Meet Susan Newman of S & J Bookkeeping and Secretarial Service in West Hills

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Newman.

Susan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After 25 years being a legal secretary, working in various offices, and not being happy, I decided to take some home based/online bookkeeping courses to possibly switch careers. I did the bookkeeping courses when I was laid off or in between jobs, and I got both my bookkeeping and QuickBooks certifications. My dad, who was an attorney, and almost retired, needed some legal secretary help, including QuickBooks. I worked for him as my last legal secretary job and started using QuickBooks. He was the one who suggested I branch out into bookkeeping and he offered to pay for the courses. I then decided to look for more new clients and open my own business after he retired and no longer had secretarial work for me. I still help him with bookkeeping to this day. My brother was starting his own hand therapy business, and he asked me to be his bookkeeper. He was my second client. I then joined networking groups and continued to add more clients to my business. Luckily, I was on unemployment still while growing my business, and my parents gave me a loan to help until I got enough clients to somewhat support myself. I have had my business for five and a half years now, and I am thinking about expanding my business. I would like to add more clients and possibly hire more subcontractors now. I have two subcontractors who help me now, but one of them works full time. He has 12 years of experience in bookkeeping and payroll, so he helps me with a lot of the advanced work.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road, and I struggled a lot to get more clients. Most people want in-office bookkeeping, and getting remote clients was a lot slower than I anticipated. I am making less money than I did in my prior job as a full-time legal secretary, but I enjoy my job more and I am much happier. Maybe taking my business to the next level is the answer to more success, but I will have to work on managing the stress. I also struggled with a lot of stress and dealing with deadlines when I had too much work, and that was also a challenge.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about S & J Bookkeeping and Secretarial Service – what should we know?
We offer remote (virtual) bookkeeping services, as well as payroll services. We can log into the client’s computer to use their QuickBooks program, use QuickBooks on our computers or use QuickBooks Online. Both myself and my subcontractor are certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors. We specialize in helping small businesses, including monthly and yearly reports. We also offer discounts on QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Online. We offer additional services such as monthly Worker’s Comp. forms, 1099 forms, online annual Statement of Information and L.A. Business Tax filings, as well as online sales tax form filings. I am most proud of the award my business received, and I was honored to be recognized. It was the 2016 Best Businesses of West Hills Award in the accountant’s category. What sets us apart from others is that we enjoy helping our clients as much as possible and helping them save money. We also focus on accuracy, keeping our clients happy, and providing a quality service, which is all very important to us.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
As mentioned previously, my parents for encouraging me to start as a bookkeeper, which enables me to work at home. Also, my past and present experienced bookkeepers who have helped me throughout my years in business when I was not yet experienced. They helped me acquire new clients when I was just starting out and not that experienced. They helped the client trust me enough to hire me, and then they helped me to continue to provide a high level of bookkeeping and payroll services.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sjbookkeeping.com.

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.