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

George, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I had a goal of being in the position of not having to work by the time I was 55, which I achieved. Wife and I had a plan which included selling my previous business, moving to our dream home and finding a job to keep busy and pay for fun stuff. Due to several circumstances mostly involving the housing market in both locations, we had to change our plans. I came to the conclusion I needed to start another business to better control our destiny and help offset the rising costs of our plans. About this time I came across a program to learn about starting and operating a virtual bookkeeping business, which was the type of work I was considering to start with. For years, I came to the conclusion I liked playing with numbers and could help others with their endeavors. As far as I was concerned, this was a win-win all around. Once again, I can chart my own path by working for myself and the business can be done anywhere with access to the internet.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

After graduating high school I entered the United States Air Force and retired after a 26-year career. I then purchased an HVAC restoration franchise which I built up and sold after 12 years. During this time, I realized my favorite part of the business was working the numbers. Whether the day-to-day financials, customer estimates or planning growth, doing the math and planning to get from one point to the next was always fun. With this in mind, I went back to school to get an Accounting degree to prepare for my next career change. So now as a bookkeeper to small businesses, I can help them not only with their financials but help with other business related topics. This is especially important to small start-ups that often do not have the time or money to waste.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My first business was a considerable investment in initial capital of approximately $100,000. Luckily, I was able to fund this with personal funds but was obviously concerned about the risk I was taking. In less then 5 years I had recouped my initial investment, paid off the first truck and purchased a second, through careful planning and financial management. Considerably different when compared to my current bookkeeping business which took less than $4,000 and far less stress.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

You should not start a business unless you also have an exit plan! Are you planning on building it up and selling at a later date? Leaving it to your family or just running until you want to retire, this should be thought out before starting any business. My plan was to have a business broker market and sell the business for me, however, I had a stroke of luck when a husband and wife employee team wanted to buy the business. So I started teaching them aspects of running the business outside the normal day-to-day operations they were used to handling.

Contact Info:

• Website: gandjbusinesssolutions.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeunsinger/