In this debut episode of QuickBooks Mastery for Small Business Success, Erica Northrup and her father, Lee Davis, open the door to their story as a father-daughter business team.

Episode 1: Meet Lee & Erica: A Father-Daughter Team Helping Small Businesses Master QuickBooks

In this first episode of QuickBooks Mastery for Small Business Success, father-daughter team Erica Northrup and Lee Davis share the origin story behind Lee Davis & Company. From Lee’s early exposure to bookkeeping and decades spent fixing financial systems in healthcare, to Erica’s creativity and tech expertise, this episode lays the foundation for the unique partnership that now supports small businesses across multiple industries.

They share personal stories, lessons learned, and insight into how they help business owners build systems, simplify QuickBooks, and grow sustainably. You’ll also learn the two things they wish every business owner understood about QuickBooks—and why getting started the right way can save years of frustration.

Key Takeaways

• Strong small businesses depend on systems, clarity, and people-focused decision-making.
• Lee learned bookkeeping early, built a 25-year career in healthcare finance, and became known for fixing broken systems.
• Erica taught herself the tech, branding, and operational skills the business needed to modernize and grow.
• Their ideal clients are hands-on business owners who want clarity, support, and trusted guidance.
• Most QuickBooks issues begin with poor setup; proper foundation prevents long-term problems.
• Even a small amount of accounting knowledge significantly improves confidence with QuickBooks.

Questions to Reflect On

• What systems in your business need strengthening?
• Are your financial tools working for you—or working against you?
• How would your business change if you had strong financial guidance?

Mentioned in This Episode

Free Resource:

3-Part Quick Start Guide to Getting Started with QuickBooks

Download: www.leedavisandcompany.com

Have a QuickBooks Question?

Email: support@leedavisandcompany.com

Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to the Podcast

Erica and Lee introduce themselves and share their mission—to help small business owners simplify QuickBooks and focus on growth rather than fixing mistakes.

00:38 – Who We Are as a Father-Daughter Team

Erica handles the tech, Lee handles the numbers, and together they support small to medium-sized businesses with decades of combined experience.

01:00 – Why Share Our Story?

They share why this first episode is all about connection and introducing listeners to their journey.

01:42 – Lee’s Journey Into Accounting & Business

Lee talks about learning bookkeeping from his father’s bookkeeper, working through college, and developing a long career in healthcare finance and operations.

03:24 – The Gift of Fixing Broken Companies

Erica reflects on the many times Lee turned struggling businesses into thriving ones—and how that set the stage for his future consulting work.

04:07 – Systems, Finance & People

Lee explains how his experience in healthcare taught him the importance of systems, operations, and working well with people.

05:10 – Launching Lee Davis & Company

Lee shares why he wanted to start his own business—combining his love for teaching, finance, and helping small business owners succeed.

07:21 – The Very Beginning (During Erica’s Hip Surgeries!)

Erica remembers being on the couch after surgery while Lee launched the company; Lee tells the story of his very first client and how he became their “financial guy.”

09:13 – Learning to Sell & Network

Lee talks about joining BNI, learning sales skills, and building confidence as an entrepreneur.

10:16 – A Wide Variety of Clients

From nonprofits to Etsy businesses to well drillers, Lee shares the range of businesses they’ve served over the years.

11:43 – Lessons From Running a Small Business

Lee explains how the mistakes he made in his own business help him guide others more effectively.

12:59 – How Erica Joined the Business

Lee recalls the moment Erica created the company logo and began developing their entire tech foundation.

15:32 – Learning New Skills & Solving Problems Together

Erica talks about how she taught herself tech, systems, and creative tools to support the business—and how she loves their teamwork.

17:00 – Who We Serve (Meet “Bob”)

Lee shares the story of one of his favorite clients, a well driller, and how they helped transform his business through systems and financial clarity.

19:07 – Why Systems Matter

Erica and Lee discuss how creating smart systems helps businesses grow, scale, and avoid chaos.

20:37 – Beyond Bookkeeping

Lee explains how they support clients in everything from HR basics to financial strategy and navigating audits.

22:43 – Helping Businesses Grow the Right Way

They reflect on helping clients move from spreadsheets to million-dollar operations.

23:15 – What We Wish Business Owners Knew About QuickBooks

Tip #1: Get help before creating a mess.

They discuss why starting with proper setup saves so much time and money.

25:36 – Tip #2: Learn Basic Accounting

Lee shares why a little bit of accounting knowledge changes everything for QuickBooks users.

26:25 – Accounting Basics Coming Soon

Erica previews future episodes, including “Accounting 101 with Lee Davis.”

26:49 – Wrapping Up the Episode

A heartfelt recap of their journey and what listeners can expect going forward.

27:20 – Outro & Free Resources

They invite listeners to subscribe, download the free 3-Part Quick Start Guide, and send questions for future episodes.

Welcome to QuickBooks mastery for small Business Success. I'm Erica Northrup.

And I'm Lee Davis.

I handle the tech and he handles the numbers. And together as a father daughter team, we bring decades of experience helping small to medium sized businesses thrive.

We know that as a business owner, your time is best spent mastering your craft and growing your business, not getting lost in QuickBooks. Managing finances can be confusing and you don't have hours to waste sorting through spreadsheets or fixing bookkeeping mistakes.

That's where we come in, helping you streamline QuickBooks so you can focus on building your business.

Each week we break it all down into simple, actionable steps so you can focus on growing your business, not fixing your books.

Let's embark on this journey together.

What do you think, Papa? I think this would be a great opportunity to share with everybody who we are, what, what we're all about.

Yeah, I would agree, Eric. I. For them to get to know us and to be able to connect would be a, a great adventure.

Yeah. They're going to find out that we are a father daughter team that has been growing this business over the last almost. Oh wow.

It's been at least a decade, right?

That's correct.

Yeah. That just blows my mind that it's been a little over 10 years that you have started steadily been growing this business.

So as we just talked about, you've had this business for 10 years. Why don't you share with me your journey, how you got to this place in the financial world and what led you to Lee Davis and company.

I think that's probably a lengthy answer, but we'll see if we can synthesize it down. My dad was a small business, he was a carpenter and all through high school I wanted to do accounting.

I learned my dad had an excellent bookkeeper and her name was Millie and so I learned from her. I both worked in the field, so I was an apprentice carpenter and also I learned the bookkeeping trade.

I'm an adult learner because I wound up working my way through college and eventually I worked for that college. I started out in the bookstore and worked my way up to be the director of finance.

One of the key elements to my success in moving on was I really developed a working at the college, a ability to collect money and in understanding what that takes for a small business, having that experience in learning how to collect money for a small private college, I transitioned that into a healthcare field where I became a business manager for a orthopedic practice. And really while doctor's offices May not seem like they're small businesses. They really are.

They are.

And so I had an opportunity to help grow in that small business sector. And I spent roughly 25 years having an expanding role in healthcare running businesses. And I was able to understand.

And this is where you probably helped me a great deal, but I was able to understand technology from an operations perspective of how do you fix things before they become a problem?

I feel like that's always been one of your superpowers growing up. I'm your eldest of three daughters. We made several big moves in our lifetime and. And we moved because you took a job in another state.

You were really good at getting in there, looking at the numbers, fixing a company, helping them to thrive. I can remember when you were in Nashville and how you grew that orthopedic clinic to a prestigious level. And then it felt like we would move on.

Once you fix something, once you got it all fixed, you then usually another company would like, swoop in and be like, okay, we want to take credit and we're gonna. We're gonna buy it, basically, and then we move on to another company. So it's been.

I think one of your superpowers is being able to get in there and make something of something that wasn't there.

One of the doctors told me that you can do many things, but you have to make sure the finances work. You have to run a successful business because we're good at what we do, but we need you to be good at finance and collecting money.

That became in the healthcare world, but it also transitioned.

As healthcare changed, it also became more of a systems business that you had to fix things before they became a problem, and you had to be understanding the various systems and how they integrate.

I know we're going to talk a little bit about system integration at some point, but it all comes down really to people because you've got to be able to work with people. And I've certainly made my share of mistakes and I've learned through the career.

I think that's what helped me decide after I had some experiences in managing businesses in the healthcare world, that I wanted to have my own business.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I wanted to take what I learned and focus on helping small businesses, but I also wanted to have some expertise in QuickBooks. Not only that, I've always been interested in how can I improve the balance sheet or how can I improve the income statement? What can I do?

Yeah.

And helping small businesses and helping them save money on their health insurance or their insurance overall or on their computer needs or how to increase their billing. So really, having my own business has allowed me to focus and grow over the years to help. And I like people. And that's one thing that you and I both.

And I think when we started out, I needed to have you help me with technology.

Yeah.

And not just the technology, but also help with people.

Yeah. I think you're correct. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. We both have that in common, our love for people and helping people and growing.

No matter what business you're in, no matter what you're doing, like, it's about people, it's about serving people, and how can you help that person?

With you, it's, how can I help somebody create a business that's going to take care of their people, it's going to take care of their families and their friends and the people around them. And you're helping them to create something that's almost a legacy. Right. And that's what you have here.

And I know you've talked about that over and over. It's, what legacy am I going to leave?

What am I going to do that's going to grow something that's going to really help as many people as I possibly can? I think that's always been your goal, and that's been amazing. It's been incredible.

Yeah.

So let's talk about Lee Davison Co. And where that was.

We talked about how that came about, but let's talk about the seed of when it began, because your beginnings of Lee Davis & Co. Was, I feel like, was the Wild West. I just happened to be having my hips done. I've had two PAO surgeries where I've had my hips reconstructed.

I think I was on my first hip reconstruction. When you actually started Lee Davidson company. Talk about that beginning and how you grew into that transition.

For you, that was a huge transition, going from working for doctors to then owning your own business.

I think part of my background that we didn't talk about is that while I loved accounting, I also loved teaching.

So early on, I wanted to make a niche for our business that not just meant helping small businesses, but also being able to teach and being able to offer QuickBooks training. And part of my desire to do that is that not every small business could afford to hire a bookkeeper.

Yeah.

And so when I got started, I wanted to be able to offer multiple services, and one of them was to get certified myself in QuickBooks, and then to be able to put together a course and to be able to offer the options for people. I go back to relationships because my investment guy, my first client that I was signed on for was a church.

And my investment guy was a member of that church and the pastor.

What he wanted to do was he just wanted to take care of the flock and he needed somebody that they would trust to help him get started in this startup. And so I helped him get going. From the very beginning. We worked at getting his business started.

I set him up in QuickBooks and I took care of helping him pay the bills and to handle the donations and the tithing. So I became his financial guy.

And I think that's the roots of wearing many hats, not just saying, I'm a bookkeeper, I'm your financial guy and I'm going to help you. What do you need? Every aspect of helping him was how we get started. And then I believed in somebody, coached me about joining bni.

So I also became a networker.

Yep.

I also had to learn how to sell myself because it's an important skill.

No matter what you do, you gotta sell yourself.

Yes. It was not something that I was used to. When you work for somebody else, you, you, you go to work, you don't have to market yourself.

They've hired you, you have a job to do. But here you have a business. And it was stressful and fear. But here's where I had to grow in my faith and trust God. It proved out to be a journey.

And then we also started to get clients through some of the training. Some of them would start and they wanted training, and then they decided they didn't want to run.

I can do this is too much.

Yeah, I don't want to. Can you do it and what would it cost?

And over the years, we've developed and handled multiple different types of businesses, from insurance companies, from people who dig wells, to landscape services.

You really covered the gamut when you talk about all different kinds of small businesses even.

Haven't you helped people that have had Etsy businesses and they've made things nonprofits like the museum and the church and a bunch of other businesses you've handled and all of that common denominator of not just wearing a QuickBooks but also, okay, how can I get into your business and how can I help you to grow this to the capacity that you want to grow this to?

I think we've developed a name where people would refer us for various clients they were happy with, with the work I was doing.

Because in many ways, our business, while we've developed multiple facets of it still really comes down to serving and satisfying the client and being able to, to deliver a service that meets the needs of small businesses. While we do more than bookkeeping, but in many ways we do.

During the pandemic, I help businesses survive by filling out their financial paperwork and helping them navigate their challenges. And so I think from I've learned there that I need to develop, I need to learn. If I don't know it, learn it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I need to be able to offer it to my clients and say, I can help you with this.

As you've been talking, league Davidson Co. Has almost been a template for how you've helped other small businesses grow their businesses. You've really been able to model what it looks like to be a successful small business and to grow and have success over the long term.

Not just a couple of years, but 10 plus years.

That's an amazing accomplishment that you've been able to pass on that wealth of information to your clients, which has been, which has been great to see and watch.

I, I, I think I, I've learned the mistakes I made in my small business.

Yep.

And to say, okay, I need to do something different or I need to fix this or let me take another look at this.

Yeah.

And how do I take care of my clients and at the same time understand what I need to do to develop and grow in our business. And wear multiple hats.

Yep. That is the thing that you do when you have your own business. You do wear a lot of different hats all the time.

You're constantly pulling one off and sticking one back on. Speaking of different hats, what do you remember about how I got started in this business and leading something? What are some of your first memories?

And well, I was able to help. Yeah, I remember you being on the couch and one of the things that amazed me is your ability to develop our business logo.

And over the years, different people have commented on our website and the creativity in the logo.

I'm almost ashamed to talk about how I created that logo because it was nothing sophisticated. I can remember to this day. I was working at Apple at the time and I was sitting in our break room.

I had my Mac open and I was literally playing around in pages, which is this Apple application and they have almost a sort of graphic component to pages and I was just playing around with shapes and colors and sizes and came up with our logo. If you haven't seen our logo, check out the show notes. I'll put our logo since we're talking about that.

But yeah, that is how that Logo came to be, and it certainly has withstood the test of time. Yeah.

And I would say, overall, when I looked around to have somebody who I could work with, who I could trust to develop and who was creative, it was you having the ability to say, okay, here's what I think we need, and you could come up with whatever the application might be and how we can solve a particular technical issue, or just understanding our business. Here's what I think we need to do.

And then putting together the various maturations of our website and having, for a small business like ours, a phenomenal website, I haven't had to be concerned about working on that, because that is definitely not my strength. So I can understand small businesses that I don't have time for that.

I'd rather be working on fixing a mess in QuickBooks, because that is an area that we have developed an expertise in. People have come and said, listen, I've got a mess. Or an accountant has referred me a client to say, lee, they don't know what to do.

I'd rather be working on that and have you take care of solving some of the other issues it takes to communicate effectively with our clients, Whether that's putting that course together, navigating the registration of it, and making sure that we communicate well to our students.

Just like you've had to learn a lot. I think maybe that's another thing that we share, is that I've just not been afraid to try.

I've not been afraid to go out to learn new things, learn new skills. Back 15 years ago, I didn't know anything really about building websites or any of the tech. I've always been interested in tech.

I was the one growing up that fixed the vcr. I've always been curious in that aspect, and that's where I've gravitated and what I really enjoy.

But, yeah, it's been fun to tackle new projects and new things. I need an empty bill that needs to be able to be fillable in an easy way. And I was like, okay, I can figure this out.

And it didn't know exactly how I was going to tackle it, but I got it done. It was fun to do something new. You're always bringing me new challenges. I always appreciate that.

It's been fun to work together and to work with my father, to work with my papa, as I call you. That's just been a joy and a pleasure and something that's been great.

And I'm looking forward to as this podcast grows and as we bring new episodes that people will get our dynamic, because I think we have a great dynamic. I think we have a lot of fun together. And yeah. So that's something that has been really enjoyable for me as well. So I love that, Love that call out.

Yeah.

So I've really appreciated all of that and to have an opportunity to work with you, to be able to have that experience and you're able to get things done if I want something. And yeah, it may take whatever time.

It takes, but it's called Erica's time.

Yeah, it's, it's. It's gonna get done.

Yep.

And takes care of our clients.

I love that.

So now that we've talked a little bit about who we are, what we do, I would love for our listeners because this is a new journey for us starting this podcast. If you're just tuning in, this is our first podcast. It's really exciting for us to do this new project together.

I would love for our listeners to get to know who do we serve. From your perspective, who is the person that you love to serve and you love to show up for?

I would say that my A list client might be my well guy. He's certainly not my largest client, but I've got a couple of well guys.

But you know what, when somebody comes to you and they say, listen, you know what? I don't know about this and I just need to have you take care of it. And I, I would say that helping a small business guy. We'll call him Bob.

Understanding that. And you've gotten to know Bob because.

Because Bob has had different technology needs, I think being able to enjoy and like your clients and see them grow their business.

Because we took Bob's business from basically being in shambles to now a business that, that he's got a great reputation as far as being able to be one of the top well guys. Yeah, but he needed that help from us. He just needed somebody to help with his invoicing and take care of his bills, do his workers comp.

Audit, handle a few tough collection issues, help with multiple business issues.

Yeah. Really create systems. Right. Again, there's that, like, system word that we're.

We will definitely come with the podcast about systems, but you really, really help Bob to create systems that work really well that he's been able to build on.

I remember one time he was shorthanded for somebody out to help him on one of his well jobs. Yeah. I went out to help him. He said, you do that for me? I said, sure. I don't know how much help I was with him, I was an extra pair of hands.

But I think we built a relationship with our clients.

Yeah, some more than others, but understanding their business and being able to help them with their accounting issues, being able to work with their accountants, just be able to take care of them. We've had Bob for close to, I think he's been a client of ours for five, six years.

I think he's actually closer to seven.

He's been with us a long time and that's really special.

That personal touch you bring to our clients, that person will touch.

Being able to really connect and give them somebody to mentor them and steer them in their business, help them make big decisions, small decisions, help them with their bookkeeping, just their go to guy.

When they need someone to talk through big decisions, they have someone that can give them all sides of the coin and help them to really understand how is this ripple going to affect everything in their lives. So yeah, I think that's massive.

Sometimes with Bob we've been able to put on, while we're not an HR specialist, I've had to advise him on some health resource issues about what we need to do to maybe take care of one of his employees. How do we terminate an employee, what paperwork? What do we need to do?

I think many of the small businesses we work with, including Bob, need some help in some areas.

Absolutely. That's awesome, Papa.

I do love how you love your clients and how you take care of them and how you serve them and show up for them in all kinds of ways, not just in their businesses, but also in just their personal lives. You can certainly say that about Bob and many of the other clients that you've served. You really can't untangle it all.

It's all interwoven together, which I think is really awesome.

I think I know that while having a personal relationship starting out, to be honest with them, to say, okay, here's what I can do for you and here's what I need for you to do.

Yeah.

And that to see if we're a good fit.

Yeah.

In some cases I've had to be very clear, this is what I think you need. If we're going to be the company for you, then here's what we can do.

Here's what we can do.

I think in some cases we've taken clients who were on spreadsheets and moved them to a company that could bill over a million dollars. That's been an adventure.

And I, I, I think that you get some clients that you can help out both financially and that you can help them really develop their business.

It's not just about finances, but finances play a key role, huge to grow a business with how you might decide to develop a different banking relationship than they've currently got. Maybe they've got some financing challenges and just tapping on some of the resources I have that we've developed over the years.

And that's something I'm really hoping that our listeners, like people that are going to tune into this podcast every week, that they'll be able to get that secret sauce and they'll be able to grow their businesses not just from a financial standpoint, but by everything that we're talking about, that they'll be able to glean that insight, that they'll be able to do what they want with their businesses. I think that would be huge for them. Absolutely. I want to ask you this question. What do we wish more business owners knew about QuickBooks?

I think for the company that's a startup, I wish they would have contacted us first.

I can tell you that when people come to me after they have tried it themselves and have a mess, if they had us set up their QuickBooks and get them started off right and provided some training to them that they would be miles ahead.

We've got example after example of cases where we've been able to help people initially, those who came to us and it may be that they've had poor bookkeeping, maybe they've tried to do it themselves. But just getting them started off right and giving them the basic tools to be successful in QuickBooks, I will have.

To say if someone can't work with us or with someone in their local area, we have a guide that we put together. It's a three. I don't know if you remember this. We still have this on our website and I think it's a really great resource.

We did a mini course around a three part guide that really walks someone through how to really efficiently see start their QuickBooks journey. So the nuts and bolts of getting started with QuickBooks with a three part video series.

If you're not ready to take that step, I would go to www.leedavisandcompany.com that's leedavis and company.com and you can grab that free resource and that will certainly be something that could help people start to make that transition. A big part of our business is helping people to work on their business so they can work in their business. Right.

Helping people to develop their businesses, do their bookkeeping, do the nuts and bolts so they can be out there doing the thing that they love the most because I think people start businesses right all the time and they find they spend. They're spending 90% of their time actually doing this other side to them. That isn't fun to you. It's your thing. It's your secret sauce.

It's what you really enjoy. Absolutely. What's your number two tip that you wish people knew about QuickBooks?

I think my number two tip is the fact that if you're going to understand QuickBooks, it's helpful to have a little bit of accounting. If you remember, Erica, we developed a course to help people navigate who are not necessarily financial.

I wish that people would have enough basic accounting so they could understand how QuickBooks is set up, because that makes.

All the difference, doesn't it?

Yes. And they can learn some of that accounting.

And without having an arduous course, they can learn some of that enough so that they can understand how QuickBooks is put together. So having a little bit of accounting or having an interest at least learning some basic accounting I think is helpful.

Absolutely. We have those resources, so we will link that in the show notes. In future episodes, you'll definitely see accounting 101 from Lee Davis.

I think that would be a great upcoming episode, but I think that is a wrap for this episode. I love just getting to talk about where we came from, where we are and where we're going and what people can expect on this podcast.

It was fun.

Fun to remember what the beginning was like and to hear some of your stories of grandpa and how you got started. That's all really rich history that I love about you and what we've done here.

For a start of a journey, it's been awesome.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Oh, my pleasure. In the future episodes, we're going to be covering a couple of different topics, so stay tuned for that. Have a great day.

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