How and Why I Started This Business

My love for accounting really started in college. I set up meetings at the college to help people get through the accounting classes. My helping my classmates understand really was the best part of my college experience. I would spend hours in the meeting room and it felt like no time would pass.

I still feel this way about doing books still today.

After I graduated I started working at a financial institution. I worked there for 6 years, got married, had my first child, bought a house. There I learned a lot about IRA’s, HSA’s, and lending. I really felt I had my financial skills set, but there was still something missing…

My husband had a co-worker that he looked up to, and one day she gave him a copy of “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. He brought it home, I didn’t think much of it. I thought I had my financial life in order, but I wanted to see what he had to say since he was a “money guy.” So I started reading the book. By the end of it, I was sold…I totally drank the cool-aid.

Then we started implementing the plan! Let me tell you, it was really hard taking all of our saving except 1,000 to throw at the debt we had. But me being the person I am, I ran the numbers and it made sense. It took us 8 months to pay off all of our debt (except our home mortgage). During this time God blessed me with a wonderful opportunity and I got a job part-time working for local government. I remember sitting there running the numbers, and even though I was going to be short because we had no debt it made that jump even easier.

During that time we saved up our 3-6 months worth of expenses in a savings account, which took us 1.5 years to reach that goal. During this time I was at home more and getting restless. I was looking to start my own bookkeeping business. I had more time at home. With bookkeeping my schedule could be on my time. So I invested in a course called “Bookkeeper Business Launch” to brush up on my skills and learn how to launch my own business. After I finished the course, I started looking for clients. During this time, my husband quit his job and started his own company, so my first client was my husband. Having him gave me the confidence to see that this is something I could do on my own. I loved doing his books!

I had a really hard time picking the name of my bookkeeping business. One night I was praying about it and Agape’ was spoken to me. When I was a child we went to a church called Agape’ church. Agape means: “the highest form of love unselfish love.” I knew right then and there this was the name I would use.

I wanted to have a niche but at the time I knew I didn’t want to be picky either. So I reached out to everyone I knew that had a service business. I was so scared because I felt like a fraud even though I knew bookkeeping. During the process, I picked up a couple of clients. I was so excited someone else believed in me! During that year, I worked on processes and getting familiar with QuickBooks, working out systems and my methods, and delivering to my clients.

Fast forward to today, my specialty is working with women in the service business. I help with interpreting reports, overall status with the business, help with sales tax and other state taxes. I’m so blessed to be able to help others in areas they are not comfortable with. I believe I was given this gift to share with women in business.