Four years ago, Shannon Beck was working long and stressful hours as a headhunter – recruiting CPA’s, Controllers and Bookkeepers for Robert Half International. He spent a great deal of his time in traffic and rarely saw his family. Because of the increased stress, lack of sleep, long hours, and on-the-go eating habits, his doctor told him that if he continued to live this way he would die by the age of 40.
Becks’ wife, Tina, had opened her own bookkeeping firm, Beck Accounting Services, in October 2004 and had turned to Universal Accounting to help her run her business more successfully. After seeing the growth his wife had gained from Universal Accounting, Beck saw an opportunity to help his wife grow her business, and recognized that he would have more time to spend with his family. Beck took a chance and joined her, after consulting with Universal Accounting’s management.
“The main reason was I never saw my family,” he said. On June 1, 2005 Beck left his corporate job to become an entrepreneur with his wife. He spent a great deal of his time working on the sales and marketing side of their business, helping his wife bring in several new clients. Within 5 months, they made more money than he had earned at his previous job.
Despite taking accounting classes at BYU, Beck also graduated from Universal Accounting as a Certified Professional Bookkeeper. “It helped me to really understand how to be an accountant,” Beck said, explaining that the several college classes and experience as a finance manager, didn’t give him all the knowledge he needed, or the support. Beck continued to train to be a full-service accountant, and again chose to enroll in the Universal Accounting Practice Builder Workshop.
“It’s a fantastic tool,” Beck said. “It gave us the knowledge and tools to run and operate an accounting firm for small and medium sized businesses.” He testified that the program not only showed them how to get the company, now called Professional Accounting Solutions, up and going, but how to organize and run it. “After five years, Universal Accounting is still working with us today,” he said. As past students they can still ask questions and get help from the company at any time.
As for his health, Beck says there are no problems, plus the family is making more money and spending more time together. They bought a new home in Highland, UT about two and a half years ago, they added additional services to their business, and are now living the American Dream! “It’s been great for our family,” he said. “We get to do what we want more often.”