Creative Business, Inc. - Most Innovative Woman of the Year

Company: Creative Business, Inc., Brooklyn, NY
Entry Submitted By: Mark Allen & Co.
Company Description: Creative Business is a business services and financial advisory firm that specializes in serving elite entrepreneurs and growing small businesses in creative industries. Founded in 2005, Creative Business provides strategic planning, advisory, controller and back-office support to help creative businesses unlock their full potential and achieve long-term, sustainable growth.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Accounting & Finance

Nomination Title: Jeanne Hardy

With a background in fine arts and an astute business acumen, Jeanne Hardy branched out to start her first innovative, entrepreneurial endeavor nearly 20 years ago after realizing the urgent need for financial literacy across the art world.

Fast forward to today and she’s the President and Founder of Creative Business Inc. – a business services and financial advisory firm, custom tailored to support the needs of entrepreneurs and business leaders in creative industries. Hardy has grown her business over the years, working with creative entrepreneurs and helping countless organizations achieve long-term financial sustainability.

Having observed first-hand the challenges these businesses face in leveraging technology to elevate their own expertise, Hardy was inspired to launch a new venture in 2020: Levvy, a comprehensive financial operations platform.

A Forbes Business Council member and contributor, Hardy has been profiled in Thrive Global and Medium, and regularly speaks at industry events. An alumna of Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses, she’s been published in Accounting Today and Small Biz Daily.

Creative Business Inc. was recognized in Fortune as one of the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Inner City Businesses by the 2020 Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and was a 2018 Entrepreneur 360 Best Company.

It’s been an impossibly challenging 18+ months for accounting and finance professionals, being forced to navigate unprecedented business and economic conditions. But, true to form, Hardy didn’t shy away from the challenge.

While many business leaders reverted to playing it safe, Hardy dove in headfirst, rolling up her sleeves to help her clients navigate the pandemic, while successfully steering her own organization and team through the turmoil.

She provided reactive and proactive guidance to clients, helping them make the difficult and abrupt transition to remote work, hone their leadership skills during times of crisis, shift from survival mode back to growth mode, and all the while continuing to orient themselves to a realistic and aggressive path forward.

Over the past two years, Creative Business has taken on 32 new clients and grown the business by 18%. And through it all, Hardy hasn’t stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what services and technologies are available to accounting and finance professionals.

Inspired by the experiences of the CFOs, accounting firms and small business owners she has worked with throughout her career, Hardy decided to launch and create Levvy in 2020.

The only comprehensive financial operations platform that combines tech and team, delivered securely via the cloud, Levvy addresses the pain points financial professionals have endured for years.

With a seemingly endless drive to empower professionals in accounting and finance, it’s no surprise that Hardy and her businesses have earned recognition from Fortune, Inner City Businesses and Entrepreneur 360.

While many in her field have been understandably focused on their own survival, Hardy has devoted herself to helping others. Her firm helped clients secure $14M in PPP loans and offered workshops on emergency funding and pivoting businesses.

But she doesn’t limit her insights to paying clients. Hardy is a vocal thought leader, sharing tips to empower finance teams on Accounting Today, inspiring CEOs to build resilient businesses in the post-pandemic landscape on Small Biz Daily and providing guidance on how to get hybrid work right. She also publishes a free monthly newsletter, available to anyone, that’s chock-full of advice and resources.

Not only that, but she has also taken big risks to launch a first-of-its-kind platform, Levvy, carefully designed to give CEOs, CFOs and accounting teams the tools they need to do their best work and get the most out of the investments they’ve made in tools and technology.

Hardy collaborated with Postlight – a platform design firm in New York City – to develop a streamlined experience with single-single-on and fluid movement across workspaces to empower firms to control their process, boost their quality of work, expand their services, stay relevant and attract new talent.

True to her creative roots, Hardy also continues to seek out opportunities to support young artists, including an extremely low-cost advisory service. A believer in the positive change small businesses can make, Hardy says her innovative energy isn’t motivated by profit but instead by impact for her employees, clients and community.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

Hardy’s free monthly newsletter, especially designed and curated for creative entrepreneurs, CEOs, CFOs and other accounting and finance professionals ( https://www.creativebusinessinc.com/newsletter).
Creative Business Inc.’s website ( https://www.creativebusinessinc.com).
Hardy’s piece in Accounting Today, “5 Ways to Get Your Team to Think Like a CFO” ( https://www.creativebusinessinc.com).
Hardy’s piece for Forbes, “Going hybrid? Here are seven ways to support a dispersed workforce” ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/06/08/going-hybrid-here-are-seven-ways-to-support-a-dispersed-workforce/?sh=218dd8b6167a).
Hardy’s piece for Small Biz Daily, “CEOs: 3 Tips to Build Your Business in the Post-Pandemic Landscape” ( https://www.smallbizdaily.com/ceos-3-tips-to-build-your-business-in-the-post-pandemic-landscape/).
Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Inner City Businesses profile of Creative Business Inc. ( https://fortune.com/inner-city-100/2020/creative-business-inc/).
Medium’s profile of Hardy ( https://medium.com/authority-magazine/meet-jeanne-hardy-of-creative-business-inc-80a843d2ffd9).
The Story Exchange Looks at Hardy’s Mission to Make “Sure Creative Entrepreneurs Can Stay Creative and Not Sweat the Admin” ( https://thestoryexchange.org/jeanne-hardy-creative-business-inc/).
Hardy’s Forbes Council Profile ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/people/jeannehardy/?sh=1f20116f3943).
Hardy’s piece for AW360, “7 Retail Trends to Fall In Love With” ( https://www.advertisingweek360.com/7-retail-trends-to-fall-in-love-with/).