We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Latia Rowland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Latia, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’ve been doing accounting since I was in high school. I started out volunteering at a non-profit center for seniors, as an assistant to the controller. From there, I knew accounting would be my career path. When I got to college, the dream job for accounting majors were to always work at one of the Big 4 Accounting firms, and that was no different for me. However, I did have some obstacles like getting pregnant in my junior year, and having to move back home and take some time off. When I did go back to college, I was there more to finish and graduate, rather than participate in everything I could, because I was a new mom.

Needless to say, because I was a mom, my drive to not be a stereotype and to become something for myself and my child, was more than enough motivation to reach my dream job. In my senior year, I did get an interview with one of the Big 4 and was accepted, and started in August 2015. What’s funny is, I didn’t go straight into auditing and taxes, but I went into IT Audit. I liked IT Audit, but accounting and taxes was my passion, so for a while I did those things on the side. I always stayed educated in all areas of accounting and taxes. For seven years I stayed in IT. I moved up the ladder fairly quickly. I was the first in my family to reach six figures, I bought a newly constructed home, and I invested in real estate. From the sound of that, someone would think that I “had it good.” Yes, I was well off, but truth of the matter is, I was not happy. The long hours, not spending as much time with my family, the stressful deadlines, and to top off that I was doing something that wasn’t my passion, it just made me good money.

So in May of 2022, I decided to take a risk. I decided to leave a Big 4 company and open my own consulting firm. This was a big risk for me, because my bills alone were $4k a month, and I went from making a little over $10k a month to quickly $0. It was a new adjustment of not having insurance coverage for my child and I, but I knew I had to do what I loved and make it happen. Because I did taxes and accounting on the side, my current clients helped in a way they couldn’t even imagine. The referrals poured in. Any time someone posted on social media regarding needing help with bookkeeping or taxes, complete strangers would tag me, (they just knew from my social media what I did).

The risk I took was rewarding. I can say the journey hasn’t be easy, but I can say that sometimes you have to take the risk and step out on faith. You cannot find true happiness until you’re doing what actually makes you happy. Though sometimes I may work longer hours than I did before, it is for myself, my business, and my family. What’s even more rewarding, is that my family partakes in my business, and I am excited to see how much further we will go this upcoming year.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me has been referrals. I am in the season of rebranding my business, so I have not posted on social media as much and promoted my business, but I have still been receiving and locking in clients. This is happening because my current clients are steadily referring me and tagging me in posts on social media, and I am grateful for that. I believe word of mouth is the best marketing strategy for one’s business. It validates someone’s experience with a business and indicates that they were satisfied with the end result.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was born with sickle cell anemia. Doctors prepared my mom for what would be a “rough time raising me”, and parents often questioned my mom on why would she bring a child into the world with sickle cell to watch them suffer. My mom’s response was always that she was not God. My childhood was rough and there were many hospital visits, however, I can say it was significantly less than my other peers with sickle cell disease. My doctors told my mom that I probably wouldn’t be as smart in school because I would miss many days, that I couldn’t participate in dance and physical activities, and more. I never listened. I did what I wanted as a child sometimes with caution and sometimes without. I graduated middle school as valedictorian, high school as salutatorian, and stayed on the dean’s list throughout college. I was on the dance team, step team, I played handball and participated in activities during gym class, and even now I am into to fitness and often lift heavy and weight train. I did not let my disease define me, I defined it. As an adult now, I rarely get hospitalized for it. I have two flourishing businesses, a healthy child, and one will never know I had this disease unless I told them. My resilience to be more than what was expected of me is what pushed me against all odds.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.majesticconsulting.co
• Instagram: tia_theconsultant
• Facebook: Tia Rowland
• Linkedin: Latia Rowland
• Youtube: Majestic Consulting