Paisley & Jade: Unique Solutions for a Unique Business!

Paisley & Jade, a vintage and specialty rental company, will celebrate their 5th Anniversary of being in business this summer. As a specialty prop house their warehouse stores furniture, accessories, some in-house made specialty items, and lots and lots of chairs! Annually, they supply a gamut of events from weddings, to trade shows, to film, theatre and ads.  Perkins Morgan and Morgan Montgomery, the co-owners of P&J call it, “Hoarding with a business license.” Now that Spring has arrived and events are around every corner, their feet barely hit the ground.  With schedules, logistics and a warehouse of goodies to keep track of, it left the owners little time to worry about their small business accounting needs. After going through a “handful of doozies,” they reached out to Accounting Works owner, Stephen Fishel, to find the solutions they desperately needed.

Photo Credit: Michael Thompson, RichmondBizSense.com

With such a unique and seasonal business, they had some interesting accounting challenges to face. Both Morgan and Perkins knew Stephen as the accountant for a local catering company, where the pair worked prior to starting P&J. After being frustrated with previous accounting firms’ approach, they contacted Accounting Works.




"Something he said always stuck with me," recalled Morgan, “He said that he could always advise on what the right financial decision is, but that might not be the right business decision.”

A custom table top designed and fabricated in-house.

They’ve been working with him for over a year now and couldn’t be happier.

“Off the bat, he offered to come to us, which is huge.” Said Perkins, their previous experience had been with accountants trying to stuff their business model into the rigid guidelines of the way they did things, not the other way around. They recalled a placard mounted in one office that read ‘You can’t fix stupid.’ And that’s how they felt, “They hated questions, they thought we ‘didn’t get it,” and after contacting Stephen, he “apologized for our bad experience,” they said laughing. “We just love Stephen, our meetings with him he makes really fun, jovial and personable.”

Photo Credit: KatelynJamesBlog.com

Morgan had a two-page bullet point list of things they needed to change or fix with their accounting practices.  “We struggled with HOW to do our bookkeeping,” they said, “one trip to Lowe’s could have 10 different categories on one receipt; asset purchase, office supply, warehouse supply…” but after working with Stephen, they came up with a custom method that was much more streamlined, with “way less of a delay to crunch month-end numbers.”

According to the P&J duo, their cash flow improved as well, “he did a great job researching because it’s such a niche business.”  Cash flow is critical to year-long survival for any business with seasonal variability.  “Other accountants blindly guessed, but he took the time to get to know us.”  They noticed an immediate flexibility of resources once they started working with Stephen and implementing the systems they put in place.

A wall of decorative accessories is every designer's dream.

Like Paisley & Jade, many small businesses struggle to find accounting solutions to fit their needs.  And like Paisley & Jade, it’s okay not to fit in one particular box or another! Diversity is the spice of our Richmond community, which is why Stephen of Accounting Works has dedicated his practice to finding practical solutions for small businesses!