Author: Brianna Lane

Brianna Lane contributes to Thryve Digest on topics related to small business finance, bookkeeping, and operational accounting. She brings more than 15 years of hands-on experience supporting small and mid-sized organizations through their day-to-day financial work and the systems that hold it together.

Highlights

Brianna has 15+ years of experience in bookkeeping, controller, and finance leadership roles across consulting, nonprofit, and small business environments. She co-founded Lane Business Consulting, a Santa Barbara firm offering business and accounting consulting for small businesses, and previously served as Director of Finance & Technology at the Santa Barbara Humane Society. She currently serves as Head of Procurement at STAX Engineering, a Port of Los Angeles–approved marine emissions control provider.

Experience

Brianna's career in small business finance began in the late 2000s with controller and bookkeeping roles at Permilia and Livingreen, where she managed payroll, human resources, and accounting across multiple retail locations. She later spent more than a decade as a Technical Consultant and Bookkeeper at BlueIsle Bookkeeping, supporting a range of small business clients with accounting, technology, and day-to-day financial operations.

From 2019 to 2021, Brianna served as Director of Finance & Technology at the Santa Barbara Humane Society, where she implemented new accounting and POS systems and handled both finance and human resources for the campus. She subsequently took on controller work at Shaw HR Consulting, implementing new billing systems and managing accounting records.

In 2017, Brianna co-founded Lane Business Consulting, a Santa Barbara firm providing business and accounting consulting to small businesses through 2023. Since 2023, she has served as Head of Procurement at STAX Engineering. Her years of consulting and in-house finance work continue to inform how she writes about money for the kind of owner who has to think about cash flow and payroll between everything else they're doing.

Brianna studied General Business at Santa Barbara City College. Outside of her finance work, she has served as President and Treasurer of the Harding School Foundation, helping fund garden and field trip programs for Santa Barbara public school students, and as a Parent Representative on the Harding School Site Council.

Editorial Perspective

Brianna writes about small business finance from the operator's chair, not the textbook. Her view is that the businesses that survive are the ones whose owners can read their own numbers, manage cash flow without panic, and make financial decisions without waiting for permission. At Thryve Digest she focuses on what to track, how to think about cash flow, and how to make money decisions with less stress and more clarity.