Enforcer might be too strong of a term to describe who your next hire should be, but one thing is for sure they shouldn’t be an accountant nor should they be trained to do bookkeeping. One of the biggest limiting factors we see firms doing over and over again is thinking they need to hire more accountants and bookkeepers. Instead you should be hiring documenters, client relationship managers, and/or office administrators. It is this persons job to handle the non-billable activities in your firm ...
Jan 21, 2022•31 min•Ep. 19
In this episode we respond to emails we received about firm owners struggling to keep good people despite the fact they “run good firms”. Many firms owners will lament the work ethic of young people these days, others will assume their staff will eventually steal their clients, so why bother training, but the problem isn’t with staff. Instead we challenge listeners to take a constructive look at their own firm - and is it a great place to come to work each day. What’s the employee experience lik...
Jan 18, 2022•35 min•Ep. 18
With tax season on the horizon we kick off this episode discussing how we communicate with clients. Owners and staff are quick to blame clients, for all their tax season troubles, but more often than not it's because we haven't set clear boundaries with our clients that tax season gets derailed. For the most part clients are very understanding - with good communication that manages their expectations you'll be a-ok. So before you accept that new client (that you know is not a good fit) or before...
Jan 10, 2022•35 min•Ep. 17
Post thanksgiving, pre tax season is an interesting time in an accounting firm. For most providers it’s considered peak selling time, or alternatively the last chance to close a deal before tax season. For practitioners many think it’s their last chance to get new systems and tools implemented. We’ve recently received a number of emails from listeners trying to fast track their software selections asking for our recommendations. But unfortunately it’s not that easy and our responses always begin...
Dec 05, 2021•36 min•Ep. 16
Previously we have teased the Little Black Dress (LBD) concept - if you haven't checked out that episode (13) go ahead and have a listen as it'll help you to get the most out of this episode. Penny uses the LBD to help practitioners understand a tech stack. The term tech stack hadn't even come into the accounting vernacular, but the LBD analogy had everyone in the room nodding along - well 50% of the room anyway😂😂. We discuss the importance of having a standard technology set to not only help ...
Nov 22, 2021•30 min•Ep. 15
While we love discussing all things firm development with just the two of us, it's always enjoyable to welcome guests to the podcast especially when they're clients of ours and are putting into practice a lot of what we talk about in the podcast. Rachael Siegel, CPA is the founder of Go Figure Accounting , and she joins us today to share her experiences since going it alone and starting her own firm just 4 years ago. We discuss her approach to her team and her clients as well as how considers th...
Nov 12, 2021•51 min•Ep. 14
Lucky episode 13! In this episode we introduce listeners to your newest team member - your tech stack. Your technology should be working for you and should be doing the work of a few FTEs whether it comes to workflow, document management or data processing. We break the tech stack down into the back of house - apps for your firm - and the front of house - apps that you and your clients use to facilitate the flow of data. Penny suggests focusing on your back of house first which will then allow y...
Oct 25, 2021•35 min•Ep. 13
One of the biggest mistakes we see in accounting firms is the team members not working on the appropriate tasks. Most often it's the partners doing the technician's work such as data entry, but it's also the technician's (and the partners) doing the administrative work. This means your team members aren't working on those tasks where they bring the most value. Another challenge we have seen in the industry is the lack of a quality supervisory and managerial level in a lot of firms. That's not to...
Oct 12, 2021•41 min•Ep. 12
No surprises but clients are a critical part of your business. But too often firm owners try to adapt their business plan to their clients instead of the other way round. We've both seen too many firms attempts at change being derailed by (Pain in the Ass) clients. It's important to recognise that you can't be everything to everyone, so focus on the clients you enjoy - they listen to you, they like new ideas, they're willing to try new things and most importantly they value your input. These are...
Oct 01, 2021•36 min•Ep. 11
No, we're not talking Star Wars in this episode. Instead we're talking about a common trap many practitioners fall into when they're thinking about their next hire. Too often the default next hire is another technician, another accountant or another bookkeeper. In other words trying to clone yourself. If that's the case, you're likely thinking about this wrong. Instead of hiring another you, what about hiring someone to take on more of the administrative and client service functions - take those...
Sep 24, 2021•36 min•Ep. 10
Today we dig deeper into defining "Advisory Services". Building on Penny's four quadrants from episode 6 we discuss the AICPA definition outlined in this article . Ultimately it comes down to defining the deliverable so that the clients understands the benefits of that deliverable. Rather than hiding behind 'reporting' it's important to make it tangible for the client. Likewise technology is not the differentiator, or where the value is, instead it's facilitator. Ultimately it's about helping yo...
Sep 17, 2021•36 min•Ep. 9
Without a clear vision, and your constant leadership your team can sometimes get led astray buy other team members with their own agenda. As the the business owner you can't delegate this leadership responsibility. If it's not constant and consistent, someone will fill this void for you. Penny shared an email she received this week from a client with an internal saboteur. Unfortunately the owner lost a couple of longstanding employees because of them, and now faced potentially losing clients if ...
Sep 09, 2021•41 min•Ep. 8
We have our first guests! We also have our first major technical difficulties. We’re delighted to be joined on the show by Brian Lang and Mike Chawner, two CPAs out of Austin Texas who are former colleagues and former business partners. They share with us their journey from starting their firm together through to later dissolving the partnership and going their separate ways. As Brian and Mike will attest both have learned a lot, have been able to gain clarity on what it is that they want out of...
Aug 24, 2021•30 min•Ep. 7
In today's episode we make our first attempt at defining 'advisory' and provide listeners with a framework to help better define their service offering. In Penny's upcoming book she breaks advisory services into four quadrants: The Catalyst The Strategist The Steward The Operator Where you choose to operate is up to you, but it's important to put a stake in the ground and help your clients understand what advisory services means to you and the client. Don't think that that you have to offer serv...
Jul 23, 2021•53 min•Ep. 6
We're focusing today's episode on bringing your team along for this ride. Your success is dependant on your team delivering an exceptional level of service day in day out and remember they're the ones who will be using these tools, implementing new workflows, and a whole lot more. But don't forget that change is hard, so you'll need to be clear and consistent when you communicate what you're doing and why you're doing it. As you bring your team together recognize that we're all created different...
Jul 16, 2021•42 min•Ep. 5
In episode 4 of Strategy and the Virtual Controller, we discuss the importance of leadership in business. Too many firm owners get stuck as the technician doing the work and are never able to set an intentional direction for the firm. For those firm owners that are able to set time aside for strategic thinking, the next biggest challenge is to lead the team and get their buy in. We talk through different ways to engage the team in this strategic planning process, including the same traffic light...
Jul 06, 2021•32 min•Ep. 4
Penny is on the road! And has attended her first conference since this whole pandemic kicked off. We decided to catch up on Friday afternoon (Saturday morning Sydney time) to debrief on the key themes. What conferences are you headed to in 2021? Send us a message: Find us on Twitter - @SATVCpodcast Penny Breslin - LinkedIn | @PennyB57 Damien Greathead - LinkedIn | @Damien_GH...
Jun 27, 2021•31 min
Big news! We have intro music - we're almost a proper podcast. Episode 3 feels like a #selfhelp class, but it's an important episode because we get to the heart of what makes a business a success - and that's being very clear on what you do and what you don't do. To get to this clarity, you need to go through a challenging process identifying what you love and don't love about your business (processes, services, clients etc). Without it, it's going to be Same As Last Year (SALY). You need to do ...
Jun 25, 2021•33 min•Ep. 3
What are you in business to do? Today's episode focuses on asking yourself the hard question of do you enjoy what you're doing? Or have you just fallen into being a Jack (or Jill) of all trades. Especially what we've been through in the last 15 months, now is the time to be very intentional about what you want to do. It's OK to say no, and in fact you need to become comfortable with saying no. Saying no will give you the capacity to focus on what's important to growing your business. We discuss ...
Jun 17, 2021•50 min•Ep. 2
Welcome to episode 1 of the brand new podcast, Strategy and the Virtual Controller. The podcast title comes from David Maister's great book Strategy and the Fat Smoker. We often (or even usually) know what we should be doing in both personal and professional life. We also know why we should be doing it and (often) how to do it. Figuring all that out is not too difficult. What is very hard is actually doing what you know to be good for you in the long-run, in spite of short-run temptations. The s...
Jun 01, 2021•33 min•Ep. 1
