1. Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Brennan, and I am a 30-year-old CPA living in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I started @budgetdog with the hope of helping people understand and navigate their own financial situations and to educate as many people as I could so they never found themselves making so many “normal” mistakes.

2. What made you go into accounting?

Quite honestly, I took an accounting class in high school and I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna do. I knew I wanted to do business. I knew that was the backbone of business and I knew that using my accounting degree (and I also got a finance degree, so I was a double major) I would be able to leverage both of those in a professional field. When I worked at Deloitte, I was also looking into an advisor route; however, eventually I decided not to. I decided to start my own company as well. That’s kinda the reasoning behind why I went into accounting.

3. What are some of your greatest challenges and accomplishments?

I will give you a professional and a personal. So my personal, when I was at the age of 29, we had our first daughter. I as, I think I was 29 or 30. She was born totally normal and I quit my nine to five at that point at the time. Four months in, I started running my own business and I was staying home with her full time. Everything was fine. And then boom, she had her first seizure. I have a whole blog post on my website as well about this. You should just got just go to budgetdog.com and then go to the blog and you’ll see An Unimaginable Reality – Logan and Dravet’s Syndrome.

We had to actually move across the country, after I quit my nine to five. To make sure she had the best healthcare in the nation, so that’s my biggest personal challenge. And obviously that’s ongoing, so it’s not like it’s done. We are still dealing with that on a daly basis. We’ve had a huge upgrade in her health and all that kind of stuff. It’s still a daily challenge, it’s really difficult. My wife was able to stay home with her full time, and she was able to quit her nine to five, which is so awesome .

Biggest professional challenge was starting my own business, and I think that’s also still present today. It's awesome being able to leave my nine to five, and start my own business. But there’s a lot that goes into it and there’s constant roadblocks and hurdles that you have to hop over and adapt and all those kinds of things with the new market. Building your own business is no easy feat. I started with just myself and I now have 14 people on my team. There’s 14 people and human beings that have different needs and concerns and viewpoints. That’s a hard thing to manage. That’s where I am right now, still growing that company and I would say that’s my biggest challenge today. I have been able to do some crazy things, growing my business to a seven figure multi seven figure business. It’s been a tremendous growth, but with that comes a lot of challenges.

What hobbies or current side projects do you have going on?

I don’t do a whole lot of side stuff. Honestly, my whole focus is my family or my business. So if I am not working on the business during the day, I am with them. I don’t do a lot of hobbies. I am very focused on what I do. So I like to work out, I work out all the time. That’s the only other hobby per se. I don’t know if it’s a hobby. It’s a lifestyle, I guess you could say, but that’s every single day.

What is the best way for people to connect with you?

The best way is all my socials.

Instagram , Youtube, Twitter/X , https://budgetdog.com/

Barbara is the owner of Your Tax Coach, a tax consulting company. She helps business owners, entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals save money in taxes. She can look at a tax return and within seconds, tell you some tax strategies that could save you thousands of dollars per year. Her typical client saves over $10,000 every single year. She shares bite size tax, money, and business tips that are easily digestible - no stuffy accountant talk here.

She has lived all over the country with her military husband and 3 kids. She loves coffee, weightlifting, and saving people money!

What made you go into accounting?

To be honest, I was always good at numbers but wanted to go into law. I had a baby in college and needed to major in something that had a 100% success rate of getting a job right out of college - and that was accounting.

What are some of your greatest challenges and accomplishments?

My greatest challenge is also my greatest accomplishments - being a working mom. Life is always hectic but I love it.

What are your hobbies or current side projects that you have going on?

I love all things coffee and weightlifting. My side project right now is investing and we just launched an e-commerce business so that's been fun.

What is the best way for people to connect with you?

Find me on Instagram @yourtaxcoach

1. Tell us a little about yourself

I'm a fourth year Accounting Student - I live in the Okanagan Valley. I am one of two partners on @thecorporateaccountant Instagram page. I have done two co-ops with The Royal Bank of Canada and recently finished a summer co-op with BDO in A&A. I am looking forward to next summer when I will be doing a second co-op term with BDO!

2. What made you go into accounting?

During my high school years, I received minimal knowledge about financial literacy. I realized that simple skills were not taught; in my opinion, financial literacy is one of the most important skills an individual can possess. I took it upon myself to take some accounting courses that were offered in different school districts. Needless to say, I fell in love with accounting during my senior year of high school and decided it was going to be a career path for me! In addition, my brother, who also works in the Accounting field has been my number one inspiration. He has always motivated me to reach for the stars.

3. What are some of your greatest challenges and accomplishments?

One of my greatest achievements was being able to design and implement my own financial literacy course for grade 12 students. I taught it in the winter semester of 2020 at my former high school - it really became full circle for me. I was able to teach students how to do their taxes, how to get student loans, understanding interest and credit card debt, how to read financial statements and their rights as an employee.

4. What are your hobbies or current side projects that you have going on?

Currently, I am working on making my financial literacy program available district-wide. In addition, I am partnering up with LeadUp, a local program that provides the opportunity for youth to plan and implement youth-led service projects in their communities, be a voice for youth, and directly influence youth-related programming. Our goal is to take the program in to the community as well as the school district.

5. What is the best way for people to connect with you?

Send me a message on my Instagram page: @erum_ahmad7 or follow @thecorporateaccountant

1. Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Kristin Lofgren and I run the Instagram platforms @lets_get_fiscal and @theaccountingbetch. I started my career at Deloitte, where I worked for 5 years in both audit and M&A due diligence. I transitioned to the industry as the financial reporting manager at Dentsu Aegis Network over the North and South America regions, primarily focusing on M&A transactions from beginning to end. I’m currently the Director of Accounting at a Series B start-up in New York.

2. What made you go into accounting?

My mom had 4 kids somehow managed to take care of all of us while working her way up to CFO. Eventually, she ended up taking the company through an IPO. I aspire to be like her and thought accounting would be a great path for me to follow in her footsteps.

3. What are some of your greatest challenges and accomplishments?

Passing all of the CPA exams on the first try will always be one of my proudest accomplishments. I am also proud of growing @lets_get_fiscal and @theaccountingbetch into two huge social media platforms. A challenge I faced early on in my career was the crazy work hours required in Big 4 and the constant travel. Luckily, I found a career in the industry with much better hours and zero travel and it’s made my career much more enjoyable!

4. What are your hobbies or current side projects that you have going on?

I serve as a member and the treasurer of a not for profit, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, which raises awareness for the rare cancer. I’m a blogger for Becker, where each month I post an article about the lessons I learned throughout my career in accounting and any advice I have for someone just beginning their career.

5. What is the best way for people to connect with you

Send me a message on @lets_get_fiscal on Instagram!

4. What are your hobbies or current side projects that you have going on?

My time is limited. I love reading and I am a Florida girl at heart so I love the beach. However, my Non-Profit Organization is my baby. My Non-Profit, The Lady CPA Network, is a non-profit organization aiding in the advancement of African American women in the accounting and finance profession. Our goal is to provide a network and platform for African American women in accounting and finance as a support system and collaborative body of professionals. To offer scholarships, mentorship, internships, entrepreneurial assistance, guidance and opportunities for women who aspire to be in the profession, as well as educational support and continuing education. To increase the visibility of African American women at the executive and partner level within the accounting and finance profession.

1. Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Atiya S Brown and I am originally from Montreal! I currently live in South Jersey and I am the owner of The Savvy Accountant - a boutique Accounting and Tax firm that works virtually to help my #SavvyFamily aka clients save on their tax liability. My passion lies with helping my community build wealth by reducing what they have to pay in taxes.

I have always had an obsession with numbers, I actually wanted to go into Actuarial Math but realized that as an extrovert, I would probably think that was too boring and took my 1st Accounting course in College to see what it was like. I did really well and then found my passion for Tax later that year.

I think that my biggest accomplishments in my career are some of the recent tax plans I created. I have been able to save my clients thousands of dollars in tax savings and I am most proud of one strategy plan that saved a client $209K in tax savings, and that is actually on the conservative side! I am definitely proud to say that my clients are saving on their taxes and they are doing so with strategies I am helping them implement.

I do have a goal to save TSA clients a total of $2MM by 2022 and I am hoping I can break that goal a year early, so if you are reading this and you are paying taxes, I can almost bet that whatever you are paying is probably too much... let me try to save you some of your hard earned money!

Currently I do not have many hobbies since we are stuck in quarantine, but I do enjoy a great swim in the pool on a hot day and I look forward to being able to travel again!

I am on social media @TheSavvyAccountant and you can email me at [email protected]

Instagram: www.instagram.com/Irene.valarezo.realestate.com

You can reach me via my website, amynorthardcpa.com and I love hanging out on Instagram (one of my creative outlets) and sharing pretty calculators and tax tips.

I love connecting with people on Instagram @theaccountingman_

This month’s featured accountant is Ann Margaret Johns, CPA. Ann is the Accounting Manager at Kuka, a major robotics and automation solutions company. Ann a Clarkston, Michigan native, is also a passionate writer whose creative non-fiction work is well researched, entertaining and heart felt. Ann spends her free time repurposing well loved items giving them a second chance as a refurbished homegood, gardening and drinking wine. She loves lake-living with her two cats, Crosby and Munchkin and is passionate about writing from her experiences. You can reach Ann at http://www.annmargaretjohns.com/