Knowledge Is Power.

Having clean books is a great goal, but if not set up well, they won’t be very useful for doing anything other than filing your taxes.

Over the past few years, I have worked with clients to dial in their books to help them understand how things are progressing over the year and to plan into the future. Once we have worked with a client for a few months, all of their business finances should be up to date and historically accurate at least back to the beginning of the current year. We like to spend a few months getting to know our clients and how their money flows in and out of their account. This process gives us insight into what information they would actually find useful in pulling reports from their finances. Then the fun part begins! Ok, maybe “fun” is a stretch. It’s not spring break in Cancun, but it is definitely my favorite part of the bookkeeping process.

Amy Esp 6/22/21 Amy Esp 6/22/21

How Important is Planning and Budget?

Whether it's last year's lottery winners or professional athletes, we've all heard stories of the millionaires who are suddenly broke because of poor money management. As small business owners, we might not find ourselves hitting millionaire status anytime soon, but we can learn a few things from the costly mistakes of others.

Amy Esp 6/8/21 Amy Esp 6/8/21

A Little Attitude Shift That Will Make Budgeting (and everything else) a Whole Lot Easier.

When starting and running a business, there can be a lot of expenses, a lot of shiny new apps and software, a lot of things to eat away at your profit. And at the same time those things can help streamline your processes and support your business and real, substantial ways. The same goes for how we spend our time. As an owner, there will be a million different priorities and directions you can go. Some will help you build your best business and life and others will have you spinning your wheels. In both instances, best way to know what is helping and what is hurting is to have clear goals outlined and to track your spending or your time well

Amy Esp 6/4/21 Amy Esp 6/4/21

A time for boldness…

Very few businesses start as a sure thing with a smooth path to success. Our current culture and systems don’t encourage or facilitate entrepreneurship. If we want to be successful in business, most of us have to turn convention on its head, leap off into the abyss or at the very least, be willing to be a little uncomfortable. All that being what it is, I’ve rarely met small business owners who regretted making that choice. As a friend/coach recently said, it is easy to become woefully unemployable after owning your own business. We love our new gig too much to work for someone else ever again. The freedom and autonomy self-employment provides is almost always worth the uncertainty and and sometimes crazy roller coast of emotions and situations that business ownership brings.

Amy Esp 5/27/21 Amy Esp 5/27/21

Buy. The. Damn. Hot. Tub.

Self-care matters. As business owners we are being pulled in a million directions, this year even more so. We can also be guilty of prioritizing everything above ourselves in pursuit of "success". Or maybe our finances are a little messy and we feel like we have to forgo things until we get it all together and perfectly lined out. I am definitely a proponent of making sound financial choices, but I also feel so, SO strongly that sometimes we need to make our own mental health, emotional well being and physical comfort a priority too.

Amy Esp 5/6/21 Amy Esp 5/6/21

Empowerment Geek

I didn't fall into bookkeeping naturally and effortlessly as if it was always meant to be. I was always a good student but didn't excel in math. My initial career path centered around marketing and program management for non-profit and for-profit businesses. My work was definitely data driven, but in a much softer, more nebulous way.