Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ian Bouchett, Founder and CEO of Ledgr, located in Underhill, VT, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Ledgr sells software and services to startup entrepreneurs and small businesses who want to make better financial decisions. We set up plug-and-play accounting and financial environments focusing on clear data and dedicated teams. We can run an outsourced accounting department or just close the books at month's end. Our customers average pre-revenue to 30m in annual revenue and usually use us as an extension of their team to represent the accounting or finance department.

Tell us about yourself

I got started as an entrepreneur myself over a decade ago. Since then, I have built multiple businesses myself and know the pain that comes from being big enough to need high-level accounting but too small to hire dedicated teams and CFOs. I am not an accountant, but my background is in finance and, more importantly, building businesses, which I love more than anything. I started to channel this passion through accounting services as a Revenue Operations leader in 2018 for another firm and started Ledgr in 2022 as an evolution of what I think the future of accounting needs to look like to support modern entrepreneurs. I think that most firms still act like old-school accounting firms. The whole industry is like that. It's stuffy, and they deprioritize customer service to find the "perfect client." It's very much a world of hourly bills in accounting, but at Ledgr, we wanted to show what could be: a world where your accounting team is not motivated to take their time and doddle but rather a team that's motivated to do it better and faster than anyone else, and without the attitude that seems to haunt the accounting industry. With a smile. With high-quality customer service. With responsiveness. And do all that for a flat rate, so you don't get pinned with a huge accounting bill because of something out of your control.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I would say just starting Ledgr and the early traction we have seen has been a monumental accomplishment and probably the most satisfying one to date. We have hit every target we set out for at this point and, just a few months in, have more traction than I ever could have hoped for. Accounting is a saturated space, so it feels like it would be competitive, but the rest of the firms out there pretty much all look the same. Getting Ledgr going as a disrupter in an age-old industry has been an accomplishment.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Everything is a little harder when you set out to do something on your own. I think the hardest thing as a business owner is the responsibility you take on to support others. As an employee, you have one human to take care of - your boss. Your world revolves around pleasing your boss. They may tell you to please customers or other employees, but at the root, you are looking after them. As an employer, you have dozens, if not hundreds, of people counting on you equally. You have to look after your customers, employees, investors, vendors, and network. Everything is on the line, and nothing is obvious. That pressure can sometimes be crushing, but for some, it is the only way to bring out your true potential and see what you are made of. That's definitely true for me.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

First, just start. Keep planning, but you are planning a dream until you make a sale, so go out there and sell your thing. It doesn't need to be built, and you don't need to have all the answers. The truth is, you will probably never have all the answers, so just start.

Second, trust people. There are some bad eggs out there, but most people in the business community will do the right thing. I have never seen an ecosystem where karma plays out more obviously than in the business world. Long-term people don't try to pull one over on you.

Third, try not to tie your identity to your business. Most really successful entrepreneurs don't hit it big on a business one. The failures will not all be crippling. Sometimes the failures are just boring successes. Sometimes they hurt a lot worse. But if you tie who you are to the business you run or the product you sell right now, you make those next tries harder to get going, and you are likely to cloud your judgment based on your emotions. Build something you could sell and not be heartbroken about. Otherwise, you may one day face an empty nest syndrome around your business and the identity you tied to it, and that is much harder to recover from.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.getledgr.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianbouchett/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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