Before TandemBooks became a name trusted by small businesses and nonprofits across Canada, Mélyssa Brunet was just a teenager in a quiet town east of Ottawa, sitting behind a desk at a law firm. She was 17. Most of her friends were probably still figuring out summer jobs or final exams. Mélyssa was already in the working world, navigating case files and client calls.
In this issue of Your Cents’ Worth, Mélyssa touched on learning on the job, stepping away from the traditional firm track, and what it really looks like to grow a bookkeeping business while raising young children, without romanticizing the process.
The Accidental Entrepreneur
By the time she was managing operations for law firms, Mélyssa had already built a quiet reputation for being good with numbers. That’s how TandemBooks started with a favor.
“A friend of mine reached out. He was starting a business and asked, ‘Can you help me put together some accounting stuff?’” she remembers. “I said okay. That was it. He was my first client, and he’s still with me today.”
What started as a small side project quickly became a full-blown business. Within six months, Mélyssa had launched TandemBooks. A year later, she had her first two employees. And then it grew from there because the work spoke for itself.
“I was at a point where I could’ve gone for a bigger law firm, maybe level up that way. But I knew deep down I wanted something of my own,” she says. “So I jumped.”
“It’s Like Solving a Puzzle”
When people imagine bookkeeping, Mélyssa knows exactly what comes to mind: spreadsheets, silence, monotony, and she also knows they’ve got it all wrong.
“Accounting is far from boring, it’s actually very entertaining,” she says, eyes lighting up. “It’s like solving a puzzle.”
Most of the time, clients don’t walk in with clean books. They walk in overwhelmed. Numbers don’t add up. Receipts are missing. Bank statements don’t match up with the books. They’ve tried to make sense of it themselves, and now, they’re handing the chaos over.
“That’s where the fun begins,” Mélyssa says. “You’re looking at a puzzle where half the pieces are upside down, some are missing, and others are in the wrong box entirely. It’s our job to figure it out, make it make sense, and build the full picture.”
Sometimes, the work reveals something deeper: a pattern, an opportunity, or a red flag. And other times, you’re just helping shape the future.
“That’s the part no one tells you about bookkeeping,” Mélyssa says. “It’s very strategic and emotional. It’s storytelling told through numbers.”
And for someone who thrives on puzzles and people, that’s the sweet spot.
Business Owner. Mother. Outdoorswoman.
“It’s different every day. It’s a very interesting life.”
Mélyssa doesn’t dress up the reality of running a business while raising two young children. There’s no talk of perfect balance or Instagram-worthy schedules. Her mornings start, without fail, with a scan of her inbox, and after that, anything goes.
“I always start my day by verifying my emails, and then we’ll see where life takes me,” she says. “I have two very young children. My daughter is five. My son is two. So there’s, juggling the mom life, the business life at the same time, which I think in our day and age is relevant to many moms. So, I take it a day at a time and take what’s coming at me and go strong. Thankfully, I have my husband!”
There’s no pretending it’s easy. There are days when the business surges forward, and days when she’s just trying to keep up. Without the great team she has supporting her, none of it would be possible.
But she keeps moving, literally. “I enjoy the outdoors very much. I like hiking. I jog. I do workouts. I try to take care of my health. Right? That’s how you keep your energy levels up.”
Beyond the Numbers: Building Relationships That Stick
Operating as a fully virtual firm has not diminished the personal dimension of Mélyssa Brunet’s work. She maintains regular contact with clients, viewing communication as integral to her practice. “We touch base a lot with our clients,” Brunet explains. “There’s always an interaction.”
The relationships she builds with clients are often longstanding. “I have clients that we’re going on seven years of working together,” she says. Over time, these professional connections evolve. Conversations extend beyond business matters to include personal exchanges. “Now it’s a lot more of each other, you know, ‘How are the kids?’ ‘What’s new?’” Brunet notes.
This ongoing communication also fosters a sense of partnership. Brunet does not position TandemBooks as a distant service provider. Instead, she regards herself and her team as an extension of the businesses they support. “We really become part of your business team as opposed to just a third party service,” she says. “So that’s the addition that we bring.”
For Brunet, relationship-building is central to her firm’s identity and its reputation within the community. “We like to build those relationships with clients,” she observes. “Having that feedback from the community and our clients would mean the world.”
On Legacy
As TandemBooks continues to grow, Mélyssa Brunet is increasingly focused on the impact her work leaves behind. She does not measure success by revenue targets or team size alone, but on how clients speak about their experience years later, after the work is done.
“Honestly, for clients to be able to say, ‘Oh yes, I remember TandemBooks,’” she says. “They changed so much for me. They really made an impact in the ability for me to make business decisions because of how they treated me as not just another number.”
That’s the kind of legacy, one built on substance, that Mélyssa is working toward.
