Sonja Burkley, Client Relations Manager, Foster Results
Sonja Burkley grew up in Carmel and graduated from Carmel High School. She moved to Oregon with her soon-to-be husband, where they “lived for several years at the base of Mt. Hood, which was beautiful.” Then they were moved to Miami, Florida, a real culture shock from what they were used to. After several years in Miami, Sonja had her first child and felt it was time to come home, to be closer to the new grandparents and other family.
“What do I do with my free time? Well, I would want to be outside, absolutely; I’m an outdoors person. I love to work in my garden and be in my flowers, watching the kids swim in our pool. I also spend a lot of time at the stables and attending horse shows with my daughter, who is a rider, and watching my son play lacrosse.”
Sonja started with Foster Results in August, 2010. She was a friend of Jennifer Foster, and fellow equestrian, before coming to work for the company.
Her background was actually in business office management. She worked in the dental field until she had children and then in various professional offices. This is where she developed her client relation skills, learning how to communicate with people and helping them with their needs.
“I work part-time, about 20 hours a week. I look at my role in the company as Jennifer Foster’s extra hand. She just doesn’t have enough hours in her day to handle all the little details that constantly come up. I help with marketing, and also work with Jennifer in developing new clientele, from the first step to setting up communication with their accountants. I make sure all the forms are filled out properly, that the contract is the way they want it to be, that they get copies of everything, and act as the interface between the client and Jennifer. Once everything is set up, we conduct a kickoff meeting with the client’s accountant, where we turn everything over to them.”
“I believe that the Foster Results difference is that we help small businesses reduce their costs by removing the expense of a full time bookkeeper or accountant. With our service, the client only pays for the work that is done; they don’t have to pay someone just sitting at their desk all day long. We make sure absolutely that every “i” is dotted and every “t” crossed, and everything is done exactly right, no mistakes.”
