Three counties. One local bookkeeper.

New subdivisions climbing out of the ground around Troy and Moscow Mills, trades businesses feeding the housing boom, working farms on the ridges, and main-street businesses holding the county seat together — Lincoln County runs on exactly the businesses that need a bookkeeper more than a CPA firm.

Nearly half a million people, some of Missouri's fastest-growing cities, a GM plant anchoring Wentzville, and a small-business economy dense enough that every trade, storefront, and service niche is represented — with plenty of businesses priced out of CPA-firm bookkeeping.

Agriculture first — corn, soybeans, livestock, and the services that support them — plus healthcare and education anchors in Louisiana and a courthouse-town economy in Bowling Green. Fewer businesses than the metro counties, and almost nobody competing to serve them well.