We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelsey Gleason. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelsey below.
Hi Kelsey, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career
While this is hardly a question to be answered in a short paragraph, my business partner Linda and I feel we are in a unique position to provide perspective on it with a total of 35 combined years in public education prior to leaving that field and becoming entrepreneurs. We were high school math teachers and our time in the classroom showed us that beyond an affinity for numbers, we enjoyed the act of serving our students and our community above all else. That love of service is what led us to the field of bookkeeping for small businesses and has helped make Educated Bookkeeping a great partner for growing businesses.
One of the biggest plights facing the educational system is the complete obsession from higher level institutions, parents and students over GPA and class rank. The public will frequently talk about the need for education to focus on teaching life skills like paying taxes, buying a home, the basics of investing, credit management, etc. instead of Algebra 2 and Calculus. You will find many teachers and school districts agree but ultimately enrollment decides course offerings. Financial literacy classes do exist, or existed in the multiple schools Linda and I taught in at least. However, the enrollment numbers typically sat between 20 and 40 students a semester on a campus of 3000. From a GPA standpoint, these courses were considered “on-level” and as a result were weighted a 4.0 for GPA calculation purposes. For many students concerned about their GPA, class rank, and the opportunities those numbers would offer them when applying for college and scholarships, they simply could not afford to take a course weighted at a 4.0 when so many of their peers were taking 5.0 and 6.0 weighted courses. Typically Pre-AP and AP level courses provided students with this numeric benefit. In an effort to reward students for taking more challenging academic classes, society has almost eliminated the focus of course selection being based on the interests and needs of the student for their future endeavors and turned it instead into a numbers game. Unfortunately, it is the student that loses out in the long run. Public school should be a vehicle to provide students with the opportunity to explore their interests and not a vehicle to drive enrollment in College Board courses.
Class rank should be eliminated from the discussion and from calculation. Why should we as a society value students for a number or grade they can achieve, instead of encouraging them to get the most out of their free education by trying out the diverse number of courses being offered regardless of how it fits into a GPA formula? However, as long as states value and rank schools based in part on the number of advanced academic classes they offer as well as their enrollment in those classes, districts are faced with a losing battle. If they eliminate class rank in an effort to focus on a student centered course selection process geared more towards future careers, enrollment in advanced academic courses will decline, that could lead to a reduced state rating and a reduced feeling of value in the community for the school district that serves them. Finding ways to change the perception of university level institutions, state legislators and the peer pressure of parent communities will be the first steps in changing the culture of public education in America. Sounds easy, don’t you think?
Kelsey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Linda (my business partner) and I met 13 years ago. She was in my interview for a math teacher position in a district in the North Texas area. She ultimately was the reason I was awarded the position. We loved our job as teachers; the creativity; the collaboration and the students. We started out teaching freshmen level Algebra 1 together and finished our time at that district teaching Pre-Calculus and Calculus together. We were a formidable team and were frequently recognized for our excellence in the classroom. While we were great with numbers and mathematical concepts what we truly loved most about the job was creating collaborative learning experiences for our students and being of service to their goals and aspirations. About halfway through our teaching careers, we both began to wonder if this was it. We were both teaching the most advanced math courses offered at the high school level and there were no other courses we felt particularly interested in teaching. We still had 20 years left in the profession before we could retire and couldn’t imagine teaching these same courses for another 20 years. We were not interested in becoming principals, curriculum writers or any other administrative position since it would remove us from the relationship piece with students that we enjoyed the most. Moving to a university level would have required a master’s degree and financially that didn’t make sense as the earning potential wasn’t there. That was when we began to explore other options.
Both Linda and I had actually earned business degrees when we were in college and not math or education degrees. Her degree focused on business operations and mine focused on finance and business law. That was what led us to a focus on business finances. We considered the idea of becoming CPA’s but ultimately we were more interested in the relationship piece and educational side of business finance literacy and felt like working with someone once a year on taxes wasn’t really our goal. We wanted to be there for our clients on a daily basis. We wanted to be the person they picked up the phone and called whenever they had a question. We wanted to be the one to teach them how to read financial reports, dissect the success stories and red flags that could be gleamed from their numbers. We wanted to be able to help them use this information to make informed business decisions as they worked to grow their company. Ultimately just like in teaching, we wanted to be of service to help them reach their goals and aspirations. Bookkeeping was the perfect fit and has truly been a great complimenting industry to the elements we loved about teaching.
Many bookkeepers work either independently or for a larger firm. One of the things that makes our firm unique is that it is a partnership. When our clients pick up the phone to reach out, they are talking to either Linda or me. They aren’t being circumvented through an administrator or lower level bookkeeper to get an answer. Our partnership has also allowed us to set up the quality control measures found in larger firms that individual bookkeepers are not able to offer. It has allowed us the opportunity to offer a more personal experience for our clients with the operational effectiveness of a larger firm. Ultimately our focus as a firm is not just providing accurate and timely reports, we want to truly be in partnership with each of the clients we serve.
As a firm we offer a wide variety of services and customize those services to fit the needs to each of our clients. We can do as little or as much of the accounting as a business might need. For brand new businesses who might not have the cash flow or volume to warrant paying for monthly bookkeeping, we offer set-up and training packages. This helps the business owner get set-up correctly with their financial tracking and gain the basic operational knowledge to maintain the books. That service also provides them with access to us should questions arise moving forward. We also offer clean-up services for financial books that have been either neglected or never started and the bulk of our business is traditional monthly bookkeeping including reconciliations, sales and use tax filings and monthly educational meetings. We have partnered with businesses in a wide variety of industries including trades, event centers, artists, digital printers, technology resale and repair as well as a non-profit. The diversity of our clientele keeps every day interesting but the one thing they all have in common is a passion for their mission and it is a privilege to support them in their endeavors.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
Linda and I met when I came to a school district to interview for a math teacher position. She was in the interview and the primary reason I was awarded the position. She insisted that I was the best fit for the team even though I had the least amount of experience. Our backgrounds are incredibly different but our work ethic, core values and drive were so similar that we became a formidable team early on in our teaching career. Even when we were not teaching the same courses, we would still work together and collaborate to create new and engaging experiences for our students. That partnership led to a great friendship and when the thought of leaving public education came to mind, neither of us could imagine making that leap without the other person. It’s been so phenomenal having each other as we navigated with world of entrepreneurship.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest pivot in life and career came during the pandemic as it did for so many in this world. Both my business partner Linda and I were public school teachers. Obviously, during that time, there were a number of changes occurring in that field as it worked to navigate the difficult challenges of public health and public service. As teachers we were told to just make it work when the jobs we were being asked to do, the technology we were being asked to utilize and the accommodations for families we were asked to respect had never been a consideration in the profession before. Instead of juggling 10 balls in the air each day we were now being asked to juggle 20 while being told to take care of our mental health at the same time. The job became extremely stressful to the point that it manifested two new auto immune diseases in my body. I spent the better part of 7 months of teaching taking multiple medications to keep me functional and able to go to school each day however long term, that wasn’t a viable solution. In order to mange these diseases a drastic change in my life needed to occur. I needed to increase my sleep, take time to exercise, drastically modify my diet and have a greater ability to control and manage stress. After having been in public education for 20 years, I knew that this profession was never going to allow me to make these changes and so a career change had to occur. With a degrees in business and a focus on service and education, Linda and I formed Educated Bookkeeping. Our firm has been a great vehicle to continue our love of service to our community while having a greater level of control of how, when and with who we work. My auto immune diseases are now all in remission and I am only on a partial dosage of one remaining medication. It wasn’t a quick fix, but it was deliberate and measured. More importantly, I’m grateful for the support I had in my life to make the change happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://educatedbookkeeping.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educatedbookkeeping
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelsey-gleasoneb/
Image Credits
Katie Abel