Article Contents
The Highlight Reel
- How Bean Ninjas facilitated a smooth onboarding process including a thorough auditing process, which uncovered and resolved past financial issues
- Gaining open, fast, and helpful communication through a direct Slack channel for quick, effective communication
- How accurate bookkeeping enabled better decision-making, leading to improved contribution margins and significant business growth.
“I have complete confidence in our books at this point.”
Mark Craft has his hands full as the VP of Finance and Operations at Elevated Craft. Elevated Craft is a DTC company specializing in innovative, high-quality products for elevating the home bar experience .
Founded by Adam Craft, the brand launched its flagship hybrid cocktail shaker in a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019.
Despite a global pandemic and major shipping logistics hurdles, the company continued to grow in 2020. In early 2021, Mark, who is Adam’s brother, came on board full-time.
If navigating challenging and expensive inventory and shipping challenges weren’t bad enough, the duo was also struggling with a lack of financial confidence. Their prior bookkeeping firm employed many junior staffers who were always coming and going, which led to many bookkeeping inconsistencies and errors.
Plus, since their prior bookkeepers were not as familiar with the nuances of selling on multiple channels, like Kickstarter, Shopify, and Amazon, Mark was spending a lot of time teaching and doing quality control.
“I felt like I had to constantly reteach new people on our account how to handle things and then it would cause errors and it was just very inconsistent because we didn’t have that clear line of having the same person working on our account all the time,” says Mark.
Because Mark isn’t a trained accountant, he was second-guessing himself and had little confidence in his books. However, he was also concerned about the switching costs of having to onboard a new ecommerce accounting firm. That led him to start asking for accounting and bookkeeping recommendations in a popular ecommerce community that Adam is a member of.
The number one recommendation was Bean Ninjas, and as luck would have it, he met up with Wayne shortly thereafter at an ecommerce event in Arizona.
Choosing Bean Ninjas as their ecommerce accounting partner
From day one, Mark instantly noticed a difference. He appreciated the ease of transitioning and the thoroughness of the onboarding process conducted by Bean Ninjas.
“I remember it being extremely smooth and not a big burden on me, which was great,” says Mark.
The initial steps included providing access to necessary accounts, followed by detailed calls with the head of the pod to ensure a comprehensive understanding of Elevated Craft’s financial documents. This thorough audit uncovered and addressed several issues from their previous bookkeeping setup.
That level of communication and detail would continue on.
“What I appreciate the most is the open communication and the Slack channel. So anytime I have a question, I have a direct channel that I can ask our team. If they don’t have the answer it can funnel all the way up to the head of our pod who has more experience in ecommerce bookkeeping than probably anybody we would have otherwise access to.”
Getting consistent and error-free bookkeeping each month
Having consistent error-free bookkeeping completed each month means Mark is no longer second-guessing his books.
“I have complete confidence in our books at this point.”
With increased financial confidence, Mark now has the time to focus on growing the business instead of troubleshooting errors in his books.
“I feel like it’s opened up that brain space for me that I don’t have to, like I said, second guess how the books are being kept so that I can spend that time analyzing how our business is actually doing instead of questioning if it’s a bookkeeping error or a bookkeeping issue versus something to optimize with the business.”
For instance, this allowed him to better understand his contribution margin. Contribution margin shows how much money you’re making from each sale to cover your other costs and make a profit. It’s a crucial number for understanding how well your business is doing.
Mark suspected that offering free shipping was costing them a lot of money and negatively affecting their contribution margin. Bean Ninjas’ accurate bookkeeping helped them realize this, leading to a strategic change that positively impacted their financials.
“It gave me the confidence to start charging for shipping on our website. And then we were able to quickly see how that positively impacted our contribution margin and has allowed us to use that money, that contribution margin money and increase our ad spend which has enabled us to have fantastic growth even though we’re charging for shipping.”
Bean Ninjas as a partner
Partnering with Bean Ninjas has made a world of difference for Elevated Craft.
“The trust has developed over the course of our time with Bean Ninjas in that there are no inconsistencies. We don’t get a lot of corrections. The books come out clean every month, they’re balanced.”
With accurate bookkeeping and valuable financial insights, they’ve streamlined operations and made smarter business decisions.
“I think Bean Ninjas allowed a big unlock in our business, and we don’t have to second guess our books. That just allows us to focus on the other things that can have outsized gains for us as a business.”
About Elevated Craft
Elevated Craft is a DTC company specializing in innovative, high-quality products for elevating the home bar experience. Founded by Adam Craft, the brand launched its flagship hybrid cocktail shaker in a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019.
- Company Founded: 2019
- Industry: Household goods / Drinkware
- Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
- Revenue: $1 – $10 million
- Headcount: ~10
- Sales Channels: Shopify, Amazon, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Wholesale
