Women in Accounting Wednesday - Michelle Vilms

Michelle Vilms is the principal in Vilms Consulting, a firm she launched nine years ago to help small businesses. For Michelle, it's a dream come true that she has been able to build a thriving firm in Boston that provides companies with financial consulting, accounting and training services.

Michelle's clients rely upon her as their trusted financial advisor and trainer who will work with them to improve their business management operations and overall financial health. In some instances, Vilms Consulting takes on the role of CFO for an organization, and other times Michelle’s team is hired to consult on specific projects, provide training, or to offer ongoing expertise.

Whether Michelle is working with companies directly to update or migrate financial systems or is leading her team to facilitate a move from spreadsheets to cloud-based accounting software, the suite of services Michelle offers enables clients to fine tune financial processes that result in better strategic decision-making.

Michelle told Insightful Accountant, "...in 2014 I made an intentional shift in my business strategy based on what I learned at the QuickBooks Connect conference." After hearing Brad Smith’s remarks about the Intuit’s vision for the QuickBooks online ecosystem, Michelle was excited about the opportunity she envisioned for herself and her clients.

As she considered the strategic goals of her business, Michelle concluded that focusing on QuickBooks online would be good for her company. She told IA that her "...instincts were affirmed a short time later while attending the Scaling New Heights conference."

Michelle lives with her family in Beacon Hill, a neighborhood that despite its location in the center of Boston, is very much like a village. The cultural, entertainment and educational amenities available to her family are convenient and unmatched.

Although they live in a city, life for the Vilms family has many benefits people look for in a small town. One example of this is the fact that Michelle and her husband are both able to walk to their respective workplaces which are only a short distance away from their home.

In considering the demands of both business ownership and family, Michelle told Insightful Accountant that her life was "extremely busy, but not as chaotic as one might expect, even being the mother of two." She attributes much of her success in managing a busy family schedule to her roots in accounting and financial management. It seems that Michelle can’t help but to create processes for home life that encourage efficiency.

While sharing details about her family’s system for getting laundry done, Michelle pointed out, "although it is a system I would never use for a client, the concepts that make it a successful way to run a project are not very different."

When Insightful Accountant asked here about two words she would use to describe her home life, Michelle chose "joyful and grateful." She is mindful of how fortunate she is to have a fulfilling family life with a husband, son and daughter who truly work as a team to support one another. She is also mindful of how fortunate she is to have both of her parents and her husband’s in their lives, with all four remaining in relatively good health.

Her general outlook on balancing life and family is to expect that life will be very busy. But as long as she and her family are committed to choosing things that are making them happy each day, then it is good to be busy.

Michelle is a strong believer in defining your own destiny, whatever that looks like to you, and working toward claiming it. This belief is what motivates her. In the early 2000s she made a difficult and life-changing decision to leave her corporate accounting job at a company that she had been at for more than a decade. The office superstore headquarters managed 26 locations when she began, and it had grown into a $15-billion international company by the time she was ready to leave. She describes her decision to leave corporate America as entrepreneurial and also risky.

“Many women worry about leaving their jobs, especially when they have young families, because they are afraid they will not get the same type of job again,” Michelle says. Her advice to anyone struggling with this difficult decision is to remember that the experience and education they have earned will never leave them. Looking back she absolutely underestimated how well her work experience and education (she has an MBA from Babson College) positioned her to start Vilms Consulting.

But there is so much more to life than just work. If it is one thing Insightful Accountant has already learned from this series, it's the success our participants are having at balancing the demands of work, home, family and self.  Michelle shared with us, "...either spending time at the ocean or volunteering for one of my favorite nonprofit organizations is the perfect way for to relax."

Michelle went on to say, "I intentionally choose to volunteer in positions that have almost nothing to do with accounting so that I have the opportunity to learn new things." But this sense of volunteerism doesn't stop with Michelle, her entire family is happily intertwined in the fabric of the Boston community, a community they give back to by volunteering as a family for several nonprofit organizations on a regular basis.

As a member of the Artemis Circle of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston Michelle joins with like-minded women to support Boston youth. She also serves as an overseer for the New England Aquarium, which combines her love of the ocean and her commitment to playing an active role to protect it.

Whether it is from the sands of a Cape Cod beach, atop a ferry destined for an island off the coast of Massachusetts, or along the edges of Boston Harbor, the ocean is definitely Michelle’s go-to place when she needs time to pause and reflect on life.

Insightful Accountant has also discovered that our creative participants in this series have adapted work methods and technology to facilitate their days in all aspects of their lives.  In Michelle's case it seems that she relies on technology to manage her home life and business. The flexibility to be able to work from her office in Boston’s Back Bay, on site at client’s office, or from a cottage by the ocean on summer days, is all made possible by technology. And her warm embrace of 'the cloud' has certainly helped drive that.

Michelle’s shared with IA that "...the two 'must haves' in my world are Google Calendar and my iPhone." Apparently, being connected and able to manage everything remotely supports good communication with her family, clients and team, and as she says, "communication is vital to keeping everything running smoothly." She also told us that having her MacBook Air in her purse helps tremendously wherever she is traveling.

When it comes to sharing her vision for others in business, Michelle summed it up this way, "Dream bigger!" That’s her motto for entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs who are contemplating their next move and envisioning what happiness and success means to them. When Michelle left her corporate job, she knew she wanted something different, and today she finds herself grateful and joyful for a well-rounded work and family life.

When Michelle pauses to reflect on her journey to build a successful business and family life, she is once again struck by those words "joyful and grateful." She recalls a time many years ago when she and her husband had an idea, the beginnings of a dream of what they wanted their life to become. Together, as true partners they have created a life that is based on what happiness means to them and it is a life that they love and appreciate.

Without patting myself on the back to hard, I will just say that my instincts were right regarding this column. There are so many women in this industry that have stories of work, family, home and self to share.  I for one am very glad that Michelle decided to share her story with us.

Now, how about you?  If you have a story to share, I'm confident our subscribers will have a tremendous interest in reading it.  To participate, simply post "Count me in" within the comments of this, or any Women in Accounting Wednesday feature.  Your email will remain confidential, and I will reach out to you with information regarding your participation.

Insightful Accountant would also like to thank Eileen Scafidi of Scafidi Communications for submitting the content used in this feature.