About Sage Growth Advisors

First of all, donʼt be disappointed when you donʼt find us in suits, or all dressed up. We arenʼt your typical stuffy accounting firm with a dry sense of humor. We love having fun and laughing and dreaming BIG dreams and cheering each other and our clients on.

You arenʼt just a client, you’re a relationship, we get invested in your growth and do cheers and dances with you when big things happen for you. We really know our stuff and have invested in the right people and put them in the right departments to serve you the very best we can.

We host free or low-cost workshops to help you grow and excel in your business.

We bring a holistic approach to our accounting firm providing a full range of all services that are financial or asset related to your business. When it comes time to evaluate your business and analyze growth and strategy, we know we arenʼt missing any pieces, because we are serving them all in-house and meeting with our department heads weekly for updates.

Because we have department meetings weekly, when you call our office, you will always be greeted by someone who knows your name and how important you are to us.

ACCREDITATIONS:

Sage Growth Advisors BBB Business Review

President and Founder

Debi Choi was raised in a little southern town in Mississippi and transplanted to the Carolinas over 30 years ago.  Greenville became home in 2013.

She began as an intern at an accounting firm in Asheville, NC, and fell completely in love with the industry and making sense of numbers and analyzing the data and story those numbers told about the financial foundation and health of businesses.

In 2000, when the owner of the accounting firm became ill, Debi was asked to continue to support many of those clients, some of whom she still serves 23 years later.  

The name of her new venture began as Blue Ridge Business Services but after 20 years she wanted to choose a name that better fit how she wanted to serve her clients in her accounting practice, so she rebranded to Sage Growth Advisors.

Over the years she continued earning certifications for QBO and Forensic Accounting and Coaching and helping businesses of all sizes and from many various industries.

She formed a Facebook community for her industry and began to coach and mentor other professionals in her field.  That group today has over 6500 private accounting industry members.

Debi has a true passion for analyzing the numbers for advisory and growth support and businesses of all sizes.  She offers free classes to small businesses that can’t yet afford monthly compliance bookkeeping services. Debi is most often referred to for her wide range of knowledge in the accounting, tax, and compliance areas with years of experience in multiple industries and a non-judgmental attitude.

If she isn’t sitting at her desk dreaming up new ways to serve her clients bigger and better, you will find her reading or playing spades with her husband.  But her staff does try to keep her busy or she gets all kinds of crazy ideas to launch! Her favorite things are hugs, having coffee in her office connecting, and building new friendships and relationships and she especially loves hugs from her grandbabies and her boxer, Brutus Beefcake Choi.

About Debi

  • Lauren Gratenstein

    DIRECTOR OF ACCOUNTING

    Lauren began her journey in the financial sector working for her father’s collection agency as a teenager. Later in life, she decided to focus on accounting and finance.

    Lauren began working at a boutique Brokerage and CPA firm in the Greater Phoenix area in the early 2000s.

    Her major clientele was small to medium size businesses that ranged from restaurants to property developers. While working there she was also responsible for the brokerage department’s compliance, and the coordinator between the lawyers, financial products, taxes, and succession planning for her client’s estate organization.

    Later, Lauren was given the opportunity to work in the government sector for the Yavapai-Apache Nation. She began as an accountant for the tribe’s government where she coordinated millions of casino revenue with the nation’s public programs.

    She later moved to budgets and grants coordinating the State and Federal grant dollars with each of the nation’s departments.

    Lauren is seen all over the upstate and also known as Lauren ApacheMagic because she makes magic happen wherever she goes.

    She is heavily involved in community work.

    She is the mother of two amazing Apache children who are as smart and as creative as their mother!

  • Sawsan Abubaker

    DIRECTOR OF TAX AND COMPLIANCE

    Sawsan Abubaker is a federally licensed tax expert and an Enrolled Agent. She is super smart and we think she is super cool!

    As an Enrolled Agent, Sawsan has earned the privilege of representing taxpayers before the IRS by passing a three-part examination covering individual tax returns; business tax returns; and representation, practice, and procedure. She specializes in taxation and has unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.

    Sawsan has 17 years of experience in the tax and compliance industry. She also has experience with very high net worth clients of 10 million plus in revenues, whether for-profit or nonprofit

She joined Sage Growth Advisors in 2023 to oversee our Compliance and Tax Department and we sure couldn’t be more excited.

    We love that she will be on board to help audit-proof our clients. This doesn’t mean you won’t get audited but when or if you do, you have a representative who will stand behind you and the work performed and submitted according to IRS rules and regulations and statutes.

Outside of her professional realm, Sawsan is the mother of three wonderful children and has five grandchildren who keep her on her toes. If it wasn't for the support of her parents and close friends, she wouldn't be able to achieve her past goals and accomplishments and continue to plan to achieve more in the future.

  • Desireé Roberts

    CHAOS COORDINATOR

    Desiree is the daughter of founder, Debi Choi and grew up listening to her mother have client calls, learning to answer the phone, sort checks and file things (back in the paper days). She heavily resisted the family business until she finally submitted to admitting momma really does know everything.

    Desiree is our Executive Administrator but prefers to be called the Chaos Coordinator. She is best at telling us all where and when to show up and likes being a little bossy like that.

    Desiree navigates appointments, client relationships, onboarding and networking and we actually don’t mind her bossiness on most days.

    On days she is not in the office she likes walks with her two dogs, Pepper and Waffles. We do not talk about her 2 cats who like to give dirty glares on days we are doing team meetings via share screens.

    Desiree is also an avid reader and you will rarely find her without a book in her hand when she is free.

    Free 15-min consultation

  • John Rasnick

    DIRECTOR OF I.T.

    John is the son of founder, Debi Choi. Debi has always been amazed at the way his brain works from the time he was a little boy, decomposing and recomposing everything from music to coding.

    John keeps us on track with technology implementation so we can stay a tech savvy firm and up to date on all the latest things.

    If you’re having a problem with any of our software, he is the person to reach out to.

    When he is not in the office, you will find him composing music, writing code for fun or hanging out with his nephew on bikes or gaming or looking through a telescope.

    He doesn’t like to interact much but if you get the chance to hang out with him you will find he is a really cool dude with a really big heart!