'Legacies being saved': Freeport woman's business helps others avoid her rookie mistakes

At only 21, Malasia Jordan opened her first business in Freeport, but within six months, she was forced to close its doors. Now, she’s dedicated her career to making sure other business owners never have to experience that.

“I save businesses,” Jordan, the owner of The Boujee Bookkeeper, said. “We’re talking about legacies being saved.”

The Boujee Bookkeeper helps business owners understand how to manage their finances which many business owners struggle with when first opening. Jordan knows from experience.

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In 2018, Jordan was a part of the Freeport Fish Tank, a competition for entrepreneurs to open businesses in Stephenson County. While she didn’t win, she used the business mentoring and coaching she received to open JG8 Dance Studios, named after her son, with the hopes to serve underprivileged children in Freeport.

“It’s one thing to own a business. It’s one thing to run a business. I owned a business, but I had no idea how to run that business,” Jordan said. “Unfortunately because I did not know how to manage the money I had coming in, I was spending way more than I had coming in.”

Within six months, JG8 Dance Studios closed.

“I decided I didn’t want any other business owner to go through that,” Jordan said.

So, Jordan went back to school at graduated with her Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. After graduation, she started doing bookkeeping on the side before she took it full-time to create The Boujee Bookkeeper.

The best part of her job is saving businesses and keeping their doors open, according to Jordan. One of her best experiences was saving a construction company that was about to let go of more than half of its employees.

Jordan sat down to look at and clean up their books. The company realized they weren’t losing as much money as they thought they were. Together, they created a bookkeeping plan to get back on track. The company is still up and running today.

Success stories from former clients and the support from her community keep Jordan moving.

“They’ve seen my journey,” Jordan said. “They’ve seen when I opened a business, when I closed it, and then when I popped back up as a bookkeeper. They’ve seen my success and provided me with more opportunities. Having that community made me more confident.”

She’s now working to give back to her community and support others just like how the Freeport community supports her.

“I teach and educate a lot,” Jordan said. “A bookkeeper is supposed to come in, organize the transactions, and give you the reports, but I’m going to sit down with you; I’m going to go over reports with you; and I’m going to give you a solid idea on how to run your business on the money side.”

For her work in the community, Jordan won the Greater Freeport Partnership’s Rising Star award in 2022.

In the future, she hopes to expand her business to include accounting services. Jordan is currently attending Northern Illinois University to get a master’s in accountancy. She’ll sit for the CPA Exam in 2025. She hopes to focus more on non-profits and e-commerce websites.

“I’ve been in this community a long time and I really love Freeport,” Jordan said. “It always has potential. If you’re willing to go out there and make a change, it can always get better.”

When she’s not saving businesses, Jordan is with her family, serving the community, or eating at her favorite Freeport restaurant, Junior’s Place.

You can find The Boujee Bookkeeper at theboujeebookkeeper.com or on Facebook.

Jena Kleindl is a freelance correspondent.

This article originally appeared on Journal Standard: Freeport's Malasia Jordan works to help other businesses succeed