Karen Reese has spent more than a decade building Starlight Bookkeeping, and what makes her perspective compelling is not just experience, but the honesty with which she talks about mistakes, blind spots, and the systems she wishes she had built sooner. In this conversation, she reflects on the hidden risks of trust inside a firm, the damage that can come from delaying billing, and the way personal money stories can distort business decisions. What emerges is a grounded, deeply useful conversation about running a firm with more clarity and less self-sacrifice. For accounting firm owners, it is a reminder that good leadership often begins with looking at your own business as clearly as you look at your clients’.
Haley Kershner
March 31, 2026
