Interviewing an Entrepreneur

 It was really helpful to talk to someone in the field I'm interested in. My friend's husband owns a small accounting firm. He has had experience working for a large accounting firm, in a bank, as an auditor, and for a couple different businesses. He said his experience in different aspects of accounting definitely helped him decide what type of accounting enjoys most. He also favors owning his own business over working for a large firm or bank. He finds joy and satisfaction in his work and feels he is doing a lot of good for people who need help--as opposed to bringing in more money for a large corporation.

While the demands of being a small business owner blur the lines of work-life balance, he appreciates that he has the flexibility to work when he wants and spend time with his family when he wants.

He has also found that diversifying and providing different services increases the variety of revenue streams he has. It also helps distribute his work load, since tax preparation has a lot of work in April and October, and less throughout the rest of the year.

I have been interested in doing bookkeeping as an eventual career. Greg suggested focusing on other areas as well. In his experience, bookkeeping is very time-consuming and doesn't pay very well. I enjoy doing my own bookkeeping for my business, but maybe it wouldn't be great to rely on as my main source of income. Some of Greg's suggestions for other accounting-related revenue streams were: tax preparation, insurance sales, and tax resolution (which requires a CPA).

It was really helpful to talk to someone who has several years’ experience in the accounting field. Some of my assumptions were very different from his experience and helped me realize there are other avenues that may be more profitable as well as rewarding.