My journey with Liberty Tax® began back in 2005 when I found myself relocated to a new state and a new town where I only knew one family. I had made the move under the impression that there was going to be a job for me in the Property Management Software industry that I had been working in for the past several years. To say that the job fell through after I made the move would be an understatement! Scared and unemployed I saw a Liberty Tax Service® office getting ready to open down the street from my house. I had taken a tax preparation class and had been self-employed as a tax preparer for over 10 years at that time, so I decided to give it a shot. Stopping by the office resulted in my being offered the Office Supervisor/Tax School Instructor position with this brand new Liberty Tax® Franchisee starting immediately - I was thrilled! Thus the journey began. I immediately fell in love with the Liberty Culture, the Mission Statement and the vision of Liberty Tax®!
I remained with this franchise for the next 3 years and just loved it. Subsequently, I was offered other job in another city and moved away to take that position which I worked at for the next 2+ years. The economy took a real hit on non-profits and I was down-sized in 2011. Two days after losing that job I was scouring Craigslist looking for the next opportunity and saw that the local Liberty Tax® office was seeking an Office Supervisor - what an amazing blessing! The post had only been up for a couple of hours, so I called and was hired immediately due to my previous Liberty Tax® experience. The next 2 1/2 years had me right back on the Liberty Tax® bandwagon and I helped to breathe life back into a failing location - it was exhilerating!
Tami Karnes post photo 6aa7f315-2222-4c18-b75b-ac2c3ee246ccMy small town community really rallied behind our efforts to reestablish this location that had been poorly run and managed the previous year. In those short 2 1/2 years I went through 3 different franchise owners and struggled with a poor location. Then came the news in April of 2013 - the franchise was being sold back to corporate! Thankfully, corporate retained me as the Office Supervisor, but now the franchise was up for sale.
Every effort that I made to try to purchase the franchise myself fell flat - I didn't have any money and previous issues with shakey credit made it a tough road. I prayed, I pleaded, I cried, I felt completely desperate to make this franchise my own and move from being an employee to being an employer! Thank God for answered prayers! A small group of friends and family joined together and contributed the operating capital that would be needed to get us into tax season and corporate agreed to finance the franchise fees and we closed on November 18, 2013!
Priority 1 became to move the location from the failing spot at the north end of town and get back to the South side in time for tax season. We took possession of the new location on December 18 and hit the ground running calling every customer from the past year to make sure they knew that we had moved. The community support of the new location and the wonderful opportunity given to me to move from being an employee to an employer has been phenomenal!!
Our new location is beautiful and our numbers are up a solid 40% from this time last tax season! I can't thank Liberty Tax® enough for having faith in me and being willing to help me make this franchise my own and bring it back to its former glory - my life is forever changed thanks to Liberty Tax Service®!!