Local entrepreneur Jason B. Smale has established himself as a passionate business and community leader with a desire to see Brantford grow.
Although he had a difficult upbringing, Smale would get into sports and eventually find several mentors who would guide him in the right direction and help him develop into the successful entrepreneur he is today.
“For the first five years of my life, I grew up in a very abusive environment. My mother took me away from that and enrolled me in sports after leaving my father. Sports became a healthy outlet for me [and] it allowed me to deal with a lot of frustrations and challenges [and] thanks to my football coaches and mentors like Ron Miller and Ed Hewitson, they kept me focused on the importance of being a good man and what that looked like,” recalled Smale. “As well, my stepfather, Jerry Warrington, played a big role in my life…he has always been somebody who has been a kind individual, always giving back to other people. [And] through my mother’s natural giving abilities, I learned the importance of being connected to people.”
Although Smale was passionate about playing football, he ended up pursuing other interests including business and finding another mentor.
“As I grew up and I got into business, I was mentored by a gentleman by the name of Doug Radkey Jr., who owns KRG hospitality…he taught me the importance of being the person who gives back, [and] staying engaged in the communities that you work in,” admitted Smale.
Radkey noticed that Smale had a knack for numbers and possessing an analytical mind, which provided another opportunity.
“We had a number of conversations, and a few of them led towards the accounting industry and using my consulting knowledge to help businesses…but as you get out into the accounting world, you realize there’s a lot of industries and businesses out there that need help,” noted Smale.
In 2018, Smale founded his own business.
“I was tying in a lot of the consulting and advisory work that I had done with Doug into the accounting practice. Less than two years later, I incorporated the business and [then] changed the name to ‘Premier Professional Accountants’,” recounted Smale. “The adaptation to technology is the nature of our industry and has become really important to helping clients get greater value out of their accountants by not having them focus on things like data entry. I’ve [also] started to lean back towards more of the advisory services as we now extend ourselves and deal with what they call fractional controller services or virtual financial controller services.”
One of things Smale has become known for is working closely with businesses across the community and helping them grow.
“A lot of business owners may have a healthy business from the standpoint when it comes to a significant amount of cash inflows, but many of them don’t understand how to properly manage cash flows, as far as the ins and outs are concerned,” explained Smale. “They’re experts at what they do…whether it’s a trades person or a chef running a restaurant, [but] they don’t understand business analytics and basic KPI performance indicators. We start to do a deep dive with these businesses, finding trouble areas and then consulting and advising them on improvements that they can make within their business to retain more of those cash inflows [and] helping with the overall performance of the company.”
Smale has also been witnessing a tremendous number of small businesses popping up throughout the community over the last number of years.
“I think more people are acquiring that entrepreneurial spirit, and so therefore we see our community growing in the form of independence and people not fully [and] solely relying on employment from other individuals. Even though we still deal with a lot of small businesses, we tend to deal with medium-sized businesses these days. It’s still something that I take a lot of pride in [by helping] people find their independence and taking on the challenge of entrepreneurship,” said Smale.
Along with helping businesses grow, Smale decided to create and manage an office, where Premier Professional Accountants are also located, for various other companies to thrive.
“We saw there was a natural fit for small businesses that have not reached a maturity phase [and] not looking to take on their own brick and mortar locations, but they’re at a point where they want to step away from working within the home. They find that perhaps there’s too many distractions [there], and therefore they’re not as efficient as they would like to be,” explained Smale. “They’re looking for an affordable space outside of the home to be able to operate without having to take on what seems to be some significantly rising costs for commercial space within our community…so we’ve offered a secure and safe place for people to be able to work here in our office …we’ve seen some very positive responses, and we’ve had varying levels and sizes of companies that have come to work here.”
As well, Smale has always been focused in giving back to the community as he and his team are heavily involved in various initiatives.
“We have a board member who is an active part of feeding children in local elementary schools as well as attending community events on their behalf. We have another team member who is on the board for ‘Friends 4 Kindness,’ who is responsible for activities like the ‘unbirthday party’ here in the city and other local initiatives to help with inclusivity for children and adults, who deal with developmental delays or physical impairments,” said Smale. “And I, myself, am a football coach here in the community and was part of the Brantford Bison’s team that won the U18 Football Championship in the OSFL (Ontario Summer Football League) this past spring [and] I have also coached the local Paris high school football program.”
Nevertheless, Smale maintains the importance of continually building a better city to spur new possibilities of growth and development.
“I think Brantford has a lot to offer, from our beautiful trail systems to the sports arena and the local Brantford Bulldogs hockey team that we now have. I also am a big supporter in new development [and] in the way that we’re going about dealing with intensification projects…making sure that we’re building vertically, rather than sprawling out in the community and taking away all the forestry and the natural resources that we have around us,” explained Smale. “I’m definitely excited for the future of this city… obviously as more people come here, more opportunities will arise that will feed [the] growing entrepreneurship spirit that I see within the community…I think there will be more of that in the future.”
