Need a vacation? The importance of disconnecting, interview with Hector Garcia, founder of Quick Bookkeeping [Podcast]

Hector Garcia, CPA, CEO, and founder of Quick Bookkeeping, was a recent guest on our Sage Advice podcast with Ed Kless. Hector has three post-graduate degrees, each strengthening his career in accounting, finance, and taxation. His passion comes from his own career in which he’s applied a personal philosophy of continuous learning. He was recently honored as one of CPA Practice Advisor’s 40 Under 40 in Accounting for 2017. On the podcast, he shares how accountants can help small business owners acknowledge the advantages of work-life balance and the importance of disconnecting.

How did you get started in the bookkeeping industry?

Hector Garcia: I founded Quick Bookkeeping nine years ago when I used to work in the banking industry. At the time, I had just finished my master’s in finance degree, and I thought I was just good at numbers, and the bank itself taught me a lot about financial statement analysis.

It became a pattern in which almost every single loan request I looked at had really disorganized financial statements, and I consistently found myself asking small business owners if we get some useful financial statements. Can we get some updated financial statements? There was always a problem because there was a delay over on the accountant’s end. And I saw over and over and over a need. I decided to leave banking and start a company called Quick Bookkeeping, where our job was to do the bookkeeping work, produce financial statements, and doing it fast for folks that needed to ask for loans or turn in financial statements in one shape, way, or form.

That’s how I ended up going from banking into accounting. Then I became a CPA afterward, although I do not do a lot of that traditional CPA work.

My passion really is on helping small business owners do their books, do them fast, do them accurately, and learn how to trust the numbers so they can make a better decision for their business.

Why are you passionate about what you do? What’s your “why”?

Hector Garcia: I don’t think I take enough vacations. And when I tell my clients, small business owners, about that issue, it resonates. But not only that, when they a vacation, when I take a vacation, (in that very rare case that I do take a vacation!), I don’t disconnect. I take my computer. I take my phone. And what ends up happening is, is that entrepreneurs not only need to be passionate about growing their business, but they also need to be passionate about enjoying the fruits of their labor.

My “why” is to help me produce enough money, between the work that I do and my team does, so that I can take vacations and I can disconnect. And also help my small business clients do the same thing. The “how” is a little bit more complicated than that, but that is my “why” — helping myself and my clients take more vacations and disconnecting during them.

Who are your heroes or role models?

Hector Garcia: I have many heroes. I am going to mention my dad and my grandfather because they had huge influences on who I am as a person.

Lately, I would say for the last six to five years; it has been Ron Baker because he shares everything he knows, he is extremely generous with his time and his knowledge, and two, he impacts others.

Now, I want to tell you a different hero, a new hero that I have. It’s Peter Drucker. For some reason, I started reading his books about a year ago till now, and I am beginning to really understand what a visionary… and the amount of stuff that you learn from his books pretty much is timeless. So between as an accountant, as a business consultant, I would say Peter Drucker dead, Ron Baker alive. May he live forever, my other hero.

Want to hear more from the interview with Hector Garcia and Ed Kless? Listen to the full podcast interview.