We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kayla Caldwell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I never thought about owning my own business. There was this thought in my family that you started your own business if you did not fit into the corporate world. Starting a business was a dream and a money sucker. My husband started his own business in 2019 and even when he started I was stuck in this mindset but when our first tax season came around. He like most business owners had no idea how much he spent in marketing or any specific category in his business. At the same time, we were new parents and I was miserable in my 9-5. Not to mention in the middle of a pandemic that changed everything.

As a new mom, stuck at home, I needed something to do so I thought why not start a business? I have always been good with numbers and I organized my husband’s business, so I thought why couldn’t I do it for other businesses? Sure enough, after some research and more education, I started my own bookkeeping business. Three years later, I have a team, I’ve helped over a hundred small businesses and I’m happy with my balance between work and home.

If I could go back in time to talk to myself, I would say do it sooner! Gain the confidence to believe and bet on yourself and start your business. But also start with processes and systems at the beginning. And, Don’t be afraid to have a Social media persona so you can get to know your clients!

It’s funny, though I believe everything did happen at the right time for me and my growth of business because I had the motivation to be home with my son while before I just didn’t want to work. Now though helping small businesses I’m happy to be working with them and helping them grow.

Kayla , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my company to help small business owners understand the numbers behind their passion. I have always been numbers savvy and in the corporate world I used to think how nice would it be to be just the bookkeeper. Then my husband started a business, and our first tax season was a disaster, like many other first time business owners. So I thought, this is how I can help people! Now that’s exactly what I do for all our clients plus we talk pricing strategy to put their profit first.

We have chosen Quickbooks Online for our bookkeeping software due to the clear reporting and integrations with other softwares for our clients. Because we know how complicated quickbooks can be, we handle everything inside the software for you. Categorizing all your transactions, reconciling with bank statements, bill pay and invoicing Plus the manual addition assets (i.e. vehicles and furniture) and liabilities (loans & interest) to your books. Then come tax season we coordinate with your tax preparer to file your taxes.

We also help clients look into their expenses and see if they are really making purchases based on their goals. We help them budget for bigger items and yearly expenses. We do what we can to make sure clients are pricing at their value and reaching their money goals.

We want to help clients balance their entrepreneurial endeavors and their personal lives. That’s why we talk our clients through their hesitations and help them really deep dive into their numbers.

Come in a couple week’s we will also be Profit First Professionals helping clients eradicate their entrepreneurial poverty.

I love that I have created a community with my team. We are a team of moms; We understand that day to day is different and we really lean into that to help our clients and each other. Most days I still can’t believe I get to work with some amazing women and helping small businesses in the process. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m not sure its a lesson, maybe more of cliché, Money doesn’t grow on trees.

When you go into business with a scarcity mindset, while a lot of the time is a great motivator, it can really limit your earning potential. There are so many way to make money and there are so many ways to become invaluable to your customers. I usually joke with clients when we talk about pricing that they should figure out how much they want to charge, add tax and merchant fees then add another 10% because we tend to undervalue ourselves.

If we want to make money, we just figure out how to make it. There is always a way to make more money and we should never limit to ourselves to the minimum.

For me, once I started to look at things with an abundance mindset, more came to me and more ideas.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

We are big proponents of Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.

This is a non-traditional way of accounting and budgeting. Traditionally we think sales-expenses = profit. Where profit first flips it around: sales- profit= expenses. This philosophy really pushes you to pay yourself first and celebrate your hand work, while really helping you make sure to spend your money consciously to grow your business.

We implemented it for our business and its really has changed our view around money and eased some anxiety. Our clients really love the system for themselves for budgeting and really seeing where their money is going.

We love helping businesses maximize their profit and watching them see the benefits for themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: kcvirtualbookkeeping.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kcvbookkeeping
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcvirtualbookkeeping
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/caldwellkayla

Image Credits
Hanhah Martini Co. was my photographer; will soon have a profit first professional badge in the next couple weeks too.