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STUART + DUDLEY BOOKKEEPING
Every product starts as an idea and ends as a number. I’ve spent my career in between.
For nearly 25 years in New York fashion, I led merchandising as a director at DKNY, Michael Kors, Elie Tahari, Liz Claiborne, and John Varvatos. I managed purchasing and sourcing from concept through production, with budgets of up to $15 million a season, so collections were not only beautiful, but financially sound.
Each season meant coordinating concepts, materials, timelines, and margins. I ended my corporate career on the other side of the purchase order, opening and running a showroom for WTS, a Peruvian knitwear manufacturer. My office handled close to $30 million in sales to brands.
Between buying and selling, I learned how a business really makes money. Profitability is shaped by daily operational decisions: what a factory minimum does to your cash, what a late shipment does to a margin, and which product quietly carries the rest of the line.
Then life shifted. I stepped back to focus on my son’s medical challenges, a season that redefined what success looks like and deepened my appreciation for calm, structure, and purpose. It also deepened my passion for well-made products and smartly curated businesses.
Bookkeeping was a natural place to begin. What started as a way to bring order to the chaos of small business finances became an extension of what I had always done: understanding how products are built and how money moves through production. The books are where the truth about a business lives. After years of tracing costs from a sketch to a shipment, I read them like an operator.
Today, I work with owners of businesses that make and sell things, from physical products to programs and services packaged as products. I keep your books current, then help you see what they mean: what each product or program really costs to deliver, which ones earn their keep, where cash gets tied up, and what to do next.
Where it helps, I build costing and margin tools for your business and review them with you each month, so the numbers guide your pricing, purchasing, and delivery decisions.
The financial discipline big brands rely on shouldn’t be reserved for big brands. Whether you make products or deliver programs and services, if you want to understand what your numbers are telling you, let’s talk.
[Schedule a Financial Systems Review]
For the LOVE of Clean Books!
Let’s bring order to your books — and clarity to your business.
Alexis Stuart Dudley
Principal + Owner