Female Founders: Nesha Pai of Pai CPA On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It is very expensive to run a business, if you are doing it right and building it with a strong foundation. People always forget the hidden costs like taxes, and the importance of investing in a strong brand, accounting & legal set-up.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nesha Pai.
Nesha Pai is the founder of Pai CPA, PLLC in Charlotte, NC. Her firm focuses on advocating for the small business sector and hiring stay-at-home moms. Since starting her firm in 2011, Nesha has continued nourishing her vision by launching a podcast series, ‘Piece of the Pai,’ that focuses on successful entrepreneurs sharing their business insight. In January 2020, Nesha published her first book “Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles”, which won the award in the Multicultural Non-Fiction category by the American Book Fest.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Spending my entire accounting career in a male-dominated industry in the south really did not afford for me to have great mentorship or anyone championing me. I noticed that my personal consumer preferences coincided with my professional preferences and I became passionate about supporting the small business sector. In 2011, as a single mom, I pulled a “Jerry Maguire” (referencing the Tom Cruise movie) and walked out with one big client to start my own firm, Pai CPA. I was under the leadership of a mediocre boss who didn’t want to give me a raise (after having been there for 5 years) because of the mom-gap in my resume. I had decided to stay at home to raise my son for 6 years prior to re-joining the workforce and he used that as a reason I did not deserve a raise, because “I was not where my peers were”. I decided that I would start a remote-based accounting business and hire stay at home moms, the largest untapped labor force.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I picked up a well-established country rock band from Austin, TX (Reckless Kelly) because the drummer is from the Charlotte area and his business manager found me on LinkedIn when they were looking to leave their accounting firm out in Los Angeles.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t think I ever had a funny mistake but I know that my biggest mistake was undervaluing my abilities and pricing. As time went on, I realized my intelligence actually surpassed accountants/partners in big firms. I found very large errors on their part, when clients left them and came to me.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My dad. He came here in the 60’s as an immigrant from India, on a boat. He left his family and everything he knew in order to have a good education and really have more opportunities because America was known to be the haven for freedom and education at the time. Seeing his work ethic and how hard he worked to climb the ranks of Corporate America to give me and my family a good life gave me the chutzpah to go after it!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
The lack of support in both social capital and monetary capital. It is definitely getting better, but it is not easy for women to find the support men have in this arena.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Companies and financial institutions can have more funding programs and grants specifically aimed at women founders. We are starting to see that more now. As a CPA, I would love to see the IRS grant tax credits or breaks for female-owned businesses.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders? We are very good at several things that men are not (sorry men, I am speaking from our biological make up). We are nurturing, which is great for leadership. We are multi-taskers which is required for having to wear many hats in running a business. We are very intuitive, which is needed because I have built my successful company from running decisions by my gut feelings and it has served me well.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That we have it easy now that we have created something successful. If anything, the more success equals more responsibility. We are typically working around the clock even if we have a team working for us.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
No way. It takes some very specific traits to be a founder. You have to be very resilient to adversity and failure. Founders are highly self-motivated and are very flexible to the unstructured environment as well as super disciplined in order to stay on track. Furthermore, founders understand the value of a strong peer network and rely on hiring people smarter than themselves to build a strong team. That takes humility.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- It is very expensive to run a business, if you are doing it right and building it with a strong foundation. People always forget the hidden costs like taxes, and the importance of investing in a strong brand, accounting & legal set-up.
- You need to have a thick skin. I have had everything from male clients hitting on me to screaming at me for their issues and you have to not only stand up for yourself in a professional manner, but you have to create strong boundaries to manage these behaviors that can come your way.
- You never really stop working. You are always working, whether it is in the business or ON the business or just being on call.
- Invest in your leadership skills. This is something that is developed and very much needed if you are going to own a business. Even if you are a solopreneur you will inevitably hire contract labor and delegate tasks. Many leaders out here cannot lead. It is important to keep honing these skills through workshops, reading, coaching.
- Your emotions will be on a roller-coaster. This is the case as everyday there are highs and lows and you have to be emotionally intelligent to ride the wave.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
By giving back: my knowledge, my time, and my money. I spend a lot of time giving free financial statement classes to entrepreneurs and I also sponsor and fundraise for non-profit organizations with causes near and dear to my heart. I wrote a book to help women mainly (but it has also helped several men) and I am using it to speak on stages-about mindset to women globally. I want to help women and entrepreneurs feel empowered!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I already have something in motion! I wrote a book, “Overcoming Ordinary Obstacles”, and my mission with it is to help people step into the most soul-filling version of themselves and walking in their specific life purpose. It is about my own journey as a first-gen Indian woman born and raised in the American deep south.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Oprah Winfrey! She is an icon, coming from nothing to being one of the most iconic figures in the world. She is a pioneer for women of color, particularly in a male dominated industry and through her love and light, making the world a better place. She created a platform to help and serve humanity and she has succeeded.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Nesha Pai of Pai CPA On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.