Episode
EP531: Natalia Zacharin - Zero Experience, Millions Earned: From Clerk To Inc. 5000 Firm Owner
- Published
- May 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1544
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Summary
See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → Natalia Zacharin had no bookkeeping background, no clients, and no safety net when she started Zacharin Consulting in January 2019. She was 49, a single mom, and her invoicing clerk job was being phased out. In part one of this two-part conversation, Natalia lays out exactly how she went from that starting point to building a firm that now employs 16 people, targets $4 million in revenue, and landed at number 802 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list. Chapters [00:00] Cold open: asking the right questions [00:52] Introducing Natalia Zacharin [03:00] From invoicing clerk to business owner [07:00] Where the firm stands today [10:00] First client via LinkedIn [13:00] Self-teaching bookkeeping on YouTube [16:30] Hiring a CPA manager — lessons learned [19:00] Building the pipeline: 4 clients to 12 [23:00] Doubling down and working 7 days a week [26:00] COVID, the PPP pivot, and early burnout Starting From Zero — And Meaning It Natalia's entry into bookkeeping wasn't a career pivot she planned. Her fiancé suggested it over coffee when she couldn't find another job. She enrolled in an online course, started messaging business owners on LinkedIn in January 2019, and landed her first client on January 29th of that year — a landscaping company owner in California who is still a client today. Her prior experience as an invoicing clerk in Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite gave her attention to detail, but she had never opened QuickBooks. YouTube as a Training Program When Natalia got into her first client's books, she found the revenue hadn't been recorded — showing a negative $2 million on the P&L. Rather than walking away, she cleaned it up herself using YouTube, watching videos second by second and refreshing the balance…