Passion and Experience

Today, our guest is Timothy Wingate Jr. Timothy is the founder and president of G&F Business and Financial Consulting. Did I say that name right? 

“G Plus F.” 

“G Plus F.” Alright. We’ll do it again: G+F Business and Financial Consulting. He’s a licensed EA, and he is a niche practitioner. He works with the construction profession. We’re going to talk about that. He actually, it looks like we’re just having the seven year anniversary of G+F. 

Yes.

Well, congratulations on that. Timothy, welcome to The Unique CPA. 

Thank you, Randy, for having me on. I’m so excited to be here, man. We’ve, you know, been touching base on a lot of different things that’s through the Intuit Tax Council and some other initiatives. So just glad to be here with you. 

Yeah, I am too. I can’t remember when I originally sent you the link, but I’ve been thinking about getting you on here for a while. So I’m glad we were able to do this. You mentioned Intuit Tax Council. That’s where we first met. We were, and are, both members of that. You had graduated, and then actually been asked to come back. So I’m very excited to, that we’re going to be able to continue to be on that group together for the next couple of years for sure.

Yeah, they brought me back. Glad to be back. And I’ll be seeing you guys again in person next month. 

Yeah. I was going to ask if you’re going to be there, ’cause the first couple of meetings, I didn’t get to see in person. I didn’t actually get to see you in person until we got together at QuickBooks Connect last December.

Absolutely, yeah. 

That was the highlight of my Connect, so.

Don’t flatter! 

So today we want to go for, and do a few different things. Niching. Do you say “nitch” or “neesh?” 

I say “nitch.” I don’t know where the “neesh” comes from. So I just say “nitch.” 

I say “nitch” too. I said this to someone the other day: I said, okay, I have an uncle Chuck. I don’t call him “Uncle Shuck.” If I’m playing poker, it’s not with “ships,” it’s with chips. That’s, so it’s “nitch.” That’s how I say it. So, we’ll talk about niching and the importance, the benefits, the passion that comes through. We’re going to talk about that. But before that, I mentioned, and you corrected me, which is great, G+F. And where did that name, because that’s not any initials that you have or anything, where did the G+F come from? 

Yeah. So the G+F comes from, well, it stands for God plus Family. And that’s how I was inspired to even start this company. God gave me the vision, my family supported me with the vision. And so that’s kind of what the G+F stands for and how we got to it. 

I love that. I love having a name that is personal and passionate to you. So I love the, the G plus, not G and, G+F. 

G+F. 

Alright. So, so let’s talk about a few things with your practice. I mentioned it’s construction. That’s your “nitch.” Not “neesh,” that’s your “nitch.” And because actually when I read your website and just knowing you, and I took this off, I think, your website or LinkedIn, and this is what you said: passion. My passion is helping construction companies become sustainable, successful and profitable for the long term. And so how, first off, did this become a passion of yours? 

Well, I first started off just, the way I grew up. My father, he’s a general contractor, so I lived the life, or I’ve been the child of a construction worker and just seeing the ups and downs based on economy, based on projects going right or wrong, I had to experience that. And I just had a love for it because I still love doing things with my hands. I’m actually working on my children’s bathroom right now. And I’m actually building a spec home right now. We’ve been doing some of the labor work. So I still, you know, I’m very handy, there’s nothing I can’t do around the house. So I think my wife appreciates that, but. 

For sure!

So just having a passion of using my hands, and being creative, and, you know, coming from the industry, from a child and just seeing it growing up, that’s kind of where the passion comes from. 

Alright. And so did you know early on that the tax / accounting profession was for you or where, when did that come into play?

No, no, no, no. I actually, I would say from, I don’t know if you guys remember the show, Doogie Howser?

Oh, yeah. 

Yeah. So I actually wanted to be like Doogie Howser. I wanted to be a kid doctor. 

Oh, wow. 

And so I studied, or had the pursuit of medicine since middle school. And I was, you know, taking nursing classes, doing internships. My first two years of college was, I was studying biomedical sciences, so doctor was supposed to be my thing.

Yeah!

So what changed that was I did a one day internship with Dr. Cantor. He was an orthopedic surgeon ’cause I wanted to specialize in orthopedics. And I saw, you know, rotator cuffs being replaced, knee replacements, hip replacements. I saw that in one day and then I had a chance to sit down and talk with him and ask him about his life. And he told me that his day starts as early as 5 AM. And I said, hold up. When do you spend time with your family? 

Right.

He said, yeah, I usually have to take vacation and, you know, I take like a two month vacation or something like that to spend time with my kids over the summer. That just didn’t sound appealing to me at all. Look, you know, the name is what+ G+F, God plus family. So you know, family means a lot to me. 

Right.

Switched it up, actually took theater for a semester. So that was even different, but then I couldn’t see myself, you know, spending money doing that. So my dad and I spoke and said, hey, you’re good in math. You’re good in science. Let’s try to play to your strengths and that’s where finance came about. So it wasn’t even accounting, it was finance. And so I took, I got a BS in finance, and then started working in the banking industry. From the banking industry, went home and actually helped my grandmother with her nonprofit. So I was the CFO of her nonprofit for six years. Then once we closed that down, then that’s when G+F was born. And I just wanted to focus on helping anyone who had a business, and then I didn’t niche down to construction to maybe like just over the last three to four years, yeah. 

So it’s a similar story that I hear, actually I’ve been doing, I think what’s going to be a series and we’re going to call it the Founders Series, which this will tie in with, because it’s all firms that are about the same age or younger than yours, and we’re getting that story of their origins, where they came from, their background. And so I think this fits in perfect with that. And in fact, we did one with Al-Nesha, you know, friend of both of ours, recently, and her story was amazing. And so this fits in completely with that. And so you are the same, I hear this all the time, we started a business, we’re going to help everybody. 

And a couple of aspects: One, you start a business, you need to live, you want revenue. I assume that was one of the things, let’s get revenue. 

Yes.

Alright. And then, I mean, you have this history with construction, but when you started, even though you were taking on everybody, did, in the back of your mind, were you thinking, well, construction’s where I’m going to land, or did it just start to feel like, hey, I can be more successful if I concentrate on one industry?

Yeah, it was more so I felt that I could be more successful with just focusing on one industry. I didn’t know construction was going to be the low hanging fruit for me, but I definitely knew that, hey, I need to streamline marketing. I need to streamline the way that I provide strategic, you know, information and advisory services to my clients, because I just felt like I was all over the place, and it was just getting confusing to me. It was getting confusing to the small team that I had at the time. So it was just, it just made it very challenging to run my business and to see how I can scale it up. 

Right. And that’s, you know what, when I had my practice, you know, I started in 1991. I actually sold it in 2015, my general accounting firm, we were not niche at all. And it was, like you just said, confusing. I was helping a Burger King and a doctor’s office and a construction company and you know, a lawyer, and all these different things. So I had no, specific, you know, strengths in the industry. I had strengths in tax in general, and  strengths in accounting in general, but you mentioned a few things that what niche can do: One is just the marketing aspect of it. I mean, it’s so much easier to market to an industry than to market a service, I believe. And so how have you, and probably jumping forward, but let’s, since you already mentioned marketing, let’s talk about that. How has this been able to concentrate your marketing better by being a niche practice?

I think the way that marketing works and the way you get it right, is you have to understand your customer or your client. When you focus on one industry, or one niche, you can just take a deep dive into all the things that are going right in that industry, all the things going wrong in that industry, and how can you solve some of those problems or challenges that they may be having. And so it was kind of like taking a college course all over again, just like, I’m going to study this one industry and learn everything about it, and then I’m going to make sure my website speaks to them. I’m going to make sure, you know, my social media speaks to them. I’m going to make sure everything that they see from G+F resonates with them and therefore, that just made it so much easier to communicate to my copywriter, to my website designer, to my social media person that, hey, this is who we’re targeting. And this is what we need to say to them because they understand these things and it just made it smooth. I mean, it was like a light bulb going off in your head. 

So not only from, you know, making it smooth from that standpoint, but now you can concentrate your knowledge in one industry, and communicating that, I mean, just, I’m guessing people just, and I’m guessing that around the country, people know, oh yeah. And ’cause I’ve heard it, I’ve told people, if you need somebody to help with construction, you got to go see Timothy, because your knowledge is going to show through just because you can concentrate so much on that one industry. And one of the ways I know that you said you’re doing that is, you’re getting on podcasts that market to the construction industry or that’s the audience. Is this a newer thing for you? 

Yeah, this is a very new thing for me. I always knew that I was an educator at heart, and I wanted to be in a position to educate and give people, you know, the knowledge that I have. And so podcasts was something new—I actually thought about starting my own podcast years ago, I went to the Podcast Movement Conference in Orlando and learned all about it, and knew that it was a new wave of how information was going to be distributed. But podcasting is tough, you know what I mean? You know, do it yourself, all the production and those type of things, it just takes a lot of your time. 

And so I found this agency who was able to help me get on different podcasts as a guest. And so that was perfect. I don’t have to do any of the editing. I don’t have to do any of these type of things, but it focuses on just podcasts, who have an audience that I’m targeting, which is construction. And I get on there and I talk about the things that they should be doing in the construction company, how they should be starting things, you know, numbers and things they should be watching out for. And it’s just been a huge blessing to be a part of, you know, these different podcasts, because I’m now getting bookings on my calendar, people just showing up on my calendar saying, hey, I have a construction company, I heard your podcast, I believe that I need to speak with you and I need your help. 

Yep. That’s awesome. And then, so you mentioned that you’re getting inbound leads from this then. Is that typically, now, how you’re getting new business, is inbound leads, or, I mean, from people seeing you out and talk, do you have a whole marketing strategy besides being guests on podcasts?

Yeah. So the two things right now that are driving business to me or my company would be podcast, now speaking engagements, and then also doing some Google ads. So Google ads is another driver, but you know, you’ve got to have all the back office stuff set up properly, your website, your nurturing campaigns and those types of things, which is needed, but, when you have all those things, and then I’m also sending out newsletters to prospects and also current clients as well. So there’s some email marketing going on. But it’s more just information, education, that type of thing. So there’s a couple of funnels, but from like, when I say immediate response, from seeing me out there is usually from a Google ad or hearing me on the podcast. And so that’s now where all of my marketing dollars are going, and until it’s broken and there’s no need to change. 

Right. Right. So do you have a procedure in place to vet leads coming in, or are they all getting on a call with you or how do you handle that? 

Yeah. So they all get on a call with me because usually they’ve heard, you know, something on the podcast that triggered them to book with me. Then I have some screening questions just to tell me like a little bit more about their company. And then once they get on a call with me, that’s kind of like a 15 to 30 minute call where we’re just going to find out about your company. You know, from just a very high level, nothing deep, not getting into the weeds of things, but just want to speak about their vision. Because it’s very important to me that they have a vision. If you don’t have a vision, I don’t really know how I’m going to help you obtain whatever you’re trying to obtain. And so that’s a big starting point for me with questioning. So once they get past that and we say, hey, all of this sounds good. It sounds like you understand what I’m trying to accomplish, I feel like you can help me, what’s the next step? 

The next step is a financial, what I call a financial blueprint, which is an assessment that they—that I do for them. They pay for it. It’s kind of like, if you think about construction, there’s pre-construction costs. And that’s kind of what I’m doing there. So they’ve handed me all types of information, tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, loan agreements, bill of sales for their vehicles that they’ve purchased under the company name, you know, all these things, I’m evaluating all those documents, and putting together some type of presentation for them so that we would be able to identify the findings, you know, that I was able to find through that evaluation and then also provide some solutions to things that I’ve noticed that needs to be changed or how I could help. 

Now, is that part of the onboarding, or is that even before onboarding? We’re going to come up with the, here’s our proposal based on what we’ve learned or, or are they at that point already signed on as a client?

No, that’s, this is before onboarding. This is before, there’s still a prospect at this time. So yeah, so it’s just getting information, it’s almost like your primary physician, you know, telling you to go get a CAT scan, go get an MRI. Okay, once we figured out that, hey, you do have a broken leg. Now we’re going to refer you over to an orthopedic surgeon. So that’s kind of what that process is, is me saying, hey, what is the problem? What type of things that need to be fixed in your company? And let’s figure that out. Let me tell you what that plan looks like, and if you like the plan, then become a client, and we’ll move forward. 

And so the one thing I, well, one, I liked everything you said about that, but one thing that came back to my mind is that you charge for this. This is not a giveaway, right? 

No, no, no, it takes too much time. 

Right. And I think that’s important because as an industry, we tend to give away too much, I believe.

We do. 

I think if we value what we’re doing by charging for it, the clients are going to get in that same mindset: Okay, you know, Timothy’s time is valuable. He’s going to be there for me, but I’m not going to take advantage of it, and I’m going to get charged for it. Is that a standard fee for everybody to do that process? 

Yeah, it’s a standard fee for everybody. It has changed over the years, because we’re starting to do more, or we actually understand more about how to evaluate them, but it’s a very in-depth type of evaluation. And they usually have to give me about ten business days to evaluate it. And then I have to put together the presentation, which is actually putting together a slide presentation. So it’s not just, a one page or a Google doc or no, it’s an actual PowerPoint slide, going through with, you know, screenshots of certain things, you know, so it’s, it’s pretty in-depth.

And do you ever get pushback on, oh, I’m not going to pay you to do this for me, or, you know, sorry, I’m the, I’m not the right client for you with that. 

Surprisingly, I haven’t gotten pushback on the price of it, or it’s too crazy or anything. It’s more so just like man, I’m not ready for that yet, or let’s do it. 

Okay. Alright. I think that’s great. 

Yeah!

And then part of that process then I assume, is you’re able to start pricing out the engagement in there? Is that a next step, or was that part of that PowerPoint presentation, pricing as well? 

Pricing  is not a part of the PowerPoint presentation. I use another software called GoProposal. It’s owned by Sage now, but it wasn’t before when I was using it. And then, you know, so I built out some things that kind of spits out a price depending on the different services they check off. And so, I do go through a couple of scenarios as I’m working on the financial blueprint, just to see what I think they should select as a service. So I do come to them with a list of services already pre-selected and say, hey, I think you need this. But if the price is not where, where they want it to be, then we can de-select some services to get them, you know, in the area until they build a company up into a place where we say, hey, now I want to take advantage of maybe that budgeting, you know, service that you have or something like that.

So when we’re talking pricing, then, and that comes in later, it sounded like it was a menu of services, but do you have like a three tier pricing? What is your overall pricing strategy? 

Yeah, it’s a menu of services. It’s a menu of services and you just go and we select, we have advisory services, we have accounting services, we have tax services, and so we just go through all the different areas and just select different services within those areas. 

Okay. And then I’m just gonna stay on pricing here, billing for a second. Is this all automatic? I mean, I know a lot of these firms like you, you know, you get paid the first of the month, it’s automatic coming to your account. You’re not chasing accounts receivables or anything. Is that what you’re doing? 

Absolutely. I mean, I remember starting off, it was hard for me to get a $100 invoice paid because just the guy couldn’t sit down at the computer and pay it. And so from that point on, I said, I was spending maybe 30 percent of my time just trying to chase clients and get them on the phone or get them by email, just to pay the invoice that I sent three weeks ago. And I said, I’m not doing that anymore. We’re going to move to, this is going to be an automatic draft out of their account every month on the same day, and that’s going to be it. We’re not going to be sitting here discussing money every single time we meet. I don’t like discussing money every single time. I like discussing strategy, advisory, how your kids are doing, you know, how’s your family? You know, let’s not talk about invoices that are unpaid every time we hop on the phone. 

Alright. And so from that standpoint, then, when you do go to set a fee for the services, is it then all inclusive or are you billing tax separate, or once they pick that menu, it is okay for the year, it’s going to be $24,000. So you’re paying $2,000 a month, the 15th of each month. And that, you know, includes the tax and advisory and everything else. 

Yeah. So clients love package services, meaning that yes, everything is all inclusive, tax prep is included in that price. If we’re doing a reasonable compensation analysis, that’s included in that price. You know, accounting and bookkeeping is included in that price. Everything is included. They know exactly what to expect, because it makes the relationship flow. Now clients, they do respect your time when you do that—or you have to sometimes let them know to respect your time.

Right. Yep!

So, but it makes them have a—it makes you guys have a free flowing relationship where they don’t feel like you’re a lawyer who’s, you know, docking them for every minute, you know, and every fax and every email that they send it to you, and then got to worry about the invoices changing over time. It makes it predictable for everybody, you know? So I like that. And it took me a while to perfect that, that formula, because you say, man, I’m giving a little bit more than what I’m charging for. So maybe now I need to make an adjustment on that line item for all the clients moving forward, and then also in some cases it’s needed for current clients as well, and you say, hey, it’s not fair how things are being balanced out with this line item, so we’re going to make an adjustment of it because we’re just spending more time. And I want to continue to deliver a high level of service to you, and in order to do that, this is what the price needs to be. 

Alright. And I think that’s fair. That’s a thing that I think most, most advisors skip that because, oh, well, we’re just going to have to stick where we are, and most of them don’t realize your clients value your service and they’re going to pay, and they want to pay you a fair fee and they want that advice. So based on that, you know, I know the clients, they’re going to value your time. They want the service that you’re offering. And if it’s not a fair fee for you, you know, they’re more than willing, almost always, to pay the additional fee. 

The one thing you said that was mentioned in this whole menu, and there’s a lot that I’m sure we didn’t mention, but was advisory in general. Now, is advisory something for all your clients, or is that something that they can select from the menu?

Yeah, that’s something they can select from the menu, because I give them advisory type of services throughout the relationship. But if we want to sit down and have like a pow-wow about, hey, what happened in our reports last month? Or how can I improve profit margins for the next couple of projects moving forward? That’s going to take time for me, you know, from doing anything else that I need to do for the company, or for clients that I serve. So that’s a selected service. We can meet either twice a month, we can meet once a month, or we can meet quarterly and discuss your reports and just really take a deep dive into the numbers. So that’s an individualized time where I’m spending an hour to an hour and a half with the client, just focused on their business and their reports. 

I love this, giving the clients the option on these different services. From a standpoint of advisory for you personally, is that something you’d rather be doing with each client?

I love that part of it, you know what I mean? Because that’s when you get the most out of the service that we provide as a company. Because when we sit down and we get into the point where we are evaluating reports, that means we have gotten you to a nice place from an accounting and bookkeeping standpoint, because you got to get cleaned up first. If you’re not cleaned up, we can’t talk reports and can’t talk, you know, future things. So once we have gotten you cleaned up into a nice place where the information that’s being inputted into the system is right and accurate, things are balanced out, now we can start to sit down and evaluate the numbers and make changes and make decisions for the company based on those numbers.

And I think that ties in with your personal passion of helping construction companies become sustainable, successful, and profitable for the long term. 

Absolutely. Absolutely. You hit it! 

Alright! And also, I, you know, you can tell me if I’m right or wrong, but from your, from G+F standpoint, the more advisory you’re doing, the less surprises there are, you know, so we’re not sitting in tax season, and all of a sudden we’re surprised that someone owes a hundred grand because you knew this because you were meeting with them quarterly or weekly in advance. And I would assume, and I don’t know your philosophy, but I would assume that just makes tax season easier for you because if you need to extend somebody, you know the answer already. 

Right. 

And so do you find that that helps out tax season for you? 

Yeah, it helps out a lot during tax season, but I’m gonna tell you another service that they take advantage of that helps me out even more, and that is meeting with the bookkeeper either once every week, or once every two weeks. Because when they’re meeting with the bookkeeper, then they’re actually going through accounts payables and accounts receivables and making sure everything has been coded properly and making sure everything is balanced. And usually during that time, we find out that they bought a new vehicle, or they got a new loan, you know, so these type of things, so then the bookkeeper communicates those things to me, and then sometimes that prompts me to reach out to the client instead of the client reaching out to me. 

Alright. So there’s obviously other benefits of that advisory side. And as members of the Intuit Tax Council, we’ve been talking about advisory quite a bit lately. 

Yes, we have. 

So, how about other benefits of being a niche expert and what else stands out for you? 

I mean, it just makes it easy on my team. My team is now easy for me to onboard new team members because the old team members can teach them the new system. The system is the same. It doesn’t change. It’s, you know, it’s just what we do. There are certifications that they can take that’s construction related, that we know to assign those to the new team members, those type of things. It’s just, it increases morale. That’s the biggest thing I can tell you. The biggest benefit that it has, it increases morale because they know that if I get another client on my books or, you know, another account, I know how to service that account right away.

Which is nice. And you mentioned onboarding. What is the onboarding process? Do you dictate or mandate the softwares they use or how does this onboarding work? 

With the client? 

Yeah.  

Okay, yeah, so they’d have to use QuickBooks online, otherwise you can’t be my client. You know, so that’s—

That’s fair.

The second thing is, if we’re going to do job costing, then we definitely need to have a project management system tied to that, and that project management system needs to integrate with QuickBooks Online. 

Okay. 

So I’m not a big pusher. I do have a preference. I do push Buildertrend because Buildertrend seems to be, you know, just an easy to use, they got it figured out. It works well with QuickBooks Online. The team understands it, but I am open to exploring other project management systems as long as it integrates with QuickBooks Online. And then, so we do have a recommended tech stack for them to use and say that, hey, this is what we know well, and this is what’s going to work well for your company. If they want to use something outside of that tech stack, 9 times out of 10, we’re probably not going to be a good fit. You know, it’s just what it is. So they have to be willing to make those changes. 

Alright. And then I’m going to kind of shift gears here a little bit, because going back to something you said earlier, and I want to see how this is manifested in the accounting practice, but you know, when you went and met with Dr. Whatever-His-Name-Was, and you saw he was working from five in the morning until nine at night, and that wasn’t going to be a thing that you wanted to do, what does the G+F work life balance look like? Have you not fallen into that trap of working 80 hours a week during tax season? And if not, how have you built this work life balance that you wanted when you, or decided not to be a doctor?

Yeah, so number one, I knew that going inside of a building was going to keep me restricted, and not being able to be home and be present. So I knew from day one, I wanted a virtual practice. So that was the first thing. Then I knew that my kids get out of school at two o’clock. So I need to have flexibility of being able to pick them up, do homework with them, take them to the extracurricular activities. So I knew that I needed every client off of desktop and onto QuickBooks online. So that way I can service them at the time that’s convenient for me. And so I may take a break in between that time, and then pick that back up at night if necessary. But I usually work 40 hours a week and usually my team works 40 hours a week. That’s usually pretty much it. 

And then Fridays, I don’t work on any client accounts on Fridays. Fridays, I work on G+F solely. So it was just a way of me being able to scale the business, grow the business, focus on the business, those types of things, have meetings with the marketing team, all those types of things. So: Niching down and just focusing on one industry, one business. And also making sure my practice is using a lot of technology to make us more efficient has allowed me to gain a lot of time back, and I’m able to travel with my family. Like we’re, we’re going down to the Keys Wednesday. So I’ll be working from the Keys.

Alright. Hopefully all of your vacations are not work vacations though, right? 

No, all of them are not work vacations. Usually, like the holiday, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, those are no work vacations for me. 

Alright, so you’re going down to the Keys and I’m sure have plenty of time for the beach or whatever else, but have the family time as well. I guess I want to change again. I was going to not go this way, but you just mentioned it, the technology integrations that you as a firm, we talked a little bit about what you want your clients to use, and I assume you have your tech stack. You want to go into that a little bit and what it’s done for you?

Yeah. So Karbon is my virtual office. That’s the building so to speak. So everybody goes into the building and find out what’s going on. That’s where we have our little powwows. So Karbon has changed my life. It’s the way I keep everyone held accountable. I know what’s going on from a bird’s eye view, even with, you know, the bookkeeper is working on different accounts. I know exactly where every account is at all times. So it’s been a beauty. 

And, and then of course we have Zoom, we have Google workspace, you know, a lot of other things that we implement. And then also with the clients to serve the clients, we use bill.com and all those types of things. But as far as just the technology that we use is, is mainly Google workspace and carbon, and then of course, QuickBooks and those types of things. 

QuickBooks and tax. What’s your tax, what’s the tax software you use then? 

Oh yeah. ProConnect Tax Online. 

Online. 

Yeah. I need to be virtual everything. 

Now, now does QBO and ProConnect integrate fairly well?

Oh, it’s the best integrate. Let me tell you why: because you can actually do what they call prep for taxes in QBO. And so you can map out the whole tax form inside of QBO and just shoot it over to ProConnect Tax Online and everything is prefilled. So, I mean, you just, are you just going in and just make a couple of M1 adjustments, you know, and then that’s it. It’s the best thing ever. 

That’s awesome. Because what I find too often is that people ignore the technology integration for efficiencies because they don’t feel like they have the time to get this going. But man, once you do that. It just frees you up to have so much more time for the advisory services or the higher value services, the passionate services that you bring to your clients.

It does. I love it. 

Alright. So I’m going to start to wrap up, but before I ask a couple of final questions, any bow you want to wrap up around this whole building this niche practice, building the practice around the passion and industry, anything that you want to close out this with?

Probably just encourage those accountants who are just afraid to make the jump or make the change and just kind of go there.

Yeah. I think it’s important. I mean, I was, like we said earlier, I was a generalist forever. And when I started Tri-Merit 16 years ago, I am not a niche industry, but I’m a niche service. Specialty tax? Man, it just changed everything. And passion is a huge part of it. Just being able to be passionate about what you’re doing.

Right. 

So I highly recommend it as well. Alright, down to the final two questions. First, and I know a couple of these answers already, I think, but we’ll see what you say. 

We’ll see. 

We talked about business and everything and how you’re building this awesome practice and passionate about the clients you work with, but whether you’re outside of work passions, what do you enjoy doing when you’re not part of a G+F?

Oh, man, that’s, that’s easy. Golfing is one of them.

I knew it!

Golfing is definitely a great passion of mine that I enjoy, ’cause I’m able to do it with the entire family, my whole family, my kids and my wife, we all golf. So that’s always a good, good family time there. Then music, I’m a pianist. So I play for my local church. So that’s where I am every Sunday. And every Tuesday night. So even tonight I’ll be at rehearsal. And so, yeah. And then through college, I gig, you know, that’s how I made money. 

Really? 

So I play, I played for weddings. I did, you know, church events and I played for, you know, just all over on campus, everything. I even played for the president of the college at her house, you know, so that was pretty cool. 

That’s nice. 

So, yeah, so those are my, my two number one. I still like to hoop. I still, I’m still a ball player. 

Oh, yeah! Yeah, I just, I had my knee replaced seven years ago and I haven’t played since. 

Oh, you haven’t played? Oh, man. 

No, not since, but honestly, if I lose—if I get down to 200 pounds, which I’m probably 230 right now. So now everybody knows my weight on this podcast, . I’m honestly thinking of going out and play because I miss it so much. 

Yes, yes, yes. I love to hoop, man. That’s, that was actually number one before golf. I didn’t pick up golf until I turned 30 years old. So I was a hooper from, you know, just growing up, man, that was it. 

Yeah, me too. I don’t know how many games I played, but I was a gym rat. I was constantly playing basketball and loved it. 

Oh man. Well, I wish you didn’t have the knee surgery. I’d say, when we got in Texas next month, we could have, you know, put up a couple of shots.

Well, I’ll put up a shot. I just won’t, I just won’t cut too hard at this point. So two things when we get to Texas, we’re going to be at, I think it’s what, less than three weeks, we’ll be, we’ll be there. So two things, we’ve got to find a place with a piano. So that you could play and find a place with a hoop so we can shoot.

There we go. There we go. Sounds like a plan. 

Alright. The final question. If anybody wants to find anything out about G+F or about you, where’s the best place to find more information? 

Yeah, you can always find me on LinkedIn, but just search my name, Timothy Wingate Jr. And you can find me on my website, either GplusF.com, or construction.accountant. So those are two domains that I have. I’m always on Instagram, usually more on the personal side with posts on my, you know, about my family and, you know, you’ll see a lot of that going on with my kids. So yeah, you can always reach out to me those ways. 

Yep, I think I saw it off of Instagram or Facebook or somewhere, I saw your son in a golf tournament. 

Yes. And he’s doing very, very well in golf. He’s excelling. 

Yeah. And how old is he? 

He’s seven. 

Yeah, that’s what I thought. He’s pretty young. That’s pretty cool. It was exciting to see and I’m sure you’re a proud dad watching him out there on the course. 

I am. I am.

I’m his caddy, you know, so I take his glove. I push his golf cart. Yeah, I do it all for him. 

Well, that’s awesome. Alright, Timothy. Well, I just, I really, really want to thank you. This has been a lot of fun. I appreciate you being on the show today. 

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Randy. See you next month.