Meet Amanda Krieg of Balanced Business Bookkeeping

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Krieg.

Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It took me 39 years to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I was a newly divorced single mom working in operations for a major auto manufacturer and was in a disagreement with the accounting manager about how a transaction should be processed. She took the time to t-chart the process flow of the transactions and what debits and credits really meant in accounting, and it immediately clicked in my brain. It all suddenly made sense in a way that connected scattered parts of information I had learned over the years and secret parts of my DNA that I learned about later and combined them to form a whole new area of opportunity for me.

I left that job and enrolled in college to get my degree in accounting and while in school, my mom was battling end-of-life kidney failure, so we talked a lot about family history and the meanings of things. Mom shared with me that her mom had been a full-charge bookkeeper for a manufacturing facility in Springfield and another click went off in my brain. I didn’t want to be some stuffy boring accountant working in corporate solely focused on one aspect and pigeonholed into fixed assets for the rest of my life. I wanted to help small to mid-sized businesses know what was happening with all aspects of their operations by providing clean, reliable books and accurate financial statements from which to guide their decisions. I wanted to be a bad ass like my grandma (forgive the language, but she was). I had done this before during my marriage when we owned and operated a sewer and drain cleaning business but didn’t have the credentials to back up my experience… yet.

Quickly after obtaining my degree, I found a really amazing accounting specialist position with an exciting and growing brand development company. I worked my way up to staff accountant and then accounting manager, learning and growing as an accountant and as a subject matter expert that the people of the organization could rely upon. After mom passed in late 2021, I threw myself into work, family, and my relationship and life moved on until summer of 2024. I had been experiencing some concerning medical symptoms and was awaiting the results of some lab work that would impact the rest of my life. This seemed like a good time to my boyfriend and I to turn our years long relationship into an engagement and we would plan the wedding based on the outcome of the test results and related treatment timeline. We started to combine our lives, and I moved into his house along with one of my children. The results came back as muscle invasive bladder cancer which had not yet metastasized, so chemo and surgery to remove my bladder was the treatment. Chemo lasted 8 weeks, spanning the period from Thanksgiving to the end of January 2025. It was such a dark and difficult time and unfortunately, our relationship was not strong enough to endure it, so I moved back home (thank God I hadn’t sold my house yet) and went through surgery and recovery while grieving the loss of so much. If it weren’t for my children and coworkers and the countless other people that I knew were praying for me, I might have given up.

When I returned to work after recovery, I was welcomed back like a conquering hero, a bald one at that, with hugs and cheers, and a real desire to get back to work doing what I love. Months passed and I was healing and working, and I was noticing a shift in the environment at work. Schedules were funny, meetings were suddenly private for people who didn’t previously have them, tones in conversations were more tense. The business was losing money, and it was starting to show in the day to day. What was being publicly announced was not lining up with the things that were being privately discussed and actually happening. It was announced that a new CEO was being brought onboard to take the company into the next phase of growth and would work with the current CEO, who had been there for nine years, over the next few months for a smooth transition. When the current CEO wasn’t at the Holiday Party and no one could explain why, it became very clear what was about to happen. Big changes that he had been staving off were on the way. We never saw him again. People freaked out and meetings were held with the new CEO, who assured us that no more job losses would occur and that it was unfortunate how that happened and our concerns were being heard. And then more people were unceremoniously fired or released from notices early, and more secretive and suspicious conversations were happening. The mood was tense and lots of people started looking for other positions. Once it was discovered that someone was looking for another job, they were fired, which is what happened to me, and several others.

I am 49 years old now and I have defeated cancer only to be fired from a job that I love where I gave everything that I had and dumped by someone who I thought I would be with forever. I decided to take those losses and the lessons learned to build something new.

Life is too short and it’s the relationships with people that matter the most and move us forward to where we are supposed to be. This is why I started Balance Business Bookkeeping offering a full suite of bookkeeping and accounting services for small to mid-sized organizations that want to have a real partner in their future success.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Since this is a relatively new venture, the road has not been the smoothest. The biggest struggle currently is getting clients. Social media marketing in the bookkeeping and accounting space, at least what the algorithm has shown me, is heavily suggesting AI as a solution for entry level bookkeeping tasks, which may or may not prove out as a viable solution. I know in my experience, relying on ‘the system’ to process transactions is mostly a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s faster in the short term, but if there aren’t highly detailed review and reconciliation, errors are highly likely. Finding a way to break through all that noise to reach a client who could benefit from my services has been a challenge.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Balanced Business Bookkeeping?
Balanced Business Bookkeeping is an outgrowth of what is on my heart as my life’s purpose. I specialize in accurate, consistent, and timely management of the books resulting in comprehensive financial reporting. Balanced Business Bookkeeping is set apart in its personal attention to detail and high-quality individual service so that business owners can have peace of mind about the real status of their business. We provide free consultations and individualized pricing models that benefit your bottom line.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
That I once was a preschool teacher and hold an associate’s degree in early childhood development, and for a brief time would perform with my cello during story time at various preschool/childcare centers in the area. One of the most exciting and beautiful moments in life is watching the eyes of someone when you show them a new thing and as you explain it, they get it and the concept clicks and you connect in that instant, whether it’s an adult in the office learning about reconciliations or a child at a circle rug learning how instruments make sounds. I think the people who know me and my work know that I produce high-quality detailed work focused on process and consistency, but they would be surprised to know about my past life as a preschool teacher.

Pricing:

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Contact Info:

• Website: https://balancedbusinessbookkeeping.net