{"id":31735,"date":"2019-03-14T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T15:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=31735"},"modified":"2019-03-14T14:23:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T18:23:35","slug":"brown-teaches-quickbooks-but-also-offers-coaching-training-for-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/03\/brown-teaches-quickbooks-but-also-offers-coaching-training-for-small-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown Teaches Quickbooks, But Also Offers Coaching, Training For Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Linda Brown of Spire Business Inc. trains and educates small business owners.
\u00a92019 Saratoga Photographer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Christine Graf
\nLinda Brown of Spire Business, Inc. never set out to start her own business. She had a successful career in money management and financial planning when she took a maternity leave in 2002.
\nWhile on leave, a CPA asked her if she could help some of his clients with QuickBooks.
\n\u201cI never went back to corporate America,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a financial planner, you work 70 hours a week and I really didn\u2019t want to do that.\u201d
\nInstead, she started her own business called My Office Staff. Having her own business allowed her to work part-time and spend time with her baby. Her business was well established by the time her second child was born. Her clients were primarily women and included solo entrepreneurs and small business owners with as many as fifteen employees.
\n\u201cI basically became their operations and financial advisor. I took care of all of the back-office work that needed to happen in a small business,\u201d she said.
\nAlthough not an accountant\u2014her degree is in economics\u2014Brown said she helped her mother with her own accounting business when she was a young girl. She also did the books for her husband Peter\u2019s business, Smooth Water Sports in Gansevoort.
\nHer business grew rapidly based on word of mouth and referrals from CPAs. She worked a part-time schedule and enrolled her two children in day care two days a week.
\n\u201cI was turning away work more than I was actually taking on,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that point in time, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I did everything while my kids were sleeping or those two days at day care. I was very blessed in that I could grow the business as I wanted to and how I wanted to.\u201d
\nWhat she refers to as a second iteration of her business occurred after she had been working with clients for several years.
\n\u201cI realized that the owners weren\u2019t actually being empowered to make good financial decisions because they didn\u2019t understand their numbers,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, my second iteration was Spire Business. I started doing a lot of training and education so that I can empower the entrepreneur to understand how their business works and to be able to make good financial decisions.\u201d
\nBrown began offering coaching, workshops, and trainings for small business owners. Training and education now represent 75 percent of her business.
\n\u201cIt has really taken off because people want to know once they realize they can understand it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe goal is to take them from infancy where they need a lot of hand holding to grammar school where you only sometimes need to hold their hand to being completely independent when they graduate from college. That is how I believe a business needs to be run. That is also the way I work with my clients.\u201d
\nBrown also teaches clients how to use QuickBooks. With proper training, she said most small business owners can do their own bookkeeping in five to 10 minutes a day.
\nFor those who do not want to do their own bookkeeping, Brown and her team will do it for them. She employs three women\u2014all moms\u2014who work between 25 and 30 hours a week. Her office is located at Exit 17 in Moreau.
\nIn January, Brown held her first weekend prosperity retreat in Florida. Beginning this summer, she plans to offer retreats quarterly. The retreats include discussions about the importance of meditation, nutrition, and exercise.
\n\u201cThe whole purpose is to align your mind, body and your business,\u201d said Brown. \u201cYou have to be able to take care of yourself to be able to take care of everything else in your life.\u201d
\nAttendance at these retreats is limited to between 10-15 women. The first retreat sold out.
\n\u201cI got great reviews,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople said it was so much better than what they expected. They said they thought it was going to be dry and that they were really surprised how I could mix meditation right in there with Business 101.\u201d
\nBrown is also in the process of designing on-demand online classes. One of the classes in development is called Spires Money Mastery. She described it as a Business 101 class for people who don\u2019t have a business background.
\n\u201cBusiness schools teach theory of business but not how to practically use the knowledge,\u201d said Brown. \u201cI take the theory out of business and just teach you the practical knowledge you need to know.\u201d
\nBrown also speaks at conferences and events. In July, she will address the Real Estate Staging Association in Las Vegas.
\nAs she grows her business, she continues to focus on empowering the female entrepreneur to make good financial decisions and understand money. She is especially interested in helping mothers who are struggling to make their businesses work.
\n\u201cMy goal is to have all of these mothers say, \u2018Yes, it can be a career, and no you don\u2019t have to go to business school to make it a career.\u2019 Once they are trained, it is amazing what these women can do,\u201d said Brown.
\nShe understands the unique challenges faced by women in business and remembers being told that no one would ever be interested in attending her seminars or workshops.
\n\u201cI was basically told nobody will attend, nobody cares, don\u2019t waste your time,\u201d said Brown. \u201cAll these men were telling me your business is not going to succeed. Today, I have a multi-six figure business.\u201d
\nShe has accomplished that without ever advertising. In fact, she didn\u2019t have a web site until two years ago.
\n\u201cMy whole goal is to be able to have it all. Be a wife. Be a mother. Be a business owner. Be an entrepreneur,\u201d said Brown.
\nFor more information on Spire Business, Inc., visit www.spirebusiness.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christine Graf Linda Brown of Spire Business, Inc. never set out to start her own business. She had a successful career in money management and financial planning when she took a maternity leave in 2002. While on leave, a CPA asked her if she could help some of his clients with QuickBooks. \u201cI never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":31736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nBrown Teaches Quickbooks, But Also Offers Coaching, Training For Small Businesses - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/03\/brown-teaches-quickbooks-but-also-offers-coaching-training-for-small-businesses\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brown Teaches Quickbooks, But Also Offers Coaching, Training For Small Businesses - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Graf Linda Brown of Spire Business, Inc. never set out to start her own business. 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