Life & Work with Garrett Cole

Today we’d like to introduce you to Garrett Cole.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am the co-owner of Cole and Grogan Accounting, CEO of G Cole Consults, and an Executive Partner of Lendio-Greater Atlanta.

My passion is to educate and help small businesses become profitable and fundable.

I am a member of several professional accounting and tax organizations, but I am most honored to be the Executive Ambassador of The Association Of Black Tax Professionals.

Serving in the Executive Ambassador role I play a major role in helping to educate and nurture tax professionals new to the industry.

My entrepreneurial spirit started at an early age.

I grew up in a small town in Alabama, and we did not have many entrepreneurs, particularly in the black community.

Of course, I did not understand the true meaning of being an entrepreneur until I became an adult.

I must have been in the third or fourth grade when I first learned how to hustle and make money.I remember when I was in elementary school, I would wake up 20 minutes early so that I could sprint to the neighborhood store to buy candy and bubblegum to take to school to sell. I would have a pocket full of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies at the end of the school day.

I carried this same hustle mentality throughout my high school career.

My mother taught me, or should I say made me, prepare my own tax return when I was seventeen years of age.

At that age, preparing taxes was more or less a hobby, but little did I know it would grew into a business.

After graduating high school, I enrolled into Troy State University where I majored in Accounting and Mathematics.

As most of us know, college students often endure financial struggles during their college years, and I most certainly was not exempt.

I used my skills of preparing co-workers and college students taxes as supplemental income.

After leaving college and finding my way, I relocated to Atlanta and quickly embraced the culture of entrepreneurship.

After having acquired a number of tax clients over the years, I decided to take the leap of faith.

That leap has endured for the past decade and a half.

We have grown our tax business to over 700 small business and personal clients.

I am most proud of the fact that over the past year we have assisted over 400 small business owners in saving their businesses during this pandemic by helping them to receive government funding and grants.

Without these funds most of these businesses would be out of business today.

Many businesses did not receive funding due to lack of proper business structure and little to no bookkeeping.

My team and I immediately identified that we needed to educate these small business owners so that they realize the importance of operating their businesses properly to receive funding.

This leads me up to my latest partnership with Lendio-Greater Atlanta.

Lendio, which is a Fintech company, was able to fund more small businesses with the Payment Protection Program than any other company.

Learning this information made this business acquisition a no brainer for me. I admired Lendio’s unique relationship with the SBA and the company’s desire to aid small businesses in funding.

My duty with Lendio-Greater Atlanta is to perform health checks on small businesses to help them build business credit and become fundable.

Personal credit and business credit are essential in growing any business.

This is the perfect position to be in when it comes to helping entrepreneurs get to the next level.

NOW HOW GREAT IS THAT?

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh, it has definitely not been a smooth road.

Like many entrepreneurs, I have experienced many rough patches along the way.

I have had 20 hour workdays, financial struggles, mental struggles, and the list goes on.

As times change, so must our businesses.

Business has evolved tremendously over the past decade especially as it relates to new technology developments and the changing workforce. I have struggled with both.

I have learned to reach out to experts in their perspective fields to help my businesses to stay with or ahead of the changes.

Many business owners fail to do this and the consequences edure.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Currently the services that I offer are: Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, Business Formation, Business Credit Assistance, and Business Funding Assistance.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is not defined by how much money one acquires. Instead, it is defined by how you impact one’s life.

Pricing:

• Tax Preparation $300 and Up
• Schedule C Taxes $650 and Up
• Corporate Taxes $750 and Up
• Bookkeeping $500 Monthly and Up
• Business Formation $450 and Up

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.coleandgrogan.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_tax_coach/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrett.cole.31/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cole-and-grogan-accounting-and-taxes-stone-mountain