QBSolutions.com Information

Ken has a unique background of business, entrepreneurship, the arts, and accounting that he brings to his work at QBSolutions.com. He has worked as a Stage Manager and an actor in professional theatre, and as an advertising and fashion photographer in New York City before moving to Vermont. He taught theatre and photography at the Putney School and at Windham College in Southern Vermont. While teaching, a growing interest in direct mail marketing led him to found Vermont Crafts Market, a catalog of handmade American crafts, and build it into a substantial direct mail business before selling it and joining Garden Way, Inc. in Charlotte, Vermont. At Garden Way he worked in new product development and became Director of the Garden Way Sunroom/Solar Greenhouse project. Garden Way is now defunct, but has spun off several businesses including Gardener's Supply, DR Power Equipment, and Magic Hat Brewery. Ken's spinoff from Garden Way was to form, along with his wife Carol Jenkins, Brown & Jenkins Trading Co., a mail-order gourmet coffee roaster. They sold that business in 2001. It was during the years that Ken owned and operated Brown & Jenkins Trading Co. that he became most immersed in the financial oversight required to run a business. He became very familiar with the software tools available to manage organizations efficiently and effectively. It became clear how important it is to have accurate financial data at your fingertip when making decisions or to demonstrate to funding sources the soundness of your strategies. In 1998 Ken started putting his financial and accounting expertise to work for a couple of local non-profit organizations whose financial record-keeping systems left a lot to be desired. Due to his skillful guidance, their financial records became sufficiently organized for them to begin to solicit funding that up to that point had been elusive. Today those organizations have healthy reserves and regularly receive individual donations at levels earlier inconceivable. Because of that experience, ...