Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Adduci.
Hi Lisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I began working in the accounting field long before I realized I was.
My father was a forensic accountant, and from the age of six, I helped by performing small chores around his office.
As I grew (I was probably around ten) I was tasked with reviewing fraud training videos my father compiled and eventually began assisting with small accounting projects. By the time I was fourteen, I was performing basic auditing tasks.
Despite that early exposure, I never envisioned a future for myself in accounting. I majored in psychology and minored in accounting (my first undergrad. Second time I majored in accounting), believing my career path would ultimately lead elsewhere. However, life — or perhaps the universe — continually steered me back toward accounting and financial operations.
In August 2009, during the fallout of the market crash, I lost a lucrative accounting position due to downsizing. At the time, I was pregnant with my first child and facing tremendous uncertainty about the future. My father, who had experience building his own firm, encouraged me to take control of my future and build something of my own. I was not initially a willing participant in entrepreneurship, but he reminded me that job security no longer existed the way it once did. We have to create our own security rather than rely on others to determine our future.
So, I took the leap.
When I officially opened the doors to my firm in 2009, I already had more than ten years of experience in corporate and managerial accounting, payroll, and human resources. Even with that experience, the first year was terrifying. I earned less than $20,000, working primarily with local clients who required basic bookkeeping and accounting services. While I was grateful for the opportunity, I knew I was capable of more complex work.
In my second year, I doubled my income and began attracting corporate clients whose needs aligned more closely with my skill set and analytical nature. By year three, revenue doubled again. On paper, the growth looked impressive, but the reality was that the business still was not generating enough to comfortably sustain itself.
By year four, revenue doubled once again, and I acquired additional corporate clients that fueled my passion for complex financial analysis and problem-solving. Years five through eight, however, were challenging. Growth plateaued as I struggled to identify the right staffing structure and hires for the company’s evolving needs.
Everything changed in year nine.
I reimagined the company’s staffing model, refined internal assessments, and redefined team roles. At the same time, many companies within the client portfolio experienced significant growth themselves, and the business once again began a strong upward trajectory.
Since 2019, the company has achieved consistent 20% year-over-year growth.
Our success is built on a client-first philosophy. We are fully invested in the well-being and success of every client, doing whatever it takes to help them reach the next level, meet critical deadlines, or successfully close out a fiscal year. What sets our firm apart is the personal relationship we build with every client. I make it a priority to fully understand not only their financials, but also their industry, operations, and long-term goals. This allows us to provide guidance that is not only accurate, but strategic and genuinely beneficial to the client’s future.
We do not charge our clients for insight or strategic guidance because we believe that the investment ultimately strengthens both their success and ours.
Perhaps the accomplishment I am most proud of is that many of the clients who joined me in the earliest days of the business are still with us today. What began as a small local practice has grown into a firm serving clients across the United States and internationally.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’d be surprised if anyone had a road paved of gold!
The greatest challenges I have faced as a business owner have centered around staffing and scalability. In the early years, many of those challenges stemmed from trying to build and maintain a workforce while operating with very limited financial margins.
Hiring in markets with constrained resources was incredibly difficult and, at times, led to poor hiring decisions. However, I firmly believe that every ineffective decision becomes a valuable lesson for a strong leader. Those experiences taught me some of the most important lessons I have learned in business — particularly regarding operational efficiency, hiring strategy, and the true value of every dollar, regardless of margin size.
Over time, I learned that for a growing business of my size, hiring must be based on immediate operational need rather than long-term potential alone. While developing talent is important, I did not have the luxury of extended training timelines that larger organizations can often absorb. I needed professionals who could step into roles with the necessary skills already established and contribute immediately.
Those lessons ultimately reshaped the way I evaluate talent, structure teams, and scale the business. They also reinforced the importance of being intentional with every hire, every dollar spent, and every decision made in support of sustainable growth.
We’ve been impressed with Adduci’s Bookkeeping Services, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Today, the firm provides far more than traditional bookkeeping and accounting services. We offer comprehensive business management support, multi-tiered project management and budgeting (federal contracting), multi-state payroll and sales and use services, not-for-profit financial services, financial analysis, and a broad range of customized operational and financial solutions designed to meet each client’s unique needs. Our approach is highly personalized, allowing us to serve as trusted advisors invested in the long-term success and growth of every business we support.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk is inherent in every step of life. I personally took a risk starting this business and then keeping consistent without folding and taking any one of the jobs that were offered to me in its stead. At times, the job offers sounded like the easier option. A pretty-packaged job. Health benefits, 401k, bonus, travel perks.
The one thing the market never offered was endless opportunity. Those jobs were all dead ends and in order to take those opportunities, I would have had to assume a risk and lose the risk on me. The job I have kept is banking on me. Is taking a risk on me as opposed to taking a risk on someone else. I think I am a better risk. I have a million reasons not to fail.
With each client, I take on a risk and the client takes on a risk with me. Together, we jump into an assumed risk pool, knowing that we are both going to be swimming in some unchartered water. But, with some faith and perseverance, we will tunnel through and come out the other side more prosperous.
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