When Kelly Anderson left her marketing job at Eli Lilly to start her own business, she didn’t have a roadmap. What she did have was a love for promotional products, an eye for design, and the determination to build something of her own.
That spark became 185 Promotions & Apparel, a full-service promotional and apparel company that handles “anything you can put your logo on,” as Kelly puts it. From pens and polos to fully custom backpacks, her woman-owned business helps schools, corporations, and nonprofits bring their brands to life.
Ten years later, 185 Promotions has grown into a small but mighty team serving clients across the country. But Kelly will be the first to say that getting here wasn’t easy.
The Early Years: Chaos and Hustle
Like many new entrepreneurs, Kelly quickly learned that passion and hustle alone weren’t enough.
“Initially, some of the biggest challenges were just trying to set up a company,” she says. “There isn’t a book for that. And the thing I was most concerned about was the accounting piece. Numbers are my arch nemesis.”
Within weeks of launching, she was getting IRS letters. Her first accounting firm, despite promising small business expertise, left her with more stress than support.
“When you’re starting out in a new business, you only know what you know,” she says. “And when the people you hire don’t seem to know their job, and you can’t do their job, that creates a lot of anxiety in a world where anxiety already exists.”
The chaos made Kelly question whether she was cut out for business ownership. “If this was how it was going to go,” she remembers thinking, “then maybe I didn’t need to be running a business. But I knew it couldn’t be normal.”
Find the Right Fit
Determined to find a better solution, Kelly turned to her network. “Our line of business comes from referrals,” she says. “So it made sense to ask for referrals to find an accounting firm, too.”
That search led her to TMA Accounting, and from the very first meeting, things felt different.
“The process was clean and straightforward,” Kelly remembers. “Jonathan was very articulate about how it would work and what we were going to be charged upfront. There were no hidden costs and no surprises. I was made to feel comfortable right away.”
That clarity mattered. After the stress of IRS letters and confusing explanations from her previous firm, she finally felt like someone had things under control. “It just felt like a better fit right away,” she says. “The early issues I’d had before were addressed quickly, and the anxiety was gone almost immediately.”
TMA helped clean things up and got her filings back on track.
Her Accounting & Tax Manager, Kathy, became a consistent, calming presence. “She’s just steady,” Kelly says. “She talks us through the numbers in a way that makes sense. She never overexplains or talks over your head. She’s calm, and that calmness makes a big difference.”
Room to Breathe and Grow
With reliable financial systems in place, Kelly could finally focus on what mattered most: her clients and her team.
“If I had to be at my desk constantly reconciling credit card statements or poring over bank statements, I wouldn’t be serving clients,” she says. “Having that freedom to do what’s best for my clients, knowing TMA is doing what’s best for my business, that’s huge.”
That shift paid off. What began as a two-person startup has grown into a multimillion-dollar company. “We started just shy of a million in business,” Kelly says, “and this year we’ll cross the three-million-dollar threshold.”
Even as 185 Promotions has grown, Kelly’s commitment to personal service has never changed.
“We care about one t-shirt as much as we care about 500,” she says. “If a kid doesn’t have the right size shirt, we fix it. If a corporate client has a big golf outing, we’ll stay up all night to make sure they have everything they need. We manage deadlines better than some of our clients because we know how much those deadlines matter.”
That attention to detail and empathy are what make 185 Promotions stand out. “We advocate for our clients the way TMA advocates for us,” Kelly says. “We’re both obsessed with deadlines, accuracy, and going the extra mile.”
The Power of Consistency and Trust
Looking back, Kelly says that working with TMA Accounting gave her more than accurate books and timely filings. It gave her stability.
“At any point, I can reach out to TMA and know I’ll get an answer, usually the same day,” she says. “They’ve been a constant for us through everything—audits, payroll, taxes, COVID—all of it. I don’t have to worry about the things that used to keep me up at night.”
That steady support has allowed her to lead with confidence and focus on growing her business without second-guessing what’s happening behind the scenes.
For Kelly, that peace of mind has been transformational.
“We’re not just a bigger business now,” she says. “We’re a better business.”
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