We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pam Balentine Bell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pam below.
Hi Pam, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
After graduating from Michigan State University with both a bachelor’s and Master’s in accounting, I started working for one of the largest accounting firms in the world. I primarily focused on audits for Fortune 500 companies. Being in this business world for so long, I just thought EVERYONE in business knew how important accounting was to operate. I just KNEW everyone knew what a balance sheet, income statement (also known as profit and loss statement), and proper business tax returns were and how hugely important having them were to any business. When I finally passed my CPA exam (that’s another long story for another day…), it was around the time where entrepreneurship was becoming more and more prominent in smaller communities. It was then that people started asking me to do their taxes, wanting help with their business questions, and wanted to understand their pricing and why they weren’t seeing any cash at the end of the month; even though they had good sales. After doing some general consulting with my friends who were business owners, I was totally shocked to learn that I have been totally naive. Entrepreneurs, for the most part, know nothing about accounting. And honestly, why would they. It’s almost like a foreign language and it’s not a topic that is the easiest to understand. Business owners focus and monetize on their passion. So, I decided that my skillset is certainly needed. And it was needed beyond the auditing firm, the Fortune 500, or companies with access to unlimited resources. It’s the small businesses that make the world go ’round. It is also accounting that allows people to thrive. I had the knowledge and desire to bridge the gap.
I didn’t have it all figured out at first, but I knew that I couldn’t be the same ‘ol accountant. You know the stereotype: boring, nerds, stale conversation who tends to talk over people’s heads using all technical terms. I wanted to be relatable, understood, educational, and most of all, a value add to entrepreneurs. This is where my slogan “CPA with Personality” came about. I heard it from so many business owners that I helped…”you don’t seem like the typical CPA. You actually have a personality” is what they would tell me. They were excited that they finally understood the importance of accounting. They knew the numbers in their business. They understood business taxes. Now, they didn’t want to DO the work. But they were in a position where they were true business owners making decisions off what the data from their financials provided.
This is the story and passion behind the idea to start Viking CPA Group.
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?
Without someone in your family being in the field, accounting is not a typical career path. Especially with the population of black CPAs being under 2% in the world; I hadn’t even heard of it. It was my senior year of highschool and we had an accounting elective course. I was the only person in the class who understood what was happening. In fact, I enjoyed it! That is when my teacher advised me to research the field, career options, and opportunities. That’s when I was locked into accounting. I went on to earn my Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Accounting from Michigan State University. Starting my career at the prestigious EY in the Detroit office, I continued my career in auditing at various Fortune 500 companies. While working in internal audit, I started Viking CPA Group in March of 2014.
In November 2014, I relocated to Atlanta, GA and in March 2017, I took a huge leap of faith and went full time with my own accounting firm, where I service small to mid-size business owners; assisting them with their tax, accounting, and consulting needs. In addition to growing my firm, I also served as an Adjunct Professor at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA. I pride myself on being a value add to my clients and forming relationships…being the CPA with personality!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started Viking CPA Group when I was a full time auditor in my career. When people hear “CPA”, the first thing they think about is taxes. People asked me to do their taxes and I said no because I specialized in auditing. But I said no so much that I decided to start doing research and taking classes to refresh the tax classes I took in college. And the next time someone asked me to do their taxes, I said yes. I didn’t have it all figured out but I just made a decision to start. I started small, but still treated it like a true business. I got my paperwork in order legally and financially. I started creating systems and processes because I wanted to be taken seriously. And after I started, I knew I wanted this to be my fulltime career. All my clients came from friends, family, and slight word of mouth. It wasn’t enough to sustain me full-time, but enough to keep me busy. I kept learning and kept working in and on my business. Taking my full-time job to invest into systems, training, technology and anything that I needed to grow my skill. All the ideas and the extra work for clients kept me up at night, but I loved it.
After a few tax seasons, some accounting clients, and starting to grow my social media audience, it became a time that I was at my job taking calls for my business. It started to get hard to manage both. That’s when I knew it was only a matter of time when I had to make a decision of how long I could sustain doing both career and business. I started making sacrifices, saving money, buckling down and making a plan on how many clients I needed, my pricing, my monthly goals, etc. I invested in business coaches and created a plan.
Was I ready? Who knows! What does it mean and how does it feel to be completely ready? There is always a level of fear and tons of “what ifs. But I decided to do it scared. I could always go back to work if I needed but I didn’t want anyone else to have that much control over me with lay-offs and such. I had the potential to make unlimited possibilities for myself. I had everything I needed, I wasn’t homeless, my lights were on, so I was doing something right. I continue to grow and push myself to be a better business woman everyday.
The fear is still there…and I thrive off that. I tell everyone if you’re not a bit nervous in your business you’re playing too safe and missing out on something special!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I’ll start the story off by saying, in no means do I have a ton of followers or have any marketing experience….BUT, I think I’ve done a great job to start building my audience and getting some brand recognition. For me, it was a struggle to figure out how to make my industry relatable. Yes, many people need to know about accounting and taxes for their business, but how do I make it attention grabbing. How do I make the social media algorithms like me? I started with inspirational quotes, business quotes, tips, and facts, but that’s not where the growth was. I had to start telling stories, start making videos, and start giving great tips that people could start taking action on immediately. I started Tax Talk Tuesdays. This is a short video (less than 2-3 minutes) that gives tax tips to business owners. Ways they can save money, deductions they may not have known about, and key deadlines are the types of things I discuss.
I also engage with business owners on my page and on there’s. Providing comments, feedback, and tips in the comments helps one to be seen as a subject matter expert in their field.
So like I said, I still have some growth to do, but it’s always fun to be out of town and someone says “hey, you’re Pam The CPA…I love your Instagram feed”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vikingcpagroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamthecpa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vikingcpagroup
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamthecpa
Image Credits
Ashley Nicole, Luv Joy Stuidos