Today we’d like to introduce you to Geoffrey Elliott.
Hi Geoffrey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I got to where I am now largely through luck. When I graduated from high school in the Texas Hill Country, I did so with the intention of becoming a public school band director. For a number of reasons, that didn’t work out, and I pivoted towards being a classroom English teacher. While I did complete teaching certification, I was persuaded by a few of my undergraduate professors that I would be a very good college professor, so I went to graduate school in Louisiana meaning to do just that. While completing the work to earn my doctorate, I did teach full-time at a two-year technical school in New York City, but that job started looking like it would end, so I searched for other work. That search took me to Oklahoma on a term-limited teaching contract; when the contract ended and was not renewed, I went back to the Hill Country and looked for other work while still teaching part-time.
The other work was hard to come by; I sent out several hundred applications only to receive one interview working as a clerk in the main office of a restaurant franchise, from which work I was glad to soon distance myself. In doing that distancing, I lucked into an office administration job at a nonprofit whose director was looking for someone to train up to take over so that she could retire; that director took me on and trained me up, and I stayed in that job for a few years until a higher-paying offer presented itself. That offer, alas, did not work out well, and I soon found myself back on the job market for a bit before signing on with a local manufacturing outfit as an accounts receivable clerk. I stayed with that group until the entire accounting department was downsized, at which point I was adrift once again.
By that time, though, my family was in the process of purchasing a tax preparation and bookkeeping practice, and so I was able to find work managing a location of that practice. My work history was strangely useful preparation for that work, and my academic history, although it seems unlikely, did much the same. In effect, I’ve backed into my current position, both professionally and personally, but it’s a good fit for me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t know that it’s been a smooth or bumpy road, getting to where I am now, but it has been a winding one. Having to set aside career and personal goals on which I had focused no small amount of attention (and into which I had, in fact, invested a *whole* lot of my self-image and sense of worth) was not easy; it still sometimes hurts to think about it. And scrambling for jobs is never a pleasant thing to do, especially not when I could demonstrate being able to do pretty much anything I was asked to address but could still hardly get a call-back. But I was lucky enough to have the support of family along the way, as well as a few strokes of good fortune that I can’t claim to have deserved; I’m in a good place, now, and glad of it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a tax preparer, bookkeeper, and business support worker, managing a small practice in the Texas Hill Country. I’ve been fortunate enough to build this location from a bare start to an established practice in just a few years, helping hundreds of Hill Country residents to get into their best possible tax positions, as well as to help community groups get access to the funding they need and remain compliant with regulatory requirements so that they can keep on helping those in greatest need. It’s really that last of which I’m most proud, leveraging my expertise with bookkeeping and taxation as well as my experience in grantwriting, fundraising, and administration to make it easier for groups like the local Girl Scouts, band boosters, food pantry, and major celebration sponsors to do the work they do for the communities in which they and I live.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I’m easy enough to find online and in person, having an active web presence and being right on a major US highway; if you’re passing by Johnson City, stop on in, and if you’re not, see me online! But I do well enough; those who really want to help should give to their local Girl Scout troop, their local band boosters, their local food pantries, and the like!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://libertytax.com/21894
- Other: https://elliottrwi.com
