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Untitled Document
In 1984, stay-at-home mom, Susan McIsaac, decided one day that she wanted another dimension to her life. She had already worked in agriculture after earning a plant science diploma, married, and had two sons. It was time for professional expansion. She enrolled at Sackville, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University because it was close to her home in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
“I thought a B Comm would be practical,” McIsaac says from the offices of McIsaac Darragh Chartered Accountants in Amherst. She graduated from Mount A in 1988 at the top of her class, and considered law or an MBA, but chose accounting so she wouldn’t have to re-locate.
She joined Doane Raymond, which became Grant Thornton, in 1988 and earned her CA designation with honours in 1990, ranking first in Atlantic Canada. By 1999, as a senior manager, she became restless. “I wanted to stay in public practice, but I was ready for a change,” she says. “So I decided to strike out on my own.”
In September 1999, she proposed to buy the Grant Thornton Amherst location. It was all hers in October. “Once I made the offer, things happened fast,” she says. “September was a blur of buying computers, software, insurance, phone systems, coming up with a logo and recruiting employees, including Vicki Darragh who became partner in 2007.” That whirlwind September, however, had been 8 months in the offing: the budding entrepreneur had done three-year projections, arranged for a line of credit, prepared her family for six months without her income, and investigated the practice side of public accounting.
As the business took off, Susan established a professional network. “I was in touch with a tax specialist and colleagues with similar sized practices to find out how they did things,” she says.
She also credits being part of the AC Group of Independent Accounting Firms, of which her firm was a founding member, with the boost a business needs to fly: contacts, student and staff training, advertising, benchmarking and an Atlantic-wide network of peers to help mentor her and her team. Today, the full-service firm has 10 to 14 staff depending on the time of year.
The key to success? “Surrounding myself with good people – husband, partner, staff, clients and network.” To entrepreneurial CAs, McIsaac recommends: “Hire staff that compensate for your weaknesses.” In hindsight, she would delegate work and responsibility sooner, believing long-term payoffs include efficiency, a more engaged staff and more time for management duties.
Several organizations benefit from McIsaac’s volunteer time. She is currently president of ICANS, treasurer of the Bridge Adult Workshop, treasurer and audit committee chair for the Nova Scotia Division of the Canadian Cancer Society, and a board member of InNOVAcorp, a provincial crown corporation that fosters economic development by supporting start-up knowledge companies. “It’s vital to understand how your day-to-day life fits into the broader scheme of things,” she says. “Being active in various organizations gives me that perspective.”
The 51-year-old, who was awarded her FCA in 2007, has toyed with the idea of retirement in five years. “There are things I would like to have time to do; books to read, closets that need cleaning,” she laughs. “But I still love public practice and still have so much to learn. Time will tell.”
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— Lorie Murdoch
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