Before Orme Hayes started her own company, she was rejected by employers. Hayes was working as a temporary accountant with the possibility of being hired as a permanent employee, but after a long period of uncertainty, she finally got the answer: “no.”
“The CFO said one of the reasons he was hesitant to hire me full-time had to do with my communication skills. I think my accent was part of the problem.”
Hayes’ accent is Nigerian, but she admits that she sometimes stutters and her communication skills were not as great back then because she wasn’t as confident as she is now.
“After that, I said to myself: I don’t want to put my future in someone else’s hands, I’m just going to go out and put up a sign, and that’s what I did,” she said.
Mr. Hays founded his own firm, Hays CPA, in 2016. He now serves small and medium-sized businesses across many industries, from restaurants and e-commerce to legal services and trust companies, and offers a variety of services including outsourced CFO services, tax preparation, client advisory, bookkeeping, accounting and tax.
Her team includes two full-time employees, four contract workers, two interns, and several overseas contract workers. She has an office on Staten Island and, before the COVID-19 pandemic, a WeWork in Manhattan. Hayes also teaches at her alma mater, the College of Staten Island, and many of the interns are her former students.
But Hayes describes himself as a “reluctant entrepreneur.” After graduating from university, he worked as a bookkeeper and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2007, two years after earning his bachelor’s degree. He worked in a variety of roles for companies across sectors including architecture, construction and media for around 10 years.
“Most accountants are really behind the scenes. We sit at a desk, write checks, pay bills, prepare taxes, prepare financial statements. I was really comfortable doing that, and on top of that, I was a really shy person,” Hayes says. “Growing up, I always had my head in a book, a textbook or a novel.”
Hayes’ mother was an unlikely role model for business entrepreneurship growing up: Despite never graduating from high school, she became a successful international trader.
“She had great business acumen and I watched what she did, but I never thought I’d be running my own business one day – it never occurred to me,” Hayes said. “I was a reluctant entrepreneur. I was a reluctant business owner, but when that door opened up, I embraced it and jumped right in.”
She gave herself a two-year deadline. If the business wasn’t successful by then, she told herself, she’d have to go back as an employee. “As an accountant, I know that most new businesses fail within five years, so I didn’t want that to happen. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure my company was successful.”
Hayes studied hard to prepare for business ownership, taking advantage of free classes and resources available in Staten Island, where he still lives, and in New York City, including the Small Business Library in Manhattan.
But starting her company was much harder than she expected. For one thing, she had trouble finding customers.
“I didn’t know if I would have customers, and I didn’t think I would have enough money to stay in business,” she says. “When I started, I was so worried about whether I could make it. Where were the customers going to come from?”
She tried various marketing methods, including billboard advertising, but had little success, to say the least.
“I operated the sign for over a year before I terminated my contract, and the only customers I gained from that sign were the sign owner and the employee who put it up,” she explained with a laugh, “So it was a waste of money, but luckily I was able to cut my losses after a year.”
Of course, eventually the clients came, the first few from her previous job, others from a nearby firm in Staten Island that had switched to serving business clients only. But what kept her business going during those first two critical years were the international clients she’d worked with at her previous employer. They hired her as their external CFO, bringing in a steady income.
Setting a price wasn’t easy either. Her rates started out as “bare minimum, super cheap,” she says. She just needed people to hire her. But the problem arose: “Once you start charging ridiculously low rates, it becomes really hard to scale to market levels.”
‘Just do it’
Today, Hayes’ fame is widespread. She Forbes She has been named to the Top 200 CPAs, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and CPA Practice Advisor’s 25 Most Influential Women in Accounting, among others. She is also Vice President of the National Association of Black Accountants and Chair of the AICPA’s Private Business Practice Section.
Going forward, Hayes hopes to become a thought leader in the ESG space and incorporate ESG reporting into her services. She also wants to acquire companies, but said, “That’s a little difficult because from my research, the CPA firms that are currently for sale are older CPA firms, which are not the type of firms I want to acquire. I want more forward-thinking firms.”
Hayes stresses the importance of having enough savings to withstand the pressures of starting a company: “I always tell people, ‘Make sure you have enough saved up that it won’t affect your lifestyle.'”
Of course, starting a company requires personal sacrifices. Hayes used to travel a lot, but since starting his company, he’s traveled less for personal pleasure and more for business.
“It’s a 24/7 job, but there’s a difference between working 10 hours for yourself and working 10 hours for someone else.”
But with rapid developments in technology and the introduction of artificial intelligence into the accounting process, Hayes believes the days of long working hours are over, and she encourages other accountants considering setting up their own firm to give it a go.
“Get started today. If it’s even in the back of your mind, get started today. There’s no need to delay,” Hayes says. “Sometimes we think we’re not entrepreneurs, we can’t do it, we like the comfort of a nine-to-five job and a paycheck, we don’t want the responsibility of going out and selling.”
“We often talk ourselves out of situations, but believe in yourself,” she advised. “Give yourself a deadline, go out there, and just do it. Dive in and you’ll be amazed at where entrepreneurship can take you.”
This story is part of a new series showcasing how accounting entrepreneurs launched their accounting practices. Read more
