Meet Emma Carns
- What did your education path look like?
I have a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from RMIT, my CPA and a Diploma of Financial Planning.
- Give me a background of your career?
I started my accounting career 14 years ago in a small practice in Perth. I transitioned to a medium sized practice after a year where I progressed from a Graduate to an Intermediate Accountant. After many years of working with the same practice, I moved on to go in to business with my husband (who is also an accountant!). We started our own accounting practice in Perth, and ran that together for 8 years. We sold the practice in June 2016 when we relocated from Perth back to Melbourne. Since the sale of the business, I have been contracting to accounting practices Australia wide to provide additional assistance with their workflow and reviews.
- Why accounting?
Honestly, I kind of fell in to accounting. I left school with dreams of being a writer… so to say my career path changed would be an understatement! I started an Arts Degree at Monash straight after finishing school and soon discovered that my creative talents weren’t doing me any good when they met with the structure of the education system! I then did some career soul searching a decided that my ability to work well with numbers was the key to my career. Et voila, I became an accountant! I have been very lucky to have worked with a lot of amazing mentors who have shown me that accounting is much more than just tax returns.
- What do you love most about your job?
I love that I can help people inside their businesses. Many accountants look from the outside and tell clients what they have done wrong based on prior tax returns – I prefer to have my clients financials up to date so they can receive advice and make positive changes in real time. I am very technical and love getting stuck in to the work in the background. Numbers make a lot of sense to me, and I find completing clients work satisfying.
- What’s most important to you outside of work?
My family and keeping active. I love to spend my free time (what little I have!) running and spending time outdoors with my kids. As a family (dog included!) we love to go for long walks to new places either in the bush or near the beach. My son Liam is 10 and one of the most gentle little creatures I know (although not so little, he is nearly as tall as me!), my daughter Chelsea is 6 going on 16, she is very intelligent and quick witted – definitely keeps me on my toes! I also have a puppy, Barkley our Labradoodle, who is very playful, active and sweet.
- Any amazing life experiences?
I spent some time in France as part of my University Business degree. It was great to be able to spend some time inside another country, especially in their university system – it was a real eye-opener. While I was in Europe I travelled to England to catch up with family, and spent some time in Scotland. Since then, I have also travelled to Bali many times with the kids.
- What do you do for fun?
Being creative… drawing and painting are my two passions. I love to include my kids in all my creative activities, often spending our weekends drawing together. I also love to run… yes, for fun! I have an amazing group of ladies that I regularly run with. I think I have had the most honest and genuine conversations with people when we are running – no bullshit, just real friendship.
- What does your ideal weekend look like?
My ideal weekend includes at least one morning sleep-in past 6am! A long run, loads of family time, and hopefully a beach. I will do anything to go to the beach… even drive a really long way to the dog beach in winter, just to smell the water and unwind. My kids have recently started snorkelling with my husband, and myself which has been awesome! So throw that in the weekend mix too, and I am one happy camper. No good Sunday is complete without some good coffee and a nice glass of wine in the evening.
