LINGO HR & ACCOUNTING - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Instructor at Metropolitan Community College
Armando Salgado's life as an entrepreneur and community service advocate began with the recognition of the point where the Spanish-speaking English-speaking communities intersected and the need for Latino leadership was missing. He launched LingoDocs Marketing (lingodocs.com) in 2006 to bridge both business communities, giving them the opportunity to double their markets.
Through LingoDocs Marketing, Armando provides a variety of traditional marketing services such as publishing the only bilingual (English/Spanish) magazine in Omaha (bilingualnebraska.com), printing, signage, apparel, web development, graphic design, translation services, virtual services, and more. Armando lends a unique twist of specializations to helping clients grow their business by overcoming the language, cultural, and business barriers, both in English and in Spanish. Armando is Co-Founder of Lingo HR Accounting.
This company enables small and mid-sized businesses to cost-effectively outsource human resources, accounting, payroll, bookkeeping and workers' compensation. Armando is also the founder of USMEX Express (usmexexpress.com), which provides domestic and international shipping services, money transfers, communications/internet, and more.
Armando has over 15 years of experience in the Real Estate business, owning and managing Zianya Properties LLC, as well as MultiLevel Contractors, Armando's youngest company of 3 years.
Armando earned a double major in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. During and after his graduation from UNO, Armando worked a little over 10 years in the Non-Profit sector in creating programs for all ages, infrastructure creation, and fundraising.
Armando is also an adjunct instructor at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, teaching business and construction to small business owners in both English and Spanish, providing topics that assist the participants in starting their own business, managing and sustaining their business. Over 150 Latino owned companies have formed with Armando's help in the past 5 years.
Armando furthers his mission of breaking down barriers and promoting business, language and cultural awareness and doing community service through various community organization and holding several board positions in the Omaha, Nebraska area, including Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, OneWorld Community Health Center, Heartland Workforce Solutions, Futuro Latino Fund, Criminal Justice Advisory, and Cinco de Mayo Festival, among others. Armando was born in Mexico, together with his mother and father, migrated to the U.S. at the age of 6 and as many Latino families, they worked and contributed to the U.S. society to earn their piece of the American dream.
Armando is married to his wonderful and supportive wife and Realtor, Yamy Salgado, (from the Dominican Republic via New York City) and has 2 beautiful children, Zianya (15) and Zuriel (8).
In comparison to most Certified Professional Accountants, I would say that I took the back way into the profession. Your typical CPA graduates with an accounting or masters accounting degree and starts out at Big 4 or local public accounting firm. From there they get they cut their teeth in audit, tax, or both while they decide whether or not they want to take the CPA exam.
If they choose not to take the exam, then they usually work themselves out of the public sector and into the private sector. I graduated from the University of Nebraska with business degree with an emphasis in finance and took a job as first a payroll processor and then as an underwriter at a payroll and workers compensation company. Quickly I realized that this was not the path I wanted to go down and started looking options to continue my education. I decided that accounting and being a CPA in particular was the route I wanted to take. Since I didn't have an accounting degree, I knew I needed to differentiate myself from the competition so I went back to school to get a masters in accounting while working continuing to work full time. Once I accumulated enough hours to sit for the four parts of the exam, I started studying on my own and passed the exam within the year. My plan worked as once I had passed the exam, I was able to land interviews and eventually landed my first public accounting position so that I could start meeting the experience portion of the CPA requirements.
My experience at a large company to start off my career guided me in my search for my first accounting job. I wanted to work at a smaller firm, where I felt I fit better and would make more of an impact.
I worked for a small audit and tax firm that did audits and reviews of companies ranging from $1 million in assets to $500 million in assets. Being a small firm, we typically did the entire engagement on our own. Having passed the CPA exam set me on a path to grow quickly at this firm and shortly after my first year I started reviewing others workpapers before final approval from the audit partner. Every week was a new experience so I learned greatly from all of the businesses I audited as well as how organization, processes, and planning leads to an efficient audit program. In addition to the audit work I would help out in our tax practice preparing non-profit, business, and individual tax returns during the first four months of the year. Eventually the bi-weekly out of town travel combined with a growing family played a significant part in my decision to leave the audit firm after five years and pursue a position in the private sector as a controller.