As an author, speaker, and educator, Elena not only imparts knowledge but also inspires others to reach their full potential. Her coaching style, described as intense yet compassionate, reflects her dedication to fostering personal growth and organizational transformation. By emphasizing resilience, authenticity, and sustainable change, she aims to create more humane and effective workplaces.

What motivated the establishment of this venture, and how does its overarching vision shape its mission?

BooXkeeping started as a result of an observation of a gap in a market. In 2011, while operating a construction company, my co-founder and I sought bookkeeping services. However, the responses we received from various providers varied significantly in terms of price, offerings, and outcome quality. Concurrently, I undertook a part-time contract at a tax office to maintain my tax preparation expertise and draw from my previous accounting career experience. During this period, I observed a wide disparity in the quality and consistency of financial statements provided by clients. Furthermore, CPAs tended to prioritize final results for tax and audit reporting over transactional analysis from a business owner’s perspective, which did not effectively address their questions or concerns. Additionally, business owners often felt drained and overwhelmed after accounting appointments due to the excessive amount of financial data and lack of understanding how to deal with it. In response to these challenges, my co-founder Max Emma and I resolved to enact change.

How does this enterprise differentiate itself within its industry or niche, and what innovative strategies contribute to its success?

BooXkeeping’s vision is to redefine the bookkeeping industry. Internally, we aimed to cultivate a culture where representing the accounting profession was viewed as cool. Thus, we prioritize and embrace the individuality of professionals, fostering a culture that celebrates diverse personalities and values. Additionally, we aimed to ensure consistency and quality in financial processing, tailored to meet the decision-making needs of business owners. To achieve this, we developed processes adapted from production lines and software tools, guaranteeing robust results.

Externally, we aimed for our company to become a nationally recognized brand, akin to Paychex or ADP-a feat not yet accomplished in the bookkeeping industry at the time of our company’s inception.

How does this company leverage innovation and creativity to craft exceptional experiences for its customers?

On one side, we have always provided individualized customer service, which strongly aligns with our company values and culture. On another side, we believe in developing and training young professionals to give them an opportunity to grow. We primarily hire fresh university graduates or students with basic accounting knowledge and provide comprehensive training. Additionally, our employees receive regular coaching on their personal growth journeys and are encouraged to offer ideas for the improvement and development of our company. Youth brings an incredible source of ideas and capacity to imagine innovative solutions. Mistakes and ideation are embraced as part of our culture, fostering a curious and problem-solving mindset among our employees when communicating with clients. They understand their impact and feel heard within the company. Lastly, we have always prioritized technology and utilize top tech tools available in the market, including building our own backend ops tracking system to enhance the experience of our clients. While tech implementations may not always be successful, it’s a journey of innovation, fun, and occasional frustration, driving us forward.

What are some of the most noteworthy achievements or milestones that this venture has attained since its inception?

We have secured several substantive investments at different stages of expansion. Our flagship location serves hundreds of clients, and we have sold multiple franchising locations across various states to date. We are very proud of our progress!

In a dynamic market, what strategies does this company employ to maintain its leadership position in its respective industry or niche, distinguishing itself from competitors?

We believe in what we do and how we do it. We trust in the people who work with us and their capacity to explore, develop, take risks, and be excited about what we create together. While our product, financial statements, may seem mundane and limited in creativity, our team and franchisee cohort exceed limitations when it comes to ideation and implementing unlikely solutions as we build the company. We are humble enough to recognize mistakes and pivot fast, yet bold enough to follow our own course and vision, set out by my co-founder Max Emma and me 13 years ago. Therefore, we are aware of the competition but not bound by it. We stay true to ourselves, as one of our managers put it.

Could you provide insights into the creative process within this company and how ideas are conceptualized and realized?

It begins with BooXkeeping’s unique corporate structure. Based on one of my organizational theories (which later ended up in as a basis of my PhD dissertation and TedX talk), we assume that our company functions like a human being, and therefore all departments within a company executives operate like organ systems. These systems neither compete with each other, nor report to each other in a hierarchy. Instead, they serve their important unique function to help, together, make this human being of the organization thrive in the outside world. Everyone is allowed and welcome to suggest and experiment with ideas within their departmental functioning. To facilitate this, we maintain an open, non-formal communication style, allowing ideas to be bounced around and refined, even if initially rejected. Regular interactions among staff, including management and franchisees, serve as a sounding board for innovation and collaboration.

How does this enterprise prioritize sustainability and social responsibility in its operations and offerings?

Our focus is social responsibility.

When I was an immigrant college student at the age of 18, I had a chance to finish HR Block tax preparation course and almost immediately find a real job in accounting office. As a result, it gave me a chance to gain real professional skills and be ahead of the career game and support myself and ask real questions and have real cases to learn from and apply knowledge to while I was still a business school student. My co-founder Max Emma had a similar experience. We wanted to give back the same opportunity to the community. So, for as long as our company has been around, we support young soon-to-be or fresh-of-college professionals and provide them with realistic employment opportunities, training, emotional and mental support that teach them a real trade that can give them bread and butter while they study or as they set out on the first steps in their career journey.

Looking ahead, what exciting advancements or expansions are on the horizon for this organization?

Our goals for the next few years include selling many more franchise locations, expanding our company culture and building a strong community between our franchisees and employees, where as we say in our culture deck, the workplace is only a playground and a snapshot of real life, and everyone’s individuality is celebrated.

Moreover, we plan to build a unique ENTERTAINING bookkeeping training program (entertainment is not a word often associated with bookkeeping) and potentially introduce financial literacy workshops for youth.

“Our company’s commitment to social responsibility is deeply rooted through our own experiences and values.”

“Your Trusted Outsourced Bookkeeping Partner.”

“We are a team of cool bean counters dedicated to redefining the bookkeeping industry.”