While working toward her degree and a CPA, Alleepra Stutzman already owns her own bookkeeping business

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Full-time college student, president of the Colorado Mesa University Accounting Club, part-time business owner, wife, mother of a toddler.

That’s Alleepra Stutzman, a CMU senior whose level of busy leads her friends to ask her if she’s crazy, and the question begets a fitting answer from a person who sees no sense in twiddling her thumbs: “Well, I don’t know what to do otherwise.”

If it doesn’t sound like Stutzman is wired for fun, there’s this revelation from her: “I discovered very much accounting is fun to me.”

That knowledge tells her she’s going into the right career field as she intends to become a certified public accountant. Starting her bookkeeping and payroll company, Dragonfire Financials, a year-and-a-half ago was another pretty good indication she’s on the right career path.

After a recent move from Orchard Mesa to Mack, Stutzman joined the Fruita Chamber of Commerce, which then welcomed her with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Dragonfire Financials on Aug. 15. Three days later, Colorado Mesa’s fall semester began, marking the start of her final year, which has a May 2026 graduation at the end of it.

Then, her mission becomes getting her CPA license and growing her business, which already is serving her well.

“The whole reason I started the business before I graduated was because I have my daughter, who is now two-and-a-half, and I just didn’t want to go back to work. I wanted to be able to spend quality time with her and be there for this part of her life,” Stutzman said. “But we all know the economy is kind of scary right now, so living on one income is not ideal, so I had to figure out: How can I get the best of both worlds, where I can make money working from home, stay with my daughter and still do something that is not diverting from my career path?”

She figured it out, opening her home-based business with fully remote services to serve the Grand Valley.

The business already has grown as Stutzman has one part-time employee and an intern helping her.

And when she thinks about the future of Dragonfire Financials, it’s with a vision of providing to others the opportunity she needed as a young mother who also wants a career.

“I want to open a physical location someday and have a daycare attached to it, so that way moms or dads that are like me – they want to be part of their kids life, but they can’t either afford daycare or they don’t want to have that separation – they can bring their kid to work. So, firm employees, they would have free daycare provided in-house, so they could go and have lunch with their kiddo if they wanted, or if their kid was sick and they needed to stay home, not a big deal.

“I want to have it where it’s flexible around situations that I’ve experienced myself, especially like being a student, too, and navigating parenthood. I want to be able to accommodate people who are trying to grow their family and do something to better themselves … and they just need something that’s more flexible.”

Other dreams for her business are for it to add a tax branch and an auditing branch, “so we can be kind of a one-stop shop for all that the business owners are looking for.”

When a customer says, “I need this. Can you provide this service for me?” Stutzman wants to be able to respond, “Yes, we can. Come on in. We’ll get you taken care of.”

These are long-term goals, though, because the short-term has its requirements that must be met first.

Upon graduating from CMU, Stutzman knows she’s going to have to work at another firm to get experience working directly under a CPA, which is required for her CPA license.

She already has some experience working with another CPA, that being Travis Boyd of Boyd PC in Grand Junction.

“He’s taught me so much already that I am very thankful for, because it’s taking my accounting school and applying it to real-world stuff,” Stutzman said. “The way he explains things is like, ‘That makes so much sense that I get it now.’ Because there’s all kinds of things with the books that you can learn and learn and learn, but you’re never gonna know until a scenario comes up and is in your face on how to navigate it.”

Stutzman also has spent some time with Kristi Redlinger of The Boring Bookkeeper.

“She’s also been another kind of mentor and friend, and we’re kind of tag-teaming this, navigating the bookkeeping world together, and it’s been a really fun adventure,” Stutzman said.

Last but not least, Stutzman expressed gratitude to Joanne Chauncey of Chauncey and Chauncey Bookkeeping in Boise, ID, for helping Dragonfire Financials take flight.

“She has been there from the start,” Stutzman said. “She found me on one of the QuickBooks Facebook pages, and she’s been really, really awesome from the very beginning. And I feel like I owe credit to her for helping me kinda get off the ground and not just standing still in one place.”

The results have been a steadily growing client base and confidence to take the next steps with her business as Stutzman dares to look ahead.

“It might seem like I’m stretching for the future right now, but for me, I feel like if I don’t plan for that, I’m never gonna be able to get to that,” she said. “It’s gonna be a long path. I don’t think it’s gonna happen in the next couple years. It would be amazing, and I would love it if it would happen in like two or three years. But long-term goal is if it can happen within 10 years, then we’d be set.”

More about Dragonfire Financials

To find out more about Dragonfire Financials, go online to www.dragonfirefinancials.com.

Email owner Alleepra Stutzman at astutzman@dragonfirefinancials.com, or call her at 970-737-8077.

Stutzman got her bookkeeper certification through Universal School of Accounting as well as the QBO Bookkeeper training.

“All members of my firm,” she said, “will have training similar to my own, so there are no gaps, and work will be thoroughly reviewed until they are confident in what we do.”

You probably already guessed this…

Stutzman said she loves dragons, “have since I was a kid,” and that’s why she named her business Dragonfire Financials LLC.

Keeping with the dragon theme, she said, “I like to call the internship position or junior bookkeeper positions ‘apprentice of the books,’ and mine would be the ‘guardian of the books.’”

Stutzman added, “A motto I have recently started using is: ‘Your books, our watch – Your success.’ Because dragons protect their treasure.”