What’s it like to be a new client at The Profit Line?
We find out from Carissa Stewart, VP Chief Client Officer, Wondermakr Ltd.
One of The Profit Line’s newest clients, WONDERMAKR, needed an accounting partner that could take them through a buyout of their business. The first few months have been eventful and wonderful!
Carissa Stewart co-owns WONDERMAKR with her husband Mark and manages the role of VP Chief Client Officer within the company. The day we spoke was the day that she and Mark were officially taking 100% ownership of the company they founded with a strategic partner. Very exciting indeed! And
they are grateful for the care, advise and attention from the team at The Profit Line, who came on board only a few months ago at a crucial time.
Tell us about your business. What is Wondermakr all about?
We are an innovation studio that solves problems for and collaborates with experiential and event marketing agencies. Our creative tech team and studio delivers solutions that bring brand stories to life. We like to say it's the intersection between digital and physical experiences: or Phygital! Our marketers, makers and magicians team up to make wonder happen for our clients.
I’d say it's a fun business.
What led you to outsourcing your accounting needs?
We had a strong partnership with an agency, but in order to grow and expand, Wondermakr needed to evolve into an independent entity. We shared accounting services with our partner, so when we made the move to buy them out, we recognized that we had a gap. Accounting is not a core expertise of ours, so we needed to find a solution that matched our specific needs.
Why not hire a CFO?
We really liked the idea of outsourcing, largely because our current financial resources don’t support hiring a full time CPA/CFO. In our partnership, we had access to a fractional,
exclusive, and secure full time finance person. But on our own, we needed to consider other options.
How did you hear about TPL?
Word of mouth. I was asking around and a colleague, Ross Slater had worked with Fern when he was running a company called Highspot. Ross is a trusted friend and mentor and recommended The Profit Line highly.
We also looked at other solutions and did quite a bit of research. We considered fractional CFO’s and other outsourced solutions. In fact, we met with two other entities. In the end we wanted a more personalized experience. The others felt “too big”. We also wanted a local connection, ideally in the GTA. Finally, we looked at existing client lists and saw that The Profit Line was working with a couple of other companies with similar size and scope of work. They would have a similar billing, reporting and financial cadence. So, we chose The Profit Line with full confidence.
How did your new team manage the process of onboarding?
In January 2023, we met Adriana and started the briefing process.
She got it all right away, which gave us a huge boost of confidence and relief.
The first eight weeks required a lot of collaboration with the existing team at the company we were buying out. This took some real finesse and care. Adriana brought Galina on board for day-to-day support. They worked on understanding the landscape and setting us up for success as a new independently owned company.
Developed lists of historical info and examples.
Identified the types of reports required.
Connected and collaborated with the existing team; priority check list developed.
Identified who was the best resource for each element: scope and scale of the work
Completed 8 weeks of assessment and analysis: took longer because of buyout challenges.
The TPL team is also introducing several amazing tech solutions that are new to us. We are very excited about the streamlined approach and access to data that we will get from:
Now what?
Now that we are full owners of Wondermakr, we will continue to work with the TPL team as our trusted outsourced accounting team as we focus on growth.
Describe some of your feelings and thoughts about having The Profit Line on your team?
· Confidence.
· Less stress.
· Knowing that TPL has our back.
· A truly caring team.
· Solid communication every day.
· Professional, rational, and friendly team.
· Not threatening.
· Mindful and creative with building customized solutions for our business.
· Details are being managed.
· Expectations are being managed.
Ultimately The Profit Line delivered the upgrade and simplification that we were looking for. Now we are clear to build more Wonder for our clients!