Exploring Life & Business with Marie Greene of Connected Accounting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marie Greene.

Hi Marie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I founded Connected Accounting so I could innovate beyond the norms expected of a financial services firm. I wanted to create a firm where my passion for problem-solving, love for efficient processes, and sincere support for clients were built into the DNA of the business. Above all, I wanted to liberate business owners from the everyday stresses that too often lead to burnout and frustration. As an entrepreneur myself, I know these worries firsthand—and am an expert when it comes to implementing solutions.

The road to starting Connected Accounting was far from linear. I was born and raised in France and am a first-generation American. It took grit and hard work to get here. I moved to Los Angeles knowing only one person. Now I have over a hundred clients, a great network of advisors, and a team split over the US. But it started with nothing. Resiliency, dedication, and above all, reliability is what helped me get here. I do what I say I am going to do.

BIO
Marie Phillips is a CPA, entrepreneur, and Founder of Connected Accounting. With three master’s degrees in addition to her accounting credentials, Marie is never one to shy away from a learning curve—on the contrary, she is defined by her enthusiastic curiosity. Her passion for problem-solving, love for efficient processes, and sincere support for clients are built into the DNA of her business. Above all, she wants to liberate business owners from the everyday stresses that too often lead to burnout and frustration. A known perfectionist—she organizes her friends’ closets for fun—Marie’s skills shine when it comes to finding linear and logical solutions to business challenges. It will always be her top priority to create a nurturing, flexible space for both her team and clients.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
We have had so many “lessons” in the last couple of years. One of them is deciding to test outsourcing some admin and low-level bookkeeping tasks. I was excited, carefully selected the tasks to test outsourcing with, ran it past my executive team, and went for it. It didn’t work out. 11 months later, we are terminating both relationships. Here is what I learned (it’s hard to say “I” as we’re a team but those are my reflections):

– Cookie-cutter processes don’t fit most of our clients.

– Robots can’t replace humans. The outsourced solutions coded data based on predictions, not based on experience and having a relationship with the client.

– Some individuals are not trainable. We spent hours creating video content with step-by-step processes, doing one-on-one training, and providing checklists, and some people are just not a fit. It’s so hard to let go of them because most of the time they are so loveable.

– My emphatic nature is costing us a lot of money – I try for way too long to make something work even when my team is alerting me of the issues.

– I am growing – I did cancel a contract with a provider after three months instead of a year 😉 My team thanked me. I lean on them more. I test tools for longer before introducing them to the team now.

Live & Learn

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Connected Accounting?
Connected Accounting is a cloud-based accounting company. We help growing businesses scale.

Reliability is our cause, growth is our effect.

When we work with a client, our services are not one and done––we offer continued support. As a resourceful, proactive team, we provide financial literacy to entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them grow successfully. Our dedication to continuous learning gives us an edge when it comes to leveraging technology. We will research and investigate until we have the best possible solution; this keeps our client relationships informative, transparent, and long-lasting.

We don’t work with one specific industry; the commonality among our clients is more about personality. The businesses we serve are open-minded, responsive, and collaborative. They embrace technology and treat their people well. We work with clients who share our values and appreciate the level of service that we offer.

Many of our clients have fears about not having data to rely on, which causes anxiety. We provide resourceful, dependable support that replaces those fears with confidence and excitement about the future.

Although we don’t niche within specific industries, we often work with professional services. This includes marketing, ad, and digital agencies, wealth advisors, and consulting firms. We also work closely with e-commerce clients. Overall, we look for complementary values instead of types of business.

So if anyone needs to get their time back to focus on what they do best, we’re here to help with bookkeeping, payroll, bill pay, and virtual CFO services.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
LA is unique. It took me a couple of years to really “get” the LA culture. On one hand, you have NYC, The city appears classy, fast-paced, and somewhat formal. And the opposite is SF which is embodied by the innovative, casual, and a bit hectic start-up culture. To me, LA is expansive – by its size, its variety of critical industries (entertainment, tech, services), and its unique fashion and food scenes. I love going out to a nice restaurant or hip rooftop bar and seeing guests wear anything from runway-worthy outfits and hipster attire to straight-up lounge clothing. Everything is allowed. You get to be a creative, a finance nerd, or a crypto addict, it’s all cool. Obviously, the amazing weather, beaches, and endless business opportunities bring a lot of people to the city of angels. So everything is expensive. But most days, I think it’s worth it.

Pricing:

• Our packages start at $700

Contact Info:

• Website: connectedaccounting.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectedaccounting/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectedaccounting.co
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/connectedacct