October Featured Person
Rhonda White - A
UB: What has been your biggest challenge in business and how did you overcome it?
RW: Belief in myself, is the biggest issue I’ve faced. Whilst I have never been recognised with formal qualifications, my experience is more than adequate for bookkeeping for my clients. Being surrounded by other bookkeepers with confidence and charging at good rates, I find myself able to be confident enough to raise my level of revenue.
UB: If you had to start your business or employment again from scratch, what would you do differently?
RW: I would research the field more carefully – Know what the service I am providing is worth – and not under-sell myself. I would start out by doing my business plan initially and periodically checking that I am on track.
UB: Who do you admire and why?
RW: All the members of Uniting Bookkeepers. They seem confident, capable and in control of their own lives and use it to assist their clients and other bookkeepers.
UB: It takes a lot of determination and dedication to succeed in business. What keeps you motivated?
RW: I love helping people who really want to be helped. One of my clients thinks that when I arrive the sun has come up and it makes me feel valued and happy. I love to support people especially the small business community who so often juggle many other responsibilities as well as their business
UB: What are your 3 biggest success tips?
RW: 4 biggest tips
- Be Diverse in your client base – it keeps you stimulated and motivated
- Believe in yourself
- Keep learning – the brain becomes really stale if you just do the same things over and over again.
- Keep a diary (manual or electronic)– use it every day otherwise things just slip through the cracks. Write your business and personal commitments in ONE diary – use different colour pens if necessary. This helps you keep that balance and not have to juggle when things suddenly clash.
UB: Tell us about Rhonda
RW: I am a person of diversity. I’ve worked in a lot of different environments including Banking, insurance, Pool & Leisure industry, chemical industry, retail industry, real estate, training, tradesman – electrician and builders. I am very fortunate to have been exposed to so many industry types and this assists me in working with my small business clientele. As a professional bookkeeper I believe it is very important to be versed in as many industry types as you can.
Being in business for myself gives me the flexibility to attend to all aspects of my life. Your days can then be flexible to work in with the other responsibilities in your life, and we all have those, whether they be children, partners, parents, pets or simply just running your own home and paying the household bills. Even though I work mostly from my clients premises, I believe that having a home office is essential and it’s very important to have it organised. I wish mine was – I will keep that on my “To-Do” list!
I look forward to being more in control of my own destiny by making the business work to fulfil my needs and growing the business so that I have more opportunities to expand my knowledge and experience.