Community Highlights: Meet Christian Bates of Vitality Bookkeeping

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Bates

Hi Christian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Howdy, my name’s Christian and by my 25th birthday I had accomplished virtually nothing with my life. An odd way to start an interview, perhaps, but the larger point I’d like to make here is that regardless of where you’re at in life, a time window of serious dedication can not only bring you back to average, but slingshot you far ahead of your peers. At the time of this interview, I’m a few months away from my 30th birthday and recently finished my second accounting degree, a BBA from the University of Michigan, which comes after my Associate’s from LCC, having earned a 4.0 in every class at both schools. During that time I also lost 130 pounds, learned Chinese, got certified with Intuit, and opened a business, Vitality Bookkeeping.

I attribute my turnaround in life to two huge shifts in perspective. The first I’ll skim over because it’s highly specific to my life, that being learning how to release PTSD, mine being thankfully low-level, from the books “Waking the Tiger” by Dr. Peter Levine and “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. The second shift though, I believe everyone reading this can apply and realize instant results. That being the principle of positive framing from “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale. The premise being that regardless of the situation you find yourself in, it can be spun into a winning perspective, similar to how the news media can spin any story to fit a narrative. For example, I’m in the process of building Vitality Bookkeeping. Building and running a business comes with numerous challenges that can easily bog down one’s psyche and make quitting feel like the right choice. All that comes to mind with Vitality though is how great having this option is and how inevitable success is. After years of having positive framing, I’m sincerely not even sure if counter-productive thinking can exist in my mind. Note, this type of thinking only works if you fully embrace the negatives along with the positives. It’s not about deluding yourself, it’s about being above any thoughts and feelings that might tear you down. I should also note that it becomes second nature and effortless very quickly.

Today all of my time is dedicated to both improving my fluency in Chinese and, you guessed it, building my business.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’d like to say the road to where I’m at today was smooth, but naturally there were all sorts of bumps along the way. Interestingly, as I’m thinking about it, the biggest hurdles were almost all entirely psychological.

First was getting direction in my life, which I did by mentally zooming out and deciding what I wanted in the big picture, recognizing my life as something fully within my control. Going through that process in a meaningful way was worth it, but challenging at times. From there I had to learn how to get into and do well in college, which ended up being a game of handling stressful situations more than anything, such as managing deadlines, communicating with difficult individuals, and preparing for exams. From there it was continuing to get what I wanted out of that big picture. Losing weight was a test of willpower, learning Chinese has been a test of self-motivation, and starting Vitality has been the ultimate test of breaking out of my comfort zone.

All that said, struggles are there to be conquered, and as much as a smooth ride would have been nice, there’s certainly value in overcoming challenges. I’m definitely in a better place as a result, and I wish the same for everyone reading this.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Vitality Bookkeeping?
“Never Think About Your Bookkeeping Again”. That’s the founding principle behind my company, Vitality Bookkeeping.

While going through accounting school I was exposed to numerous businesses and business owners, and one major recurring theme was just how (almost physically) painful bookkeeping was to the average business owner. Many of them would either hire full-time bookkeepers, for 40-50k/year, or heavily overpay their accountants to do their bookkeeping. My initial plans after graduation were to follow a career path in internal auditing, but I noticed an opportunity in the realm of contract bookkeeping. Rather than pay 4k/mo (48k/yr) for a bookkeeper, I could offer business owners an extremely fair $344/mo to do everything their bookkeeper was doing, and more, at a significantly greater value.

Vitality Bookkeeping is a bookkeeping firm that offers full-service remote bookkeeping to businesses, non-profits, and individuals. We almost exclusively use QuickBooks Online, as it’s the industry standard. Our mission is to erase the stress of bookkeeping for as many people as possible, allowing them to put their full time and energy into what they’re passionate about and good at. Ultimately building a stronger economy for everybody.

We offer:
– Onboarding into QuickBooks Online quickly and with minimal effort
– We keep your books accurate, optimized, and fully compliant
– We catch up and correctly organize any books that are behind or in need of help
– Maximum help with your taxes to minimize costs from your tax preparer
– Let you know exactly how your business is doing, with your Profit & Loss, Cash Flows, Balance Sheet, and more
– An expert available to answer any accounting questions you have, within 24 hours, even on weekends
– Safely store, manage, and share your files, documents, and information
– Have your bills and invoices created, tracked, and paid on time

If you’re interested, visit vitalitybookkeeping.ORG

Right now the #1 factor that separates us from other bookkeepers, and the thing I’m most proud of Vitality for, is value-add. Bookkeeping is always in demand and as a result, virtually every other bookkeeper or bookkeeping company charges a base rate for the basics and calls it good. At Vitality, I’m constantly researching and digging into current and future clients’ pain points to figure out what problems they actually want solved and then what I can do to solve them with my company.

We’re definitely one of those businesses where you’re either on the edge of your seat reading this or skimming over to the next section, haha. I’m appreciative either way.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Focused effort and positive thinking. I wanted to narrow it down to one, but these two are equally instrumental. I know I went in-depth on positive thinking in the introductory part of the interview, so I’d like to once again recommend “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale and my little overview back at the start.

As far as focused effort, I found a simple process that has worked wonders for my productivity. In essence, you simply eliminate as many distractions as possible and get your body in a state that’s primed for focus.

Step 1) Identify and eliminate any distractions from your workspace (phone, tv remote, app to block websites, etc)
Step 2) Caffeine and a sugary drink like juice to prime your brain power
Step 3) Lights out, earplugs in, and a timer set
Step 4) Focused effort on your goal

Pricing:

• Quote for our service: Free
• Basic Package: $2/transaction, typically $200/mo
• Complete Package: $3/transaction, typically $299/mo
• Supreme Package: $4/transaction, typically $399/mo
• Bookkeeping Catch-Up: $2/transaction for each month caught-up

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vitalitybookkeeping.org