Badi’s journey to start his business #GetChatty with TaxAssist Collingwood, part 3

#GetChatty About Your Local Businesses

Badi Ceren is a tax agent who offers clients local, personal and friendly services. We met at a digital networking event in 2020, and I’m impressed by how passionate he is about his work and clients. He understands smaller operations very well, has excellent attention to detail, and explains things in human language!

I really enjoyed this chat, he shared his preference for Melbourne’s cooler weather, and I think he found a fantastic spot to set up shops! We also chatted about how we met and our similar attitudes regarding networking.

Watch the chat below:

Chatty: Welcome to this Get Chatty about your local business interview and today we have Badi with me.
Badi: My name is Badi Ceren, I am an accountant. I work for my own practice. I am located in Collingwood on Smith Street right across from the Woolworths is my practice. So I’ve been practicing accounting for a long time now and I am passionate about it. And so far it has been a really good time, source of income for myself yes.

Chatty: That’s wonderful. And how did we meet?
Badi: Yeah, I met Arthur, I met you through one of the networking events and, that I’m part of I networking one of the most important things in order to grow a business so I do, I’m a really encouraging people out there to if they have a business go and introduce yourself and could introduce your business to the masses because it provides you good exposure. So I’m a member of a number of networking events and I met you Arthur through one of those and the community and I love your energy I love how you express yourself in that time and so it was all good, yes.
Chatty: That’s great hey, this is one of the ways I express myself is I enjoy networking very much too, and my theory is what’s the worst that to say hi. Like you know if you’re just saying hi, the worst could happen is someone asked you to go away, but of course if someone got to a networking event and ask other people to go away that’s kind of counterintuitive. So I don’t think that will happen.
Badi: Yeah, I mean i’m totally with you when it comes to go and introduce yourself, go and talk to people because meeting people who knows will take you in life there is so many opportunities where you will have to say yes or no and when the times, the little few times that you say, yes, they could change your life massively. It has happened to me and I’m a really a person that encourages people to say yes go and take your chances that’s it.

Chatty: Exactly and I think this is the thing because sometimes that some people that I came across that they felt like, oh I mean this person might not have anything to do with my business or something like that. But here’s the problem is that this person may know someone who can be connected to you so that’s why saying hello is so important and, yeah networking for me it’s really like I think once I got to my third year and so on that is a lot about networking and just getting to know people. Now next question the slightly heavier one.

Chatty: how did covid-19 and the recession affect you and your business?
Badi: Yeah, so a covid-19 has affected everyone equally, but at the same time it has had different levels in the business industry. As an accountant we have been in the front line helping clients so for us have been actually busier than what is usually will be. I’m a new business owner so for me to be saying that in my first year of operating a business it’s incredible. I have been learning to deal with the whole situation as we go. But at this stage we have to close our business, our doors are closed. We are working from home that’s in this locked down stage four, but in the initial lockdown we had to tape our floor to let people know what their limit was, their reach that they can get too close to that. We had hand sanitizer on each one of our desks. We have signs on the door saying do not come in without a mask or stuff like that. So it has affected us because we cannot deal with people face to face anymore. But with regards to helping other people we are still helping them we still operating online. We have, I’m a person doesn’t like much paper printing so I was already in the state of digitalization so which is really good.
Chatty: That’s great and look another thing is not only you’re providing a service to your clients but at the same time you’re also protecting them. Because until we got a vaccine and we might be looking at 2021 or even 2022 so until then that I think as business owners that we also be very mindful about how we take care of our clients. Even when it’s a little be tricky so if they can talk to you on zoom if they can talk to you in person and if they have to wear a mask at your office that’s fine, I mean that’s great. And now I got 3 lighter questions for you to close up this video. The first one is, what prompted you to start your own business?

Badi: Oh that’s a good question, so pretty much what it prompted me to start my own business most of the time it’s my partner. My partner it’s of has a personalities always want to have a business on the go. An idea that he wants to grow and develop so he saw my potential when I was an employee for a multinational company and also I felt that I could help better other people more than what I just can’t help just one single entity in the whole world. So both combined my partner and you know constant pushing to go and do your business go and be your own boss and my own will to help people. Both combined for bring brought me here to Melbourne. I moved from Brisbane to Melbourne so what the other reason is because I just didn’t want to stay in Brisbane for too long and the weather is too hot. I’m Latin American after all, I like not too hot weather, so yeah. That’s what pretty much brought me to start my business in Melbourne, but yeah, so far I have been operating since March last year. And I enjoyed the community in Melbourne, they, the people the multinational people it’s really important for me. Going to the theaters one they open back again, I mean that was on of my hobbies and I really enjoyed that.
Chatty: I must say that the theatre scene and also the social scene”
“Chatty: in Melbourne was actually one of the main reasons I moved from Sydney to Melbourne. I’m not saying that Sydney has a bad social scene I love everything about it but then I just like Melbourne a tiny little bit more.
Badi: Thank you!
Chatty: There you go!

Chatty: Now next question is what you enjoy the most about working in your industry?
Badi: Helping people, meeting different people all the time. Everyone has a different life when it comes to accounting. Everyone’s accounting needs is different to everyone else and that’s my passion is to meet people I have enjoyed in the past working as a customer service representative. That has allowed me to be able to listen to people and not just be like, give me your numbers and I will, i will see what I’ll do with, I will deal with it on my side. It has actually provided me the opportunity to ask questions, explain people what the benefits are for them in order to get an accountant, a professional. Other thing being able to claim the deduction of paying tax. You also get the tax returns and accounting, bookkeeping services, payroll services dominant professional so you can dedicate more time to your business. So that’s my passion what that’s why I found a pleasure on doing accounting because I also like to, you know, a little bit of perfectionist
and having control over things, so it’s actually a good thing you know I don’t have to, I just have to look at a computer in order to control numbers.

Chatty: And sometimes that when you are looking after like I have that I had that similar experience a few years back that I, that’s actually one of the reason why I started my own business is that I felt that if I can explore what this person needs. then there might be things that I might be able to like reach out to can help them a little bit more. Or there’s something that they think they need that they actually don’t need it they’ll be like, yeah I’ll be honest with you I mean, I mean of course if you’re in a big, for example, accounting firm or organisation or corporation then you might only be able to focus on one part of the business and then you don’t get to reach out and understand and have that 360 viewpoint about that person and what they need and that’s something that happened I mean we in the day and age that you know sometimes that people always feel like if they’re going for a big business they’re missing something there’s something that’s not quite fitting me, but then that’s the thing if you’re working with one-on-one with a person then you can learn what they need and yeah, be practical.
Badi: I cannot agree more with that because personally I have had clients that they don’t realise that what they are doing could be, is not the best things for their business. For example or things that they could be doing will improve their business for example, job keeper. I have clients who have come up until the last leg of the job keeper payments in July thinking that they couldn’t have applied and I reviewed their financial and they, their situation and their business is actually growing but on the job keeper alternative rules they can still get the payments even if their sales have grown, you know so there’s so many things that you have to teach them or let them know because they didn’t know those things.

Chatty: It’s amazing isn’t it. Actually, I learned something new just by talking to you right now. So there you go. And one more question finally. In a parallel universe that you were working you would be working in a different field, what profession do you think you’ll be in?
Badi: Well I had at the beginning of my career I didn’t want to become an accountant I wanted to become a Doctor. But then it turns out that I was not quite comfortable around blood, so that’s what brought me to finances and I can deal with a paper cut better than what a big cut could be! But yeah so I would say as a Doctor in the future I would, I would, people tell me that I have very soft hands, hence perfect for a surgeon so maybe that’s what I was meant to do!
Chatty: Hey, I mean that might be a parallel universe version of you out there who is a Doctor looking for an accountant!
Badi: That’s right!
Chatty: A good thing. Thanks, Badi for taking time in this video and please check out Tax Assist Collingwood on Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram and please Get Chatty about your local business like Badi’s and like and share this content because like I said before, someone connected to you might be connected to someone who’s looking for something like that and we do need to get out there and support our local businesses.

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Local Business Marketing | #GetChatty

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