‘There’s nothing a business can do to grow if they don’t have a solid financial foundation or the clarity in their finances,’ she says
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
File clerk. Typist. Insurance underwriter. Secretary. Deputy village clerk. Bookkeeper. Debbie Bilello has done them all.
“My kids laugh because I never held a job for more than six years,” she said with a chuckle.
But in reality she has had the same function all along: acting as the glue to hold the office together.
Founder and owner of Virtual Office Solutions in Central Square, she is doing the same thing now, although on a consulting basis. She also serves as the administrator for Greater Oneida Lake Chamber of Commerce.
Bilello founded Virtual Office Solutions in 2009. She had been helping her brothers by providing bookkeeping services to their business when one of their tax accountants asked her, “Why don’t you start your own business?”
Since she had been laid off from her position as a deputy village clerk in southern Oswego County, the timing was right for hanging out a shingle. But first, she needed to get some training.
Although well-versed in accounting, she needed to learn more about how to operate a business. She completed the Fast Track for Business at Onondaga Community College, which is led by a certified NYS Small Business Development Center business adviser. The 20-hour course includes business plan development, legalities, hiring employees, marketing, social media, financial management and business financing options. Now she is a speaker at the Fast Track program talking to other new business owners about financial record keeping and “Profit First.” Word-of-mouth advertising helped her gain additional clients.
Bilello helps business owners in phases, beginning with a discovery session. At this point, she explores the possibility of taking on the business as a client.
“I will meet with anyone for an hour for free because I don’t know if we’re going to be a good match until I know what their problem is,” she said. “We go through their pain points and what they’re struggling with. Sometimes, it’s not anything I can help them with.”
During the next step for those she takes on as clients, she looks over their accounting system or sets up an accounting system, usually on QuickBooks or on whatever industry-specific software they may use.
At this point, she helps them learn how to structure the company’s finances so that they can both make a profit and pay the bills. This often includes trimming fat from the budget such as entertainment and unused subscriptions.
“I had a client who paid a lot of money for commercial rent space,” Bilello said. “He had three offices and three conference rooms but no one ever came to his office. He paid thousands of dollars for space he didn’t use. We talked about subleasing and other options. We found out that his reason for having the space is because of Google Analytics. As we dug into the marketing budget, the Google listing wasn’t even accurate or driving the business he had hoped to that space. The marketing he thought he was getting a return on wasn’t even offering the return. We cut that expense and he negotiated for another location.”
She also refers clients to trusted professionals to help in areas outside of her scope, such as insurance or payroll.
A few years into her business, a client gave her a copy of the book “Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine” by Mike Michalowicz. The book proved eye-opening to Bilello, as it shares how business owners can plan their businesses better so they can make money (see sidebar).
“When I read the book, it made sense to me, the whole methodology,” Bilello said. “This is what my clients needed. The more I pursued it, the more I was convinced that this was the answer I was looking for to help my clients.”
Michalowicz offers Profit First certification, which Bilello has achieved so she can teach others the methods. She also offers private and group coaching sessions that teach Profit First for business and personal finance.
Bilello believes that authenticity “is the key to doing business with people,” she said. “I’m trusted with people’s finances. Money has raw emotional ties. Small business owners feel like they have to know everything about everything, but they don’t.”
Instead, she encourages them to subcontract areas in their business administration that lie outside their area of expertise or that are too time-consuming. Bilello enjoys handling the financial piece of business administration.
“There’s nothing a business can do to grow if they don’t have a solid financial foundation or the clarity in their finances,” Bilello said. “I can’t tell you how many businesses I talk with that don’t know how much money they make. It’s sad because they work so hard to build something.
“As their trusted adviser, I bring that financial clarity to their business.”
Bilello’s Virtual Office Solutions serves 20 business clients, she said.
Bilello is a member of the Greater Oneida Lake Chamber of Commerce, Women Business Opportunity Connections (WBOC) and Business Referral Network (BRN). In her free time, Bilello enjoys spending time with family, quilting and crafting.
It’s All About ‘Profit First’
Developed by Mike Michalowicz, Profit First is a cashflow method that aids business owners in planning how to effectively use money. They divide the money in their business into five accounts, (or more if needed for a specific purpose like sales tax) an income account to collect revenue, another for profit (which will hold 5% of revenue), owner’s pay (50%), taxes (15%) and the rest for operating the business (30%).
Bilello said that many business owners do not set aside any profit from the business, nor do some pay themselves. Taxes may also be forgotten.
“It’s not uncommon for people to panic because they get a tax bill and don’t know where the money is coming from,” she said. This creates a ripple effect in their cash flow as they have to take it from their operating expenses, causing financial stress on the business.
Money going into the profit account should initially be used to pay off any business debt. Next, it should establish an emergency fund to cover any surprises in the business’s operating expenses.
“In case something crazy like a pandemic hits, they’ll have money set aside and be able to sustain their business over time,” Bilello said. “Once we’ve done that, we talk about their dreams and goals. How do they want their business to serve them? Do they have a philanthropic vision they want to contribute to?”
