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“Without a strong financial foundation and financial transparency, there is nothing a company can do to grow,” she says.
Written by Sergeant Deborah Jeanne
Document clerk. typist. Insurance underwriter. Secretary. Deputy village official. Bookkeeper. Debbie Bilello has accomplished all of that.
“The kids laugh because I haven’t had a job in over six years,” she said with a laugh.
But in reality, she has always played the same role. In other words, she has served as the glue that holds the office together.
The founder and owner of Virtual Office Solutions in Central Square, she still does the same thing, albeit on a consulting basis. She also serves as administrator for the Greater Oneida Lake Chamber of Commerce.
Bilello founded Virtual Office Solutions in 2009. She was helping her brothers in business by providing bookkeeping services when one of her accountant girlfriends asked her, “Why not start her own business?” .
She had been laid off from her job as a village deputy clerk in southern Oswego County, so it was the perfect time to hang up a roof. But before that, she needed to undergo training.
Although she was familiar with accounting, she needed to learn more about how to run a business. She completed her Fast Track in Business at Her Community College of Onondaga, taught by her certified business advisor at the NYS Small Business Development Center. The 20-hour course includes creating a business plan, law, hiring employees, marketing, social media, financial management, and business financing options. She currently speaks to other new business owners about managing financial records and putting “profits first” as a speaker on her Fast Track program. Word-of-mouth advertising helped them acquire additional customers.
Bilello helps business owners step by step, starting with a discovery session. At this point, she is exploring the possibility of taking on business as a client.
“I’m willing to 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 problems are,” she said. “We look at their problems and what they’re struggling with. Sometimes I can’t help them.”
The next step for any of her clients she takes on is looking at their accounting systems and setting them up, usually on QuickBooks or the industry-specific software they use.
At this point, she helps them learn how to structure their company’s finances so they can pay their bills while making a profit. This often involves cutting fat from your budget like entertainment and unused subscriptions.
“I had a client who paid a lot of money for commercial rental space,” Bilello said. “He had three offices and three conference rooms, but no one came to his office. He paid thousands of dollars for space he never used. Sublease and other options. It turns out that the reason he got the space was because of Google Analytics. When we took a closer look at his marketing budget, we found out that the Google listings weren’t accurate and were not what he expected. We couldn’t even drive the business into that area. The marketing he thought he would make money from wasn’t even providing any profit. We cut that expense and he looked elsewhere. He negotiated with me.”
We also connect our clients with trusted professionals who can help with areas outside of our scope, such as insurance and payroll.
A few years into her business, a client gave her a book called Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Your Business from a Cash-eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowitz. The book was an eye-opener for Bilello because it shares how business owners can better plan their businesses to make money (see sidebar).
“When I read this book, I understood the whole methodology,” Bilello said. “This is what my client needed. The more I pursued it, the more convinced I became that this was the answer I was looking for to help my client.”
Michalowicz offers the Profit First certification, which Bilello can earn and teach others how to do. She also offers private and group coaching sessions that teach profit-first business and personal finance.
Ms. Bilello believes that authenticity is “the key to doing business with people,” she said. “I’m trusted with people’s finances. There’s a raw emotional connection to money. Small business owners feel like they have to know everything about everything, but they don’t. .”
Instead, she encourages subcontracting out areas that are outside of business management’s area of expertise or that take too much time. Bilello enjoys working with the financial part of business management.
“There’s nothing a company can do to grow without a strong financial foundation and financial clarity,” Bilello said. “I can’t fathom how many companies don’t know how much money they make. It’s sad because they work so hard to make something.
“As their trusted advisor, I bring financial transparency to their business.”
Bilello’s virtual office solution serves 20 corporate customers, she said.
Bilello is a member of the Greater Oneida Lake Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Business Opportunity Connection (WBOC), and Business Referral Network (BRN). In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, quilting and crafting.
Everything is “profit first”
Developed by Mike Michalowicz, Profit First is a cash flow methodology that helps business owners plan how to use their money effectively. They divide the business’s money into five accounts (or more if needed for specific purposes, such as sales tax). One is an income account to collect earnings, the other is an account for profits (holds his 5% of the earnings), the owner’s salary (50%). , taxes (15%) and the remainder for business operations (30%).
Bilello said many business owners don’t set aside any profits from their businesses, and some don’t pay themselves. Taxes can also be forgotten.
“It’s not uncommon to receive a tax bill and panic because you don’t know where the money is coming from,” she says. This has a knock-on effect on cash flow and causes financial stress on the business, as cash flow has to be taken out of operating expenses.
Funds that go into the profit account must first be used to pay off business debts. Next, you need to establish an emergency fund to cover unexpected business operating expenses.
“Even in the event of an extraordinary situation like a pandemic, we have the funding in place to sustain our business for the long term,” Bilello said. “Once that’s done, talk to them about their dreams and goals. What services do they want their business to provide? Do they have a philanthropic vision they want to contribute to?”
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