What a question!

I grew up in a family business and let me tell you, my bosses were demanding, tough, outstanding and ingenious, they were also my parents. As a family, we grew the business to become one of the top producing solo family-owned operations in our industry and man what a ride!

I started out as many do, data entry, A/P, A/R, payroll, tax compliance and over the years took on more and more responsibility. As time rolled on, I quickly became fully responsible for the success of our financial staff and reporting. Without quick, current, easy reporting templates in place, all of which I had to design from scratch, we would miss huge opportunities in our very competitive industry. I was responsible for upgrading and maintaining our financial and data management programs, recruiting, hiring, training, mentoring and managing staff, undertaking transaction forensics, compiling multi corporation combined fiscal statements, managing inter-company transactions, handling multiple currencies, the list goes on.

In addition to this, I have been so grateful to have the respect and trust of many in our industry as they’ve elected me to important roles within our government advisory boards and stakeholder committees. These experiences broadened my scope beyond one business and taught me much about communications, collaboration, teamwork and strategic planning.

To be fair, I’ve done a lot and have learned so very much, so much more than had I gone the traditional route of a regular bookkeeper. Instead I have extensive experience as an operational financial manager. Unlike many others, instead of blindly entering transaction data, I know the why’s of each transaction and the how’s to get them into the productive informative reports an owner requires.

One is never done learning and I truly value the role of mentors, I am grateful for each and everyone of mine. I have always strongly believed in the importance of learning-to-do-by-doing and get-it-done attitudes, both of which has served me well in all of my dealings and is what I bring to my mentorship role.

Why am I moving on from the family business one might ask? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I love to learn and, most importantly, it’s time, lucky you, so let’s get to work!