Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Caldwell

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?

When I was pregnant, my husband decided he wanted to start a personal training business and I was trying to find out what was next so I could be home with my baby. Then COVID hit. Then came time to do our taxes and I quickly found out my husband wasn’t tracking any of his expenses. I’ve always been good with numbers so I did some investigating and found all his expenses mixed in all our our personal accounts. So as I was pulling out my hair organizing it all, I realized he couldn’t be the only business owner that did this.

After I had quit my job and my son was just a few months old, I found Bookkeeper Training School with Kristin Ingram knowing I was destined to do more than be a mom and a wife. Then in just two months, I gain my first two bookkeeping clients (three if you include my husband). Because we had opened two businesses in one year, it gave me an advantage to help other new businesses navigate the needed requirements and avoid the constant google search to answer what’s next?

As COVID measures lifted, I went into a local BNI group. Where I surrounded myself with other amazing business owners, who helped me find myself as a business owner and grow my business. I quickly became confident selling my services and helped 30 businesses in my first year. In 2022, I hired my first employee to help me with systems and backend bookkeeping to help keep the ball growing, who is still with me today.

As I continued, in business, I have continued my education some by working with some amazing CPAs, Mentors, and coaches. Some from books and online programs like Quickbooks & Gusto Training. But More importantly, I became a Profit First Certified Professional, one of less than 400 in the United States.

What this means is my team helps you with so much more than ensuring your books are perfect come tax season. We also help you strategize for more profit, finding more time in your business, and building the life your really want.

More recently, a good friend, client, and contractor, Sadie Feinberg of Butterfly Creatives, and I started a Podcast, Those Gals at Work. We use it to reach other early entrepreneurs struggling to find their way.

I have certainly struggled over the years and learned many lessons in hiring, pricing, & marketing over the years but this is what allows me to help business owners find what’s best for them in their journey to build their business with confidence.

I don’t pretend to know it all but I have the right resources for my clients. So, if I don’t have the right answer for them, I’ll help find it. For instance, I do not strategize for you and your taxes, nor do I file them, but I work with amazing CPAs who will. I will never even try to draw you a logo, but I work with amazing Graphic designers who do. Need a website or health insurance, I have a contact. I love that I can help my clients in whatever way they need even if it means referring to someone else.

I just hope to help people find their confidence & security in being a business owner.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

There have been many days I want to say screw this and sell or question why I am doing it at all. I don’t think you are an entrepreneur or a business owner until you have had those days either. If anyone tells you life is perfect as a business owner they are lying through their teeth.

Luckily, I have always been motivated by money. So when money was tight, I knew I needed to sell a little more, or I had to be stingy about what systems I bought into. I could not afford to have shiny object syndrome.

Hiring and learning to hire, I knew was going to be a struggle for me from my experience in the corporate world. I needed to find the process, and how to truly vet people knowing that they would be a good fit. The best advice there is simple, hire slow, fire fast and if you complain about one of your employees more than three times it’s time to let them go. You also are doing a disservice to yourself and your team if you cannot afford them. Trying the balance of needing more time and how much money you have for another employee is a learning curve and there are ways to figure it out before you even hire.

I’ve also made bad investments in coaching when the salesperson promises more than what you get and how in three months you do this and you’ll be successful and that is just not the answer for anyone. Live and Learn also helps you be more understanding for clients when they are hesitant to invest in you, too.

Ultimately, no matter the bump in the road, I have learned whatever decision you make at the time, it is the right one. Every decision has a learning experience and there really is no bad in that especially as you help your clients find their path too.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about KC Virtual Bookkeeping LLC ?

KC Virtual Bookkeeping is a Profit First Bookkeeping service using Quickbooks Online to help you organize and understand your numbers while growing your business with confidence.

We help you build the right foundation for your business through one time coaching to start.

We can help you clean up or catch up your books in Quickbooks Online to ensure they are ready for tax season because you have left them untouched for a while or ever.

We can take your monthly bookkeeping completely off your hands so you don’t have to worry about them,

Then we teach you strategies, like profit first, so you can understand your numbers at any given moment.

In our monthly Profit First coaching, we help you find the best schedule to fit your life, how much you need to be making to cover all your expenses, how to budget, and how to adjust for what is actually happening in your business right now.

We are different because we help you put your family and your life first, helping you build your business around your life and not the other way around. We help you work through the emotion behind your spending or lack thereof to help you grow and get to where you want to be. We are your hype women as your work to figure out what you want your business to look like and we help you strategize to get there through our experience and referrals to those you need.

Soon you will have different series of podcasts, courses, workbooks and books as resources as you begin and continue on your journey.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?

Not only did this show how important it is to have financial security, it also showed the importance of slowing down; how hustle culture is hurting us. This showed me that you can build the life you want and not let your life run you.

You can work for yourself and be successful as long as you have the right support system in your corner. You can take the leap to who you want to be and yes it will take work but you need to allow yourself time to rest. You will not find happiness in only your work, there must be balance.

I look at everything with an inquisitive eye, I will continue to question choices if they don’t feel like they are serving me any longer. Never stop learning or looking for what could be better for us in the future.

Ultimately, we have to choose what is best for us in our moment and allow others to do the same.

Pricing:

• Profit First Coaching $497/1.5 hour
• Monthly Bookkeeping starting at $297/month
• Catchup/Clean up starting at $497

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kcvirtualbookkeeping.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kcvbookkeeping
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/kcvirtualbookkeeping
• Other: https://bio.site/thosegalsatwork

Image Credits

Hannah Martini Photography