Editor's Note: This is another installment in our ongoing series highlighting this year's Insightful Accountant's "Top 100 ProAdvisors." Over the remainder of the year, we will introduce you to our winners, getting their insights on a wide range of topics, including what it is like to be a leader in their profession, how to stay on top and what the future holds.
Ask Natalie Browne to describe the philosophy that inspires her passion these days, and you might be surprised by the answer. It is all based on Mark Manson's bestselling book, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****.” While she apologizes for the reference to book's eye-catching title, she says the meaning is all empowering.
Truthfully, she cares more today than she ever has. It's just that she cares more about things that matter – to her, to her clients and to the accounting community at large.
The founder of adding technology™ is a certified bookkeeper and advanced certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor with more than 30 years of experience. She started her firm, an accounting system consulting firm with a focus on the Intuit QuickBooks line, in 2001. In 2004, she accepted a position with another local accounting firm as a bookkeeper and QuickBooks consultant, where she spent the next 13 years working while also maintaining adding technology™ as the software side of her QuickBooks affiliation.
It was a methodical climb to the top for Natalie, who started her career in 1985 as a receptionist in an accounting office in Santa Barbara, Calif. She quickly made the move to the bookkeeping side of the business working part-time for another local bookkeeper. Shifting briefly to the private accounting side of the business for a Woodland Hills, Calif., publishing company, she eventually settled in Santa Barbara. And after a stint in a local CPA firm, she started adding technology.
These days, Natalie is on a mission to make her firm a one-stop solution for small businesses wanting to make the leap into the cloud and seamlessly expand their productivity.
What does it mean to you to be recognized out of more than 200,000 ProAdvisors in the world?
What an honor to be included in the Top 100. This is a testament to hard work and investing in yourself. When I first started working with QuickBooks in 2001, I had not heard about the ProAdvisor program or getting certified. In 2002, when I did find it, I knew it would be a game changer for me. And man was I right.
Your first thoughts on getting news of the honor?
I was excited. I mean, wow. I made it three years in a row.
How has your ProAdvisor practice changed or evolved over the last couple of years?
Actually, it has changed dramatically just over the past couple of months. I shared this in a recent article I wrote for Insightful Accountant ("How Much Do You Care?"). I learned the subtle art of "not giving a f***." I actually care more about the things that matter. For example, integrity is always high on my list. Being on my own gives me more control over the end results. I look forward to the evolution of these changes over the next year, especially as I work toward a completely cloud-based practice.
Why is continuing to enhance your skills and acumen critical to staying one step ahead of the curve?
I thrive in change and challenge, so enhancing my skill set is super important to securing the projects that will feed the need. When I made the decision to not only leave the large firm where I had been for close to 13 years, but start moving my practice to cloud-based systems, I found a whole new area of challenge. Even more importantly, keeping my skills honed means my clients are getting cutting edge, top-notch services.
What do you do?
I have bookkeeping clients, but mostly I do consulting services, ranging from migrations, to system design, to data cleanup and customization, and training. I work only with Intuit products, and the third-party applications and tools that integrate into them.
Give us a snapshot of today's accounting landscape.
Not sure there is anything I can add that has not already been said. There are still quite a lot of businesses out there that are not willing to embrace moving to the cloud. These are businesses that would be good candidates, but would require more than one application to complete their accounting and management needs. It is difficult to convince them how it will pay for itself long-term.
What was the best piece of advice you ever received?
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
What is the story that best describes how you help your clients?
Gosh, I am not sure how to answer that. I think the majority of my clients would say I am always available and respond immediately, even if it’s just to let them know I will get back to them as soon as I can. I feel knowing I am there and always responsive gives them peace of mind.
How do you create balance in your work and personal life?
What’s that? LOL. Actually, I have three dogs I enjoy spending time with, but I'm still working on balancing work and personal time. We’ll see what this next year yields in that area.
What's on your to-do list the rest of 2017?
Work on balancing a personal life with work, of course.
Special thanks to our program sponsors, including Canon imageFORMULA Document Scanners, ADP, Finagraph, "Scaling New Heights" and Intuit's QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program.