How It Started:

Amina Bookkeeping started on the sole basis of an opportunity having floated my way. It was never planned. It was a combination of life long factors and influences as well as wonderful people who saw my ambition, perseverance, and natural direction.

Early Influence

2008, At 6 years old, I watched my parents struggle as they faced the collapse of the housing industry. My father had always worked in construction and when the layoffs came in 2008, he faced limited choices in how to support his family. His solution was to begin his own custom home construction business. 2008, amongst the housing crash and non-existent market, High Valley Construction was born and grew to be successful.

From day one, I watched as my mom take on the bookkeeping, supporting the business from behind the scenes. She taught herself, learned the ropes as she was thrown into them, and constantly was doing research. Due to her position as the business bookkeeper, as I grew, she emphasized financial tracking and planning. She taught me all that she knew. At age 15 or so, with a little more than babysitting jobs, I began tracking my own finances and budgeting in accordance to my little expenses.

Later Influences

I have always been very ambitious, persistent, and have a natural knack for solving complex issues. Jumping to my adulthood, I began a job in retail sales that I thought would just be a way to support myself, something temporary. But the moment I stepped foot in that store, I was taken under the wing of the owner, a true visionary. He saw potential in my capabilities and chose to help me grow my knowledge. He served as my mentor, teaching me everything from basic sales to business management. As I rose through the roles in the business, I began picking up tasks dealing with money management. First reconciling the registers and generating daily sales reports, then suddenly A/R, A/P, and Payroll prep followed by database management, calculating Return on Investment (ROI) on marketing projects, and calculating customer loyalty effects. Here, I found my home.

The Great Game of Business

My mentor was very passionate about business and strove to teach his employees about finances and business management as well as get them involved in making decisions for the company. In effort to expand our financial literacy, he began teaching us about “The Great Game of Business”, a strategy developed by Jack Stack to help involve employees in the financial decisions of a company and to transition to employee ownership. In “The Game” the group decides on a financial goal that they want to try to improve. Each employee is then assigned a line in the PNL statement relating to the goal that they are accountable for.

It is through this “game” that my knowledge in financial literacy began to evolve, particularly regarding PNL Sheets, Balance Sheets, Quick Ratio, and the Chart of Accounts. As I learned about these topics more in depth, my eyes opened wider as I watched how everything is connected and impacted by every other item. I loved the puzzle of it all, each piece having its own spot, and in one way or another, connected to everything else.

The Beginning of Amina

Over the years at the store, I officially worked as the Executive Assistant, however, as money got tight I was moved back into sales as I knew how to connect with people and drive loyalty, connection, and gratitude amongst our customers. However, sales not being something I enjoyed, I chose to move on from the store and, through my mentor’s suggestion, moved on to work in a nonprofit organization. Which further expanded my knowledge in bookkeeping as I served as a full-charge bookkeeper. Between receipts, A/R and A/P, scholarships, payroll, and quarterly taxes, I handled an array of areas in the field. And at the same time, learned the ins and outs of nonprofits and how they differ in accounting from standard companies.

Whilst working in the nonprofit, I began exploring the idea of beginning my own bookkeeping business. I fell into a career I enjoyed and felt I could benefit others with. Exploration became reality when one of my connections from the retail store reached out suddenly one day and asked if I was interested in taking over her bookkeeping. I wasn’t prepared to start my own business yet, but nonetheless accepted. Then the opportunity exploded. Her previous bookkeeper was retiring and passed several of her clients on to me. I scrambled to set up my LLC in time. Now, Amina, though still new, is thriving. Connections come every day and each one makes me smile as the relationships amongst the various businesses are genuine and built in compassion and dedication.

The Name

Amina Bookkeeping got its name through a few different factors. As I was thinking of names I knew I wanted to pay tribute to God as the opportunity to start my business, and every opportunity since, has been a blessing. As a reminder of that blessing and a reminder of my morality, I wanted the name to be in Arabic. Because my connection to the language reminds me of God, thus reminding me of where my opportunities came from and the standard of morality that I run my business on. However, I also wanted the name to be pronounceable by native English speakers for clarity sake. My options were surprisingly limited by that guideline. The name “Amina” was chosen by a dear friend of mine. In Arabic, it means “accountable”. Although “accountable” doesn’t hold significance to me beyond it being a value I hold, I accepted the name because of the light in my friend’s eyes when it was said.