We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julie Callahan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julie below.

Julie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

There have been many times over the last 4 years that I have often wondered – should I just sell my business and go work for someone else but then I start to think about my clients – how would they be affected by my sudden decision? My incredibly reliable and trustworthy team who have been working with me and serving my clients for many years – would it be easy for them to replace their lost income? Me – working for myself has provided me with middle of the week ski days, unlimited vacation (working on making more weeks where I actually DONT work while on vacation), the opportunity to work with people that are wonderful clients and total flexibility on the hours I work, whether it be very early in the morning to midday or midday to late in the afternoon. More importantly, the opportunity to build something and earn beyond a job’s salary and enable others to be able to grow and learn too.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

70% of Business fail. We work with clients who want to beat the odds, to help them understand their numbers so they can pay themselves more, be more profitable and avoid tax panic. We work with clients to provide a roadmap to their goals and keep working with them throughout the year.

I went to college and earned a degree in Accounting. My earlier jobs were in Accounting firms where you study for your CPA and do taxes. The whole environment of “dog eat dog” philosophy, work countless hours and break everything into a billable 15min blocks was nauseating. I thought accounting was not for me. I worked more administrative jobs and learnt a lot about the running of a business. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my kids and as stay at home moms know, there is a lot of strategy, patience and love that goes into that job. During this time an opportunity arose to work in the accounting department of a real estate firm and my love for accounting and helping small business succeed blossomed. Working with the CFO and filling in for her whilst she went on medical leave & Maternity leave I learnt a lot and as a department of two, we did everything accounting (except for the taxes). I would have stayed but there was no growth opportunity and my husband travelled extensively. Kids were going to college and I wanted to travel with my husband. The job I had was in-person so I thought, I love accounting, I was proficient in Quickbooks Desktop, why not do Quickbooks Online and help entrepreneurs. Again, an opportunity arose to help a friend who lived in California, I lived in Scottsdale at the time. I worked on my processes with my client in California and launched my business in 2017.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned is you need to have a plan for your business to be able to continue in the event that you cannot work for a period of months. In 2022 my business was rocking, I had a client who was growing rapidly so my business was growing rapidly. I had 2 team members that were working on other clients but I did not get them involved with this client (big mistake) in October of 2022 I had a back issue that was getting progressively worse (I did not start to transition the work) in November I was bed bound (the pain was at a point where I could only stand and walk around for about a half hour before I had to lie down) in December I couldn’t work and had to let my biggest client go (50% of revenue). January I had surgery that was 100% successful. In 2023 I managed to rebuild my business but it is hard to go so far backwards to rebuild. This time I am onboarding clients and training my teammates on how to correctly process their accounts. I am no longer feeling invincible, I am feeling humble and appreciative that I at least had a team in place and did not lose my entire business.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being honest with my clients and following through. Providing up to date and accurate data in a timely manner so they have the information they need to make better financial decisions. Being available to answer questions and be there to help them as they start to learn about their business from a financial perspective – what are their numbers telling them and using that information so they can pay themselves more from their company (stay motivated to be an entrepreneur) , they are profitable (beat the odds of failure (70%)) and have saved enough money for taxes (avoid tax panic).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theaussiebookkeeper.com/