Partner Feature: Trevor McCandless

Introducing… Trevor McCandless, Chief Entrepreneurial Officer at FusionTaxes.com! Trevor is MyCorporation’s latest affiliate, and this month’s partner feature. We asked Trevor all about his love for entrepreneurship and what he does to help the small business community as a CPA.

What does the title, “Chief Entrepreneurial Officer” mean to you?

We’re a team of financially minded entrepreneurs. Depending on how our client defines success, I quarterback our team of CPAs to help our client’s achieve that success.

What draws you to entrepreneurship?

If you expect and embrace the challenges of entrepreneurship, you’ll find it extremely rewarding. Everyday presents a new challenge and a new opportunity to work with other awesome entrepreneurs.

In what ways specifically do you help entrepreneurs?

We’re entrepreneurs ourselves, it just so happens that our industry of focus is that of the CPA industry (tax, accounting, bookkeeping, CFO advisory). We understand the life cycles of businesses; from startup, growth, and maturation to exit and/or succession. The tax, accounting and financial planning needs are different in each of those cycles. Fortunately for our clients, we know the questions and answers to the vast majority of the their life cycle questions before they even have to ask them, and we plan around it.

What did you learn at your first ever job that you utilize in your work today?

Treat people like I like to be treated. From communication to training to planning. Respect, trust and transparency. I could really ramble about this 🙂

In your professional opinion, what do you think it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?

Persistence and resourcefulness. You rarely have it right the first time. Keep trying. You rarely have the money or the team you need at the beginning. Find it/them as you go. Leverage resources.

If you could open any random business of your own, what sort of business would it be?

I currently own three in my top three favorite industries as is (CPA, Recruiting, & Golf). We continue to like the accounting, people and asset rental industries as expansion areas. If we got totally random, I’d say the Jet Rental business 🙂

Deborah Sweeney

Deborah Sweeney is an advocate for protecting personal and business assets for business owners and entrepreneurs. With extensive experience in the field of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah provides insightful commentary on the benefits of incorporation and trademark registration.

Education: Deborah received her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees from Pepperdine University, and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in corporate and intellectual property law.

Experience: After becoming a partner at LA-based law firm, Michel & Robinson, she became an in-house attorney for MyCorporation, formerly a division in Intuit. She took the company private in 2009 and after 10 years of entrepreneurship sold the company to Deluxe Corporation. Deborah is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with some of the top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites including Forbes, Business Insider, SCORE, and Fox Business, among others.

Fun facts/Other pursuits: Originally from Southern California, Deborah enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, Benjamin and Christopher, and practicing Pilates. Deborah believes in the importance of family and credits the entrepreneurial business model for giving her the flexibility to enjoy both a career and motherhood. Deborah, and MyCorporation, have previously been honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s List of the Valley’s Largest Women-Owned Businesses in 2012. MyCorporation received the Stevie Award for Best Women-Owned Business in 2011.