Meet Mica-el Mumba
Mica-el is the Operations Manager with our client, Percy John Flooring, based in Burnaby, British Columbia. Mica-el found Chad, co-founder at Purpose CPA, to help support their growing business’ accounting needs. We are fortunate enough to have Mica-el provide his take on being a black business person in Canada.
Tell us a little about your background and journey as a person of color in Canadian business.
Came to Canada and studied Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Graduated and found the market was very competitive. Married then started to look for work and my friend John hired me in his flooring distribution business as I balanced new a family and gaining my permanent residency.
My growth involved working starting at the bottom, but I found myself quickly into learning other roles within the company. Started as a laborer installing floors then moved into the office to help with sales even though I didn’t have a business education. For each of these points of change I had to draw from my past experiences and embrace the challenge ahead even when I had no idea about business or management. Whether learning cost cutting, budgeting or sales, I was able to do it well because I understood the business by learning on the way up.
Tell us about any programs or non-profit supports that you are aware of and whether or not they have helped your business career.
I did not know any programs or non-profits to help with my career growth. But I did find lynda.com and the company supported to learn through Enriched Academy. At that time an administrative position opened up and I had to learn that as well as human resources because different needs in the company. Having a baby girl on the way helped motivate me to keep on learning.
Other supports I think came from professionals such as yourself at Purpose CPA. When we were searching for professionals like you, it was frustrating because we could not understand our accounting books. It took some time for us to clean it up and we are grateful to get the support because it was also a learning opportunity, to see how accounting is done right.
Tell us what could help you or your community grow as business people or as entrepreneurs.
As a man of color, I think representation and role models in the community would inspire others. I remember there was a customer who came in with others and made it a point to not shake my hand. I understood from others that it was not customary from where he came from to shake hands with a black person. Later when that person found out that I as the operations manager I noticed he was shocked but changed his attitude. There are very few black people in positions like mine at least in the home builder’s industry of Vancouver. Having other black people in more advanced roles would certainly inspire and raise awareness towards equal opportunity.
I feel that anyone, regardless of color, can do what I do as long as they are given a shot and are willing to put in the work. What can also help people of color is to look for the experts in their field of interest and seek them out. Learn from them and find the experts they look up to. I would also say that I have been fortunate enough to have a supportive and ethnically diverse team at Percy John Flooring. It was this multicultural background and everyone’s hunger to grow that has allowed me to do my best.
We thank Mica-el for offering his insight into professional growth for people of color in Canada. We continue to work with Mica-el and the Percy John group of companies to help them to quickly adapt to the evolving challenges.
Purpose Coaching Grant
We are pleased to launch an annual Purpose Advisory Grant for Black Entrepreneurs. We figured the best way to contribute to social change is to create more successful entrepreneurs. And we know that good bookkeeping combined with timely coaching is a recipe for success. We’re keeping things simple, so here’s the grant details:
Offer:
12 month subscription to Quickbooks Online
1 hour per month of mentorship / coaching from our Advisors
Private Slack channel to communicate
Valued at $2000+
Criteria:
Identify as a Black Canadian
Canadian business
Self-employed or incorporated
Regular internet access to a web-camera enabled computer
Ask:
Name & Business Name
Email & Contact Info
Resume or Short Profile of your Business / Startup Idea
Short Response to the question “What do you need from us to help your business thrive?”
Apply by sending us the information with the button below and we’ll get back to you. While we’re sure that every submission can use coaching, our small firm can only support one entrepreneur at this time.
Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2021
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