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Hi, I'm Eric Stewart, Founder of Fino Advisory.
I've been working in accounting since I was 16 years old.
Over the years, I've built my own accounting practice, worked with entrepreneurs across different industries, and served as CFO of an ecommerce company that grew to approximately $50 million in annual revenue.
Today, I lead Fino Advisory, where we help established businesses manage their accounting and tax responsibilities, with a particular focus on sales tax.
But what makes my experience different from a traditional accountant's is that I've also been responsible for managing the finances inside a large, growing business.
I've hired accountants, worked with tax attorneys, managed expensive software, and dealt with the same financial and compliance problems that our clients face today.
I've seen what works, what doesn't, and how frustrating it can be when you're paying several different professionals but still have to figure everything out yourself.
Those experiences have shaped the way we operate at Fino.
I wanted to share a little about my background and explain why we approach things the way we do.
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My First Accounting Job Was At 16.
My mother owned an accounting firm, and I started working there while I was still in high school.
I was a payroll clerk.
Every two weeks, I'd process payroll for small businesses with five, ten, fifteen, or twenty employees.
That was my high school job.
I continued working there throughout college, earned my degree in accounting and finance, and gradually learned more about bookkeeping, financial statements, and tax preparation.
By the time I left my mother's firm at 27, I'd already spent more than a decade working in accounting.
But along the way, I'd become interested in something beyond preparing financial statements.
I wanted to understand how to build businesses.
I Learned How To Sell Accounting Services.
One summer during college, I took an internship selling encyclopedias door-to-door in Cincinnati.
Yes, actual encyclopedias.
I went into that summer with practically no sales experience, but I came home knowing how to approach strangers, explain an offer, handle rejection, and close a sale.
In Cincinnati with my roommates during the summer I spent selling encyclopedias door-to-door.
When I returned to my mother's accounting firm, I told her I thought I could bring in new clients.
She was interested.
We ended up hiring telemarketers, buying lists of local businesses, and making cold calls.
When someone expressed interest, I'd drive over with a presentation binder and try to convince them to hire us.
And to my surprise, it worked.
We brought in a lot of new business.
Unfortunately, I also learned that bringing in more customers doesn't necessarily mean you've built a better business.
Eventually, the firm was overwhelmed by all the additional work.
We hadn't necessarily priced and organized the new business in a way that made the growth sustainable.
So one day, she told me to stop selling and get back to doing accounting.
At the time, I was pretty disappointed.
But looking back, it was an important lesson.
My mom, our team, and me in front of our new office while it was under construction. The business had grown enough to need a larger space.
Growing a business and operating a business are two very different skills.
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Going Out On My Own Wasn't Easy.
When I was 27, I started my first business.
I took a handful of accounting clients and went out on my own.
And I struggled.
I lost clients, had trouble replacing them, and went broke.
There wasn't some beautifully organized accounting firm behind me.
I was doing the accounting, finding the clients, and figuring things out as I went.
My office wasn't particularly impressive either.
Eventually, things started getting better.
I developed relationships with other entrepreneurs, attended networking events, earned referrals, and started experimenting with online marketing.
Some ideas worked.
A lot didn't.
One of my early attempts at making Facebook ads for my accounting business.
But I kept working at it, and over time I rebuilt the practice into a healthy business.
As I rebuilt my practice, I began surrounding myself with other entrepreneurs.
Through a business mastermind, I eventually met the founder of Shine On, an ecommerce jewelry company.
That relationship would lead to the biggest professional opportunity of my career.
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I Became CFO Of A Growing Ecommerce Company.
After meeting the founder of Shine On, we got to know each other, and eventually I moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he was building his business.
One day, he called and asked if he could come over.
He was looking for someone to help lead the company's finances and wanted to know whether I'd be interested.
I told him the truth.
I'd never been responsible for a company anywhere near that size.
But I was willing to give it everything I had.
So I joined Shine On as CFO.
With the founder of Shine On at the company's fulfillment facility.
Some of Shine On's leadership team working around a ping-pong table during the company's growth years.
I learned a tremendous amount during those years.
There was a lot of stress, a lot of hard work, and plenty of things I had to figure out for the first time.
But one of the biggest lessons I took away was something simple.
Business loves speed.
When a company is growing quickly, problems don't wait around for you to have the perfect answer.
You have to make decisions, work through obstacles, and keep things moving.
Sometimes the difference between a good operator and a bad one is simply how quickly they can understand a problem and do something about it.
That lesson has stayed with me, and it's something I've carried into Fino.
Another major part of my experience at Shine On was learning how to manage sales tax at scale.
I Learned Sales Tax By Being Responsible For It.
At Shine On, we were processing roughly one million orders per year, with customers across the United States.
At that volume, sales tax isn't a small administrative task.
It's a significant part of running the business.
I was responsible for managing sales tax obligations across the country. We had to pay sales tax in every state that had sales tax laws.
That meant understanding state specific nexus requirements, registrations, collection rules, taxability, filing obligations, and how all of those requirements applied to our actual operations.
And our situation was particularly complicated.
The business had grown quickly, and its existing technology and processes weren't designed to handle every sales tax requirement we encountered.
We initially worked with Avalara, but eventually needed more specialized help to fully understand our obligations.
I brought in a sales tax advisory firm to perform a comprehensive state-by-state nexus study.
They did excellent work.
They helped us understand where the company had obligations, how different transactions should be treated, and what needed to happen.
I spent a considerable amount of time studying their analysis and learning the underlying sales tax requirements.
But we still had a problem.
We knew what needed to happen. But we still had to make it work inside the business.
So I went back to Avalara.
I managed to get in touch with the right people and convinced them to pursue a custom integration for our company.
Then I worked between Avalara and our engineering department to help translate the tax requirements into something the developers could build.
The engineers understood technology, but they needed someone who understood the accounting and sales tax requirements.
That became a big part of my responsibility.
I ultimately left Shine On before the project was completed.
But by then, I'd spent years dealing with sales tax, working with specialists, studying state requirements, and understanding how those rules affected a large ecommerce business.
I didn't just learn sales tax from preparing returns. I learned it by being responsible for dealing with it.
And that experience has been extremely valuable in the work we do at Fino today.
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Why I Decided To Focus Fino On Sales Tax.
I'd started my own accounting practice years earlier and began using the Fino Advisory name around 2020.
But my experience as CFO changed the kind of firm I wanted to build.
I'd seen accounting and tax services from both sides.
I'd been the accountant providing services to clients.
And I'd been the executive hiring accountants, tax attorneys, software companies, and other advisers.
I saw firsthand how frustrating it can be when each provider handles one piece of a problem, but nobody is responsible for making sure everything works together.
As I thought about how to grow Fino, I wanted to focus on problems where our work could make a clear difference for the client.
Sales tax stood out.
A growing business might be registered in a bunch of states.
It might be paying substantial fees for Avalara or another software provider.
It might have an internal accounting team preparing returns every month.
But the owner or accounting team might be putting out sales tax fires.
And when a letter arrives from a state, or something goes wrong with a filing, somebody inside the business still has to figure out what to do.
I knew that frustration because I'd experienced it myself.
And I saw an opportunity to build a firm that handled more than one isolated piece of the problem.
Instead of simply filing sales tax returns, we could take ownership of the entire sales tax function.
That's what we're building at Fino Advisory.
We Understand The Business Before Recommending Changes.
One of the things I learned during my CFO years is that there isn't one perfect system for every company.
Sometimes the existing software is perfectly good.
Sometimes the accounting department is doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Sometimes the registrations are correct.
And sometimes none of those things are true.
Our job isn't to come in and change everything.
It's to understand the business first.
We look at what the company sells, where it operates, where its customers are located, what systems it uses, and what sales tax obligations it actually has.
For many businesses, that starts with a Sales Tax Nexus Study.
Once we understand where the company stands, we can recommend what needs to happen.
Maybe registrations need to be opened.
Maybe the existing software can stay exactly where it is.
Maybe there are notices, historical filings, or other issues that need attention.
We keep what's working. We fix what isn't.
And then we take responsibility for the ongoing work we're hired to handle.
ACTION REQUIRED
You've established nexus. We'll show you why and what needs to happen next.
GETTING CLOSE
You're approaching a state's threshold. No need to panic or register prematurely. You know what to monitor.
NO ACTION NEEDED
You're below the applicable threshold. Leave it alone and focus on running your business.
Business Loves Speed. So Do We.
One of the biggest lessons I learned at Shine On was how important speed is to a growing business.
When something needs attention, waiting days for an answer or chasing multiple service providers creates unnecessary delays.
That's why we emphasize moving quickly, communicating clearly, and taking responsibility for the work.
Speaking about Fino Advisory at a business conference.
Speed doesn't mean rushing through important decisions. It means understanding the problem, making a plan, and getting things moving.
We also believe complicated accounting and tax issues should be explained in plain English.
Business owners shouldn't need to become tax experts just to understand what's happening inside their own companies.
To me, a great advisory firm should make running your business:
Faster. Less risky. Easier.
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Some Of My Client Relationships Go Back Almost A Decade.
One relationship I'm particularly proud of is with Kevin Harrington, an original Shark from Shark Tank.
I first became involved with Kevin's businesses nearly ten years ago.
One of my existing clients had formed a business partnership with Kevin, and they asked me to handle the accounting.
At first, I wasn't working particularly closely with Kevin himself.
But over time, that original engagement led to additional work with other companies and investments.
Some of those businesses had complicated financial arrangements involving multiple operating and investment entities.
I helped organize the accounting and financial information so that everyone could better understand what was happening across the businesses.
Over the years, the relationship continued growing.
And today, I still work with Kevin and his companies. In fact, we work more closely together now than we did when we first started.
I'm proud of that.
Because relationships like that aren't built through one impressive meeting.
They're built by consistently showing up and doing the work.
Kevin was kind enough to record a video about his experience working with me and Fino.
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Kevin Harrington
Original Shark On Shark Tank & Founder of Big Brand Ventures
Kevin Harrington
Original Shark On Shark Tank & Founder of Big Brand Ventures
Kevin Harrington — Original Shark on Shark Tank
"Their structure and their work has saved me and my companies a lot of time and a lot of money."
I really appreciate that endorsement.
But even more than the testimonial, I value the long standing relationship behind it.
That's the kind of trust we want to build with the businesses we serve.
Who We Work Best With.
We want to be the team you trust to understand your situation, explain what needs to happen, and take responsibility for the work.
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If Sales Tax Is Still Landing On Your Desk, Let's Talk.
I've spent much of my career being the person responsible for making sure accounting, tax, software, and outside advisers all worked together.
It's an experience that shaped how I built Fino.
You shouldn't have to manage your sales tax service providers just to make sure your sales tax gets handled.
You should be able to hand that responsibility to a team that understands your business and knows what needs to be done.
If you're running an established business with multistate sales tax obligations, I'd love to learn about your situation and see whether we're a good fit.
Get Sales Tax Completely Off Your Plate In 30 Days. Guaranteed.
If you're unhappy working with Fino at the end of your first 30 days, we'll refund 100% of what you paid during that period.
