We were lucky to catch up with Carla Perez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Carla, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

When I was in the beginning stages of forming Brightly Consultants I spent some time really defining what Brightly meant to me as a professional and individual. It’s one thing to provide a service that you can charge a fee for, but it’s another thing entirely to ensure that every single interaction in your business aligns with core values of importance. I call them my pillars and my entire business model is built on them. They are: Integrity Focused, Client Partnership, Community Reinvestment & Enrichment, and Collaborative Synergy. I am driven by interpersonal connections, I couldn’t shut it off if I tried, so I make every business decision based on 1) establishing a relationship first and 2) ensuring that decision supports at least one of my pillars.

As I’ve immersed myself into the community I grew up in, something really cool happened- I got to fall in love with it all over again in a new way. I have always has a strong philanthropic stance and knew that would be a part of Brightly, but I had no idea how many amazing organizations, networks, groups and like-minded individuals there were out there in the business community. I believe in giving back and enriching the community, particularly underserved communities- but in my first year of entrepreneurship I found that I needed to modify my business model to make sure that Brightly Consultants would always radiate the values I built it on. I adjusted my business model to incorporate that for any employee of Brightly Consultants, there will be a weekly time slot allotted of 2-5 hours per week where I would like Brightly team devoting time to philanthropic or community reinvestment work. My mission is to help progress, scale, and enrich the community I am a part of with a helping hand and servant’s heart.

Being of service is my WHY statement. It’s what drives me and fulfills me.

Carla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Carla Perez, I was born and raised in Fresno, California. Like most of us from this rural part of California, I moved away a few times, but I was always drawn back home. So after a bit of moving around California in my early to mid twenties, I finally returned home and pursued an Accounting degree. I graduated from CSU Fresno in 2017 and began the daunting journey into public accounting. I was what I will politely call a ‘mature student’- in that I graduated at 32 years old and having two young children. Public accounting was intense, stressful, and fast paced- but I am so thankful for every year and every experience I was able to carve out as it was crucial to my exposure and skillset as well as teaching me to sharpen under fire and balance multi-client service. I was predominantly trained in tax preparation until I was exposed to what is commonly known as full-cycle operational accounting, and this is your day in and day out operational accounting functions any company needs to operate. This is where I found my passion.

My services consist of:
-Fractional CFO services
-Outsourced Controller
-Accounting Support
-Bookkeeping
-Cash Flow Management
-Financial Reporting
-Payroll
-Compliance Filings (excluding income tax preparation)
-Process & Procedures Establishment and Improvement
-Other Administrative Tasks (supporting above services)

One thing about my personality type that is quite different from most accountants is that I am a very extroverted person, I love connecting with clients and making new connections. My expertise and skillset is merely the conduit through which I get to do what I really love which is helping my clients. My favorite skills to utilize in my client service is providing solutions and ease for clients who are in a stressful and uncertain accounting situation. Accounting is complex, tedious, and downright exhausting for most business owners. I love to be the reason that my clients see accounting as a powerful tool for understanding their business performance rather than just a time consuming chore. I love to explain accounting and the books in a simple way that makes sense.

Perhaps the one thing that I am most proud of as a business owner is that I always make decisions with intention. My brand is incredibly important to me, in my line of work my reputation is everything. Most of my clients are predominantly referral based and I take great pride in that. Client service is so important to me, there have been times where I may not be the right fit, but that doesn’t mean my help and the relationship ends for me- I will still give good advice and refer to qualified professionals because I respect the courage and perseverance it takes to start a business. I will always root for the entrepreneur, even if they are not my client. And likewise, I am quite selective on my clients. They have to see the value I bring and be willing to partner with me and allow me to work in the way that I do in order to be a good fit. I do not budge on my client attributes as I would never slack on the value I bring. I am not driven by quantity but rather quality. I want to be proud of the caliber of my client portfolio, and so I ensure that starts with who I work with. I am not a transactional accountant who just closes the books each month and sends you a bill, it’s not how I work, and so I try to avoid client relationships with that dynamic.

Aside from client service, I am driven by a strong need to support my community and philanthropic work. So it’s not uncommon for me to help volunteer and support any non-profit organizations my clients are involved with. I love to promote connections- so every other month I host a networking mixer focused on supporting local business called ‘Cocktails & Connections’- I love gathering my network to a great meeting of the minds. I also host free accounting seminars every other month as well. I love to teach so this is quite enriching for me. And on top of all of this I am part of the Fresno Women’s Chamber of Commerce as well as the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation and I find immense intrinsic reward from both of those groups.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My journey into entrepreneurship was not exactly planned. My entire career from graduation was built in public accounting from 2017 through 2024, it was all I knew. So I toiled and grinded and ‘climbed the corporate ladder’, and the higher I climbed the sadder I felt. So I kept telling myself that I just needed to earn X amount per year to be happy, and every time I would hit it I would raise that again. Finally one day I realized, I always felt like I was a tourist to my own family life. I would see my kids after school for a few hours before bedtime, put them to bed then hop back on to work all night, get up early in the morning and do it all again. I realized that I would have a million chances to work in public accounting but only ONE SHOT as a mother and I was missing it. So on April 23rd, 2024 I resigned in a split second decision. I often say it was an impulse decision the day I resigned, but now that I look back I believe that all roads were leading to this for me for years, I just didn’t see it clearly.

I resigned and for the first time in my carefully curated career had no real plan. I had temporarily accepted a controller position and quickly realized, I really needed a break and to reconnect with my kids, so I “took the summer off”. I had a former client reach out for some quick help, and the rest, as they say, is history. I realized, I didn’t need to stop working, that wasn’t the issue- I needed to work for myself in a way that I felt good about, that I was proud of, and that served my life. I think for me the hardest part of the inevitable career and life pivot of leaving my career and starting my own company, was that I felt like I was walking away from everything that I had given so much to for the better part of a decade of my life. It almost felt like a failure in some regards. I think that’s the shock, self-doubt, and discouragement pieces of entrepreneurship that are tied to the fear. We all must push that big bolder up the hill- but I’ve found the boulder gets smaller and smaller the closer you get to the top.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Relationship building and networking- 100%. I lead all of my decisions with intention and purpose, making sure it aligns with my goals and pillars, and so for me, this intentional alignment has served me well with building some really meaningful relationships with some truly amazing people in my community who want to see me succeed and want me to be a resource of support for their clients. I think joining organizations that I aligned with was a great choice that I definitely delayed pursuing for a while, I kind of dated all of the chambers and networking groups in the central valley to make sure I fully understood what the organization was about, but also the members. I will say it with every breath I have, be intentional with your alignment and business decisions. Who you surround yourself with will absolutely impact your business and mindset, and when you are your only component to your business you need to have a strong mindset, a good mentor or support system, and conviction in your choices.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brightlyconsultants.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightly_consultants/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightly-consultants-llc/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/brightly-consultants-fresno