About Us
Our purpose is to give business owners the confidence to grow.
Most entrepreneurs didn't start their business to become accounting experts.
They started because they're great at what they do whether that's creating, building, or serving their community. But somewhere along the way, the financial piece becomes this weight they carry alone.
We exist to lift that weight.
Not just drowning you in reports you'll never read, but by giving you clarity through monthly conversations about what actually matters. What's working. What needs attention. What your next smart move looks like.
We believe in building relationships, not just closing books.
We see an industry stuck in formality: Dark wood offices, jargon-filled reports, once-a-year check-ins that leave you more confused than when you started. Business owners sitting alone at their kitchen tables at 8 PM, dreading QuickBooks, wondering if they're doing it right.
Confidence comes from knowing exactly where you stand financially, understanding it in plain English, and having someone who's actually paying attention. Someone who responds when you need them and helps you plan forward instead of just looking backward.
When you're not second-guessing every financial decision or lying awake at 2 AM wondering if you're okay, you're free to focus on what you're actually good at.
That's why we're here.
Meet Pete
Owner and CPA
Pete jokes that the best compliment he's ever received is when a client told him he's "not a real accountant" because he was "normal." What started as a bit of an insult, quickly became something he hangs his hat on. He values the relationships he has with his clients just as much as the work he does for them.
If you're in Columbia, you may see him and his family at the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, Logboat on a nice afternoon, or at Shakespeare's on a Friday night.
What it means to work with Groundswell.
Here's what you can expect when you work with us, not as marketing speak, but as actual commitments we make to every client:
We don't just look at your numbers, we see the person behind them. Business ownership is personal. Your stress about cash flow at 2 AM is real. Your excitement about landing a big client matters. We ask "what happened?" before we judge, and we never make you feel stupid for asking questions. Every business owner's situation is different, and we take time to understand yours. When you're having a tough conversation about taxes owed or tight margins, we're not reading from a script. We're sitting with you as humans, figuring it out together. Because numbers tell a story, but only if someone's actually listening.
Who you meet in a conference room is the same person you'll see at a concert or the farmers market. We don't put on a suit and suddenly become your accountant - stuffy, formal, and speaking in jargon. We show up as ourselves every time. That means we talk like normal humans, not like we swallowed a tax code. It means we'll tell you when we don't know something instead of pretending we do. It means our engagement letters sound like we actually wrote them, not like we copied them from 1987. We're not trying to impress you with big words or make ourselves seem untouchable. We're just here to help, as real people, having real conversations about your business.
We do what we say we're going to do, when we say we're going to do it. If we're running behind, you'll hear from us before you have to ask. If you send an email, you'll get a response, even if it's just "Got it, I'll have this to you next week." We don't ghost. We don't make excuses. We don't promise monthly meetings and then only show up twice a year. This sounds basic, but in accounting, it's rare. Reliability isn't flashy, but it's everything. Because when you can actually count on someone to deliver, to communicate, and to show up consistently - that's when trust gets built. And trust is the foundation of everything we do.