Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Gann.
Hi Blake, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.
If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be doing what I do today, I would not have believed you. Before I was introduced to my industry, I worked for a supply company that I went to right out of high school and started as a warehouse associate. Over the 8 years I worked there I had climbed my way to manager of the sales office. But I was miserable. I tried to leave that job many times by starting little side hustles that just didn’t pan out while still working full time for the supply company, and honestly, nothing I tried to run to really gave me the feeling that I was stepping into something better than where I was.
During my final 2 years working for this company, I had left a very dark and wild past behind me; started attending church, got married and grew my relationship with God. In November of 2021, just a few months after the birth of our first son, I felt God giving me an opportunity to take the largest faith step I had ever taken at that point in my life. God reminded me of the story of Abram, and how he was told to leave his father and go into the land that He had prepared for him. Abram didn’t know exactly where this land was, or what was awaiting him there, just that God told him to go and that He promised to bless him. That same promise was given to me. So I put in my two weeks notice at my job without any other job prospects lined up for myself. I had about a month’s worth of finances to last me however long it would take for me to make it to the promised land.
After my resignation, rather than go job searching, I went to the church. I told them my availability had opened up and that I would love to volunteer as often as I could until something came up. I didn’t share with very many people the specifics of what I had done, but the few I did share it with were a few close friends and one of my mentors at the church. I’m from a small town, and mid sized church, so word spread fast (praise God!). The head pastor over our 3 campus church had gotten wind of my faith step and wanted to speak with me. Over lunch he asked me about this faith step and how it came about and after sharing everything with him he paused for a moment, and then began telling me how he and the rest of the elder board had been praying for someone to replace the gentleman who was handling the finances for the whole church organization. He was an older man who had taken up the role out of necessity, as many clergyman do, and was nearing retirement age.
The board explained the role and functions of what I would be doing and asked if I’d be interested in taking it on for 3 months to see how I liked it. After lots of training, several meetings to vet my heart and explain the weightiness of what I would be taking on, I accepted the role and quickly became the Chief Financial Officer of our mid-sized multi-campus church. From creating budgets for every ministry department in each campus, managing giving, banking operations, payroll, and elder board reports; I handled it all. And that’s not all I was blessed to oversee. After just a few years in my role as CFO I was given the hat of Human Resources, and shortly after I was given the hat of Facilities Director. This was very common for those of us serving in churches and it gave me a very comprehensive experience of how finances worked in just about every aspect of church life.
It wasn’t long before some of the business owners in that church began asking if I would do the finances for their businesses. The first few to ask, I turned down, not wanting to distract myself from the full-time role in ministry. However, after those few came back again I asked God if he was trying to open a door for me… And he was!
After lots of prayer, seeking confirmation and talks with my circle of leaders, advisors and friends, we launched Branch Bookkeeping full time! This was another faith step, as it meant I would be taking a decent pay cut from making the move, but God came through before and I trusted him to come through again. I never suffered from that pay cut because God opened doors to Kingdom leaders who were needing help and he placed me in the right places at the right times to serve and fill the need. In less than 4 months I not only made up for the pay cut, but was making about $10k more a year than my full-time salary.
Because of God’s hand on my life, his guidance and chastening, we’re able to support and serve Kingdom entrepreneurs in their finances so they can focus on the calling God gave them!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course it wasn’t smooth, but I once read that “smooth seas never made a skilled sailor” and I’m very confident that every challenge I came across was intentionally placed there by God to build me as I went along. I’ll admit my faith was very strong and to many, likely came off as seeming a bit naive. There were moments when I aimed my faith at things God never told me to aim it at and nothing came of it. I always viewed those moments as helpful course-correcting moments where he withheld from me the things I may have wanted but wouldn’t have been good for me in the long run.
I won’t get into specifics because many of my struggles came from understanding my own identity and how, through wrestling with that, I had difficulty with relationships during those seasons. Much of which came down to realizing that I couldn’t be everything for everyone. Before I could be released to go full time with Branch Bookkeeping, I believe God had to place me among people who deeply challenged me in many different ways. I’m confident he was forcing me to come to the end of myself. At one point I remember talking to God and having the following conversation:
Me: “God, I feel like i’ve been climbing to the tops of mountains just for the sake of accomplishing the climb, and it’s becoming more than I can bear. I don’t have the capacity to climb every mountain someone points out to me anymore, I have a wife and kids and those are the two mountains I care about the most. Is there another way to get to the destination you have for me without going all the way up and down the mountains along the way? Can I just go around some of them?
God: “Absolutely. If I would have told you earlier in your life that you didn’t have to climb to the top of every mountain, you were too headstrong and determined to always be the best at everything that came your way, that you wouldn’t have believed me. But now you see the limitations and the weaknesses that you have, and you’ve humbled yourself enough to come to me and ask me for a way, and here is the way…”.
After that conversation life became extraordinarily simple and rewarding. I stopped seeing all the mountain tops that I hadn’t conquered yet as my mountains to climb and began seeing the straight path laid out ahead of me. My path still has it’s mountains for me to have fun getting to the top of, but I’ve been taught how to recognize the one’s that just aren’t mine to climb. Now I have more time and more energy for my family most of all, and for the mission of Branch to keep my fire burning.
We’ve been impressed with Branch Bookkeeping, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Branch was born out of the metaphor of a tree, specifically the tree in Psalm 1:3, planted by the water and bearing fruit in every season. I see myself as desiring to be that kind of tree, and while Branch is certainly one of the greatest things God has grown from me, it is absolutely not THE greatest thing. It is just one of the many “branches”, hence the name.
Too often do we set out with a new calling or mission and sacrifice many important things along the way in it’s pursuit. I named our business Branch because I wanted to remind myself that this was just one great thing to come from God’s outpouring into me, and if it has to be pruned when the time comes so that something else can receive more of me, then let God’s Will be done.
I found surprisingly tremendous joy from bringing structure to broken systems and clarity to foggy understanding when I found finances as a way to serve other Kingdom leaders, so that’s what we set out to do with Branch. We serve Kingdom leaders to bring them peace and clarity in their finances so they can focus on the mission they’ve been called to.
Even though I was handling everything from A to Z for the church I worked for as their CFO, we started out with simple bookkeeping and quickly began offering accounting, payroll and higher CFO services. We specialize in small businesses ranging from 2 to 10 years in business and $100k to $4Million in gross revenue a year. ($4million may not sound small to other small business owners, but the world of business is a very big pond and it doesn’t take much to get there.) Of course, we have leaders that we serve outside of those ranges, in various ways as well.
We offer a DIY program for business owners looking to keep their hands in the finances but need assistance in learning best practices and tips and tricks to keep it simple while they focus on the other stuff they do best and not too much time crunching number and building reports.
Our Starter Program is for the basic bookkeeping, and often the starting place for leaders looking to get their hands off the finances and bring on the help they need to maintain the books so they remain compliant and clean while they continue to move the needle on their mission.
Our Growth Program is for leaders who have started building a team and need help keeping up with both bookkeeping and payroll as the complexity starts to increase and the time it takes to keep it all in line does as well.
Our Executive Program is for the leader looking to make big decisions with their money because the mission is growing and guessing is too risky at this stage. They need real clarity on where they stand so they can make the decision about where to go. From providing custom trend reports, analyzing high costs and navigating banking strategy to sitting in board rooms or just one on ones to strategize on the future and explore options, we’re here to provide the map of where you are, and help with the plan to chart the course for where you want to go.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Something surprising? Haha, I’m a surprisingly bland person for the most part. I suppose something I sometimes share that seems to surprise people is my knack for trying to optimize as much as I can, because honestly I get decision fatigue as the day winds down so finding ways to simplify my decisions and day to day choices is something I often revisit. I see surprised faces when I tell people that about 90% of my wardrobe consists of about 8 pairs of the exact same pants in about 3 different colors, 3 pairs of the exact same shoes in 3 different colors, and 12 shirts in 6 different colors. I wake up and grab the pair of pants on the top of the stack and pick the shirt and shoes that will match it best. One less decision I have to spend time and brain power thinking about each morning. It also helps since I’m color-blind and have the worst time matching clothes so I only have colors that pretty much go with any pants, shirt or shoes that I happen to grab, but still lean on my wife to help me make sure I don’t walk out of the house looking ridiculous haha!
Pricing:
- Start Plan: $125/week
- Growth Plan: $250/week
- Executive Plan: $375/week
- DIY Plan: $125/session
- Custom Plans start at $125/week
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebranchbookkeeping.com
