Southwest Flavor Ep. 149 - Amanda Reitzel, Janay Arenas

**Ron Arenas** (0:00)
All right, good morning. Welcome to Southwest Flavor Episode 149 Happy Tuesday to everyone.
We have a great show for you today. Why are you guys laughing?

**Janay Arenas** (0:11)
Because of your numbers.

**Ron Arenas** (0:14)
That's an accurate number. Don't you need accurate numbers?

**Janay Arenas** (0:17)
Yes. She'll probably say yes to that, but you want to share why I'm laughing at you? Because we were talking about what time we were out bike riding this morning. And I said, what, 5.3 and you're like, 5.26.

**Ron Arenas** (0:29)
Yes.

**Janay Arenas** (0:30)
Please.

**Ron Arenas** (0:33)
That's what time we left, 5.26.

**Janay Arenas** (0:34)
So just for the listeners out there, y'all knows what I'm dealing with because not only he does it, but our son does it, which is the one that runs the company.

**Amanda Reitzell** (0:42)
I was going to say, it's got to be able. Okay.

**Ron Arenas** (0:47)
That's okay.

**Janay Arenas** (0:48)
Yeah.

**Ron Arenas** (0:48)
Yeah.

**Janay Arenas** (0:48)
I guess.

**Ron Arenas** (0:49)
It's numbers are good.

**Janay Arenas** (0:52)
Yeah. Numbers don't lie.

**Ron Arenas** (0:53)
Numbers don't lie.

**Amanda Reitzell** (0:54)
Yeah.

**Ron Arenas** (0:55)
Remember when we went to a baseball game with Bruce Baca, our realtor?

**Janay Arenas** (1:00)
Another one.

**Ron Arenas** (1:01)
And he was taking us up to Phoenix because he was driving. And he said, I need you guys to be here at 325
And she's like, not 330, not 325

**Janay Arenas** (1:12)
So, you know what I call that, right?

**Ron Arenas** (1:15)
Because he timed it out and he knew exactly what time we're going to get to Phoenix.

**Janay Arenas** (1:18)
Yeah. N-E-R-D.

**Ron Arenas** (1:24)
So, Janay, tell us who we have on the show today.

**Janay Arenas** (1:28)
Well, she is what I call our lifeline because I just introduced her to Christy Simone just earlier and she is. She's our lifeline. She's our bookkeeper.
She's been with us for a couple of years. Her name is Amanda Reitzell. She's with All In Balance Bookkeeping. So welcome, Amanda.

**Amanda Reitzell** (1:43)
Thank you guys for having me.

**Janay Arenas** (1:45)
Yeah.

**Ron Arenas** (1:45)
Thank you for coming in. Of course. Coming all the way across town through all the traffic. Morning traffic.

**Amanda Reitzell** (1:51)
That's why I don't leave my house.

**Janay Arenas** (1:53)
So she works from home. Meaning all the way from the other side of town, it's Vail, right?

**Ron Arenas** (1:59)
Yes.

**Janay Arenas** (1:59)
Yeah. She lives in Vail. So that definitely was a long journey. An adventure.

**Ron Arenas** (2:06)
Pretty much all, usually it's all freeway.

**Amanda Reitzell** (2:10)
Yes. Usually it's all freeway.

**Ron Arenas** (2:12)
If you're going that route.

**Janay Arenas** (2:13)
Yeah. But you know what? Before we go into, we dive a little bit deeper into what small businesses and the good and the bad and the ugly of all that. But tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got involved in bookkeeping when you got started.

**Amanda Reitzell** (2:29)
So I actually got started when I was like 23 and I was working for an eye doctor. And I was working the front desk taking gen ed courses at Pima. And I happened to be in the back filing and the bookkeeper quit. And I said, well, I'll learn. Thinking, it was a way to get off the front desk. Never did I ever imagine that it would become my like lifelong career.
So I did that for 10 years. And then I left and went to a different company where I got more experience doing job costing and more cruel based accounting and stuff like that. And then after I had my youngest son and he was having a lot of difficulties at school, and we got some diagnoses, I realized that I needed to have more flexibility. And so I worked remotely for my uncle for a little bit when he ran a printing company out of Chicago.
And then COVID hit and I was like, well, okay, now what? So he ended up just retiring because between COVID, and then there was a fire at the base of his building, and it damaged all of his printing equipment. And now he lives happily ever after in Scottsdale. So at least he's closer. But I had gotten just a few side clients and I was like, well, maybe I will try and make a run for this as an actual business. And I've been very blessed and able to do just that and have the flexibility that I need for my kids. So that's great. That's my story.

**Janay Arenas** (4:10)