider this as a job but a passion to help these people put food on their table and solve their problems. Admittedly, he calls his passion a “sickness’’ because he likes listening to and solving problems and it bothers him until it’s solved.
When Dennis came back from Florida, he wanted to run a small accounting business and that’s where he learned that the problems he was trying to solve are the same problem everybody has. So he started to solve his problems and at the same time help other people solve these problems.
A Group of Professionals Helping Each Other
Another realization hit him: that if everyone's got the same problems, they can just come together and help each other solve them. This is how teams came about, helping each other and figuring out how they solve problems. It started before the pandemic but when Covid hit, it evolved to not just be networking or working together but it became more of a true team where they supported and helped each other.
They continued to do that and started to add more and more teams to the platform as it becomes more and more powerful for every individual on there. Thanks to the help of Business on a Browser, it made it possible for the teams to be able to be not just a group of professionals coming together but an actual technology platform that helps create an impact and to make things great.
Small Business Tax Credit
He continues, “If you're under a million dollars in revenue people don't realize there are tax credits available for them. And under a certain level of employees to have that state of the art system, it's just so cool and fun to watch something just happen. People are used to spending hours on something and then all of a sudden it's done, it’s on your calendars, everything's ready to go, and like’ where did this come?’ from that's just so powerful and so exciting and then to know that somebody else helped pay for it.
The government wants small businesses to thrive. And the world goes based on how the other 30-40 million do, the 30 million become 60 million that's what thrives and that's what makes us thrive. It is those businesses and that's the person who's the same person who's coaching your little league team. They're your neighbors, they're your friends.
That's the other reason why I'm so passionate about small business owners is that they build the community. They do things that look good in the community. And in the end, nobody's fighting to stop the individual who's out there doing the work you know who's out there volunteering, who's doing that, and a lot of times those are the small business owners. Those are the people. They're your neighbors and you know you're helping each other.”
On Quitting Corporate Job
It’s hard when people leave their corporate job and then they wake up to the fact that there's nobody else to do it. Not anymore. Knowing that you have people to support you, help you to share the education, and to have an organization like Jonathan’s team who will give you the technology to do that so you can do what you do best, makes a huge difference.
And with Relax Teams, they focus on retaining more of what they earn so that they can pursue the passions that they love. That's what makes Dennis excited about working with Business on a Browser because their goal goes hand in hand with each other.
You’re Invited
Dennis invites anyone to come out and check out their beta team, Team Central Jersey. You don't need to be from Central Jersey to join and experience it every Wednesday from 8 AM to 9 AM. He makes sure that everyone gets the most value as they can out of that one hour that they invest in a week.
Favorite Piece of Technology
Dennis’ favorite piece of technology is the Google Suite. He thinks it’s wonderful because the Google workspace is customizable and goes hand in hand with each other.
Customizable Small Business Marketing Automation
Jonathan Katz of Business on a Browser
Business on a Browser works with companies to understand how they run their business processes, take those business processes, bring them to the cloud and automate them so that a business owner does not have to worry about how their back office is being managed.
Basically, there's something that a business relies on to run their business. Whether they're cloud-based or on-prem, it's strung together in all of these various processes and connections and integration. How do they build their clients? How do they pay their people? How do they manage and track their expenses? How do they execute their marketing? What Business on a Browser does is streamline and enhance all of those back-office processes and they do that through technology.
Positive Impact
Jonathan also loves working with small businesses to make a direct, immediate, real-world positive impact. Over the past few years, there's a ton of various options out there for these small businesses to leverage. Business on a Browser has a technology stack that they work closely with. When they enter into a business, they learn how people are doing their processes and they come up with solutions to automate, streamline and make those processes more efficient. As a result, they’re saving those businesses time and money and that’s how they set themselves apart.
A lot of traditional consulting shops do the same thing. They get in there, run your business and recommend solutions. Oftentimes those companies have a standard toolset that you'll work with. But Business on a Browser works with companies a little more flexibly. You don’t have to pay enterprise-level costs to run things or be fixed with certain technology stacks that you have to use. It’s more of a fluid relationship.
They put a big emphasis on training and empowerment so that business owners can take care of their systems going forward. Businesses are always changing, needs are always changing, their clients are changing. They want to make sure that their clients are empowered and the system changes with them as opposed to replacing their whole stack or changing how they do their business.
Marketing Campaign Management
Business on a Browser can:
- Run a marketing campaign
- Build automated scheduling tools
- Automate Facebook posts
- Automate the link to your calendar
- Automated responses to prospects
The only thing left to do is show up on the phone and talk to prospects and everything else is taken care of.
Websites ADA Compliance and Tax Credits
Jonathan also wants to add the importance of tax credit, he continues: “A lot of people don't realize even the simple ADA compliance tax credit thing like making sure that your site is accessible for people of all needs and backgrounds. I like to tell people the story of how Beyonce, the famous singer, how she was sued because her website was not ADA compliant. So not only are you protecting yourself from expensive rework or things that you have to do but you're getting an incentivized tax credit on top of that. So it's actually a big swing to go from “Hey I gotta pay money because I was not complying” to “I'm getting money from the government which Ii can put right back into my business to streamline something to get more sales to get more meetings whatever so it's really important.”
Personalized Service for Small Business
In the past couple of months, there's been a mass job exodus. People leave their traditional nine-to-fives to rewrite how they work and rewrite what they do and start their own businesses. There are companies like Etsy that have really taken off. The personalization in products that people are after so they're no longer that every kid at Christmas who gets the same gift. People want to have these more personalized gifts and more personalized approaches to things. We're just going to see more and more small businesses, customizations, and personalization. It’s great to see Relax Teams is built to support small business owners.
Based on the gas money that you use to use for your commute, Jonathan’s team can turn that into a very working and sustainable solution for you. It's attainable, achievable and it's personalized. The goal is not to make money but to help first and see the benefits of solving a problem. It’s a win-win
Least Favorite Piece of Technology
Jonathan’s least favorite technology is red light cameras. Because from a sustainability standpoint, it’s counterintuitive to go out with new products every year and force people to buy new products. They don't always get recycled the right way and end up with more pollution.
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