Teresa .. my story

I love .. deep-sea diving, dogs and math; I have always loved crunching numbers. To me, it’s art. I like making things orderly, clean + predictable and balanced. This may explain my mad crochet skills. I definitely have ‘the counting gene’.

After retiring from a 27-year career with the FAA, I did a lot of gardening, spent time with family and took on community service—constructing the irrigation system for a massive community garden that supplies a local food pantry.

I have also been a professional dog walker. I enjoy frequent travel between Traverse City (my adopted home) and Dallas-Fort Worth, (my roots). Get to know me and my Texas accent becomes noticeably more pronounced. As they say .. you can take the girl out of Texas ..

A few years ago, I began pondering a new career path; something completely new that matched my skills. I started thinking about my strengths—that I am meticulous and tech savvy; that I love problem solving and the pure simplicity of numbers and mathematics; that I enjoy taking what seems like chaos and making it secure and orderly. I understand money. It occured to me that Accounting would be a good fit for my analytical brain and organizational skills.

It wasn’t long before I became a full-time student—again—enrolled at Ferris State. I put in the time and worked hard to pull down top grades. Throughout my course of study, I often thought that the real world couldn’t possibly be more difficult than going back to school full time. Statistics, functions and formulas, tax codes and Quickbooks were all swimming in my head for three years. Even before graduation, people started approaching me to work on their books. I gained some solid experience. Then I graduated. With honors.

Ferris State University; Bachelor of Arts | Accounting (2019)

My goal is to work with the small business community in northern Michigan. My growing client base includes a number of diverse, business enterprises, headed up by hard-working, local entrepreneurs and innovators. I love getting to know them, organizing their books and learning about their industries. I spend time in their offices, but appreciate the flexibility of working remotely from my home office as well. The aspects of my practice that I enjoy most are positive working relationships and problem solving.

Looking Back .. looking forward

Like my father before me, I worked for the FAA, devoting 27 years to government service; first as a postal employee and then as an air traffic controller. The controller work was intense. I did some traveling during those years and took up deep-sea diving. I met my husband when I was routing jets in Guam. That’s another story!

Life is good. I anticipate testing for my CPA designation. Accounting is a field that requires licensing, certification, continuing education, knowledge of tax laws and changes in the industry. I am definitely up to the task.

Thank you for looking me up!

Teresa Bennett