Kelli Lewis

I attribute my success to my reputation and my willingness to serve others from the very beginning. I've done a lot of work for free early on, trying to get in front of the right person and make connections. I don't think people talk about humble beginnings enough anymore. I started somewhere where I could build relationships with power partners, like CPA firms and tax advisory firms who could refer clients to me. I was overly friendly, overly supportive, and overly serving. I believe in the phrase 'givers gain' from BNI, being willing to give to somebody before you're looking to receive. Word-of-mouth referrals from doing great service for an entrepreneur spreads like wildfire, and that's been the best business for me. I know there's Google Ads and TikTok ads and all that stuff, but word of mouth and doing great service is what built my business over these 17 years.

The first step is to believe in yourself. Get a clear vision of what you want, and believe in yourself that you can achieve it. From there, build your network. Be overly friendly, overly supportive, and overly serving. These are things that I did very early. I've done a lot of work for free, trying to get in front of the right person and make connections with the right person. I don't think people talk about humble beginnings enough anymore. Everyone can't walk in and demand the platinum pricing. You need to start somewhere where you can build relationships with power partners. For accounting, that means CPA firms and tax advisory firms who are great referrals. Be there to help them, send them clients. The phrase from BNI is 'givers gain,' so be willing to give to somebody before you're looking to receive. If you're trying to get started in accounting and you don't have any clients, you need to make friends with someone who has your clients. Show them the value that you bring by serving them, and then word-of-mouth referral is the best business. Doing great service for an entrepreneur spreads like wildfire.

Integrity is really important to me, and making sure that the client has a good experience. That's one reason why I want to keep my foot to the pedal to the metal as far as operating in business, because I want people to have good experiences when it comes to the accounting industry and running their business. There's a notice in credibility. My Google reviews are real. I've never paid anyone to do those. It's hard now when we're living in this day and age where you can get bots and AI to write you Google reviews, you can put videos and have you standing next to Tony Robbins, and you can look like this amazing person overnight. That's just an image. I want to be that at the core. I want folks to be able to find me, search me, and see that I'm consistent. When I go to events or people talk to me that I haven't talked to in 15 years, and they say, 'Oh, you're still doing accounting?' Yes, I still am. I'm not a jack-of-all-trades. I'm in my lane, I'm here, and when you need me, I'm going to be here now and for years to come. I take pride in what I've built and how long I've been doing it.