We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shanderia Montgomery. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shanderia below.
Shanderia, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I get my work ethic from my parents. I have always saw them work for what they want from cars, homes, businesses etc. I have witness them through the good, bad and ugly when it comes to business. I am not sure that they are even aware that part of the reason I have come this far is because I took heed to what they were doing. I have benefited from their business mistakes and watching them succeed.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an Accountant, Owner/Operator of a virtual accounting services business named, One Chance Bookkeeping.
I knew back in high school that I would want to be an Accountant. I was interested in numbers but I didn’t know how much until after school one day waiting on my ride home, my principal asked me what I wanted to do after high school. I told him I wanted to be an accountant, and he immediately said “you must like numbers”. I told him yes, I do! Then he asked me, “Ok what’s the room number to your English class”, I answered without even thinking about it! He confirmed that I got it right and I realized then that numbers would just come natural to memorize! Aside of that, my favorite classes were accounting and banking classes!
I didn’t go to college until 3 years after I graduated but when I did, I continued until I got 3 degrees in accounting. I have my Associate’s in Accounting, Bachelors in Forensic Accounting, and Master’s in Auditing. In the midst of getting my degrees, I worked 2 jobs but my main job was always an accounting job. In 2018 I had my son, Chance who in which my business is named after. In 2018, I realized how difficult it was being a mother and working in the corporate world. I would miss a lot of days due to him being sick, eventually ran out of PTO days, and since I was a salaried employee, it was nothing, I could do to make up for missing. In 2019 I decided that I wanted to work for myself. I figured that if I can do accounting work for someone else, I can do it for myself and generate my own revenue. The word “chance” by Webster’s definition means, “a possibility of something happening”. I was told for many years I would not be able to carry a child, so my son’s name being Chance is sentimental. I decided to name my business, One Chance Bookkeeping after my son, as I viewed it as another possibility of making something happen. I have now been in business 4 years as of January 1 of this year!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I three most important qualities that were most impactful in my journey would be self starter, self discipline and open. Being a self starter is the most important quality because as a business owner, sometimes I just want to be in bed all day. I have to be able to motivate myself DAILY to get done what needs to be. I chose self discipline because once I get my day going, I have to be disciplined enough to get things done. Being open to change is just as important! Things change in every industry often and sometimes it’s hard to want to start over or learn a new process. Being open to continue to learn about what’s going on in my industry has been very helpful with my growth,
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The book that has played an important role in my development is the “The Oz Principle”. It’s a book about getting results through individual and organizational accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman. A few of the most valuable nuggets of wisdom I gained is “Counting the consequences of not doing it” and the “Benefits of taking Accountability”. Counting the consequences of not getting the job done, or missing a deadline is where my self discipline comes it. Sometimes we don’t realize that in business waiting to the last minute can cost you if you run into an issue. It ultimately could cost you to lose a client or a sale. The benefits of taking accountability is more about the satisfaction of knowing you took ownership and did everything to resolve an issue that is in your control. Although some of the benefits could still cost you, having an accountable reputation is better than one who may not take accountability. I worked a corporate job and we had to read this book as a team. Over 6 years later, I still have it and read it again and it’s helped me. I would recommend this book to any business owner and if you have a team this would be a good roundtable discussion!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.onechancebookkeeping.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_chance_bookkeeping_llc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onechancebookkeeping
Image Credits
Motelewa Smith Photography
