The Hangar members, SMYD make accounting cool

Post-lock down Jason came to us as part of our free desk offering to the local community. The story doesn’t end there though as Jason loved The Hangar so much he never left!

As one of our newest member recruits, we thought it timely to sit down and chat with him about how he fills his days and why he chose The Hangar as his home away from home (office).

Jason, tell us a bit about your background and business history.

I started my professional life in a mid tier CA firm before spending 5 years contracting in the UK and travelling. Once back in New Zealand I worked in hard core performance analysis roles for Spark and IAG before starting my own business from a simple facebook post.

So now you run your own business SMYD, what do you specialise in ?

SMYD is a paperless accounting and advisory firm that specialises in helping small businesses increase profitability or achieve growth through education, smart investment decisions and optimal tax management. We achieve this through a pretty simple strategy - we think just preparing tax returns is actually quite boring and focus on teaching our clients how to use Xero, so the software does the accounting work, then we can focus on the exciting relationship and advisory work!

What do you enjoy about co-working?

I love being surrounded by positive vibes and energy, working from home can be really lonely and I sometimes find it quite hard to get motivated. Coming into "The office" always gets me pumped for getting stuck into work and is a fantastic place for showing off where I work to my clients - they love it!I also love that I can ask people for advice and help others out when they have a question I can answer!

What do you like about The Hangar? 

Where do I start! It's a seriously cool space to work with a cool vibe, the facilities are top notch and my clients are always blown away when I take them in for a meeting. It also has places to step away from work and have some quiet time and you can sit outside in the loft area if you want a change of vibe or scenery. I love that people de-stress by playing table tennis as quite often if I have a mind block, jumping up for a quick 5 minute game can be just what I need to refocus the mind. The location is amazing and I literally sit at my desk and look out at the water, if I want to have a beer and a meal there are bars and restaurants nearby, a cafe and market just adds to the options.

The people based here are awesome and the fact they enjoy socialising on Monday mornings for morning tea, or Friday afternoons for a beer just tops it off for me.