Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 155 QuickBooks Won’t Save You, But A Good Bookkeeper Might
What if your books could talk—and actually tell you how to grow? We sit down with Allocate Financial Services founder Ken Rigby to unpack how clean, timely bookkeeping paired with practical advisory turns confusion into clarity for small business owners who juggle too much and decide too late. No fluff, just the systems, rhythms, and decisions that move a business from fragile to resilient.
Ken shares why he built a B2B bookkeeping and advisory firm after a hard lesson in real estate investing, and how that experience shaped his no-nonsense approach to forecasting, margins, and cash flow. We walk through the mistakes many owners make—DIY QuickBooks that never stays current, year-end scrambles that inflate costs, and a blind spot for reading financial reports—and replace them with a monthly cadence that highlights what matters: cash on hand, aging receivables, cost of goods sold, and realistic runway. You’ll hear how his team flags early warnings, models scenarios, and helps owners choose between hiring, pausing, or pricing differently before pressure turns into crisis.
We also dive into today’s headwinds: tariffs, supply delays, and uneven hiring. For import-reliant retailers and restaurants, Ken emphasizes liquidity, tighter inventory turns, and vendor negotiations. For service businesses like contractors and clinics, he covers value-based pricing, deposits, and scheduling that protects margins. And we tackle the classic question: is marketing an expense or an investment? The answer lives in the numbers—tie spend to outcomes, adjust quickly, and keep what works.
If you’re launching or leveling up, Ken outlines a simple foundation: form the right entity, secure three to six months of capital, set up your chart of accounts properly, and commit to monthly closes with a brief advisory review. That’s how you stop guessing and start steering. Want to build profit on purpose and sleep better at night? Subscribe, share this with a fellow owner, and leave a review with the one metric you plan to track every month.
Allocate Financial Services
Ken Rigby
Elmwood Park, NJ, USA
(551) 326-8389
allocate42@gmail.com
allocatefinancial.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Doug Drohan:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, Doug Drohan. I'm the owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we are joined by Ken Rigby. Ken is the uh owner of Allocate Financial Services. Ken, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. So, you know, financial services, uh, it could mean a lot of things. It could mean, I mean, a lot of times people think of financial services as uh a financial advisor, you know, wealth management. Um, but you guys do different things, right? Like what is what is allocate financial uh encompass?
Ken Rigby:Well, we're um basically a business-to-business financial services company. I like to say that. Um we don't we don't cater to the individual but to uh other businesses, small businesses. We do bookkeeping, which is our core service. Um, we offer bookkeeping, business advisory services, as well as startup formation services.
Doug Drohan:Okay, so an advisory service, what do you advise on?
Ken Rigby:Well, I like to call it also another name that we call this profit and growth experts. Um, what we do is we take businesses that are um struggling, sort of. Um, if we can by doing their books, we can forecast in the future what their finances may look like, and we give them basically suggestions on how to turn it, turn the corner to become positive, or um you know, let them know what we're seeing. And um either they can, you know, accept our our offer to help them, or we at the very least give them um advantages on how to uh correct their situation to make sure they're getting positive profits in the future.
Doug Drohan:Is there any ever a case where you say, hey, look, we um we see the fly, you know, we see the future and it's not good?
Ken Rigby:Oh yeah. Um we yeah, a lot of believe it or not, a lot of small businesses, um they don't they they don't understand how to read their financial reports when we get them, um, when we give it to them. So basically, um we help them with that. And that's sort of an advisory service there where we we basically say, hey, this is what we're seeing. This is what you've been doing over the last 12 months. Um, and if you continue to go this route, um you might have some issues in the future. And we do have some suggestions to correct that course and to put you on more on a positive track for a positive uh profit in the future.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, I mean, I work with mostly small and medium-sized businesses. I'd say mostly small businesses, maybe solopreneurs, maybe people with small staff. And when I talk to new business owners, um, whether it's the Ploady Studio or the Big Shop or whatever, I think a lot of people go into business with this dream that they want to own their own thing, but they really don't understand everything that goes into it from the finance to the marketing side. Uh, they might be good at whatever product or service it is that they offer, but to actually run a business, uh, it's a whole different story. And I think that's one of the reasons why, you know, more than 50% of new businesses fail within a year, right?
Ken Rigby:Yeah, I mean, we we we basically say they don't know how to speak the language, which is accounting and bookkeeping. Um, that's really the business language. That's really um the only language that that you'll get a clear understanding of how a business is running. And if you don't understand that, um, you're gonna have issues in the future, and that's what we try to prevent.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah, nice. So, how did you get into this? Uh like how did how did allocate financial services come about?
Ken Rigby:Um, well, long story short, I um I grew up in a household. My mother and my aunt um we grew up in New York City, and they had a fashion design business for about 30 years, and um they ended up retiring, and I my aunt sold her sold her share of the business to Macy's. My mother just wanted to retire, but their business acumen. Um I've you know I've always known them to be entrepreneurs and I always wanted to do it. I I said that's pretty much what I wanted to do. Yeah, and um I ended up going to school at Fairley Dickinson University here in Teaneck in um Berlin County. I went to school for business management, and um when I got out, I I went into healthcare because that was a safe thing to do. But I always in the back of my mind knew I wanted to do um a business, and I I I did accounting and um I liked it, and um I just knew that I wanted to sooner or later start a business, and this is what I've done. So I I started Alec and Financial Services, and um it was a great decision for me. You know, yeah, I enjoy the numbers, I enjoy helping other companies. Um and it's just something that I enjoy doing. Yeah, it's very fun.
Doug Drohan:Uh is this the only business you've ever owned, or have you owned other businesses?
Ken Rigby:I owned uh uh I owned uh I did I took a jab in real estate investing, and um that didn't pan out well for me. Um I I lost a lot of money with that, so I decided, you know, let me just just um do something that I know I can do well, which is accounting and bookkeeping. And um, this is turned out to be a good decision. So that's the only thing I'm doing right now.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. Now, what do you say to people who say, oh, bookkeeping, I I can just get into it, I can get quick books. I don't need to hire somebody to do it, I'll just do it myself.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, two things. Um, number one, we we hear that a lot, and that's one of the main um arguments against our services when they, you know, when we contact a business. Um, but the one thing is bookkeeping and accounting is one of those things where business owners state that if they're good at marketing, they're good at you know, whatever they're selling. But one thing that they're not good at is the numbers and and making sure that their um their finances are in order. Um, a lot of owners they may know how to use QuickBooks, for instance, um, but they don't want to do it because it just takes up too much of their time. Yeah, so that's where we come in. Um we come in and we say, hey, let's, you know, I have a slogan, um let us work on your on your books while you work on your business, you know, and that's basically what we do. We we just take that that um that burden off their shoulders. And also we offer them advisory service at the end of the month, um, you know, saying, hey, this is what we see. Um, because I don't believe that you should just, you know, do the numbers, give them the financial reports and say, hey, see you next month, you know. We like to go over what we're seeing. And um, if we're seeing something that we feel that uh an intervention is needed, um we will say, hey, this is what we see. We think that this could be a bad situation a few months down the line, but we, you know, we think we can help you correct that. And that's basically what we do. Um, but our main thing is bookkeeping and making sure that you know the books are intact and you know ready for tax season.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, you know, one of the things I've um, you know, I've had so many different accountants over the years uh because I think there's been this um misconception on my part that they're gonna help me throughout the year. And basically all they are is just a lot of them have been just glorified um um turbotax guys. You know, I used to do TurboTax for myself and my wife when we just had both had W-2 jobs, but when I started my own business um a couple years in, I realized I needed an accountant to really help me find all my tax deductions, schedule the, you know, file the schedule C and all that, and understand where I could get write-offs. But then even then, it was just at the end of the year, send us all your info. And it was like, okay, but maybe we could have talked throughout the year to figure out how I was trending, what maybe I could have done differently throughout the year to you know to alleviate some of the tax burden I have now. So um, but when it came to the bookkeep keeping, it was always at the end of every year, I'm scrambling to pull in all my receipts, put everything in an Excel sheet and send it over, you know.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, that I mean that's what we that's what we try to when we when we speak to a business in February, you know, we say, hey, you know, if you if you take care of this now, it's gonna be way cheaper than at the end of the year. I mean, I I you know, I mean, you know, truth transparency, I I do well during this time of year because a lot of businesses wait till the end of the year and then I have to charge them more to get caught up. Um, but the the way that you you know avoid that is to you know make sure your books are balanced every month throughout the whole year. So when tax time comes, like right now, you're not scrambling and um you know spending a lot more money because it's it costs a lot more money to to balance your books now than it would in February, you know. Right, right. So that um that's retail businesses. It's good to just, you know, that's one less thing you have to worry about, you know, because this is a stressful time for a lot of businesses. They have to make their numbers, they've got you know forecasting that they're you know, they may be falling, they haven't met, and um, you know, some owners don't even want to hear it, you know.
Doug Drohan:They just, you know, I mean, especially, you know, depending imagine if you're a a business reliant upon um you know imports right now.
Ken Rigby:I yeah, it's it's a bit it's rough.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, so so to that point, like what have you seen this year? Uh, you know, what are you advising people like businesses that have gone through maybe a more turbulent year than in the past? Like, what have you seen trend wise, whether it's uh labor or it's you know imports, or what are what are the things that you're seeing from smaller businesses now?
Ken Rigby:They're they're they're they're doing a little bit of forecasting. Basically, what they're doing is they're you know, they're they haven't hired, you know, I think there's a lot of there's a misconception that that people are hiring. And I guess depending on the size, a lot of the you know, the mid-tier to larger firms are hiring, or companies, I should say, but a small business, um, they're trying to do more with less, you know. Um they're not really looking to hire at right now, but what they're doing is they're trying to save as much money as they can because they're they're they don't know what the future is right now. And uh, you know, with the way things are going with these tariffs and stuff like that, um, it's really hard for them to say, hey, I'll, you know, you know, will I have enough money in the future to pay staff or this? And that's really where I come in. Um, because we, you know, uh it's all about the numbers. I mean, the numbers dictate everything. You know, you you can have a feeling for something, but at the end of the day, it's really the then the number one factor is the numbers. Um, you you have to know your numbers because your numbers are what's going to base the future. You know, it's it's it's the language.
Doug Drohan:But what if you don't, yeah, but your numbers are okay. My um my cost of goods went up 50% because I import stuff from Vietnam. What am I forecasting next year? I guess it's hard. My numbers this year, but what is it gonna be in three months if somebody changes his mind about yeah?
Ken Rigby:Well, that's that's an issue. Um, you know, and that's why we, you know, it's it's one of those situations where um you know he it the administration keeps going up, you know. Hey, we're gonna do this, we're not gonna do this, we're gonna do that, we're not gonna do that, and it's tough. Um but I what I usually tell businesses right now is just um you know, cash is key right now, save. You know, you need as much liquidity as you possibly can. Hold on to that. Um, you know, just see where you can cut costs um if you can, you know, and um, but also at this time of year, you know, a lot of these small retail, this is where they make their money. You know, um, so it's it's it's a tough balancing act, you know. Yeah, um, it's much easier with a service business, you know, than like a contractor, you know, where you could, you know, where you could say, hey, you know, cut back on this, that, you know, but a retail business that sells something, you know, this is their time of year. Right. And it's hard to tell them, hey, don't, you know, don't do this, don't do that, and this is how they make their money.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, sure. You know, so have you always been uh like did you always want to start your own business or were you working for someone else and thought I don't want to do this anymore? Did you always have it in the back of your head that you were gonna do something on your own?
Ken Rigby:Yeah, I always had in the back of my head I was gonna do something on. I mean, I you know, yeah, my I would tell my wife, you know, hey, I'm you know, I'm going to do this, I'm gonna jump ship. And you know, and I I'm lucky because she, you know, she's a doctor, so it's kind of easy for me to do it. You know, so it was easier for me to do it. But um, yeah, it's I I always told her this is what I wanted to do. And you know, she supported me, thank God. And um, but I I think I made the right decision. Um, I love what I do. That's where you know it's it's you know, it's something that um I'm I'm very passionate about.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, I mean, I think you know, when I went off of my own uh eight years ago this month, um, my wife works, so you know, she has benefits. So it was uh easier for me in the same way and go for uh start something up on my own because my first year I really didn't make any money at all. So um it is easier when you have a little bit of a safety net, but at the same time, had I not succeeded, it would have been a real financial burden for us in the long run. So oh yeah, definitely. Um and sometimes, you know, sorry, people need that motivation, you know. Yeah, yeah. Uh I used to, you know, there are a lot of athletes who talk about the fear of failure, yeah, drove them more than it was the desire to win. It was the fear of failing. Definitely. Or you know, everybody always remembers their their failures more than their successes, you know. Any athlete remembers the time they struck out with this as well and kind of forgets that grand slam they had two days earlier, you know? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what advice would you give to um business owners? And and what let me back up. So who's the typical client? Like, what's a good customer fit for you?
Ken Rigby:Um, we work a lot with contractors, um, whether that's plumbers, um, real estate developers, um, those types of things. We also do uh chiropractors, um a lot of service-based businesses, chiropractors, um uh medical offices, dental offices. Um we we are doing some more restaurants right now. I'm trying to get a client as a restaurant um right now. I stayed away from restaurants a little bit because of the whole tariff situation as well. Um, I haven't really marketed that much to them. But basically, I I don't I look at small businesses. Um if you're if you're 20 employees and under, then you know you're you're basically somebody that I I'd like to target because I I like to help small businesses. Um after that, it gets you know it gets a little bit um more tense. Um, but I I do like to help small businesses. My passion is small businesses. So nice, nice. Yeah, I like to tell you.
Doug Drohan:And what advice? I mean, obviously you said know your numbers. Is there any advice you'd give uh a person listening who's thinking about starting their own business? Like what advice would you give them?
Ken Rigby:All right, well, the first thing is to contact us so we can formate you know your dream into reality. Let us let us make it an LLC or something or a corporation. That's number one. Um, that's important. Um number two, um, you know, have uh you should have, I would say, at least three to six months worth of capital um for those, you know, because like I said, we're running into times where we don't know what's gonna happen. Um and so if you want to stay in business, I think you should have three to six months of capital available um just for any type of issues that may come up, you know, especially if you're retailing your you're you're getting stuff from overseas, you know, and you know, I mean, you know, they just they they're seizing ships now and all kinds of other stuff. So you just don't, you know, you don't know what's going on right now. So the main thing is just to um just to have that, you know, a little bit of liquidity um in there, you know, as far as startup is concerned. Um, but other than that, I would go for it. If that's your dream, you know, go for it. Get a get a good bookkeeper or accountant. Um, that's the other thing, you know. And um, you know, just yeah, watch, you know, make sure you have enough capital to get it going.
Doug Drohan:And I, you know, you say that, but I would say most of the a lot of people I talk to, they don't have enough capital. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean again, they they create an Instagram page and they think that everybody's gonna come flying.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, yeah.
Doug Drohan:I mean, it sounds good.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, exactly. It sounds good. I mean, you know, listen, there are a lot of there are a lot of people that just hey, they said, hey, I've got 15 cents in my pocket, I'm gonna try and do what I can do, and let's see what happens, you know. And yeah, but in reality, though, a lot of businesses, you know, you end up at certain points, like you can get a you can have no money, and then somebody has a uh, you know, they put an order in and you don't have enough money to fund that order because you you need goods to you know make it happen. So um that's why we always tell them capital is good, but you know, um to each his own.
Doug Drohan:But now how do you advise people on because I get this a lot, like I oh somebody wants to advertise with me. Like, all right, I gotta go talk to my my accountant, and I'm like, well, you know, that's great. Do you do you view advertising as an expense or as an investment? Now, certainly, you know, when it comes to taxing and taxes and bookkeeping, I guess it's a line item expense that you get to deduct because it's marketing expense.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, I mean it it's it's a little bit of both, obviously, it is an expense, but it's something that's needed. You can't you can't have a business without marketing, you know. So it's sort of it's sort of one of those situations, like right now, social media, whether you like it or not, you know, it's here. And um if you're not on, if you're not on, like I I don't personally, I I don't like to do a lot of social media, but you know, my business, I do it every day, you know.
Doug Drohan:It's like I have you know different businesses are are more uh aligned with you know what Instagram, others, yeah, offer versus yeah, I mean we're each company, you know, it's a little different.
Ken Rigby:Yeah, we hire a firm to do ours, um, and you know, they they do all our social media work and everything. Yeah, it's uh it's do I like it? I it's yeah, it's an expense that I really don't like to pay, but you have to do it. This is how I you know right, how I get clients, you know.
Doug Drohan:Yep, yeah. No, that's that's uh a good point. So how do how would people reach you? What's the best way of someone listening and they're a business and they realize they need some bookkeeping help? Um, you know, how do you how do you get in touch with you?
Ken Rigby:Yeah, the best thing to do is what you can do is you can go on uh allocatefinancial.com and as soon as you get on the front page, there's a a book, I think it's a book me or book a call. I'm sorry, book a call button. And that goes to my calendar page, and you can set a time there and we can talk. I I do free consultations for 15 minutes to a half hour of um free consultations. You can do that. You can also leave a um an email through there um on the site as well. And um I my number is five five one uh three two six eight three eight nine. That's the company number. But the best thing to do is if you go on the website, allocatefinancial.com, hit the um book a call button. At the front page there. And um, you can set your time and day that you want me to reach out to you and we can make that happen.
Doug Drohan:That's great. Well, Ken, I appreciate you um taking the time with us, spending the time, and and giving us a little, you know, update and and um background on your business. This is great. I mean, I think personally, again, I speak to so many small businesses that uh yeah, having a bookkeeper and somebody looking at for your numbers, because you know, you say um you know your line is well, take care of your books, you take care of your business. I have a saying it's like uh we're experts in what we do, so you could be experts in what you do. You know, a lot of people didn't go to school to be bookkeepers or correct accountants and or marketing. They, you know, they're they're chiropractors, they're they're doctors, they're plumbers and contractors. They don't have time to try to there's working in your business and working on your business. And right, correct. I highly recommend giving Ken a call if you need help with some bookkeeping and and certainly some advisory services. So uh, Ken, hang on for a minute. You and I will be right back. I'm gonna have Chuck take us out, but thank you once again.
Ken Rigby:All right, thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Intro/Close:All right. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com or call 201 298 8325.