There’s a story my father tells about a time he and I were walking down the beach of “El Paraiso”, a coastal town our family would visit often when we’d visit our native Mexico.
Upon my nagging insistence the previous day, we set out on our walk on a cool summer morning. We set out to find seashells and while on this walk, my father asked what many fathers ask their children as they are growing up and learning about life. He asked, “Pedro, que quieres ser cuando seas grande?” which means, “Pedro, what do you want to be when you grow up?” In telling the story, my dad never forgets to mention my answer was both lightning fast and delivered in a naively determined voice, “Quiero ayudar a la gente, no se como pero quiero ayudar a la gente” which translates to “I want to help people, I don’t know how but I want to help people”.
When I was a young child, our family moved to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. Our parents made the sacrifice of leaving everything they knew behind so my siblings and I could have the opportunities they had lacked. Growing up in Newberg, Oregon, meant coming into contact with countless people who assisted our family in numerous ways. Whether it was toys during Christmas, after school tutoring or college preparatory assistance, many people helped us from the goodness of their hearts and witnessing these experiences reinforced within me a strong desire to help others.
In 2009, I began my first job with the public accounting firm Pauly, Rogers and Co., PC. At this firm, I had the honor of serving not-for-profit organizations and charter schools by providing financial statement audits. I learned about the many different types of not-for-profit organizations, each with a unique mission often related to helping others. The passion with which these organizations pursued their mission was something wonderful for me to experience first-hand.
In the summer of 2012 and directly encouraged by this passion, I chose to pursue work with a firm that worked extensively with not-for-profit organizations and shared in the values of putting people first. I was lucky to find McDonald Jacobs, PC, a firm in downtown Portland. My time here allowed me to hone my skills as an auditor and become an audit manager.
Being an audit manager allowed me to serve not only our clients, which consisted exclusively of not-for-profit organizations, but also serve our audit associates. I feel this afforded me the opportunity to help spread some of the values I experienced growing up, namely serving others and putting people first.
After spending more than 7 years performing financial statement audits, I decided I wanted to provide more hands-on accounting help to clients through consulting. I found a good company that would let me do just that in NOW CFO. I spent nearly a year providing hands on controller and CFO services to a variety of organizations, including not-for-profit organizations and small businesses. During that year, I decided to start my own business. This would allow me to define the values and mission of the company while doing business with integrity, transparency and above all: putting people first.
This is how People First Consulting LLC was born. Its mission is to provide top notch accounting consulting services to small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. I have learned, through the course of my life and career, that people are the most important element of business and life. We believe putting them FIRST is the critical first step towards success.
People First Consulting LLC 