In this episode of the Growing Your Firm podcast, we talk with David’s mentor Dane Maxwell, the founder of paperlesspipeline.com and The Foundation. He dedicated 15 years of research to write a book that would change people’s lives, Start From Zero. He’s brilliant when it comes to thinking about positioning. Specifically, he wants to help you triple your clientele by using just one sentence.

Resources

1. Dane’s Book: Start From Zero
2. More on Dane’s Book: https://www.startfromzero.com
3. Dane’s SaaS Entrepreneurs Community: The Foundation
4. Dane’s Real Estate Transaction Management Tool: https://www.paperlesspipeline.com

Summary

• Fundamentals of a Successful Business
• The One Sentence Solution
• Deep Listening
• Start From Zero

Related Links

• Paid Advertising the Smart Way
• Why You Need to Niche This Year For Riches 3 Years From Now
• The Core Process You Need To Accelerate Your Firm’s Growth

The Fundamentals of a Successful Business

CPAs can often be afraid to position themselves to break away from the crowd to get the attention of their clients. Fortunately, Dane Maxwell explains how to break the mindset of fear and apprehension to achieve the freedom and greatness every CPA wants out of their business.

In every moment of the crisis lies an opportunity for businesses, and the same applies to the current COVID-19 situation. Many people don’t realize that when one is afraid, their minds undergo a very specific process to facilitate survival. Dane says, “When the emotion brain gets highly triggered, if we’re not aware, and if we go into self-preservation mode, we pull back on our spending.” They pull back on spending, and yet, the price of goods and services, like running ads have dipped drastically. The concern for survival and panic can overshadow an opportunity for cost-effective marketing!

When marketing your firm, it is important to communicate your niche to target customers. In a previous podcast, Why You Need To Niche This Year For Riches Three Years From Now, Hugh Duffy talked about standing out from the crowd by having a specific service that you excel at. Dane parses out this sentiment even further. Ideally, it is best to keep your objectives focused by using the three fundamentals for a successful business:

1. Define and find a very clear customer.
2. Create and present a very clear result for that customer.
3. Provide a clear mechanism.

Dane offers several examples of how to use this very simple formula to position one’s business to stand out from the crowd, through the lens of the services Dave Ramsey offers his clients:

1. He clearly defines his customer: couples in debt. 
2. He creates a very clear result for the customer: become debt-free. 
3. He presents a clear mechanism: the debt snowball.

Using this super-clear formula, Dave Ramsey advertises his services on his website, and he has a picture of his clear customer holding an image saying, “$40,000 debt in 20 months.” Weight Watchers uses the same tactic, getting their very clear customer, women in their 40s looking to lose weight.

The One Sentence Solution

Dane Maxwell says that often we find ourselves entrapped in the illusion that customers want the technical bells and whistles when in reality they desire a specific outcome. Dane calls this “Expert La La Land.” Yes, we are experts, but that is not the bottom line detailing what customers want.

What customers really want are easy solutions to their problems. Let’s take a look at how your firm can better communicate the solution you offer for their problems. Using Dane’s formula, you can create the one sentence accounting firms should use to triple their clientele: a strong value proposition!

Here’s the one-sentence value proposition template:

One Sentence Value Proposition Template: <Your ideal customer> <benefit your service offers the customer> by using my <describe your unique service>.

Looking at an example, let’s fill in those blanks:

1. Your ideal customer: a business owner.
2. The clear result you offer the customer: to pay as little as possible, as legally and ethically as possible, without the risk of being audited.
3. Add the specific, unique, valuable mechanism that makes your service different from your competitors.

Example Value Proposition: Business owners can pay as little in taxes as legally and ethically as possible without the risk of getting audited by using my signature <description of your unique service>  process.

Thinking this way takes time, and Dane covers how to change one’s way of thinking away from that of an accountant to one of an entrepreneur. Dane says, “To be an entrepreneur you need to stop being a technician. To stop being a technician, you need to stop trading time for money. To stop trading time for money, you need to learn, to understand, the basics of business.” According to Dane, this mode of thinking is the key to accelerate wealth accumulation.

However, there is a caveat. How does one learn what clients want? Even beyond that, how can we transform our minds so that thinking this way becomes second nature? How can budding or aspiring entrepreneurs overcome their fear?

Deep Listening

Dane’s key to answering those questions is by using deep listening. Note that deep listening is not the same as active listening. Deep listening involves understanding and discovering where and why one is resisting. Little do we know, we resist and experience resistance frequently, every day in our lives.

To illustrate this point, Dane vulnerably expresses the resistance he experiences, “Well, I can tell you what I feel like I’m resisting right now, and it’s internal.” Dane continues, “It’s like my own sense of greatness. I…feel like I’m shrinking. I feel it in this moment.”

If, like Dane expressed, you’re in conflict with yourself and resisting yourself, then you may continue being trapped in a cage of your own making. If you resist your own greatness, then that quality is likely to radiate externally like a mirror.

In the same vein, when you have a customer hesitant about the service you offer, you can use deep listening to gain more information. Let’s say, for example, a client is hesitant to put a headline at the top of their website. By asking in an invitational way why they don’t want the headline on top of their site, you can ask, “Tell me more about that. What are some of your concerns?” Business owners can gain priceless information that would help them hone in on the customer’s very clear desire.

Conversely, there are also clients who simply do not want to use the services offered. In this case, keep your very specific customer in mind, and gracefully let go of those who don’t fit the persona you want.

Dane shares much more of this goodness in the full episode, including traits that indicate entrepreneurship. You can reach out to Dane at TheFoundation.com and StartfromZero.com. You can also purchase his book, Start From Zero, on Amazon.

Firm owners trying to adjust to recent challenges need to take a moment to understand and manage their psychology during this time. In today’s Growing Your Firm podcast, we interviewed one of David’s mentors, Krishna Pendyala.

Krishna is an expert on the art and science of human judgment and choice making. His pioneering work on judgment quotient, or JQ, is being recognized as the third intelligence beyond the intelligence quotient, IQ, and emotional quotient, EQ. Besides such valuable contributions, he is also a co-founder of several technology companies and the author of the book, Beyond the Pig and the Ape. He was also a COO at a financial firm at an earlier point in his career, so he offers us advice from a very fresh perspective.

Resources

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnapendyala/
• https://Krishnapendyala.com
• Beyond the Pig and the Ape 

Summary

• Sidestepping Overreaction
• Task Delegation
• The Mind Break
  • The PIG (Pursing Instant Gratification)
  • The APE (Avoiding Painful Experiences)
  • Depletion:Repletion:Debit:Credit
  • The Addiction of problem-solving

Related Links

• Remote Work Tactics Your Firm Needs Today, Next Week, and In a Month
• How to Fire Yourself From Your Firm
• How and Why You Should Intentionally Work With Fewer Clients

Sidestepping Overreaction

Business owners are in a sticky situation where they have had to act fast to solve widespread disruption caused by the coronavirus. There has been a surplus of information about how to set up an efficient work from home environment. Several businesses are trying to make forecasts and plans of action for the upcoming 6-18 months.

There is so much uncertainty right now at nearly every sector of life. However, very seldom do CPAs consider how their reaction to the crisis may very well contribute to the anxiety that our situation is causing. Even if everything is going according to plan on the business end, if there is some trouble at home with the family, then the health of our economy is affected. The economy as a whole is intimately tied to our public and private lives.

Krishna, who has a penchant for stories, warns about overreaction with a parable. Imagine that you see a candle by a couch. As a knee-jerk reaction to seeing the candle fall over, you rush to push it out of the way only to accidentally toss it into a Christmas tree. We are in a similar crisis now, and it is just as important that we don’t fall into panicked thinking. Our focus should be, instead, to consider how we react so that we can make solid, forward-thinking choices in the upcoming months which will create value for our clients.

Task Delegation

Let’s continue our story. Imagine that you’ve had to evacuate the entire house — as you should if you set a Christmas tree on fire.

Everyone is standing outside in the street, in shock as the house is burning down. But you know what not one single person is thinking about? Considering where they are going to stay or how they are going to rebuild. One person simply cannot mentally process that much change all at once. When they try, they may not do as well because their minds are preoccupied.

As a solution to this human problem, Krishna suggests a strategy for removing obstacles in times of crisis. He advises that you delegate the following categories of tasks to three people:

1. Tasks that cover immediate concerns and survival
2. Matters that need to be addressed urgently
3. Long-term goals to maintain stability

While it may be tempting to do everything ourselves, we know from previous podcasts about the detriment of handling all of the major tasks of a firm on our own. In many respects, Krishna’s advice is quite similar to the advice that Liam McIvor Martin recommended as we prepare for remote work: what we really need to accomplish today, next week, and next month.

The Mind Break

As we consider what to do in the here and now with stay-at-home orders in place, we’re having to make several adjustments to our routine. Sports fans can’t watch sports, so now they have to replace it with something else. When people lose interest or become bored with a new stimulus, they refer to their phone. Often, people retreat to their phone or to YouTube for a quick high which Krishna calls the PIG, or Pursuing Instant Gratification. The opposite of this is what  Krishna calls this an APE, an acronym for Avoiding Painful Situations. The PIG and the APE often act in cahoots with each other, causing distraction and preventing clarity.

We end up overstimulating our minds, never really giving it a break. Krishna elaborates on the complexity of the issue further by using credits and debits as an analogy. Meanwhile, as CPAs try to help clients, they find themselves debiting their time and attention to the point of depletion and burn out. Seldom do they give their minds a break, allow credit to build, and replete themselves.

This can be challenging for business owners, perfectionists, and people with Type A personalities. Identifying a problem and finding a solution can become addictive. Achieving their goals, whether they be money or freedom, is a high that motivates them to innovate. Even when the reminder to break away from a stimulus occurs, slowly yet surely they find themselves back at work.

Problem-solving is the way such people validate themselves to the world. Then suddenly, COVID-19 forces these folks to stay home, and such ambitious people hold the fallacious belief that there isn’t another problem to solve. Krishna eloquently explained, “There are more problems than you can possibly solve.”

Continuing with the debit and credit analogy for mental depletion and repletion, Krishna recommends reframing the issue and creating—or rather discovering—a credit side of problems to solve. What matters is allowing your mind to really take a break from the mental work we set our mind to complete.

You can learn more about awareness in a business context in the full episode. For those who would like more information about Krishna Pendyala, you can find him on LinkedIn, reach him on his website, or purchase his book Beyond the Pig and the Ape.

Today’s guest is Liam McIvor Martin. Liam has been leading the charge on remote working for the past decade by bringing together the top experts in the field on remote work through Running Remote conferences. He is the co-organizer behind Running Remote and co-founder behind Staff.com and Timing Doctor.

With nationwide stay-at-home orders in effect, accounting firms, small to medium-size between 50 to 100 employees, are expected to make challenging decisions and quickly change their perspectives overnight. One perspective change involves transitioning to remote work and adjusting processes as employees work from home. Not only do firms have to manage their teams remotely, but they have to strategically manage and maintain their client relationships. 

Summary

• Remote Work Set-Up: What to Do Today
• Remote Work Set-Up: What to Do Next Week
• Remote Work Set-Up: What to Do In a Month
• Honing In on Your Communication Practices

Resources

• Running Remote
• Staff.com
• Time Doctor

Related Content

• How to Survive as a CPA During the COVID-19 Era
• How to Operate a 70+ Employee Accounting Firm
• How to Streamline Your Business to Run Without You

Remote Work Set-Up: What to Do Today

Like a lot of us have recently, Liam has had to adapt and postpone his strategies and content, including Running Remote, the largest conference on remote work in the industry. He is also running a donation-only event called Remote Aid, which is a fully virtual adaptation of the conference. Just as Liam has adjusted the format to reach his audience, there are practical things you can do today to keep your clients engaged and your business growing.

Start by focusing on what tools your team will need to go remote. From a financial perspective, figure out what you can eliminate right now so you can be sustainable. This means you will need to make cuts now to project sustainability well into the future. 

Keep in mind that we are likely to be in this situation where unessential businesses have to be closed for several months. This can be anywhere between 1-18 months, though it is possible that a vaccine or treatments will become available within the next six months. Over the long haul, what can you cut? Some immediate places to look include office space leases. 

After you have made cuts in areas requiring a physical presence, it’s time to find tools that will help boost methods of communication and enhance project management. Liam offered several recommendations, including Slack or Twist for internal communication. One benefit of Slack is that it integrates well with different parts of other apps. 

Zoom is also a good paid option, as it offers screen shares and meetings with up to 1000 people. For those who are looking for free, no-pay options, consider using Skype. For time-tracking, Liam recommends Time Doctor. For project management, he mentions Trello and BaseCamp, but we are all in agreement that Jetpack Workflow is definitely the way to go.

Important for the company’s long term functioning is creating process documentations and seriously focusing on communication.

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Times are changing and we are navigating a new era due to the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, businesses, CPAs, and entrepreneurs face unique challenges as they adapt their business model to accommodate social distancing practices. In this podcast, Lindsey Curley, senior manager for PCPS and fund services at the AICPA, offers us invaluable information that can help us adapt to this new world. 

Summary

• The AICPA as a Go-to Resource
• What can CPAs be doing?
• The AICPA as an Example Remote Organization
• Tips, Tools, and Frameworks for Remote Work

Resources

• Lindsey Curley’s Email
• American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)
• US Small Business Administration (SBA)
• PCPS Homepage
• PCPS resources for firms and small business clients
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource Center
• SBA Paycheck Protection Program resources for CPAs

Related Links

• How To Get Your Firm Into Advisory Services
• How To Not Drown In Deadlines
• Double Your Firm Ch. 1: Increasing Workflow Efficiency And Staff Capacity
• A Curated Directory of 100 Accounting Resources and Tools
• 3 Remote Work Mistakes To Avoid

The AICPA as a Go-to Resource

The role of CPAs has never been more important than they are right now, as they have the ability to help maintain robust business health while moving our economy in a positive direction towards recovery. The accounting industry touches every industry. Right now the CPA can help their clients navigate the 900-page document containing details about the stimulus package and alternative financing. This is the perfect time for CPAs to take on an advisory role with their clients.

As CPAs help their clients, they should be aware of other resources to help them in their agenda. The American Institute of CPAs offers ample resources to help navigate the effects COVID-19 that is updated hourly. AICPA lists important deadlines and government programs, such as the SBA Protection Program, all in one organized place.

What can CPAs be doing?

The key to making the best of this situation is exercising forethought and planning, as Lindsey Curley emphasizes. With the new tax deadline being moved to July 15, many CPAs may have anxiety about what to expect regarding workload. Lindsey mentioned that there is no guarantee that this year will be like an extension season. We understand the anxiousness, and we cover how to handle deadlines and not get swamped in a previous podcast with Maura Wiser.

Several firms have thousands of clients who are thinking about creative ways to adapt to the new business climate. Lindsey recommends connecting businesses who may be struggling with others who CPAs know are faring well. Connecting these two parties can help lead business owners and entrepreneurs toward creative, out of the box methods as they navigate the new economy. 

No matter the workload, Lindsey Curley advises CPAs to use this opportunity to solidify relationships with the client. “We need to be there as a counselor,” she highlighted. We have long recognized the need for CPAs to take on an advisory role, and we spoke with Jim Burke about how to expand services to include advising.

PRO TIP: While everything may seem disorienting with the COVID-19 pandemic changing moment to moment, we must remember that there is so much information available! Prevent information inundation during this time by choosing 1 to 3 resources, thought leaders or organizations. Follow them and lean into the information that they share. We’ve listed over 100 resources and tools you can refer to as you begin your search.

The AICPA as an Example Remote Organization

While social distancing is being enforced, Lindsey Curley shows that the AICPA is revving up their connectivity with the community and remaining plugged in to monitor changes. She says, “We are talking with firms to keep a pulse on things. Our advocacy efforts have been and continue to be really impressive.” The AICPA points not only to resources that CPAs can use in their practice, but they also model how to adjust to the new business climate, having suspended traveling up to an entire year.

What many don’t realize is that the AICPA has been a remote organization for a while. Lindsey has been a part of the AICPA for 9 years and while she can’t speak on a team to team basis, she recalls going into the office to work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but working from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She even recalls how her team tried a “hotel” model with one of the other teams.

When they started the hotel model, two people, one from each team, were assigned to a cube or an office. The caveat was that there were no pictures, just work office decorations. There would be an extra monitor or keyboard so that employees could just plug-in. However, there were plenty of extra workstations and desks available. The advantage of this model is that if one manages the schedule appropriately, one could optimize both space and time. 

Another point that Lindsey mentions is that while team members may come into the office at different times, today there is not a single project that warrants anyone coming into the office. Lindsey says that the only time her team would go to the office together would be for team-building exercises and seeing what everyone is doing. She also notes that these meetings take on a much more casual tone, often going out to lunch while talking about each team member’s successes and challenges.  

Tips, Tools, and Frameworks for Remote Work

Changing workflow from an in-office model to remote can be challenging for some, but the first step to transitioning is creating a solid workflow for your business. Lindsey advises that when working from home, it is important to set up the workstation as similar to the office workstation as possible. We also add that it is important to affordably balance the “office” workstation with the remote workstation; don’t buy expensive equipment. We discuss other remote work faux pas to avoid in our blog article 3 Remote Mistakes to Avoid.

There are several communication methods available, but Lindsey notes that it’s probably best to maintain the same communications methods that stakeholders are familiar with. “Emails are our primary communication. We use Zoom and the video functions of Skype informally,” she states. She also recommends including a deadline in the email’s subject line to triage informational emails from high-priority emails.

FINAL TIP: Take advantage of the functionality of other programs to fulfill business needs. For example, Lindsey records her meetings using Zoom or Skype so she can reference them later or take notes for others who could not attend the meeting. 

Listen to the podcast for more information about how CPAs can become a powerful ally of business owners. If you would like to reach out to Lindsey Curley directly, she can be reached by email at lindseycurley@iacpa/sima.com.