Hear stories from small businesses and how they grew with the support of their accounting partner and QuickBooks Online.

Nicole Baranowski always loved her long hair—but it was hard to keep it out of the way when she played competitive sports at Western University. She came up with the idea for an adjustable scrunchie during a course in entrepreneurship, and brought it to life as Hairstrong in July 2019 with help from a campus incubator program.

From the moment she started her business, Nicole knew her accounting was important—but she also knew it wasn’t her strong suit. She found out about BDO through her university's incubator program and has worked with Andrew Moss ever since.

Initially, Andrew’s advisory role centred around helping Nicole get her business set up, and compiling her year-end and tax returns. At the time, Nicole was using an alternative product for her bookkeeping. Andrew noticed that her year-end reporting was inconsistent, and he didn’t have online access to the general ledger to keep her accounting up to date. Andrew recommended QuickBooks Online to keep her year-end reporting more consistent, and connected her with an advisor who walked her through the platform.

Once she was up and running with QuickBooks Online, she felt confident enough to handle everyday bookkeeping herself, while continuing to rely on Andrew for more complex accounting needs.

At first, Nicole made most of her sales in-person, leveraging her athletic background to promote Hairstrong at gyms and athletic trade shows. As her business quickly grew, Andrew helped her make connections to help her expand further. Andrew also helped her apply for Dragons’ Den—a reality show where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to investors-by going over key business metrics with her so she was confident in her presentation.

But once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Nicole had to deal with several unexpected challenges. The seamstress she worked with decided to switch careers, which made her think about how she could work with a manufacturer to automate production and reduce costs. She also had to pivot from in-person sales to online, which required her to learn more about online advertising to expand her digital reach.

Throughout her ups and downs, she’s continued to work closely with Andrew and credits him with being more than just an accountant, but also an invaluable source of advice and support.

Before long, Nicole received her first international wholesale order and sold her product to Olympic athletes, all while completing her master’s degree at Ivey Business School and diligently managing her daily schedule.

Andrew and Nicole continue to meet in person once a year, and touch base every three months. As someone who greatly enjoys working with start-up and scale-up companies, Andrew hopes he can continue to help Nicole grow her business for years to come.