Hello everyone, my name is Katherine Wynne-Jones. I’m founder of Wynne-Jones & Associates, located in Birmingham, MI and currently in our 17th year! I am an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor and Intuit Premier Reseller. I’ve been certified in every QuickBooks product since their inception. I also co-chaired the very first NAN chapter in Michigan and have been a NAN member since the organization started. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Walsh College and MBA with concentration in Computer Information Systems from Baker College.
Hooked on debits & credits early…my accounting career started in a small town 60 miles north of Detroit on the St. Clair River called Marine City. My grandmother and grandfather owned and operated an appliance store, selling large and small appliances in the front end of the building and ran an electrical contracting company out of the back end of the building. When I started high school my grandmother decided it was time for me to get acquainted with the working world. She sat me down at her desk next to a huge safe (almost as tall as I) where all paperwork would be placed at the end of the day. In front of me was a black book with green sheets she called her ledger. Next to the ledger, was a bottle of black ink and a fountain pen. I was shown how to fill the pen with ink and if an entry had to be corrected, shown how clear ink eradicator and blotter were to be used! My education, training, and little did I know at the time, my career…started with journal entries!
The summer before my junior year, my family moved a few miles north of Marine City to our new home on the St. Clair River in St. Clair. This was an AMAZING time in my life for many reasons: I was able to get into a co-op program at my new high school which gave me afternoons at the store to learn more about bookkeeping and save money for college. I also started dating my new boyfriend, Tom, who would later become my husband! At age 16…”LIFE IS GOOD” …working/learning, hanging with my boyfriend, and living/playing on the most vibrant blue water (I have ever seen) enjoying freighters traveling up and down the river!
Moving forward…I attended the local community college, then, Michigan State University. Into my first year at MSU I decided I would like to work and attend night school. So, moved back to St. Clair into my first apartment, interviewed and accepted an Accounts Payable position in corporate headquarters with the largest manufacturing firm (and employer) in St. Clair County, Diamond Crystal Salt Company (DCS). I married my high school sweetheart, Tom, started our family with the birth of our daughter, Kristina and moved into our first house on Lake Huron. A lot happened in two years, but things settled down and I went back to night school to pursue my Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting while scattering up the corporate ladder into various Accounting Manager positions in the plant, trucking operation, and corporate headquarters. I considered myself a fixed asset…going to stay with the company until I retire! After a short 10 years with the company, DCS was sold to a company out of PA. I had the option to join the company in PA or leave the company. I left.
Leaving DCS proved to be a blessing in disguise, in the sense that it was the catalyst that eventually started the formation of Wynne-Jones & Associates! With the Company sold, employment opportunities did not exist in the area. Tom, being in the construction field and working in and around Detroit, suggested that my greatest opportunity would be in the Metro Detroit area. Albeit, making the decision to leave the area where I grew up and where my whole family lived was extremely difficult, we decided to make a break and go for it!
We relocated to Birmingham, a metro area northwest of Detroit. After taking a little time off to get our daughter situated in our new location and school while nestling into our new home, I started scouring the want ads in the two major Detroit Newspapers (Can you believe there was a time when there was no internet?!)
During this time, the Health Care industry was booming. I accepted a position with a group of doctors that ran a number of clinics connected with St. Joseph’s Hospital in metro Detroit. On weekends, we lived at the school running various sports programs while Kristi was in middle school and leading the team to obtain donations from local businesses for the annual fund raiser while she was in high school. Time sailed by and before I knew it, we were packing our daughters ‘stuff’ up and taking her off to college!
To eliminate the urge of “stalking” our daughter while away at school, it was time for me to open the doors of Wynne-Jones & Associates!
Addicted to QuickBooks…I have enjoyed the ups and survived the downs of owning a business. I am very blessed and proud to be, not only a small business owner, but a successful business owner. I owe a big part of this success to my husband, who answered my wishes by becoming an active partner in the business about 5 years ago, and family who have given so much support. Equally important, is the ProAdvisor Program and ProAdvisor community! Paramount to the Company’s success is QuickBooks Certification, allowing an opportunity to advise prospective clients. Intuit’s investment and commitment in product offerings gives us the opportunity to keep existing QuickBooks clients by adding third party applications. ProAdvisor Partners, provides us the ability to seamlessly serve our clients with the best and most talented team!
Attending QuickBooks centric conferences has developed relationships with so many people as colleagues, business partners, and friends…and…has been (and is) a great experience to be part of such an EXTRAORDINARY group of people! Thank you to all who I have crossed paths with and to all I will meet in the future!
Currently our company is continuing a paradigm shift to selling more products (QBES, QBO, POS, and Field Service) and greater partnering to serve our clients (discussed greatly at SNH). Partly due to creating future wealth for the years ahead, but also to gain back more time to be with the newest addition to our family 19 months ago. On Christmas Eve 2012, Kristi and son-in-law, Adam gave us the gift of our most beautiful granddaughter, Natalie!!
‘Livin’ the Dream’…there are no plans to retire anytime soon! But, I will try to get as much time in the sun as I can during our Michigan summer, sneak an extra round of golf in, now and then, and get a vacation in with the kids and grandchild (grandchildren??). In the near future, I’d like to see Tom become a ProAdvisor and maybe in the distant future, when I’m not too old, hand over the reins to our granddaughter!!
Oh, Yes….’Life certainly is Good!’
Cheers…