Empowering Small Businesses: Jayanthi Ganapathy's Vision

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:00:57

Welcome everybody.

I am Jaclyn Strominger and welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast where we hear from influential leaders and their game changing insights. And today we have amazing guest on it's Jay Gannepathy and she is the CEO and founder of Fin Accurate and she is remarkable.

I was like reading her bio and I was like, oh my God, this woman does not stop. Oh my God. So besides being a mom and a wife, she is a certified accountant, Cost of management accountant. You obviously love numbers.

Okay, so now there's an IRS enrolled agent. You are Main street certified tax advisor. You have your executive mba and I think I missed something in there as well. And you started fnaccurate.

So again welcome and first of all like tell me a little bit about your journey and how you became the, you know, your journey to the, the leadership position of the CEO of this company.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:02:02

Yeah, thanks. Thanks Jaclyn. Thanks for having me on your podcast. I'm honored to be here. Appreciate the invite. So yeah, my name is Jayanthi Ganapathy.

I do go by Jay. I've always been an accountant. So since my sixth grade I found that I had interest towards numbers and it all started from there.

But then eventually I took accounting as my education in my 11th grade and then going into college studying for bachelor's in accounting. And then gradual transition was in to be certified as an accountant. So all of my education was in India.

I'm a chartered accountant from India, which is a professional education similar to the CPA in us.

I not only did that, but I also did three professional education certifications parallelly cost and management accountant, which is another, you can say another cpa. And then also I did corporate law in India. So all three professional education each are like about four years. And I did all of them parallel.

So did all three in India. And then I landed in a corporate job as a financial accountant. That's the only company worked for almost 11 years.

I started as a financial accountant, it's a multinational company. Started working for them in India, southern part of India, Chennai. And I was there even though I was working in India for that company.

I was handling North America operations for that company. It was a global shared service center. So started there seeing my work and I got promoted very soon there.

And also an opportunity opened up in Australia for the same company. So they had me move there. So I worked in Sydney, Australia for about a year and a half too.

opened up in United States in: 2009

arted after coming here. From: 2009

So I've done a lot of post merger integration projects while I was with them and then eventually became accounting controller for the same company. I did large acquisition and also finance transformation projects with the same company.

So I was in the corporate environment, working long hours, working hard and growing as a corporate accountant. So at one point I felt I'm growing as a technical accountant.

Though I had the education as a cost accountant and working closely with small businesses was really was my interest. As I was growing in the corporate ladder I was more and more getting into a technical accountant kind of a profile which didn't interest me.

I didn't feel like this is not something I want to do for the rest of my life. So that's when I realized I have to start something on my own.

So I made a decision and it was a bold move because I had no idea of starting a business on my own. Have no entrepreneurial background either me or in my family.

So all I knew was I didn't want it to grow as a corporate account and I have to do something else. So that, that was all I decided to quit my job. High paying corporate job with zero clients on hand.

So I took that bold move in: 2015

We started off as providing bookkeeping and CFO services and started networking and finding clients close by in Boston which helped me grow to certain level. Within six months I was able to replace my corporate salary. So that was that.

Initially finding CLI clients was a challenge but then within two clients I was able to replace my corporate salary which helped me a lot to go go further. So that's where the journey started. I can maybe share more.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:06:43

Well, well I. First of all I wanted to ask you. I mean first of all it's absolutely fascinating. So a couple things.

So you're like going back to your court like when you're start at the corporate level that your journey.

You know I, I find it so inspiring that you were given the opportunity or, and or taken the opportunity to you know, obviously be in a great position in India and then again coming to the United States.

So tell me a Little bit about that, like you know, who inspired you or was there a person like in that when you're thinking about leadership, you know, not everybody is offered that.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:07:30

Right, exactly.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:07:31

So how did that, how did that.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:07:32

Come out about the very good question. Because that's the key to my next steps in my career. Because it was not.

The opportunity was not like always given to me or so the one thing in my throughout my career is I always focused on what I'm doing in the present so not just what the job is required of me. I pour my passion love into the work and really work hard.

So when at some point in my corporate job as well, I always wanted to, okay, I have this current role, I'm doing this, what do I need to do to go to the next level? So I always ask my managers that if I need to get promoted, what do I need to do? Not just promotion, it's not about promotion.

If this is my career goal, if I have to go to the next level, what do you see me like me doing it? So I always understand what's up next for me and I volunteer myself to do that job. I've done that many times at the corporate world.

Though my job profile doesn't require me to do say I was a corporate accountant. I really wanted to be in the FP and a financial planning and analysis understand that, go to that next level.

So I talked to that FPA manager here and I told him I want to get involved in these projects. Then I started going early to work, spending a couple of hours more doing those extra jobs at work. So I volunteered myself to do the next level.

So when the managers see that, when I'm able to help the organization grow and go to the next level, that's when opportunities come to anyone for that matter. So how am I contributing to the growth of the organization?

When someone sees that they want that, that's the kind of person the organization is looking for. Who can help me achieve this organization goal is this person showing that attribute, then you are immediately going to be the first choice.

That's how like I think every single step in my career that I took happened to me that way. Seeing that I'm just, I'm going beyond what I'm doing at work and always showing that interest, going to that next level, having that goal.

So that's how each opportunity landed on my plate.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:09:56

So it's, that's really. So do you feel that that is something that was like where did you learn that? You know, was it, was it something from your Family or did you have.

Was there a manager or somebody that said to you, hey Jay, you know, if you want to get ahead or hey Jay, let's talk about your career path each and like, what do you need to do? So where do you.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:10:23

Where do you feel that came from? I think it was given to me or told to me. I was always. I always had aggressive goals about my career. It's. I cannot stay in comfort zone.

I always have to be doing multiple things. It started from me doing three professional education at the same time. One doing just a chartered accountant.

Say profession itself is challenging, but I didn't stop there. I always had to challenge myself with doing more things. That's even more challenging. That's one thing I didn't realize I had that.

But now looking back, that's what I had in me from my education to my corporate job to venturing into entrepreneurship. I could go back. Looking back, I can see that this is the attribute I had I have in me. That's what is helping me go to the next level.

I don't think it's anyone telling me, if you do this, I will. That will take you.

It's just me always focusing on and having aggressive goal more than what I can do and not staying in a comfort zone and being content with what I have.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:11:35

No, that's, it's. It's really, it's. It's fascinating. So, you know, if you're thinking about that.

So is there anybody that you think about in your life that's like an inspiration that you be like, okay, like that person that, that you know, like who is that person for you?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:11:48

That definitely a girl.

It's a lot of people in the corporate world, the girl CFO at that time and, and not the manager as a role model, but they are also the people who offered me that opportunity to go to the next level. So they recognize the talent and not. There were no politics or anything. So the.

It's rare to see managers who can recognize the talent and then take you to that next level. So I would say I was fortunate to have every step I took in my career.

I had that right person in that environment, be it my manager or the CEO of that organization who recognized the talent and then will directly come to me and talk to me, skipping my managers and recognize that talent. So that opportunity I always had. So yeah, throughout my corporate career, there's so many people who inspired and my direct managers too.

In my corporate job in Boston, he also had like multiple degrees and a hard worker. He was in his 60s and still working like very long hours at work and very intelligent how he questions at meetings and everything.

I get inspired working with the smart people like that. So definitely I was fortunate to work with a lot of great managers who recognize the talents as well.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:13:15

That's that. That's really great. So talk to me then about you know as now that you started your company and you are the CEO.

How do you do the same for your team and how. And how big is your team?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:13:29

So I have a total of 20 people working for us. We have a team in India and I have a staff here in US and couple of people, one in El Salvador and one tax accountant in Canada.

So we kind of spread out. In the Boston office It's me and one other person. But we are like 20 people organization, all working remotely.

The team in India, we have an office in India, so they work there.

So since I know how I see my team is I always remember how I started, who helped me, how I was recognized and appreciated for my work and given the next level of opportunity. That's how I see I my employees too.

I always tell them to not just focus on their work, but also continuing education and then giving them challenging assignments and giving them the opportunity to do it themselves even if they make mistakes. One of my guest staff always tells me how come you never get angry even if we make mistakes? And because I knew that's how I grew.

I made mistakes in while I was a financial accountant at the junior level. So I knew you. It's not that you are making that mistake intentionally. You are learning you will go to the next level.

As long as you are not making the same mistakes again and again, you are learning from it, that is fine. So I can really appreciate where they come from because that's how none of these position was given to me. I worked hard to get there.

So I can see that same thing. As long as they are making real effort to go prove themselves at work, I recognize it.

So go and always present them the opportunity to go to the next level.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:15:22

I think that's such a key point there too what you've just said. And I and and for.

To the listeners remember that that is a huge insight that couple things like number one, don't get upset at people, they're learning. I mean if they, if they are making the mistake over and over and again and they're not learning, that's, that's a mistake.

But if they make a mistake, even if like it's twice, it's like remember you did that before night, like you know, maybe it's put a post it note to remember like this is your check and balance. Right. Because it's true.

And I, and I would say it's the same thing in like in with parenting or you know, life like you know, getting upset for somebody for a mistake that they didn't do. As long as the people are trying.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:16:08

Yes.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:09

That is a huge, huge part of that.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:16:13

And they are aware, they may, they're acknowledging it and then learning from it and moving on. So that's what you look for in an employee.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:22

Right. And it. And not try to lie about it. Oh my God.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:16:27

Exactly. Exactly.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:29

Right?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:16:31

Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:31

So that's really, that's really true. And it's, and that's actually a quality to I think for, for leaders to think about when you're also in the hiring process.

Like if that's something obviously we hope that everybody is truthful.

But also it's the, it's that it's like the, like the parent saying to the kid, right, if you drink I will just pick me, just pick up the phone, call me, I will pick you up wherever you are, no questions asked and not get upset so that they feel comfortable. Because if it's creating that environment of comfort so for people to grow. So I absolutely love that.

So the other thing I wanted so, so where are you like in like, you know, where is your leadership going with your company right now? Like if you could say, if I could, if I could work on one thing or two, what would that be?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:17:32

Definitely it's, it's a challenge being the owner, CEO of the company and still wearing multiple hats.

So we are in our 10th year and I still am the person who was doing the sales and taking care of marketing and still executing strategies for work deliverables and having a team. And though I always want to spend more time with my employees and help them grow and everything.

But you will always don't find that time to do it all until you get to another level.

So going into: 2025

So that's, that's one thing I as a small business CEO, entrepreneur, it's a challenge and it has always been a challenge for a long time. But I would say now we are a team of 20 people and we have a lot Lot of the work being done by the team now I'm able to get to that level.

But I felt that I have to be more available for my employee to help them grow in the areas that they are lacking. So that's still something I need to improve on, but I'm working towards that for the next year or two.

That's from a leadership perspective and also from a leadership perspective going the last few years, what I realized I have to go do more for my employees to show them though I always think about the one year, three year, five year goals. But in the last, in the, in this year we really started sharing all of that vision with our employees.

So I didn't realize the impact that will have on the staff.

Now the feedback that I'm getting from my staff now we can see a clear vision where my I am going to be in the growth of the organization as you share these visions with us. So I felt sharing what I'm thinking, where the organization is going and then involving them in that growth journey is huge.

And I'm really enjoying this phase where I was able to get to where prior to that it was just all me.

And I would just tell them this is what you need to do versus now showing them a clear path which gives them the confidence and feel there is an organization, there is a mission that we are working towards. So I think that's, that's, that's I'm enjoying this phase.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:20:20

So no, that's actually, that's really fantastic. I love that. And, and that's a great growth, growth faith, growth space to be in. So curious. You know, you've had all this great success, right.

And you've done super well. So I'm always, I'm always kind of curious. You know, was there one moment in your journey that you were like oops.

And how did you, how did you recover from it and how did it make you better?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:20:54

Actually several. It's not one.

So one thing I would say is in the 10, 10 years of my entrepreneurial journey I always tried several things whether it's like marketing or sales strategies or coaching to go to the next level. So one thing that helped me grow to where I am right now, I would try though. I know.

Or if I, even if I feel 50% I will be successful at this, if I take this next initiative, I will still do it. Most of the time when we finish that project, it might ended up being did not work out the way I wanted it to be.

But I will have some learnings from it that I know I will not repeat this going forward. So throughout the last 10 years we've spent on lot of trainings, consulting mastermind programs and everything.

And there was always learning that as an entrepreneur you always have to that positive attitude and not feel bad about the failures or getting stuck in that state and not moving forward.

You always have, there is always ways if you really try hard, you just have to keep going and then figure out what will take you from that position of being stuck and to be unstuck. So I was in that stage in. In my third to fifth year. The group was certain level in my revenue.

I didn't know what I need to do next to get out of that status quo or stagnant stage in my growth. So then I figure not figured out like through the help of coaches and mastermind programs. I figured going from a compliance mindset to an advisory.

So we are in accounting and bookkeeping space. There's a lot of compliance related tasks from a tax plan filing and bookkeeping aspects. But I realized the.

The small business industry really needs advisory help from. From a tax. Tax planning perspective. There is this market for tax planning is underserved. Oh.

So my thirst for like keep going at it and figuring out what will work in this market ended up being understanding tax planning is the way to go. So I figured out that path and that was the pivotal moment for me and for. For the business.

From there we found a path and then everything now from marketing to sales, everything was focused on that one pivot that we can do for the organization. So oops moment. Yes, there was so many but I just didn't stop or freeze there. And then I moved forward.

So I learned whatever I could from that incident and then move on. Always as an entrepreneur you have to have that positive attitude. Otherwise you will.

You will definitely fail and then regret and not not succeed as an entrepreneur.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:24:07

You know, it's. There's so much, there's so much truth in there.

There's a couple of things and would you not agree, like half the bar, half that battle is is what you're saying to yourself up here, right? Like if you have those oops moments to get out of it, right. You. You have to have the inner confidence and as you said to learn from it.

But to know that like to know that it's a learning experience, right. And so that's. And to be able to say to yourself okay, it's a learning moment, I can move on from it. Not don't stay in that down trough. Right.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:24:44

And with there is Always a way, you just have to push forward. There's always a way to get out of it, just knowing that and there is a way to go get to the next level and pushing forward, you will succeed.

There's a statistics like in the United States there are about 34 million small businesses and 93% of them fail in their first three years and they don't move forward. And only 93% even get to that 7% get to that 1 million revenue mark which is a huge failure rate. Right. Like a lot of business.

And there's several statistics like businesses don't go beyond three years and there's only the 7% that go up to the 10 year mark and things like that. So I think most of them faced with a failure, they get, they feel down and this is not for me. And then they don't push forward.

I think that's where you have to stop and think who can help me to get out of this level? And there's always way ask the question, get help. And there's plenty of help available.

That's another thing I appreciated starting this journey definitely in the Boston area where we network with other business owners, there are always people who are willing to help understand the challenge in being on your own, starting something on your own. And I see people are want to really help. So there is help there. You just have to ask for it.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:26:24

Right. And you know what. So that is just so key. And I and I and, and you know, listeners like, you know, always obviously ask for help.

The, the amount of something, something that you said I think is also really important on that growth in that journey to go from either be, you know, being up the 7% statistic, which is you have to look at what you were doing and seeing if there's a way to add or enhance or sometimes you may have to pivot.

So as you said you went from being more of that tax compliance to advisory and you saw that that was that shift in your business was going to help propel you exactly. Up.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:27:22

Yes. Correct. Yep. You just have to keep going. Only you will. Like no one can tell you what you need to girl do next.

Each entrepreneur, I feel like it's your journey and it's very unique to you and only you can figure out what is right and what's the right next step for you. And you can get all the help and advice and everything. Ultimately it's you who have to make the decision and find what's the best thing for you.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:27:52

Right.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:27:53

I always wonder why entrepreneurship is so good so challenging. Why is it so difficult? Why there are so many failures?

It's just that and the Nancy I get is mostly even though there's so much help that is like small business organization that can help this governmental organization, there is so much help. There is a lot of templates and business plans. Everything you can do, any help you can get, you have everything.

And still there is this so much failure. It's. I feel like it's a gum dog entrepreneur as a journey is very unique. Very unique to you.

And only you have to figure out no matter what's out there, you still. And the only way to figure that out is keep going and trying different things.

And until you figure out what's that one thing that works for you, you have to keep going at it. That's the one.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:28:47

Yeah. And I would. I totally agree with you on. I totally agree. And there's so many.

There's so many resources out there and the biggest thing and you have and you said this already is you have to ask so, so speaking which I Jay, I have absolutely. I could talk to you forever. You have so much. There's so much I could so much great wisdom and insights and all that to share.

But I'd love for you to share how can people get a hold of you and connect with you and obviously get more of your wisdom and and obviously get into some of your services. Because I think you're. What you're doing from a tax for small businesses is really as you.

It's really important and I think it actually also helps with reducing. You know maybe we can increase that number from 7% to 8%.

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:29:40

Definitely. Thanks.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:29:42

How people can find. How can people connect with you?

Jayanthi Ganapathy: 00:29:45

I'm always number One place is LinkedIn. I'm very active in LinkedIn.

If you message me that's the easy way to get hold of me to respond on number one is my LinkedIn space and then second is our website www.finacurate.com and with LinkedIn you can find me by my name. So those are the two places to go to.

If you want to schedule a meeting with me on the website there is an option to do that and I'm always doing about 30 to 45 minutes discovery session with business owners. We don't charge for it. We won't have that conversation.

So no matter if you want to work with me as a client I make sure I give as much value in that 45 minutes conversation. So feel free to go schedule a meeting with me.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:30:32

That's fantastic. Well, thank you so much. This is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Podcast. I'm Jaclyn Schrelminger, your host.

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And if you have a leadership story to share, please go to my website, LeaptoYourSuccess.com podcast and apply to be a guest again. This is Jaclyn Stominger with the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Podcast, and we thank you all for listening.