About Me
Hey there,
Let me paint you a picture that'll probably sound way too familiar...
Picture two small business owners, my parents, sitting at their kitchen table at 9 PM on a Tuesday night, staring at a clunky Windows 98 computer like it just insulted their mother.
The accounting software is open. The stress is so thick you could practically choke on it. And little me? I'm peeking around the corner, knowing darn well this is NOT the time to ask for help with homework.
Because when that bookkeeping software was fired up, someone was always about thirty seconds away from having a complete meltdown.
Here's how ridiculous it got: They were juggling TWO separate systems. One industry-specific program that crashed more often than a teenager learning to drive a stick shift. And a homemade spreadsheet that looked like it was designed by someone who actively hated small business owners.
Every. Single. Transaction. Had to be entered twice.
I'm talking about the kind of tedious, soul-crushing, "why-did-I-ever-start-a-business" torture that would make grown adults weep into their coffee.
And the worst part? My parents were AMAZING at what they actually did for a living. They loved their work. They were passionate about serving their customers. But all that joy got sucked right out of the room the moment they had to deal with the "business stuff." It was like watching two incredibly talented artists being forced to do calculus while blindfolded.
Then everything changed with one phone call...
They finally waved the white flag and called in a professional. And I swear, watching this CPA work was like witnessing actual sorcery.
Not only did he clean up their disaster of a bookkeeping system, he somehow "found" them thousands of dollars in tax savings they didn't even know existed.
At the time, I thought this guy had some kind of superpower. Like he could just wave his hand and make money appear out of thin air.
Looking back now? I realize it wasn't magic at all. It was just someone who actually knew what they were doing, applying solid bookkeeping principles and smart tax strategy.
That "found" money? It literally paid for my college education.
And that's when it hit me like a freight train...
The work my parents loved, the stuff that got them excited to jump out of bed every morning, was completely stress-free. It was all the OTHER junk that came with running a business that was slowly killing them.
The bookkeeping. The taxes. The financial chaos. The 2 AM spreadsheet battles.
That's why I do what I do today. Because I've seen firsthand what happens when creative, passionate people get buried under a mountain of financial confusion they never signed up for.
Fast-forward a few decades, and I've made it my personal mission to be that professional for creative business owners everywhere. The kind of people who'd rather be designing, building, creating, filming, writing, or dreaming than wrestling with QuickBooks at midnight.
Before starting Autarky Bookkeeping, I earned my MBA and spent years at Fortune 500 companies. Those years taught me how the right systems can make a business absolutely sing, but they also reminded me where my heart really lives:
Helping real people with real passions build businesses that actually serve their life instead of consuming it.
Here's the beautiful truth: You don't have to love bookkeeping. You don't have to "get" taxes. You don't have to become some kind of spreadsheet wizard.
You just need someone who already is.
That's where I come in, taking your jumbled mess of numbers and turning them into a crystal-clear story you can actually understand. One that shows you exactly where your money's going, what's working like crazy, and how to make your next chapter even more profitable.