Jackie Rockwell is Helping Moms Budget Better

Episode Transcript

Ann Marie O’Braskin 0:01
Hey everybody. I have Jackie Rockwell here with me today. And I would love to ask you, Jackie to tell me a little bit about yourself and your family.

Jackie Rockwell 0:11
Hi. Yes. So I am a work from home mom of three. I have a nine year old, a seven year old and a two year old. And I have a bookkeeping business. And I also teach moms how to budget. And that’s a little bit about me.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 0:39
And where are you located?

Jackie Rockwell 0:41
Oh, I’m in Corvallis in Oregon. So we’re kind of in the middle of Oregon or on the West Coast about an hour away from the ocean.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 0:51
And tell me about how you make money.

Jackie Rockwell 0:55
So I make money by bookkeeping for small businesses, which are all local. Currently, there’s one about an hour away, but the rest of them are in my town. And then, so I do well, right now I’m doing all remote services. I was going on site for two of them, but we’ve brought them online. So they’re the I’m doing, I’m working remotely for them now. And I also have a budgeting course that I sell online. So that’s online only. And then I do work directly with women teaching them about budgeting and coaching them on their finances, their money mindset.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 1:54
Is that a one on one service?

Jackie Rockwell 1:56
Yeah, that’s what I want. Yeah.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 1:59
Cool. So, you have the bookkeeping, which is one on one service, but that’s b2b. And then you have one on one that’s like b2c with that coaching. I guess that would be, and then the course.

Jackie Rockwell 2:13
Yes, yeah.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 2:15
Very cool. And how did you get into this field?

Jackie Rockwell 2:19
I have an accounting degree. I’m not sure when I got that exactly. 2012 I think I was on the track to be a CPA. And then we’re in this little town and I couldn’t get a job at a CPA firm. So just took a job as an accountant, did that for a little while as their controller, and then decided I really wanted to work for myself. And so I started doing their books as they were my client, and then I took other clients on as well. And that was about six. That was six years ago. So it’s kind of it’s just grown from there. Then about a year ago I decided I– really my passion has always been personal finance. So about a year ago, I decided I really wanted to work directly with individuals rather than just businesses. And I had worked with a couple individuals here and there. And so that’s when I really that’s when I created my course, Financial Confidence Bootcamp. And that’s when I started seeking, you know, this coaching women, specifically, instead of just business owners on their finances. I think it’s really important that we kind of flip that script we have about money, a lot of us don’t want to look at it. And I think it’s really important that we look at it and feel like we have some control around it.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 3:53
Definitely, especially right now.

Jackie Rockwell 3:56
Yeah, especially right now. Yeah.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 3:59
Very cool. And so with with having a service side and the course what is your day to day look like?

Jackie Rockwell 4:07
My day to day is a lot of service. And I would like to transition into less service and more marketing for the course but that’s been that’s really hard to balance, you know, like switching. I did let go of some clients last year. And so that was that like, took a little off my plate there. Raising my rates has helped my hourly rate so that I can not have to work as many hours and be able to promote the course. So my day to day I would say, you know, I’m spending probably 75% of my time still doing my service with my clients. Yeah. That’s right.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 5:06
And how has that changed with now your family being home? all the time?

Jackie Rockwell 5:11
Yeah. They are home all the time. So before we hit record, I was telling you, we have the three kids home and my husband is home as well. So last week, everyone was home, and we were juggling care of the two kids. And that was really difficult. You know, we each felt like we weren’t getting anywhere near as much as we needed to done. So we actually hired one of the employees at my youngest daughter’s daycare to come and work for us and so we’re the only family that she’s working for. So we’re really limiting the exposures or spreading the virus around And, you know, she says she’s gonna go in the grocery store at home. So she should be, you know, I don’t know her that well, but I’m trusting that that she’s being honest with us. So, so she’s watching the kids, while my husband and I are both able to work. She’s watching the kids four days a week. So it’s not full time or anything, but it’s enough to where I’m still able to work. But I definitely have to, like, figure out but prioritize what you know, I have to look at Okay, what is making money right now? What’s, you know, there’s not a lot of big ideas, big picture work going on right now. It’s more of being in the trenches and just getting the billable hours in.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 6:46
That’s so interesting, because I feel like right now, people aren’t on either side of that, like either their service base work is still going strong, but now it’s I have to figure out how I can just fit in the money making time, like you said, or it’s the opposite where, okay, all of the service based work is like, gone. Gone. Yeah. And now there’s all this time to do these other projects, which I’m on that other side, where I’m like my clients have dropped because they’ve been forced to close. And so now it’s like, Okay, well, now I’ve started this podcast now. I’m, connecting with other people and really, really focusing all in on my course. Sure, it really is interesting to see there are two totally different sides of the coin of how everything that’s going on is affecting small business owners, because I really do feel like it’s either. I have all this stuff to do and now less time or now I have all of this other time and I need to figure out what to do with it.

it.

Jackie Rockwell 7:52
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I’ve only have two clients that are I, as far as I can tell, it seems like there’s only two that are going to get hit pretty hard. And one of them is a really big nonprofit. And so we’re meeting it to have a worst case scenario budget situation going, because that’s the kind of thing I can help them with. But I my position, I’m fortunate where I’m, I’m pretty secure as long as the business is still open, because people need if they’re having their books done, they need that to continue. So I’m lucky with right. I’m sure you’re helping people like extra during this time. They really need your service to be able to figure out everything which money do we have? Yeah. How can we do this? Exactly. Yeah.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 8:41
Very cool. So what is one thing that you do each week to move your business forward?

Jackie Rockwell 8:47
Oh, good question. Well, so I try to do this daily. But what I do is in the morning, I really do sit and have quiet time with myself. And so I feel like that really helps me like be my highest self be the like this best version of myself. And so that allows me to lead my business moving forward instead of just feeling like I’m coming into my office and, you know, logging my hours and then turning the computer off and leaving and just going through the motions. And so I think that for me, that’s the way that I can best really support my business and myself and my business.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 9:38
Very cool. Um, okay, So this is my my last question, but from your experience, what would your advice be for a mom looking to start a similar business to yours?

Jackie Rockwell 9:53
Oh Ah, good question. So, like I said, I have a degree in accounting. I am really overqualified for what I do, which allows me to charge well, but you can definitely go into the bookkeeping field without having an accounting degree. You can, I would say, you know, taking some QuickBooks classes, QuickBooks has some really amazing trainings and you can get certified through them. And then it’s really likely that there’s like your local community college has some kind of accounting or bookkeeping or even QuickBooks classes. So you can so that’s pretty affordable. So if that was something, you know, someone was interested in doing that, I would say just getting that training and then reaching out so finding out someone who’s already doing this job in your area and connecting with them is what has helped me grow my business. So I started out and I was so nervous, and I have the most amazing mentor. And she just kept telling me there is such a need for this. There’s such a need for this. And I was like, I don’t know, I’m taking this my one client, I don’t know. And then it was like another one. And I got another one. Because there really is there’s always a need for for bookkeepers. And she was always drilling that into me. But there is and so now we have this amazing network of bookkeepers in our area where we meet quarterly, and we have a Facebook group where we ask each other questions, you know, we’re all in the same state. And so our payroll tax laws all you know, we can it really everything is relatable between us and it’s such a great resource. So, I would say getting the education but then also finding someone who’s just who’s doing this and most likely they’ll be more than happy to pass the clay off to you if they feel like, you know, you have the education because a lot of bookkeepers I talked to are working themselves spreading themselves really thin. A lot. So, yeah, absolutely.

Ann Marie O’Braskin 12:22
Okay, great. Well, where can people find out more about you? And do you have anything special going on right now that you’d like to share?

Jackie Rockwell 12:31
Yes, so more about me. So I am not currently taking any bookkeeping clients. So if that’s something you’re looking for, I could always refer you to somebody else. But as far as budgeting help, that’s really where I’m focusing. And so that’s where I want to help people going forward and right now with everyone getting laid off or having hours cut. I really think that there’s such a need for that, so you can find me at JackieRockwell.com or on Instagram at @motherhoodinspired. I also have decided starting now through at least through the end of April, and maybe they’ll get extended depending on how things go. I want to offer my course on a sliding scale. So it normally retails for or sells for 197. And I’m offering it on a sliding scale between $10 and $100. So, if you can pay between those two amounts, then you can have the course and it’ll walk you through, you know, figuring out your financial goals, setting a budget, sticking with your budget, and you know, everything that you need to really feel confident around money. So you can sign up for that you can go you know, pay or $10 or $20 at JackieRockwell.com/Mom

Ann Marie O’Braskin 14:02
I’ll put all those links here in the show notes so if you’re interested you can just go and wherever you’re listening to this from there will be the links for Jackie’s website, her Instagram and for her course so that you can find out more. Thank you so much for being here with me, Jackie.

Jackie Rockwell 14:25
It was for me.

This is awesome. Thank you.