Women in Accounting Wednesday - Pamela Stocks

by

Originally from Vermont, Pamela Stocks who has lived in North Carolina for the past 20 years, is our fourth Women in Accounting weekly contributor.  She is the owner of On the Books, LLC a bookkeeping and business consulting firm that focuses on QuickBooks Online.  They provide setup, cleanup, training, ongoing bookkeeping, in fact they do just about everything from monthly reconciliations to full charge bookkeeping.

Pamela and her part-time employee work from their homes, but using the Cloud has allowed her company to increase efficiency and compliance through improved collaboration. Pamela realizes that her firm can't do everything for everyone, so she is presently building a referral 'tool-kit' of other small businesses that she can recommend for tax work, financial planning and human resources.

During her years working for a CPA where she worked with numerous small businesses ranging from attorneys to non-profits, from trades to software start-ups, she realized there was a huge demand for personalized services where she could better meet the needs of small business owners.  That's when she decided to move out on her own and start On the Books.

As with many of our other contributors to this series, I asked Pamela to give us two words that best describe her daily life in relationship to home and family.

Busy and Fulfilling - Pamela lives in Holly Springs with her husband, 3 sons and 3 dogs. She told us, "my 3 boys all play sports, so there is a lot of driving to the soccer field and the basketball court for practice and games."  She went on to say, "working from home allows me to be available for those things. No matter how busy my day gets, I always make time for them."

Without even asking Pamela was the first contributor to actually talk dollars and cents with us saying, "We women (generally) don't like to talk about money, but having my own business has helped me contribute more to our family financially than I ever did working for someone else. It's helping us build a new home, go on vacations more, and just enjoy life.  In fact, because of the success of my business one of my boys wants to 'take over the family business' one day...".  I personally don't think Pamela is ready to hand over the reigns just yet (Murph) but you can certainly seen 'eager' in the faces of all three of her sons.

Obviously Pamela spends a great deal of time with both business and family, but I found out that she is highly active in her community volunteering in a number of worthwhile efforts including Habitat for Humanity and Second Chance Pet Adoptions. With 3 dogs it makes me wonder if she isn't on the path of personally giving every pet a second chance? (Murph)

But our Women in Accounting series isn't just about work and family, it's also about how busy women manage to 'take care of themselves' in addition to everything else they are doing. So, I asked Pamela about 'treating herself' with some type of relaxation or leisure activity.  She responded, "treating myself typically involves a mani-pedi and a little shopping, but all too often my best treat is to just unplug and be present with my family."

Of course, if you have been reading this new series since the start, I just love to ask our participants about the 'techy things' that help make their day, you know the apps, devices and other gadgets that help with work and/or home to make things easier.  Well once again Pamela gave us a 'first of its kind' response saying, "Does my husband count?" She went on to tell us, "He's techy and very involved in running our household. Without him, I would never be able to work as hard as I do.  He helps when my technology breaks, and he keeps up with the family schedule way better than I do."  She also admitted, "as for actual technology, I do my online banking via my iPhone, I use MileIQ, Google email and calendar, and who could live without shopping Apps.  Join.me and Skype are critical to my business operations."

In looking at her personal development, especially as it relates to her career and business Pamela shared with us, "a huge focus of mine is continuing education and business development, which I realize isn’t unique to women in accounting, but it is a huge demand on my time as I balance working on my business (as well as in my business) with my personal life.  I was very fortunate to find Scaling New Heights my first year in business and have joined the Woodard Institute. Collectively those two choices have really helped shape my business, and will continue to do so."

In continuing to work toward her goals Pamela said, "I attend Master Classes and online webinars to stay current on technology and accounting regulations, so my clients can trust that I have the most current information. I'm also working with Mark Wickersham on value pricing, which in turn allows me to help my clients with value pricing. The more I learn, the more value I can provide to my clients…and increasing my value will help solidify my longevity in this business!"

We can certainly see that Pamela is committed to her business and career, but also her family as evidenced by her ‘motivations’ in terms of meeting the demands of work and family. She wrapped up our interview by saying, "my family is my motivation for everything.  I am intrinsically motivated as I have always been a bit of an over-achiever! But I am building something of value for my family, and enjoying the fruits of my labor in the process. I want my kids to see that if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams."

I'm sure you can see that Pamela is indeed living her dreams into fulfillment (Murph).

We are looking for more great women, like YOU! Someone to share their heart, mind and soul with our readers. We are still looking for contributors because just because we have had 4 weeks of this series appear like magic doesn't mean that we can make it a full 52-weeks without a lot more stories to share.

So I again encourage you to simply post 'Count me in' within the comment section of this, or any future Women in Accounting Wednesday article. 

Your comment will record your email address in confidence, and we will then reach out to you with our Women in Accounting Wednesday's questionnaire, making it easy for you to share your work, home and life experiences with our readers.

The number of clicks tells the story folks, readers want to hear these kinds of true-life stories, and we are eager to tell them yours.