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Picture this: you’re sitting on your bedroom floor, surrounded by receipts and shipping invoices, just trying to piece together what your business made this year. Sound familiar? For Lesly Birkland, owner of Birkland Boutique, that was her reality every single tax season – until she decided enough was enough.

Lesly joined the Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques Membership about 10 months ago, and her story is one I think a LOT of boutique owners need to hear. Because if you’ve ever been scared of what your numbers might tell you, or convinced yourself that you just don’t have time to deal with the bookkeeping – this is for you.

Who is Lesly Birkland?

Lesly started Birkland Boutique back in 2008 in the corner of her master bedroom. What began on Etsy slowly grew to Shopify, then markets, then a shop-within-a-shop, and eventually her own brick-and-mortar on Main Street in her small town. She runs the whole thing herself, AND she homeschools her kids on top of it.

When she finally opened her own storefront about a year and a half ago, she knew it was time to get serious about her numbers. She had dreams of expanding – a coffee shop, a gift shop, more growth – and she knew that none of that was possible without getting this one duck in a row first.

What Knowing the Numbers ACTUALLY Looked Like Before

Here’s the thing about Lesly – she’s not someone who was completely ignoring her finances. She had her business and personal accounts separate. She set aside her quarterly sales tax every week. She knew money was coming in and going out.

But she had no idea what her cost of goods sold was. No real system. No clear picture of whether she was actually making money – or just moving it around. As she put it, it was basically just a few savings accounts and divvying things up, holding money until she knew she could spend it.

And when tax time came? Receipts. Everywhere. Scattered across her bedroom floor, calculating shipping costs by hand, piecing together a picture of her business that QuickBooks could have generated in seconds.

The Moment Things Finally Clicked

When Lesly joined the membership, she was nervous. Not just about whether she could do it – but about what the numbers were going to tell her. Were they going to reveal that she was running a failing business? That her dreams weren’t actually viable?

But here’s what she discovered pretty quickly: the numbers aren’t something to be afraid of. They’re just information. And once you have that information, you can actually DO something with it.

The part of the course that clicked the most for Lesly was learning how to pull the Shopify Finance Summary Report and enter that data correctly into QuickBooks. If you’re a Shopify seller, this report is your best friend – it gives you about 95% of what you need to do your bookkeeping correctly, and most boutique owners don’t even know it exists.

Once Lesly understood how to use it, everything else started to fall into place.

What Bookkeeping Looks Like for Lesly Now

These days, Lesly sits down every Monday morning with a cup of coffee – what we call Money Mondays inside the membership – pulls her Shopify report, goes through her expenses, and she’s done in about 10-15 minutes. That’s it. Then she knows exactly where everything stands for the week.

She knows her cost of goods sold. She knows what she can afford to restock. She knows her gross income. She can place inventory orders with CONFIDENCE, knowing it’s not going to throw anything else off.

And tax season this year? She sent everything to her accountant and was done. No scrambling, no stress, no bedroom floor moment. Her reaction said it all: “Am I missing anything? Because it’s taken me hours before.”

The Number That Changed Everything: Cost of Goods Sold

If there’s one thing Lesly says she wishes she had known sooner, it’s her cost of goods sold. Once she started tracking it properly, she could see exactly what it cost to keep her boutique stocked – and more importantly, whether she was making enough on each product to actually grow.

It forced her to look at her margins. To adjust her pricing where it was falling short. To stop guessing and start making intentional decisions. As she put it, the numbers tell a story about your boutique – where your margins are, where your money’s going, and where you need to adjust. And once you can see that story clearly, everything becomes more manageable.

Her Advice to Anyone Still on the Fence

Lesly’s message to any boutique owner who’s been putting this off is simple: just do it. You’re not doing yourself any favors by waiting. It’s sitting on the back burner, eating away at you, and the longer you wait, the more tax seasons you’ll spend on your bedroom floor.

The course met her right where she was – she started in the middle of the year and worked backwards, and the format made it simple to catch up without feeling behind. And once she was caught up? 10-15 minutes on a Monday morning. That’s all it takes.

Ready to Have Your Own Transformation?

If you’re ready to stop avoiding your numbers and finally feel confident about the money side of your boutique, I’d love to have you join us inside the Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques Membership. Inside, you’ll get access to the exact trainings and support that Lesly went through – step by step, at your own pace. Join the membership here!