Travis Ware is an Accountant/Bookkeeper with Sum of the Digits Bookkeeping based out of Williamsport, MD. They help small businesses organize their books and provide financials and financial understanding, so owners can focus on building their business rather than sorting receipts.
Specifically, Travis helps small to medium-sized businesses with their bookkeeping needs, including invoicing, bank reconciling, payroll, and producing financial statements. He also helps clients understand their financial statements so they can make informed business decisions.
Extracurriculars
Travis sings and plays guitar. In a “past life,” he was a local musician who played in a hard rock/metal band called Ascension. The band was featured on 101.5 Bob Rocks and performed on stages at the 9:30 Club and Baltimore Soundstage.
He was also in a pop boy band called Party Poison. They were voted the best boy band of Baltimore in 2015 by Baltimore Magazine and were featured in the CW’s documentary, The ‘90s Boy Band Boom. Travis now plays music socially and is in the process of becoming the worship leader at Bridge Church in Martinsburg, WV.
Why we love Travis
Travis’s commitment to his work, family, and having as much fun as possible is truly refreshing. Despite not necessarily striving for the typical work/life balance (see below), he certainly seems to have achieved it! His dedication to authentic interactions in both his professional and personal life is admirable, as is the care he takes to ensure that his clients receive the support they need to do what they do best—run their businesses. We are very happy to have Travis here at Cowork Frederick!
Q&A with Travis
How did you get into type of work?
I decided to join Andrea Ceci’s team because I have a mind for accounting and a passion for improving our local community. I love being able to work with different business owners to help them understand their financials.
I want to help small business owners thrive by being able to focus on their craft, growing their business, and their home life, not spending time keeping books up to date and trying to learn the language of accounting. I want to be a silent pillar in the small business community that helps people reclaim their time and their dining room tables, desk drawers, and laundry baskets.
What inspires you and keeps you going?
My kids and life experiences are what drive me. I love taking the time to visit amusement parks, attend concerts and sporting events, and go on trips to different cities. My family is striving to live a life that is filled with experiences rather than things.
It has been amazing to get season passes for Dutch Wonderland, to see Knox, Marianas Trench, and Ocean Alley in concert, and to attend multiple Orioles, Nationals, and Commanders games over the past few years, while still being able to take little weekend trips to small towns.
Cowork Frederick members tend to be a little unconventional. How does that apply to you?
So many people are focused on keeping a work/life balance. I want to get to a point where work and life overlap to a degree. Many of my clients hold events or can be shopped locally. I love being able to go to those events with my family and enjoy life while strengthening our relationships with those clients and building a community that works, supports, and enjoys time together.
Which of the guiding values defined by Cowork Frederick members speaks to you?
AUTHENTICITY – This one sticks out to me for a few reasons. One, I have gone through a lot of changes over the past years, and I realized that I was always striving to do what others thought I should do and what they expected of me, rather than just being me. It led to being burnt out easily and just general unhappiness. Now, I just embrace the nerd I am and am much happier for it.
At work, if a client asks me a question and I don’t know the answer, I never try to guess. I simply say: “I don’t know. I haven’t dealt with that before, so let me do some research before we jump into it.” It just makes for a better relationship and helps everyone move on faster to the next step in the task.
Any work-related tips?
Learn to manage expectations for you and your client, pay attention to trends in your clientele, and be able to say no. When I first started, we had new clients we were excited to work with, but we didn’t do our due diligence in assessing the workload that the new account would entail. This would lead to one of two outcomes. If they were on a monthly fixed amount basis, we would lose money because the account was much more time consuming than expected, or we would set them up as hourly thinking it would be a small account only requiring an hour or two a month and many hours later hit a client with a bill they never saw coming.
We had reached a point where we were bringing on nearly every client we met with, but the retention rate of those clients was 50/50 due to this issue. Now I get access to potential clients’ books before I bring them on, so I can see how much work there is to be done and then build a pricing plan based on that.
Why Cowork Frederick?
I started working at Cowork Frederick because part of our 5-year plan is to open an office in Frederick. We have always been a company that prefers to work with clients in our immediate area and have built great personal relationships with our clients beyond the business side. It’s what makes this all worthwhile.
Being a part of Cowork for a few months now, I personally love the community. Being able to work in a different setting around a friendly, eclectic group of entrepreneurs makes work more fun and easier because of the collaborative culture that is ingrained at Cowork Frederick.
For those who want to learn more, how can you be reached?