I QUIT MY BIG 4 TAX MANAGER JOB + LAUNCHING MY BUSINESS

As some of you may know, I've been in Korea for the past 3 months. I took this time to recharge mentally and physically, as well as reflect on what I want to do with my life. Especially as I'm turning 30 this year, I had a lot of expectations of what I wanted to achieve when I turn this milestone age.

So after much thought and planning, I decided to leave my job as a Tax Manager at a Big 4 Accounting firm. You may be wondering what I'm doing next. Well... the special announcement is.....[drum roll please] I'm launching my own Accounting and Tax practice in Canada!

Now that I have that out of the way, make sure you read until the very end so you can find out exactly how I manage to pull off leaving my 9 to 5 job and to learn more about my business and journey to entrepreneurship.

My Decision Making Process to Quit

As a Tax Manager at a Big 4 Firm who has been in public practice for 7+ years, it was a milestone stage in my career where I would need to decide to keep on going or try something different. As someone who always had an entrepreneurial spirit in me, the idea of working for myself has always been brewing in my mind.

Since I'm a planner by heart and also risk adverse, I needed to take some precautions before I make the big move to quit. I focused largely on two things: (i) I wanted to ease in what it would be like to work for myself by first taking some time off and (ii) I made sure that I was going to be ok financially.

In order to take time off, I used a combination of paid and unpaid leave, as well as vacation days to get the three months off work. One of the advantages of working at a Big 4 Firm is that there is a lot of flexibility as well as benefits you really utilise (let me know if you are interested in learning about all the benefits of working at a Big 4 so you can really maximise your experience).

Now finances are a huge part of why someone may not leave their job. In order to minimise the risk, I've seen a lot of advice floating around to start your side hustle while working a 9-5. Personally, I found out about myself that I'm not able to work on two time and mind consuming tasks at the same time without completely burning out. So I decided to save up a healthy emergency fund that can keep me going for at least a year. Also, the paid leave and vacation time from work definitely helped too. Then, I decided to take time off to focus on myself as well as projects to see where it goes and if it goes well, I would then make the decision to quit.

The Unexpected happened

During my time off, I decided to mainly prioritise the business launch and Youtube. Then, the unexpected happened. One video that I made a few months ago (Crypto Taxes for Beginners) went semi-viral, which brought in a lot of new viewers as well as opportunities. A combination of ad and affiliate revenue, as well as sponsorships actually ended up making more than my 9-5 job. I knew from this that earning money outside of your typical job environment was totally possible. Lastly, many people started to reach out to me about whether I offer tax services, which gave me the confidence to move forward with starting my own Accounting practice.

What's Next? More about my Accounting & Tax practice

I'm really excited about this next chapter of my life as an entrepreneur. I'm launching my own Accounting Practice in Canada called Balance + Wealth CPA, which is an extension of my brand Ms. Balance. My practice is a licensed CPA firm in BC and soon ON, and is a boutique firm specialising in Tax Services such as tax compliance and tax planning. (Side note that not all accounting practises are licensed CPA firms and not all CPA firms specialise in tax.) The goal is to provide comprehensive financial services, including bookkeeping and financial consulting.

I understand that finance might not come easily to everyone, especially if you are a business owner that needs to wear many hats, and may not be an expert when it comes to successfully managing the financial health of your company. My mission is to help you unload your financial headaches to a professional, and to help you find balance in your life as well as manage and grow your wealth. At the end of the day, managing your finances are critical to ensuring the success of not only your business, but in your overall life as well.

Currently, we are aiming to serve owner-managed small companies with online and e-commerce businesses, as well as those in the crypto and NFT space. Fittingly, we are a completely virtual office where everything can be completed online using state-of-the-art technology and working with only the top softwares available to make the whole accounting and tax experience seamless. I wanted to provide a fresh feel as well as less friction to a service industry that may seem quite outdated and even unpleasant.

As mentioned, we are a boutique firm so we are only going to work with a select handful of clients, as I really want the chance to focus on a core group to provide high quality services to. If you have been looking for an accountant and tax expert, and believe we are a good fit, feel free to contact us through my website here.

Lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone for your support so far. I hope to continue to provide quality content, focusing on personal finance and finance for businesses!

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