Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Beitenman.
Hi Nicole, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Brevity is not one of my strong suits, so I hope you love long stories.
I was set on becoming an English teacher from the ages of 10 to 20. During my junior year of college, there was a job loss in my family, and I wasn’t allowed to work while student teaching; I could already see what my financial future looked like as a teacher. I printed out a list of every major Kent State offered and crossed out the ones I knew I didn’t want to do. I kept coming back to business because it was so broad, and that was appealing when I no longer had any real direction. Someone told me that accounting was the language of business, so I switched my major.
My first job was in commercial real estate. That year, I bought my first house and started renting out the spare bedrooms. I fell in love with real estate. After 7 years in the corporate world, I decided I wanted to learn more about the residential side of real estate. I wanted to understand how lending worked for my own investment purposes, so I became a mortgage lender. That went ok until I had twins.
Originating mortgages is a very phone-heavy job, and it’s hard to pick up the phone when there’s an infant in each arm, so I quit without knowing what I’d do next. About 9 months later, my dad heard about a course to start a remote bookkeeping business. I was burned out on sales, so I shrugged off the idea until a remote bookkeeper was featured on one of my favorite podcasts, The Side Hustle Show. That bookkeeper had a guidebook for getting started. I bought that book and opened shop within a month.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Building my bookkeeping business has been smooth, just slower than I thought. The road leading up to it was the rocky part. I probably should have kept a W2 longer than I did, but I was desperate to get out. I really thought my lending business would be The One. And then it wasn’t. I had two rentals bringing in a few bucks a month, I had an Etsy shop, I rented my car out on Turo, I picked up and dropped so many ideas within a day, but none of that was bringing in a livable income, and my husband’s income couldn’t cover our household expenses AND my personal expenses like student loans or vehicle expenses, and we wanted our kids to be able to start preschool by 3 which would be another substantial expense. It was a scary time not knowing how I was going to contribute, and it was so important that my daughters see me have my own income, my own assets, and my own retirement funds. A year or two sounds short when you talk about it on a podcast or in an article, but it’s long when you’re living it. The year leading up to my business and the first year of growing it to a livable income was an emotional and mental roller coaster.
We’ve been impressed with Twin Ledgers Bookkeeping, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I help small business manage their finances. That means setting up or cleaning up a bookkeeping system, categorizing their transactions from their bank accounts and credit cards, checking that the bookkeeping system matches the bank statements, and sitting down with them each month to look at financial reports and tell them what the numbers are saying. I ask my clients about their goals and concerns; then I tell them if the numbers are taking them where they want to go. If not, we talk about ideas to get them where we want them.
Obviously, real estate is my largest area of expertise, but only about a third of my clients are in real estate. The rest are all over–a chocolatier, retail, consultants, artisans. Diversity keeps my work interesting and offers some protection if any one industry takes an economic hit.
Any big plans?
I’m putting the dominoes in place for my first hire. I’m an extroverted accountant. We’re a rare breed. If I can find someone who’s more introverted and would rather hang out in the background doing the day-to-day number work and building systems, I can do what I enjoy most–networking, going on podcasts, going to conferences, and activity that brings in business and partnerships.
Pricing:
- Our monthly minimum is $250
Contact Info:
- Website: www,twinledgers.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolebeitenman/
