Accounting Firm Tips

Lesson Five: Where to Find Leads Part 1

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 5 minutes

Finding leads as an accountant can be challenging. So in this three-part series, we’re going to cover 3 different sources of finding leads… offline events, paid marketing, and partnerships.

In this post, we’re going to outline offline events and groups that can be a great resource for leads, although be sure to NOT go in thinking “me me me”, instead, always think of how to add value to the members, and referrals and leads will follow. Do not be in a rush, or seem desperate to get leads or referrals, and these groups could be a great resource for creating long lasting friends, colleagues, and partners.

Networking & Local Groups:

Chamber of Commerce Groups: Joining a local chamber can be a great, inexpensive way to start networking with businesses in your area. Remember, each group, in each area or state, is different. I recommend at least test driving a local chamber group since the majority of local business owners will belong to it anyways.
BNI: BNI has become the go-to “referral” networking event, as it is the largest group in the world. Each location reserves a limited number of seats, and they are careful not to bring in any competing businesses. This group is focused on referrals, but also has an educational piece as well.
LeTip: Much like BNI (although slightly smaller), LeTip is focused on networking with the purpose of building referrals. As with any group, I recommend trying out as many as you can to find the best fit.
Association Groups: Batched together as “association groups”, any local chapter within your industry or market would fall in here. Most notable would include the number of QB Pro Advisor chapters and groups throughout the country.
Marketing Knowledge groups: In each major city, there is often a marketing group (in Pittsburgh, the main one is the “NO BS Marketing Meeting”. It’s a fantastic place to learn the nuts and bolts of marketing while building your network!
Local Merchant Associations: Associations like “Young Professionals” is also a great way to network and meet fellow colleagues, professionals, and of course, business owners.
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE): TiE is a global network focused on tech entrepreneurs, and if this is your target market, then it will surely be a great fit! You can even offer to be on a panel around managing finances as a startup, managing cash flow, key financial metrics, and more.
Meetup Groups: Meetup.com has become the go-to online hub to find offline meet ups. They can range from pottery groups, to personal development, and of course… networking and referral. I highly recommended going to meetup.com to learn about some of the events your area.
Optimists International: Optimists International is a great group of professional service-oriented professionals. Unlike the other groups, the optimists focus on entire communities and giving back…so this one is a “2-1″… feel good and network at the same time!
Toastmasters: Toastmasters is an organization that has the goal to help individuals become better public speakers. Aside from having a great community and great forum to participate, it’s also a wonderful networking opportunity.
Women in Business Networking: If this applies to you, then women in business networking is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals and help each other grow your business.
Rotary Groups: Rotary groups in your local area is another group to search and “test drive” to see if it is a good fit for your personality and practice.
Creating a local mastermind group: This is the most “hands-on” approach to building a networking, by bringing together 4-6 individuals with the goal to meet and help grow each other’s businesses. Unlike other groups, this is meant to be small, highly selective, and requires a deep interest in working with this group so that everyone’s business or practice will grow.
Vistage: Vistage is for executives who are looking to invest in ongoing professional development. Vistage selects speakers to come and present to the group. This is by far the most expensive group, but comes with a focus on professional development from top speakers.

Industry Conferences:

Industry conferences are a must for professional development, but we would actually rank them secondary in terms of getting leads. Typically at industry conferences, the goal is to educate yourself on the latest development, and network with peers.

However, it is listed here because it’s one of the most common, offline networking that is done. However, we do not recommend attending industry events as a “lead” generation or referral network. Sure, leads can come from here, but more likely partnerships (covered in part 3), and is typically not a primary source for getting offline leads.

Target Market Conferences and Associates:

This is a huge growth area for many firm owners, and that is to attend or try out conferences and associations for your target market. If you want to learn how to become an expert in the niche, and enjoy very little in person competition, then this is the way to go. I recommend doing an online search for both local and national events and associations.

*Bonus: Email lists for target market:

Finally, as a bonus, I highly recommend signing up for as many newsletters that target your market as possible. If you need to, create a separate email address just for this purpose. You can gather information about your market, as well as get notifications about upcoming events. I highly (highly, highly) recommend signing up for common email lists that your market subscribes too.
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Accounting Technology

Improve Office Morale with Tax Workflow Software

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 4 minutes

There are many times that office memos and other types of communication can become lost within the intra-office system of e-mails and notes that don’t get opened or are misunderstood.

Good communication is especially important during the busy tax season for accounting firms and tax workflow software can promote efficiency and improve communication to help make communication happen with better precision and a lot less misunderstanding. Never again will your words or the notes of other accountants become lost in the mass of memos that accumulates in your inbox.

The Importance of Good Communication
When you send a memo through your regular e-mail system at work, it’s often difficult to track and to talk to specific people one on one after the memo is distributed. The accountants in your firm may need to know things about certain clients or changes in office procedure.

Tax workflow software allows you to add notes to client files that everyone can see prior to dealing with said client. If you have high profile accounts during tax season, everyone in your firm will be able to assist efficiently.

Check your accountants’ work using your software and ensure that reminders are met promptly and all clients’ needs are met to their specifications.

Communicating well allows an open forum where accountants can talk to you and each other about client issues or technical help needed to use the tax workflow software during the busiest time of year.

When there are no snags in the system, everything within your accounting firm runs more efficiently, making both clients and employees feel good about how things happen and the progress they achieve.

Training Employees On New Software

You can use good communication skills to help ensure that the accountants in your firm learn the tax workflow software that you install. Without proper training, your new tax workflow software won’t work well or solve any efficiency or communication issues within your firm. Make sure that your accountants know how to use the different functions and provide the technical help they’ll need after initial release of the software.

Hold a seminar to teach the most amount of people at once and allow employees to ask questions about what they learned and how to use the new software.

Instill an open door policy for technological help during the transition period to use new software most efficiently. Provide one on one help that gives everyone the chance to succeed.

Give your most trusted long time clients top priority and ask them how they’re enjoying the way things work in your new system. Give them surveys or questionnaires if they’re agreeable that will track their satisfaction and let you know of any improvements that could be made.

Reward employees for communicating well and using the new system in the way it’s meant to be used. Give them reasons to want to communicate with you, your clients, and each other.

When several new clients come in and business is flourishing, good communication is key to making sure things run as efficiently as you hope they will. Allowing your clients as well as the accountants in your firm to communicate with you openly, you give them a platform to relieve stress constructively and this promotes good morale within the office. Communicating well with clients in a period of transition is just as important as communicating with your employees. Without them, your business wouldn’t run at all.

Follow Through

During the busy tax season, it may not seem ideal to introduce new tax workflow software but that’s exactly when the time is right. Introducing a more efficient way to go about managing clients and communicating with them and each other can cut through the chaos of a very busy time during the year.

Tax workflow software gives you the platform to make communication easier and the opportunity to improve morale in the office and with your clients, which makes that busiest time of the year a lot less stressful. Learn about your options and which functions within your new tax workflow software will work best for your firm.

Accounting Firm Tips

The 5 Elements that Make Accounting Websites Convert Leads

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 5 minutes

It’s a given that your website is the new “main street” for prospects finding out about your firm or practice. Which is why it is crucial to create a website that is built to convert visitors into prospects….instead of being a pretty wallflower that sucks money out of your pocket each month.

With that in mind, let’s review the critical elements that make up an ROI driven website

Element 1: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) is how easily search engines can find your website.

There are two buckets SEO falls under: On page (everything on the website) and Off page (other websites/links that point towards yours). Since off page is a lot more controversial, we’ll stay with a focus on “on page” SEO. Here are the elements you need keep in mind:

1. Title Tag: The title tag is the “main” title for your website. You can find yours by hovering over your open tab, or you can view anyone’s title tag by doing a search (see below)

2. Keywords: Much like your title tag, each page should have a focused keyword. I recommend just one keyword per page. So, for example, I’d have a page for “Pittsburgh Accountant”, another one for “Pittsburgh Payroll”, and another one for “Pittsburgh Tax Planning”, and so one. Each title tag would have the phrase, and the actually content on the page would have the keyword inside (typically 3-5 times, no need to overdo it by jamming the keyword 100 times on a page. Google will actually penalize pages that are overtly trying to game their algorithm.)

3. Speed: Google loves fast websites… therefore, it’s critical to keep your site up to speed. Here’s a great site to check your website speed: http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/

4. Local Search: We mentioned this as a “marketing must have” in a previous post, so I won’t dive into too much detail. But essentially, you need to get your business set up on Google places ASAP. It takes a few minutes, and dramatically increases your rankings for Google. I recommend doing the same for Yahoo/Bing Places, Yelp, and even your local chamber page.

5. New content: Web engines also favor sites that continue to create content… after all they’re in the business of indexing content! The search engine should index the site while it is being maintained, and with new content, be sure to share it on social media channels (if for nothing else than to help your SEO. “Social shares” or “signals”, as they call it, is a growing factor in search rankings.)

Element 2: Headline

As soon as someone lands on your website, this is the first thing they see… the headline.

You might not even “have” a headline, which means they skim the site quickly and then bounce.

Your website, and the internet, works similar to someone skimming a newspaper or magazine. They look for headlines that tell them if the content is relatable to them. If not, on to the next article (or in this case… website!)

This is why a headline is critically important. We covered messaging earlier in the course, so if you skipped it, now is the time to review. You want a clear headline that tells the benefit of doing business with you, and the type of client you serve. The more specific, the better.

Element 3: Testimonials

Nothing builds trust faster than third party endorsement, and when you think about it… it makes complete sense. Prospects expect for you to say great things about your firm…but testimonials are more trustworthy because you’re not saying them!

Think back to last time someone recommended something to you… how much weight did it carry?

Compare that to a company or practice that touts themselves as the “best” hardly lands on the ears on the prospects.

Be sure to place testimonials on every single page. Ask your clients for them, and don’t be shy! If you do great work, they’ll be happy to send over a few lines about how much they appreciate working with you.

Element 4: A Reason to Act

This part is critical to turning a money sucking website into an ROI-driven website. This is called a “reason to act”. Other circles will call this a “call to action”. Essentially, this is the exact instruction, clearly labeled, of what you want the visitor to do next. For example, at the bottom of this post is a “call to action” to join our VIP email list. This helps us increase our email sign ups, and gives us the opportunity to build a relationship with our visitors. A “call to action” can come in a few forms, and here are the most common:

Contact form
Email opt-in (email list, white paper, case study, etc)
A specific page you want new visitors to go to

Element 5: Above the fold action

The “above the fold” refers to everything you see on a website, as soon as you land on the homepage, without scrolling down. The majority of your visitors will never scroll down below this section, so it’s critical to catch their attention and provide something valuable to them!

For example, on the how main homepage, our above the fold has a single call to action “Click Here to Start a Free Trial” (see below). On your website, it might be “Learn More About Our Services”, “Request a Free Review of Your Books”, or “Download 5 Financial Mistakes Small Biz Owners Make” ebook.

Summary:

So if you find yourself “lost” in all the marketing noise and how to setup your website, remember these five elements:
1. Optimize for SEO
2. Create your attention grabbing headline
3. Add testimonials
4. Create a “reason to act”
5. Remember to focus on “above the fold”

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Podcast

How To Be an Entrepreneurial Accountant with Adrian Simmons

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 6 minutes

This week, we’re excited to have Adrian Simmons on the show. Adrian is the Chief Creative Designer at David G Simmons CPA, Practicing Fellow at VeraSage, and Director of the Lab at Thriveal Laboratory. He prides himself on being an entrepreneurial accountant.

And you can tell with everything he’s involved in!

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Adrian Simmons cover:

1. How to create a client onboarding that positions you as an advisor
2. The psychological shift needed to prepare for the future of accounting
3. The importance of taking breaks (and how to take them, even in tax season)!
4. How to be an entrepreneurial accountant

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Links From the Show:
Thriveal Network
Adrian on Linkedin

You Aren’t A Machine:

Adrian Simmons has a laundry list of tasks to take care of. He’s the director of lab at Thriveal, Practicing Fellow at VeraSage, and Chief Creative Designer at his father’s firm, David Simmons CPA (now Elements CPA).

Adrian prides his firm because he likes to think they are a modern accounting business infused with industrial age thinking. Adrian sees too many accounting firms operating as if their firm is a machine. During tax season, you don’t leave your desk, and don’t even think about taking time off. Humans are not the same as machines. We operate at full capacity when we have time to disconnect.

Adrian, for example, takes Thursday mornings off to go to the pool, exercise, relax and think. Even entrepreneurial accountants take breaks! Running a successful CPA firm requires long-term commitment. That means having a system in place that both gets the work done more efficiently and allows your team to rest.
Adrian warns: You must protect this time-off slot. Don’t allow it to become a ‘flex’ schedule spot where other work-related pieces can creep in.

The Economy Is Shifting…:

Having a system is as important as ever. The economy is shifting…industries are going back to the drawing board. The value propositions that worked in the past are decaying.
In accounting, you used to value your services as ‘tax return preparer.’ Not anymore. Today, accountants need to evolve their value proposition. Adrian’s other project, Thriveal, is meant to bring smart CPAs together to innovate the value proposition of firms. Thriveal is meant to accelerate today’s innovations and discover tomorrow’s. Adrian joined because he was looking for other accountants who realized the profession needs innovation. He needed people to bounce ideas around with and test out new methodologies. VeraSage, Adrian’s third project, brings together a think tank of top accounting minds, like Ron Baker and Jason Blumer, and develops new ideas to change one firm at a time.
For many firms, this is a psychological shift. After all, CPAs are still needed and do work that is required by law. Still, your position isn’t necessarily secure because business owners need more from you now.

The Entrepreneurial Accountant:

An entrepreneurial accountant doesn’t sit back on their laurels during this imperative time. Entrepreneurs use creativity and experimental skills to imagine new products & services.

See, tax returns you can’t really experiment with new ideas as they must be prepared a certain way. However, the systems and technologies behind the actual preparation can be mended.

Adrian’s firm is in development for two different products/services. One product designs financial statements around the actual business model thus the owner can understand better their statements. They then rearrange the chart of accounts and P&L so the owner is reading in language they understand and can make informed decisions. This is a piece missing from many financial statements firm’s prepare. They do the same prep process for every business and the small business owner has zero idea what to do with the statements.
In this instance, they took a “value approach.” Adrian and his team asked “Why make business owners accountants? Let’s adapt to them!” That’s a more intuitive way to work with your clients. Plus, it’s how they are rotating their value proposition away from simply being ‘tax return CPAs.’

How To Become An Entrepreneurial Accountant:

Many believe you are “born” an entrepreneur. Not necessarily true. Anyone can come up with a hypothesis and test out a new idea. That doesn’t take magic to do. Adrian recommends starting there.

Are there problems in your process that need innovation?

What do your clients worry about?

Once you’ve collected this data, brainstorm solutions whether it’s a new technology or methodology.

This is the approach Adrian and his firm took when they decided to rebrand. Adrian joined his father’s firm in 2002. His dad started David Simmons CPA in 1976. In the past years,

Adrian brainstormed “where is the firm going? What do we want to be known for? What’s the future?” This shaped the name and messaging for the “WHY?” of their firm.

When you think of the “WHY?”, your messaging and value proposition becomes ultra-clear.
They came up with their new name, “Elements CPA”, with the focus on “financial design.” This is based on their product of designing financials around each specific business so owners can make the right decisions.

They started with a hypothesis, tested the idea, solicited feedback, gathered results and innovated. That’s all it takes to become an entrepreneurial accountant.
The key point (and this comes full circle), you must do one thing at a time and not over-exert yourself. Focus on one thing at a time and pour energy into things you want to see grow. You’re not a machine. Don’t underestimate how much time it takes to innovate a new product/service. That’s why Adrian only recommends one thing at a time. It most likely will take 6-18 months for something new to take flight.

Of course, the problem accountants run into is time management. Short-term goals typically overrun long-term plans. You must set time aside each week to get things done. Adrian puts Friday down as his “entrepreneurial day”. If you stick to it, you should see results within the year. Adrian recommends talking with a business coach to keep you accountable while also being aware of cognitive dissonance. Most likely, things will come up that will pull you away from your innovations. Remain focused!

DAVID’S TIP: There’s massive value in accountability. It’s different when you ‘say’ you will do something. Much different when you have someone lightening a fire under you. After all, you will always have stuff fighting for your attention.

Adrian recommends getting started today with your first ideas that have bounced around. Plus, become a Lab Partner so you have a community of like-minded professionals who want to help you.

WHAT INNOVATIONS ARE YOU WORKING ON?

Accounting Technology

Use Accounting Practice Software to Encourage Better Efficiency

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 4 minutes

Accounting is all about efficiency and you need every accountant who works for you to be the best they can, so all of your clients are happy and satisfied. Accounting practice software can create a workplace that flows smoothly, giving everyone the tools they need for increased efficiency. You’ll be able to implement a system and train your accountants easily by walking them through the software and showing them how it works.

Deciding to Get Software Help

How do you know that your office really needs accounting practice software to encourage efficiency? If your asking yourself this question, you probably need help of some sort and there are some simple points to consider when deciding if that help should come from software.

The easiest answer will come from your financial reports. If there are discrepancies or you can see that entries are often made late, this could be caused by common human error and may be helped by software.

Talk to your clients and look at calendars to see if there are frequently double booked or missed appointments. Most software that promotes efficiency includes alerts and tracking to keep these things from happening.

Check notes included with repeat and longtime clients. If there are several accountants on one large account, features in most software will allow all the notes from the different accountants to appear in one place.

Implementing a New System

When you do decide to move to a more efficient system using accounting practice software, you’ll need to acclimate your accountants to the new way of the office. This requires training and possibly some extra technical help after an initial adaptation period.

Hold a seminar to show all of the features of your new software so that a large group can view the system as a whole as well as point-by-point analysis of how it all works.

Follow through with additional training and let accountants come to you with questions about the way things work with the new software. Not everyone learns at the same pace and in order for things to really work, you need for everyone to understand how it does.

Keep track of the way your accountants use the software by checking their work. Provide surveys or conduct progress reports to ensure that the efficiency you hoped for is really being achieved.

Use a test group before letting everyone use the software. Bring together a small group to try it out before you decide to implement the system throughout the entire office and use the results from that group to see any snags in the system before they come up.

Customer Satisfaction

Greater efficiency won’t only show in your numbers and the reports you get from each of your accountants. You’ll also see more customer satisfaction, which means client retention and good testimonials that help bring in new business. Talk to your accountants and your clients about how they like the way things work after implementing new software.

Use questionnaires with your most important clients to see if they are pleased with your accountants’ performances presently and before the change over.

Encourage open dialogue between clients, accountants, and yourself. Hold meetings or scheduled team conferences to talk about any issues the accounting practice software may be causing.

Present constructive solutions to any problems that arise so you can continue using your new software effectively.
Make sure your solutions are used to solve the problems that arise and encourage accountants and clients to present other solutions that may work better for them.

Follow Through
Once everyone has gotten used to using the accounting practice software you’ve chosen, follow up every month or quarter to make sure things continue to work as you want them to. Many programs include management areas within the software that will allow you to send reminders and calendar alerts to ensure your customers’ needs are met and your accountants are utilizing every part of the software you’ve implemented. JetPack Workflow includes all of the features you need for these assurances. Find out more about how you can utilize this software for your accounting practice today!

Podcast

How To Create a Sellable Accounting Firm: The Sandi Holst Interview

By jetpack workflow | Updated on Dec 21, 2023 | 7 minutes

We are excited to release our interview with Sandi Holst, the President of Fiscal Integrity Group. In this interview, we dive into how to gain clients rapidly through referrals and how to create an instant “WOW” factor that allows you to create a sellable accounting firm.

In this interview, we chat with Sandi Holst on
+ How she used the “accounting firm model” to build and create a sellable accounting firm scalable (and sellable) business
+ How she created instant “WOW” Factors for her clients and referral partners
+ Her approach to building referrals
+ and much, much more!
Click Below To Listen

Links from the show:
http://www.holstequation.com/ (previous business)
http://fiscalintegritygroup.com/ (current business)
Sandi on LinkedIn : ca.linkedin.com/pub/sandi-holst/4/913/470

Key Summary

There is a question that tends to be avoided by most CPA firms owners, though, with the right answer, it could propel you into building the firm of your dreams. So what’s the question exactly?

Is your firm sellable?

This topic is the focus of today’s podcast. We’ll be hearing Sandi Holst’s advice on how to determine if your firm is actually sellable.

Plus, if you reach the conclusion that your firm is not sellable, Sandi provides you with the knowledge as to how can you start adopting the mindset that one day you might sell it (even if you don’t… you’ll be a lot happier and calmer when heading out to your next vacation).

As always, before we get into the technical, juicy parts, let’s dive into Sandi Holst’s background where we discover how she established, grew, and then sold her own bookkeeping firm using the power of referrals and how she “WOWed” her clients.

Let’s do this.

The Background: Holst Equation Bookkeeping Firm

Sandi was motivated to start her previous firm, Holst Equation, over a decade ago. Competition for good, available jobs was fierce in a weaker economic environment at that time.
Realizing her value and potential as a tenured bookkeeper, Sandi decided not to compete for just another freelance bookkeeping role.

Instead, Sandi differentiated herself by starting her own freelance bookkeeping firm, employing staff and growing it to scale in hopes to sell it eventually.

Start With The Mindset of Selling Your Firm…Then Work Backwards To Build It

Sandi believes that when starting a business, it is important to think early in the process about selling the business down the road.

Her mission was to run Fiscal Integrity Group, or “FIG”, like an accounting firm. So she structured the team led by bookkeepers and supported by staff responsible for data entry.

Then Sandi leveraged her years of experience working as a freelancer at other firms to apply her knowledge and know-how toward developing her own firm.

“One great thing in bookkeeping is when you are a bookkeeper for multiple clients, you get to see the good and the bad, how owners operate, and you take the good little pieces of the good as you go along and you build them into your system.”

Before embarking on her business, Sandi wanted to be comfortable that her skills were solid enough and agreeable to her future accountant clients. Also, she wanted to set up her own systems and establish quality control measures before she brought on additional staff.

Not being a certified accountant, Sandi realized her value-add was to create alliances with her accounting clients.

“I consciously said to accountants out there, I will not step on your toes on what you do as a service and I know you don’t want do what I do, so how about we have an alliance, and that has worked so well for many, many reasons.”

Her clients did not have the time or the desire to do their own bookkeeping so they outsourced to Sandi. In return, they received quality service and a letter of guarantee from Sandi promising that she would not poach any of their clients. She decided it was time to create a sellable accounting firm.

How To Build and Create A Sellable Accounting Firm: The WOW Factor

Sandi’s key marketing tool was her “WOW” factor to her clients. She aimed to ensure that her firm’s work was of quality and accurate.

Remember that the WOW factor is a tangible product.

Holst Equation’s WOW factor was delivered at year-end as a binder produced by Sandi her team. The binder includes all paperwork and background information on the work performed. There were no grammatical errors or spelling errors, and it showed all details.

The WOW factor was a professional product intended to impress the accountant client.

Sandi’s intention with her WOW factor was to earn trust from the client. Seeing her accurate work, the clients would continue to outsource their bookkeeping to Sandi and not to the competition.

Building Her Business – Finding Alliances

One of Sandi’s early business development steps was to join a local business-networking group. She joined a Business Networking Institute (BNI) chapter and gained a new client right away.

Their business relationship started off slowly as a test run, as a way to gauge the quality of her work. It was a success and she gained more business as a result. Over the next three years, her revenues grew.

“My first year I think my sale was $60,000 and then the second year sales went to $120,000 and then the third year sales went to it just under $200,000.”
According to Sandi, her business development steps are as follows:

Creating alliances
Developing a good rapport
Assuring that she would not take business away from her clients such as performing tax services

In Canada, where Sandi is located, bookkeeping is not regulated. Anyone can take a course, buy an accounting software program, and freelance. Sandi was able to capitalize on this phenomenon as she differentiated her company through the quality and accuracy of the work.

“There are some poor skills out in the field,” Sandi believes.

She advises to those who want to freelance to:

Have stellar skills that are above the regular standards
Provide an excellent product

…and “you will never ever have problem having referrals and finding clients.”

There is a huge value to being a bookkeeper. “You will always have a job and you will always have clients.”

Actually, up to 25% of Sandi’s revenues over the 11 years running Holst Equation consisted of cleaning up and catching up from previous bookkeepers’ work.

Turning a Bookkeeping Practice Into a Training Program

After Sandi sold her company, she dedicated her time to teaching bookkeeping courses.

She saw an opportunity to capitalize not only on improving the quality standards that were lacking in the industry, but also on the absence of real-world information taught in fundamental accounting courses at college.

Her teachings were focused on understanding real life situations, how to troubleshoot, and how to fix issues.

To anyone who wants to be a good freelancer, Sandi urges people to be strong in the ability to find issues and fix them.

“Then you become a true advisor…if you can uncover those things and fix them for the business owner who did not know about them in the first place.”

Sandi knows that her clients are too busy to do their own bookkeeping and so many want to only see the end results. But they should be in a position to make informed business decisions based on the information in their books.

Unfortunately, some accountants are not aware if their bookkeeper is doing accurate work, if their records are in good shape for a potential audit, or how strong their cash flow situation is.

That is why a solid, trustworthy bookkeeper is critical for success.

Sandi created her new company, Fiscal Integrity Group. The aim of FIG is to provide support and education materials to the freelance bookkeeping community.

“The whole idea of FIG is to increase and strengthen businesses,” says Sandi

As in the name, Fiscal Integrity Group, Sandi wanted to highlight fiscal responsibility and business integrity through accurate bookkeeping work.

Sandi is having a great time educating and supporting this freelance bookkeeping community. A stronger freelance bookkeeping community, in turn, will create better accounting businesses.

The Double Your Accounting Firm Book