Every CPA has a story – we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Lori Hinesley, CPA. Lori is a mother of 3 under the age of 6 who transitioned from employee to entrepreneur and became CPA MOMS first founding franchisee.
During the interview we discuss:
- She grew up and went to school in Alaska
- She had originally gone to college for biology but switched to accounting after a business professor encouraged her
- She discovered that she did love accounting
- She got her CPA license after she moved to California
- She worked in the home building and construction industry to get work experience
- She started as an entry level accountant and worked her way up to the Director of Finance
- She worked for the same company, in various capacities, from the time she was in college to the time she became a franchisee; 15 years altogether
- She is a mom of 3 – a 6 year old boy starting kindergarten, a 3 year old boy and a 7 month old little girl
- The transition from having her career as her “baby”, to having children of her own was difficult
- She suffered with mom guilt and work guilt
- For about 5 years she juggled everything and felt she had a good balance but then there were some changes in her company
- When she had her third child, she realized she needed a change
- She needed to be able to feel that she could have a career and a family without feeling that she had to sacrifice one for the other
- Her direct manager was a father who worked 14 hours a day, sacrificed time with his family, and wasn’t super supportive of Lori being a working mom
- Now that she’s franchised with CPA MOMS, she’s able to manage her time around her children’s schedule in ways she wasn’t able to before
- She transitioned from private to public accounting and from employee to entrepreneur
- She had looked into another franchise opportunity for bookkeeping but it wasn’t the right fit
- She chose CPA MOMS because of the support, the sales training, the framework and the mentoring and coaching
- All the systems that were already in place at CPA MOMS made the transition so much more doable for her to go from an employee to an entrepreneur
- Having the platforms for leads and the amount of training that is involved, even after you open your business, has helped her in her marketing, how she sells her services and how to set it all up
- She explains that the franchise training isn’t just about how to start your own business, it’s about how to grow it for the long-term and how to create a vision for your business and your life
- She shares that although she struggled with confidence, the coaching she received gave her a framework to start building her confidence
- Buying into the franchise gave her a lot of comfort that she would have the support she needed and that she would succeed
- Her vision for her future is to be able to grow her business, to hire other accountant moms that so that she can give others flexibility to be a mom and have a career as well
- The advice that she would give to other accountant moms is that it’s never going to feel like the “right time” to make a change or take a risk but do it because it will be so worth it
- There’s never going to be a better time to push yourself out of your comfort zone, so don’t let that stop you
- She’s so grateful that she had the courage to go out on her own and that CPA MOMS was there to show her the way
To learn more about what it means to be a franchisee, CLICK HERE!