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Do you want to enhance your financial management and make better business decisions? Are you looking for a way to achieve improved outcomes for your small business? Join us as our guest Tania Pacheco shares how you can attain these desired results. Discover how effective bookkeeping can contribute to your success and empower you to navigate the financial landscape with confidence.
My special guest is Tania Pacheco.
Tania Pacheco is the founder of TP Bookkeeping, a strategic bookkeeping firm that works with creative agencies and consulting firms. With a background in corporate accounting, Tania brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. Since starting TP Bookkeeping in late 2018, Tania has steadily grown her client base, now serving over 50 monthly clients. Her dedication to providing amazing service is evident in her impressive retention rate. Tania’s strategic approach to growth and her commitment to building long-term partnerships with her clients have been key factors in the success of TP Bookkeeping. With Tania’s guidance and knowledge, small business owners and entrepreneurs can gain valuable insights into financial management and make informed decisions to drive their businesses forward.
Know your worth, know your worth. Whatever that is, you need to know it. – Tania Pacheco
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Discover the importance of bookkeeping in making informed financial decisions for your business.
- Understand the different roles of bookkeepers, accountants, and CPAs, and how each contributes to the success of your business.
- Determine the level of involvement you need from a bookkeeper and learn how to tailor their services to meet your specific needs.
- Streamline your business finances with accurate and detailed bookkeeping.
Importance of Bookkeeping in Financial Management
Bookkeeping plays an invaluable role in the effective management of an enterprise’s finances. It provides a clear, comprehensive understanding of business health, helping owners make informed decisions. Tania Pacheco underscores the need for strategic bookkeeping, enabling businesses to accurately analyze data and establish solid financial foundations.
Roles of Bookkeepers, Accountants, and CPAs
Bookkeepers, accountants, and Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are vital in business financial management, yet they each offer distinct expertise. Tania expertly outlines these roles, noting bookkeepers diligently organize financial data while accountants analyze it for actionable insights. CPAs, specializing in tax preparation, ensure businesses comply with tax laws.
Tailored Level of Involvement
The level of involvement a business owner maintains with their bookkeeping services can depend on individual preferences, as stated by Tania. Some prefer constant communication via platforms like Slack or Voxer, while others favor a hands-off approach. A tailored experience enables each business to receive services aligned with their expectations.
Pricing and Organization for Bookkeeping Services
Tania explains the pricing structure at TP Bookkeeping, and how most clients are on a monthly retainer for regular tasks. In her words, bookkeepers are innately organized, employing tools like Asana, HoneyBook, and QuickBooks for client management. Organized processes help ensure the smooth and efficient delivery of bookkeeping services
Connect with Tania:
Transcript
I’m so happy to have Tania Pacheco here with me today. She is the founder of TP Bookkeeping and I think it’s something we all need to talk more about. So thanks so much for coming on today, Tania. Thank you for having me, Alessandra. I’m excited to be here.
00:00:45
Me too. I feel like I’ve been following along with you for such a long time and we’ve really never really gotten to just chat like this. I’m always I feel like I learn a lot from you on social media and your emails and stuff like that. And I feel like everybody else could learn a lot too. And also I feel like it’s just one of those things bookkeeping.
00:01:10
It’s like people don’t know, you don’t know what you don’t know. I guess that’s where I’m kind of going with that. And so when I see your stuff, I’m like, oh, okay, these are things I should be thinking about. So I thought it could be really useful to dive into some of that today. And I also think that following along with your business in general is really cool.
00:01:30
So I want to hear more about how you’ve created it. Yeah, hey, I’m here to spread the bookkeeping cheer so could talk about it all day long. Well, let’s start by where it came from. How did you get into it, however far back you want to go leading up to starting a business and what it is today. What was that story?
00:01:53
I mean, my background is in corporate accounting settings. I worked for about seven years for a pretty well known Boston restauranteur and her finance and accounting department. And then I worked in tech and at a marketing agency. So I have been doing accounting way before TP Bookkeeping was a thing. So I really didn’t set out to own my own business.
00:02:23
It actually was a colleague of mine who is a CPA was like, have you ever thought about kind of doing your own thing? We were seeing a lot of our friends and our colleagues were opening up their own businesses and they needed bookkeeping, right? Like they would get to my colleague Steve and they wouldn’t have their books ready. And he was like, I just feel like this is very much know, what do you think? And I was like.
00:03:00
I really was. Not hot on it. I’m going to be honest. It took some convincing, but I eventually was like, you know what, let’s give it a go. And so in late 2018, I took on my first very late 2018, like December, I took on my first monthly bookkeeping client.
00:03:20
And it’s been just going and going since then. We have pretty much grown every year over year and we’re at over 50 monthly clients now. Yeah, it’s really fantastic. And I’m so grateful for my first clients. They’re still with us, so we love our clients, and we love who we work with, and so our retention rate is, like, 98.8% or something crazy.
00:03:57
So I love that. I’m really proud of what TPB has become. Yeah. That is so cool. I love it.
00:04:04
I feel like sometimes we need that person who’s like, hey, you should do, like, kind of pushing us to take that step, because sometimes we never thought of it ourselves, or it just seems like, no, I shouldn’t do that, or, I couldn’t do that. It’s cool to have people on your side who are like, yeah, you could, and you should. And you never looked back. Yeah, I think it’s scary, right? Like, the fear of the unknown.
00:04:30
I mean, I was in corporate. I had a very nice salary at stock options, health insurance. It’s really scary to make that leap. And I didn’t do the side hustle thing. I just was like, if I’m doing this, I’m doing this.
00:04:43
I’m going full in. And so that was terrifying. And did that first client come from the guy who told you to start it? Was he like, I have someone already you should work with. And I had worked with this person in a previous role, so we already knew each other.
00:05:01
So it was just like he said, oh, it’s just like getting the band back together. And it so was true, and it was, like, a nice first step for me because I already knew all the people involved and had worked with them, and they trusted me, and so, yeah, it kind of was very organic, but when I went to college or high school, I wasn’t like, I’m going to be an entrepreneur. That was not the vibe. Yeah, me neither. I mean, a lot of people I talk to, I think, say that I had no idea until it came time to be like, oh, this is something I need to do.
00:05:40
We did not plan to be business owners. I love it. So, very end of 2018, you were like, I’ll do this, but here’s one client, so we’re officially starting. And then did you bring on others pretty quickly after that? I imagine.
00:05:57
Yeah. So within the first two years, we pretty much added about ten clients a year. Obviously, some years, a little more, some a little less. So by 2020, we were already at, like, 25 clients. So I always joke with my friends and my family.
00:06:19
I’m very strategic about my growth. I feel like I say this all the time. I say no more than I say yes because I want to have these long lasting partnerships with my clients, and so it’s very important to me that I’m the right fit for them and vice versa. So I think money and finances are a funny thing. You really have to trust the person who’s going to be in it with you.
00:06:50
And so we are so honored that people trust us with that, and we take that very seriously. But also, I think that’s an admirable thing when it comes to business because so many people listening to this, I bet, are like, well, yeah, that sounds amazing, but it can be really hard to say no to a potential client, especially when you’re either first starting or when you’re trying to grow. And it’s like, but if they want to work with me, I should do that because you never know what else is going to happen or whatever. But I love how strategic you’ve been. Has it mostly been through the relationships you have with other business owners and people who would kind of refer you to the people they’re working with and things like that?
00:07:37
Yeah, that’s exactly. All of our growth has been organic through existing clients or through how we meet out with other kind of professionals who are very like minded. It’s all been just word of mouth referrals, pretty much. I’ve picked up a few clients here and there from Instagram or whatever, but the vast majority is all organic word of mouth referrals from existing or like peers like yourself. So it’s really great.
00:08:16
And I think depending on your business, that’s a wonderful way to go because the clients tend to be ideal because they’re already coming from a verifiable source. Wow. Yeah, no, I think that’s amazing. And then, you know, you can hold on to them long term, so you don’t have maybe that fear that I feel like sometimes makes some of us jump into things with not necessarily an ideal client. Because it’s like, oh, but I don’t know if I’m going to have another client come to me next week or next month.
00:08:48
And it sounds like you don’t deal with too much of that. So that’s really cool. I love it. Yeah, I don’t worry. I think my philosophy is you can only control the controllables.
00:09:00
I can’t worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I know for me to perform and give a great service that we have to be at a certain level. And I think all business owners should keep that in mind. You know your worth, know your worth. Whatever that is, you need to know it. And I feel like, oh my gosh, I feel like I just lost my train of thought.
00:09:22
There was something I was going to say about that. It’ll come to me later. Oh, no, I was going to say I’m sure we’ll go into this, but I bet part of that comes from you being very smart about knowing your numbers and you get what’s going on behind the scenes in probably a deeper way than some of us. So that might help too, with being like, okay, this is what we need to do. This is what it should look like.
00:09:45
And I trust that it’s all working the way it should. What about your team? Because you are not doing that all yourself anymore at this point. Right? So what does that look like to kind of when did you start bringing people in, I guess?
00:09:59
And what does that look like now? Yeah. I have to be very honest, I’m very Type A. I think that’s what makes me such a good bookkeeper. It was really hard for me to let go, but I think everybody and every entrepreneur that starts out as a sole practitioner kind of has this moment where they’re like, if I want to take this rocket ship to the moon, I’m going to need some help.
00:10:27
And so I definitely hit that in 2019. And then there was a little EB with the Pandemic, but then 2021 because we didn’t really slow down. So it is not just me. It’s me and a team of four. So really bringing the right people in has been so crucial and important in building my business.
00:10:58
I think your team is your dream, as corny as that sounds. But being very, again, strategic about who you bring into the fold will make a huge difference, and it has made a huge difference in my business. I can say that without any hesitation. It’s the biggest investment I’ve made in my business. But the best investment is your team all remote.
00:11:29
Do you guys work from home? Yeah, so not everybody. It’s a mix. We’re hybrid everybody’s local to Massachusetts, so we do meet in person because I think that’s important. I want to see them not every day because I trust that they’re doing their work from home.
00:11:46
But I think that touch point is really important for me as a CEO, that’s important. I know everybody’s different, but I really love that. Yeah, I agree. I like to have a little bit of kind of even if it’s just from like a team building perspective and just working really strongly together. And it’s funny because I sometimes blame that on the creative aspect of my company, but not that bookkeeping isn’t creative, but I feel like it feels a lot more cut and dry kind of in certain respects.
00:12:19
I don’t know. Interesting to hear you say that too. I’m always like, I feel like we need to it’s just helpful. Not that we need to, we are mostly remote too. But I feel like it’s just nice to be together sometimes and be able to bounce ideas off, kind of just see how we work together, just be able to chitchat over what we’re doing a little bit.
00:12:36
Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Yeah. I always say, like, my famous line is I hire for personality because as long as you’re competent and you have some experience, I can teach you the bookkeeping for the way that TP does it, as long as you’re a good human. I just think that’s way more important for our team and for our company.
00:13:01
So again, I’m very cognizant of that, that maybe the person that doesn’t have exactly all the boxes ticked on their resume, it doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be a great fit here. And so I’m definitely more personality and culture driven, which I think is definitely unique and not necessarily that is more creative brain, but I see that it’s very important to the longevity of the company. Yeah. I think with small businesses, especially when it’s the first for several hires probably too, it’s like that really is helping to shape what the company is like. Not just like what it’s like to work here but what the experience is like for the clients and just the whole energy behind the business.
00:13:50
So that can be really important I think, especially at the smaller stages. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So just one more question about that.
00:14:02
Just because I’m nosy, it totally doesn’t matter. But I’m just curious, I love to hear just like how you built this. Did you know the people that you’ve hired from other because I know you said a lot of everything has been referrals and your network and connections sound like they’ve been so helpful. I’m just curious, are people blindly applying to work with you or do you kind of have pull people from your network sometimes too? Yeah, so all of the ladies who work here are either was a referral from a colleague, almost everybody was a referral from a colleague.
00:14:37
Like I worked with Kristen in a previous role and her good friend from they have kids in the same school as Lisa and I was like, I’m looking for help and she’s like, oh my gosh, Lisa, she’s great. And so then that just kind of very naturally occurred. Jen, who is another bookkeeper here, I reached out to another restaurant bookkeeper friend of mine and she was like, oh I can’t help you but I have this friend Jen. Oh wow. So it’s all been very like you said, through connections.
00:15:15
I don’t know why I had a feeling you were going to say that. I had no idea. I just felt like that was going to be the case. Yeah, I love it when it works that way. Yeah, it really is.
00:15:26
So it really has been like you just said all through connections. Yeah. Cool. I guess I don’t know I was going to say backtrack but that’s not really what I’m trying to say. I want to kind of back up a little though to tell people what is it really like when we say bookkeeping and tell me if I’m wrong.
00:15:49
But I feel like people question, do I need a bookkeeper or do I need an accountant? Or are they the same thing, or do I need a CPA. Or if I already have one, do I not need I feel like you kind of touched on that a little bit. Then do I not need an accountant? Do I not need?
00:16:03
How does bookkeeping fit in, I guess? And when it really comes down to it, is it’s what I want to start with? Yeah. No, I think this is such a great question because so many people out there are probably like, what do I need? What don’t I need?
00:16:20
What should I outsource? You know what I mean? When you think about bookkeepers, accountants, it’s CPAs. It’s this mishmash of roles. And it’s like the money stuff already feels too complicated and scary for those of us not in that world.
00:16:38
So it’s like just another layer of that, like, oh, there’s more to it that I don’t know or fully understand. Totally. And I think to touch on that, the reason it might feel very convoluted is because there’s so much going on when it comes to preparing your financials that that’s why there’s kind of like these three layers, if you will, to your bookkeeping. So when you think about bookkeeping, that’s like the foundation. That’s the data that drives the next two steps.
00:17:11
So without bookkeeping, you are not going to be able to file your taxes correctly, and you’re not going to be able to analyze what’s going on. So I always joke that bookkeepers are like the puzzle doers, right? We’re in there. We’re in there every day, every week. We’re the nitty gritty.
00:17:29
We love the details. We really do. Because that’s what we do, right? We’re the giant organizers. We’re like number organizers.
00:17:41
That’s our job. Great, because that’s what most of us want to avoid. I feel like so many people are like, I don’t want to spend any time dealing with that. I think to that point, people always ask me, like, does everybody need a bookkeeper? No, not everybody needs a bookkeeper.
00:17:59
But you need to be doing your bookkeeping in some fashion because this is such an important layer to the pie, right? It really is important, no matter what phase of business you’re in, to just do your bookkeeping knowing that maybe it’s not going to be something you outsource right away or even in the first few years.
00:18:25
I always say, you will know when it’s time. You’ll get that feeling when it’s time. There’s not like, oh, when you’re at X amount of revenue. I don’t believe in that. I think when you know, you know.
00:18:39
So when you think about bookkeepers, think about just giant, like I said, giant puzzle doers. That’s basically what we do. We take all the data, all your financial data from your bank account, your credit cards, and we put them in pretty little buckets and make sure the numbers are right and that they agree to things like your bank statements and credit card statements.
00:19:02
That informs the next kind of step, which is accountants. Not every bookkeeper is an accountant. The accountant kind of piece of it comes when you’re asking for analysis and feedback, right? So that’s this kind of really important middle layer that I think a lot of business owners are seeking or they don’t know that they need it, if that makes sense, because not every bookkeeper is an accountant, right? So you might be getting these monthly financial reports and just being like, what am I looking at?
00:19:41
And so an accountant. I do both so I can okay. That was what I was going to say. Do you guys both because we said not everyone does. Yes, we do both.
00:19:50
Here. They’re going to take the numbers and basically give it back to you in plain English so you can understand what the numbers are saying. So I think that’s this really kind of unique subset of not all bookkeepers are accountants, but there are many that are and will be able to analyze, give you actionable data. And so that’s kind of this middle layer of what an accountant does. And then obviously the last part is a CPA, and pretty much a CPA is licensed to prepare and sign your tax returns.
00:20:32
They shouldn’t be doing your bookkeeping because there needs to be kind of some separation of church and state, but they’re licensed insured professionals that file your taxes for you, which obviously is important.
00:20:49
They’ll take the information sorry, cut that out. So they’ll take the information that you guys have been taking care of all year long and just be able to easily kind of file that without having to scramble to figure out other stuff. Exactly. We basically give them a nice little package of all they need. And of course there’s questions, but then that’s why we’re here to help answer them.
00:21:15
So I think it’s this really interesting symbiotic relationship because CPAs don’t want to do bookkeeping. And I know as a bookkeeper, I don’t want to prepare taxes. Right. I stay in my lane. So I think it’s nice to have partners on that side of the aisle.
00:21:35
Yeah. That was what you said the person who first was telling you to start your business was a CPA. Correct? I know if you prepare people’s things, it’ll be easy for me to file, basically. Exactly.
00:21:45
Yes, that’s exactly probably why he did it. But yes. Okay, so good to know. So you basically, to sum that up, you don’t need a bookkeeper, but you have to be doing bookkeeping. So basically, if as a business owner, you do not want to be doing your own bookkeeping, you might want to get a bookkeeper, and you could find one like you guys, where you do the bookkeeping and the accounting.
00:22:08
So that kind of like, saves a step, or at least it helps synthesize everything and make it be actionable for you throughout the year, probably because you can then use that information not just for filing taxes, but also to know a lot more about what’s going on in your business and make informed choices and things like that. I feel like I see you talking about that kind of piece of it a lot in terms of what you can learn from these numbers in order to make smart decisions within your business, which obviously sounds very important.
00:22:44
I don’t know if there’s an answer to this, but is there like one or two things that you’re like? These are some of the main, most useful or most important or most interesting choices that you see your clients being able to make in a really informed way based on knowing their numbers. Yeah. So I think I always say all roads lead back to bookkeeping because you can’t analyze shit if it’s shit, sorry, you might want to bleep that out. But true, the data is so important, and that’s why your bookkeeping is so important because if your numbers are wrong, then we’re just going to be analyzing wrong data, right?
00:23:27
And so I think that’s why I will die on this hill that I’m always like, it’s important to do your bookkeeping and that is totally step one. But the very important step two is to look and understand what you’re looking at, right? And I think that is where what I think we do really well here is we’re not just doing the bookkeeping. We are but for some clients, but we really do kick it up a notch to kind of say, I get that as a creative business owner, these reports might be confusing and maybe you are avoiding them or you don’t want to even look at them. But that’s where I come in and we come in and really kind of break it down by saying, hey, look, your revenue is up 26% from last year or last month or last quarter.
00:24:31
What did we change? Right? Did you add a new service? Did you take away a service that wasn’t performing well? And so we’re always kind of in there listening, kind of providing feedback.
00:24:47
And I think that that is really important as a business owner to kind of have that financial partner to kind of lean on when you need it. So as far as interesting, man, I don’t know. We’ve seen some interesting stuff for sure. I think just in broad strokes how we’ve had a lot of creative agency clients that have really been able to dial in. If you feel like cash is tight or if you feel like you could be doing something better, we can come in and we have for our clients and been like, look, payroll is at this.
00:25:37
It really should be at this. What does that look like? Let’s look at your headcount. What can we do? I think sometimes as business owners, we have like this shiny object syndrome, right, where you’re like, I’m guilty of the same thing.
00:25:55
But I think that that’s where we come in and are like, okay, let’s get down to Brass tax and reality and really think about what’s going on, right? And so we kind of provide that dose of reality, if you will. I try to be very nice about it.
00:26:22
And even if somebody doesn’t listen to you, I imagine that sometimes people make decision, you make decisions based on all kinds of different pieces of the puzzle and money might just be one of them. Somebody might be and I’ve done this, I actually need more help, even if it doesn’t necessarily financially make sense at the time for the business. It’s an investment that I have to take because I know I’m going to personally be less available or things like that. There might be those other reasons, but at least knowing here’s what it looks like and here’s from a financial perspective, what you should keep in mind or what makes sense from the financial perspective, it helps you make sure you’re actually really approaching it from all angles. And I also feel like even just having that perspective brought in by another person, even if I was doing my own bookkeeping and could see those things myself, having someone else be like, hey, the numbers don’t lie.
00:27:16
Here’s what they look like, here’s what you should consider might almost be helpful for people on another level to kind of okay, it’s not just like me, my bookkeeper, my accountant is telling me I should really consider looking at this, maybe making some shifts here and there. And I feel like it’s just having the outside perspective. I think having the outside perspective is really important. I think sometimes we get tunnel vision as entrepreneurs and it’s like if you feel like things are going well, they probably are, but doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be going better. Yeah.
00:27:57
Or also it could be going well. But yeah, sometimes once things are going well, it’s like then you’re not necessarily paying attention to all the things that maybe are slipping through the cracks because they’re not necessarily creating a problem or being detrimental. But it’s like, hey, there’s actually ways you could be either doing something a little better, like saving a little better, or being more streamlined with things. And that’s still good to be on top of. I think to your point, everybody’s goals are different and you touched on this.
00:28:27
Maybe you would hire somebody and take a little bit of a higher payroll cost to have more time back in your personal life with your family or whatever. And that’s super important to keep in mind, right. Your goals are not going to be the same as everybody else’s and so that will translate to your financials. Right. So your P L might look completely different than another public relations firm right.
00:28:53
Because of that. And I think we bring that perspective in when know, take a look at financials and meet with the yeah, that’s. That makes sense and that’s important to keep in you, probably. I feel like it must be interesting to see the back end of so many people’s business. And it might be, I don’t know.
00:29:12
It sounds interesting. Well, actually, that’s a good segue. The other thing I want to ask you is what does it actually look like to work with you guys on an ongoing basis? Are you having people send their bank statements every month, or are you in their accounts? What does that actually look like?
00:29:28
If someone’s like, I probably need this, but what does it actually require of me? And what does that relationship look like? Yeah, so pretty much all of our clients are monthly ongoing clients. So that basically means that we come in and kind of take over your financial ops, right. So we pretty much exclusively use QuickBooks.
00:29:51
And so we will set up QuickBooks for you. We will connect all of your bank credit card accounts, and we’re in there pretty much every week or every other week, making sure everything’s coded, asking questions, making sure payroll is recorded, or whatever is going on that you’re getting paid, which is important, and kind of just in it for you. And then, of course, there’s like varying degrees of our working together. You know, some folks we also invoice their clients. Some folks, we also pay their bills.
00:30:34
Some folks, they do part of it. So it kind of is very customized approach. And I do that by design because I want to meet owners where they’re at. Right. Not every business owner is going to want us to do their client invoicing, and that’s okay, but there are some that do.
00:30:56
So it just depends on how little or how much bookkeeping help you want. And then every month, no matter what type of package you’re in, you get a PNL and a balance sheet from me. Just saying, like, here’s where you’re at. If you obviously want a lot of feedback and a lot of analysis, that’s like more CFO work. We do plenty of that.
00:31:22
If you’re just happy with the financials, then we do that too. So no matter what, every one of our clients does receive that every month. So it could look like just basically getting an email from you guys every month. And then I imagine if there’s something that needs to be discussed, you discuss it, but otherwise they don’t really do anything. You’re in the back end of stuff, and they’re not really aware of it on a regular basis.
00:31:45
Yeah, they’re only aware when we have a question. And we do have some clients that have Slack or Voxer access to us, and they’re way more involved. Again, it’s just as little or as much involvement that you want from us, because, again, every business owner is different. Some people are super duper hands off, which is fine, and some people are super duper hands on. And so it just depends where you’re at.
00:32:17
And then imagine it’s like a monthly retainer. They’re paying one fee every month, and that’s it. Pretty much everybody’s on a monthly retainer. Unless there’s random. You need.
00:32:28
To apply for a loan or something that’s kind of out of scope, which we all have things that are out of scope in our job, so don’t let people scope creep conversation for another day. Yes, that’s another podcast, but yes, everybody’s on a monthly retainer. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, I feel like that’s I just want to make people feel like, hey, if this is something you’re interested in, you just do it or don’t do it, but at least be informed about what it looks like, what it will be like.
00:32:59
And the thing that comes up for me, too, that I need to ask now, one more thing is how do you guys stay so organized behind or how do you stay organized? I feel like you have to be very organized behind the scenes there. What tools do you guys use internally for you to know? I mean, would you say 50 something clients right now with monthly? Yeah, we’re at over 50 clients.
00:33:22
I think bookkeepers by nature are inherently organized. Like, if you’re not an organized person, you probably wouldn’t be a very good bookkeeper. No, probably not the job for you. So I think that’s super important. We use Alessandra for a project management tool, which has been excellent.
00:33:42
I mean, there’s so many out there. There’s trello ClickUp. You name it. We love Alessandra, so that’s what we use to kind of just keep the wheels on the bus with all of our client work. So that’s our big project management tool.
00:33:59
And things like HoneyBook, which I’m sure you know is a CRM. And like I said, we’re QuickBooks loyal, so a lot of our tech and our tech stack is QuickBooks and QuickBooks adjacent apps. So that kind of keeps everything in one place. Amazing. Yeah, I feel like I don’t know, it just feels like a lot of pressure to make sure you’re handling everybody’s money correctly and at the right.
00:34:28
I mean, not that you’re handling the money, but just to stay on top of that many clients sounds like a lot, and I’m impressed by that. And I know you have the team. It’s not like you’ve got it all built out, but I’m just impressed by how organized you must be. You must all be like, I just can only imagine what it looks like behind the scenes with four bookkeepers. We love color coding.
00:34:51
That’s what it looks like. Yes. No, I love that. Anything else from a bookkeeping standpoint or not, that you feel like we should leave people with? I don’t want people to be like, hey, if you’re hearing a conversation about bookkeeping, you should also keep this in mind or you should know this.
00:35:09
Anything like yeah, I mean, I think what’s really important, if you are serious about being in business and being an entrepreneur long term, you are going to have to get comfy with the numbers at some point. So, like, avoidance is not the answer here. I think again, the tunnel vision is real sometimes as entrepreneurs, but there will become a pivotal point wherever that is in your journey, that you are going to have to really dig in and see what’s going on. So that point is going to come at different points for everybody, but not shying away from it is super important. And finding a person that you can, like, no trust that will come along your financial journey is super important and definitely not I always say this, not looking in your bank account balance and relying on that, saying that everything’s okay.
00:36:13
Right. Your cash balance is a vanity metric, essentially. Even if there’s millions of dollars in the bank, if you’re spending a million dollars a month on Google Ads, well, guess what? It’s a much different you know, being in tune to that, I think, is really know and not hanging your hat on just one thing. So that’s just my two cent.
00:36:39
Yeah, well, and I’ve got to ask, do you feel like when you look at the back end of people’s statements or, like, are there like I feel like I don’t check stuff everything’s online, and I trust everything a lot. Yeah. So honestly, Alessandra, more than you would think. We’ve caught so much fraud. We’ve caught, like, banking errors.
00:37:03
So, for example, we had a client that deposited an $8,000 check, and bank of America posted it as 800. And so I was like, what is that? I was like, that’s not right. And so we immediately flagged that a lot of times. Now, you know how you can mobile check, deposit, like, anything?
00:37:23
If somebody cashes a check twice, a lot of the banks will let it through. But then if we’re on the scene and we’re reconciling, we can catch that and be like, hey, this person cashed that in April. Why do they just try and cash it again? And so we actually do, shockingly, catch a lot of discrepancies. I wouldn’t say it’s, like, all the time, but we’ve definitely caught enough that I think it makes people less reliant on just trusting that everything on your statement is correct, because a lot of times it’s not.
00:37:58
Okay. Wow. I’m glad I asked that. Yeah, I bet there’s something I’ve missed then, because I definitely don’t check them that much. I know I’ve messaged you about this before.
00:38:13
I’m like, I feel like I want to work with you, but I always feel like I don’t have anything. We only work with a couple of clients at a time, and it’s all, like, automatic invoicing and stuff. I feel like there’s not much to it. And so I don’t know if there’s anything that a bookkeeper could do, but I want to work with you guys because it seems I don’t know why. I just like you.
00:38:36
I like your company, and I’ve heard great things. I was referred to you by a friend who I know works with you, but I was like, I don’t know. I feel like I don’t know what I would have them do. And as you said, someday I will get there. I’m sure there will be a time when we need that, but this is also maybe something worth thinking about and keeping in mind, even if it’s just things like that, that could be worth it.
00:38:59
I think of it just as the ongoing whatever, like checking that my clients are paying, but there’s a little more to it. Yeah, having that extra set of eyes is not a bad idea when you’re ready. Right. I think, again, you or anybody out there is going to get to this moment where they’re going to just want somebody to back them up and look at things. And so, yes, it’s important to do your bookkeeping and make sure you’re getting paid and you’re paying your bills, but there will become a time that it’s going to be more than that.
00:39:36
Right. You’re going to want to make sure that person didn’t cash their check twice or that $8,000 check. And so we do much more than just putting things into buckets. Right. So it sounds simple on the surface, I think.
00:39:52
And then once you get in it, you realize how many layers are in the onion, if you will. Yeah, it doesn’t sound simple to me at all, but I know what you mean. It sounds cut and dry in terms of what you’re doing and what you’re offering, but definitely not simple to me, but okay. Do you guys have anything fun coming up? Anything like, what do you see for the future of the company?
00:40:13
Are you planning anything? Dreaming, scheming? Anything you can share about? I’m always dreaming and scheming, but I think for now, we’re just going to keep serving our clients. We do have a few monthly spots open for the rest of this year and into next year to work with us, and we don’t have any big dreams yet, though I’m sure that that will change.
00:40:43
It’s always changing. Just hoping to continue to serve our clients well and have the best team and just keep this machine going. Love it. Is there anything that I always ask people at the end two things. Is there anything you wish you knew more about when you first started your business?
00:41:04
Yeah. Oh, my gosh, there are so many things. We literally could record another podcast about this. Alessandra I think the one thing I wish I had known more five years ago is that outsourcing when you can and hiring the right team is literally all the difference into how you scale your business. I think that it is something that sometimes we can overlook as you’re scaling, but it is so pivotal to know when you’re at the point that you can either outsource a task to, for example, a social media firm or whatever that is, or a bookkeeper.
00:41:47
Right. Because that is only going to add value to your organization. Right. Like, every time I’ve brought on either a contractor or a team member that has just made TP Bookkeeping better, it is an investment. Right.
00:42:04
That’s always going to be an investment, but knowing that if you do it right, it will pay you back in infinity. Well, that’s kind of what I was getting at, too, before with sometimes it’s not just the numbers, of course. Yeah. If you can project that out, but I feel the same way every time I’ve invested in something. It didn’t quite make financial sense in the moment, but I knew that what it was going to allow was going to be a lot of growth for the business and be worth it eventually in that way.
00:42:33
So, yeah, I totally agree with you there. I’ve seen that a lot, too. Any last word of advice for other entrepreneurs, business owners? Yeah, actually, there’s two pieces of advice that I have been given that I always pay forward. I think the first is don’t be the smartest person in the room.
00:42:54
There’s always opportunity to grow and learn from like minded entrepreneurs, even if they’re in the same space as you, but certainly just like minded folks like you. And I just being open to that, I think is so huge. So definitely always do that and be willing to walk away from anything that doesn’t align with your values. I’m talking a deal, a client, whatever, because if you are constantly in this hamster wheel of Ick, you’re never going to be able to grow as an entrepreneur. So being willing to walk away is a huge skill and piece of advice that I would give to any other business owner.
00:43:48
I love that. So good. Yes. So good. Amazing.
00:43:53
Well, thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. Tell people how they can find you. How can they connect with you if they want to? After hearing Find me on Instagram at TP Bookkeeping, I try and hang out over there a lot.
00:44:06
I’m also on LinkedIn under my personal Tania Pacheco. You can find me there as well. Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on and having this conversation with me today. Yeah, thank you for having me.
00:44:17
This is so much fun.
