How The Beauty Accountant is helping creative businesses thrive

Bringing structure to creativity with QuickBooks 

For Ria-Jaine Lincoln, known as The Beauty Accountant, her business began in 2018 with a transformative shift - from corporate life to cuticle care. After retraining as a nail technician, she fully immersed herself in the world of beauty. But this wasn't just a career change; it proved to be a research mission. And what she discovered confirmed her initial intuition: beauty professionals were building brilliant brands, but navigating financial landscapes blindfolded.

"I realised there was a gap in the market, and that the correct advice wasn’t being shared in the beauty industry,” Ria explains. "While working in the beauty industry part-time when I was studying, I noticed that many small business owners within the hair and beauty industry were struggling with the compliance side of business,” she says. "Finding a niche has been really valuable and helped me scale."

One of those clients is Izzy MaeI - founder of the growing nail brand Nails Luxe, known for its salon-grade nail products that support nail professionals beyond the sale. "I had a personal brand and a following in the nail industry. From there it just exploded overnight," says Izzy. "It exploded overnight." 

Helping clients spend time where it counts

Ria’s early growth was fueled by bookkeeping knowledge, collaborating with magazines and this helped cement her reputation as the go-to expert in accounting for beauty professionals.

For Ria, building her practice was about designing a life and business that felt truly meaningful. "For me, the best part is engaging and speaking with my clients," she says. "The freedom I get with automations in QuickBooks and everything else gives me that."

That freedom enables Ria to work closely with clients like Izzy, not just as an accountant, but as a hands-on advisor. "My business was an overnight success. I went from being a nail technician to a business owner. I was lucky to have Ria from day one guiding me through money and cash flow - it was really daunting,” says Izzy.

Having intentionally built The Beauty Accountant to support creative professionals like Izzy, Ria ."It's not just about doing the bookkeeping,” Ria explains. “It's about having conversations and being able to pull up the information on screen to go through it together.”

"QuickBooks helps me to forward plan by managing cash flow, helping to identify trends, helping to plan ahead for taxes, also to know when our businesses should be incorporated or if they're looking at employing staff," she adds.

Giving clients clarity around their numbers has always been part of Ria’s mission. "With the profit and loss I can identify trends and help them save on their taxes. I can see how the business is going and help them build cash flow."

This level of care made a profound impact. "She's part of the Nails Luxe family now," Izzy shares. "Ria is more than just an accountant."

Think working with a money expert would benefit your business? Find an accountant here.

Confidence through clarity

One of the biggest barriers for creative entrepreneurs can be navigating financial data. Ria understands this and that's why she brings visual clarity into every session. With QuickBooks, the process becomes less intimidating for clients.

"QuickBooks has helped me grow from day one," says Izzy. "And the main thing is that it's visual, it's very clear, the numbers are laid out. I'm such a visual person and being able to see how when you implement a change, you can look back in three months' time and see how it’s changed things."

That visibility helped take the fear out of managing money. "Before, it felt like I was guessing. Now, I open QuickBooks and I can see everything."

Ria often works closely with clients in real-time using QuickBooks. "QuickBooks has made it so much easier for me to communicate the numbers. I tend to log in and share on screen during a video call and I talk them through every single row on profit and loss or the balance sheet. It just makes it really easier for them to see what's happening," Ria explains. 

Adding the value-add she aims to deliver, Ria explains: "The QuickBooks feature that makes life easier for me and other accountants is the reporting tool. I can use it to export spreadsheets then build our cash flow plans and review the numbers."

"I love the way that QuickBooks integrates with other tools. The dashboard is also really easy to use. And I love the Knowledge Hub - online learning guides and videos available."

Ria also sees digitalisation as critical to scaling with intention both for her clients and the wider industry. “The benefits of going digital, for me, is about managing cash flow,” she says. “So when we go in for growth, or looking for opportunities, having that data there at the click of the button makes those decisions so much easier.”

Learn how QuickBooks supports small businesses with cash flow insights here.

Building for the future

For Izzy, the future of Nails Luxe is about intentional scaling. "We're building slowly, bringing out new products," she says. "But we're also trying to support people who use our products - educate them, not just sell to them."

For Ria, the next step is all about growth. "I had my fourth son and things slowed down. I'm returning from maternity and now scaling again." Ria is also preparing her clients for MTD for Income Tax. 

"At the moment we're preparing for Making Tax Digital by sharing the online guides that we've had from the QuickBooks resources bank and we’re hosting a webinar,” she explains. "We're also trying to promote a lot of education around it to the rest of the industry."

Why QuickBooks?

Both Ria and Izzy speak candidly about QuickBooks' impact. "The greatest strengths of QuickBooks are the customer support, my account manager who has helped me through everything, and the product innovation," says Ria.

And if QuickBooks were a beauty product? "Cuticle oil," says Izzy. "It's essential. You need it every day. It makes your nails last longer and your business thrive."

Powering Your Possible

At Intuit QuickBooks, we believe that business owners like Ria and Izzy deserve more than just tools - they deserve the confidence and control to dream big and make it happen. The Power Your Possible campaign is about giving businesses the solutions that can drive their growth at speed with the insight needed to take control of their future.

Read the rest in our series: Utter Waffle  - read more

The Marketing Production Company - read more

Gaby & Charley  - read more

The information on this website is provided free of charge and is intended to be helpful to a wide range of businesses. Because of its general nature the information cannot be taken as comprehensive and they do not constitute and should never be used as a substitute for legal, accounting, tax or professional advice. We cannot guarantee that the information applies to the individual circumstances of your business. Despite our best efforts it is possible that some information may be out of date. Any reliance you place on information found on this site or linked to on other websites will be at your own risk.