Keeping The Books NE Expanding Reach

WARWICK, RI —  Keeping the Books NE’s name has signified founder Marsha Thayer’s multi-state ambitions from the start, potential she aims to fulfill with hard work and new recruits to her bookkeeping ranks.

Before launching Keeping the Books NE, Thayer worked for a real estate broker and also an accounting firm two days a week. She decided to break out on her own as an independent bookkeeper full time in August 2022.

“I felt like a weight was lifted after I quit,” Thayer said. She’d been doing side jobs as a bookkeeper, and she started investigating how to do it full-time. She joined a local networking group, Business Networking International (BNI) and began learning about telling her story to fellow business owners, in person.

“The BNI group helped me tremendously with explaining what I did,” Thayer said. That did require public speaking, which didn’t come naturally to her. “It was horrible. I was so scared,” she said, but, “It gets easier.”

Thayer set up the first Keeping the Books NE office in West Warwick in March 2023, and began adding clients and building her business through networking and referrals. That office didn’t allow her the freedom or the space she needed as she gathered new business.

In 2024, Thayer found a spot at 133 Central Street, Warwick, and moved the office there. She had the freedom to put up branded signs to further her search for new clients, and the space to grow and serve them.

“We have space to grow here. It’s big enough,” she said.

At first, it was just Thayer in the office space. She started building her team, adding her daughter, Emily Thayer, and Veronica Foster, a colleague from her real estate broker days. She also recently hired Patti Pinto to the bookkeeping ranks.

“Yes,” Thayer said, “A lot of detail. A lot of detail.”

As Thayer builds Keeping the Books NE, seeking new clients in Rhode Island, but also in Connecticut and Massachusetts, she’s sometimes challenged to delegate effectively as she builds her team. But the team is stepping up to handle the work. And she’s getting better at leading.

“It’s happening organically,” Thayer said, but she’s also planning to attend Rhode Island’s Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, operating from offices at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Knight Campus. In the program, small business owners gain practical skills in negotiation, marketing and employee management that can immediately be put into action. Business owners also receive tools and professional support to develop a strategic and customized growth plan.

“I have so much to learn,” Thayer said.

The same can be said of many prospective clients. Often, she says, she works with clients who have painted themselves into a corner with their bookkeeping. Some haven’t done their taxes in a few years. Some have been doing everything by hand, which has to be recorded digitally. Thayer and her team have seen it all.

“And we’re not scared. We’re not surprised,” she said.

Foster, who  has worked with Thayer for about 6 years, including the last year at Keeping the Books NE, agrees. The work is fun, and, “It’s a family. We work as a team.”

For her, the bigger the project, the better. But a business owner shouldn’t be worried about handing that work over to Keeping the Books. “I feel a lot of people are embarrassed about the financials when they’re coming here, and they shouldn’t be,” Foster said.

‘It looks like a big mess but we can clean up big messes and the sooner you can get here, the better,” Emily added.

“It’s not as scary as some people might think,” Pinto said. Also, Keeping the Books NE is a comfortable place to guide clients through the financial upkeep.

“You like coming to work,” Pinto said.

Keeping the Books NE, 133 Central Street, Warwick, schedules free consultations for prospective clients through their website,  and are available by phone at (401) 358-1311.