Mentor helps Kristie Van Pay take bookkeeping business to next level

Kristie Van Pay seems like an unlikely candidate for the Green Bay Packers Mentor/ Protégé program. 

In the past five years since starting Prosperity Bookkeeping (prosperitybookkeeping.net), she has developed a solid business with a growing clientele. Yet she had loftier goals and thought that participation in the program could help elevate her business to the next level. 

“I am at a point where I have a good understanding of who we serve and the services we offer, but I want to be in a position where I can nurture my clients,” Van Pay said. “I want to go from being a technician to being able to take care of my customers’ needs and make the transition to a leadership role.”

In the initial meeting where mentors and proteges are matched, the final conversation Van Pay had was with Tony Hoslet, owner of Sandler Training in Green Bay (Hoslet was featured in last week’s column). The connection was immediate.

“Tony was encouraging right from the start," Van Pay said. "He didn’t have any preconceptions of what I was and I could tell we both shared a passion of helping others. I was looking for a way to better serve my clients, and Tony has been doing that for most or all of his career." 

Goals were set, and she is making progress. She plans to go from being 80 percent technician and 20 percent business owner to 20 percent technician and 80 percent business owner. The change will mean spending less time doing the actual work and more time with clients so that she can dig in and have a better understanding of each business. That will give her the insight to make beneficial recommendations for their success.

Van Pay will set up the systems for new clients and monitor them, but she wants to have her employees do most of the technical work. It also will provide more time for marketing.

She said: “I am in the process of creating a marketing plan right now. It will focus on inbound marketing — that gives you the opportunity to really educate the consumer before they are ready to make the buying decision so they are able to do the research in a no-pressure environment. It gives you the information you need and then it’s, ‘Let’s talk.’”

Her target market is business owners who are frustrated with their bookkeeping. These owners may be so busy working in their businesses that the bookkeeping gets pushed to the back burner. 

“Systems are critical for consistency and timeliness,” Van Pay said. “If you are doing it randomly and inconsistently, you are wasting your time because you won’t have an accurate report.”

When the reports are correct, she says that it takes the guesswork out of business decision making and allows for informed decisions based on facts rather than emotion.  While some business owners are content to do their own bookkeeping and Van Pay can set up a system and provide training, most prefer to spend time on other aspects of their building their businesses. 

For Van Pay, who holds a master’s degree in accounting, helping small businesses prosper is a passion. She is driven by five core values — safety, reward, balance, integrity and faith. 

She explained: “To me, safety means saving for future obligations, what is coming up and what is in the future, to set aside money for that. We teach our clients how to reward themselves, how to reward their employees and how to add value to their business. We show our clients how to get back in balance with a spending plan that creates systems, and we remind our clients that cheaters never win.”

Her faith is the center of her business, and the foundation of every step taken. It inspires her to keep moving forward; looking for ways to continuously improve. In working with Hoslet as a protégé, she says that her goals are already being met.

“It has been fun working with Tony,” she said. “He challenges me because we are in two different schools of thought. He’s got a more formal approach to business and I’m more casual about it. That’s what I relate to while he has more of a corporate style. I think it challenges both of us.”

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.