Introduce yourself and tell us what you do for a job and your pathway to get there.
I'm Jared, I own and run Embark Accounting in Dunedin. We're chartered accountants and business advisors. I picked accounting at school because it had a definitive answer – I liked that. Most subjects felt subjective. Accounting didn't.
I studied it through university, became a chartered accountant, and started building something of my own. The thing nobody tells you early on is that what people think accounting is and what it actually is are completely different things. That gap is why I talk about it to as many people as I can.
What brings you joy in your job?
Being the person someone calls before they make a big decision. Not after, when the numbers are already set. Before, when there's still something to actually work with. That's where the real value is, and honestly, that's where it gets interesting.
Did you face any challenges to get where you are now?
The hardest part wasn't the technical work or building a client base. It was shifting people's expectations of what an accountant is actually for.
A lot of business owners come to you wanting someone to report on the past. Getting them to see that the more useful conversation is about what happens next takes time. Some clients get there. Some never do. You learn to tell the difference early.
Why did you volunteer to be an Inspiring the Future role model?
Because the version of accounting I was sold at school wasn't the version I ended up living. If I can show one person that it's actually about business, about supporting people, about being part of the decisions that matter – that feels worth an hour of my time.
What was the most memorable thing about your Inspiring the Future event experience?
A student came up to me afterwards and said he'd never considered accounting, but after hearing me talk about it, he could actually see it being something he'd want to do. That's it. That's the whole reason.