Expedient Tax is a company striving to excel in the business of preparing income tax returns for individuals and small businesses, through fast and efficient service and at affordable prices. Valuing the needs of its clients, it is a one-stop shop offering additional services in bookkeeping, life insurance and annuities, credit repair, and public/mobile notary. We got in touch with Co-Founder and this issue’s Most Influential CEO, 2022 (Illinois), Stephen T Keys to learn more about the outstanding work he accomplishes with his team.
What makes Expedient Tax different and in fact, special is its offering of concierge-like VIP service. With its team being very personable, they make sure to know each client by name and to cater the service to fit their needs. And it believes in making everything as convenient as possible by offering different ways for clients to send their important documents, whether that’s through the Tax app, which clients love, via email, or by coming into the office. They service all 50 states and originated in Chicago, IL. He believes partnership is significant to any business, and leads alongside his business partner and wife, Essence Keys, who is Co-founder/ VP of Operations who has her own leadership style which focuses on making sure the customer comes first and that the company can listen to what their needs are while exceeding their expectations.
Essence has a performing arts background and a bachelor’s in Corporate communications, so she likes to include a lot of roleplay in her training. She pushes the team to challenge themselves by setting goals. And building confidence that they can do anything they put their minds to. She believes that “ With faith, perseverance and determination you can achieve anything. Stephen comments, “We believe in teaching ownership through what we are doing. I believe together we are what you call the dynamic duo.” They are parents of two boys Stephen, five, and Jeremiah, two. In which they are working on showing them ownership by creating apparel, books, etc under the name Keys Collections.
Supporting these clients is the Expedient Tax team, who are the backbone of the business. They are able to work together with honesty, integrity, and professionalism, while having great personality and being coachable with an open mind to change. Their clients became so inspired that they wanted to learn more about taxes which inspire stephen to create the Expedient Tax Institute in 2014. These are online courses which enhances the knowledge on the latest news of the taxes. These classes consist on basic intermediate, and advance. they also just launched the keys foundation in which they want to inspire and teach the youth about the importance of financial literacy.
