Trent McLaren, senior business development manager at accounting titan Intuit, works closely with accounting firms especially when it comes to getting a buy-in to your ideas and new technology.

Trent stresses that “streamlining” and removing the redundant tasks allow you to save money hiring team members you don’t need. Plus, open the door for other profit arms to enter your firm.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Trent McLaren dive into:

• The importance of having the right tech set up in your firm
• How to think about innovation in your firm
• Steps to get your team to buy-in to your ideas and to new technology

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

• Trent McLaren
• Linkedin – Trent McLaren
• Twitter – Trent McLaren
• Facebook – Trent McLaren
• 5 Tools to Improve Your Accounting Firm
• Finding the Right Software for Accountants (interview)

Having the right tech in your firm:

Accounting gets a nasty reputation as being the “last” to pick up new technology. Many times, it is due to older partners who started the firm years back who don’t want to change up their old habits.

We’ve never seen as much new technology as we have since the turn of the century.

Trent McLaren, senior business development manager at Intuit, is in the trenches everyday with firms helping them adjust. Even Intuit has seen itself morph in the last decade to building a very robust cloud accounting program with dozens of apps.

“You should be looking ahead to the next 18 months and

what might change in the accounting world.”

– Trent McLaren

By 2025, Trent estimates that over 5,000,000 jobs will be replaced by tech.

Yes, taking the time to implement new technology takes time and effort. The point is: To remove redundancy and save your team members time they don’t need to spend.
Accounting firms are beginning to expand globally. Meaning, they aren’t just working with local clients in person. Many are taking on virtual clients across the world.

For you, now, think about:

• Where are team members having to “copy and paste” things?
• Are you having to import and export into Excel and other programs?
• Where are you having to make manual entries and calculations?

These are just a few of the areas where you need to start thinking about, “Is there an application that can streamline this?”

Most likely, there is already an API plug-in somewhere to save the time. Automating double-entry tasks like this could open time on your team’s calendar (or even yours) so you can push off having to make an expensive hire.

How to think about innovation in your firm:

When Jetpack Workflow started building workflow software, David talked with multiple firm partners to understand the problems that existed.
Trent recommends this approach.

“When you think about innovation, do it from the

perspective of the customer.”

Where are the headaches and time-wasting tasks? You want to approach it this way so you’re thinking of actual solutions to problems, and not just “extras.”

Your “customer” during this process could actually be your employees. Where are these processes they hate? Are there bottlenecks in the same places again and again?
Where are the problems? Where do things take too long to get done?

Innovation isn’t just about ‘new technology.’ It’s actually simply doing things different than you used to. Trying a new process. Trying a new tool.
Approaching innovation:

• Sit down with your team and walk in their shoes (or your client’s shoes)
• Write down every tiny problem that happens. Every frustration or things that many regularly complain about
• Now, throw out the editing board (not literally). But, begin brainstorming ideas on how to solve the problems. NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS. Come up with crazy ideas on how something might get fixed

When you start innovation this way, you already took the first step to get buy-in to your ideas.

Steps to get your team to buy-in to your ideas and new technology:

If you did bullet point #3 above, you’re already on your way to getting team members onboard to new processes and ideas.

Again, firms don’t innovate regularly typically because the head of the firm or its team members don’t buy-in to your ideas. The easy way to solve this?

Get your accounting team on the ground floor of the idea!

Engage team members to be the “change agents” (as Trent says) themselves. Don’t make your own personal crusade.

When you bring your team together to discuss innovation, find an idea and then assign tasks to various team members.

Have one person do research. Another research reviews and case studies. Have another be the “guinea pig.” Another prepare the steps to help the rest of the firm implement.

Give everyone various tasks to do. Have regular follow-up meetings. Discuss the problems they are seeing with solutions. Brainstorm some more. Repeat.

The key point you must get across to them: “WHY we are doing this…” Your team needs a concrete, proven reason for making any changes.

That’s why, if you get them involved from the beginning, they can understand more and more. Rather than doing what most firms do wherein the partners roll out something new without warning which inevitably causes stress and headaches.

The process can take a while and go through many hiccups. Don’t worry about that. You might spend a long time in the research phase going through solutions and ideas only to find the problem isn’t the biggest one you need to solve.

That’s what innovation looks like!

What have you done recently to innovate your firm?

Related Articles:

1. The Accounting Firm’s Blueprint to Creating A World-Class Team (Without Recruiting)
2. 3 Crucial Steps to Building an Effective Accounting Team
3. How To Create The Perfect Accounting Firm

Carter Johnson, CEO of United Business Leaders, has worked with Fortune 500 companies helping with Search Engine Optimization to rank higher in Google.
After graduating college, all he’s done is built companies and help other companies grow.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Carter Johnson discuss:

• 3 main steps any accounting needs to do in order to rank higher right away
• The keywords you need to rank for
• Google’s latest update that could wipe your accounting firm off the search rankings

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

• Linkedin – Carter Johnson
• Podcast Carter co-hosted
• Carter’s email
• Building a Killer Accounting Website
• 5 Elements That Convert Visitors on Your Website
• Facebook for Accountants

—————————————————————————————-
Can someone find you when they do a google search?

Carter Johnson, CEO of United Business Leaders, has built a personal brand around Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

For beginners, SEO essentially means: “When someone searches for services they need, will your name come up before your competitors?”

To go even further, type “Accounting Firm in [your city].”

• Where does your firm show up?
• Does it show up at all?
• If your firm doesn’t show up at all, there’s a problem.
• If your competitors rank ahead of you (i.e. they show up higher on the page), there’s a problem.

See, most searches will end with the browser clicking the first three entries. It’s imperative to be up top for the right keywords (i.e. what someone types into the Google search box).

In the past, people would find accounting firms through the yellow pages. Now, barring normal client acquisition processes, getting found on Google is a powerful way to pick up clients while you sleep.

67% of overall searches are for local businesses and their services. Daily, there are 4.3 Billion Google searches. You can do the math!

The keywords you need to rank for:

When you think about ranking for specific keywords, many automatically think they must rank for: “accounting firm”, “Quickbooks advisor,” “CPA taxes”…

This is wrong. Essentially, with this strategy, you are hoping to rank above every accounting firm in the world. That does no good.

Here’s the secret…you want to rank for what your city and specialty is.

For example, here in Pittsburgh, PA (home of Jetpack Workflow), an accounting firm needs to set up their website to rank for “accounting firm in Pittsburgh.”

If you have a specialty, work to rank for “accounting firm for [industry]” e.g. “dental practices.” You must get ultra specific with what you need to rank for in order to capture the prospects out there looking for a firm like yours.

3 main steps any accounting needs to do in order to rank higher right away

Carter begins each engagement with a new client doing these three things. Today, on this podcast, you get these steps absolutely free.

First thing to do — Basic — have a website. That’s just the beginning however. Make sure you mention your city in all the “title” tags on each page. You can learn more in a tutorial we will link up.

Carter says it’s very rare for a company to have the title tags set up, meaning, just doing that puts you far ahead of the game.

Again, when you put specific title tags with your city and specific service, you narrow down the competition.

Second piece of the SEO puzzle — make sure your name, mailing address and phone number are clearly on the site (and in a few spots). It’s easiest to put on the “footer” of your page. Your footer is the bottom of a webpage and stays constant (as on our site here at Jetpack).

Search engines, when determining results, need to make sure you are in the right city and have updated contact information. The more you have filled out, the higher you rank.

For those accounting firms who might not even have a website up yet. DO THIS — spend a few hours this weekend setting one up on WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace or another website builder, put a “Coming Soon” page on the front, and add your phone, address, and name.

The older your domain name and content with those three pieces, the more Google “respects” your site. It will then preference your site in rankings over newbies on the block.

Third, build out your Facebook page, Yelp page, and Google business page. This sounds like a bunch of work, but it’s not.

All you need to do is:

• Go to Facebook, set up a business page. Include your name, address and phone number. Plus, a description of the business.
• Next, Go to Yelp. Set up your profile with your business. Include the same information.
• Last, go to the Google Business pages and pinpoint your business. You’ll need to “claim” your business, get a PIN in the mail and verify it.

Out of all three, setting up your Google page is most important. Having a verified business location, Google trusts you more and puts you above unverified firms. It only takes about an hour to do all this, but goes a long way.

With Google business, notice whenever you look for a local business, a map is the first result with names of businesses. That’s your goal. Be on the top.  40% of clicks from a local business search are on that map that appears.

Now, for Facebook. Make sure you include a profile page and header. To create a banner header, you can go on Fiverr.com or somewhere cheap to get a quick one thrown together for you to make your page nice.

Facebook is also important because the search engine within google (the top search bar) is getting more use. It’s becoming its own search engine within the site. The more established your page is, the more you will show up when someone searches on Facebook.

Same with Yelp. Their internal search engine is getting more and more use. Yelp has 167M active users. You’re bound to snag a few!

To stay abreast of Google’s ever changing algorithms, here’s a recent change:

Google’s latest update that could wipe your accounting firm off the search rankings

Regular updates from Google aren’t to punish businesses. Rather, it’s to make searching more trustworthy and reliable. Businesses with good content will always beat out the ones that don’t.

In the latest update, it’s important to your firm because it’s all about local business searches. Google will start “phasing out” companies that show up on the Maps who aren’t verified. That’s why it’s important to “claim” your business (as mentioned above).

Next, Google is also limiting the amount of businesses in a certain geo-location. For example, if you have multiple accounting firms in your building, your firm may not show up again. Your competitor will.

To combat this, you must beat your competitors. Get your name, phone, and address up and on as many sites as possible. Use these tactics to prove to Google you are invested in your online presence much more than other firms.

Carter could’ve gone on for awhile, but we had to stop there. Start with these strategies and invest in the knowledge to help your accounting firm.

These are the ways you can find more leads while you sleep without spending a bunch of time on technical website stuff. Rank higher in Google with these three steps.

What tips to do you have to rank higher in Google?

Related Articles:

1. Building a 7 Figure Firm: The Darren Root Interview
2. The Accounting Firm’s Blueprint to Creating A World-Class Team (Without Recruiting)
3. Automate Your Accounting Firm to 1500% Growth with Heather Pranitis

Kim Hornsby, Founder of Singletrack Bookkeeping, works entirely remotely. Yet, she’s cracked the code on creating a world-class team all without recruiting or needing an office.

Singletrack serves mostly small businesses and found a niche with cloud-based accounting even getting clients interested in their own financials (a common problem for most firms…)

In this episode of Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Kim Hornsby delve into:

• The one trick to get your clients suddenly interested in their books again
• A secret to hiring and creating a world-class team remotely
• The best communication tool you can use in your accounting firm

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

• Singletrack Bookkeeping – Kim’s firm
• Linkedin – Kim Hornsby’s Linkedin page
• Slack app
• Grow from 2-10 employees in a year [interview]
• 3 crucial steps to building an effective accounting team [interview]
• How to massively profit from your expertise — Seth David
• Interview with Stacy Kildal of StacyK Academy
• FACEBOOK GROUP: Business Workflow & Management & AppasaurusRex
• FACEBOOK GROUP: Between Wall and Main Strategy Forum
• StacyK Academy

A haunting event sparks an entrepreneurial journey:

Kim Hornsby, CEO at Singletrack Bookkeeping in Steamboat Springs Colorado, spent over 20 years working at United Airlines. She thought that was where her career would end.

September 11, 2001.

Everything changed. Thoughts of “What do I really want to do with my life?” raced through her head. Working in the airline industry wasn’t it. In 2005, she picked up, moved to the mountains and opened the (virtual) doors to Singletrack Bookkeeping.
Quickbooks Online was just in its infancy but still lay the groundwork for the remote firm Kim wanted to build.

Her original clients were simple small businesses who didn’t want to handle their bookkeeping. Kim learned “on the job” what worked and what didn’t for helping these companies. She was surprised at how many business owners simply didn’t care about accounting or keeping track of their finances each month. She didn’t understand.

To provide value and also to keep the business owner aware of the importance in “knowing your numbers” she stumbled on a strategy to flip the switch and get the busy, business owners spending the time to dissect their numbers.

The one trick to get your clients interested in their books again:

For most firms, a client who doesn’t care to look at their financial statements becomes fairly normal. They hired you so they DIDN’T have to do the books, right?

Kim discovered clients couldn’t make the right decisions to grow their business without understanding the finances behind it. Business owners get into self-employment in order to finance their dreams. If they don’t know their numbers, how could they finance their dreams?

Sending monthly reporting didn’t sway owners from opening the statements — “there wasn’t time to do it.”

Kim started with automated reports on a specific date each month to get sent. Clients, now getting predicable, easy-to-read, monthly statements, slowly took interest, but not enough.

Clients would look at the reports but never want to actually sit down and discuss them. There just never was a good time for them plus they didn’t want to do it. If it was a “down” season, they might pick up the phone and call Kim, but other than that, it was pulling teeth to get them interested.

The monthly, automatic report allowed them to at least view the reports at their leisure. But, she went a step further. Slowly, she customized each report to the client based on the metrics that would be most important to their business. If it was cashflow, she would customize a few cashflow reports and send them. If they were a non-profit and needed to show reports to the board, she knew what reports to send.

This shift sparked increases in clients wanting to dissect their own numbers. Kim moved from just a bookkeeper to a bookkeeper/trusted consultant plus it helped retain the clients longer.

Now, it was time to expand.

The secret to creating a world-class team remotely:

Kim’s firm is 100% remote. No office, no overhead, no “closet in the back with the files.” All virtual, using newer and newer tools to streamline faster production. 100% remote usually guarantees 100% team unity problems.

Heck, in any big or small firm nowadays, retaining employees remains a heated and difficult topic. Not for Kim. In fact, employees seek her firm out not the other way around.

They want to work with her because of the flexibility of time throughout the day, being remote, and getting paid competitively.

Kim would love to give herself two thumbs up as a “great leader” but humbly admits she’s just a “good leader” with an “incredible team.”

The secret to creating a world-class team? Hiring those who align with your core values.

Sounds simple. Truth is, firms don’t do this despite saying they do. Normally, they hire on “skills” alone or background. Kim hires only those who are passionate about seeing “growth” in the firm. When a new candidate comes in to interview, Kim gets feedback from all team members to make sure everyone agrees the candidate meshes well with the core values of the firm.

Clients invested in their numbers and who feel they are part of the team adds further to making a tight, remote team. Great clients keep employees happy. Clients savor a trusted relationship with a firm absolutely dedicated to growing their business. Kim weeds out employee candidates who don’t get the same joy as she does watching small business owners realize their dreams.

To keep a cohesive united, it boils down to communication. Singletrack has this down pat.

The best communication tool you can use in your accounting firm:

Slack is the lifesaver of the firm. Slack acts essentially as “instant messenger for businesses.” It gets instant responses from team members and removes the clutter of email.

“It makes us feel like everyone is in the room…it’s all so seamless.” – Kim Hornsby

To prove it’s simplicity, Kim’s only CPA in the firm travels the country in an RV and works entirely from Slack and no one can tell the difference. The CPA gets to live his dream and get the job done.

Problems with remote teams stem from not physically being in the room with each other. Slack solves all that as everyone interacts all day without the hassle of email.

All of this didn’t come easy for Kim. She constantly stays abreast of the industry and utilizes many resources to do so. Check the ADDITIONAL LINKS section for all the various forums and courses she uses (one from a past guest) that has helped her grow.

What about you? Do you have a remote team and looking to grow? Share in the comments how you create an excellent team without living and working in the same office.

Related Articles:

1. The Ultimate Blueprint To Drive $100M In Non-Traditional Revenue & Services
2. 5 steps on how to onboard your accounting staff
3. A Curated Directory of 100+ Accounting Resources & Tools

Joey Brannon, Founder of the Consulting CPA, sold the tax and accounting arm of his accounting firm to jettison into solely a consulting profit center.

Most firms “rest on their laurels” and stay in their comfort zone with just doing compliance work and keeping clients at an “arm’s length.” Joey saw the opportunity to move from a technical relationship to a practical relationship with clients. [More on that below.]
In this episode of Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Joey Brannon delve into:

• All the pieces you need in your client’s CRM profile (you’re probably missing a few)
• How a consulting engagement will look like with your clients
• Why it is as important as ever to get this started in your accounting firm

Resources:

• Consulting CPA: Helping CPAs build a consulting arm of their firm
• Linkedin: Joey Brannon
• Twitter: Joey Brannon
• Add Multiple Profit Centers to Your Firm [Interview]
• How to Massively Profit on Your Expertise [Interview]
• How to Become an Advisor to Your Clients [Interview]

Transitioning from “normal” accounting firm into a “consulting” firm

Joey Brannon started out with a normal accounting background. He was a tax manager at a firm, controller at another company and in the normal accounting routine.
As time progressed, and technology advanced (QuickBooks integration as an example) he saw a trend forming. Because, up to that time, firms laser focused their efforts on compliance work and getting compliance clients.

Joey was on the front lines in terms of seeing how the processes of tax and bookkeeping meshed with the business operations of a client. Because accountants see the entire operation and financial picture, they are in the best spot to help from a strategic standpoint.

Joey, at the time gunning for a partner position at the firm, approached with ideas on implementing a more “consulting” branch of the firm. It wasn’t met well and it was time, Joey decided, to strike out on his own.

Purchasing a list of clients with a note over a few years, a 6-month old baby and a stay-at-home wife, Joey launched Axiom CPA as a compliance and consulting firm for businesses.
Fast forwarding 7 years, Joey felt businesses needed more his consulting arm rather than just compliance. He sold the compliance side and continued on as a business consultant.

What to have in your client’s CRM file

What many accounting firms lacked was simply the understanding of how powerful the information they have on their clients is. Again, you see the complete picture of a client’s business — what’s working and not working.

It all starts with the initial and ongoing conversations you proactively create with your clients. For many firms, they maintain a CRM file with quick facts on names of spouse and children, plus type of business. Very basic stuff.

If you plan on building a wildly profitable consulting profit center, you need to include more pieces. The most important ones being:

• What are your client’s goals? What are they planning on the business side for the coming 1-3 years?

• What went well in the past year that you can’t see on the tax return?

• What is critical to the success of your business? (could be a certain person, a specific vendor or customer, etc.)

As you can imagine, these all come from an ACTUAL CONVERSATION you have with your client. Guessing these pieces doesn’t help at all.

“Most clients will not bring these questions to you…a consultative firm is proactive…” – Joey Brannon

Joey recommends setting up face to face chats with your clients to get maximum results with this step. Even better, take a few days. Walk in the client’s shoes. See where trouble spots are. Discover where they need help and bring it up with them.

DAVID’S TIP: Tell your client “Let’s grab lunch and discuss A,B,C,D. The client will instantly be intrigued and interested you took this proactive approach.

Setting up the engagement for a consulting profit center

The steps to getting a consulting profit center set up isn’t tough at all. With any consulting, the profit margin (as it’s a service) is mega-high. There’s little set-up except getting in front of your clients and presenting the service.
It might be easiest to start with a client you know and trust well to kick it off. That way, you can iron out the kinks in your sales delivery and implementation.
Steps to set up a consulting profit center:

• Set a minimal access price: This is the rock bottom price (per month) you will do a consulting engagement with a client. This keeps you from wavering, plus it shows the client you are serious.

• Start with due diligence: This step typically is unpaid. Here you will be collecting information on the business, interviewing the owners, finding the trouble spots you can help with. Here, gather: Financial statements, key relationships, organizational chart, when did they last increase prices, competitors etc.

• Understand the type of client: The more the client wants to grow, the more you can help. If they are fairly comfortable where they are, it will be tough to sell them as well as implement for them.

• Start the conversation light: Open up with a discussion of their business over coffee. Keep it fairly casual.

• Give them three options to work with: You can make it — project based. You could have an offsite retreat where you spend a few days helping, consulting and implementing. Or, agree to come back weekly/bi-weekly to implement systems, etc.

• Position your price correctly: Most likely, you will get push-back on price. Stay solid. Say: “Yes, it is an obscene amount of money you will pay, but you’ll get a ridiculous amount of return on that.” Position the fee as much smaller than the ROI.

After this, it’s setting up the systems in place, using the expertise you’ve garnered over the years, and making massive profits.

Why it’s as important than ever to get this started in your accounting firm

Your expertise in the industry plus working with multiple clients gives you knowledge many would happily pay for. Your knowledge is a skill set the client doesn’t have on payroll.
Joey spots many firms “holding clients at arm’s length” as they want to remain independent and professional. Clients, nowadays, aren’t looking for that. They want — they need— guidance and expertise.

You might be worried because consulting might sound like having to be a “know-it-all.” That’s not it. Clients don’t expect you to have every answer. They simply want your expert opinion on the steps to take.

Moving from just a transactional relationship into a more personal one spells dividends and long-term clients for your firm.

Now, more than ever, clients will pay handsomely for consulting and your expertise. Build out a consulting profit center starting this year and see how your bottom line inflates.

Related Articles

1. Applying Lean Six Sigma to Your Workflow: The Dustin Hostetler Interview
2. How to Implement Value Pricing, Why This Owner Wants to Change The Industry, and More
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