Rising accounting star
Andrew Coombs (BBA ’09) is gaining accolades for his CPA agency whereas empowering these in his neighborhood.
Within the 14 years since former Loyola males’s basketball participant Andrew Coombs (BBA ’09) graduated with a Quinlan Faculty of Enterprise diploma in accounting, he has develop into a drive within the consulting trade.
After gaining expertise throughout a number of accounting and auditing corporations within the New York space, together with time at Ernst and Younger, Coombs created his personal enterprise, Coombs CPA, PC, in New Jersey. Since its creation in 2018, his agency has gained almost 1,000 shoppers together with people, nonprofits, actual property builders, non-public fairness corporations, and producers. His efforts have introduced him and his enterprise quite a few accolades, together with being named the sixth strongest CPA within the state by NJBiz Journal in 2023.
Teammate to workforce chief
Scholar athletes have the distinctive problem of balancing the calls for of athletics and teachers. It is a problem that calls for self-discipline and time administration to succeed.
“It was arduous since you’d have follow within the morning, lessons, follow after, seize a espresso, and keep disciplined,” Coombs stated.
Because the chief of an organization, Coombs has discovered the identical effort is required to run a enterprise.
“It is really loads more durable than working a 9 to 5 since you’re all the time on,” Coombs stated. “Lots of people do not perceive, as a result of they suppose ‘Oh, you are your individual boss,’ however actually you’ve a number of bosses along with your shoppers. Nonetheless, you do have autonomy.”
Enterprise management is an space the place Coombs has thrived. It is one thing he and his siblings have in widespread.
Household ties
Coombs comes from a household of entrepreneurs. His sister is a doctor, and his brother is a dentist. Each began their very own practices. He says the drive to develop into an entrepreneur comes from experiences he had as a baby. He recollects seeing his father, an engineer, coming residence after being laid off.
“You see that and you do not know that you just’re internalizing it, however you actually are,” Coombs stated. “I must construct my very own enterprise, as a result of I want that stage of autonomy so any individual cannot come and do this to me.”
A standout side of being an entrepreneur for Coombs is seeing his work straight mirrored within the success of his enterprise.
“If you personal your online business, you straight see the numbers change,” Coombs stated.
Investing in communities
Coombs CPA, PC, is positioned south of Newark, about 20 minutes exterior Manhattan. Along with his enterprise positioned in an impoverished space, Coombs says he is made a degree to assist the households round him advance their monetary data.
“There’s so many individuals who do not know what a mortgage is, who do not understand how curiosity works,” Coombs stated. “We educate individuals about monetary literacy; we rent in the neighborhood. Our mission isn’t just enterprise however to present again.”
That want to present again to his neighborhood is one thing he ties on to Loyola’s mission of making moral leaders.
“Loyola had lessons about ethics and neighborhood,” Coombs stated. “All of it ropes into this as a result of on the finish of the day, it isn’t all about earning money, it is concerning the affect you’ve on others and the affect you’ve on society.”
