South Florida entrepreneur Elizabeth Manso, CPA, has led her Brigade advisory, accounting and bookkeeping company to exceptional growth since its founding in 2008, and recently launched a new platform for other firms to find a “breakthrough” for even greater success.
Brigade Business Breakthrough is a platform for small-to-medium accounting firms to “reclaim their passion” and join Brigade in its scalable, cloud-based and technology-driven system to deliver the most effective financial services to client companies.
Manso and her Brigade team have refined a strategic system over many years that will help clients grow their companies and crush their financial goals. With Brigade Business Breakthrough, Brigade will acquire an accounting or bookkeeping firm outright at a fair market value, or allow professionals to partner with Brigade after the acquisition to “focus on the parts of the business that they love most.”
“Brigade Business Breakthrough is ideal for firms and professionals who are ready to embrace technology, tools, and a team to partner with to crush your goals and calm your mind,” Manso says.
Brigade boasts a wide range of long-standing clients in South Florida and beyond providing “trusted advice, financial clarity, and outsourced accounting services” to help companies “reach the next level of success.”
As Brigade’s president and chief executive officer, Manso has earned numerous industry honors, and this year has been nominated for the Ignition 2023 Top Women in Accounting Award and the Insightful Accountant 2023 Top 100 QuickBooks ProAdvisor designation. She is also proud to soon be an author with a chapter in a book titled “Staffing An Advisory Firm,” scheduled to be available later this year. She has led Brigade’s growth for 15 years, and expects rapid expansion in 2023, especially with the launch of Brigade Business Breakthrough. She projects 200 percent increased revenue and several new staff with the acquisition of smaller companies. Her ultimate goal is building Brigade into a $10 million business.
Helping power this expansion is the energy and rapid evolution of South Florida’s economy, as the region grows as a global financial, technology and business hub. “South Florida is largely thriving because we have such a rich entrepreneurial spirit here,” said Manso, who earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and master’s degree in business administration at Florida Atlantic University. “And this is key to Brigade’s success, because entrepreneurs are the backbone of our business.”
In addition to leading Brigade, Manso also helps advance the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through her work with Entrepreneurs’ Organization South Florida (EO SOFLO).
EO SOFLO is one of the world’s largest EO chapters, with 300 business owners who share peer-to-peer experiences, support one another and foster entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. EO SOFLO member companies account for more than $1 billion in yearly revenues and 11,000 jobs in the tri-county area.
Manso joined EO SOFLO four years ago and now serves as the chairperson of the group’s Finance Committee. She says EO SOFLO has helped her “think big.”
“There is so much intellectual capital here, and everyone is generous with their knowledge that I’ve just been a sponge trying to absorb the perspectives of so many successful entrepreneurs,” Manso says. “I am a lifelong learner, and every day I get to learn from my EO friends on how to implement big ideas that I never thought I could. EO is all about breaking free from any limiting beliefs…and going big or going home!”
One of her EO Forum members, Alex Berg, describes Manso as “an incredible person with more energy than anyone I know.” Berg, who runs Cratos Equipment, an innovative environmentally-friendly construction equipment company, says Manso “is a loyal friend and always up for a challenge. She has built a great team at Brigade to help them and the company grow.”
For more information on Brigade, go to www.hellobrigade.com.
For details on EO SOFLO, visit www.eosoflo.com.
