Eureka Chamber Chatter Interview

Wendy joins Bo Matthews on the on the Eureka Missouri Chamber Chatter

to explain how she saves businesses time and stress while putting their priorities in focus!

Interview Transcript

Bo Matthews

Welcome to the Eureka Chamber Chatter podcast. The Eureka Chamber of Commerce represents a partnership of business and professional people. When you join the Chamber, you gain a new business partner as well as opportunities to meet potential clients, expand contacts, increase management expertise, and become involved in issues that affect your business and community. This podcast has been created to further the conversation between all of the businesses, first responders, government leaders and other notable guests with the residents and potential residents and business owners of the City of Eureka. Now, from the Realty Executives Premier Studio in Eureka, Missouri, it's the Eureka Chamber Chatter podcast. And one of our newest members is N.E.W Accounting, Wendy Needham is the owner of that company. So if you are in need of an accounting firm, boy, we have some great news for you because N.E.W Accounting is fairly new.

Wendy Needham

Yes.

Bo Matthews

Welcome to the podcast.

Wendy Needham

Thank you very much.

Bo Matthews

How long have you been an accountant?

Wendy Needham

I've been in accounting for 15 years.

Bo Matthews

Yeah. Do you enjoy it?

Wendy Needham

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to if you've been doing it for that long.

Bo Matthews

Organizing people's mess?

Wendy Needham

Right. Numbers, just rearranging numbers.

Bo Matthews

Yeah. That's what it is. And what got you on this path?

Wendy Needham

So this was not my first choice. My first choice was journalism. I got offered a job in the middle of Janesville, Wisconsin at a country music radio station as a news director right out of college.

Bo Matthews

Nice.

Wendy Needham

$18,000 a year.

Bo Matthews

Yeah. You know what? And that was 15 years ago?

Wendy Needham

Yeah. 2005.

Bo Matthews

Well, let me tell you, in that business, I started-

Wendy Needham

Yeah. I'm sorry, 2009, not five.

Bo Matthews

Okay. Well, here, it's even getting worse. Back in 1985, I was offered $12,000 a year in Gillette, Wyoming. And I don't know where your little town was. I didn't even know where Wyoming was. But it's a path a lot of people take. But you...

Wendy Needham

I had to move away from home and just... It was not...

Bo Matthews

Ramen noodles every night is not fair.

Wendy Needham

No, no. Especially after I had just done it for the last four years in college. So I moved back home. My dad told me I had to get a job. He knew somebody looking for part-time office management work.

Bo Matthews

And so you got interested.

Wendy Needham

And so therefore, I never got out of it and just grew my skills, honed my skills and...

Bo Matthews

So who are some of your newer clients? If you don't want to name them, that's fine, but what categories? I noticed on your website, construction is a big one for you.

Wendy Needham

Yeah. So I have been in construction accounting for 10 years, the last five of which as a controller. So construction accounting is really my big background. Yeah. I've got one client that does do a little bit of construction. They do construction estimates. Thomas D. Wilson Consulting. You can take a lot of those principles and apply it to pretty much a lot of companies out there.

Bo Matthews

And you are new to the Chamber, but you do live in Eureka?

Wendy Needham

I do live in Eureka, yes.

Bo Matthews

Okay. So this is my go-to question. Favorite restaurant in Eureka?

Wendy Needham

Sarah's on Central.

Bo Matthews

Oh my gosh.

Wendy Needham

By far. They know me there.

Bo Matthews

By name.

Wendy Needham

They really do, I'll be honest.

Bo Matthews

Yeah. And the great coffee shops. No, Eureka's just a great town. And this podcast is really to show the skillset of the residents of Eureka, and I just think it's awesome. Now, you started N.E.W Accounting earlier this year.

Wendy Needham

I did.

Bo Matthews

In 2022. Why did you do that?

Wendy Needham

I wanted the flexibility to be a mom and control my own destiny.

Bo Matthews

Wonderful. Congratulations on that. And is the life for work balance there, or?

Wendy Needham

Oh, yes. I mean, for the most part, right. You work from home, but it's easy to work from home and be a mom now. It's not easy.

Bo Matthews

It's the hardest job in the world.

Wendy Needham

It really is.

Bo Matthews

That's what I've heard.

Wendy Needham

It really is. But I was to a point where I was in construction, and construction never slowed down during the pandemic, so I was always in office. I never...

Bo Matthews

You couldn't even work from home.

Wendy Needham

I couldn't. And it just was never an option, which I was fine with. But when your kids are getting quarantined for weeks at a time, and you have a lot of them... I have three kids, and it just got overwhelming and the pressures to be in the office was a bit much. And...

Bo Matthews

It's actually a new life for a lot of people to have that flexibility. I'm a night owl by trade or by nature, and if I want to sleep till 9:30 or 10:00... I mean, when you're working for the man, you've got to be there at 7:00 or whatever, and you got to make sure the family's all taken care of. So I have mad respect for you making this decision. Have you found that people like your schedule? Your clients, do they like the schedule that you hold?

Wendy Needham

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have monthly meetings with my clients. I work in some of my clients' offices. So it's not that I'm not there, it's just I'll wake up at 6:00 and work for two hours and then go put myself together and then go into my client's office and I'm ready. I'm done by 3:00 if I want to be.

Bo Matthews

Right. Sure, sure. But as a new company is growing, that means business is growing. Are you a one person show with N.E.W Accounting Right now?

Wendy Needham

I am a one person show right now and the process of looking for help.

Bo Matthews

Okay. Well then, this is another avenue for this podcast. What type of person are you possibly looking for in the new year?

Wendy Needham

So I'm looking for an accounting assistance and pretty much a person to assist me in the accounting duties that I have with my clients. Part-time for now, maybe full-time. Who knows?

Bo Matthews

As it grows. Absolutely.

Wendy Needham

As there's growth.

Bo Matthews

And is your husband, are you married?

Wendy Needham

I am. I'm married.

Bo Matthews

Is he in the same world too?

Wendy Needham

He is not. He works for Fabick.

Bo Matthews

Oh, wow. Okay.

Wendy Needham

As a shop supervisor.

Bo Matthews

Wonderful.

Wendy Needham

Yeah. He's not in this world, but he's kind of over there.

Bo Matthews

Well, but that's good. And matter of fact, Missouri Brush Control is a guy... Well, Kyle Kasparek, we did a video for him, and he's at Fabick all the time, getting new parts and stuff like that. So maybe their patch have crossed.

Wendy Needham

They probably have.

Bo Matthews

And again, that's wonderful about Eureka is that the town is wonderful. The tourists love the restaurants and the shopping and things like that. But it does show that there's a lot of smart people that have found this to be home-base. Let's talk about your processes for maybe somebody that's looking for an accountant. I'm a horrible bookkeeper, I think I said that before we hit the record button. I'm a horrible bookkeeper, but I'm a small person. I'm a one man show for my company. But if you're a company that's two, three, seven people, is that a good category for you or is it a much bigger company?

Wendy Needham

So I primarily focus on small business. So the businesses that aren't large enough to be able to sustain a full-time person to manage their books, or maybe aren't large enough to have a controller or a CFO doing monthly financial prep and reconciliations. Maybe they have an AP person. Those are the businesses that really fall in my realm that really need the help and the guidance.

Bo Matthews

And that probably is a lot of companies because as we learned over the last few years, people went on their own and started their own thing. But you get to... You may be really good at drywall mudding or whatever, but you may not be good at books. That's where they can...

Wendy Needham

That's where I come in.

Bo Matthews

Can get you. Yes. And as far as the types of processes you use, names... I saw QuickBooks, but are you doing all the others out there?

Wendy Needham

Yes. Yes. I mean, QuickBooks and Sage are the two biggest that are out there, but there's a number of different payroll companies, paychecks and Gusto payroll that I work with. You name it. I mean, accounting.

Bo Matthews

Right. Your company's new, but you're not new at this business. So you obviously have got this. So if you have a home-base here in Eureka, you mentioned you go to your clients. Is that a lot of travel time for you? Are you into the city a lot? Are you traveling the region?

Wendy Needham

Yeah, so I'm everywhere. I mean, I'm in St. Charles County, I'm downtown. West County. Haven't hit South County yet. That'd be nice. Might as well expand there.

Bo Matthews

Well, you never know where this podcast is going to go to. And that's why we encourage people to share it because you never know who's going to be really good at what they do. And you can travel to South County. They've got wonderful restaurants there as well. As far as keeping up with this website, you have newaccountingllc.com. You have a blog. Now, I was told when I did a website, if you're going to do a blog, you got to be busy on it. Are you writing blogs a lot?

Wendy Needham

I am not. I should. I really should.

Bo Matthews

Who's reading them though, right?

Wendy Needham

I know.

Bo Matthews

So as far as the accounting in this world, I mean, gosh, could we have you work at the White House? I think there needs to be some balancing going on with those books.

Wendy Needham

I don't want to take on that.

Bo Matthews

One of my favorite movies of all time, I don't know if you ever saw it, it was Dave. It was a movie called Dave, and the president had a lookalike, and the president was incapacitated so they bring in a lookalike. Well, he brings his accountant in, regular MBA accountant and balances the country's books and people are like, "That's amazing." Would you be willing to fill out an application and go work?

Wendy Needham

I will not. No.

Bo Matthews

Staying away from it.

Wendy Needham

Nope. Nope.

Bo Matthews

That's great. And can I ask you ages of your kids?

Wendy Needham

So I have a four year old, a seven year old, and a 10 year old.

Bo Matthews

Oh my gosh. And are you loving seeing them grow up and get into school?

Wendy Needham

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So two of my kids are deaf and wear cochlear implants.

Bo Matthews

Oh, wow. That's an amazing system.

Wendy Needham

It is. It is. And so this is the first year we've had all of our children local, because they went to private deaf schools in the city before. So it's been a great year because every just can go on the bus and it's been great.

Bo Matthews

That's fantastic. The cochlear implant thing. I've got friends that actually live out here, and I think four out of the five family members are all deaf. But the video of them getting the cochlear implant, was that magical for you? If you don't mind us diverting on this conversation?

Wendy Needham

Yeah, so my youngest... I'm sorry, my oldest when she got it, because she was the one that we initially knew was deaf. She bawled her eyes out. It was not the picture perfect... "Oh my gosh. I hear things." It was, "Oh my gosh, this is so scary. What is going on right now?"

Bo Matthews

Oh my gosh. That's amazing.

Wendy Needham

She was two, so it's a bit overwhelming when you're in the age.

Bo Matthews

Yeah, no. To see it at a later age, I think the one daughter was 18 when she got it and heard her parents' voice for the first time. It's like, "Oh my God." I love that story.

Wendy Needham

That's amazing.

Bo Matthews

Okay, so let's talk accounting again. So if companies are listening and they're thinking, "Man, I really do need some help." Is it a percentage, how do... Not specifically the billing, but is it hard to hire somebody that's a 10 person company to hire you to come in and do that? How does that work when you are bidding for that position? Is that a difficult proposition?

Wendy Needham

I mean, it's a number of questions as minute as asking how many transactions you have, what's the volume of work? But I like to do fixed fee and putting a number together so it doesn't surprise a client every month. So it's really not that difficult. It's just asking the right questions, knowing the right things, knowing how things work.

Bo Matthews

So are you also helping companies with their taxes?

Wendy Needham

I am not a CPA unfortunately.

Bo Matthews

Different world.

Wendy Needham

Different world. Yeah. Not taxes. So I propose it as in I'm the person that gives this fancy, shiny set of books to your CPA and all they really need to do is just plug and play and go.

Bo Matthews

Got you, got you. I have a friend that used to own a very well known boot store near here, and he did everything on paper. He had pallets of paper, and he said, "If they want to audit me, I point him to that thing." I'm like, "Wow, there's a tactic for you." And his name-

Wendy Needham

Maybe not the best.

Bo Matthews

Well, yeah, but he was totally against computers. He was living 100 years ago, a little too late. Anyway, N.E.W Accounting is the name of the company, and Wendy Needham is the owner. If your company or maybe you know some friends, or maybe you're working for a company that is in need of that day-to-day operations, it sounds like and not the CPA stuff.

Wendy Needham

Yeah. I mean, your accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll processing, monthly financial prep. Those are the things that really just hit at home for me.

Bo Matthews

You didn't even flinch.

Wendy Needham

I did not.

Bo Matthews

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, when you know your business that's an awesome thing. Is there a phone number people can reach you at?

Wendy Needham

314-375-3777.

Bo Matthews

All right. Wendy Needham, welcome to the Eureka Chamber of Commerce and N.E.W Accounting is the name of the company. When I first saw the name, this was on my calendar of people to talk to, I was like, "N.E.W Accounting? That's interesting."

Wendy Needham

So it's an acronym for my children. So I have Nora, Evelyn, and Wesley, N.E.W.

Bo Matthews

Okay. I thought we were going to make it through this entire podcast without tearing up and that is beautiful. No, that is beautiful. That's an easy way to remember it. Newaccountingllc.com. If you have a need, N.E.W Accounting can take care of it. Wendy, good luck to you. Thank you.

Wendy Needham

Thank you so much.

Bo Matthews

Thanks for listening to the Eureka Chamber Chatter podcast. For more information about the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, please visit eurekachamber.org. Follow the chamber's Instagram and Facebook page. We encourage you to share this podcast on your social media platforms to spread the word about the great City of Eureka, Missouri, USA. Join us on the next Eureka Chamber Chatter podcast.