Relationships, local ties and being experts in your craft are all things that we strive for as we build impactful and meaningful organizations and businesses. Throw in the bonus of being able to run a true family-owned and operated business for over 40 years in your hometown and you are able to see just how special Debbie Wilson’s success and influence have been in our area for decades.
In 1976, Debbie’s father, Charles Isham, decided to enroll in a local tax course. After taking that course, Debbie reminisces, “it's almost as if he felt a calling; he realized there was a need to help ordinary people with tax issues.” With that leap of faith, support from Debbie’s mother and a loan from his mother-in-law, Charles opened an H&R Block local office in Westmoreland. Immediately, Charles and his team, mostly made up of family members, saw the impact that their local, knowledgeable and “straight-shooter” type of service approach was having. The Westmoreland office was a success early on and that laid the foundation for further opportunity. Soon, Charles saw an opportunity to expand into their hometown of Gallatin, and as a package deal, bought two more local office locations (Gallatin and Portland) bringing the total to three full-service H&R Block offices in the area.
Those three local branches kept the family busy, but Charles never compromised on why he got into the business of helping ordinary people in the first place. Debbie remembers that she was essentially raised in these offices and quickly found herself running the family business built by her father. She took the same tax course that her father had taken when she was 17 and later interned at H&R Block all through her college years while earning her degree from Tennessee Tech.
In addition to these three early locations, three others were added in subsequent years (Hartsville, 2003; a second Gallatin location, 2008; Centerville, 2013). Now, with six locally-owned branches, Debbie finds herself carrying on her father’s legacy of never forgetting why their offices exist: to help ordinary people with their complex needs in a reasonable, competent and down-to-earth way. Debbie still stands on those principles she learned early on: “My dad had always been a people person. He developed lifelong relationships with clients and every client mattered; that’s what he instilled in me also. We have clients come back year after year and this is what I instill in my new tax professionals as well. Yes, it's important to learn tax law and theory, but it's followed closely by the customer experience. If you only have the first, without the second, you have no business being in business!”
Adding to the family-oriented structure, Brian Taylor, who serves as Debbie’s Operations Manager, is also married to Debbie’s niece. Brian shares the same zeal for helping people. In 1991, while Brian was in college studying finance, it was Debbie’s niece and Charles who proposed the idea to Brian of studying tax law and theory himself; Brian took on the challenge and never looked back. Brian has served as Operations Manager and other vital roles since 2001.
“This is truly a family business; there have been three generations working here. For 46 years we have been invested in our local communities. Our kids were raised and went to school here. Because of this approach, we have clients that also span three generations. Some of our team members have been with us for 40+ years. It becomes a big family working here," says Brian.
Throughout the years and seeing so much change in the industry (and our area), Debbie’s desire to help the most by doing the most has flourished. Gone are the days of doing simple returns with pencil and paper, but she and Brian fondly point out that they still approach every client and return with that same detail-oriented precision, although with more advanced tools and efficient processes. Helping to navigate personal accounting and business filing needs, being open year round, having a cadre of “Certified Small Business Professionals,” being accessible by just a phone call and on a first name basis, yet still having access to the national H&R Block resources exemplify how this family business and true definition of a team have evolved to continue the mission that was started back in 1974 with a simple idea, a desire and a dream from Debbie’s father to make the most impressionable impact possible on our community for good.
Brian Taylor receives H&R Block's 2022 highest honor, the Henry Bloch Client Service Award. With over 500 nominations for this prestigious award, Brian and Debbie accepted this honor at H&R Block Headquarters, a true testament to the values and services that their local offices continue to provide to Gallatin and our surrounding area for over four decades locally.