I am so lucky to know so many special people within this community, and to have so very many friends among them. Gita Faust is one of those special people that I consider a dear friend.
Most of you know that Gita Faust is an expert, among experts, when it comes to real estate and property management accounting. That's especially true when it involves the use of QuickBooks to track multiple properties, multiple owners, leases, rentals and real estate as an investment. Quite literally she 'wrote the book on it.' No that's not right, Gita actually has written a dozen books on these subjects. And all of that is in addition to her training courses, and software projects, as well as running her Fast Trac Consulting practice.
Gita Faust
Recently Gita took the time to tell us about herself, and I'm honored to share her story with you.
"I am proud of myself and my accomplishment in the real estate and property management accounting world. Through hard work and determination, I completed my education and made significant achievements as a trusted advisor, an investor, and a public speaker. I take pride in the work that I do, helping accountants and business-people alike because I have put in maximum effort to get to where I am today.
As an accountant, mentor, consultant, an author, a speaker for Intuit, I and my firm Fast Trac Consulting (FTC) have helped countless companies better understand their businesses and maximize their profits through the use of QuickBooks.
FTC offers set-up, clean up, training, outsourced bookkeeping, CFO, controller services, custom programming, and integration services to businesses that use QuickBooks to help make sure that they are profitable and remain that way.
FTC is an Intuit Premier Reseller, meaning the firm is authorized to market, distribute, and support QuickBooks products. My team and I have implemented a partner program that allows us to work with ProAdvisors, accountants, and CPA’s to complete their projects successfully and earn commissions."
One of the interesting things to me is how Gita can give so much of herself in training not only her own clients on the fundamentals of QuickBooks and the specifics related to their specific real estate concerns, but also devote so much attention to training other accountants, ProAdvisors, bookkeepers and consultants so they can work with their own clients.
Last fall (2017) Gita presented at one of Insightful Accountant's QB Talks monthly webinars. That webinar had the largest attendance of any we have offered, I think because Gita has a way of making everyone comfortable with the subject no matter how complex it may be, and no matter what each individual's level of expertise is.
But even though this 12-time author, business woman, consultant, ProAdvisor, and real estate specialist seems to have work demands that might prevent her from the norms of family and home, nothing could be further from the truth. Gita shared with me, "I enjoy spending time at home with my family. My personal life is quite relaxing. I do what I want to with my time at home."
Gita_Faust_and_Family
Gita said, "I enjoy reading, sewing and learning to discover the newest updates in the scientific and technological world. I also like to garden when the season comes around. But when it comes to reading I enjoy the Wall Street Journal so I can stay up-to-date on the latest news."
Gita apparently has no desire to live 'too simple a life', she told Insightful Accountant, "Once in awhile, I go through a routine day, but I want every new day to present me with something different because I especially love a good challenge, so the best days are the ones where I am faced with one."
That fits right in with what Gita shared about her 'work motivation', "When it comes to working, my motivation is to help people understand the worth of their financials and their time. I help people learn to manage their money they spend and receive and to create a life-work balance for them that still helps them generate a profit. My work does not come without its challenges, though, and I am always glad to face them. As I said before, I love a good challenge."
But Gita doesn't let work get in the way of the importance of home and family. " I'm motivated to meet my family life demands, I want to help steer them in the right direction. Just as I give consult in my daily work life, I offer all of the guidance I can to my son; I often encourage him to embrace who he is and look towards the future."
You would think that balancing a busy busy work schedule, and time with home and family might mean that something gets slighted, but after visiting with Gita I realized that everything is spick-n-span because of her love of technology. You see Gita told us, "The technology that comes to mind when I think of life at home really helps me stay on top of my daily duties is my iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. It keeps my floors clean, and I don't have to put any effort into it."
Gita has artificial intelligence and robotics working for her to free up time that can otherwise be devoted to home, family and work. But she also told us, "I'm pretty simple, I like to know about technology, but I don't want to rely too much on it for my personal life." Funny, I kind of thought Gita might be one of the first people I know to get an iRobot Personal Assistant.
But home is less about chores (after all she has the Roomba) and more about family and self. When it came to my question about 'treating yourself', Gita answered it this way, " I love international cuisine. Yummy!!! I also have a few relaxing hobbies that I enjoy, such as needlepoint, gardening, and reading.
I do not set aside time for specific activities, but instead I go with the flow and just do what I want when I feel like it. I also get plenty of sleep as it helps me relax and rejuvenate myself. Yoga is on the bucket list to do!"
But visiting with Gita one can tell that work and clients are never far from her mind. I asked about the mix of work and home and what carried over. Gita said, "Aside from my Roomba, I don't have any specific shortcuts that I incorporate into my everyday life. However, whenever I encounter an obstacle or a situation in work, I try to think of the best shortcuts my clients and I can take to maximize both profit and efficiency.
That being said, I do use specific processes and procedures in my work-life which help me get tasks done more quickly. For example, I created QuickBooks templates with a chart of accounts and full customization included in packages with my books for real estate investors, property management and contractors so that I did not have to recreate the template for each client.
I don't enjoy repetitive tasks, so I always try to find a way to make them easier and less time-consuming. Automating and integration are on the top of my list."
In summing things up Gita shared, "As a woman in the accounting industry, one of the most significant things I have learned is how important it is to find a work-life balance that works for you. To truly find your balance, you must take all factors into account: your hobbies, your family, your job, your motivations, and, of course, yourself.
Find yourself! Ask yourself these same types of questions we are discussing here; find who you are and what you want to do; and find your priorities. If you do that, it should become much more simple to find the balance that you need."
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gita for sharing her story of work, home, family and self with us. Whether you have 'found your balance' or you are in the midst of the challenge of doing so, we would love to tell your story.
If you are a woman in accounting, bookkeeping, or business consulting, I would encourage you to participate in this series. You can do so by simply posting a 'Count Me In' in the comments of this, or any Women in Accounting Wednesday feature. Your email address will be discretely recorded (away from prying eyes) and I will then reach out to you with more details on how you can share the real you with our readers.