Claire Van Holland knows a little something about betting on herself.
Since she was 12 years old, Van Holland knew she wanted to start her own business. So she distributed flyers around the neighborhood advertising her babysitting skills – and landed a client.
Much later in life, after years of the corporate grind, Van Holland left the steady paycheck of a corporate job to instead start her own bookkeeping business that helps entrepreneurs succeed.
And, oh yeah, her confidence extends to the stage too: Van Holland is a burlesque dancer in her off time.
After starting her own business, she knew that she needed something fun and creative to balance with the grind of entrepreneurship.
“As I was approaching 2018, I know myself well enough to know that I’m the kind of person to quickly burn out on my own business,” Van Holland said. “I’ve done it before in my corporate career, and I didn’t want to go down that path of creating this thing I really love and eventually hating it. … “(Burlesque dancing) is my soul-feeding, creative thing I do.”
If you’re worried that Van Holland’s dancer soul and creative streak are bad signs for her bookkeeping skills, have no fear: She’s honed a top-notch analytical streak, thanks to years in the corporate world. She prides herself on system creation and business analysis – figuring out how to help her clients make more money and stay organized.
Here are some things Van Holland is able to help her clients with:
–What a business’s operations and baseline look like. Once this information is established, Van Holland’s clients are much more prepared to make better decisions for the future of the business.
–Strategic planning: Once systems are established, Van Holland can help determine where the growth points are for her clients’ businesses. Where is the room for expansion? Space to cut back? What different paths should the business be traveling down?
–Finding the low-hanging fruit: In nearly every business, there’s a “low-hanging” revenue opportunity – something that requires very little effort. Van Holland was working with a branding studio in Los Angeles, which had a large studio space – much of which wasn’t being used. Van Holland pointed out that if they rented out the space (requiring very little additional work), the company’s revenue would grow. And it did: By a whole 12 percent.
Van Holland knew she could make a bigger impact with her clients if she started her own business, so she took the leap out of corporate. She still had to take much of the same advice she would give her clients: Budget for insurance and taxes; stick with it, even when things were difficult.
“Taking a risk is worth it when you know in your heart and your soul that that is your purpose,” she said. “You just push forward no matter how scary it is.”
That same piece of advice is what Van Holland lived by when she jumped on the stage for the first time as a burlesque dancer. But she knew that the more she was true to herself, the more relatable she would be to her clients.
Van Holland and her husband also have their own furniture design company. When they were slogging through all the tax information they would need to successfully avoid IRS drama, they just had one simple question no one seemed to be able to answer: How do we stay good enough on our taxes to not go to jail? (Isn’t this what everyone wants to know?)
They struggled to find an accountant who was relatable enough to level with them without using a ton of jargon. So Van Holland knew that she would one day want to be that person for her clients – somebody who would be real and down-to-earth.
Burlesque dancing has helped Van Holland capture some of that creative fire that makes her so relatable. And, maybe even more importantly, it’s empowered her as a female business owner.
“Something about being in the #MeToo days, just being able to empower yourself as a woman,” Van Holland said. “We drive how people look at us. Burlesque has this element of sexuality, but there is something about it that is truly an art form, and I love it. It pushes me to put myself out there as much as possible, as scary as it is.”
To watch to full conversation with Claire Van Holland, click here and to learn more about Claire, read her full bio and how she helps clients here.
Posted In: Finance Tips