Tax Lady Deducts Stress from her Hectic Schedule

Linda de Marlor is the dynamic President and Founder of Tax Masters Inc., a 25- person tax and accounting firm that prides itself on giving clients the personal touch. With 2,000 clients spread across 50 countries and a busy speaking and television schedule, Linda is often stretched thin. Find out how her BlackBerry® smartphone helps her keep clients happy, while juggling the demands of a hectic travel schedule, promotional activities and family.

Linda de Marlor runs Tax Masters, Inc. with the philosophy that taxes are about more than earnings and write offs. She gets to know her clients, and the very personal aspects of their lives, in order to give them the best financial and accounting advice. They often need her undivided attention at pivotal moments of their lives – before marriage, children, divorce or buying a house. That means she needs to be accessible.

“People’s taxes aren’t just about how much they make and spend,” she says. “To do a good job, you need to be very curious about their lives. That’s where my BlackBerry smartphone comes in. I can now ask the questions that may pop into my head that could benefit a client – a quick email and I have the answer and a deduction for them.”

Linda also bought eight of her financial advisors a BlackBerry smartphone. She had her company install the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution so emails, calendar and contacts on the smartphone would automatically synchronize with Microsoft® Exchange on their desktop computers.

The impact is noticeable. Her team has become highly collaborative, sharing answers to nuances of the tax code by email. For existing or new clients, this is like having the entire resources of the company dedicated to their needs.

“One of our people was meeting with a group of doctors that we wanted as clients,” she says. “A question came up that he couldn’t answer and he sent out a group email. Within seconds, three emails came back with an answer. Our team member held up the BlackBerry smartphone to these potential clients and said, ‘here’s what we can offer you that nobody else can.’”

Tax Masters also finds it much easier to handle the paperwork that is part of preparing tax returns. Clients send these items as attachments that can be read on the BlackBerry smartphone. Linda and her team just file them for later when they can look them up on the Inbox of their PCs, which is synchronized with the smartphone. She says it’s a big improvement over the days of receiving fax after fax from each client.

But it’s her own crazy schedule that has most improved with her smartphone. Linda schedules all her appointments on-the-spot using the Calendar feature. When she travels overseas, time zones never cause her business to come to an abrupt halt. The emails keep coming, and she keeps making decisions, even though she’s in another hemisphere.

“It’s so much easier to stay on top of things with my BlackBerry smartphone,” says Linda. “I think I was drowning before I had it. I can get back to clients more quickly and effectively. Plus I’ve been able to increase my business and the services we can provide to our clients. Just because it’s easier to manage everything.”

When it comes to life outside work, this overstretched tax lady and much in demand speaker, says things have improved. Her BlackBerry smartphone actually gives her more time to stay in touch with her family, because she’s delegating the work load to the team in her office.

“I have three children and I can keep in touch with them whether they’re in Dubai or Belize,” she says. “I bought all of them BlackBerry smartphones when they were in college because I knew it would help with school work and staying in touch with Mom.”

Life as the tax lady is demanding. But Linda uses her BlackBerry smartphone to save her time and de-stress her life.