Hi
I’m Marta, and Pine Mountain Professional Services is my brainchild. I'm a wife, mother, caretaker, homeschooler, raw milk drinker, and regenerative farmer. In addition to running Pine Mountain Professional Services, I operate our small market farm and raw milk herd share from our half acre suburban lot. Day to day you can find me throwing hay, milking goats, making compost, chasing chickens, and raising the next generation of world changing free thinkers.
We definitely aren’t afraid of hard and dirty work around here!
My Story
Recently I exited my 20+ year career in the Bar and Restaurant industry to become a full time caretaker. Before doing so I built quite the reputation for improving profitability, fostering customer loyalty, and cultivating outstanding customer experience. I’ve worked my way up from the bottom, and I have the seasoned operations management experience to show for it.
However, being a full time caretaker means my options for traditional employment are extremely limited. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because it's spurred me to follow my dream and create my first business in 2019. What started off as a small market farm has grown into a robust business venture. We're still going strong, and our current focus is the development of a heavy producing line of Nigerian Dwarf Goats to help people in urban and other non-traditional locations access high quality raw milk. We're currently in the process of relocating from the Pennsylvania suburbs to the Eastern Kentucky Appalachian Mountains in order to expand!
The very nature of small farming means most people will always need alternative sources of income to stay afloat, and even more so when you want your ethics to guide you more than your wallet does. That inspired the creation of my second business in the beginning of 2022, a remote bookkeeping firm you might have heard of... The Best Bookkeep.
While I started offering just bookkeeping services, it quickly became apparent to me that the average small business owner needed more support. There were nearly unlimited options if you ran an ecommerce store, or owned various other white collar businesses... But there are very few options available to Contractors, Roofers, Arborists, Repair techs, Junk Haulers, and other kinds of small Blue Collar businesses outside of hiring traditional staff. Being married to a construction worker and running our farm, I know what it's like to put your blood, sweat, and tears into something... day in and day out no matter what. Over 20 years in the restaurant industry has shown me how important it is to have good help on your side when you're trying to turn a talent into a thriving business. I also have immense respect for the Trades people that keep this country running. Nothing has ever been handed to me, and I wanted to be able to work with people I connect with. Then it all clicked for me one day....
I am a helper and a problem solver by nature, and by expanding to offer Virtual Assisting services I realized I would be able to combine my creative talents with my years of customer service and operations management experience into a comprehensive solution for the people I thought needed it most. I've worked myself up from the bottom and I've achieved what many have thought was impossible for me through sheer determination and force of will. Definitely not the kind of person you would expect to encounter when you call a bookkeeper or an assistant, and exactly what you need!
Working positions like this remotely might seem crazy, but for me it's a win-win. Not only do I get to help small businesses I care about, I get to have the freedom to be the wife and mother my family needs me to be. The remote work revolution has mainstreamed working from a home office, and while that can have its challenges, it's helped countless Americans who otherwise couldn't manage to work traditional jobs (stay at home parents, disabled people, caretakers, and rural poor who lack local opportunities). It also affords us location freedom, something so completely new and indescribably priceless for both business owners and workers. YOU are no longer bound to hire only what you can find in your local area, and WE are free to work whenever we want from wherever we want (in this case from the opportunity lacking Appalachian Mountains!)
None of that would be possible without this company, and that privilege is what I want to be able to pass on to others as we continue to grow.
Our Mission
I always have an eye to the future, and as this firm grows I would like to use my position to be the person I needed when I was younger and I would like to offer business owners a chance to do some real good with their dollars.
I plan to reach out to the people the traditional workforce writes off. Investing in the development of my employees by offering paid training opportunities (with laptops, and high speed internet to those who can't afford it) instead of requiring a 4 year degree for an entry level job. I understand that intelligence and work ethic doesn’t come from a campus, and there are way too many people priced out of entering into meaningful work...
Young moms who can't break into decent jobs because they never had a chance to finish their high school education, stay at home parents who can't afford childcare but need more money to make ends meet, caretakers who can't get adequate services to be able to even leave the home to work, disabled people who need more flexibility than office culture can provide, and especially domestic abuse survivors who need flexible work with good pay to keep themselves safe but might not have any “experience” or “credentials” because they've been out of the workforce for so long. These people deserve a fighting chance to escape poverty. I know they are one chance, one paid training, away from changing their lives forever because I've been there.
This is a lofty goal but it’s near and dear to my heart. I've been in their shoes as a young mom working myself to burnout, but barely being able to afford more than just rent and utilities because I didn’t have a college degree. Needing more money but having to turn down shifts or call out because my babysitter canceled. Being at the mercy of predatory bosses who refused to pay well, or to give employees time off or regular schedules without risking our jobs. I’ve even worked up to those better paying jobs, but I’ve had to miss every weekend and holiday, and even my own children's birthday parties in order to do so. If you've been there, you know.
I never came across a company who would take a chance on me me when I needed it most, and I've lived through a decade of struggle because of it. So instead of pouring my passion and loyalty into someone else's company I get the privilege of pouring it into my own.
This is where I know I can do the most good, and this is the direction we are going.