A time for boldness…

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. -Goethe

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.

I’ve always known I wanted to be a business owner, it just took me awhile to find the right spot to land. I’ve never been the person who loves “xyz” and wants to spend all of my time doing it.

I’m a dabbler, a little bit of this, a splash of that.

Becoming a bookkeeper was not even in my line of sight as I plotted how my life would unfold. I don’t have an accounting or business degree, I have a BA in Cultural Anthropology. I didn’t spend years working in finance, I ran marketing and programs for non-profit and for-profit entities. Instead of asking “What do I love to do?”, I asked, “What do I want my life to look like? What are my strengths? And what does my community need?”. And I didn’t just ask myself, I polled my tribe with a totally nerdy, but immensely helpful survey. They told me what skills and experiences I excelled in and they also told me where they saw gaps in services. Providers specializing in top notch business finances was at the top of surprisingly large cross section of my tribes’ lists. With this and a few other nudges from Lady Serendipity, I had a direction.

So, I knew where I needed to go, but I still had to get past the psychological and logistical hurdle of leaving my very reliable 9 to 5 and setting my own course. As a single-parent household that was definitely a leap of faith. My income was THE income. I needed a plan. Laying out a stepped process to growth (complete with spreadsheets and formulas) helped me chart a course to being my own boss.

As my business has grown over the past year, it was time again to dust of those spreadsheets and map a new path that included a team, capacity to support an exponential number of small businesses and a reassessment of gaps in our community for business service support. This work can often get sidelined by our “urgent” billable work, but it is essential to growing with intention and clarity. Having my own books in order was a huge tool to build my baseline for my plan. I also enlisted a coach to help me navigate the parts of the process that weren’t in my wheelhouse. As we work with clients, we bring that same ability to analyze past financials to build a baseline for your future looking cash flow and growth projections. We want to help you plan the next iteration of your empire and feel confident that the finances line up. We can also help you figure out what adjustments can help you get there. Big changes and growth take boldness, intention and planning.

We are excited to add capacity and services to help your business grow. We are excited to share the tips and tricks we’ve learned over the past several years of working with an amazing and diverse group of clients. We hope you’ll join us for the next iteration.

Hello, Summer!

Nothing says summer like an ice cold cocktail. Something refreshing and crisp to sip while you lay by the pool. Enter, vodka cherry limeade. The best thing about this cocktail is that measurements aren’t necessary (are they ever, REALLY?). This is the best mix of childhood whimsy with a grown up twist, and damn…do we love whimsy.

Cherry Vodka

Generous pour of lime juice

Grenadine

Sprite, 7up, or that generic 6 1/2up if you’re a babe on a budget

Maraschino cherry or 12 if you like them (and who doesn’t)

Now kick back, relax, and spend some time thinking about how awesome you are. You deserve it!

It’s not the money we’re after. It’s the freedom. The goal is to live life on our own terms.

We believe in hard work. And dreams. And taking the afternoon off to do absolutely nothing. We believe in saving for tomorrow, but buy the damn shoes. We believe that entrepreneurs are low-key superheroes, and that everyone should do something that scares them every day.