Junaid Usmani, CPA

I had a meeting with this new client. He was this young cardiologist, and due to his really busy work schedule, he was unable to make it into our office, so I had agreed to meet with him at his workplace, his hospital. So, I remember showing up to the food court at his hospital, at the time that we had discussed, and I waited 5, 10, 15 minutes and there was no sign of this doctor. Coming up to that 30 minute mark, I was just getting ready to pack up and leave when suddenly this doctor came racing in. He was sweating and he was apologizing profusely saying, "I'm sorry, I got stuck in surgery."

And that's when it hit me, we're not just accountants. We're not just bean counters. We're not just number crunchers. Our job is much more than that because we help people like this cardiologist do what they do best. We help them do the work that they're meant to do without having to worry about the numbers.

Growing up, I was really good with numbers. As I got older and older, I had this growing interest in working in law, which is why when I took my first taxation course at university, I was blown away. This is where numbers met the law and I loved it. Shortly after that, I pursued a Masters in Taxation from the University of Waterloo. I got a job with one of the big four, and began my career. Didn't take too long before I got pigeon-holed into a very narrow area of international taxation, and got bored out of my brains.

This is what led me to SRJ. Here I got to work with all these high net worth individuals, these interesting small business owners, as well as these really cool entrepreneurs. I got to see how personal taxes, and corporate taxes, and trust and estate planning and all these interesting concepts I had learned about came together. I got to connect the dots in an effort to save my clients their hard-earned dollars.

By doing so, I was able to help them put more money back into their businesses. By doing so, I was able to help them put more money away for their children's education, and actually make a meaningful impact on my clients’ lives. I'm a firm believer that everyone has a job to do. That cardiologist had a job to do. The entrepreneur has a job to do. The small business owner has a job to do. And my job is to help these people with their accounting and their taxes so that they can do, what they do best.

Posts by Junaid Usmani, CPA