Meet Atiya S. Brown, CPA, CA | Tax Strategist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Atiya S. Brown, CPA, CA and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Atiya S., what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I actually never thought I would have my own business. I pictured myself climbing the corporate ladder and one day having a corner office overlooking the city skyline. All that sorta changed on 7/11/2017 when I was laid off from my corporate job. There was a merger and my team was impacted and I was determined that my 7 years was disposable vs that 25+ years of my other team members. I was given a great severance package and told that I could work from home for the remainder of the time. So I did that.

I remember vividly going to 7-eleven at like 930am and asking for my free slushie and the clerk saw my face and even though the freebies weren’t until 11am he gave me a free slushie lol 7/11 has a special place in my heart!

Truth be told, after I was laid off, that sparked the idea that I could potentially work for myself. I never considered it before but I never wanted to feel that feeling again. That feeling where I was let go for no fault of my own, I wasn’t a bad worker, actually I was the opposite. I was the employee who worked until 2am on the night of her Jersey mom’s funeral because it was quarter end and my reports had to get done. So I thought, why not put that dedication into my own thing. And that is how my business was born.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
At The Savvy Accountant®, we are a full service CPA firm that focuses on all things Tax. We are Savvy at Solving Tax issues. We offer accounting and tax services to real estate professionals and small business owners.

I am most proud of saving my clients aka #SavvyFamily, as I call them, over $3MM in tax savings over the past 2 years. Taxes are my passion and my over arching goal is to save my community $1 Billion dollars in tax savings over my lifetime. I want to help them build generational wealth by understanding the tax code and the savings that are out there.
Currently our signature service is our DReAAM™ Tax Solution Program where we create specific tax strategies for our clients to help them save over 5 figures in tax savings. Whether they are dealing with tax debt and they need us to represent them and come up with a viable solution or they are having an amazing year(s) in business and need a plan to legally reduce their tax burden, we are here for them.

We have literally 4x our business since we started focusing on tax strategies for our clients. It was not always the case and from 2018 to 2020, we were barely doing anything in terms of gaining new clients and making an impact. I believe that issue was that I knew tax but I did not know business persay. I did not understand how to speak to my ideal client, nor that I should even have an ideal client. I am a great student and once I realized that I needed to learn more about business I did exactly that. I got a coach, well several, and started learning. I am still learning today and I believe that my growth has come from understanding that I needed to learn the right steps to growing my business.

I want the world to know that the mission of The Savvy Accountant is to help her community build generational wealth for themselves and their families through tax savings. We will save our #SavvyFamily $1 Billion in tax savings and we want to work with small business owners to help them create 5 figure tax savings to do that. God has already shown me that I will be successful at this goal, now for me to walk it out with Him.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a tough one lol, we recently moved to the Dallas area 1 month ago. So we are still learning it ourselves. We have definitely enjoyed the food here.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I definitely have to shoutout my husband, Ryan. He has been such a help when it comes to my journey to owning my own business. For one, he literally held the house down when we were down to 1 salary and allowed me to focus on my plan of growth. But even more than that, he worked super hard to help me manage my stress levels during the process. I am super driven and get really focused and that can cause alot of stress on myself. I try to do it all and when you are learning how to grow a business, you can’t handle everything on your own. I was worried about making money, growing the business, getting clients, taking care of the kids and managing the house and I just couldn’t handle it all. I am so grateful that my husband was like, just focus on the business for 6 months, and we can come back to the drawing board after that if need be. I got 9 months in 2020 and that was such a blessing, because I have grown to a point that I do not have to go back to corporate right now. I do not get to thank him enough so I am grateful that I can do so here!

Website: www.thesavvyaccountant.co

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesavvyaccountant

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesavvyaccountant

Twitter: www.twitter.com/AccountantSavvy

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesavvyaccountant

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI_hkYeWCSUWI_qzzYylBtA

Image Credits
@Zaakirahnayyar on IG