Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Gonzalez.
Tiffany, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It all started when my father came to this country on a raft. He left Cuba for a better life here in Miami. After meeting my mom, they had 3 girls. I am the oldest. They encouraged me every day to push the limits of what I thought I was capable of. I graduated High school with over a 4.0 GPA and received a full scholarship to the University of Miami.
I started working in the accounting industry while I was in College. I knew that I wanted to be an Accountant because my amazing aunt (who is my role model and inspiration) is one. I enjoyed how much accounting was like learning a new language. I loved helping business owners understand their finances. Most of them are really good at the technical side of their business but when it comes to margins, and breakeven, and KPIs, they don’t always know how they compare.
I was working at a small local accounting firm for close to 6 years. I knew every client. I hired new employees. I trained them. I help set policy and procedures. I was the client relations manager. I prepared tax returns. Lots of hats. All the while, I received my bachelor’s in business with a major in accounting from the University of Miami, a master’s in taxation from FIU and I passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exams all on the first try.
Towards the end of my employment with this firm, I expressed interest in wanting to be a minority interest partner. I was being encouraged to do more networking and I wanted the incentive to match the workload increase. The business owner of the firm didn’t believe in me as much as I believe in myself. They didn’t see the potential of a partnership like I did.
Around this time, my father, who had worked for over 20 years for propane companies installing and repairing gas lines, decided to go out on his own.
My father encouraged me not to wait as long as he did. It was at that point where I decided to bet on myself too. I left that firm to start my own. I started from the living room of my 800 sq. foot apartment. Working 60+ hours a week to build something I could make my family proud and myself proud of. Within a year, I was ready to hire my first employee. I moved to a shared office space and continue to bring on new amazing businesses who saw the value of what we could provide. Peace of mind surrounding their numbers. Invoices going out on time. Payables organized and ready to be approved. Financials they could understand.
We are close to completing year 4 and we now have an amazing team of 5 Accounting and Bookkeeping Specialist (6 if you count me) that manage the controllership functions for prominent businesses in our community. I am really proud of my team. They are like family to me.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
LOL, I wish! It’s never smooth when owning your own business. I can see that with my own clients as well. We do our best to get back to our clients within 24 to 48 hours. During the busy tax season, that isn’t always feasible. Finding a way to streamline communication and set up the internal processes necessary to address the demand was a fun challenge.
When we grew past 1 employee, we needed to leave the shared space and find a new home. That took a little while but the team was a good sport being so close in a tiny space until we finally did.
I think sometimes the biggest obstacle is reminding yourself to keep betting on you. Business owners everywhere doubt themselves from time to time. I have a mantra where if you do good work and you do right by your client, then you will never lose a client and new clients will always want to work with you.
Please tell us about Accounting to Scale.
We are a full service bookkeeping firm that works with small to medium sized businesses. We offer full cycle controllership. This includes: Invoicing your clients, Collecting payments from your clients, Following up with the clients that haven’t paid you yet, collecting bills from your vendors, paying your vendors, filing sales taxes, helping you calculate and run payroll, data entry into your QuickBooks, Bank reconciliations and most importantly, financials! We give you the peace of mind that your accounting is being taken care of so you can SCALE your business.
We are known for our timeliness – the speed in which we deliver and respond. We are known for our reliability and accuracy. We are known for being a company that will hand hold you and your business to accounting success.
What sets us apart is our people. Everyone has a passion for numbers. We’ve all seen the financials of a lot of different industries so the array of experience is varied and allows us to really give the best service and advice.
I am proud of how far we have come in 4 short years but I am most proud about how much the businesses we have worked with have grown.
I called the business Accounting to Scale. It not only means accounting for accuracy but also accounting so YOU can SCALE your business.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hire slow, Fire Fast.
Read more. Someone has already done it before and you can learn from others by reading if you’re too afraid to ask someone for help.
Make time for you. It’s too easy to get caught up working 90+ hours. The only way you can keep the passion for what you do is by spending time on you. Take a vacation. Play a sport. Work out. Or just relax by the pool. You deserve it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 168 SE 1st Street Suite 501A Miami FL 33131
- Website: www.accountingtoscale.com
- Phone: 3055032814
- Email: Info@AccountingtoScale.com
- Instagram: @Accountingtoscale
- Facebook: @Accountingtoscale
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
