February 12, 2024 • 27 mins
Jeff Wilson II
Jeff is the CEO of The W2 Group, LLC., a solution-driven Accounting and Advisory firm specializing in bringing cloud-based solutions and efficiencies to its clients: Not For Profit Associations and Government Contractors. He is also the Founder of Govierates.com, a cloud-based Software solutions firm. Jeff Wilson is a Certified Public Accountant and maintains over 7+ financial certifications and licenses. He is experienced in several financial areas that allow him to provide his clients with multiple domains of expertise. His firm is an SBA-certified 8(a) Small Business and MBE-certified accounting firm headquartered in Upper Marlboro, MD. As a multi-domain accounting expert, he has experience supporting and streamlining business operations to improve financial management and operational effectiveness, with expertise in corporate accounting within the personal services industry. As a former KPMG Auditor, he has experience performing financial statement audits following both FASB and FASAB. He has been a board member of the Maryland Association of CPAs and a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) PFP Executive Committee and the AICPA Trial Board. CPA Practice Advisor Magazine named Jeff as a 40 under 40 CPA. He was also a 40 Under 40 Black CPA centennial recipient. In 2023, he was awarded the honor of Outstanding Young CPA.
Jeff is the CEO of The W2 Group, LLC., a solution-driven Accounting and Advisory firm specializing in bringing cloud-based solutions and efficiencies to its clients: Not For Profit Associations and Government Contractors. He is also the Founder of Govierates.com, a cloud-based Software solutions firm. Jeff Wilson is a Certified Public Accountant and maintains over 7+ financial certifications and licenses. He is experienced in several financial areas that allow him to provide his clients with multiple domains of expertise. His firm is an SBA-certified 8(a) Small Business and MBE-certified accounting firm headquartered in Upper Marlboro, MD. As a multi-domain accounting expert, he has experience supporting and streamlining business operations to improve financial management and operational effectiveness, with expertise in corporate accounting within the personal services industry. As a former KPMG Auditor, he has experience performing financial statement audits following both FASB and FASAB. He has been a board member of the Maryland Association of CPAs and a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) PFP Executive Committee and the AICPA Trial Board. CPA Practice Advisor Magazine named Jeff as a 40 under 40 CPA. He was also a 40 Under 40 Black CPA centennial recipient. In 2023, he was awarded the honor of Outstanding Young CPA.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs.You should know Howard fight i heeart media
in celebrations of Black History Month.Let's meet Jeff Wilson. He is the
CEO for the W two Group withexpertise in software accounting systems, tax forums,
along with financial advising. Before wetalk more about Jeff's business, I
first asked him to talk a littlebit about himself, where he's from and
(00:22):
his origin story. I am fromFort Washington, right off Valentin Road.
Grew up a local kid in PrinceGeorge's County and attended all the normal public
school system schools, Friendly High Schoolgraduate, actually attended Suitland High School at
one point to vocational school because Iwasn't that great of an academic kid.
(00:46):
So I went to Suitland High Schoolto do vocational to become an electrician.
And that's where I got my firstfour point zero at Dennis and Nice to
be electrician. Yeah. And soI ended up, you know, graduating
from Friendly High School and decided Iwanted to be an electrician. Decided this
college wasn't for me, and Iactually had a friend lift two houses down
(01:10):
from me, and he kept buggingme about going to college with him.
I'm like, dude, you remembermy grades from school and this is He's
like, hey, you know.So I ended up applying. I only
got a exception to one school,Bullie State, and I spent this whole
summer working as an electrician. Iwas putting in freezers at Low's and I
(01:32):
actually work on Benjamin Filoyd. That'sthe school right behind the Fedec Center when
it was being built. That wasmy first site that was an electrician.
I got my acceptance letter this andI could go to Bowie State, and
man, the guys, the olderguys in the field as electricians, kind
of convinced me to try it outfor semester. They said, Man,
(01:53):
you know you're too smart for this, they said, they said, hey,
go to school for electrical engineering.You already know how to read the
blue prints. And I ended upgoing to Bowie State and almost I wasn't
a pillar of academic excellence at thebeginning there either, and I ended up.
Man, I was. I wasn'ton my way out, but I
(02:15):
was definitely like a two point fivetwo sumter student in college until I found
business and accounting. So once Igot to my core business classes, man,
I remember a teacher I think everybodyfailed the class in accounting except for
me. I had like an age, right, I mean, like right
at the beginning, and he remember, I remember his name, it was
Professor Manyard, and he said,mister Wilson has a future in the county.
(02:38):
The rest of you draw and man, that was it. Man.
I ended up having like a graduatingfrom Bowie Great Mentors there three point eight
and I never looked back. AndI took the business and accounting kind of
like a fish to water right right. And you know, I got to
(03:00):
tell you your origin story is fantastic. And you're not the first lifer from
the DMV that we talked to inthe series, which I love to I'm
an old Falls church kid, andeven though I've moved all over, we
live in Northwest U see my wifeand I have my kids at college in
North Carolina, and I feel likeI'm a lifer because I've lived here so
often. And I lived in Marylandand d C in Virginia, Northern Virginia.
(03:21):
It's always fun to talk to peoplethat have lived here. There's just
a different flavor of a person who'sfrom the DMV knows the streets really well,
knows how the city works. Andalso there's a common threat in our
series too. And I, Jeff, I know you're not the first person
to admit this of wanting to dosomething and starting something and then doing a
one to eighty and doing something differentfor a living. When you have that
(03:42):
epiphany, whether it's taking a classthat you're good at a professor had an
impression on you, Oh, youjust find out, hey, I'm also
good at this too, and maybeI should try it out. So we
have a lot to talk to youabout. So let me ask you this.
You wanted to be an electrician,you were obviously going to be one,
and you were one, and thenyeah, and an employee, and
then the accounting thing came up.So I guess I don't know if that's
(04:04):
a dilemma for you or not.You're good at two things now, So
you got to choose what to docoming out of school and and what turns
you on and where you can makea living. There's all sorts of different
dynamics of place. So what happenedafter school? So after school, I
think at that point I thought aboutit. So one idea was to go
(04:25):
back and kind of maybe become amaster electrician run my own electrical company because
I knew accounting got new business right. But man, at that time,
Dennis I had fellen so in lovewith understanding companies, the way they worked,
like reading financial statements, and theywere kind of like electrical blueprints to
me, because I used to readthe blueprints to figure out where things need
(04:48):
to be wired at, et cetera, how to make runs. And what
happened was the financial statements of companiesturned into those blueprints, and I kind
of was more enticed by, Hey, this is how this company works,
right, and this is how theymake money. And so I wanted to
go to like Wall Street with myaccounting degree or something. So that made
(05:09):
me kind of put the electrical thingto the side and say, hey,
I got a new blueprint. AndI wanted to get better at just reading
financial statements. I mean, likea lot of kids, you read about
Warren Buffett and how you can readfinancial statements, and when I first came
out, I wanted to be morelike him. So he kind of drove
my my my hunger for wanting tolearn more just about business. I really
(05:34):
didn't necessarily care about the accounting.I cared about how businesses worked because I
felt like that's a missing out ofall this stuff about financials, like the
basics of just how does a companywork was missing? And I keep in
on that. So that's like mylittle gift is like I can read and
say, Okay, I know howthis company works. Well, it's more
(05:56):
than a little gift because we're goingto find out all about the W two
groups. So let's do this.So the group is about ten or twelve
years old, so you're you're adecade plus into this and in this series.
What fascinates me, especially with peoplelike you that's think it at another
level, which is why you're entrepreneurialand why you started a business and why
you're so successful at what you do. People always have that epiphany about saying,
(06:19):
you know, I can start abusiness, and I should start a
business, but I've got all thesedifferent things. I'm going to have to
do a lot of doorways to stepthrough a lot of pitfalls and hurdles,
and it's just hard to start asmall business. So well, that said,
when you decided to start this businessand you had the epiphany of doing
it, what was the idea aboutit? Did you see that there was
(06:41):
a hole in the industry that youcould feel that wasn't necessarily being filled at
that time. Tell us about thewhole origin story of the W two group.
So definitely, when I started theW two group, that was a
experience, an opportunity, and thenI saw a few things. An opportunity
and a really good experience. Andthe experience I saw was that I had.
(07:05):
My background was I had worked fora large, big four accounting firm
as an auditor, right. Ihad worked at a large banking institution.
At that time, I was workingon like a eleven billion dollar balance sheet
company managing the accounting there. Andwhat I saw the opportunity is that when
(07:26):
you look at our community locally inPG County, I didn't see a lot
of practitioners or you know, peoplethat could do accounting that had done it
at that level, right, thathad that experience to kind of look at
things from such a higher level inservice small businesses. So and so basically,
(07:46):
I take a big company framework,I really think like a Fortune five
hundred kind of CPA kind of thinking, and I brought that to I bring
that to my small business clients,right, And what I realized is that
wasn't around. So that was theopportunity that experience, all that experience I
had gathered from reading financial statements inschool to being an auditor at a big
(08:13):
four accounting firm to you know,being lead accountant at eleven billion dollar institution
allow me to take all that skillset and provide it that multi domain expertise
to a small business in our community. And I just realized that there was
no one else that could do that, and I saw that opportunity that I
(08:33):
ran for it outstanding. Well,let's do this before we get into all
the programs capabilities, because it islayered when it comes to the W two
group and what you do. It'snot about being a CPA anymore and doing
taxes, and I think that's thehigher level thinking that you're talking about about.
I can do actually a B,C, D, E, F
and G for clients, not justtaxes, not being a CPA. There
are other things that are involved inthe business world that we can help as
(08:56):
a small business and support them.So with that said, though, what
is the mission statement of the Wtwo group. So a mission statement is
simple, we want to provide valuablefinancial information to our clients so they can
make sound financial decisions. That's goingto agree to lead them to greater financial
security the way that I And that'svery you know, that's a great statement,
(09:18):
and said, well, and letme tell you the reason why it's
that way. As a financial professional, my job is to give you all
the information you need to make thebest financial decision. You can't make good
financial decisions without good financial information.So I have my job is to give
you great financial information because people do. People do better with the better information,
(09:41):
and that's our job. Give youbetter financial information so you can make
better decisions. And one of myrules, one of the things I look
at it this way. Then itsays the community is a community is only
a reflection of the people that's providingthe service to them can be good.
Is that so a good service provider, We're going to provide really good information
(10:03):
and that helps bloom out the community. Jeff, I like that business.
I like that a lot. AndI'm gonna get on my soapbox. I
don't do it often in this series, but I want all the future entrepreneurs
and leaders to listen to me justfor a second. What Jeff did.
He does let everybody does in thisseries where they I ask what the mission
statement is, which they give,but ninety eight percent of them don't follow
(10:26):
up with context about why the missionstatement is what it is. And Jeff,
because I have a sports radio background, I used to be a talk
show host, and when you tellstories, I'm a firm believer in giving
people context because they might not knowwhat I'm talking about. And I'm saying,
all this is because you gave yourmission statement, which is fine,
but you explain why your mission statementis the way it is with a follow
(10:48):
up. And I really appreciated thatwith the context. So I just want
to give you kudos that because peoplein this series don't do that often,
and I think that's really important andI think it's smart too. Yeah,
no, thank you made it matters. I mean, I'm like, like
you said, it helps that you'reI'm a local guy, so I really
care about the community and I understandswhat makes them good communities, right,
(11:11):
And that's it's really about having reallygood service providers. And if you get
really good service providers, when Ilook at a really good community, I
can go look at their CPAs orI can look at and I know they're
outstanding. They're like top class andit flourishes out of that community. So
we're trying to always be a toplevel service provider because that's how we that's
(11:33):
our input to the community. Well, I appreciate you saying that. In
all, Well said, let's dothis. So there's going to be a
lot of listeners that are going tobe introduced to the W two group for
the first time ever. Jeff andI know you know that. But with
all our iHeart listeners and people thatare checking out this series, if you
were to give the thirty thousand footview and tell all our people they're listening
for the first time ever about whatthe W two group actually does, what
(11:56):
would that be W two group iswe provide a comprehensive service. We simplify
financials for you. So that doesn'tmean all the extra talking, right.
What you get is you don't getsomeone trying one person give you one part
of information financial information here and someoneelse there. You get it all in
(12:16):
one place, right, So thatmeans we iHeartRadio when we say this,
we know all the genres of moneyright of accounting, right, So you're
getting all of that service in oneplace, particularly from one or two providers.
So you're speaking to the same samevoice, almost like a doctor's office
where you're always talking to Jeff,and we're giving them that service all in
(12:39):
one place. They don't have togo shop around and basically shop here for
this their tax, here for theirfinancial planning, here for their business.
They can get it all in onepace, in at one place, and
a comprehensive and a comprehensive format.And Jeff, I also think you're talking
about continuity for the client too,aren't you, as well as your staff.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Soit's like your doctor, Dennis,
(13:00):
And that's kind of how we lookat it. When you come to your
doctor's office. You don't want tosee a different doctor every time, right,
you want to see the same practitionerevery time. And yeah, he
may have three hundred clients, buthe's always got time to talk to Younis
about what you got going on.He has your chart and everything. So
I'm the same way, right asa practitioner. I'm the finance doctor,
and I got a chart on everyclient. And when you come in and
(13:20):
we talk, I know, hey, let's talk about this, this and
this. So it's that continuity,it's that comfort and its consistency. That's
what we're delivering. Hey, listen, it might be trademarked, but at
the very least, I think weneed to put the finance doctor on a
T shirt. Man, it's prettygood. I like that. I like
that look. And then it's justsometimes sometimes you know, being a doctor
(13:41):
depending on you know, we takethese two. We have clients that come
in on life support. We gotit. Use there and I love it.
I love great analogy. Well,let's do this, Jeff. I
want to get into the weeds alittle bit more about programs and capabilities because
there are several layers to the company. So when you start to offer your
clients certain things, there's obvious thingsthat you know you kind of heads you
(14:03):
down a little bit about what youdo, but can you go a little
bit deeper into some of the thingsthat clients either dig working with you or
that you do offer to make surethat you know thoroughly we go through all
the things the W two Group doesoffer the clients and what you do with
them. Yeah. Sure, sowe offer let's talk about our accounting services
for our small businesses, right,So it's comprehensive. So what does that
(14:26):
mean is like we do. Ialways tell people there's the necessities in the
basics. So yes, we doaccounting. We do accounting services very well,
you know bookkeeping, I call itaccounting services for our clients on a
monthly, regular basis. We meetwith those clients just like a doctor.
We talked about the finances, what'shappening, what they can do better with
(14:48):
ideas we have maybe to push themthere there, and we're also looking for
our clients opportunities for our clients tomake them grow and make them better.
One of the things that makes us, I think one of the better firms
to work with is we maintain alot of relationships, particularly banking relationships,
right, so we're always looking tohelp our clients grow from the point of,
(15:09):
hey do they need relationships with bankers? And you know, if we're
working with like M and T anybodyelse, to kind of really say,
hey, we think you guys shouldhave that conversation because you can grow here,
they can do something for you.That's what we do. That I
think that separates us that we're lookingfor We're not only doing the accounting,
we're trying to help them get better. So at a lot of firms didn't
(15:31):
they actually just do the accounting andthey're done, right. We don't want
to do that. We want tohelp you grow because we grow. When
you grow, right, we don'tget any better, We don't our firm
doesn't get any bigger. We don'tget any more revenue unless our client actually
gets bigger. So that's a partof our comprehensive accounting service. And then
what we do is kind of wrapthat into tax and helping them plan,
you know, tax wise, forwhat they should be doing in the future.
(15:56):
So we're at this firm that alot of firms like to just say,
hey, we want to say youtaxes. We're going to show no
revenue on there, right, Butwe as business analysts CPAs, we know
that no affirm with no tax,no taxing taxable income isn't going to do
well trying to grow, right,So we save our clients money, but
we also make sure that the taxreturn fits their business needs in their future.
(16:19):
And then we've wrapped that up,we move it a step forward and
we move that to the personal sowe make sure your business is moving with
your personal goals. Dennis, yougot a wife and kid, and you
you know you may want them totake over the radio. You may want
your royalties to go somewhere, allthose things, so we cover all of
that in a financial planning platform there. And so what you have is this
(16:42):
comprehensive service where we wrap in forthose small business owners. We've got you,
your business and your family covered.Well. That's Janning, Jeff,
Thanks for sharing all that. Idid want to talk to you boy.
Maybe some challenges that the industry presentsright now. And as we tell in
the series, while things are goingwell and the business has been strong,
sustainable, and you've also grown upover the last twelve years, it's done
(17:03):
always unicorns and rainbows all the time. So what kind of challenges do the
industry present themselves right now for youand your team? Yeah, so I
think the challenges the challenges we have, challenges and opportunities, and sometimes they
actually wear the same set of clothes, right, the challenges becomes opportunities.
So the number one challenge I thinkindustry wide people would agree is probably a
bit of the talent. We havea talent crisis, and that means that
(17:26):
we don't have as many students goinginto accounting as we used to. Right,
we're not the sexiest profession anymore.We used to be like three right,
you have doctor, lawyer, accountant, right, and then Wall Street
came and then it was like stockbrokers. So we moved down and we're not
and then now you got programmers.So we're not the prettiest thing on the
block anymore. Right, So thathas they kind of taken a little bit
(17:48):
about our zest away, and sowhat that has is caused a bit of
a talent shortage. So it's hardto find really talented practitioners and those that
just come into professor. Now.One of those opportunities that are coming in
is opportunities, and I think isgoing to be one of our struggles is
technology, the AI. How that'sgoing to play a role. AI is
(18:11):
definitely going to help us with notas many kids coming to college as well
as graduatings accountants. AI is goingto help us kind of do automate some
of those things. But I thinkthat's going to also be some of the
challenge in the future of how wedeliver services, right because I think accounting
what I want, it's still apeople business. It's a relationship business,
(18:33):
right, me and you are sittingright here with our relationship. I don't
know, if you want a robotkind of you know, telling you your
financials, you probably still want ahuman there. So I think that's some
of the challenges that we have weface on how we deliver services in the
future. How much AI is goingto be in that From that perspective,
we've tried to really harness that.As I mentioned, we have a software
(18:56):
arm at the W two group calledgvy Raates, and so we're trying to
service our clients by using some someof that fintech and AI and our software
to service our clients from that perspective, and we'll continue doing that. It'll
still be a person driven service.It's just maybe the back office will be
a little bit more automated in thefuture. Very good, thanks for sharing
all that. So we have afew minutes to talk about maybe a great
(19:18):
story or a story that maybe wasclose to your heart or your team.
You've been doing this now for twelveyears. Is there a special moment with
a client or a person where youknow you did something very special, you
knocked it out of the park,and you said to you and yourself,
you know, this is why weget up every day because we made a
difference for this person this client.Do you have a story for us?
Yeah, yeah, I got acouple of great ones, but I think
(19:41):
my favorite one was a funny onewas it was actually, as we talk
about this, right, I wasworking with a banker locally who he's a
mentee now and Derek at Derek andDerek called me and he actually had a
client that he wanted me to workwith. He said, hey, we
(20:02):
can't you know, I don't knowif we can do alone here or whatever.
And in the client was small,et cetera. And you know,
then it's the client. Because weare a niche based firm, so we
focus on offer profits and those inthe government contracting space. I actually would
not have taken that client if itdidn't come from him, Like I just
(20:25):
just not it wasn't in our market. But what we always try to do
is treat people right, right.That's the key thing what I've learned about
it is for a community perspective.It's always about getting people where they need
to be. So I could haveeasily said, hey, that's you're not
for us, and this left itat that. This in particular business was
looking to become a daycare. Itwas a home based daycare center. And
(20:48):
they were like, hey, I'mjust trying to get a loan, small
loan to you know, expand herbasement or something. Right, So I
looked at the financials and I said, yeah, they're probably not gonna be
able to do this loan. ButI had other relationships, and so I
caught up a friend of mine andsaid, hey, I have this client,
(21:10):
you know, just met them,not really even a client, and
I think there's an opportunity you guyscould work with them on. Right,
And I think they you know,they're trying to do something here, and
you know what ended up happening.They ended up getting a buying buying a
building. She end up buying,so she moved from a The deal ended
up being like a million dollar deal, million plus deal. We end up
(21:34):
helping them get a daycare center.So she moved from her home based business
to a daycare center. Went fromyou know, small quarter, you know,
maybe two hundred thousand revenue to amillion dollar daycare local in our community,
all because we didn't say, yeah, you're not for us. Wow.
(21:55):
And that's why one of my oneof my best stories, like that's
huge. Don't do any accounting servicethan anything for him, right, They
wouldn't have liked to find that lenderthat would help them. We did that,
and I always tell my team thisis why we do it right we
can. We made a change inthe community. There are a number of
parents who now have childcare right becausewe make a decision that no matter if
(22:19):
the client isn't a fit for us, we find the right fit for them
and move on. But we makesure that we do right by the community.
And that changed the community. Jeff, that's a really cool story.
You know. The other ripple effectwhen I hear that story is, well,
not only did you help that onewoman start a business and grow ask
you a little larger than she thoughtshe was going to be, but all
(22:41):
the families that got to enjoy andbe a part of that daycare and on
and on and on and on.So that's a real special story. I
really appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, I
appreciate it. All right, youall right, let's do this. Let's
talk about when it comes to philanthropicand charity work. Because I know you
and your team very busy, butI also know that this is really important
(23:03):
for you that you like to bea part of it. So when you
do, when it comes to eitherprofessionally, personally in filanthropic and charity work,
what do you like to be partof? So, so I don't
have a pacific you know, talkingmusic, I don't have a pacific genre
of it right now. What Itry to do is use wherever I'm going
to be best fit. So rightnow, I'm volunteering for a DC local
(23:25):
based non for profit called the SafeSister Circle, which is about helping marginalize
women that have been abused or inthe area of domestic I actually know.
Well that's that's real nice. Soyou do that, it's very cool.
Yeah, yeah, So I'm volunteeringthere. Typically every time I kind of
want to volunteer, maybe be anelectrician again, but they all make me
(23:45):
be. They keep signing me upfor TREASURER. Well they're both in your
Bailey Wick, that's for sure.Yeah yeah, right, So you try
to you just give the best wayas possible to kind of kind of help
it, so, you know,so I try to when I'm volunteering.
So that's my philanthropic interests right now. In other cases, we have some
(24:06):
other ones. We sort of adoptnon for profit every year and so this
year or yeah, this year,starting this year, that's that's our that's
our adoption for this year, right. And the other thing I think we
should mention that the people aren't awareof is that you also have an internship
program too that you also do,which is I think cool. Yes,
yes, yes, we're always lookingto develop accounts and better business advisors.
(24:30):
So we always take about two internsa year, one typically in the typically
in the fourth quarter, in thesecond quarter of the years when we do
a hiring for interns. So happyfor any anybody wants to visit the website
w I I CPAs dot com.We're always looking at h help help younger
(24:51):
students really harness their skill set andaccounting and finance as well as the technology
side that we have here. Sogood, and we'll give that website just
one more time in just a moment. But why don't we get some final
thoughts from you, Jeff as wewrap up everything, and maybe a takeaway
or two for the lister and whatyou make sure you want them to know
when it comes to the W twogroup. What is that? Well,
sure, I think I think whenwhat I would say the takeaway from the
(25:15):
W two group, it was wedon't know how radio is. You know,
we're we are we are lovers ofmusic and accounting is music, and
we know we're very skilled and expertsin all the genres, you know,
whether it's rock, whether it's whetherit's fraud or forensics, or it's accounting,
general accounting services, it's classical musicand taxes, jazz, or it
(25:37):
could be popped sometimes. But whenyou whenever you're looking for a trusted business
advisor, you want an advisor thatunderstands all the different genres in order to
get you to the right place.And I think that's what we do at
the W two Group. And we'vehad a really good successful one of doing
that for twelve plus years and beinga leader in a number of places in
what we do. And we're awardwinning firm. I'm a award winning CPA,
(26:03):
and you know, we would loveto, you know, have more
clients to get this level of servicethat we're offering to the DMV community.
All very well said, All right, let's give that website one more time
for people if they want to findout more about the W two Group or
maybe partner with you and just lookat everything. What's that website address one
more time. Sure website is wiiCPAs dot com. Understanding, Hey,
(26:26):
Jeff, it is a pleasure man. As I said at the beginning of
our interview talking to a lifer,I always like to talk to people that
are from here and to know thecity and the streets and the people.
And you have an amazing story.Man. You know, you could have
done one thing, but you decidedto do another and you did it really
well. And it's not easy toget there, folks when you start your
own small business. But twelve yearsin the making, I know that you're
(26:48):
growing, not just sustainable anymore,Jeff. So kudos to you and your
team. Really appreciate everything that you'redoing, and thank you so much for
joining us on CEOs. As youknow, thanks Dennis, I appreciate you
for having me. Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs,
you should know, as part oftheir ongoing commitment to building strong communities,
and that starts by backing the businesseswithin them. As a bank for communities,
(27:11):
M and T believes in dedicating time, talent, and resources to help
local businesses thrive because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank presents CEOs.You should know Howard fight i heeart media
in celebrations of Black History Month.Let's meet Jeff Wilson. He is the
CEO for the W two Group withexpertise in software accounting systems, tax forums,
along with financial advising. Before wetalk more about Jeff's business, I
first asked him to talk a littlebit about himself, where he's from and
(00:22):
his origin story. I am fromFort Washington, right off Valentin Road.
Grew up a local kid in PrinceGeorge's County and attended all the normal public
school system schools, Friendly High Schoolgraduate, actually attended Suitland High School at
one point to vocational school because Iwasn't that great of an academic kid.
(00:46):
So I went to Suitland High Schoolto do vocational to become an electrician.
And that's where I got my firstfour point zero at Dennis and Nice to
be electrician. Yeah. And soI ended up, you know, graduating
from Friendly High School and decided Iwanted to be an electrician. Decided this
college wasn't for me, and Iactually had a friend lift two houses down
(01:10):
from me, and he kept buggingme about going to college with him.
I'm like, dude, you remembermy grades from school and this is He's
like, hey, you know.So I ended up applying. I only
got a exception to one school,Bullie State, and I spent this whole
summer working as an electrician. Iwas putting in freezers at Low's and I
(01:32):
actually work on Benjamin Filoyd. That'sthe school right behind the Fedec Center when
it was being built. That wasmy first site that was an electrician.
I got my acceptance letter this andI could go to Bowie State, and
man, the guys, the olderguys in the field as electricians, kind
of convinced me to try it outfor semester. They said, Man,
(01:53):
you know you're too smart for this, they said, they said, hey,
go to school for electrical engineering.You already know how to read the
blue prints. And I ended upgoing to Bowie State and almost I wasn't
a pillar of academic excellence at thebeginning there either, and I ended up.
Man, I was. I wasn'ton my way out, but I
(02:15):
was definitely like a two point fivetwo sumter student in college until I found
business and accounting. So once Igot to my core business classes, man,
I remember a teacher I think everybodyfailed the class in accounting except for
me. I had like an age, right, I mean, like right
at the beginning, and he remember, I remember his name, it was
Professor Manyard, and he said,mister Wilson has a future in the county.
(02:38):
The rest of you draw and man, that was it. Man.
I ended up having like a graduatingfrom Bowie Great Mentors there three point eight
and I never looked back. AndI took the business and accounting kind of
like a fish to water right right. And you know, I got to
(03:00):
tell you your origin story is fantastic. And you're not the first lifer from
the DMV that we talked to inthe series, which I love to I'm
an old Falls church kid, andeven though I've moved all over, we
live in Northwest U see my wifeand I have my kids at college in
North Carolina, and I feel likeI'm a lifer because I've lived here so
often. And I lived in Marylandand d C in Virginia, Northern Virginia.
(03:21):
It's always fun to talk to peoplethat have lived here. There's just
a different flavor of a person who'sfrom the DMV knows the streets really well,
knows how the city works. Andalso there's a common threat in our
series too. And I, Jeff, I know you're not the first person
to admit this of wanting to dosomething and starting something and then doing a
one to eighty and doing something differentfor a living. When you have that
(03:42):
epiphany, whether it's taking a classthat you're good at a professor had an
impression on you, Oh, youjust find out, hey, I'm also
good at this too, and maybeI should try it out. So we
have a lot to talk to youabout. So let me ask you this.
You wanted to be an electrician,you were obviously going to be one,
and you were one, and thenyeah, and an employee, and
then the accounting thing came up.So I guess I don't know if that's
(04:04):
a dilemma for you or not.You're good at two things now, So
you got to choose what to docoming out of school and and what turns
you on and where you can makea living. There's all sorts of different
dynamics of place. So what happenedafter school? So after school, I
think at that point I thought aboutit. So one idea was to go
(04:25):
back and kind of maybe become amaster electrician run my own electrical company because
I knew accounting got new business right. But man, at that time,
Dennis I had fellen so in lovewith understanding companies, the way they worked,
like reading financial statements, and theywere kind of like electrical blueprints to
me, because I used to readthe blueprints to figure out where things need
(04:48):
to be wired at, et cetera, how to make runs. And what
happened was the financial statements of companiesturned into those blueprints, and I kind
of was more enticed by, Hey, this is how this company works,
right, and this is how theymake money. And so I wanted to
go to like Wall Street with myaccounting degree or something. So that made
(05:09):
me kind of put the electrical thingto the side and say, hey,
I got a new blueprint. AndI wanted to get better at just reading
financial statements. I mean, likea lot of kids, you read about
Warren Buffett and how you can readfinancial statements, and when I first came
out, I wanted to be morelike him. So he kind of drove
my my my hunger for wanting tolearn more just about business. I really
(05:34):
didn't necessarily care about the accounting.I cared about how businesses worked because I
felt like that's a missing out ofall this stuff about financials, like the
basics of just how does a companywork was missing? And I keep in
on that. So that's like mylittle gift is like I can read and
say, Okay, I know howthis company works. Well, it's more
(05:56):
than a little gift because we're goingto find out all about the W two
groups. So let's do this.So the group is about ten or twelve
years old, so you're you're adecade plus into this and in this series.
What fascinates me, especially with peoplelike you that's think it at another
level, which is why you're entrepreneurialand why you started a business and why
you're so successful at what you do. People always have that epiphany about saying,
(06:19):
you know, I can start abusiness, and I should start a
business, but I've got all thesedifferent things. I'm going to have to
do a lot of doorways to stepthrough a lot of pitfalls and hurdles,
and it's just hard to start asmall business. So well, that said,
when you decided to start this businessand you had the epiphany of doing
it, what was the idea aboutit? Did you see that there was
(06:41):
a hole in the industry that youcould feel that wasn't necessarily being filled at
that time. Tell us about thewhole origin story of the W two group.
So definitely, when I started theW two group, that was a
experience, an opportunity, and thenI saw a few things. An opportunity
and a really good experience. Andthe experience I saw was that I had.
(07:05):
My background was I had worked fora large, big four accounting firm
as an auditor, right. Ihad worked at a large banking institution.
At that time, I was workingon like a eleven billion dollar balance sheet
company managing the accounting there. Andwhat I saw the opportunity is that when
(07:26):
you look at our community locally inPG County, I didn't see a lot
of practitioners or you know, peoplethat could do accounting that had done it
at that level, right, thathad that experience to kind of look at
things from such a higher level inservice small businesses. So and so basically,
(07:46):
I take a big company framework,I really think like a Fortune five
hundred kind of CPA kind of thinking, and I brought that to I bring
that to my small business clients,right, And what I realized is that
wasn't around. So that was theopportunity that experience, all that experience I
had gathered from reading financial statements inschool to being an auditor at a big
(08:13):
four accounting firm to you know,being lead accountant at eleven billion dollar institution
allow me to take all that skillset and provide it that multi domain expertise
to a small business in our community. And I just realized that there was
no one else that could do that, and I saw that opportunity that I
(08:33):
ran for it outstanding. Well,let's do this before we get into all
the programs capabilities, because it islayered when it comes to the W two
group and what you do. It'snot about being a CPA anymore and doing
taxes, and I think that's thehigher level thinking that you're talking about about.
I can do actually a B,C, D, E, F
and G for clients, not justtaxes, not being a CPA. There
are other things that are involved inthe business world that we can help as
(08:56):
a small business and support them.So with that said, though, what
is the mission statement of the Wtwo group. So a mission statement is
simple, we want to provide valuablefinancial information to our clients so they can
make sound financial decisions. That's goingto agree to lead them to greater financial
security the way that I And that'svery you know, that's a great statement,
(09:18):
and said, well, and letme tell you the reason why it's
that way. As a financial professional, my job is to give you all
the information you need to make thebest financial decision. You can't make good
financial decisions without good financial information.So I have my job is to give
you great financial information because people do. People do better with the better information,
(09:41):
and that's our job. Give youbetter financial information so you can make
better decisions. And one of myrules, one of the things I look
at it this way. Then itsays the community is a community is only
a reflection of the people that's providingthe service to them can be good.
Is that so a good service provider, We're going to provide really good information
(10:03):
and that helps bloom out the community. Jeff, I like that business.
I like that a lot. AndI'm gonna get on my soapbox. I
don't do it often in this series, but I want all the future entrepreneurs
and leaders to listen to me justfor a second. What Jeff did.
He does let everybody does in thisseries where they I ask what the mission
statement is, which they give,but ninety eight percent of them don't follow
(10:26):
up with context about why the missionstatement is what it is. And Jeff,
because I have a sports radio background, I used to be a talk
show host, and when you tellstories, I'm a firm believer in giving
people context because they might not knowwhat I'm talking about. And I'm saying,
all this is because you gave yourmission statement, which is fine,
but you explain why your mission statementis the way it is with a follow
(10:48):
up. And I really appreciated thatwith the context. So I just want
to give you kudos that because peoplein this series don't do that often,
and I think that's really important andI think it's smart too. Yeah,
no, thank you made it matters. I mean, I'm like, like
you said, it helps that you'reI'm a local guy, so I really
care about the community and I understandswhat makes them good communities, right,
(11:11):
And that's it's really about having reallygood service providers. And if you get
really good service providers, when Ilook at a really good community, I
can go look at their CPAs orI can look at and I know they're
outstanding. They're like top class andit flourishes out of that community. So
we're trying to always be a toplevel service provider because that's how we that's
(11:33):
our input to the community. Well, I appreciate you saying that. In
all, Well said, let's dothis. So there's going to be a
lot of listeners that are going tobe introduced to the W two group for
the first time ever. Jeff andI know you know that. But with
all our iHeart listeners and people thatare checking out this series, if you
were to give the thirty thousand footview and tell all our people they're listening
for the first time ever about whatthe W two group actually does, what
(11:56):
would that be W two group iswe provide a comprehensive service. We simplify
financials for you. So that doesn'tmean all the extra talking, right.
What you get is you don't getsomeone trying one person give you one part
of information financial information here and someoneelse there. You get it all in
(12:16):
one place, right, So thatmeans we iHeartRadio when we say this,
we know all the genres of moneyright of accounting, right, So you're
getting all of that service in oneplace, particularly from one or two providers.
So you're speaking to the same samevoice, almost like a doctor's office
where you're always talking to Jeff,and we're giving them that service all in
(12:39):
one place. They don't have togo shop around and basically shop here for
this their tax, here for theirfinancial planning, here for their business.
They can get it all in onepace, in at one place, and
a comprehensive and a comprehensive format.And Jeff, I also think you're talking
about continuity for the client too,aren't you, as well as your staff.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Soit's like your doctor, Dennis,
(13:00):
And that's kind of how we lookat it. When you come to your
doctor's office. You don't want tosee a different doctor every time, right,
you want to see the same practitionerevery time. And yeah, he
may have three hundred clients, buthe's always got time to talk to Younis
about what you got going on.He has your chart and everything. So
I'm the same way, right asa practitioner. I'm the finance doctor,
and I got a chart on everyclient. And when you come in and
(13:20):
we talk, I know, hey, let's talk about this, this and
this. So it's that continuity,it's that comfort and its consistency. That's
what we're delivering. Hey, listen, it might be trademarked, but at
the very least, I think weneed to put the finance doctor on a
T shirt. Man, it's prettygood. I like that. I like
that look. And then it's justsometimes sometimes you know, being a doctor
(13:41):
depending on you know, we takethese two. We have clients that come
in on life support. We gotit. Use there and I love it.
I love great analogy. Well,let's do this, Jeff. I
want to get into the weeds alittle bit more about programs and capabilities because
there are several layers to the company. So when you start to offer your
clients certain things, there's obvious thingsthat you know you kind of heads you
(14:03):
down a little bit about what youdo, but can you go a little
bit deeper into some of the thingsthat clients either dig working with you or
that you do offer to make surethat you know thoroughly we go through all
the things the W two Group doesoffer the clients and what you do with
them. Yeah. Sure, sowe offer let's talk about our accounting services
for our small businesses, right,So it's comprehensive. So what does that
(14:26):
mean is like we do. Ialways tell people there's the necessities in the
basics. So yes, we doaccounting. We do accounting services very well,
you know bookkeeping, I call itaccounting services for our clients on a
monthly, regular basis. We meetwith those clients just like a doctor.
We talked about the finances, what'shappening, what they can do better with
(14:48):
ideas we have maybe to push themthere there, and we're also looking for
our clients opportunities for our clients tomake them grow and make them better.
One of the things that makes us, I think one of the better firms
to work with is we maintain alot of relationships, particularly banking relationships,
right, so we're always looking tohelp our clients grow from the point of,
(15:09):
hey do they need relationships with bankers? And you know, if we're
working with like M and T anybodyelse, to kind of really say,
hey, we think you guys shouldhave that conversation because you can grow here,
they can do something for you.That's what we do. That I
think that separates us that we're lookingfor We're not only doing the accounting,
we're trying to help them get better. So at a lot of firms didn't
(15:31):
they actually just do the accounting andthey're done, right. We don't want
to do that. We want tohelp you grow because we grow. When
you grow, right, we don'tget any better, We don't our firm
doesn't get any bigger. We don'tget any more revenue unless our client actually
gets bigger. So that's a partof our comprehensive accounting service. And then
what we do is kind of wrapthat into tax and helping them plan,
you know, tax wise, forwhat they should be doing in the future.
(15:56):
So we're at this firm that alot of firms like to just say,
hey, we want to say youtaxes. We're going to show no
revenue on there, right, Butwe as business analysts CPAs, we know
that no affirm with no tax,no taxing taxable income isn't going to do
well trying to grow, right,So we save our clients money, but
we also make sure that the taxreturn fits their business needs in their future.
(16:19):
And then we've wrapped that up,we move it a step forward and
we move that to the personal sowe make sure your business is moving with
your personal goals. Dennis, yougot a wife and kid, and you
you know you may want them totake over the radio. You may want
your royalties to go somewhere, allthose things, so we cover all of
that in a financial planning platform there. And so what you have is this
(16:42):
comprehensive service where we wrap in forthose small business owners. We've got you,
your business and your family covered.Well. That's Janning, Jeff,
Thanks for sharing all that. Idid want to talk to you boy.
Maybe some challenges that the industry presentsright now. And as we tell in
the series, while things are goingwell and the business has been strong,
sustainable, and you've also grown upover the last twelve years, it's done
(17:03):
always unicorns and rainbows all the time. So what kind of challenges do the
industry present themselves right now for youand your team? Yeah, so I
think the challenges the challenges we have, challenges and opportunities, and sometimes they
actually wear the same set of clothes, right, the challenges becomes opportunities.
So the number one challenge I thinkindustry wide people would agree is probably a
bit of the talent. We havea talent crisis, and that means that
(17:26):
we don't have as many students goinginto accounting as we used to. Right,
we're not the sexiest profession anymore.We used to be like three right,
you have doctor, lawyer, accountant, right, and then Wall Street
came and then it was like stockbrokers. So we moved down and we're not
and then now you got programmers.So we're not the prettiest thing on the
block anymore. Right, So thathas they kind of taken a little bit
(17:48):
about our zest away, and sowhat that has is caused a bit of
a talent shortage. So it's hardto find really talented practitioners and those that
just come into professor. Now.One of those opportunities that are coming in
is opportunities, and I think isgoing to be one of our struggles is
technology, the AI. How that'sgoing to play a role. AI is
(18:11):
definitely going to help us with notas many kids coming to college as well
as graduatings accountants. AI is goingto help us kind of do automate some
of those things. But I thinkthat's going to also be some of the
challenge in the future of how wedeliver services, right because I think accounting
what I want, it's still apeople business. It's a relationship business,
(18:33):
right, me and you are sittingright here with our relationship. I don't
know, if you want a robotkind of you know, telling you your
financials, you probably still want ahuman there. So I think that's some
of the challenges that we have weface on how we deliver services in the
future. How much AI is goingto be in that From that perspective,
we've tried to really harness that.As I mentioned, we have a software
(18:56):
arm at the W two group calledgvy Raates, and so we're trying to
service our clients by using some someof that fintech and AI and our software
to service our clients from that perspective, and we'll continue doing that. It'll
still be a person driven service.It's just maybe the back office will be
a little bit more automated in thefuture. Very good, thanks for sharing
all that. So we have afew minutes to talk about maybe a great
(19:18):
story or a story that maybe wasclose to your heart or your team.
You've been doing this now for twelveyears. Is there a special moment with
a client or a person where youknow you did something very special, you
knocked it out of the park,and you said to you and yourself,
you know, this is why weget up every day because we made a
difference for this person this client.Do you have a story for us?
Yeah, yeah, I got acouple of great ones, but I think
(19:41):
my favorite one was a funny onewas it was actually, as we talk
about this, right, I wasworking with a banker locally who he's a
mentee now and Derek at Derek andDerek called me and he actually had a
client that he wanted me to workwith. He said, hey, we
(20:02):
can't you know, I don't knowif we can do alone here or whatever.
And in the client was small,et cetera. And you know,
then it's the client. Because weare a niche based firm, so we
focus on offer profits and those inthe government contracting space. I actually would
not have taken that client if itdidn't come from him, Like I just
(20:25):
just not it wasn't in our market. But what we always try to do
is treat people right, right.That's the key thing what I've learned about
it is for a community perspective.It's always about getting people where they need
to be. So I could haveeasily said, hey, that's you're not
for us, and this left itat that. This in particular business was
looking to become a daycare. Itwas a home based daycare center. And
(20:48):
they were like, hey, I'mjust trying to get a loan, small
loan to you know, expand herbasement or something. Right, So I
looked at the financials and I said, yeah, they're probably not gonna be
able to do this loan. ButI had other relationships, and so I
caught up a friend of mine andsaid, hey, I have this client,
(21:10):
you know, just met them,not really even a client, and
I think there's an opportunity you guyscould work with them on. Right,
And I think they you know,they're trying to do something here, and
you know what ended up happening.They ended up getting a buying buying a
building. She end up buying,so she moved from a The deal ended
up being like a million dollar deal, million plus deal. We end up
(21:34):
helping them get a daycare center.So she moved from her home based business
to a daycare center. Went fromyou know, small quarter, you know,
maybe two hundred thousand revenue to amillion dollar daycare local in our community,
all because we didn't say, yeah, you're not for us. Wow.
(21:55):
And that's why one of my oneof my best stories, like that's
huge. Don't do any accounting servicethan anything for him, right, They
wouldn't have liked to find that lenderthat would help them. We did that,
and I always tell my team thisis why we do it right we
can. We made a change inthe community. There are a number of
parents who now have childcare right becausewe make a decision that no matter if
(22:19):
the client isn't a fit for us, we find the right fit for them
and move on. But we makesure that we do right by the community.
And that changed the community. Jeff, that's a really cool story.
You know. The other ripple effectwhen I hear that story is, well,
not only did you help that onewoman start a business and grow ask
you a little larger than she thoughtshe was going to be, but all
(22:41):
the families that got to enjoy andbe a part of that daycare and on
and on and on and on.So that's a real special story. I
really appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, I
appreciate it. All right, youall right, let's do this. Let's
talk about when it comes to philanthropicand charity work. Because I know you
and your team very busy, butI also know that this is really important
(23:03):
for you that you like to bea part of it. So when you
do, when it comes to eitherprofessionally, personally in filanthropic and charity work,
what do you like to be partof? So, so I don't
have a pacific you know, talkingmusic, I don't have a pacific genre
of it right now. What Itry to do is use wherever I'm going
to be best fit. So rightnow, I'm volunteering for a DC local
(23:25):
based non for profit called the SafeSister Circle, which is about helping marginalize
women that have been abused or inthe area of domestic I actually know.
Well that's that's real nice. Soyou do that, it's very cool.
Yeah, yeah, So I'm volunteeringthere. Typically every time I kind of
want to volunteer, maybe be anelectrician again, but they all make me
(23:45):
be. They keep signing me upfor TREASURER. Well they're both in your
Bailey Wick, that's for sure.Yeah yeah, right, So you try
to you just give the best wayas possible to kind of kind of help
it, so, you know,so I try to when I'm volunteering.
So that's my philanthropic interests right now. In other cases, we have some
(24:06):
other ones. We sort of adoptnon for profit every year and so this
year or yeah, this year,starting this year, that's that's our that's
our adoption for this year, right. And the other thing I think we
should mention that the people aren't awareof is that you also have an internship
program too that you also do,which is I think cool. Yes,
yes, yes, we're always lookingto develop accounts and better business advisors.
(24:30):
So we always take about two internsa year, one typically in the typically
in the fourth quarter, in thesecond quarter of the years when we do
a hiring for interns. So happyfor any anybody wants to visit the website
w I I CPAs dot com.We're always looking at h help help younger
(24:51):
students really harness their skill set andaccounting and finance as well as the technology
side that we have here. Sogood, and we'll give that website just
one more time in just a moment. But why don't we get some final
thoughts from you, Jeff as wewrap up everything, and maybe a takeaway
or two for the lister and whatyou make sure you want them to know
when it comes to the W twogroup. What is that? Well,
sure, I think I think whenwhat I would say the takeaway from the
(25:15):
W two group, it was wedon't know how radio is. You know,
we're we are we are lovers ofmusic and accounting is music, and
we know we're very skilled and expertsin all the genres, you know,
whether it's rock, whether it's whetherit's fraud or forensics, or it's accounting,
general accounting services, it's classical musicand taxes, jazz, or it
(25:37):
could be popped sometimes. But whenyou whenever you're looking for a trusted business
advisor, you want an advisor thatunderstands all the different genres in order to
get you to the right place.And I think that's what we do at
the W two Group. And we'vehad a really good successful one of doing
that for twelve plus years and beinga leader in a number of places in
what we do. And we're awardwinning firm. I'm a award winning CPA,
(26:03):
and you know, we would loveto, you know, have more
clients to get this level of servicethat we're offering to the DMV community.
All very well said, All right, let's give that website one more time
for people if they want to findout more about the W two Group or
maybe partner with you and just lookat everything. What's that website address one
more time. Sure website is wiiCPAs dot com. Understanding, Hey,
(26:26):
Jeff, it is a pleasure man. As I said at the beginning of
our interview talking to a lifer,I always like to talk to people that
are from here and to know thecity and the streets and the people.
And you have an amazing story.Man. You know, you could have
done one thing, but you decidedto do another and you did it really
well. And it's not easy toget there, folks when you start your
own small business. But twelve yearsin the making, I know that you're
(26:48):
growing, not just sustainable anymore,Jeff. So kudos to you and your
team. Really appreciate everything that you'redoing, and thank you so much for
joining us on CEOs. As youknow, thanks Dennis, I appreciate you
for having me. Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs,
you should know, as part oftheir ongoing commitment to building strong communities,
and that starts by backing the businesseswithin them. As a bank for communities,
(27:11):
M and T believes in dedicating time, talent, and resources to help
local businesses thrive because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.