Maureen Wyer: Construction Bookkeeper and Interior Designer

Getting Started

Maureen’s construction bookkeeping journey started in 1994 when she taught herself QuickBooks and began to offer bookkeeping services. She offered her bookkeeping expertise to a variety of clients, including several construction companies.

In 2000, a mentor of Maureen's introduced her to interior design, which she fell in love with immediately. She paused her bookkeeping to focus on her newfound passion, which she pursued by selling tile, working as an interior design project specialist, and by servicing high-end clients in the beautiful town of Telluride, Colorado. 

When Maureen moved to Cortez, CO in 2018, she picked up bookkeeping again after a friend who owned a construction business in Arizona reached out and asked her to help out with the books remotely. After a year or two of working for this client, Covid hit and Maureen was looking for new ways to make money working from home. She quickly discovered that her bookkeeping expertise and construction knowledge allowed her to offer an exceptional level of service to construction clients in particular.

Growing and Learning

Since then Maureen has grown her bookkeeping business to over a dozen clients, eight of whom are construction businesses. She mostly gains new business through word of mouth referrals, though she has experimented with marketing locally and in Facebook groups. 

While Maureen has taken a few QuickBooks courses and is fully certified, she is mostly self-taught. She keeps herself up to date on the most recent IRS rules and regulations by subscribing to their newsletter, the IRS News Wire, and by following local and state news. She is constantly Googling and researching and making sure that she is up to date with the latest trends and issues. For example, during Covid Maureen was sure to learn all about the Paycheck Protection Program, so that she could help her clients access these funds.

What It's Like Working in Construction Bookkeeping

Working with construction companies can both be very rewarding and at times difficult. However with her perseverance, knowledge, and integrity, as well as construction experience, she has learned how to communicate clearly with builders who might otherwise not see the value or importance of getting their books in order. She makes sure to always spend time with her contractor clients, so that she knows their day-to-day pains and problems, and learns how she can help them.

Maureen believes that the bookkeeping industry is constantly changing and evolving, as materials and labor pricing, inflation, and other factors make quoting, costing, and bidding on jobs difficult. However, with a great bookkeeper in place, builders can mitigate some of these risks partially. 

For The Love of Construction and Bookkeeping

Maureen loves construction bookkeeping and finds so much excitement and enjoyment in balancing things, finding the truth of the business in the numbers, and finding ways to optimize and improve her client's financial health. It's immensely rewarding to help small construction businesses stay stable and make more money, and she gains a lot of satisfaction when she can help someone substantially.

Maureen looks forward to continuing to grow her construction bookkeeping business and to networking with other construction bookkeepers and accountants! You can find her in the Construction Bookkeeping community group -- free to join!