Dr. Donyelle Clark-Kennedy is the CEO of Rise Behavioral Services. As a board-certified behavior analyst, she leads her staff in providing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Since 2019, Rise Behavioral Services has worked to provide accessible and effective evidence-based therapy in their community while always demonstrating compassion, excellence, and dedication to the children they serve. Across their two locations, they currently serve around 26 different families as well as the support they provide local school systems.
In addition to her role as Owner and Clinical Director at Rise Behavior Services, Donyelle makes a point to train the next generation of therapists as an adjunct professor at Northwestern State University.
In addition to all of these responsibilities, when Donyelle started Rise Behavioral Services, she was also managing the financial side of the business on her own.
“Before BELAY, I was wearing even more hats than I am right now and keeping everything in order. At the time – back in 2022 – we were probably about half the size we are now, but that was pretty exhausting.”
“I was pretty much handling everything on my own when it came to books and finances. Keeping up with payroll, reconciling checks that had been paid — I was doing all of that and honestly, not doing a great job.”
That’s when Donyelle found BELAY.
“I was hearing about [BELAY] from different places at the same time. I believe I came across it on LinkedIn. Then one of my mentors mentioned it to me as well. It was present in a few different places, so I decided to make the call.”
In no time, Donyelle’s new BELAY Bookkeeper Latonya Hunter started to make an impact.
“Our first success was bill pay. That has been taken care of through Bill.com. I don't even see it anymore. Latonya is just amazing. She's been super patient with me, and along with our Operations Manager, she’s created processes that I don't even know about. She has set up our vendors, all the invoices, and they're paid once I approve them — that's been a dream.”
In addition to streamlining their processes, Latonya empowered Donyelle to make the data-driven decisions her business needed.
“I would say I'm much more informed now,” said Donyelle,
“The numbers tell the story. So once she lets me know that the monthly reports are ready, I either open them holding my breath or I open them knowing that I can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s just helpful to know that every month I'll know exactly how we need to pivot based on the data she compiles.”
Latonya not only provided Donyelle with invaluable information, but she also took the time to empower her through that information.
“Latonya explained the reports early on,” said Donyelle, “She took the time to meet with me and go through what I am reading on those reports – the balance sheet and profit and loss statement and, you know, the month-to-date, year-to-date — she just let me know what I was reading.
“So that education piece in the beginning was so helpful, and I didn’t get that working with other bookkeepers. They would just throw all of these numbers at me, and I didn't really know what they meant. But Latonya took the time to educate me in the beginning, which in turn has allowed me to make the decisions that I have made over the past few years.”
And those decisions have paid off exponentially as Donyelle has grown her business.
Due to the value Latonya brought to Rise Behavioral Services, Donyelle is looking to grow her BELAY team even more. When asked why she’s interested in hiring another BELAY Professional, Donyelle was very clear:
“It's the autonomy. I haven’t had to check in much at all. If there are times when reports are late, it's 100% my fault. I've never had to contact a higher-up. I've gotten the quality services that I was promised since the beginning.”
Donyelle and her BELAY Client Success Consultant have been discussing her needs to discern which Virtual Assistant could best address them.
“I've never felt pushed, but I have felt informed. It never feels sales-y. I am informed and left with the information, and that's the same way it goes with my reports every month. There's nothing to it besides information and knowing how these services can support me.
“So that's why I wanted to move forward with BELAY because I got what I was told I would get, and unfortunately, that isn't common.”
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