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On Thursday, friends, family, city officials and community members gathered for a ribbon cutting at 501 1st Street in Lanett for Woody & Associates, CPA.

“I absolutely love this building,” said Carrie Royster, executive director of the Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. “I look at this building every time I go by. You have a beautiful place, and congratulations from all of us.”

Alzata Florence, a friend of Woody’s family, led a prayer.

“On behalf of Mayor Jamie Heard, the Lanett City Council and the City of Lanett, we welcome Woody & Associates to the City of Lanett,” said Lanett City Clerk Deborah Gilbert. “We are so glad to have you here. If there’s anything that the city can do for you, please don’t hesitate in contacting us.”

Business owner Tomecka Woody thanked attendees for showing up, especially considering the cloudy, slightly rainy weather. She explained her business.

“I am a full service accounting, tax, and bookkeeping service,” she said. “I have over 21 years of experience. I am a certified public accountant. Actually, Woody & Associates is not just me. You can see [by] their shirts, it’s made up of my entire family — my sons, my husband, my mom, our friends and family. So, we’re all Woody & Associates.”

Woody mentioned that her business’s new building has extra office space available.

“One final word — my mom, who is here every day, she’s one of the main associates of Woody & Associates, Leatrice Higgins,” Woody said. “She’s also a seamstress, and she’s located in this building, as well.”

After Woody and her husband, Jonathan Woody, cut the ribbon, everyone went inside to get carry-out boxes of food.

Tomecka Woody said she’s been a certified public accountant in the State of Alabama for about eight years and that she has over 25 years of accounting experience. Most recently before having her current job, she worked in Meriwether County in Georgia as the CFO of the school system.

“Most of my accounting experience is from InterCall, here locally,” she said. “I started at InterCall in the 90s, and I worked there for over 21 years.”

While Woody & Associates recently acquired its building on 1st Street, the business, itself isn’t new. Woody previously worked in a friend’s office in West Point and from home.

Woody said there’s nothing too small or too large for her business to handle and that it even covers life insurance and investments. She also sets up retirement accounts.

Woody partially credits her high school math teachers for her interest in accounting.

“I love math,” she said. “I’ve always been a math person. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do when I went to Auburn, but just taking the different business classes at Auburn, I went into finance. I have a finance degree. But while I was at Auburn, I worked at InterCall, a conference calling company. Once I graduated from Auburn, I immediately went into the accounting department, and that’s where I just fell in love with accounting.”

Woody has an undergraduate degree in business administration from Auburn University, a master’s degree in business administration from Troy University, and an Alabama Board of Public Accountancy certificate from the state of Alabama.

To contact Woody & Associates, call (706) 773-4818 or 334-623-0483 or email woodyassociatescpa@gmail.com.