How Maya went from “I’m not a numbers person” to running her own books
The Background
A baker who avoided the books
Maya runs a small home bakery out of her kitchen in Geelong. The baking was the easy part. The money side — invoices, GST, what she could actually claim — sat in a shoebox she dreaded opening.
“I told myself I just wasn’t a numbers person,” she says. “So I paid someone, and never understood the bill.”
The Challenge
Every tutorial lost her in five minutes
Maya had tried before. A free YouTube series, a thick library book, a webinar she didn’t finish. They all assumed she already knew the words — debits, accruals, BAS — and she’d close the tab feeling worse.
“Everything I found was either three hours long or written for accountants. I’d give up before the kettle boiled.”
Maya T. — Home baker
The Solution
Ten minutes after the school run
Maya started the Accounting Basics Stack on her phone. One Brick a morning, ten minutes, after she dropped the kids off. Each one taught exactly one thing — what a cashflow statement is, how to read it, why it matters — then got out of her way.
Because nothing took longer than a coffee, she actually kept going. Nine Bricks later, she had her Proficient certificate.
The Transformation
From dread to done
This quarter, Maya lodged her own BAS for the first time. The shoebox is a spreadsheet now. And with the confidence to read her own numbers, she finally priced and launched the wholesale line she’d been sitting on for a year.
“I’m the numbers person now, apparently. I get it. That still feels strange to say.”
Maya T. — Home baker
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