Check out our March newsletter!
March 2025
HANSON HEADLINES
CraigHansonCPA.com • (701) 252-6190
Beat the Big-Box Blues A Celebration of Mom-and-Pop Shops
Have you ever noticed how most big-box stores have everything except the exact thing you need?
Let’s say you go to your local mega-mart and buy a major appliance for your home. After a few months, you notice it’s not functioning as intended and must be repaired or replaced. Does that local big store have a service department to address your needs, or will an employee greet you with a shrug and maybe a handwritten phone number for the manufacturer? That, in a nutshell, is the difference between a huge chain and a small, independent business. This month’s cover article is a tribute to the latter, as March 29 is National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. I am proud to say small-business owners comprise most of my clientele, and my goal has always been to work with people who need help they can’t find anywhere else. Running a small business means being responsible for things beyond just the goods or services you provide. Survival as a mom-and-pop operation involves setting up your business properly, maintaining your bookkeeping, and learning through trial and error. I’m always happy to help anyone through these challenges, as many of the issues they experience have hit home for me many times over the years. As my clients know, I’m a mom-and-pop business owner myself. Now that we’re in the heart of tax season, my dear wife, Jean, has been helping me in the office. I enjoy working with small-business owners because I understand what they go through and what it takes to balance everything on your own. Being a mom-and-pop shop hasn’t always been easy for me, but the rewards have been immeasurable — and I’ve learned the hard way that bigger isn’t always better. I was self-employed for several years before being recruited to perform tax work for a much larger corporation in the mid-’90s. After four years in that position, I decided I had had
enough. In the corporate world, you’re often a small part of a much larger machine, and you don’t know what you’ll be doing each day. My employer would implement a new system one day and completely change it 24 hours later. I realized I could better apply my knowledge independently than dealing with corporate shenanigans every day. Many of my colleagues felt the same way, and I wasn’t the only one to pack up and take my skills elsewhere. It was the best decision I could have made. Decades later, I still find great satisfaction in providing the personal touch missing from that corporate environment. My clients know I’m always available whenever they encounter an issue. I’ll take that over sitting in a cubicle farm any day. As new changes and challenges arise in the tax world, I want to be exactly where I am today — in my office and ready to assist people with their financial planning. There’s no better feeling than finding a solution for someone confused or frustrated, and I look forward to achieving that in as many ways as possible.
I wish my fellow mom-and-pop business owners nothing but the very best success in the future. If you ever need a positive light to guide you in a better financial direction, I’m only a phone call away.
–Craig Hanson
Have tax problems? Unsure what to do? Our Free video reveals what you should and should NOT do when you receive the dreaded letter from the IRS. CraigHansonCPATaxResolution.com
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Greenlight: Spreading Financial Literacy Worldwide Founding Story of Tim Sheehan and Johnson Cook
It may seem like today’s kids have it all: cellphones, video games, and now debit cards. But do they understand how money really works in the real world? Founders Tim Sheehan (CEO) and Johnson Cook (president and CEO) started Greenlight in 2014 to empower children, teenagers, and their parents with strong financial literacy. Sheehan understands how valuable it is because his father taught him the good financial habits that shaped the trajectory of his own career. The Foundational Journey: Tapping Into an Untapped Market Sheehan was lucky his father took the time to teach him about money but realized most parents don’t have the time or an adequate knowledge base. So, Sheehan and Cook decided to survey a large number of families to confirm this suspicion, and they were right. Most parents didn’t educate their children on household finances. Along with that, parents lacked useful resources to guide them in teaching financial literacy. This revelation pointed to a market gap, which Sheehan and Cook decided to close with Greenlight. Looking at the Schools Creating Greenlight led to the next big question: Are parents qualified to teach financial literacy to their children? Many parents assume their kids are learning about money
in school from better-trained teachers. However, a 2010 national study on a teacher’s capacity to teach personal finance revealed that although 80% of states had guidelines for financial education, less than 20% of teachers felt competent to teach it. Seventy percent were open to further training on the topic, but how and when that education occurred is unknown. As of 2022, 47 states require K-12 students to take a course in personal finance to graduate, but it’s safe to assume parents still have a role in helping their kids with financial literacy. Understanding the Product Greenlight is a debit card for children that allows parents to control and monitor how their children spend money. It comes with three plans: Greenlight Core ($4.99/month), Greenlight Max ($9.98/month), and Greenlight Infinity ($14.98/month). All three plans have the basic features of providing debit cards for up to five kids, financial literacy games, and an allowance and chores feature. The Max and Infinity plans offer investing for kids, driving reports and crash detection, identity theft protection services, and much more. Checking Out the Competition While Greenlight may have struck while the iron was hot, the market for family finance has grown since 2014. Even though many startup fintech companies offer debit cards to children and teenagers specifically, Greenlight’s product includes features that other companies don’t. Other payment apps like CashApp and Venmo offer peer- to-peer fund transfers — but without financial literacy training, young users are still vulnerable to making financial mistakes. Greenlight’s unique features clearly have an edge over its competitors. Greenlight Gets the Greenlight The future of Greenlight looks exceptionally bright. It has grown to 3 million users and $100 million in revenue, and there are plans for expansion. Because the founders recognized a financial literacy need in family dynamics and acted to fill the gap, Greenlight is bringing financial literacy to the masses.
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How can customer-centric marketing benefit your business? Putting customers at the center of your marketing strategy requires dedication from your entire team. Your customers respond to techniques that appeal to emotions, that invite reactions, and thus interactions. This engagement helps nurture a relationship that gives you more information about what customers want and helps them gain trust in what you offer. Be prepared to put in the work on the front end, and understand that your strategy must adapt and adjust as your customers grow and shopping needs change. These investments in your business will yield impressive benefits. Utilizing Customer Feedback to Improve and Grow Focusing your marketing strategy on customers makes it easier to promote tailored products that respond to customer needs. Let’s say you’re promoting a potential product on social media and ask followers for feedback based solely on what they see. A few months later, you present a new and improved product based on their feedback. You’ve made your brand stand out in your followers’ minds, created new followers, and allowed them to contribute while feeling heard and seen.
Likewise, we are in the era of the “informed shopper,” meaning social media is
the top channel for product discovery. However, before customers commit to a particular purchase, they check existing customers’ reviews, comments, and testimonials, making customer interactions paramount. Even with negative feedback, customers are looking for how you responded. If they see you put forth no effort to make things right, they’ll be less likely to engage with your brand or products/services. Creating Loyal Customers Who Trust Your Products Loyal customers are your biggest advocates and will continually choose you over competitors. Once you acquire new customers, it’s time to build those connections to create loyalty by reflecting their needs and values in your marketing campaigns. Customers who love a product or service stand by it and will tell everyone why they love it so much — and will do this without you asking. Word-of-mouth is one of the best compliments a customer can give — and one of the most lucrative.
HAVE A Laugh
FROM PIRATE TO POPE The Salacious Story of Baldassarre Cossa
History is littered with unsavory souls forever scorned for their foul deeds. But few scoundrels reached greater depths of depravity than the ill-famed pirate Baldassarre Cossa (1370–1419), otherwise known as Pope John XXIII. Following a notorious career of robbing and pillaging, Cossa manipulated his way to prominence in the Catholic Church,
eventually reigning as Pope John XXIII from 1410 to 1415. An avid fan of indulgences of the flesh, he is said to have bedded hundreds of women — including nuns — during his controversial reign. Cossa’s one-man sinning spree eventually landed him in prison, yet, remarkably, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Tusculum shortly before passing away. Cossa’s infamy makes it no surprise that he is now known as “Antipope” John XXIII. The name “Pope John XXIII” was retired for centuries before a man better suited to hold the moniker chose it and ran the Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963.
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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
905 James Ave. NE • Jamestown, ND 58401 (701) 252-6190 • CraigHansonCPA.com Inside This EDITION
Have tax problems? Unsure what to do? Our Free video reveals what you should and should NOT do when you receive the dreaded letter from the IRS. CraigHansonCPATaxResolution.com
1.
Compact and Confident
2.
How the Fintech Industry Made History With Greenlight
3. Plunder at the Pulpit
4.
Get to Know Your Customers
WHY PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST IS THE KEY TO GROWTH Adopting the Customer-Centric Mindset
What is customer-centric marketing? Remember, you know your product/service is impressive, but it’s your job to convince potential buyers. The bottom line of customer-centric marketing is to understand the following areas on the buyer journey: • Why does a customer need your product/service? • How will the product/service meet their needs? • Can customers see themselves using your product/ service? Is it relatable? So, how can you discover the answers and tap into your customers’ shopping behaviors? Meet your customers where they are and interact with them! According to a 2023 Sprout Social Index Report, 53% of consumers have increased their social media usage since the pandemic. Those same consumers also desire stronger engagement from the brands they follow or support. They want your help!
When you think of your customer’s buying journey, do you envision it from start to finish, or do you just focus on the result, the sale? While that end goal is crucial, your marketing strategy needs to get them there. To nurture your customers through the checkout process, you have to put yourself in their shoes and develop your marketing strategy from their perspective from start to finish — an approach called customer-centric marketing.
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