Miami business manager Lahteefah Parramore builds up artists from behind the scenes

Some of Lahteefah Parramore’s earliest memories involve watching her mother, a professional dancer, entertain a crowd. When she watched her mom perform in shows, Parramore believed she was a superhero with the superpower of dance.

“I was about 2 years old, and she was the most magnificent,” Parramore said. “Her dancing was a spiritual experience, and she was like a superwoman.”

As Parramore grew older, her mother transitioned from life onstage to working as a business manager, a career change that would inspire Parramore’s own professional journey many years later.

After launching the Brickell-based LRW Group in September 2023, Parramore, 46, now works with over 100 clients who are entertainers, entrepreneurs and other high net-worth individuals. The company provides services ranging from business management to tax preparation and accounting.

A Miami resident since 2010, Parramore was previously named one of the country’s top business managers by Billboard magazine in 2022 while working at the Prager Metis firm.

When Parramore was in high school, she trained at the prestigious Alvin Ailey School of Dance in New York. After her mother moved her from Newark to Tampa, she attended a performing arts high school there.

Her mother, Jacqueline Koonce Hinson, was tenacious and launched Starship Entertainment, a management company whose roster included a 12-year-old singer named Faith Evans, who became an R&B superstar.

“I remember going to the recording studios and her management company after school and watching all of the artists perform and prepare for shows,” Parramore said. “... I said to myself that I want to be someone that does that, but I want to do it from a business side. I want to be a trusted adviser of people that only want to focus on their art.”

After graduating high school, Parramore switched paths from dance to business and attended the University of South Florida, where she graduated with a major in accounting. During her last year of college, she joined the National Association of Black Accountants. A mentor, business manager Greg Collins, made her realize how transferable her accounting skills could be.

“He represented the biggest artists and athletes and was a partner at Mitchell and Titus, a Black-owned firm that one of their specialties is sports and entertainment. ... Greg really took me under his wing and taught me what it meant to be a business manager and a successful business manager.”

Parramore, a CPA, began her accounting career at Ernst and Young and honed her skills working with Fortune 500 clients ranging from nonprofits to government agencies.

Then, in 2010, one moment changed Parramore’s business trajectory. Keema Chang, a Miami-based celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist, approached Parramore and asked if she would be her business manager.

Parramore was hesitant at first and asked Chang to write down six goals before making a deal with her. If they could work together and accomplish 70% of those goals, she would represent Chang.

Within two months, they reached five of those six goals. Parramore knew business management was for her.

“There’s this picture when she and I are looking at each other, and I’m looking at her and it’s just this moment of accomplishment,” Parramore remembered. “This moment where she had a dream, and I was able to help facilitate all of her dreams to come true.”

Parramore believes her clients can reach their full potential if they focus on their creativity. When she focuses on managing their finances and daily affairs, together they can succeed.

Helping clients better understand financial concepts like generational wealth matters to Parramore. Many of her clients are Black, and Black people in America have had a history of dealing with financial challenges. Parramore emphasized the need for high-income individuals to have wills and estate plans.

“On day one, I start talking about generational wealth,” she said. “To me, generational wealth is big time. You want to leave the next generation something so that they don’t have to kind of scramble or start from zero. If this generation starts from a couple of million, then the next generation starts from a couple of million.”

As LRW Group completes its first six months in business, Parramore already has her eyes set on her goals for 2025. She wants to build the company’s presence in Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta and build offices in Dubai and Nigeria, where many of her family members are from. Through it all, Parramore continues to make time to be a doting mother to her daughter Samiyah Lynnice, a 27-year-old professional dancer, and music producer son Justin Bryant, 22, while working to remain humble and help others reach their dreams.

“I want to do business with integrity,” she said. “I want to do business with God first and have a specific vision on how I want to do business. Moving to Miami and kind of connecting with Keema really helped me pivot more into that.”