Learning From The Most Optimistic Accountant! Podcast w/Elena Meskhi

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:26:16
Elena Meskhi
We also see a lot of business owners when we start in the relationship with businesses. The general request would be you do it. If this is your best opinion, we’ll trust you. You came from the reputable recommendation and we, and we just sign on the dotted line. That would spark the, you know, questions in my head, like how long you going to carry on as a business owner if you have such an attitude?

00:00:26:21 - 00:00:47:19
Elena Meskhi
Because contrary to the successful business owner’s I see and I work with, they would ask the questions and they will explain and they would know the data. And this is the difference I see between the successful business owner and the amateur.

00:00:47:26 - 00:01:14:01
Matt Haycox
Guys, Matt Haycox here, and welcome to another episode of The Matt Haycox Show. Where I'm joined today with our special guest, Elena Meskhi, who I am told is the most fun and most optimistic accountant that there is. I was preparing a bit of a.. a bit of a bio or an intro for you. And when I got as far as that bit, I thought that's all I need to say, because how better than to remember an accountant as the most fun and the most optimistic.

00:01:14:01 - 00:01:41:26
Matt Haycox
But Elena is genuinely an accountant. Been in England from Russia for 16 years now. She runs an accountancy practice. She's an author, she's a public speaker. And we've been having a little conversation before we started recording, which I think is going to be really, really interesting because anyone who follows me regularly will know some of the things I talk about with accountants, with business owners lack of understanding of accounts.

00:01:42:00 - 00:01:53:11
Matt Haycox
And really even more worrying than the lack of understanding is their lack of carefully understanding of accounts. So I know these are some of the things that Elena likes to talk about, so let's get on with it. Thanks for joining us Elena.

00:01:54:23 - 00:02:12:29
Elena Meskhi
Hi, Matt. Thank you very much for having me on your podcast. That's really a pleasure. I'll be honest, I looked through your profile, I've been following for a while and quite intimidating, male dominating audience, so I thought... Nothing

00:02:12:29 - 00:02:19:26
Matt Haycox
intimidating about me. I'm very, very friendly, very cuddly.

00:02:19:26 - 00:03:02:01
Matt Haycox
Okay. So thank you for having me. Yeah, fine. Especially now. It's such.. it sounds so relevant. Crises and recession. And just a few months ago, I have been sharing in the stories the potential economic forecasts saying that, guys, we are in recession, it is here. Get help with your finances, make sure it is up to date. Not far from that period we were in August, September that there are redundancies going to happen and the timing will be... will be hard.

00:03:02:01 - 00:03:14:22
Elena Meskhi
And here we go. The first thing I'm opening this morning in the news, Amazon letting people go. Sales force letting people go and yeah, we in the... living in the interesting times.

00:03:15:05 - 00:03:49:06
Matt Haycox
Well we are and you know I mean I talk about, I talk about the lay off some of the staff from these big companies with my team. Not so much in the context of profitability of our businesses. But I mean you know we as an employer, as I'm sure you know, most employers, I say in the UK, I mean, I can't give first hand experience with the rest of the world, but it's been very, very difficult to employ decent calibre staff at anything like sensible pricing, with anything like sensible terms for a long time now.

00:03:49:21 - 00:04:07:17
Matt Haycox
And you know, we can we can talk about the whys and wherefores that it's happened. We can blame COVID, we can blame entitlement of of Gen Z or whatever we want to blame. But, you know, without... regardless of the region, the facts are it's very you know, it's a very difficult labor market as far as employers are concerned.

00:04:08:24 - 00:04:28:13
Matt Haycox
And, you know, I think people.. what I'm going to try to say. I've been fed to me for a long time that, you know, Matt, you know, you're a dinosaur. You need to, you need to get your head around the fact that, you know, work from home is going to be the norm. Flexy this is the norm. Hybrid

00:04:28:13 - 00:04:56:12
Matt Haycox
the other is the norm. And my, you know, my simplistic view is I know what I think works best with an employer. And whether I'm right or wrong, I'm paying the bill. So that's that's how we're going to do it in my organization. But unfortunately, it's been very difficult, very difficult to do that when, you know, positions in certain divisions like digital marketing, you know, anything technology, technology related, anything marketing wise, very tough.

00:04:57:04 - 00:05:14:26
Matt Haycox
But I've been you know, I don't want to say this obviously in a in a in a gloaty way for people who are losing their job because obviously it's terrible for anyone losing a job. But I have been relieved to see, you know, the start of these big layoffs because, you know, they look like big layoffs. But these are just the beginning.

00:05:14:26 - 00:05:32:00
Matt Haycox
I mean, when Amazon shed 10,000 employees, that is only I mean, these guys have got millions of employees to go. They can do they can do 10,000 a week, and it probably won't even be noticed. The same with Apple, the same with Google, same with Twitter, and when those guys are starting to have those layoffs, it's only going to start to filter down the system.

00:05:32:07 - 00:05:51:18
Matt Haycox
And there will be a point in time where, you know, whether it's next course or whether it's at the end of this year, where ultimately that is going to impact in a positive way for the SME sector. And once again, I believe we will be able to start to hire decent employees at fair market rate on fair terms.

00:05:51:26 - 00:06:10:08
Matt Haycox
So, I mean, you know, I don't want to I don't want to take advantage of anybody's misery. But, you know, this was a long time coming. And as tough as anyone thinks it is, it's only the beginning. But, you know, like in any market, the cream will rise to the top and there will always be a home for good anybody

00:06:10:15 - 00:06:19:18
Matt Haycox
Good accountants, good, good marketeers. You know, good entrepreneurs can thrive in any environment.

00:06:19:18 - 00:06:55:12
Elena Meskhi
Totally agree with you. And even more relevant podcast of yours is that people who got fired and who will be going through the redundancy, I'm sure there will be the happy percentage of the people who finally got that opportunity, you know, and stood up on their own feet and get on with the business idea they have. And they've just been, you know, procrastinating, and enjoying the warmth of the employment and the security rides and everything.

00:06:55:22 - 00:07:22:10
Elena Meskhi
And now I think this is going to what, what's going to create the boost to the economy, how controversial that could sound. But the redundancy from one side. But that redundancy will push people to, you know, go ahead and finally go after their dream and finally start the business and start the idea, maybe join in partnerships, maybe explore something new.

00:07:22:10 - 00:07:45:19
Elena Meskhi
So it's going to be a good, good thing. You always have to be stay positive and look for the opportunity arises and, you know, enjoying their own misery and sacrificing something. So very good timing to start the business. I think the crisis is the best time to start the business. A lot of business is going to go belly up.

00:07:46:28 - 00:08:13:18
Elena Meskhi
Some of the business owners who were reluctant to change, who were, you know, bearing under the sands and ignoring the financial education and financial data completely. They will be going out of the business, but they're going to create the window of opportunity for the new businesses or for their business owners who is happy, who is eager, who is ready to change, who is ready to adapt

00:08:13:26 - 00:08:48:04
Elena Meskhi
It is a Darwin’s law that the most livable species are the most adaptable one. That as soon as you can get used to the change and you can use that diversity and use that change to your advantage. When I was researching for my book Rewire Your Business for Success, we came to identify that the most businesses going out of business because the business owner does not prioritize their own needs.

00:08:48:18 - 00:09:27:01
Elena Meskhi
They’ve taken care of everybody around in the team, employees, suppliers, contracts, insurances, licenses, whatever they have, but they always neglect themself and they put themselves at the bottom line. No surprise they don't have any money after they've paid everybody. They have only peanuts left. So apart of having peanuts and no financial, you know, fundamental stuff to cover your basic needs, that will lead to the burnout because people with no food... not far, you can go with just on your enthusiasm because you've got a great idea.

00:09:27:01 - 00:09:51:26
Elena Meskhi
So you have to prioritize. You have to know your personal budget. And that personal budget plus 10% have to be your break even for your business. And that should be your first target. If you don't have it as a target, then you're fried. You can't go very far on, just on a pure enthusiasm and your passion. Matt, you gone through the tough times.

00:09:52:13 - 00:09:57:19
Elena Meskhi
I’ve - what I know from your story, isn't it? What do you think about the financial priorities?

00:09:57:28 - 00:10:24:07
Matt Haycox
I mean, I went bankrupt in 2008 and I mean, it was well, I, I always say it was a by product of the recession, of the credit crunch that was starting in 2008, which is true to a degree. You know, it was I guess it was caused by the lack of liquidity that was that was that for my lenders.

00:10:24:07 - 00:10:41:14
Matt Haycox
But, you know, again, if I'm being if I'm being really honest and really critical about it, it wasn't the lack of liquidity of the lenders. You know, if I'd have been being better prepared for it, you know, months, if not years earlier, then it would have either never happened or I would have been able to weather that storm.

00:10:42:08 - 00:11:04:16
Matt Haycox
And ultimately, you know, I was I was very over geared. You know, I was very overleveraged as a business. It was it was a time, you know, I mean, it was my first cycle in business, really. I mean, I was 22, 23 plus, you know, and I was I was opening nightclubs. I'd got introduced to lenders at a time that the economy was very buoyant.

00:11:04:16 - 00:11:24:27
Matt Haycox
And, you know, lenders were desperate, desperate to put money out the door. And they were eager and greedy to lend. And I was naive and and hungry to borrow because I wanted to grow and grow the businesses. And I was, you know, I guess I was probably taking money on terms that ultimately would be, would be unsustainable.

00:11:24:27 - 00:11:44:20
Matt Haycox
And that, really that was why things went wrong for me if if I'm being honest about it. You know, we always like to blame external forces. But, you know, ultimately, you know, we're all we're all in control of our own destiny, you know, to one degree or another. But I guess what you know, what was what was interesting from home from that point, you know, a bit of a tangent to where we're talking.

00:11:44:20 - 00:12:09:09
Matt Haycox
But, you know, something interesting for people listen to was when I went bankrupt and when those lenders, effectively lost money to me, people at the time, you know, people in the financial industry at the time were saying, you know, things will now change, the economy... You know, the economy will never be so relaxed and buoyant for financial institutions ever again.

00:12:09:09 - 00:12:39:00
Matt Haycox
You know, we've been crazy over the last eight, nine, ten years lending money on the terms that we've lent. You know, we’ve... everybody's learned the lesson and it will be a much, much tougher credit market going forward. And the reality is, you know, people never learn the lessons! They have a year or two of, let's say, retreat, not because you've learned any lessons, but they've got no choice but to retreat because they're probably bruised, battered and broken and they've got to take a couple of steps back and then they go forward again.

00:12:39:00 - 00:13:07:13
Matt Haycox
And, you know, and greed and hunger and ambition will kick in and will override. And if we look at, okay, right now, it's a tougher borrowing market. But let's go back a year and the ten years prior to that, I mean, that made you know, that made the 2000s look entry level. I mean, in the last, in the last 10 or 12 years, you know, there's been financial products that then people never even knew existed back in 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8.

00:13:07:23 - 00:13:28:25
Matt Haycox
There's been, there's been more lenders, there's been more aggression to learn. And, yeah, you know, these guys, these guys don't learn their lessons, you know, whether it's lenders, whether it's business owners and I think, you know ultimately, we blame the economy for our downfall. But I would say it works the other way round.

00:13:28:25 - 00:13:44:09
Matt Haycox
That you know, that economy... economies don't make businesses, businesses and business owners make economies. We always, we always like to blame somebody else. But I think ultimately we've all had our hand in it. Totally.

00:13:44:12 - 00:14:16:02
Elena Meskhi
And the consumerism does not help in this situation, especially when, when we are in the crisis and consumerism from the bad side, as an accountant I see it. I think the last week I was doing the usual grocery shopping order and the card I was paying with offered me to buy now pay later. And I thought to myself like, why would they be allowed to do that?

00:14:16:05 - 00:14:54:26
Elena Meskhi
To the, to the consumers? Taking the food now and paying later. This is clearly pushing people beyond the debt, which is... sounds to me very wrong when people trying to buy their first house to leave rather than renting it out, they’re taking them through all different, you know, complexities and fit for purpose and how much you earn and go through this and that and different hardships of applications to obtain their first mortgage for.. to buy the properties to live

00:14:55:03 - 00:15:20:15
Elena Meskhi
And here, you're buying the food and they say, ‘borrow money from us to buy food.’ That's clearly putting people in such a wrong environment and even letting them, why the financial institutions would let people do that. And I'm sure there will be people who would go and take that opportunity to get food now and buy later. And yeah, the financial...

00:15:20:23 - 00:15:23:22
Elena Meskhi
Financial sense does not really make sense in here.

00:15:24:15 - 00:15:49:20
Matt Haycox
Well, let's see. You've mentioned the words financial education for business owners earlier on and I want to use that to pick up on something that we were about to talk about before we started recording. Now, one of, one of my pet peeves or things that, you know, things that I like to talk about and try and advise other business owners about is the importance of financial education.

00:15:49:20 - 00:16:18:25
Matt Haycox
And I say financial education. I mean, I, I actually say it's in the context of every department. I mean, you know, I strongly believe I haven't got a department in my business that I don't know enough about to not to not get screwed over. So a lot of, a lot of that is down to because I have personal interest in some of these topics or some of these areas, but I also do it from, from the perspective of, of ultimately needing to protect myself.

00:16:18:25 - 00:16:37:04
Matt Haycox
And you know, whether that's digital marketing, to be able to hold a conversation with someone about SEO or AdWords, you know, whether it's, you know, having a, a loose enough understanding of operations to be able to argue with a warehouse manager or whether, you know, whether it's understanding law to talk to a lawyer or whether it's understanding accounts to talk to an accountant.

00:16:37:10 - 00:17:02:07
Matt Haycox
You know, for me, it's absolutely essential as a business owner that, you know, that you have all of those skill sets. You're always going to be better in one than another and that's fine. But I think, you know, it's lazy/absolutely stupid/ultimately suicidal to not, to... as a business owner, to not have the fundamental knowledge in those different divisions, particularly accounts.

00:17:02:16 - 00:17:25:21
Matt Haycox
And, you know, and what I find and I see this in a couple of different areas is one is obviously, my day to day business is providing loans to SME businesses in the UK, and we will very often, you know, obviously be contracting with a business owner, we’ll ask them for some financial information or we'll ask them to give us some detail on the financial information.

00:17:25:21 - 00:17:53:24
Matt Haycox
And these would be questions that I would think should be simple to answer. And the response is always the same. ‘Oh, I'm going to put you on to my accountant for that. He'll be.. He’ll have to tell you’. Or they'll say. ‘I don't deal with that stuff. That's what the accountant deals with.’ And I'm thinking, you know, I'll look at this and if you don't know the answers to that either, if you don't know how to answer me in general, or if you didn't know a month ago and therefore want to look at it, I mean, you have got absolutely no chance.

00:17:53:24 - 00:18:14:06
Matt Haycox
Because the other thing, this isn't a criticism of accountants for me, it's a criticism of professions in general. You know, business owners will always say, ‘oh, you've got to use my accountant. She's the best’, or, ‘you've got to use my lawyer, he’s the best.’ And the chances are they aren‘t, they aren’t the best. There's only one best. It's just because you don't know what you're talking about.

00:18:14:13 - 00:18:39:25
Matt Haycox
And they've done something that you think they know what they're talking about. Liked they filed a tax return or they produce some accounts sometimes, you know, they naturally assume that they're very good. But the reality is, well, I don't know what the statistic is, so I don't want to be too scathing to the profession. But I have, I have met in my career and I've dealt with a hell of a lot of accountants, both ones I've employed and ones I've, I gues ones I've dealt with through other people.

00:18:40:01 - 00:19:06:09
Matt Haycox
And I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of accountants. I would say they are shit hot people that I would like to work with and that I would trust. I would entrust them with my money. You know, I’ve employed and worked with plenty of accountants who are, you know, on their CV, their 100 grand a year, you know, finance directors and they, and they can't make a balance sheet balance. They don't realize that the P&L doesn't add up.

00:19:06:18 - 00:19:27:24
Matt Haycox
And, you know, for me, I mean, yes, it's frightening, but it's also the norm. And, like I say, this isn't a criticism of the accountancy sector because it’s the same with the lawyers, it's the same with.. there's so many shit people in every sector. But unless you've got, you know, an understanding of what's going on yourself, how can you, how can you possibly know who you can work with?

00:19:27:24 - 00:19:45:22
Matt Haycox
How can you possibly know who to trust? And for me, you know, the amount of business owners without even the basics of financial knowledge, you know, who can't sit there and, you know, know the difference between a balance sheet and a P&L. Know the difference between a loan and an equity or cash flow or whatever it may be.

00:19:45:28 - 00:20:01:24
Matt Haycox
I mean, the percentage of people is absolutely frightening. I know this is something that we started to talk about before we came on the, came on the recording, and I stopped you because I wanted it to be, to be spontaneous and exciting conversation. So over to you.

00:20:01:24 - 00:20:34:08
Elena Meskhi
That's, that's totally true. We also see a lot of business owners when we start in the relationship with businesses that the general request would be, ‘you do it. If this is your best opinion with trust, you came from there reputable recommendation’, and we and we just sign on the dotted line. And that would spark the, you know, questions in my head like how long you going to carry on as a business owner if you have such an attitude?

00:20:35:08 - 00:21:09:10
Elena Meskhi
Because contrary to the successful business owners I see and I work with, they would ask the questions and they will explain and they would know the data. And this is the difference I see between the successful business owner and the amateur, how they treat the data. And when the accountant is talking, they actually picking up the, you know, those germs, how to use, how to spend, how to make the decision and what variations and figures to pay attention to.

00:21:09:10 - 00:21:34:15
Elena Meskhi
So I totally agree with you. Having a brilliant accountant is just the reflection of how brilliant you are. If you understand the data and you can speak and get more knowledge from the accountant. Accountant is, is very expensive profession for the paper shifting and just, you know, filling the boxes. Accountant knows much more value generating.

00:21:34:15 - 00:21:58:05
Elena Meskhi
When to invest, how to invest, when to make the right financial decision. And this is what the accountants should be used for, not for filling, filling the boxes and filling the tax return. We have the operators who do that. And the accountant is actually the person who will take the financial statements of the company and we go through the variances. As the compulsory meeting,

00:21:58:06 - 00:22:40:14
Elena Meskhi
we insist all our business owners have when we actually having the conversation and like going through the figures, you have spent more or less this time. Have you noticed that when you spend less on the marketing, your turnover shrinks? Yes, it grows, but it doesn't grow as much when you spend more because there is a correlation. There is the actual, you know, scientifically proven and data proven with past experiences that the good businesses, they spend at least 10% on the marketing and that will enable them to grow with a turnover up to up to 50%.

00:22:40:22 - 00:23:04:00
Elena Meskhi
And the same as if their business growth goes in line with the inflation of the market the business operate. That business does not grow, that business stagnate, that business remains the same. It’s just the insignificant increase in the turnover and the.. some business owners, they will not understand the data. They would think, ‘Oh, my business has grown, 10%. It’s good.’

00:23:04:01 - 00:23:45:22
Elena Meskhi
No, it's bad. It's bad because it's not, it's not bigger than the inflation in the country. The average household basket in the UK has increased 50%. So if your business has not grown 50%, your business stagnated. So this is a very important information which the business owners need, needs to know and need to hear it out. So education, then when you choose the accountants, you want the accountants who actually help you to grow the business, who will talk through the data and yes, you mentioned not criticism to the profession, but I end up in the accountancy,

00:23:46:10 - 00:24:12:17
Elena Meskhi
I'm the foreigner. I came to the accountancy profession because I thought my English might not be that good. My understanding of the figures much better. So I definitely will find my way around. I like money and this is what led me to the accountancy profession, but I'm genuinely the human person. I like talking, so just presenting the accounts and please sign on the dotted line.

00:24:12:17 - 00:24:32:04
Elena Meskhi
It's not me. I like to go into the details. Like, have you noticed that when you're looking at this figure, when this change, this changes as well, and how is your bit - So the criticisms of the whole accountancy profession that the accountants, they, not all the accountants that like talking to people and they like going into, you know, additional training.

00:24:32:12 - 00:25:06:28
Elena Meskhi
And there is also another stigma to the profession that if I'm an accountant, I will share the information I understand from the financial statements and my client is going to be more educated. What if they will do it themselves? And why, why would they pay me for that? So it's kind of you don't want to spill your trading secrets and educate your clients because the client will go away and undo it themself, which we operate in completely different you know, in completely different concepts.

00:25:07:06 - 00:25:36:10
Elena Meskhi
We want our client to grow. They want, we want our client to be more busy, more successful so they don't have time doing their account. So they, they will come back to, to us and we do it for them. One of the cons of, we're starting to operate is one of the, you know, a pre, precluding when we've got them lead request or recommendation when the client will come with their request.

00:25:36:10 - 00:25:57:01
Elena Meskhi
I would like to pay less tax. I'm already very alerted because I want my client to pay more taxes because when they pay more taxes, when they have money to pay more taxes, it means they are profitable, they're successful, they earn more money. When the client come like, ‘oh, I don't want, I don't have money, I don't know how to pay tax.’

00:25:57:02 - 00:26:33:07
Elena Meskhi
This is already the negative mentality which will leave the business owner out of business, the same as with the crisis. When the businesses start, it’s crisis, we need to cut down. We need to let people go. As a strategy, I think it's the second point should be on the agenda. On cutting down the expenses. The point number one should be increase your marketing budget, find your competitive advantage and try advertise and get more business.

00:26:34:05 - 00:26:44:12
Elena Meskhi
Because if you start, you know, cutting here and cutting there, letting people out. That's already the game half lost. What do you think?

00:26:45:01 - 00:27:15:20
Matt Haycox
Well 100%, and you say two things there which are two, I guess regular sayings of mine, you know, one, one be that you know we should always be looking at - I'm not saying we should ignore the expenses. You know, every now and again, I'll do my best to sit down and cut some heads off and trim some costs. But, you know, as a business owner, you really want to be spending your focus on driving revenue because, you know, you can drive the revenue to infinity, but you can only cut the costs to zero.

00:27:16:10 - 00:27:49:19
Matt Haycox
And like I said, don't, you know, I don't want to use that as a, as a saying for people to be lazy because, you know, you do need to have a cost cut now and again. But my personal attitude kind of works in spits and starts. So it will be, you know drive, drive, drive for whatever three months, six months, nine months, during which time I'm perfectly happy to admit that some, that some costs are going to get a bit bloated during that time because I think, you know, I think it's very difficult, if not impossible, to have, to have a growth mindset and the contraction mindset at the same time.

00:27:49:19 - 00:28:03:13
Matt Haycox
So I, you know, that doesn't mean I want to be, I want to be stupid and totally waste money, but I accept that, you know, I'm going to waste a bit of money here and waste a bit of money there. But I'm growing, growing and growing. And then we take a break and then we cut, cut, cut and go again.

00:28:04:04 - 00:28:15:27
Matt Haycox
That's, that's one thing and I forgot what the other thing is, because I just thought, I’ve been talking about that and I can’t remember, you said two things. Probably

00:28:16:00 - 00:28:21:17
Elena Meskhi
it was about accountants who do not like, share their experience and educates their business owner?

00:28:22:05 - 00:28:47:02
Matt Haycox
No, it was, it was literally, in the last, the last sentence or two, you said two things. And I thought, ah they’re both, both things that I swear by. And anyway, I’ll have to go back and watch this afterwards and tweet about it instead. Listen, question for you, because I mean, obviously talking to you is a breath of fresh air for me as a business owner.

00:28:47:03 - 00:29:21:09
Matt Haycox
You know, talking to an accountant with, with, with this kind of mentality, this kind of attitude. But I know you were telling me before we came on that you've got 15 staff or something in your business. Tell me, how do you recruit and how do you scale your business? Because I would imagine it's very difficult to go and find, you know, little carbon copies of you and that once, once you take people on, you're going to have to you're going to have to train them in a very specific way to I guess, to replicate your, your ethos.

00:29:21:09 - 00:29:32:12
Matt Haycox
And it must make it very difficult for you to scale this business. But I'm very interested in what kind of people you try and recruit and then how you train them when you take them on.

00:29:32:12 - 00:30:07:16
Elena Meskhi
That's a very good question. I think any business owner who tried to deliver the level and passion of service, they, they deliver, everyone would find this question relevant. I came to the conclusion on this topic that you have to create the system and then you make system work. So, and don't employ yourself as a quality controller. Because if you, in the attempt of controlling quality, putting yourself in charge of that, that's the road to downhill to the burnout.

00:30:07:29 - 00:30:38:05
Elena Meskhi
So think how you want the client journey, the work journey, implement the whole system and then find the person. We recruit on different - we only recruit internally. We do not use the agencies. I burnt my fingers, so I prefer to speak with any potential recruit in our company, at least, at least a couple of times. And this is a very well known model.

00:30:38:12 - 00:31:09:18
Elena Meskhi
Hire slow, fire fast. So this is exactly what I'm standing by. It takes time to find the right candidate, but we, we try our best and then, and then you replicate. And another trick would be, once a hired candidate has proven themselves to be a very good candidate and fitting in the role and doing the job brilliantly, stop there and let them do the job.

00:31:09:27 - 00:31:33:25
Elena Meskhi
Don't get too excited that this is such a brilliant employee. Such a brilliant opportunity will give him more work. We will expand his responsibilities. We will give him something else to do because we need, because we shot on another project and they clearly can do it. Don't do it. This is, this is another road to the burnout.

00:31:34:02 - 00:32:00:19
Elena Meskhi
But the actual recruit because people enjoying the work and hear more work landed on their head, which is not on the job description. They could be very loyal, but they will reach to the point when they will burn out and leave. So stick to the job responsibility. Have regular talks with them and if they happy, if they see themselves progressing in any other direction, then facilitate it.

00:32:00:19 - 00:32:25:14
Elena Meskhi
If they happy where they are, even if they want to go like in the smaller steps, adapt to it. Because not all the employees in your team or not all your members of your team, they will have the speed as fast as a business owner. And when the business owner is thinking globally like we're going on this market, we're going on that market, we're hiring ten more people and we’re spreading and we have a new project.

00:32:26:17 - 00:32:36:26
Elena Meskhi
People in the team, they, they, they getting, they taken it slowly, so don't shock them too much. Otherwise that will, can end up in the crisis.

00:32:37:16 - 00:33:09:07
Matt Haycox
Yeah. Two interesting things you say there, and I'm going to be very careful saying two interesting things you say there because I'm going to go to the end of the first one and I've forgotten the second one again. But no, I mean, I think, you know, I often make the mistake of, of thinking everybody is like me, you know, And when, you talk about going off in different directions and, and doing this and doing the other and then I get disappointed that, you know, that there's only one person out of 100 people who have been able to come along with me.

00:33:10:04 - 00:33:30:17
Matt Haycox
So I think that's, that's something I've been, I've been trying to get better at over the, over the last months and years of not being, you know, not being over critical of people who, who are great in their lane, but, you know, aren't necessarily any good in my lane. And I've got to accept them and applaud them for what they are.

00:33:30:24 - 00:33:52:15
Matt Haycox
And the other thing I was thinking about earlier, it just reminded me of something, something as a kid that I always used to hear my dad say, my dad was a - owned a business, you know, I guess I kind of grew up in a, in a reasonably entrepreneurial family, but my dad used to have this expression, which was, ‘we promote people to the level of incompetence.’

00:33:53:25 - 00:34:23:17
Matt Haycox
And it was, it just kind of gave me some childhood memories when you were talking about, you know, when you find somebody good and they get good, keep them there and don’t start throwing more things on. And I just go back to that expression and I think, you know, I guess what I've done in my career or what I watch other people, other people do in their businesses and, you know, unless we’re very careful, it is what we do you know. Somebody is good so we make them, we move them up the ladder and then we make them a manager, then we make them a this, then we make them of that and

00:34:23:17 - 00:34:41:18
Matt Haycox
then they’re shit at it. And we get pissed off and we fire them. And we've lost, we've lost that good person because they weren't ready to be on, on ladder number eight. But they were amazing on ladder number seven and now we don't have them on ladder number seven. We've, we've fired them and we've fucked ourselves, you know.

00:34:41:18 - 00:35:09:20
Matt Haycox
So it's an interesting thing to, to always be conscious of. I mean tell me, question for you, let's assume you're a business owner, not you, but let's assume one is a business owner who has, has got a reasonable degree of understanding of accounts. You know, not one of these business owners who has just deferred to having any knowledge or responsibility whatsoever, but they've got a reasonable understanding of accounts and they are going to they're going to go to hire a new accountancy practice.

00:35:09:20 - 00:35:33:04
Matt Haycox
Someone like yourselves. What do you think the top two or three questions they should be asking that accountant are and what kind of answers and what kind of warning signals should they be looking out for? You told me you don't like it when a client asks you how they can pay less tax. You know, what... What, what, what, what should a client be asking their accountants and what should they be getting worried if they, if the responses are?

00:35:34:29 - 00:36:01:25
Elena Meskhi
That's a very good question. For the client to, what questions they will, they would ask. I think that overall, the accountant should be talkative. So when you get to speak with your accountant and when you have the first call, make sure that this is the person who actually elaborate, who explains, who shares the, the kitchen behind what they doing.

00:36:01:25 - 00:36:29:12
Elena Meskhi
Ask the questions, not just taking the notes and keeping silent. But you want to have that connection with an accountant who will ask additional questions. Who will elaborate on those questions and, and explaining to you why they ask that question, not just because I'm making a note and I'm very thorough, but you want to see that eagerness of communication because this is how your relation should is going to go.

00:36:29:18 - 00:37:01:21
Elena Meskhi
You will tell the accountant the question you want to hear the answer, you want to hear the feedback the second, second thing, I would be alerted as a client when I ask, when I ask accountant the question, like the burning question I have, I want to hear the response. I don't want to hear, I need to go and back and think and my consultation time is blah per hour plus VAT

00:37:01:21 - 00:37:25:13
Elena Meskhi
And we going through the process.. and it's like, I have asked you the question. Do I do this or do I don't do this? And I do understand all this disclaimer behind it and that we have an informal conversation/interview, whether we are good feet or not. But the accountant should have the solid understanding for what you're hiring them for.

00:37:25:23 - 00:37:48:18
Elena Meskhi
So it's.. you... you coming to them and they as a professional, they should be able to reply to you. Yes, there might be the particulars, the nitty gritty which the accountant would go and check and come back to you. But the overall, you should be able to receive like 75 80% of the answer of what have you asked, on the spot.

00:37:48:25 - 00:38:16:17
Elena Meskhi
And this is a good criteria to understand, if your work together, will you be able to work together or not? And the last one, but not the least, is you actually have to like the person you talk to because if you don't like the person, you would not be, you know, you would not be keen picking up the phone and talk to that person, and don't think that you hiring the accountant only to speak with them once a year.

00:38:16:17 - 00:38:48:04
Elena Meskhi
You should be speaking with your accountant at least once a month and checking on different data and asking the questions. And the accountants, they are very good. They should be very good piece of information for the networking. Whatever you need, whether you need to have an insurance quote, whether you need to find the solicitor or the accountant, anyone, the banker, any recommendation to do with your finances, accountant should be the first person on your list

00:38:48:04 - 00:39:10:26
Elena Meskhi
you call. You call your accountant and you check with them. Do you know how to do this? Do you know if I need that? And the accountant should be able... if we talk an accountant working with the general public, with the business owners, they should have enough knowledge to share with you. Whether it is business rates, whether you purchase the property, you sell in the shares, you invest in money.

00:39:11:04 - 00:39:19:11
Elena Meskhi
So there should be bits and pieces of information. The accountant would be able to share with you. So I think these are the most important things.

00:39:20:12 - 00:39:39:00
Matt Haycox
Very, very good, very interesting. I mean, like I say, I didn't know what to expect of the answer. I think what I, what I like is it’s all is all very commercial points, you know, not not, not, not let’s say boring, granular number questions but, you know, because I guess that goes with, that goes with the territory.

00:39:39:00 - 00:39:58:14
Matt Haycox
You know, we've got to expect those bits are correct. So we need to find out they’re correct. But, you know, it’s all the value adds everything on top that... that’s what the, what makes a difference between a good and a bad relationship and success and failure. Tell me about your book, because I know I mean, I know you’ve got a book.

00:39:58:14 - 00:40:06:00
Matt Haycox
I know you mentioned it earlier, earlier in this podcast. What's, what's it called? What's it about? Where can we get it? Oh, you got a different colour

00:40:06:00 - 00:40:41:22
Elena Meskhi
hair there. Yes, it was pre-COVID. Now, it's like, you know. So the book called Rewire Your Business for Success, The six step method to Increase Profits and Reclaim Your Freedom for the business owners. It is the, you know, scratch on the surface what business owners would be good to look at in their financial statements how to pay attention, how to prioritize their own, their own financial freedom.

00:40:42:06 - 00:41:22:09
Elena Meskhi
And one of the key concepts of the book is pay yourself first, Because I'm a very strong believer as a business owner, you have to put yourself in the middle of the game, prioritize your needs, make sure that your financial needs are met by your business, and then follow up everyone else. And we do introduce this concept to all our business owners and they find it's a revolution, revolutionizing method when they starting prioritize themselves and their finances.

00:41:22:09 - 00:41:49:15
Elena Meskhi
This is when everything starts to fall into place. They suddenly have more happiness. They suddenly, surprise, surprise, because they've got money. They don't have to, you know, live on peanuts and worrying how to make the ends meet. So as soon as they starting to get what they need from the business, which is the, the profits, the money, they require, everything else starts to fall.

00:41:49:15 - 00:42:25:21
Elena Meskhi
They no longer on the burnout. They can prioritize the task. They starting thinking more about - I do what's important and urgent. I do what's important rather than I do the paper shifting, admin shifting. And you know the rest of the stuff. The book is available on, on Amazon. And as a part of the book, we have the, we have developed their scorecard to assess where your business at right now.

00:42:25:21 - 00:42:47:25
Elena Meskhi
Once you go through the 24 questions, it will give you their assessment of the business where you are and what areas are required to be pay attention more details. And then as a bonus, once you go through the test, you can get to the link to the PDF version of the book. So this is the way to get the book free of charge.

00:42:48:11 - 00:43:07:28
Elena Meskhi
A small piece of, of literature. It's an easy read. I definitely recommend for the business owners if they bother about their self-education in the financial world in relation to their business, have a copy of it.

00:43:08:21 - 00:43:30:05
Matt Haycox
Perfect, well I will look forward to sticking it on my very empty bookshelf behind me, behind me as well. So listen, Elena, it's been fantastic talking to you. I like that you're genuinely, genuinely been a breath of fresh air. An interesting conversation for me and you guys listening to this and watching this. You know, you really want to go back and watch this twice for me, really

00:43:30:05 - 00:43:49:14
Matt Haycox
because, you know, I can’t overstress how serious these points are. But, you know, you've heard me talk about it time and time again as a business owner. But to hear an accountant talk about it from a business owners perspective as well, you know, really does hammer home how important it is. So, Elena, obviously, we know where to get your book now.

00:43:49:14 - 00:43:59:21
Matt Haycox
But just before you go, where can people find you if they want to get in touch. Are you on social media? Can they find your accountancy practice? Can we get you on LinkedIn?

00:43:59:21 - 00:44:35:25
Elena Meskhi
I am on LinkedIn. Elena Meskhi, I have very unusual surname, M E S K H I. I'm on LinkedIn, on Insta profile and I'm doing regular YouTube videos and all sorts of accountancy tips. I am of the profession that I'm sharing, I'm bringing it to the audience. I'm not hiding it. I'm giving all the tips straight away. Whatever it is, even by listening to the real and we try to make to do it very entertaining as well.

00:44:35:25 - 00:44:59:28
Elena Meskhi
So just by, you know, tuning on our channels and follow us, you would already have more knowledge about the financial industry and about how to run your business, what to use, and even, you know, challenge your own accountant. I mean, we also have a capacity, but you don't need to be a client of ours, enjoying the benefits we generate.

00:45:00:08 - 00:45:25:17
Elena Meskhi
So sign up to our newsletter, follow up, ask questions. We're very open, we're very approachable. We're very keen to communicate with people. As I said, I like talking to people, so I would be very keen for any interested parties who would like know more about their business. Perfect. Matt, thank you very much for the podcast. You're doing a great job.

00:45:25:29 - 00:45:42:10
Elena Meskhi
I'm delighted. I'm flattered that I have been your guest. You're doing amazing many, many years to you and I wish whenever you have time, let's meet up for the real.

00:45:42:10 - 00:46:05:02
Matt Haycox
I would love to. I will do that in London for sure. Listen, guys, thank you very much for listening. As always. I am TheMattHaycox, that’s T H E M A T T H A Y C O X on all things social. If you've been listening to this on iTunes, on Spotify or wherever you listen to a podcast, you can jump over to YouTube and see the version with my pretty face.

00:46:05:13 - 00:46:22:02
Matt Haycox
And if you don't mind my pretty face and you've been watching it on YouTube, you can go on here on iTunes or Spotify, on iHeartRadio, on all of those many, many podcast channels. But thanks a lot. Again, thanks a lot for being here and I will look forward to speaking to everybody in a future episode of TheMattHaycoxShow, thank you very much.

00:46:23:11 - 00:49:55:19
Speaker 1
Thank you.