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Accounting may entail a lot of number-crunching but it’s not just those numbers that count — it’s the people behind them. That’s the belief of Susan Veach, owner of Gorst-based Accountability Plus, who says her work requires as much relationship building as it does keeping track of the bottom line.
“There is a huge emotional investment (in business ownership), and it all comes back to having a good relationship with my clients,” Veach says. “Building a relationship is the most exciting thing I can do, so we can tackle the challenges together without judgment. It’s a matter of honoring them, sincerely enjoying them, and caring.”
Veach started the business nearly 10 years ago with her husband, Scott, who is the office manager (and a pastor during the rest of the time). Tired of the commute to Auburn, and seeing a need locally for an accounting firm, the couple opened their business with the idea of helping companies that are not big enough to need a full-time in-house accountant. “The idea is to go to them, and improve the quality of their business,” she says.
Veach, who went back to college in 1993 after a longtime career as a chiropractic assistant, knew that some day she would want to open her own accounting firm. She wrote her business plan while still in college. One thing she didn’t anticipate was her company’s rapid growth. “I envisioned growing but not as much as it has,” she says. “We’ve been able to do business now in eight different states and five countries.”
Locally, Veach has many well-known clients, serving a diverse number of industries from ministries and publishers to adult family homes, nonprofits and furniture stores. As she helps a new customer set up an accounting and tracking system, she must learn all the aspects that impact the system design, including tracking and software setup. “I have to research each industry to understand the caveats,” she says.
Accountability Plus, Inc. has several part-time employees providing data entry. Veach especially enjoys working with startup companies and seeing them grow. Often times, they grow enough to gradually bring in more internal staff, and Veach trains their new in-house accountants. Which means eventually, those clients will not need her help as much. “You’re continuously working yourself out of a job, but there is always a new startup,” she says. “New business startups are so much fun: It’s most exciting to see an idea, and see people realize it.”
Veach’s degree of involvement varies from business to business. For some clients, she comes in to reconcile accounts. For others, she even picks up the mail and pays the bills. And, if the time comes, she’ll help a company with an exit strategy and to close doors “gracefully.”
Veach enjoys mentoring new business owners, and found she can help more people through classes. “You can reach a lot of companies that way and give them the clarity they need without having to hire you,” she says. She has been teaching classes through other organizations and plans to offer more educational opportunities through her own business. This spring, for example, she will hold a “small business series,” with workshops focused on a variety of topics. She hopes to find “the right person” to help provide accounting services, so she can focus more on the educational aspects in the future.
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