Labor Day

Labor Day – This first Monday in September became a federal holiday in 1894. It symbolizes the end of summer for many people. In the late 1800’s, during the industrial revolution in the United States, people were working 12-hour days, seven-days a week. People of all ages often faced extremely unsafe working conditions. These long working hours caused many union organizers to focus on winning shorter 8-hour work days. They also focused on reducing the workweek to just six days a week.

With today being Labor Day, I have taken the time to reflect back on my business I am completely blown away by how God has provided. I will not lie; my business is nothing like what I envisioned when I first started this business. I basically just wanted 4 or 5 monthly bookkeeping accounts to take care of that I could work around my schedule, and that I wouldn’t have to drive into Houston any more. Four and a half years later, I have two full time employees, and one-part time employee. I have an employee that lives in Louisiana, and an office that is bigger than my home. Everyone always asks me how many clients I currently have. I believe I am up to 22 monthly bookkeeping clients, with another 8-10 that will periodically drop off their bookkeeping, then this year we reached I want to say 98 income tax clients. I also get on average of 1 QuickBooks training client a month. Just last month, we gained 2 new monthly bookkeeping clients in one week! It just amazes me how God provides. Sometimes I feel like the business is growing too fast, but once I get the new client set up, everything goes pretty smoothly.

Last year we spent the last half of the year going paperless, moving everything to the cloud, getting an online client portal & storage, documenting everything for our company and for each client. This all came at the perfect timing also, because within a few months of starting this process, my office manager mentioned that her husband was being relocated to New Orleans. So I was able to keep my first employee, Stephanie, and she was also able to stay employed due to getting the business on the cloud. It also is nice if one of us needs to stay at home for the day due to sick kids, we can log in from the house and still work.

I love that I am able to help new businesses or existing businesses either learn how to do their own bookkeeping and get them started or take their bookkeeping off their plate for they can focus on building their business. I love that I get to mentor a high school student each year, training them in basic business applications, and how to be a great employee for future employers. I love that I get to make my own schedule around my kid’s schedule, and keeping a healthy work/life balance.  I love that I get to help out the community and the youth by volunteering and sponsoring. I never imagined that this is how my life would be, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I am so thankful for all of my clients and the business contacts that I have that keep on referring business to me.