EP275: Kristy Fairbairn - Investing In Yourself to Grow Your Bookkeeping Business

Michael Palmer: Initially, it was hard. Initially, I wanted that magic bullet. You know, I've learned in recent times the difference between a mentor and a coach. And for me, that mentor is someone who's done it before and shows you their way. And a coach is someone who asks great questions and helps you find the answers internally because it is all available within us. You're listening to The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Michael Palmer. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com. The proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back to the Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I am your host, Michael Palmer, and today's show is going to be a great one. Our guest is from Australia and is the CEO and founder of The Business Oasis, and she's also a Pure Bookkeeping licensee. Kristy Fairbairn, welcome to the show. Thanks so much. It's very exciting to be here today. It's great to have you. And I'm looking forward— just looking at some of the notes of your journey as a bookkeeper. I'm just excited to have you tell this story and lead this wherever we may go. So, Kristy, please tell us about your business journey leading up to this point.

Kristy Fairbairn: Yeah, thanks, Michael. It was a bit of a different one, I guess. I have worked in and around accounting systems and and businesses for a little while, and then I had a young family and took some time off work and needed something to return to that still gave me flexibility to be at home with my children. And I started working for a pure bookkeeping licensee, and I worked with her for a little over a year, and she decided she wanted to pursue other things, and I didn't want to work for anyone else. And I felt confident with the systems in place with Pure Bookkeeping that it would help me as I learned how to run my own bookkeeping business to deliver that best practice service. So my husband and I talked and we were in a position to buy the business from Joe, and that was a little over 4 years ago now. And so I went from being the only person in the business for a little while to growing it to now we're a team of 7. I have team based in the Philippines and team based in Victoria and New South Wales here in Australia. So we're all remote and virtual. But yeah, so it's been a really exciting journey. It's