EP466: Rae Gagnon - Scaling A Bookkeeping Business With Systems & Strategy

Ad Read: Now everybody works independently and I have a structured office, open office time where my team is allowed to connect with me with specific client queries. We resolve them. If we need to update our processes, we do, and then we move on. And so it's just a far more fluid kind of environment for all of us. They can do what they need to do without being bottlenecked. I can do what I need to do without being bottlenecked, which is now like work on the business and new offerings and develop those, you know, transformational services. So yeah, it's been very helpful 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 fantastic one. Our guest is the owner of BlueJeans Business Solutions, Rae Gagneux. Welcome to the show. Hi, Michael. How are you? I'm very well, and it's great to have you, and I'm looking forward to learning more about you. So maybe let's start there. How did you end up doing what you're doing today?

Sure. Kind of a funny story because I went to university and I actually got a degree in geography. Finished that degree with the full intent to kind of end up back on the East Coast. I wanted to get a job at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. My father was a cartographer. He mapped ocean floors, and I found that super intriguing. Like, that's where I was credited, but I had student loan debt that I had to pay back. So ultimately, I took a position at a real estate office to start making some payments against that student loan debt. And then as I was there, I just kind of naturally progressed through every role within that kind of real estate industry position. So I started as a receptionist, moved on then to deal conveyance, which is better known maybe to, to you as deal administration. From there onto accounts payable, and then found myself as the financial controller of a real estate office with 2 locations and 75+ realtors. And so, like, I had started off as an individual who had no experience in the real estate industry. I didn't even own a property, to someone who just developed this really deep understanding