Talbot & Associates’ story
Like many great companies, our story humbly began in a basement
Let us take you back to 1991, when Jean-Guy Talbot (the youngest of eight kids) established Talbot & Associates in his home basement in St. Norbert, Manitoba. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister, a new national tax called GST was introduced, the Airbag is invented, Terminator 2 was a box-office chart-topper and Nirvana released the album, “Nevermind” which “unfortunately” says Jean-Guy (an avid country music fan) propelled a Grunge music explosion. That year Jean-Guy received his CGA designation and prepared 30 personal tax returns and figured there “may” be room for the company to grow.
On 1996, the firm grew to five employees and moved into a strip mall at 3487 Pembina Hwy. As the years would pass, Talbot & Associates kept taking more space in that strip mall until it was bursting at the seams for room. In 2007, the team was shocked that they would require a larger space. That’s when T&A took over a spot that was previously a bank and pharmacy at 3553 Pembina Hwy. At that time there was room for 23 employees. Jean-Guy remembers the team thinking “they were set now for life” and “there would be no way they could grow bigger than this”.
In 2016 Jean-Guy was formally recognized by his peers for having rendered exceptional services to the profession career achievements and received the title of fellow CPA (FCPA).
Fast forward to 2023, Talbot & Associates has the pleasure of employing around 70 staff in eight offices across Manitoba in Ashern, Birtle, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Selkirk, Stonewall, Steinbach and Winnipeg (St. Boniface and St. Norbert). They have dedicated Agriculture, U.S. Services and Bookkeeping teams and a training centre where over 40 signature workshops and seminars are hosted. In 2014, T&A’s sister company, RêveNew Practice Management was born to coach other firms and companies utilizing all the hard and wonderful lessons Jean-Guy has learned in his career thus far.
If you ask anyone inside the firm what the secret is to this growth and success, we’d bet they’d tell you it’s because they are taken so well care of as a team that they are motivated to take care of the clients (Jean-Guy’s philosophy). Or, the answer could also be found in the firm’s mission statement which reads “We exist to give clients true peace of mind and our team members the opportunity to live their dreams (and have fun doing it!).”