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Today we’d like to introduce you to Burcu Bree Manay.
Hi Burcu Bree, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started my career in early 2001 when I came to the US as a master’s student in accounting at the University of West Georgia. I was born and raised in Turkey in a middle to lower-income family, so it was a very hard decision for me and my parents to look for opportunities through academics. During my studies at West GA, I was a research assistant, and upon graduation, I pursued my CPA degree, investing a lot of time and financial resources to get the proper training for the exam. Unfortunately, I never had the money to take the proper course, so I maxed out all of my credit cards to fund myself, becoming my own investor in my professional career. Upon passing the exams for both my CPA and master’s degree, I started working as an accounting manager for a manufacturing company in the metro Atlanta area. The manufacturing sector was the perfect exposure for me to learn and understand all the different cases and applications of a CPA practice.
I then decided to start my own CPA practice in 2007 as a side business. In 2013, I had a life-changing event; I was diagnosed with Lymphoma during the busiest time of my life. At this time, I was a director and controller of a manufacturing firm with a full-time traveling husband and two young children. Going through such an experience and surviving cancer changed my entire perspective on life, helping me create a brand-new vision. I realized that I needed to spend more time with my family and control my own destiny. I changed my career path from being an employee to being fully dedicated to my own CPA practice. Even though this was a traumatic life event, I believe that the outcomes of shifting to my own practice were a real blessing. As life continues for my family and me, I am grateful for the growth and expansion of Manay CPA, the fulfillment and culmination of my dreams and goals.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I truly believe that there isn’t any practice that has had smooth sailing from the start. Of course, I have had many challenges. The biggest challenge has been trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance that allows an ample amount of time for my family. As my husband has had a full-time career in a different field, we have had to make sure that our two children are always taken care of with the right support structure while growing the business to its full potential. What I have learned along this journey is that there are always more things that I would like to do for my business, but the available time is never enough. Growing a business from a one-person show into a larger organization is always challenging. The very first time you decide to hire someone is a life-changing decision since you are now responsible for someone else’s future. From that point on, I have always planned the next 3-4 steps: taking on the next business challenges, growing the team, and making them more autonomous by investing more time into employees while still maintaining my priorities to my family as a mother and as an entrepreneur.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Manay CPA Inc.?
For almost 20 years, we have helped clients form new companies as our firm has grown alongside them, spawning subsidiaries to further expand our services in the continued growth of our portfolio. Our firm currently has offices in Atlanta, Istanbul, and San Diego, as well as remote employees and partners around the world. Therefore, many of our staff are multilingual to better serve our international clientele. With the international clientele comes familiarity with international rules and regulations for new business formation and expansion, bookkeeping, planning, tax services, and consultancy for established and start-up companies.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Our goal is to make it easier to set up a collaboration environment for anyone who can benefit from Manay CPA services. We believe that accessibility to your CPA is a fundamental right, and we are proud to be able to do that in an effective manner. We make this in a way that is accessible to whoever wants to work with us, whether it’s a new business or an individual. We can be accessed through online meetings, or we will be happy to host you face-to-face in one of our office locations.
Manay CPA is a woman-owned business and we value diversity and different cultures. We are happy to support and collaborate with women-owned businesses, minorities, and different cultures. We believe that our partnerships are one of the areas that we care most about, and we love to meet more collaborators and supporters as we continue to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.manaycpa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manaycpa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manaycpa/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/manay-cpa/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/manaycpa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/manaycpa
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/manay-cpa-marietta-2
- Other: https://g.page/manaycpa?share
