Summary

• • Today we welcome back guest Jeff Jacobs where we talk through some interpersonal conversation that dives much deeper than the accounting business itself. Jeff and David cover momentum, self assessment, breaking chains, and much more. 

From Today’s Episode

• • Wilkin’s Miller

• • Should Accounting Firms Pause New Client Acquisition?

Jeff Jacobs 

Jeff is a returning guest on our podcast where we previously covered client acquisition, retention, and expansion. Jeff is the Director of Development at  Wilkins Miller, where he will tell you he does everything except accounting. Jeff is active in his firm, daily life, and an exciting guest that we’re excited to have back on the show. 

Momentum & Energy 

David sets the stage from the previous conversation, as he seeks to understand what Jeff considers to be the first step someone may take who is feeling stuck or having lost momentum. 

David leads off with, ‘what questions would you ask to start building back energy?’ 

Jeff follows up with the leadership variable. David’s specific question at its core, pertains to leadership as Jeff will tell us. 

He gives us a great analogy about smoking. As a firm leader, if the business is suffering, then it’s safe to say the firm is likely suffering as well.. Jeff tells us, when we’re around others that smoke it affects the smoker, and those close enough to it. The same is true when running a firm. If the firm owner is down and out as a result of the firm’s success (or lack-thereof), then the employees may be feeling this hardship as well – just like smoke from a smoker. 

This isn’t a podcast about problems however, we come with solutions too… well Jeff does. 

He tells us, when he falls short and feels like he’s in a stuck position, that going back over his goals and understanding where he is trying to go is what helps pull him out of a slump. 

Outside of the personal sphere, it’s important to make sure that those around you understand the goals of the firm as well. 

Jeff gives us a second nugget for making sure all things are aligned, when he tells us to make sure that people, employees, colleagues, etc. know their expectations. 

Put simply: 

If everyone is working towards a similar goal and understands their role towards that goal, then the other side is much brighter. 

“Momentum and just doing the little things well over a long period of time, that’s really where success comes in both in an accounting firm and in your life.” – Jeff Jacobs

Components of Self Assessment 

David takes the conversation deeper when he picks Jeff’s brain on self assessment. 

Are the roles and goals specific to a profession? The individual? 

Jeff tells us that for him personally, it’s as simple as accomplishing his morning routine. If Jeff’s routine is to wake up early, read his bible, exercise, and have a nutritious breakfast but he fails to accomplish these because of an extra 30 minutes in bed, then of course his day will be off. 

“Momentum starts with getting one quick win. For me, it’s the morning routine which flows into getting the work day started. Then it all plays into one big cycle, where you do a few things right and set the whole day into a positive motion.”

If days are much better when we meet our daily routine/expectations, then why would we ever go a day without them? 

It’s a simple mindset, yet can be much harder to accomplish day in and day out. 

Momentum at home and in our personal lives can lead to great impact and effectiveness in our professional lives. Jeff shares that work can impact home life just as much as our home lives can impact our work, especially for those that are business owners. 

Jeff defines success as momentum and doing the little things well over a long period of time. For him, this is what leads to success both at work and at home. 

Outside of the personal achievements, David draws us back to how this translates to firms and businesses too. It may be easier to identify if we’re lacking exercise or healthy habits, but when it comes to business it’s much more complex. 

Could the business be stuck because of: 

• • Pricing

• • Clients 

• • Workflow

• • Services

• • Niches

• • Marketing 

• • Leadership styles

There are so many different variables when it comes to business, luckily for us Jeff has made a career out of business development. We’ll cover his thoughts in the next section. 

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Seasonality of Business 

Jeff shares that accounting is the place where momentum goes to die. When asked why, he shares that it’s the seasonality of the business. 

100% of the time, accountants are busy 100% of the time. Not literally, but Jeff uses a great analogy when he says that it’s hard for people in the production line to lift their heads up – in other words,  it’s nonstop! 

Because activity in accounting can be nonstop, it can be hard to build momentum. It’s important to take a step back and do some of these: 

• • Build relationships

• • Build trust

We love when Jeff shares that in seasons when people feel like they’re working with their heads down and with no purpose, of course it can be hard to work out of that season. However, just like a baseball game that only takes one hit to get things going, so can momentum in business as well. 

The recognition of wins is a great way to do this. By recognizing an individual or team’s effort, this can be a great way to build momentum within the firm.

It’s a good first step and positive perspective. 

By the achievement of one little thing, one step along the way, business owners and professionals can position themselves for momentum and future success, no matter how small the starting place. 

If you want to reach out, say thanks, or learn more about Jeff you can find him on WilkinsMiller’s website or on LinkedIn. 

To get the full story from today, make sure to check out the podcast on our website. 

If you enjoyed the interview, leave a review. It helps us get the word out. Also, if you really enjoyed it and there is a shift in how you think about the future of your firm, share it with a fellow firm owner that needed to hear something Jeff talked about today.  
If you’re looking to grow your firm, check out this free resource with a walk-through on how to double your accounting firm.

Summary

• • Today we welcome back a well thought and experienced guest, Shauna Wekherlien, CPA and founder of Tax Goddess Business Services. 

• • This is part 2 of our interview with Shauna. Check out Part 1 here. 

• • In the summary and podcast Jetpack covers Shanua’s inside look at team building and recruiting. 

Check out Shauna and her team: 

• • Tax Planning on Steroids 

• • Tax Goddess Human Resources 

Shauna Wekherlien, CPA – The Tax Goddess 

Shauna is a returning guest on our show. She is the owner of Tax Goddess Business Services ® and a certified tax coach. Shauna also acts as an author, speaker, and investor. Skilled in many and all things, learn more about Shauna’s career here. 

The last time we had Shauna on the show, David and Shauna covered: 

• • Building her brand

• • Building tax advisory services 

• • Pricing

• • Time saving methodologies 

• • Sales

In today’s episode, our focus will be to cover key details we missed out on last time. For example, we’ll work on understanding: 

• • Building the sales team

• • How Shauna finds her employees 

We’ll talk through questions like: 

• • What is the recruiting process? 

• • What are the hiring and onboarding processes? 

• • How does she manage security & team integration? 

Let’s get right to it! 

The Top 1% 

Before we get into the team conversation, we have to give credit to Shauna achieving quite the achievement. 

Shauna is considered in the top 1% of tax strategists in the US. 

So what does this mean? 

Well, Shauna is a CPA, has a Master’s in Tax, is a Certified Tax Coach (CTC), and a Certified Tax Strategist. 

From purely a marketing perspective, her firm identified that only so many people in the US held the same qualifications as Shanua, putting them in an elite group of professionals.

Shauna realized that by naming her qualifications, it’s partly a marketing tool but also a reminder of the value she brings to the table. Other firms can try to remember the same as they consider their own training. 

“Don’t forget that your knowledge and all of your history and all of your training is worth a lot to the world out there. You can save people billions of dollars, so make sure they know it in your marketing.”

Staffing 

Tax Goddess has 89 people on staff around the globe in 20 different countries, and further is broken into 13 divisions. 

A portion of the divisions are considered ‘billable’: 

• • Tax

• • Payroll

• • Bookkeeping

• • Tax Strategy

• • IRS Notices

• • Sales Tax 

A second portion of the divisions are, in Shauna’s words, ‘teams supporting teams.’ 

• • In-house Tech

• • HR

• • Customer Services 

• • Administration 

Shauna also shares that they have a ‘programming department’ and an ‘automation department’, and many more that cover their diverse grouping of 13 divisions. 

As she and Dave break down her structure even further, she has 13 ‘head of department’ or HOD. Their job is a job we’re all aware of. They are the living body of the department doing check-ins and reporting the issues, questions, and direction back to Shauna, the owner of the firm.

Some helpful questions her HODs cover are: 

• • What is happening in their department?

• • What problems are arising?

• • What needs to be changed?

• • What is a 3 month outlook?

All questions aside, Shauna uses this structure to keep on top of what’s happening in her business. A prudent decision, to assure all things are running smoothly. 

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Playing to Your Strengths

Part of the success of Shauna’s team comes down to bringing on experts as the firm has grown. For Shauna herself, she knew as growth happened, she’d need to do less accounting work. The same happened as the team grew, and as she needed to continue hiring, an HR expert made things much more smooth. 

She said this approach of bringing experts who could play to their strengths led to a better client experience, and continued growth:

As it grew, I looked at what is the life that I want to have? Do I personally want to be the person doing tax reviews or inputting data? No. That’s not the skill that I’m best at.” she said.

“And so what I learned was I had to get the skills around in areas I wasn’t great. So I went and hunted down experts. And what ends up happening with that is once you have that team of experts that you’re happy with, the clients see that. So they’re referring and it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy from that standpoint.”

Funneling Candidates 

In 2023, there are many resources available for hiring staff. Dave asks Shauna about her methods. Does she use a recruiter or marketplace websites? What methods of her own does she utilize? 

This is a great question for anyone in the entrepreneurial space. Shauna tells us that, upon the start of Tax Goddess, they staffed 15-20 people with the goal of expanding to 250 people. Her and her team’s first move was to hire a HR expert. 

Shauna is a believer in growth. Her strategy was simple, get people to buy into growth .. by growing. Simple, yet effective. She would hire experts with specific skills that helped the business achieve its goals. Once the clients began to see they were working with experts time and time again, the story spoke for itself. 

Of course, hiring comes at a cost, literally. Shauna tells us to be mindful of these expenses as most business owners consider employees to be the most costly of their expenses. 

Training and education vary, as businesses will be hiring and firing almost simultaneously. Because of this, bringing new employees up to speed requires a team effort. Not all HR staff are 100% knowledgeable on Information Technology or vice versa. Having each team’s go on the new employee orientation processes calls for a much smoother effort.

If you haven’t been able to tell, Shauna is a busy professional! You can get in touch with her through the Tax Goddess Office phone: 602-362-7939 or at taxgoddess.com/sales-team/ 

To get the full story from today, make sure to check out the podcast on our website. 

If you enjoyed the interview, leave a review. It helps us get the word out. Also, if you really enjoyed it and there is a shift in how you think about the future of your firm, share it with a fellow firm owner that needed to hear something Shauna mentioned today.  
If you’re looking to grow your firm, check out this free resource with a walk-through on how to double your accounting firm.

Summary

• • About James Scott

• • What do they do?

• • The First Home Office

• • The Economics

Resources

• • JD Scott & Co. LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/jdscott/

• • James Scott LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-scott-7bb12418

• • James’s Email Address – james@jdscott.co

About James Scott

James has experience in all things accounting. He has 20 professional years of experience working within firms including serving as a director of Ernst & Young in Sydney, Australia. He has 5 years of senior finances roles under his belt as well. 

Prior to COVID, James started his own firm, JD Scott & Co. Here, lies the interesting part of James’ story. His firm focuses on hiring part-time employees, does not utilize administrative personnel, and doesn’t own a printer. 

Wait a minute, James… How does he do it? We’ll cover more below.  

What do they do?

During the pandemic, James had the opportunity to think about what he wanted to do with life. This, mixed with staying at home and having nothing to lose led him to create one of the most unique accounting firms in the business today. 

James’ prior experience in the corporate world gave him the edge to serve smaller firms with an increased level of advice. He recognized that the smaller businesses didn’t get the quality of service that the larger firms did, so James decided to do something about it. 

Essentially his firm has two areas of focus: 

1. 1. Typical SME Accounting and Tax 

To James, this means the traditional full suite of services from bookkeeping and payroll, to tax compliance, planning, and CFO advisory services. Currently, this provides a little over half of their revenue. 

2. 2. Small Corporate Advisory 

The second area of focus is helping small businesses and startups with meeting compliance, financial reporting, and consulting. 

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The First Home Office 

James tells us that he launched the firm at the end of March 2020, sitting in his daughters bedroom at the time, waving at his 96 year old neighbor, and thinking ‘what do I have to lose?’ 

With no revenue, no clients, and nothing holding him back, he started the marketing journey for his firm. 

James used Google Ads and his network at the beginning in order to generate revenue, trying all things to discover what may work best. After using sites early on like bark.com (possibly similar to Fiverr.com), James  realized that the competition was pretty competitive. Here he relied on his network and referral systems to keep clients coming. 

Obviously, this has worked for James as his team has grown to 5 professional staff, that are all part time. Hang on.. Did we say PTE?  

Yes, we did. 

This, being one of the founding philosophies of the firm has led JD Scott & Co. to double their revenue year over year. 

Year 1: 250k 

Year 2: 500k 

Year 3: On pace for 1M 

Clearly, whatever it is, is working for James and his firm. 

With this philosophy comes questions. Dave askes James about the Part-Timer scenario.

Do PTEs produce the same quality of work as FTEs?

Do you constantly have to build systems and rehire to replace Part time staff?

How do you build a pipeline that keeps employees staffed, even if they are working part time?

All good questions posed by Dave. 

The answers come back to James’ philosophy. He started the firm with a dream (and still a dream today). With the idea of wanting work to be flexible and the ability to take a holiday for a month if he and his family desired, James shares this culture when it comes to hiring. 

He mentions that his staff need to be technologically skilled in order to be successful. At the same time, he understands that there are plenty of mothers out there, especially with young children who are looking for high value work at a less than full time commitment. 

For James and his team – this just works. 

The Economics 

The economics of JD Scott & Co. may look skewed on paper, simply due to a smaller staff ratio and how this plays against standard expenses (rent, licenses, etc.) 

Just because they use the building less than a typical business, doesn’t mean the rent is any cheaper. All of James’ staff are paid on a part-time basis. There are no gimmicks with his firm as it is understood why professionals choose to work there. 

He has built quite the unique firm, as his philosophy drives a large part in it. 

Dave mentions, James doesn’t own a printer … Well, how does this work?

James began his firm without the use of a printer in his home office and that was the standard going forward. Because of this, he discovered ways to run the business without it and they stuck. 

The standard that has been set forth by the firm does need to ensure that all things are aligned in order for it to be successful. For example, all naming conventions are standard so all staff understand what piece of the process they are in. Also, for compliance they do take measures to print something given a document needs to be wet signed. 

The beauty of it all is that James and his firm have the ability to work wherever and whenever is necessary, just as he initially dreamed. 

You can find James on LinkedIn and through his email, james@jdscott.co.

If you enjoyed today’s interview, drop a review and find us at jetpackworkflow.com. It helps us get the word out. And if you really love this interview, and Mark said something that really sparked a new concept or idea, share it with a fellow firm owner that maybe needed to hear something similar in their day. That’s the best way to thank Mark for coming on today’s show and for being a part of this community.