My name is Heather.
I am a small business owner and the Chief Accounting Officer & Partner with KARE Accounting x CFO. As a graduate in business and technology management, with a penchant for English Lit and a career in sales, of course I was going to take the next UNEXPECTED step in my career and get a qualification in accounting!
But let me take you back to the beginning…
I’ve always excelled in school and that allowed me to skip a couple of grade levels. It also meant I had to grow up quickly. Add to this, I went to an engineering college where 77% of the students were male, and as it turned out, college was a pretty lonely experience. But I was grateful for the opportunity of a full academic scholarship at a very good school.
At the time, I got close to the international students crowd, as they seemed just as out-of-place as I was as a 17 year old college sophomore. By the time we finished I had made friends from across the world.
Finishing school I found myself drawn to another male-dominated field - medical device manufacturing. I ended up designing special add-ons and working with doctors and labs to develop custom options. I also wrote the sales manual for the product line and I used it to train the sales reps. That’s why when I asked for a position in field sales, and was told a resounding “no”...
I felt I had the potential to succeed, but I was literally being stifled.
A couple of years later, I had Dominyk, my son
The next job was selling industrial sanding machines and sandpaper and after that IT Services. By this point I was embracing the “only girl” mantra. For many it may have been intimidating. For me it was an opportunity.
I’ve been in sales most of my life and I never had to hard sell anyone on anything. I always just went and made friends. And we helped each other. I always just focused on connecting with people, making friends and helping where I can.
Because of my drive to help others coupled with my passion for networking, I accepted a position in membership sales for the regional Chamber of Commerce. I spent years helping entrepreneurs find the resources that they needed to help their businesses and the business community as a whole thrive.
His arrival made me reassess and make some changes to my life. Like I’ve always done, I forged a new path where there wasn’t one before; this is how my small bookkeeping practice was born. I did not ever need to look for a client, the relationships I’ve built across the years kept me busy since I started.
