Festina Manly-Spain founded FMS Advisory to help small business owners master the numbers behind their business, and go from unsure to unstoppable!
I am originally from Freetown, Sierra Leone. I came here with my family at 6 years old, fleeing a civil war. It was a pack-what-you-can-and-run situation. We traveled through several of our neighboring countries before getting passage to the U.S. Yet our family stayed strong, and faithful, and that has been a solid foundation for me and my brother. I’ve lived in Montgomery County ever since.
Our first stop in the States was Burtonsville, Maryland. Soon, we moved to Germantown. I graduated from Northwest High School in Germantown, then went to the University of Maryland, College Park, earning a degree from the Smith School of Business. I loved UMD and made lifelong friends there. One of my goals now is to spend time with current CPA-track business school students and advise them that there is more to the business of accounting than working for one of the Big Four public accounting firms.
The big firms first offer internships to business students, and then recruit them right out of college. So, I worked at Deloitte in McLean, Virginia, and later at the D.C. offices of KPMG. I did that for eight years. But, although I enjoyed the people I worked with and made good friends, working in the big firms did not feel like what I went into accounting to do. I thought I had chosen the wrong career. I wasn’t fulfilled and felt like I wasn’t making a difference or helping people. I love helping people, so I wanted to make a direct impact in people’s lives with what I was doing.
But, like most of us, I stayed the course. Until life intervened, and a medical issue snapped me out of my ambivalence about the job and led me to reflect on what I really wanted to do, why I had chosen a career in accounting, and what was important to me. Mainly it was for my daughter. I wanted to be an example for her and show her that there’s more to life than feeling unfulfilled.
At the time, I was regularly being recruited for in-house jobs. So, I took a stab at working for a small private equity shop. But again, the day-to-day work was not what I wanted to be doing. After only about 11 months, I decided to go out on my own. I had enough experience under my belt. But I had my daughter and bills that had to get paid, so I did work part-time jobs while getting my business up and running.
What I enjoy about accounting now, as an independent, is working with companies to help them set up their businesses for success. I like the hands-on experience with budgeting and projecting, using the numbers to help guide business decisions. At the Big Four and in public accounting, in general, young associates are usually at the back end of things – auditing and verifying other people’s work. I like to be in the creation of systems and processes that set business owners on the right track for sustainable growth – or get them back on course.
The Future for FMS Advisory
I’m finally doing what I love: helping business owners get their financial houses in order. I’m working hands-on with transactions, business decision-making, and financial analysis. Financial services are generally undervalued.
We see a doctor to take care of our medical needs. I challenge all business owners to talk to a financial professional to take care of their financial fitness. If you try to figure it out and you don’t get it right, it can cost you. It’s best to get set up correctly when starting out, and we help businesses with that. It’s even better to have an expert on your team all along the way. Make sure you are consulting someone who can guide you in business finances.
A Community of Services
I’m always finding ways to build community. Although I love being virtual, I envision soon having a dedicated office where clients can come and find a variety of resources. I’d like to have other CPAs in the firm who are capable of managing client relationships as account executives, and I’d like to have adjacent business services like insurance, financial planners, and legal services – all in a shared space. I see us partnering with these other business services to offer a wide range of essential services to small business clients.
I would also like to teach young people about money and finance and get them oriented toward being the CFOs of their own lives. I’d make it fun and engaging. With my daughter, I’ve developed a set of financial flash cards – a financial vocabulary – that give her a foundation in the subject. Financial literacy is pretty key to success, and everyone thinks they’re supposed to know; but it’s not taught in schools like other subjects. Money is treated as a personal topic. I’d like to change that.
The Business of Business
Although I’m an experienced accountant, I’m still a new business owner. So it’s been very exciting to be in the fall cohort of the Montgomery County Black Collective’s AMBER program. It’s helping me build my practice, and I am learning how to do business in Montgomery County, specifically how to navigate and take advantage of County resources.
When I get the chance to mentor other young accountants, I will tell them to keep an open mind about what the accounting world has to offer. What attracts people to the big accounting firms is the pay – they pay the most to a new college graduate. But if that’s not for you, you’ll end up backtracking and reinventing yourself. But if you open your mind and key in on what you really want your life to look and feel like, you have lots of options.
