Charleroi professional brings diversity, sense of community to family business
Editor’s note: This is part of a continuing series on the members of the Young Professionals of the Mon Valley, a committee of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Carly Jenkins can’t get away from numbers.
While the Charleroi High School graduate got her nursing degree in 2004 and worked in the profession for 11 years, finances are in her blood.
Jenkins, a member of the Mon Valley Young Professionals group, switched careers last year, going to work for her family’s business, Pete Jenkins Tax, Accounting and Financial Services.
“It was definitely a big change,” Jenkins said. “Nothing from the medical field applies to the financial world, so I definitely had a lot to learn. I still have a lot to learn. But my dad has been doing this for 37 years so to me he’s an expert. But I do a lot of reading, I do a lot of studying, I’ve ordered lots of books. I do a lot of online courses and teaching, just trying to kind of get revved up to the business world and the financial world because that’s not really my background,” she said.
“But I’m learning.”
Now a life insurance agent, Jenkins acts as an investment assistant and life insurance agent with her father and brother by her side.
The Jenkins’ family business is a twofold endeavor, handling taxes/accounting and financial planning. Jenkins focuses on financial planning aspect of the business, while her brother focuses on the accounting end.
When her father retires, the siblings want to have as much experience as possible so they can seamlessly take over the business.
“It’s going to take two of us to do his one job, but we want to keep our business going,” Jenkins said. “My brother and I will have enough experience to feel comfortable just taking over.”
A typical day for Jenkins is filled with meetings, paperwork and planning. Her role at the firm is to plan and maintain retirement accounts, savings plans, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and the like.
She said her and the firm’s contributions to the Mon Valley area are subtle but impactful.
“We have probably over 100 business clients in the Mon Valley area,” said Jenkins. “You think of pizza shops and doctors’ offices, everyone has payroll. They have employees, they have to do payroll for them, so we provide those services for a lot of clients in the area. We’re always taking on new clients; we’re always looking for new businesses.”
“I just saw in the newspaper in the past few weeks all these new little boutiques and barber shops and hair salons and stuff opening up so we try to reach out to them,” Jenkins said.
“We’re always reaching out and trying to keep in touch with new businesses that are starting up, even existing businesses, just letting them know we can help them with their day-to-day bookkeeping and taxes and payroll and accounting and things like that.”
In terms of her goals for the firm, Jenkins’ plans to maintain a successful reputation for the family’s business and focus on becoming more comfortable and confident in her new role and career path.
But she’s also passionate about continuing to support and positively impact the Mon Valley area and the businesses that comprise it. Jenkins hopes that her family’s firm will be a sort of “support business” for the other businesses in the area that require their services to keep the area’s businesses thriving.
She’s actively working to obtain all of the licenses her dad has, so that she can take on his current role when he retires.
“He’s 59, so he’s looking to retire in the next probably six or seven years. So at that point I think I’ll feel pretty comfortable and confident I’ll have enough experience to take over his role,” Jenkins said.