A passion for numbers and helping others pair together as Novii CPA’s founder found her calling with her new firm.
Novii CPA is a new accounting firm in Madison. Its founder, Victoria Thayer, plunged into starting her own firm after 10 years where she became inspired by her entrepreneur clients to venture out on her own. Novii’s twist from other accounting firms comes from Thayer’s client-focused approach and subscription-based accounting model as she aims to help small businesses close the gaps in running their business.
Thayer was born in Venezuela. At 18, she received a scholarship to attend the University of Rochester in New York to study chemical engineering – but that didn’t quite click.
“I got a scholarship to come here to the United States and that really changed the trajectory of my family,” Thayer said. “I was good at my chemistry and some of the engineering classes, but it was not my calling. I never truly felt fulfilled until I took my accounting classes.”
Her mother and grandmother worked as maids. She was not sure of all the possibilities out there, but when she found her passion in accounting, Thayer did not look back. Her choice to change her studies led her to finding her passion working with numbers and helping others.
Her journey in accounting took her to Wisconsin where she worked for a few different firms before she headed back to school to earn her master’s in accounting at Edgewood College and earn her certified public accountant (CPA) certification.
She continued to work with clients at the firms she worked at, but something was itching at the back of Thayer’s mind. She saw the drive and excitement that her entrepreneurial clients experienced and knew that she wanted to venture out onto her own.
“I got the bug for entrepreneurship a little while ago working with entrepreneurs,” Thayer said. “These people get to make something out of nothing. What a legacy and what a way to create a service that stands by your values.”
Thayer took the plunge and opened up Novii CPA in June of this year. Her worries behind finding clients were her major concern when she started out. She saw that there was a need for the type of services her firm would offer with her friendly, open approach.
“It’s a way to help. A lot of business owners don’t know what they don’t know, and they get so busy running their business that they don’t sit back and think ‘what does this actually mean,’” Thayer said.
Thayer likens Novii CPA to a doctor treating patients. Running numbers to help businesses understand their health is no different than diagnosing and treating a sick patient to Thayer. Ultimately, like practicing medicine, it is a way for Thayer, and Novii CPA, to help the community she serves.
Novii operates a bit differently from the average accounting firm. The firm takes a customer centric approach and uses a subscription-based model for its services instead of hourly billing. Thayer pushes her values on wanting to help people by trying to be as friendly and as open as possible with clients — often befriending them.
The subscription model follows her values by splitting the overall cost of services over the course of a year. The goal is to make clients feel comfortable approaching Novii with any questions they have instead of having to worry about being billed regularly for any concerns they may have.
“I do a subscription base so that people are not afraid of asking questions and feel like they’re on a clock,” Thayer said. “That’s the main thing I kept hearing is that ‘my accountant just talks to me at the end of the year. It’s not really proactive. I never hear back from the emails I send.’”
Novii CPA is located at 821 E Washington Ave #200 in the StartingBlock entrepreneurial hub.
