Don’t give up and don’t feel that you need to have your life figured out right now. Take your time learning about who you are first. Then, when you feel ready, go on your journey to find your career.
Kewho Min is an experienced and successful professional in the accounting and finance sectors. With decades of training, excellent communication skills, a dedication to his clients and an official accounting certification, Kewho has earned the admiration and respect of his community members and peers. He is currently based out of New York City and serves as the vice president and controller for IBEX.
As the Vice President and Controller of IBEX, naturally, Kewho Min is responsible for a wide-reaching variety of financial services. These tasks can range anywhere from updating ledgers to processing and finalizing payroll. He works closely with his financial teams in order to ensure the financial prosperity of the company. With his innate accounting and finance skills, Kewho excels in the position.
Kewho’s extensive resume is riddled with a bevy of high-profile institutions and businesses. Some of his previous positions include: Director of Global Accounting at Walmart and Vice President and Controller at Jefferies. During his time at Walmart, Kewho Min was responsible for leading his financial team to improve processes and financial prospects for the company; his position at Jefferies was fairly similar. His time in these roles, and prior roles, prepared him for his current position.
Outside of his professional career, Kewho Min has a variety of interests and hobbies that he tries to make time for. Firstly, he loves the City of New York and everything that it offers. The sheer amount of diversity, culture and opportunity within Manhattan alone inspires Kewho on a daily basis. He is also a sports fanatic, with football and baseball being his two primary sports. Kewho is a fan of the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. Finally, Kewho’s most treasured pastime is spending time with his family.
Kewho hopes that this profile will allow like-minded individuals to enjoy his insight on accounting and bring about new professional connections.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
A typical day for me starts at 5:30 am. In order to make it productive I do a quick workout (15 minutes), I make sure to eat a nice, healthy, filling breakfast, and I list three things I’d like to complete in the day. And then, once I’m dressed and at the office, I set out to complete those tasks. I usually include the most challenging task last, and if I can’t complete it by the end of the day, I just move that to the top of the list for the next day. Repeat the process until you get a good handle on completing your most challenging projects.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I bring ideas to life by surrounding myself with creative, talented and driven professionals. I am not naive enough to believe that I can single-handedly create change or produce results. That isn’t to say that I don’t have the skills or ability to bring ideas to life, it’s just so much faster and better when you have multiple perspectives and workers on the project.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Artificial intelligence is an exciting trend to me. I don’t believe that AI can completely take over the traditional accounting job, at least not yet, but rather, can assist the accountant and make his or her job easier. With how advanced AI is getting, I believe that it can truly be a boon to the accounting world, and that excites me.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I feel that a good habit for any professional is to keep asking questions. While you may certainly be successful/knowledgeable in any given field, it’s foolish to think that you’ll know everything there is about any particular subject. So I continue to ask questions and make connections with leaders in my industry. Pick people’s brains so that you can find the best pieces of knowledge and information and then implement those ideas into your daily life.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t give up and don’t feel that you need to have your life figured out right now. Take your time learning about who you are first. Then, when you feel ready, go on your journey to find your career.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
It’s good to take days off. Taking a day off is typically viewed as lazy, but there’s nothing wrong with working on yourself as a person. Take the day to rest, relax and reenergize. Don’t get carried away with it, but a day off every now and then doesn’t hurt; in fact, it does the opposite.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Fail. Finding too much success can limit your scope and give you a false sense of pride. Fail often, but more importantly, learn from that failure and avoid it in the future. That’s where true knowledge, growth and success come from.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
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What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
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What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Since the sharing economy is so popular right now (Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, etc.) I feel as though a food sharing app would be a good idea for a tech startup. The startup would allow users to create food from a variety of different backgrounds and sell it to other users. For delivery, there could be integration with UberEats or Grubhub or any other food delivery service.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I recently spent $100 on a personal day for myself. It wasn’t much but I was able to relax and enjoy my own time with my family members and unwind from a long week of work.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Google’s G suite. It’s absolutely fantastic because it allows me to create and edit documents, presentations and spreadsheets from anywhere, on any device. I can also remotely collaborate with my co-workers and team to ensure that files are accurate.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Lean Startup by Eric Reis. It’s just a great guide on how entrepreneurs can lead their startups efficiently and lead change.
What is your favorite quote?
“Being first doesn’t matter if it’s bad” – Marques Brownlee. A phenomenal piece of business advice translating to: If you’re the first person to rush a product to market, it won’t matter if your product is subpar. The audience will realize it and you won’t be successful. Take your time and make a great product that you, and your customers, can stand by.
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Steve (Stefan) Junge hails from Germany and helps with the day-to-day publishing of interviews on IdeaMensch. While he and Mario don’t share a favorite soccer club, their enthusiasm to help entrepreneurs is a shared passion.