I’m so glad you made it to my fabulous website that I made all by myself. Pretty impressive considering this is not my specialty but I digress.. I’m here to tell you how smart you are for doing your due diligence in checking up on me. Honestly I probably should be using Chatgpt to write this but I am way too unique for AI so this is all me.
A little bit of background so you know my history: I am a licensed cosmetologist who had a studio salon in Baltimore MD for 15 years. That was a lot of fun! I specialized in full blown makeovers for Brides but also for women who just needed a confidence boost. My haircuts are amazing. I have this signature cut that I named Aubrey because one of my clients asked me to come up with a name for it and that’s what popped into my head. For the record I don’t actually know anyone named Aubrey but my imagination has no limits. I was also the go to stylist for fashion color which is basically unnatural hair colors like purple, blue, teal, pink etc. Those clients were some of my favorite because my fingers would be stained beautifully for days (despite wearing gloves) and pretty colors make me happy. Speaking of things that make me happy, I also love teaching. It all started back when I was 19yrs old and teaching in a preschool and then I got a job teaching middle schoolers. Oh boy that was fun! So much so that when it came time to homeschool my own children I was overly confident. Turns out some kids learn better one on one which is all fine and dandy when you only have one child but not so fine when you have multiple children. But not to worry! Supermom to the rescue. I figured out a way to delegate and give each child the attention they need. So far so good, according to my ratings, the polls show that I am still a good mom. Not to toot my own horn but let’s get to the juicy stuff. How did I go from being a creative and highly talented artist ( I could be modest but where’s the fun in that?! ) to being a badass bookkeeper saving damsels in distress and rescuing knights in shining armor you ask?
I’ll tell you.
So once upon a time, a long long time ago, I asked my mom to do the bookkeeping for my salon because she was a bookkeeper and I was a busy artist who couldn’t be bothered with boring bookkeeping. She was so kind and patient and eager to support her favorite daughter so she agreed to do it. But after months of trying to read my brilliant handwriting (it’s doctor level if you know what I mean) she had enough and insisted I sit next to her while she teach me how do it myself. I whined and complained the whole time and then came to the conclusion it was actually a lot faster and more efficient doing it myself. You see the time it took me to write down the details for the money coming in, and to keep track of the money going out, and then trying to read my own handwriting so I could tell her what to enter, was a total time suck. So I ended up just doing it myself and realized it was actually really helpful and fun to analyze my financial reports on a regular basis. I forgot to mention my Dad who is a business owner also, taught me the fundamentals of bookkeeping so I was able to understand it all despite not having gone to college and hating math. Most people don’t know this, but you actually don’t have to be good at math to do bookkeeping. Fast forward and another family member asked me very nicely to help him with his bookkeeping in his business and I just couldn’t say no. His business was wholesale distribution. Now you might not know this, but bookkeeping for a small studio salon and bookkeeping for a huge multi million dollar company is like going from making yourself eggs for breakfast to cooking a 5 course meal for 500 people. Needless to say it was waaay beyond my expertise. Fortunately for him, I am not one to give up easily, so I hired an expert to teach me her ways and I cleaned up his books and taught him how to help me do it. That may not sound very earth shattering but you need to understand the magnitude of this accomplishment. This man was not a sitter. He owned a desk but rarely ever sat behind it. He was a born salesman who spent most of his day walking around the warehouse and showroom, talking to customers and avoiding computers at all cost. He types with 2 fingers and can’t spell to save his life. Excellent salesman who can sell you the moon but when I suggested he help me with bookkeeping, he adamantly refused. So I said “fine, you don’t have to sit down, just stand in the same room as me while I ask you questions.” He agreed to that. After a few hours of watching me in action he started paying attention to what I was doing and realized it was a lot simpler than he imagined it to be. He also has very brilliant handwriting and so every check that he wrote, he had to decipher and decode his chicken scratch so he could tell me what to enter. Just like me and my mom, he concluded it was faster for him to just enter it himself while the details where still fresh in his mind. And so it started, he started taking on more and more until one day he had a brilliant idea. He said “You have been such a huge help in getting my books straight and teaching me. My customers are always complaining they need help with their books. I think you should get certified being that you’re already so good at this, and then you can help other business owners with their books!” And so that’s how I went from Licensed Cosmetologist to Certified Bookkeeping Expert.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Bookkeeping is nice but I found my niche seems to be more in utilizing Bookkeeping as a tool for Business Coaching and Financial Advising. My clients love that I think like a business owner and so I don’t just prepare the books for tax preparation but I encourage them to use their books as a tool to make better business decisions. I’ve recently started sharing some spreadsheets I have created to help my clients budget, keep track of important information for tax preparations and establishing better workflows. Bookkeeping is not something businesses should be doing just for end of year tax preparation. I encourage my clients to identify their personal and business goals so they can then utilize their books to help them come up with a game plan to achieve those goals faster and more easily. It doesn’t matter if a business is losing money or making a substantial profit, if the business owner is not hands on involved and aware of how to use their books as a tool, they are not going to be able to get the most out of their business.
But wait! That’s not all. The store continues…
It was a dark and stormy night… actually scratch that. It was a beautiful sunny day in Florida and my parents were enjoying the beauty of visiting their gorgeous daughter (that woudl be me) living in Paradise when they got the idea that maybe they should also buy a house in Florida so they could be spend more time with their amazing daughter (again, that would be me) and their grandchildren. That’s when I said “hold up! Stop right there.” You see my gentle readers, houses in Florida aint cheap. And if they’re thinking of buying a house someone is going to be making commission and that someone could be me! So it was decided I would get my Florida Real Estate license on the off chance my parents decide to actually buy a house in Florida.
Fast forward a year…
I am now a Florida Realtor.
Now you may be wondering why I think I have what it takes to be a successful Realtor when every man and his uncle’s wife’s neighbor’s cat’s dog is also realtor and they’re clearly not all successful. I’ll tell you.
I have 1st hand experience buying 2 properties (you would be surprised how many realtors are not property owners) and then rehabbing them which I may add, is not for the faint hearted.
In addition to that, I was a landlord for 5 years and rented as a tenant for 5 years, so I understand first hand what can go right and what can go terribly wrong on both sides, as a tenant and a landlord.
If that isn’t enough, I also rented commercial spaces as a business owner so I understand commercial property from both an investment standpoint and as tenant in both retail and industrial spaces. 40 page leases don’t scare me. I’ve read them thoroughly and lived to talk about it.
My prior experiences are really helpful for prospective clients who need guidance drafting comprehensive business plans that include spreadsheets with projections for general business as well as those looking to incorporate real estate investments into their portfolios.
I am very confident in what I know and at the same time have no problem asking questions and learning new things from whoever is willing to teach me.
Becoming a Realtor gives me the opportunity to continue helping people, which is the common theme in all my careers and ultimately what I enjoy most about everything I do.
It doesn’t matter if we are talking makeup, financial statements or real estate, I will always look for the beauty that is already there and find ways to enhance it.
If you’ve read this far and you still feel like we would be a good fit, call me and let me know how I can help you.
Looking forward to meeting you!
-Ruth Jankowitz
One of these days I will get some fancy headshots to go along with this website, but for now you will have to do some good old fashioned social media stalking to see my pretty face 🙂
What are you waiting for?
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