When I left my University position to start my own business, I was excited and a bit overwhelmed.
Although I’d been perfecting my craft for more than 25 years, I had little to no experience in how to be a business owner. It was all brand new to me. Before I began working with Monique, I used a simple spreadsheet to “keep track of things.” I was organized, but I knew my simple solution was not the most effective and efficient to run my business. Monique helped me lay the foundation for my business from day one. I learned how to manage my finances so that I was not reactive when my business started to pick up. I now have sustainable systems in place, and the confidence and peace of mind to do the work I love without worrying about the financial aspects of my business. I’m truly grateful for Monique’s guidance and teaching. She taught me so much more than just the practical aspects of business finances. She helped me build necessary habits, routines, and mindsets that help me stay grounded. When I’m grounded, I serve my clients more fully.
Marilee Emerson, M.Ed. President & Founder www.mymarilee.com
I started my screen-printing company from scratch, fresh out of college – and for the 6 years following continued to build it layer by layer. I came to Monique after getting to a place where we had employees, accounting practices, consistent and growing business – yet still couldn’t seem to break over the hill of true profitability! We seemed to be stuck – and growing – at a subsistence level; where every extra dollar we made, was spent on extra expenses. I told Monique that we wanted to get from subsistence to sustainable, and over the next several weeks she dug into my business – asked me the tough questions and forced me to make some tough decisions – and laid out a plan that shed new light on our business model. I would highly recommend Monique to business people who know what they’re doing, but have an inner voice that tells them that they can be getting to higher ground – if only they had a trail guide!
Reuben Barnes-Levering UmbrellaShirts.com
Congratulations on taking the important step of starting your own firm. You are a talented woman who has the ability to make the most veiled accounting matters clear. Writing a book is one of life great challenges, but understanding the accounting systems in the publishing world almost matches that effort. My thanks to you for your help. It was good to work with someone I could trust. Whenever you told me something was going to happen..it did…and that was a joy.
Good fortunes ahead,
Belva Davis Award-winning Journalist, Author and Pioneering Feminist www.belvadavis.com
As the Publisher of PoliPoint Press, I could always count on Monique Lusse as a thoughtful strategic planner and a savvy accountant with an unwavering eye on the P&L. Monique has a knack for implementing practical, financially-based solutions without compromising the vision or overall mission of the company. Her cost accounting instincts are honed to get two dollars of value out of every dollar spent. Her thoughtful methodology was always thorough and diligent that resulted in the right decisions at the optimal time.
In her position as the Director of Finance, Monique was a key contributor to drafting annual business plans and the corresponding budgets. She prepared quarterly and annual financial reports for submission to the corporate auditors. She created and prepared easy-to-understand executive reports and P&L summaries. She worked with other department directors to hone their department budgets. She managed numerous outside vendors including: facilities, communications, operations, shipping and receiving, HR services, and legal services. She devised and integrated accounting and finance system with reports that were accessible through cutting edge cloud technology or hard copy reports as needed.
Monique directed and managed operational and financial complexities in the book publishing industry that included: integrated marketing programs, print production management, broadcast media, public relations, and distribution. She worked directly with contract and intellectual property rights attorneys on a wide variety of legal matters that benefited the company’s bottom line throughout the years. Monique’s outstanding contributions went far beyond her job description and exceeded my expectations. She gave her wit, wisdom, and wealth of knowledge to make our mission shine from the inside out.
Scott A. Jordan Former Publisher PoliPoint Press, LLC
Monique has been our volunteer Treasurer for over ten years, since 2000. She inherited a manual system, converted it into QuickBooks, and we have been getting helpful reports ever since.Back in 2005, she spearheaded a strategic planning project for the program, giving us the “big picture” view of our financial situation. We were then able to project into the future and think ahead about how we would grow the program and serve more students.Working with our program office in Guatemala and our volunteers in California, she consolidates two information sources into one set of books. Every year she provides us with complete and accurate financial statements, as well as a narrative report that analyzes the donations we received and our program costs.Monique has the ability to translate “accountese” into plain English, so that everyone can understand what the numbers mean. This invaluable picture gives us confidence in our financial standing. Monique is a great blessing for our program.Miguel Angel Costop
Executive Director Guatemala Scholarship/Loan Program
www.guatemalafriends.org
My husband and I have been working with Monique since October 2011 when I met her in our GOLD Mastermind retreat and I must say that we are blown away by how she simplifies our finances and strategically helps us organize them. My husband manages our QuickBooks and was a true novice and she has gently and patiently taught him how to use it and do so with our long-term goals in mind. She meets with me and helps me incorporate our financial life into our business plan in a meaningful, productive manner. If you are not on top of this part of your business or need to take it to the next level, then I encourage you to invest in Monique Lusse and take control. What we’re getting goes far beyond QuickBooks- it’s getting us clear and focused and setting us up foundationally for a successful, long-term business.Susanne Ballard, RPh,
aka the PharMomAssist
Drug Proof Your Home, Be Safe Together and Alone
www.pharmomassist.com
Before working with Monique, we were worried about setting up our books by tax time, and needed much more detailed reports than we were using to track profitability by job. We also had a strong desire to create a paperless bookkeeping system so we could work remotely and reduce our use of paper.Monique helped us to set a fantastic paperless workflow, coached us through Quickbooks, and brought us right where we needed to be.We’re proud of the efficient system that Monique helped us to build, and we’re much more confident about our ability to maintain accurate books that provide us with the reports we need.
Mischa Hedges + Iliani Matisse, TrimTab Media www.trimtabmedia.tv
When I first hired Monique, I was six months into my first business. It was the beginning of a new fiscal year and I needed help getting my business bookkeeping systems up and running in time for my accountant to file my tax returns. I was confused by the Quickbooks options available on the market, worried that I’d do something wrong in setting it up, and feeling pressure to get it all done quickly. Plus, my business plan was generally just in my head and I wasn’t sure how to put into a structure on paper that would work for me.Monique helped me quickly identify the right Quickbooks software for my needs, set up my Quickbooks categories, taught me how to use the software, and prepared my books so that I met my tax deadlines easily. We then worked together to prepare a budget for the year, and a business plan that put what was just in my head into a structure that would work for me to measure my goals and share them with interested parties.As a result, I now feel confident in my bookkeeping system, where I’m headed in my business, and have a budget and goals to measure my progress.
Thanks Monique!
Janelle Holden President and Founder, The Gluten-Free Life Coach JanelleHolden.com
Asking Monique to be the Treasurer of Guatemalan Scholarship/Loan Program, aka PROGRESA, was one of the best decisions we ever made. I confess that at first I was reluctant to make some of the changes she asked for in our bookkeeping and accounting, but now we reap the benefits of knowing we are 100% accurate and honest in our reporting. I never have to worry about it because I know that Monique does. The annual reports are clear and accurate but I especially love the 5 and 10-year comparison reports. They really alert us to what is happening and what we need to look out for.
Martha Dugan Member, Administrative Committee Guatemala Scholarship/Loan Program
At the beginning of 2012, I realized that I had backed myself into a corner regarding my financial records for 2011. I had the proverbial “box of receipts,” my bank statements, and a bunch of online receipts scattered in my email folders and a huge fear of knowing how much I had or hadn’t made in my business. On top of that, I had very little idea of how to best organize it all to make it easy to do my taxes.I turned to Monique. With all my fear and avoidance behavior. After spending an initial call with her, talking over the specifics of my business with her, along with a couple of additional issues around personal finances, she created an input mechanism for my expenses and income along with a schedule that we agreed upon for completing the data entry. And, gently and firmly, she kept me on track, including “talking me off the ledge” a couple of times. And, in the end, she gave me a system that I can keep up with and be ready for future years, without nearly the trauma that this past year took.Because I’m nervous (ok, phobic) about finances, it was great to work with someone who didn’t judge me for not keeping good records, but understood that this was a difficult tasks, both mentally and emotionally. Monique has both the knowledge to build the systems I needed and the empathy to help me through a task that turns my stomach to knots!” Jeanne Andrus is the owner and founder of Ignite!, a fitness company for women. She helps women transform their experience of menopause into a journey of self-discovery filled with joy, love and laughter. You can read her story of her own transformation and find more about her services at www.live-ignited.com.
I’ve been working with Monique Lusse as my accountant and advisor to help me shape up my QuickBooks. Before I found Monique I was spending a lot of time doing things that needed to be done for my business in terms of planning for upcoming expenses, monitoring my income, trying to gauge the level of success, level of profitability of my business with systems that didn’t function efficiently. So, I spent more time using Excel, I spent more time writing things down on notepads, had my calculator nearby most of the time to run calculations that really should be more simply executed.I knew it was time to shape up the QuickBooks. I had some experience in it, but wasn’t entirely comfortable working with a bookkeeper or accountant who was wanting to swoop in and take over my books. As a business owner, those books are near and dear to my heart. They paint an accurate picture of the success level of my business and it was crucial to me to understand how successful my business was, how much money I could afford to turn over to an accountant or a bookkeeper before I relinquished control. For me, control was a big issue, and Monique stepped in, helped me solve that problem that no other bookkeeper and no other accountant was willing to do with me. It was a true partnership. It was a course that had a schedule that was reasonable to me. A schedule that worked well with my busy schedule, and gave me enough time to absorb the information and gave me a strong agenda so that I had expectations for great outcomes at the end.Now, I have QuickBooks setup. I understand how it works. I am able to gauge outstanding invoices, I have systems that are much more efficient and at the touch of a button, I know what needs to happen in my business to boost revenue or simply send out invoices on a weekly or monthly basis.If I were to encounter someone on the brink of deciding who to hire next and how to really shape up their financial systems, I would encourage you to work with Monique. She is very patient, she listens to your unique needs, and she meets you wherever you are on that learning curve. Whether you’ve never opened QuickBooks before or, like me, you’ve opened it, you’ve made a little bit of progress, but aren’t quite sure how you’ve done it. She cuts to the core and made it simple to understand, and has really transformed my business by helping me understand these systems and allowing me to get back to the work that I truly love.
Jack Kinley Founder and Creative Director www.LabMonkeyCommunications.com
I have viewed myself as “not good with money” and “confused by finances” my whole life. I have recognized this as a mindset, rather than the truth, but have also been afraid to address it. When I committed to myself to building a business, I knew that financial responsibility would have to be part of it. I also knew that part of being responsible was asking for help.I still have to work on the mindset piece (and will probably have to for the rest of my life), but I am not as afraid as I used to be. I view my systems as tools that I work with, not torture devices.Monique can help you get the nuts and bolts of your business finances up and running. She will teach you the basics and walk you through setting up a financial system that you can work with or, even better, hand off to a bookkeeper when the time is right!
KCLAnderson (Karen)
Acceptance Whisperer. Both/And Thinker. Energy Shifter. Creator of Ah-Ha Moments. http://kclanderson.com