Editor's Note: This is another installment in our ongoing series highlighting this year's Insightful Accountant's "2018 Top 100 ProAdvisors." Over the remainder of the year, we will introduce you to our winners, getting their insights on a wide range of topics, including what it is like to be a leader in their profession, how to stay on top and what the future holds.
Lisa Pierpont
Lisa Pierpont is our QuickBooks Desktop ProAdvisor for 2018. One of the 9 categorical winners we had this year. She is the owner of BottomLine Consulting, Inc. out of Colorado.
Tell us about how you got started in the business.
I never set out to be an accountant or an accounting consultant. My journey to QuickBooks-centric Business Consultant began from personal passion helping my mother’s small business transform from an inefficient, cash-guzzling, time-sucking hobby into a profitable, enjoyable, successful company which she was ultimately able to sell and then retire.
After the sale of the company, I pondered how I could provide the same invaluable services to other small business owners. One day in 2006, it dawned on me that one thing most small businesses had in common was QuickBooks! After successfully converting our business’ books from Peachtree to QuickBooks, learning about the ProAdvisor program and completing the training and certification, I found myself in business as I received calls from clients through the Find-A-ProAdvisor website.
Tell us a little about your practice. / How has your ProAdvisor practice changed or evolved over the last couple of years?
The 9 years I spent revamping that business showed me the huge disconnect between small business owners, their accountants, their books and their profits. Disconnected due to a lack of understanding their numbers, not knowing if they were correct and feeling embarrassed that they didn’t know how to read their financial reports. There seemed to be no one to help bridge the gap; someone to speak in non-accounting language, to be a partner with the business owner’s best interests foremost in their mind.
As a ProAdvisor working with small businesses, my heart ached to see each one in similar dysfunction. It became my mission to empower each one with efficient systems that delivered accurate, timely financials that told them a story of their business.
Over the years, I found the Sleeter Group and the National Advisor Network; got Advanced Certified, started the Denver NAN chapter/Woodard Group; hired and trained my own Bookkeepers to satisfy what was clearly a need for ongoing accounting services for the clients I had consulted with. We also became an Intuit Solution Provider to provide clients with the best software solution and integrated Intuit services for their businesses.
Today, we are a small team of five, providing Consulting, Training, Troubleshooting, Accounting services mainly to businesses in the Denver metro area. My passion to be a Trusted Partner continues to exude when I talk with prospects or meet with clients to elevate their financial fluency and streamline their systems. My passion comes from being that small business operator. From not having someone to advise me; to show me how I could get more out of my accounting system; how to read the story the numbers tell. I have learned that this business is not just a numbers business. It’s a heart and soul business – the business is the heart and soul of each owner. They deserve someone they can trust; who has their best interest in foremost in their mind.
What is the biggest item on your to-do list in the upcoming YEAR?
To build on our success as Accounting Consultants with the added service offering of Strategic Consulting. We provide clients with timely, accurate information they can trust and use to make business decisions. But they still need help analyzing the information and different aspects of their business to implement improvements and achieve their goals. BottomLine Strategies is hands-on, forward-looking strategic consulting designed to catapult businesses to the next level!
What does it mean to you to be recognized out of more than 300,000 ProAdvisors in the world?
It is an honor that I deeply cherish! I am so thrilled to be in the company of so many awesome professionals who have become my friends over these many years.
Why is continuing to enhance your skills and acumen critical to staying one step ahead of the curve?
Building skills for every member of our team is more about delivering the best service and solutions to our clients than about staying ahead of anything. New apps are constantly being developed; QuickBooks is always evolving too. So we are always on the lookout for solutions to our clients pain points or ways to improve their current processes.
And a Special Thanks to our Sponsors: Canon, AbacusNext, Neat, Avalara, Landy Insurance, Intuit QuickBooks and Scaling New Heights.
