Enterprise Coworking Community Spotlight: Trestle Consulting

Does the IRS Scare you like it does me? What about accounting or just math in general? That is why people like Colleen and Trestle Consulting exist! Watch this short interview with Vincent and Colleen as we learn about Trestle Consulting and how Colleen hopes to make all things accounting painless!

Connect with them by visiting https://www.trestleconsult.com/
or get in touch with Colleen Sawatzky colleen@trestleconsult.com

Transcript:

Vincent: [00:00:01] All right, hello, Enterprise Coworking community, we are so excited to have Colleen Sawatsky here from Trestle Consulting with us today. Hi, Colleen, how are you doing today?

Colleen: [00:00:11] Hey, I'm doing great. How about you?

Vincent: [00:00:14] I'm doing so good. Thank you so much for making the time with us today. We are so excited to have you and we're so excited to have you in our space. But with that being said, let's go ahead and jump right into the first question. So first, I'd love to know a little bit about you, who you are, who you are as a person, what you're all about outside of work.

Colleen: [00:00:34] Sure. Well, I am a mother to two young little boys, I have a seven year old and a four year old at home. I recently relocated to Denver. I know everyone who's a native here. I know, but it's so beautiful. I love it here. I spent the last 20 years in the Chicago area, but I grew up on the East Coast. I grew up in Maine and I ended up in Chicago. And now out here, I'm slowly moving west. Outside of work, my big passions are going to be obviously, my kids take up a lot of time, but hiking and really enjoying the amazing weather out here and going on adventures, just road tripping it and getting out into the world and seeing what is happening and just creating a sense of excitement out of whatever we can these days.

Vincent: [00:01:25] For sure, Definitely with everything going on. Thanks so much for sharing. So tell us a little bit about your company, Trestle Consulting and what you do.

Colleen: [00:01:34] Sure. So Trestle Consulting, I'm a one person shop, and that's my plan to stay that way, inevitably. And I like to call myself a Chief Financial Accomplice, meaning I like to partner with smaller businesses that are really looking to grow. And then what I do is I help them harness the awesomeness of their numbers, meaning accounting so that they can achieve more growth and more importantly, hit their personal financial goals. As entrepreneurs, that's always the ultimate goal is to have more money in our personal bank accounts. So, yeah, I do taxes, I do compliance, I do reporting. But that stuff is just what needs to get done, and that stuff shouldn't be stressful. It shouldn't take a lot of time, and it shouldn't cost a lot of money to get it done. What I really like to focus on and where I get really excited about is what we get to do with that information once we've pulled it together. And it's really exciting. And I was accounting, but I get really excited about it.

Vincent: [00:02:37] That's awesome. I love that you're really passionate about the work you do. That's awesome.

Colleen: [00:02:41] Yeah, I try to make it less. So many people I talked to are so afraid of the IRS, or they're so afraid that doing something wrong. And you know, and you shouldn't feel like that. You shouldn't be focusing on, "Oh my god, I'm going to get this in the mail or I don't think I registered my business correctly or I'm not sure I've done this right." And that's not why we started our business. We started our businesses to do something else, to make some other impact. So I really love working with those people to get that stress off of them and free them up to really work on their passion and reach more people.

Vincent: [00:03:16] That's awesome. How long have you been doing this?

Colleen: [00:03:19] Well, I've been a CPA for almost 20 years and but I've been on my own for, my son seven. So six years, I decided to quit my corporate job after my first son was born. I wanted to embrace what I was hoping to teach them to follow your passion. So I've been out on my own for about six and a half years.

Vincent: [00:03:43] Awesome. Thanks for sharing. And what makes your company different from other companies in your field?

Colleen: [00:03:49] A lot! So I am a CPA and I'm trying to tell people that they're very surprised. I am more outgoing and I like to chat. But so the biggest thing I want to be different is I don't want it to be that stuffy. Like we look at like attorneys and accountants, like they're in those big wooden offices wearing suits and they're really intimidating to talk to. And every time we talk to them, they're going to charge us by like every six minutes, it's going to be like a hundred dollars. So I really want it. It shouldn't be scary. You should have these people as part of your life and as part of your business that you can reach out to. And you're not afraid to ask a question thinking, Oh, they're going to say, I'm stupid because I'm supposed to know that I've been in business for how many years, and I don't know. Am I an escort? Everyone's always like, I should know that I'm like, No, why would you want to know that no one, like, if taxes aren't your thing, why would you know that so? So I really want to like, create that comfort and security with my clients. And I'm also I never wear a suit and my head shaved and my hair used to be blue. And I don't know. Maybe I'll go back to blue hair again. Just try to break the stereotypical CPA mold.

Vincent: [00:05:01] I love that so much. So with that being said, you are a new member here at Enterprise Coworking, which is super exciting and we love having you here, but why did you choose Enterprise Coworking?

Colleen: [00:05:13] You know what,so six months ago, we moved into our current house and my husband and I are both working from home. And I was like, Yeah, we can handle this. I could not. I love my husband, but I cannot work at home with him. So I spent a lot of time actually looking in the South Denver area for a co-working space, and I went to a lot. I think I went to seven. It was an intense like two weeks of looking at all the places and Enterprise just had the really great mix of like the modern interior. It's clean and there's a community and you can see people. There's those older communities that have wooden doors and no glass. Honestly, it's like you're working at home in a closet. So why would I pay if I could just go into my closet at home? And you guys, you know, it's such a beautiful space here and there's a growing community and people seem to be really like wanting to participate in not just a getting out of my house, but being part of a community, and I think it's really well balanced here and it's a great location and you guys don't tack on fees for everything. A lot of the places are like, Oh, it's this and then that and then this, and it's like, OK, so if I do the math correctly, it's like a second mortgage. So it had a lot going. And I love you. Oh my god, you're such a fun person. And coming from my heart.

Vincent: [00:06:41] Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you. Well, one of my last questions is speaking directly to our viewers. What would you like them to know about your company if there's anything that you haven't said already?

Colleen: [00:06:54] You know, I think the biggest thing is don't be afraid of the IRS, as long as you're not actively evading paying taxes, if you make mistakes, it's not a big deal. And don't be afraid to ask me questions about accounting or tax. I'm here. I'm on the second floor. I have now half green office and a big map on my wall come by and ask me anything about accounting or business structures or anything like that. I'm here. I love getting questions and I love supporting the community. And you can come hang out in that little cube.

Vincent: [00:07:32] Awesome. Perfect. Well, again, thank you so much, Colleen, for your time. If you all would like to learn more about Trestle Consulting, definitely feel free to visit their website address trestleconsult.com Or you can actually email Colleen directly at Colleen@trestleconsult.com. Thank you all so much for tuning in today and learning more about Trestle Consulting and Colleen today. And we appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Colleen: [00:07:56] Thank you!

Vincent: [00:07:57] Bye, Everyone!