Brian Harris
An interview with Brian Harris owner of
CFG Tax and Accounting
“I like to take complicated or convoluted topics and really sift it through to bring it to layman’s terms. That’s certainly what tax is. ”
Get to know Brian personally
family history.
My humble beginnings began in Owosso, a small rural town located between Flint and Lansing. Raised by a single working mother with an older brother Gary (10-years older) and sister Cathy (7-years older) allowed a lot of time on my own for self-discovery. Childhood self-discovery involved a passion for sports (youth baseball and football) while teen self-discovery shifted to music (vocal ensembles and marching band). This musical passion led to my first acoustic guitar at the age of 14, which then converted to the bass guitar at age 16. I continue to use these musical talents and gifts today in various church settings as well as entertainment around the campfire.
My brother also played guitar and was my initial inspiration to pursue this passion. However, being 10-years older than me and living out of state (he moved to Florida at the age of 18), we were not close growing up. We rekindled our estranged relationship in 2006 and were able to share our passion of music together. He passed away in 2010 due to complications from diabetes, and I’m forever grateful that we had these few years together.
My sister and her husband are both retired and live in Kalamazoo and, though we are not super close, we work to recognize the importance of staying connected.
From career to business ownership.
During my senior year of high school, I worked with a bank in Owosso via a part-time co-op position. I really liked what I was doing and, without any college plans after high school, the bank hired me on full time in a teller position. That led to a supervisory role which then led to a position in the mortgage underwriting department at that bank. Throughout that 5-year timeline, several bank personal encouraged me to consider furthering my education. After being groomed for a mortgage lending position, I made the decision at age 23 to pursue a college degree at Western Michigan University. I went specifically for finance/accounting with economics as a minor with the goal of getting right back into banking upon graduating. After spending 17-years total in the banking industry, I stepped away in 2005 to start a consulting company helping business clients shop their business loans.
I knew that small business owners often struggled with detailed and accurate accounting records and, since this is the foundational item necessary for a successful loan shopping package, I decided to offer accounting services to my service offerings. This ended up being in demand more than my loan shopping services. While many people look at numbers as just numbers, I see a picture…a unique story that can be unfolded of where a business has been, where it is currently at, and where it is likely headed.
Ultimately that consulting business led to an engagement with a company in Cascade that was a wealth management firm and a tax practice. That engagement led to an opportunity to buy the tax practice of that firm in 2009. When the lease came up for renewal in 2015, I saw an opportunity to move the tax practice to Caledonia in a space that had been vacant for a couple of years. This ended up being an extremely good move for us as not only was our practice now closer to home, but we discovered how under-served the Caledonia community was in terms of professional and affordable accounting and tax services. We will be coming up on our 5th year in the Caledonia community and it’s been great! We serve clients not only in the Caledonia and greater Grand Rapids area, but in numerous States across the nation!
marriage and children.
I met my wife Wendy when I was working in Grand Rapids and she was working at Z’s restaurant, which was in the ground floor level of the Comerica Bank building. Over a 2-year period, I got to know her through client lunch engagements and after work unwinding. In 1996, she told me she was moving to Oklahoma with her young son Connor (actually, I think her words were “I'm going to be moving in a few weeks, so if you have any interest in dating me, you better ask me out soon”). Not wanting to lose this wonderful woman I had grown to admire, I asked her on a date for the next evening. We hit it off and a few weeks later I was making plans to move to Oklahoma. We initially lived with her mother and stepfather who still live in Oklahoma (hence, the connection to Oklahoma) and, after a year down there we said, “what are we doing in Oklahoma…our lives were back in Grand Rapids”. We moved back to the Grand Rapids area in 1998 and started our family life. Our sons Connor and Parker are now 24 and 21...wow, how fast time flys!
Getting to know Brian as a Leader
Who do you think were your greatest influences?
I'd say my mother was a very strong influence, and I say this now with the benefit of hindsight. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the fact that she raised three kids on a very meager salary, instilling a solid work ethic while fulfilling a dual parenting role. I fondly remember her teaching me how to ride a bike, playing catch (both baseball and football) and many other examples of her trying to fulfill both parenting roles. She passed unexpectedly in December, 2017, and when I reflect on her life I’m awed in amazement of the independence and strength she displayed as a single mother raising three children. She’s a very strong influence that I'm only now realizing.
In what way does that influence you in the way you behave today?
Her selflessness, strength and work ethic all helped to create a solid and stable foundation in our one-parent home. I believe whatever environment you’re raised in, whether good or bad, some of that's just going to be absorbed and carried on. In the case of a good upbringing, you hope to recreate that with your own children. In a tough or substandard upbringing, you can choose to either carry that on or make a conscious effort to break that chain and instill a new path with your own children. But yeah, I’d like to think that the selflessness and work ethic instilled early on are foundational to my leadership style today.
If you had a mantra, what might that be?
It would probably be more of a quote, and I don't know where it originated. It goes, “You can do anything, but you can't do everything”. There's so much packed in that. For me, it also ties with my faith walk. My faith teaches me that each person is equipped with unique gifts and talents. And I've been blessed with many gifts and talents, but I've not been blessed with them all. None of us has all gifts and all talents (though some may believe they do). That then requires each of us to ultimately, at some point, rely on others. You might feel like you can do anything, which sounds like self-reliance…then when you add “but you can't do everything”, it’s a reminder of your reliance on others. If each one of us is given unique gifts and talents, then we have to work with and rely upon other people to really make significant things happen. There are certain things you can obviously do on your own, but for the most part, we can accomplish much greater things when we’re in relationship with others.
“You can do anything but you can’t do everything.”
Why are you able to succeed in your business?
My time in the banking industry as a business lending officer offered me the opportunity to see a wide variety of businesses operating in many different industries. Taking tours through a machine shop or tool and die shop, actually seeing the process of how things were made was captivating. And business loans were a tool to help that business carry out their mission. When considering a business loan request, you have to analyze their financial statements, their numbers. Being able to see what the business does and then tie in the picture that was being painted through the numbers of that business; that became fascinating to me!
A sense of satisfaction resulted from taking the story that the numbers were revealing back to the business owner and be able to share things with them that made them step back and say, “wow, how did you come to that conclusion…how did you know that, in the short time you were here? How did you get to understand my business so quickly”, I still get a rush from this yet today.
I have an ability to see a business in a way that many owners who are consumed by their business don’t see. I love being able to reveal the numbers-based picture of a business and offer insight with regard to the direction it may be going and/or suggestions to change direction.
While I love to learn and continue to do so daily. I also love to teach. I've had people tell me, “you’d make a great teacher”. I like to be able to take complicated or convoluted topics and really sift it through to bring it to layman's terms. That's certainly what the world of taxes is all about. That's a world that most of us can't fully know or understand. But it's a necessity. You should certainly know why you're paying taxes and what things you can do to minimize the outflow of your hard-earned dollars.
What do you think makes you a leader?
I think it's two-fold. A leader must have the big picture in mind. The vision of why you're in business. Where it's at in terms of its place in the world, and then where it's going, the vision part. You need to have that part of it as a leader. The other key is that you have to be willing to put yourself in a servant role and provide the necessary tools to the human resources in your business to make it successful. You have to be able to operate on both sides. You have to have that big picture vision and be the final authority on things with regard to the happenings of the business, but also take on that servant role to coach, mentor, give tools to the people that you have working in your business.
How does that manifest itself in your practice?
One of our vision goals is to expand our business accounting side, which will include showing perspective clients the benefits of outsourced controller and/or CFO responsibilities. That's the vision part of it. Through training and mentoring, I want to equip the people that I have here to go beyond just inputting numbers and how best to help a business owner see the picture that the numbers paint. How can we best utilize your unique gifts and talents, not only for our business but for the businesses and individuals that we come in contact with.
“I want to equip the people that I have here to fully utilize their unique gifts and talents”
how do you lead as a trusted advisor?
Because a business owner is often in the trenches wearing many hats, our approach is to help them step back from among the trees and see the forest from above. To uncover or see things that they can’t see or are too busy to see. But this all starts with relationship. They've got to feel comfortable letting you in to see their dirty laundry, so to speak. Sometimes it's not the prettiest picture. I recently met with someone who knew his financial picture was a mess, which caused him to reach out. He was looking for someone he could trust after coming off a hire that was doing accounting work for him and ultimately embezzled from him. It goes back to trust and integrity, which goes back to my rearing, back to my mom and that influence.
What do you think you learned about leadership the hard way?
Back in my banking days, I worked for a supervisor that was a condescending micro-manager. There are very few people that I don't connect with, so I really struggled with this one individual and his management style. He wasn't entrusting me or anyone in our group to make decisions with regard to their own workflow. It was a management style that just wasn't conducive for me to be as productive as I could be. It was just an overwhelming sense of someone constantly looking over your shoulder and not trusting you and your unique gifts and talents to get a job done….it was his way or the highway.
What do you think is going really well for you right now?
I'm feeling really established here in this community now that we're in our fifth year here. We've seen growth every year that we've been here and now we’re entering this next phase of expanding our business offerings. When folks look to make change or to engage services, they look for stability and continuity. Now we've got our five years in this community and we're looked at as a stable member of the community.
Favorite business book.
I recently started reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I'm about half-way through it, and it's one I wished I had read years ago. The crux of it centers on having money work for you, versus you working for money. Money is a tool that should never be the center of nor ultimately control your life. While money and finance are always around us as we move through life, it's probably the least covered topic in our education system. This is a book that every senior or junior in high school should read to provide a foundation for what money is and the tool that money is.
My two favorite quotes from the book thus far are “The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth.” and “The world is always handing you opportunities of a lifetime, every day of your life. But all too often we fail to see them.”
What hobbies do you have?
I really enjoy playing the bass guitar and I feel blessed to have been given this gift. I’m honored when I’m given opportunities to share this gift in faith-based settings (i.e. church, off-site ministries, etc). I also play the acoustic guitar which provides a fun source of entertainment when we gather around the campfire. It's a nice tool that brings people together in a common way. As much as people say they don't like to sing, it's amazing how easy it is to get them singing once the guitar is pulled out.
When the kids were younger, we did a lot of camping in northern Michigan. As the kids were getting older, we switched up the tent/pop-up camping to renting home for a week. Now, our sons have begun camping and inviting their friends to camp; and Wendy and I revisited pop-up camping this fall. It’s neat to see this love for the outdoors carried on by our sons, and come full circle for Wendy and I.
What do you think you're known for?
Honesty, integrity, and willingness to genuinely take time with people. A lot of people say “we love Brian”, and I say that not to self-gloat. It's just saying I get along with just about everyone and genuinely enjoy interactions with others. As a natural learner, I know that any conversation I have with someone is going to create a learning moment. I’m going to learn something after I walk away from this interaction. But it's two-fold. They, too, should walk away from you having learned something new. It should be a mutually beneficial interaction. It seems like it's getting harder and harder out there the way we're so divided as people anymore, but you can’t let that stop you. Take the time to listen, and be willing to share something of value with others. It’s ultimately going back to our purpose. God created us to interact with and be in relationship with each other.
“God created us to interact with and be in relationship with each other.””
Where in your life do you have great balance right now?
I don't know if it's great balance, but definitely the work/personal life balance. This can often get out-of-whack without a conscious effort to keep it in balance. It becomes a little harder in the tax season, January through April to balance those two but the fact that my wife works in the practice with me helps to offset. Though we find ourselves overworking January through April, we then have the flexibility to enjoy the beautiful Michigan summer months together. Maybe a little out of balance just because of the times a year but I love the balance of the big picture.
interesting technology.
Bitcoin. I say Bitcoin but it’s really the underlying technology called “blockchain” that is the revolutionary innovation. Blockchain is going to radically change so many different industries, finance and accounting being two of the biggest ones. The foundation of what blockchain technology is, is that it creates a trustless system. That word confused me at first when I read trustless, but it means you don't have to trust or rely on a middleman. An area that it will really radically change is the banking industry. When you think about the fact that if either one of us wanted to send money to someone at a distance, we have to use a middleman to do that. For that receiving person to know that they are actually getting funds from me, you have to rely on a bank or some sort of financial intermediary to get it from my account and into your account. Blockchain cuts out that middleman and the transfer goes directly from me to you. If we were to exchange something in effect, if it wasn't just a gift of money, but I was purchasing something from you, the blockchain itself can be written into a smart contract that says the funds won't be released until we both agree that, what we're trading funds for, say a profit or such won't be released until we're both satisfied with that. I've received it, it's in good order and now the funds can be released to you. It's just amazing at what it's going to do in terms of radically changing finance and banking.
Our entire global financial system almost collapsed in 2008, due to greed and corruption. Blockchain technology, and specifically bitcoin, can eliminate something like that from ever happening. It's a digital form of money. It'll be harder for our older generation people to grasp it. Our younger generations already distrust government and corporate institutions, so they're the ones that will drive blockchain and bitcoin adoption and radically change
soapbox topic
I think most people would agree that we have got to find a way to come together as a people and as a nation. I’m sure the tensions and civil discourse in the 60s were similar, when we had rioting on the streets here in this country. It seemed like we were on the brink of a civil war then and it almost feels like we're back to that now. We are so divided as a nation. We've got to figure out a way. We've got to push our elected leaders and say, look, we elected you to work for us, but you’re so divided that you’re not doing your jobs and you’re further dividing the citizenry.
I remember a few years back it somehow became inappropriate to say Merry Christmas, and people began using Happy Holidays. When and how did saying Merry Christmas become offensive? I almost started dancing around this myself, but thankfully that was short lived. There were a couple of times I found myself complying and saying Happy Holidays and then I thought no, I'm not going to. This is a season and celebration of the birth of Christ, and there's a reason the word Christ is in Merry Christmas. If you have a problem with it, then feel free to go to work on December 25 and not partake in this celebration. I'm not going to change how I acknowledge and reference this particular holiday. Though I earlier stated you should be willing to hear what someone else is saying, you also have to stand strong on certain things that are non-negotiable.
I think it boils back to a personal responsibility of the relationships you're in. Be willing to be a listener and an active participant in conversation and keep topics from being too heated. Just to say, look, let's not approach this emotionally. Let's try to look at least the basic facts that both of us can agree upon. Finding that common ground, if you're regularly doing that, I think that's what then helps to bridge the gap that it feels like we have between people right now. Find that way to find the common ground that we do know, that we both believe in. Let's work from there. That seems like that used to happen with our elected officials. It's not happening now. We can individually still do that in our own relationships and interactions with others.
To learn more about Brian Harris and CFG Tax and Accounting, check out their website @ http://www.cfgta.com/
Or
To meet Brian personally, join him for one of our BLConnect events