Building Trust and Scaling Without Any Employees w/ Tejal Shah

Podcast

Summary

• • David and Tejal have a vast conversation about all things business inception and building infrastructures to IPOs and venture capital  exits. 

• • Understanding the pace of trust in business and the importance of the emotional aspect of relationship building. 

• • Learning that good business really does speak for itself. 

Found in Today’s Conversation 

• • Congruent  Advisory Services, LLC 

• • Tejal Shah CPA, MBA

• • Double Your Accounting Firm

Meet Tejal Shah

Congruent Advisory Services, LLC  began in 2019 with Tejal starting a boutique one-woman show. Her goals were to support business owners in the process of inception to exit. 

Today she operates with three verticals: 

• • Fractional CFO – helping firms begin by establishing appropriate infrastructure

• • Supporting Growth 

• • Exit Strategies such as IPO readiness and M&A supports 

Whilst building a practice in the beginning of the COVID era, Tejal experienced uncertainty in the early years of her firm’s establishment. She ultimately looked towards a model of collaborating with another person which led to collaboration with a firm instead. 

The congruence between Tejal and her partner are what created success as a partnership early on – better said they were on the same page. 

Tejal tells David that there was an agreed upon cohesive and collaborative approach.

The exposure and openness shared amongst both partners led to a culture that was rooted in this type of thinking for business. In turn, this passes on the same experience to clients. 

The Speed of Trust 

Business can be separated into  two parts: 

• • Quantitative: Numbers, problem solving, A + B = C type of thinking 

• • Qualitative: Emotional, creative, and relationship building 

Sure, business partnerships can be formed and worked through from a logical and numerical approach but what about the emotional side?

David raises a very important question: 

‘How did you build that level of trust?’ 

Tejal shares that she would look for a few things when assessing collaborators: 

• • Potential 

• • Integrity 

• • Authenticity

Building a practice with someone who seeks growth aligns both parties. Of course, integrity is a key variable in this as well. Simply put, Tejal wanted to partner with someone who was willing to put in the work and someone she could build trust with overtime. 

Boundaries were set for the first 6-8 months, likely a prudent decision as both her and her partner were working through characteristics of the practice establishment.

But the trust was built in the actual relationship building phase and continuous conversations she would have with her partner. 

At the end of the day, Tejal and her team wanted to help and empower people. So by doing this on a micro level first, it could only breed success in the future.

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Role Play 

Any sales team works on their role play. Practicing responses to questions or preparing for conversations that the team could potentially have is an unwritten rule of growth. 

Although this isn’t a sales conversation today, David and Tejal talk through a ‘role play’ of how the onboarding of a client looks as she’s also working in collaboration with someone else.

1. 1. Meet with clients 

1. 1. Proposal stage reached with clients

       

      1. 1. At this time, Tejal would educate her prospect that she works in a team environment who will be involved in the transaction(s)
      1. 1. This builds consistency for the client and creates clearly defined expectations going forward 

At this stage, it allows the client to understand how the transaction will work and also invites the partnership forward. 

Tejal shares that her partnership is a great resource for transactional clients. Tejal can gain support in the following areas by sharing the workload: 

• • Manage audits

• • Public filing support

• • Fractional CFO 

It’s a win-win for Tejal and her team, but also the client because they get the support from experts in the areas that they need help in. It keeps business ‘in-house’. 

If the business service area remains  between Tejal and her collaborative partnership, it creates adhesiveness for the client. As long as they are receiving high quality service  and have everything they need within an arm’s reach, why would they leave? 

At the same time, Tejal and her team can share business amongst each other which certainly promotes growth for each of them. 

Speaks for Itself 

There are so many nuggets of information in the interview with Tejal. David circles back around to a previous discussed topic, the niche, industries or verticals that Tejal started and grew within. 

As she’s mentioned, her vision was to see that businesses were supported from inception to exit. 

Because this process is entirely broad in the business world, it gave Tejal opportunities to shift her focus and experience over time. 

For example, initially her goal was to help businesses get started, which translated to establishing trust with investors. Later, management would pull her in to work on expansion, and as the businesses grew, so did Tejal’s expertise. 

Infrastructure support turned into interim CFO assignments, and CFO assignments turned into M&A conversations and projects. 

Lastly but certainly not least, M&A conversations could lead to IPO preparation and so on. 

Over the years Tejal has built quite the resume and checked more than a few boxes off of her goal sheet. By being involved in such expansive business support roles, it’s truly  allowed her to see growth in her business and knowledge. 

Word of mouth is what Tejal attributes to her growth within the first year. When qualitative and quantitative business variables are achieved in an exceptional way, the business will speak for itself … literally. 

To get in touch or learn more about Tejal, visit her website. You can also find her personal and business LinkedIns: 

• • Tejal Shah CPA, MBA

• • Congruent Advisory Services, LLC

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 Tejal  and David discussed 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.