To be a serial entrepreneur you must have the following (in no particular order): a thick skin, an ample supply of caffeinated beverages, supportive friends and family, and a wealth of bright ideas. For Paula Beritzhoff, it’s check, check, check and, definitely, check.

“I was once told, ‘sure that’s a great idea, but 99% of the population has a great idea – only 1% actually take it upon themselves to make it happen’. I was both offended and motivated. I didn’t want to be in that 99%.”

And it’s that energy that drove Paula to grow her first business, Japonesque, from fuzzy concept to $2M in sales; eventually selling the business in 2002. And it’s that energy and creativity that’s fueled her to launch her latest venture, Spec, etc.

“We create unique reading glasses and accessories, including LED readers and task/room specific readers that help people address the ongoing problem of forgetting where they last left their readers. Any time I can work on creating a new product, I’m thrilled. Without a doubt, that is what I would do every do if I could. But my time is pulled in so many different directions.”

AccountEdge has been Paula’s accounting software of choice since the early days of her first venture and has helped her launched Specs, etc.

“I use AccountEdge for pretty much everything. Purchasing and managing inventory, entering and invoicing customer orders, paying commission and bills, analyzing sales, creating financial reports for taxes and, of course, payroll. I use Full Service Payroll, which frees up my time, and the integration is so easy.”

Paula especially likes to spend her time with AccountEdge developing sensible workflows that help her intelligently and, most important, efficiently build the business.

“I switched my webstore to Shopify because of the integration with AccountEdge and I’ve never looked back. I’m absolutely thrilled with the huge reduction of time and human error. I love that I can simply click “Process Web Orders” and then all I do is print the invoices and ship the orders. Same thing with the integrated merchant account for my wholesale orders. I was using Square, which was a multistep effort. Now I just click Authorize and I’m done. Awesome!”

Next up for Paula? Expanding her salesforce.

“I can’t add too many new products until I have the sales to back it up. I’m hiring a sales manager and setting up independent sales reps. Plus, I’ve made it to the second round of Shark Tank. You never know!”

Fingers crossed.