Chelsea Marie Williams is the founder and chief financial architect of Core Solutions Group, Inc., a specialized accounting and bookkeeping firm created to tailor to the unique financial needs of attorneys and legal practices. Based in Bloomington, Illinois, Core Solutions Group, Inc., has counted clients from across the United States since its inception in 2017, and is dedicated to creating a broad range of bookkeeping and compliance solutions for firms of all sizes, from full-service accounting to designing customized software solutions for firms on a budget. Her journey into the financial industry began as a high school student: at the time, career and guidance counselors advised students to enter healthcare fields, as the influx of aging Baby Boomers would create a stable market for doctors, nurses, and caregivers for years to come. Following her teachers’ advice, Ms. Williams enrolled in health care classes, but found herself with limited enthusiasm for the subjects until her second semester, when she entered a required business class.
Ms. Williams remembers feeling instantly that her accounting class “just made perfect sense,” and left the class with a new sense of purpose. She explains feeling a new understanding that “she needed to get back on a purposeful path” and that this feeling was a new degree of self-understanding that not all of her peers would understand. Ms. Williams changed her major from health care to business, and graduated from Heartland Community College in 2012 with an Associate of Science in accounting and business management. She continued her studies at DeVry University, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in accounting in 2015.
While completing her studies, Ms. Williams began to cut her teeth on accounting and bookkeeping work. After serving as a peer mentor for Heartland Community College’s Project RISE, she joined TECE as an in-house accountant from 2011 until 2013, handling payroll, accounts payable, sales reports, and more. She was named president of American Tax & Accounting, Inc., an established local firm best-known for its 35-year history and reputation for stellar client management, in 2014. Ms. Williams remained with American Tax & Accounting, Inc., until 2017, when she left to launch Core Solutions Group, Inc.
Inspired by a messy trip to a local attorney’s office, Core Solutions Group specializes in providing proactive, future-focused tax and financial planning services to law practices and attorneys. Ms. Williams emphasizes the need to introduce positive money management, saving, and budgeting habits to young adults and for older adults to constantly reassess whether their strategies are working. She credits her children with inspiring her dedication to helping youth grow up ready for financial adulthood, and hopes to continue helping business owners sustain their financial success without self-sacrifice.
Ms. Williams has contributed extensively to several finance podcasts, blogs, and social media platforms, and she has been featured as one of the 2020 Top 100 in Finance. Since 2020, she has hosted the LP3 Podcast, an independent budgeting, business, and finance podcast featuring interviews with influential female entrepreneurs and finance professionals. When she is not working, she can be found volunteering with local schools and the Habitat for Humanity of McLean County. Ms. Williams lives by the credo to “Be a person of value rather than a person of success,” and hopes to continue changing her clients’ lives through financial literacy for years to come.