Accountant & Bookkeeping Partner: Janelle Charriere
Cloud-based bookkeeper, Janelle Charriere, is ready to grow her firm – just one year after opening up shop.
Through working alongside her sister, in her business, Janelle quickly found what she had been looking for in a career. “I’ve always liked organization and figuring things out,” she says.
From Red River College, Janelle has a Business Admin diploma with a major in Accounting. She says she left college “with every intention” to obtain her CPA. But after working in an accounting firm for three years, she was “over that.”
Janelle began JCL Strategies in May 2019.
Hiring and Firing the Client
A cloud-based, solopreneur, Janelle calls her own shots and chooses what type of clients she is willing to take on.
12 clients followed her when she left because of the relationships they built together. All her current clients work mostly with trades and are, as Janelle says, “Very easy to deal with.”
For Janelle, a good client knows that they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to bookkeeping and are willing to let go of control – let someone else do the bookkeeping – because that is not what you, the client, got into business for.
“Working at the accounting firm, you don’t say ‘no’ to anybody. Everybody who walks in the door, wanting bookkeeping, you say ‘yes’ to – no matter if their books were a disaster or not. The ability to say no to someone because I don’t like how they run their business or I don’t think we’ll be a good fit is a lovely thing.”
The idea of hiring and firing clients, while new to the world of bookkeeping and accounting, is a guide for Janelle and how she manages her time and business. When hiring clients, Janelle makes it known that: “if you want things on time, you have to give me things on time.”
“It has to be a relationship where we can work together – not against each other and never nagging you.”
A word of mouth referral is Janelle’s greatest marketing tool. She trusts the clients she loves and assumes the new sign-ups “should have the same mentality” as those lovable clients.
“It can be cool because they [tradespeople] may end up working together. So if one needs something from the other, I can be the in-between and get those files to them. I can make sure that both sides make sense.” This ability to work on a project like a team is a great benefit to Janelle and her clients.
Client Requirements
Janelle’s clients are also expected to use QuickBooks Online as she knows all the ins, outs, and well, she works for them! In addition to her bookkeeping practice, Janelle trains those switching to QuickBooks Online and offers training services for those who want to try out their hand at bookkeeping.
She says, though, that they soon realize “I want nothing to do with this,” and they hire her for their business’ bookkeeping needs.
“They know the amount of work that goes in to make their bookkeeping good.”
Additionally, anyone who uses JCL will use Rotessa. If you want Janelle to do your books, your payments will be processed by Rotessa with an open authorization.
“Now I don’t have to worry about chasing people for money.”
In the future, Janelle is hoping to slowly grow her business while keeping the clients she has now. She wants to work with “go-getters” because “I am always trying to find better ways to do things,” and doesn’t want to work with traditionalists.
To learn more about Janelle and JCL Strategies, visit the website and Facebook page.
