NextDoor Bookkeeping of Hillsborough County

It’s rare to find someone who has a passion for bookkeeping, but that exact passion is what led Rossana Laib to open NextDoor Bookkeeping.

“I love QuickBooks online and not everybody can say that,” Laib said. “I enjoy investigating the books. It gives me satisfaction to find the mistakes and solve the problems in [the client’s] books.”

Inspired by a friend to turn that passion into a business, she turned to the Florida SBDC at University of South Florida in 2018 to seek out direction on where to begin.

“SBDC at USF really helped me by giving me guidance on where to go and what to do with the business,” she said. “I think if I wouldn’t have [had] SBDC at USF, and Bill especially, I think I would be lost and I would probably not be going the right way to build a business.”

Not only did Laib seek out one on one consultations with professionally certified business consultant Bill Burnham, she also attended a variety of classes – Starting Your Business, Marketing Your Business, Basic Business Taxes and Social Media Strategies.

Burnham has been instrumental in the growth of her business since the very beginning. While helping her create a business plan, he also helped her with naming the business and helped her navigate the taxes and licenses needed to start her business, such as obtaining a license with the City of Tampa and paying Hillsborough County taxes.

Burnham also helped her to discover her target market and gave her pointers on website design, so that she can attract that target market.

Though she has been in business for less than two years, she is already beginning to see growth in her business.

“I met my clients through networking,” she said. “I am seeing more clients. I’m a one-on-one person, so the client can meet me and we discuss what would be the best approach to take. So, my business grew the first year by building a relationship with my clients.”

Laib measures her success by her client testimonials. She said, “It gives me a good feeling to help them with their struggles. So, when the client tells me that they’d be lost without me or how their accountant said it is one of the cleanest books that they ever seen or it’s so nice to see a real-life balance sheet. It makes me feel satisfied that a client is happy with how I can help them with their books.”