0:00

So if you're someone listening who is

0:00

just really ready to just hire and bring

0:04

someone on to support you, or maybe

0:04

you have already hired, but maybe it's

0:07

failed or you already have hired, it's

0:07

worked really well for you, but you want

0:11

to continue to bring on more amazing

0:11

people and attract your dream team.

0:15

Then this is going to be the episode for you. I see a lot in the industry.

0:18

A lot of people struggling with

0:18

this hiring and I feel like there

0:20

needs to be way more resources. available for bookkeepers and accountants

0:22

to really help them hire that dream team.

0:26

So in today's episode, I really recommend

0:26

that you grab your pen and paper because

0:29

there's a lot of information, a lot of

0:29

great resources that I'm going to be

0:32

recommending as well, which you will

0:32

always find linked below the episode

0:35

of wherever you're listening to. So today's episode, I'm really going

0:37

to be diving into two different

0:40

phases of the hiring process. So there's four total phases, and each of

0:42

those phases are identifying your hires.

0:46

The actual hiring process. Maintaining your hires and also the

0:48

leadership and moving your team into the

0:52

leadership roles and even letting them go. So there's four phases, but in

0:54

today's episode, I'm only going to

0:56

be covering the first two phases,

0:56

which are identifying your hires and

1:00

then also the actual hiring process. So I'm going to dive really deep

1:02

into analyzing how to understand what

1:06

role that you need to be hiring for. as you're scaling the business, we're

1:08

going to talk through how to even

1:10

determine the rates of your team members. Then we're going to talk through

1:13

the actual hiring process, which

1:15

is creating the job description. So resources that you can have

1:17

in place and the ways that we're

1:19

able to find and attract our dream

1:19

team through our job description.

1:23

We're going to talk about the

1:23

interview process and what I

1:25

do in my interview process. And after it, to really be able to

1:27

see if they are rockstar team members,

1:31

ready to work with us, then we're

1:31

going to talk about the extending,

1:33

the offer to these team members. So if you are just in this place where

1:35

you're really looking to hire, then.

1:39

Please feel free to listen. And this is like my breakthrough

1:40

strategy of how to hire, and this is

1:43

what I teach in my program as well. And it's just such a great

1:44

episode with a lot of great stuff.

2:43

So in today's episode, I really

2:43

want to dive into the topic of

2:46

building and hiring your dream team. And I know this is a very overwhelming

2:48

conversation for a lot of different firmer

2:52

owners out there who are listening to me. And I think the reason why is because

2:54

it is really overwhelming, you are

2:57

risking the hard earned dollars that

2:57

you have made on to someone that

3:01

you don't know that you just met. That you still have to find, and

3:03

that you have to look for you at

3:06

the train and you have to onboard. There's a lot that goes to it.

3:09

And I think that a lot of times

3:09

people are really scared to hire or

3:12

bring people on out of this fear that

3:12

they are going to get screwed over,

3:15

or this fear that they're not going to be able to take care of their clients the same way that they can.

3:19

And that it just takes too much time in

3:19

that I'm going to have to babysit them.

3:22

And I can tell you from experience. That while yes, you will have to spend

3:24

a lot of time at the beginning with

3:27

this person you'll have to onboard them. You'll have to train them.

3:30

You have to do a lot of different

3:30

things to get them adapted to

3:32

your business in the longterm.

3:34

These people are very much so worth it, as

3:34

long as you're finding the right people.

3:38

And I think a lot of that comes from. Positive methodologies that I'm going to

3:40

share today, about ways that you can find.

3:44

Your dream team and find those people

3:44

to attract them and say the right

3:47

words and say the right things that

3:47

are really helping you to bring them

3:51

in, because it's not just about you. It's also about them as well.

3:55

You want to create a compelling job

3:55

description, a compelling, you know,

3:59

type of business that you run that

3:59

will make someone excited to be working

4:03

for you because remember that someone

4:03

is trading their life in exchange

4:06

for money to be able to work for you.

4:08

And so like, just remember that

4:08

you have to convince somebody and

4:11

that's why I think it's so important. I think a lot of people in our

4:12

space, they just hire for the sake

4:15

of hiring because they need immediate

4:15

help, which like, of course we

4:18

all need immediate help right now. But what I mean is when you start

4:20

to get this almost like desperation,

4:24

it feels desperate when you're

4:24

in the moment and you're actually

4:27

going through the hiring process. And so what I really, really want from

4:29

everyone from today's episode is to

4:32

just give you some strategies and some

4:32

tips on better ways that you can hire.

4:35

So if you already have had

4:35

an experience with hiring.

4:38

And maybe you've had a terrible experience. And your now even second guessing

4:39

trying to hire again in the future,

4:43

then I just want you to know that,

4:43

like, not everybody that you hired was

4:46

the same way that you hired someone

4:46

else or that the same outcome of the

4:51

person that you ended up bringing on. And also the hard truth is which I think

4:53

a lot of people don't take the time to

4:57

like really think through the hard truth

4:57

is, is that you, if you didn't have the

5:01

right resources, onboarding system,

5:01

training system, whatever that looks like.

5:06

If you didn't have those things

5:06

in place for these people, then

5:09

maybe it wasn't a them problem. Maybe it was a you problem.

5:12

And I see this all a lot in the

5:12

industry where a lot of people will

5:15

just hire, hire, hire, and then they

5:15

get mad because it's two months and

5:19

they haven't like perfected the whole

5:19

world and they haven't been able to

5:22

go in and like do all the things like

5:22

constantly without their guidance.

5:25

And there is some truth to that. And there is a moment when you have

5:28

to say, okay, this person is no longer

5:30

a good fit, but I really want you to

5:30

take a hard look at yourself and ask

5:34

yourself, did I fail to give this

5:34

new person who worked with me a fee?

5:38

If you are someone who had a bad experience. Did I give them everything

5:40

that they needed. And I know your immediate reaction

5:43

is like, of course I feel it's

5:46

like, yes, of course I did. I made sure to get them

5:47

this and this and this. But really think through it.

5:51

What was the reason for their resistance? What was the reason why

5:53

they just couldn't catch on?

5:56

Did you have conversations with them

5:56

instead of just trying to let someone go?

5:59

Why not just take the time to

5:59

really have some deep conversations

6:03

about what's really happening. Just remember that

6:04

people who work for you. really do genuinely want

6:06

to do, good work for you.

6:09

And so if you've ever been employee

6:09

of someone else, you probably

6:12

also really wanted to work really

6:12

hard and wanted to prove that

6:15

you were good and that you could. You know, Excel at all

6:16

and so on and so forth.

6:19

I was one of those people. So I always try to think that anybody

6:20

that I hire is also trying to be that

6:24

same person that I, used to strive to be. when I was someone else's employee.

6:28

So I just want to preface that. So like I mentioned, if you've had

6:29

a bad experience in the past with

6:32

hiring, I just really promise you

6:32

not everyone's the same and really

6:35

take a step back and look at you. I know it's going to hurt your ego,

6:37

but look at you and what you did, and

6:40

maybe what you didn't do that maybe

6:40

you could do different in the future

6:43

for the next person that you bring on. If you've never hired at all, and this is

6:46

going to be your very, very first time.

6:49

it's going to be overwhelming. The process itself is truly overwhelming.

6:53

I remember the first time I

6:53

ever hired someone, but I tell

6:55

you that it does get easier. So let's talk about the different

6:58

stages, the different phases.

7:01

Of when someone is coming to work

7:01

for you all the way from identifying

7:04

the higher to even letting them go. And so this is a same concept I teach

7:06

inside of breakthrough, which is my

7:09

group coaching program at six months. It is also lifetime access to the

7:11

program content, but six months

7:14

of support, it's freaking amazing.

7:16

And I just love breakthrough in a

7:16

lot of the conversation is about

7:19

hiring, which is super cool. So the way that we teach it is that

7:20

there's always the beginning phase,

7:23

which is the identification of the hires. So we can't hire without first knowing

7:25

who we need to hire, who we need to bring

7:29

on, who's going to fit in the company. What do does the company need right now?

7:33

It's not what you need. I remember you are an extension of

7:34

the company, but it's really what the

7:37

company needs to be able to thrive and

7:37

to continue to grow and move forward.

7:42

Then you move into the

7:42

actual hiring phase.

7:44

And this is where it's going to be things

7:44

like creating your job description.

7:47

This is where you're going to be

7:47

putting together the application.

7:50

You're going to start interviewing

7:50

people and then selecting that

7:53

person that's like that rock star

7:53

and even extending the offer.

7:56

Then we move into the next phase,

7:56

which is phase three, which

7:59

is maintaining these hires. These are things like onboarding the team

8:00

member, training them, maintaining them

8:03

down to KPIs, making sure that they are in

8:03

full alignment with the company and that

8:08

they are continuing to grow over time.

8:10

And in the last phase is really

8:10

where you're going into the

8:13

leadership and letting go phase. And so we kind of clumped

8:15

them into one phase.

8:17

And the reason why is because it's either. Someone is continuing to Excel that

8:19

eventually you want to like move

8:22

them up into a different position

8:22

or adapt them into a different

8:26

role or you're letting them go.

8:28

and it's okay if you have to let

8:28

someone go, but if you've done all

8:31

the other things from the first three

8:31

phases, and by that time, that person

8:34

is just not working out for you, then

8:34

letting go is probably the best option.

8:38

But like I mentioned, it really can

8:38

come down to the way that you do things

8:43

within the business, in the way that you

8:43

train and onboard them and give them the

8:46

resources that they need to execute the

8:46

work before trying to let someone go.

8:50

If someone's ticking off all those

8:50

boxes, they fit in perfect with the

8:53

company and they've been trained

8:53

and onboarded correctly, and

8:56

they're just an amazing human being. They're going to work out really well.

9:00

And I think a lot of people in

9:00

this industry, like I mentioned

9:02

before, like, you're really

9:02

overwhelmed by this process because.

9:05

We all just like, have this idea that

9:05

like, no, one's going to love my clients.

9:09

Like I will like. Alyssa, they just will

9:10

not execute like me.

9:12

They won't care like me. And I can tell you from experience

9:14

with the people that I've hired

9:17

on my team, I've been very,

9:17

very fortunate, very fortunate.

9:21

That every single employee and

9:21

contractor who has ever worked for me.

9:25

At either workflow queen or at

9:25

magnetic bookkeeping that they

9:28

are legitimately so amazing.

9:31

They, they go above and beyond. They really want to learn.

9:34

They really want to be involved. They are heavily invested in the company.

9:37

I'm telling you that these people exist. And I don't know if it's the

9:39

way that I'm able to find these

9:42

people, vet them and bring them on. I don't know if it's because

9:43

of the job description. But I do know from experience that even

9:45

the other breakthrough students, that

9:48

we've helped go through this process. If they followed everything to a

9:50

T on the way that we teach how to

9:54

hire, identify them, maintain them. And.

9:57

Move them into the next role and let them go. I could tell you that they have

9:59

had great experiences as well.

10:02

A lot of, I just had a student

10:02

the other day telling me that.

10:04

she just went on maternity leave and

10:04

it was so nice because she came back

10:08

in January, literally in January

10:08

during 10 99 season and starting

10:11

to pick up for cleanup season. And she straight up told me that if

10:13

she hadn't hired all the people that

10:16

we had recommended that she hired. back in may, she would not have

10:18

been ready for that moment.

10:20

And so I can tell you from experience. These things are possible.

10:24

So I really recommend that you grab

10:24

a pen and paper because it's going

10:26

to be a lot of information today. So I'm really going to focus a lot

11:35

on phase one and phase two, which

11:37

is, identifying your hires and also

11:37

that hiring phase, the phases three

11:42

and four, I'm kind of going to leave

11:42

maybe for another episode, maybe down

11:45

the line, or if you ever want to hear

11:45

a little bit more, just let me know.

11:47

Or if you want more in depth with

11:47

all the resources and assets, then

11:50

I'm going to recommend going through

11:50

breakthrough, which will give you all

11:53

the job descriptions, applications,

11:53

everything that you need in order

11:57

to hire and find the right person. So let's talk about the very beginning.

12:00

So I think a lot of times people

12:00

just kind of Willy nilly it and

12:03

just hope for the best and just, you

12:03

know, decide, you know what, I need a

12:06

bookkeeper or I just need an assistant

12:06

or I just needed an account manager.

12:09

And you could tell by the way that

12:09

even I'm saying it, that I don't even

12:12

know if I'm confident, knowing that

12:12

that's who I actually need on my team.

12:15

And I think this is where a lot of

12:15

people get tripped up because they're

12:18

like the chicken before the egg. Do I hire the assistant

12:19

before the bookkeeper?

12:21

Do I hire the account manager before the bookkeeper? Like which one do I go with Alyssa?

12:25

Like, what is happening? This is where you're really

12:26

going to leverage time tracking.

12:29

And so I talk about time tracking a

12:29

lot, and I know I sound like probably

12:32

a broken record, but if you have never

12:32

heard of the concept time tracking.

12:36

I do know that we have

12:36

podcast episodes on it.

12:38

You can go to workflow queen.com,

12:38

backslash podcast, and search for

12:41

a podcast about time-tracking. We also have blogs on

12:43

time tracking as well.

12:46

I'm huge on the app clock. we use the free version.

12:50

And it even integrates with like a

12:50

sauna and click up, which is super cool.

12:53

But my recommendation with

12:53

the time tracking is to

12:56

have yourself and your team. If you do have a team, have

12:57

everybody on the team do time

13:00

tracking for at least like 30 days. If it's just, you don't worry.

13:03

Also just do it for 30 days. And what you're going to do with

13:05

this data is you're going to want to

13:07

make sure that you're really thorough

13:07

in what you're actually doing.

13:10

So what I mean is don't go

13:10

time-tracking and say, I don't know.

13:14

I'll give you a great example. Don't go. Time-tracking saying

13:15

like monthly bookkeeping.

13:18

And then like for a specific client. That doesn't tell, like, there's so

13:20

many things that you're doing when

13:23

you're doing monthly bookkeeping

13:23

that like, Could be wildly different.

13:28

And not only that, but like an

13:28

assistant can pull statements

13:31

while like an assistant could

13:31

not go in and like possibly like

13:34

analyze financial statements. So like, you need to be detailed

13:36

in your own time tracking or else.

13:39

This is not gonna work for you. So what you want to do is that,

13:40

I'll give that same example.

13:43

So instead of saying monthly

13:43

bookkeeping, what are you actually doing?

13:46

So maybe it's pulling statements and

13:46

I know that you're going to be like,

13:48

oh my God, a task switch all the time. Well, that's another reason why time

13:50

tracking is so important because it will,

13:53

whip you into shape knowing that like you

13:53

get distracted every five seconds and that

13:57

you cannot do two things at one time when

13:57

you're time-tracking, because you can only

14:00

time track one thing at a time and it will

14:00

really help you get yourself into shape.

14:04

So, what you're going to do is

14:04

time track for at least dirty

14:06

days, a 30 day accounting cycle.

14:08

That's because in those 30 days, you'll

14:08

go through that whole entire phase

14:11

of the accounting cycle down from

14:11

month, end, close all the way down to

14:15

just, you know, regular maintenance

14:15

of the books to maybe paying bills to

14:18

running payroll and what not to do for

14:18

30 days for yourself and your team.

14:21

Once you get this data, I want

14:21

you to tag or write down, maybe

14:26

export it as an Excel, write

14:26

down what client you worked on.

14:29

I usually recommend that while your doing

14:29

your time entries that you also tag it.

14:32

With the client's names that way, you

14:32

know what clients you're working on.

14:36

So anyways, while you're going to

14:36

do the reason why that's important

14:38

too, is you want to know how much

14:38

time it's going to take per client.

14:41

For whoever you're hiring as well. So from this time tracking spreadsheet

14:43

or report, whatever you're using.

14:47

And I want you to go through it. And I want you to check off any of the

14:48

really easy things that are easy for you

14:52

to either train or create resources on or

14:52

to even hire out or let go of, because the

14:58

things that are really easy and natural

14:58

for you are going to be a lot more natural

15:02

for you to actually train an outside. Outsource than something that's

15:04

like hard for you to think through,

15:06

hard for you to, get through.

15:09

And so I want you to start off by

15:09

checking off those things are going

15:11

to be really easy for you to document. Then I want you to just kind of

15:13

analyze your time tracking to see,

15:16

is there a common trend of like tasks

15:16

that I do that are for each role?

15:20

So for example, if you're doing a lot of

15:20

meetings for clients, a lot of financial.

15:25

report overviews and on and so forth.

15:27

And it's eating up your time. Then maybe an account manager

15:29

is a better fit for you because

15:32

they can actually represent you,

15:32

go and meet with the clients.

15:35

They can actually analyze the financial statements. They should be able to do

15:37

advanced journal entries. There's a lot of different things.

15:40

These account managers can do. Well, maybe on the other hand,

15:41

you're, you're still at the

15:43

very beginning stages of. Having not hired anybody.

15:47

And you're just drowning in the weeds. Maybe you have 20 clients and you were

15:49

just constantly doing the day-to-day work.

15:53

You're posting checks. You are literally grabbing statements.

15:56

You're doing all the day-to-day bookkeeping things. I want you to find the common.

16:00

Trend of the thing, like the most

16:00

like role that you are performing.

16:04

So you're going to be performing a lot of roles. You are the salesperson,

16:06

the marketer, you're the bookkeeper, the account manager.

16:09

You are everything if you've never hired.

16:11

So just remember that you're looking for

16:11

the common things that are like a specific

16:16

role that is taking up an eating the

16:16

most of your time, or you freaking dread.

16:20

There are a lot of things

16:20

in my business that I dread.

16:23

So for example, social media

16:23

management, absolutely.

16:25

First thing I ever outsourced when

16:25

I started workflow queen was social

16:28

media management and then also

16:28

for magnetic as well, immediately

16:32

hired a social media manager. I was like, I'm not doing this whole me

16:34

trying to be a social media manager and

16:38

posting on Facebook coming up with copy. Like, no, no, thank you.

16:41

And so for me, it was really important

16:41

for me to let that go, like, almost

16:45

immediately, because I just didn't

16:45

want to go down that rabbit hole

16:48

because I knew I'd get stuck. I knew I'd get overwhelmed.

16:51

I have immediately hired a bookkeeper

16:51

at magnetic when I started that company.

16:55

It was almost literally immediately

16:55

because I was like, I'm not doing

16:58

the day-to-day, I'm not going to get

16:58

stuck in that again, because remember

17:00

I have had the chance to start a firm

17:00

all the way from the beginning again.

17:03

And this time around, I was just like,

17:03

not having it, like I just, wasn't

17:06

going to go down that rabbit hole. Right? So you, most of the time you will

17:08

find that you will need a bookkeeper.

17:11

If you are someone who has a

17:11

bookkeeping firm here, That that

17:14

usually is going to be your first hire. If you're more advanced, I really

17:15

recommend that you use your time tracking

17:18

for you and your team to really analyze

17:18

usually most of the time, the next

17:22

step is going to be either a senior

17:22

bookkeeper or an account manager.

17:25

If you're a little bit more advanced or

17:25

if maybe your time is being so sucked

17:29

into doing those monthly calls of clients. and if you find that that's where your

17:31

progression is moving towards, and

17:34

you're definitely gonna want to think

17:34

about doing an account manager role.

17:37

And so like from this time tracking

17:37

analysis, that's really going to help you.

17:40

So a lot of people are like, I don't

17:40

get why Alyssa just loves time tracking.

17:43

It's seriously in so many

17:43

different ways helps.

17:45

You're also even going to use this

17:45

time, tracking data, all those things

17:47

that you checked off that are like

17:47

certain roles, you can actually use

17:51

those exact line items as things that

17:51

you will put on your job description.

17:55

Your time tracking can be used in so

17:55

many different ways that even that same

17:59

list of the tasks that you want someone

17:59

else to perform, that you checked off.

18:03

Could even be a running list of all

18:03

the resources that you need to make or

18:07

training resources for this new hire.

18:09

So for example, if it's really easy for

18:09

you to, I don't know, poll statements,

18:12

like that's pretty easy, you don't really

18:12

have to like train someone on, but we use

18:15

that as an example, the news that task

18:15

list is a way to say, okay, now how can I

18:19

create a resource that teaches someone how

18:19

to pull statements and how to save them?

18:23

What naming convention do I want them

18:23

to follow when they're actually saving

18:25

the documentation and what folders. That kind of stuff.

18:28

You will train someone on because,

18:28

pulling the statements is the easy part.

18:31

It's how do I store it? What way do you want me to name it?

18:34

And so like, you can use that time

18:34

tracking as a list of a way to like tell

18:39

you what you need to create as resources

18:39

for the person that you're hiring you.

18:42

Also from that same time tracking,

18:42

have a list of how much time it

18:46

takes per task and per client. And that's why I recommend

18:47

that you tag it per client.

18:50

So once you've gone through the

18:50

time tracking analysis is what,

18:52

like I said, will help you to

18:52

identify your future hires.

18:55

So you should be able. To use this data and in phone,

18:55

anytime you want to hire, we

18:58

just do a time tracking analysis. We're constantly time-tracking in my firm.

19:02

But if I really, really wanted to,

19:02

like, I can always be like, let's

19:05

get extremely thorough for at least

19:05

30 days to myself and my team to

19:08

see where we're ready to hire. There's also other

19:10

identifications of when to hire.

19:12

So if you already have been hiring people.

19:14

My recommendation is that you do

19:14

some sort of capacity planning.

19:18

And these are a lot of different concepts

19:18

that we teach inside a breakthrough,

19:21

but essentially capacity planning

19:21

is like, it's a simple spreadsheet.

19:24

It's, I've covered this on a coaching

19:24

call for our breakthrough students.

19:27

So if you're here listening, and you're

19:27

a breakthrough student, definitely

19:29

check our coaching call replay portal.

19:32

So essentially it's a very straightforward

19:32

spreadsheet and it just, we just simply

19:35

ask our team members how much time minimum

19:35

do you want to work every, single week.

19:39

And what's your maximum amount

19:39

of time that you can work.

19:42

And so what we want to do is we want

19:42

to make sure that their hours are

19:44

falling within their minimum to maximum.

19:47

And if it starts to raise, raise,

19:47

raise, and almost hit their max,

19:50

we know that we need to start

19:50

looking at hiring pretty soon.

19:53

And it's really that simple there's

19:53

sometimes you can get more complex

19:56

with it, with the capacity planning,

19:56

but I don't really think you need to.

20:00

Especially for those of you listening,

20:00

who, do have certain team members

20:03

in place and knowing when your

20:03

next move is to actually be hiring.

20:07

So next, you're going to want to go

20:07

walk through, once you identify those

20:10

future hires, I want you to take a

20:10

step back and ask yourself how much

20:14

are you going to pay this person? Or what's your range? That you're willing to pay.

20:17

If you can. I really recommend that you

20:17

meet with an HR company.

20:20

I do have a recommendation. They're called YHR they've been a

20:21

guest expert inside a breakthrough.

20:25

To talk about, what you should be paying

20:25

your team members, if they should be

20:28

salary, that they should be hourly. I think a lot of people think that you

20:29

get to control that, but you don't.

20:33

It depends on your state. It depends on what role they're playing.

20:37

What are they actually doing for you? Are you requiring certain things?

20:40

There's IRS guidelines and there's also

20:40

HR compliance that you need to follow.

20:44

And I don't want this to

20:44

overwhelm anybody or make you

20:46

feel like you can't move forward. I just really recommend that you

20:48

reach out to an HR consultant.

20:51

Like I mentioned, I'm going to

20:51

put down why HR in the, in the.

20:55

Comments below. So that way you guys have the ability to

20:56

reach out to them, but I know that they w.

20:59

Offer one-off consulting. There's also other HR companies

21:01

that, you know, also offer one on

21:04

one off consulting and even Gusto. Which is a payroll processing system.

21:08

It has like a HR feature. I know that Serena Shubha ambitious

21:10

bookkeeper is really big on

21:13

using Gusto, for their HR piece.

21:15

And that's up to you, however you want to do it. I knew Gusto is definitely going to

21:16

be the more cost-effective approach.

21:20

So, what you want to do is you

21:20

want to just compile a question.

21:23

Uh, a list of questions and you

21:23

kind of want to be prepared when

21:25

you have this conversation with

21:25

an HR person to say, these are the

21:28

responsibilities that I want them to take. This is the role.

21:30

This is what state I'm in. What can I do?

21:33

So for example, if you are forcing

21:33

someone to be working for you from nine

21:38

to five, based off IRS guidelines, and

21:38

they most likely need to be an employee,

21:41

like I said, please do your research. I am not an HR person.

21:45

I am also not the IRS. So please do your due diligence

21:46

to do this research on your own.

21:49

we do provide a sample company org

21:49

chart with a salary ranges and hourly

21:53

ranges for breakthrough students. But that's based off the research that

21:55

we've done, for our specific students.

21:58

But I'm going to leave that out here for this episode. So do your research, make sure

22:01

that you're looking at everything.

22:03

For example, I'm in

22:03

California and in California.

22:06

I don't know that, like the name

22:06

of this thing, I always butcher it,

22:09

but I think it's like AB 54, 55.

22:11

I don't even know the number,

22:11

but it's like AB something.

22:14

And based off that says that anybody

22:14

who we hire that does the same

22:19

thing as what the business offers.

22:21

We have to hire as an employee. So if they are a bookkeeper

22:23

that we're hiring.

22:25

No matter the state that they're in,

22:25

because I'm located in California, they

22:28

automatically have to be an employee. So I've already had a lot of people

22:30

reach out saying like, Hey, listen,

22:32

I know that you've mentioned on your

22:32

podcast, that you're looking for

22:34

people to work for you at your firm. And I still am.

22:37

So we are looking for

22:37

bookkeepers at our firm.

22:39

Always. We always want to have them in a

22:39

pipeline and even account managers.

22:42

So, if you're interested,

22:42

please feel free to email us at

22:45

support@magneticbookkeeping.com. But unfortunately, if you're going

22:47

to want a bookkeeper position, we

22:50

do have to hire you as an employee. I do not have a choice based

22:52

off what I've been told.

22:54

And the research that I've

22:54

done, so I could be wrong.

22:57

So if you're in California and

22:57

I'm just like butchering that

22:59

and like then please let me know. But based off the research and

23:01

the people that I have talked to.

23:03

that that is the case for me. And so that's another example.

23:07

And another example, too, when I hired

23:07

an employee over at workflow queen.

23:11

For full time. I found out that I wasn't even

23:12

allowed to offer them hourly.

23:15

Like, could I have still done it? Of course.

23:17

Like you can go against

23:17

all these rules guys.

23:19

Like when you listen to this, if

23:19

you're like, you know what, Alyssa,

23:21

this sounds way too complicated. I'm just going to pay them hourly.

23:23

Fine. Do whatever you want. It's fine. It's in the case of like

23:25

some sort of an audit or.

23:28

If someone ever reported you, that's

23:28

when you have to pull that risk of

23:31

like, w have you not staying compliant.

23:33

and so anyways, when I hired this

23:33

person full time, I found out that

23:37

I can only do salary and there was

23:37

a minimum salary threshold based

23:41

off the roles and responsibilities

23:41

set in place for that team member.

23:44

And so if we ever wanted to

23:44

transition them to hourly,

23:47

we had to do something else. It was a lot, I didn't know that

23:48

that was like a thing, right?

23:51

The first time I ever hired

23:51

someone, I just Willy nilly did.

23:54

This was back at my first firm. And I just paid someone 20 bucks

23:55

an hour to be a bookkeeper.

23:58

And like I also even used to do where

23:58

I would do a percent of the clients.

24:03

Fee would go towards the bookkeeper. I've done it all except now I

24:04

just try to stay more compliant.

24:08

And so it's really up to you if

24:08

you want to stay compliant or

24:10

not, but don't let that stop you

24:10

from hiring and moving forward.

24:14

So just get the right help. It's just like when we're telling

24:15

our prospects to find a bookkeeper

24:18

for help, like you're not an HR

24:18

consultant, like go find someone who

24:22

can support you in this capacity. So once you've identified

24:23

who you're going to hire.

24:26

Identified At least around

24:26

what you want to pay them.

24:29

And you've identified like exactly

24:29

what you want them to do for you.

24:32

This is where you're gonna start

24:32

going into the hiring phase.

24:34

And this is where you're gonna

24:34

start creating that job description.

24:37

And you're really going to be

24:37

taking the time to be interviewing

24:40

people and so on and so forth. So let's talk about the job description.

24:43

I think what sets me apart in the

24:43

way that we hire our team members and

24:47

the way that we teach it inside of

24:47

breakthrough is that we give like,

24:51

This like job description that is like

24:51

a sales page, because essentially you

24:56

are asking someone to trade their life

24:56

and their time to come work for you.

25:00

We are literally fluffing up and

25:00

I don't mean fluffing as in lying

25:04

I'm talking about like, We are

25:04

just like excited and pumped up.

25:07

And we're like, if you're that rock

25:07

star and you're a bad-ass and you

25:10

really want to be a bookkeeper and you

25:10

just love numbers and crunching them,

25:14

we get them so excited that as they're

25:14

reading that like job description,

25:17

which is AKA like a sales page. They literally like, hell yes.

25:21

Hell yes. Hell yes. That by the time they get to the

25:22

bottom, they're like this job is for me.

25:26

What I, what we're doing through

25:26

our process of our job description,

25:29

because we make it so unique is we

25:29

are immediately weeding out people

25:33

who were like, Ooh, I don't like

25:33

the fact that she uses the word.

25:35

Bad-ass like, I don't like that. Like the owner cusses, like, okay, fine.

25:39

That's like, you're not my people

25:39

then, like, and that's totally okay.

25:41

Right. And so what we're doing during that

25:42

process is we're naturally weeding

25:45

people out and naturally bringing in

25:45

people who are a full body hell yes.

25:49

To come work for us. And I think that that's

25:51

what sets us apart. I can mention before and why we've

25:53

been able to find such amazing.

25:56

It started seriously with the job description. At any of our students and breakthrough

25:58

who have used our same methodologies

26:02

to find their team members, I've

26:02

heard nothing but incredible things.

26:05

You know, obviously there's going to

26:05

always be in a bad egg here and there,

26:08

but predominantly we have heard some

26:08

great feedback about our job descriptions.

26:12

It got to the point where like a lot

26:12

of our students were like resisting

26:15

hiring because of creating the job

26:15

description, because it's a lot of work.

26:18

There's a lot of effort that goes into it. You got to make sure it's fun and

26:20

exciting, and it has your voice and all

26:23

these different things that it got to the

26:23

point where I was like, you know what?

26:27

I went out and searched for someone

26:27

who can build custom AI bots.

26:31

And build them specifically

26:31

for my breakthrough students.

26:34

So I actually gave my methodologies

26:34

of the way I created a

26:38

sales, like job description. To an AI builder.

26:41

So this guy that I ended up

26:41

hiring, it costs me thousands.

26:45

When I say thousands like. A lot for me to hire this guy to

26:47

just build this one little AI bot

26:50

that now lives inside a breakthrough. But essentially he built this

26:52

thing that like all of our students

26:55

can go in there and say how many

26:55

hours that they have available.

26:58

They could say exactly what

26:58

role that they want to hire for.

27:01

They could put in personality

27:01

traits that they're looking for in

27:03

different, like commonalities that

27:03

they want from these team members.

27:06

Even down to like who they're

27:06

reporting to like all those details.

27:10

And essentially. Once they click submit, it will take our

27:11

methodologies of the way that we build

27:15

our job description and create it in

27:15

literally like less than two minutes.

27:19

And so if you ever need to hire in your

27:19

insight of breakthrough, you can just

27:22

go straight to that bot and input all

27:22

of your data and all the information

27:25

that you want from this person. And it will create you the same, like

27:27

job description that I even use in my own

27:31

firm to find my rockstar team members. It's freaking so cool.

27:35

It like, we finally launched

27:35

it like two months ago.

27:37

It took him a while to build and

27:37

oh my God, it works like a charm.

27:40

It's so cool. If you're a breakthrough student

27:41

and you've used it already, please

27:43

let me know how much you love it. Cause I know a lot of you guys

27:44

were hyped when we announced

27:47

that we were, adding that. So the reason I did that was

27:48

because I think a lot of people get

27:50

tripped up on that job description. So my recommendation, if you're

27:52

not, going to join something

27:54

like breakthrough that's totally. Okay. Just take your time at

27:56

the job description. Take your time in the ways that,

27:58

you are writing it, make sure to

28:01

put your heart and soul into it. I think a lot of times

28:02

everything is so generic now.

28:05

Like everything sounds the same. And if you're inspired by someone else's

28:07

job description, please make sure that.

28:10

Do not copy their job description. I can't tell you how many times

28:12

I've had my job description stolen

28:15

by people who were not my students

28:15

who were given permission to be

28:18

able to use my job descriptions. It is just wrong.

28:21

It is plagiarism. And I have definitely involved

28:22

my lawyer and anybody who has

28:25

stolen the job description. And so the reason I say that is because

28:27

I really, really recommend that it comes

28:31

from the heart because if you take my job

28:31

description, it is fluffed up to the max.

28:36

You are going to attract a

28:36

wildly different team member.

28:39

Then you probably want, maybe

28:39

you're someone who's more

28:41

laid back and more chill. You're not going to want

28:43

to take a job description.

28:45

That's fluffed up like mine and

28:45

implemented into your business

28:49

because then you're gonna end up. Hiring someone. And they're going to think you're this

28:51

excited and fluffed up person, and

28:54

they're gonna get hired and realize

28:54

that you're more laid back and it's

28:57

not really what they signed up for. Right. And so I'm not saying that's a bad

28:59

thing, but what I mean by that is that.

29:02

Go from the heart and really

29:02

create this job description to

29:05

attract the right person to support

29:05

you long-term in the business.

29:09

It doesn't have to be crazy,

29:09

a really great resource for

29:11

creating a job description. If you're overwhelmed by the process.

29:14

Is a book called, make

29:14

them beg to work for you.

29:17

And I believe it's by Dr.

29:20

Angela tan, I think is her last name. I may also get that

29:22

wrong, but don't worry. I will link.

29:24

That book below in this episode.

29:27

The reason why I bring her up is

29:27

because she has a great resource about

29:30

creating job descriptions that are

29:30

like, like almost like a sales page.

29:33

Like, I got a lot of my methodologies

29:33

from her and from some of her

29:37

resources, but I have adapted it into

29:37

something even more unique over time.

29:42

I really liked her idea of doing like the

29:42

sales page and putting your personality

29:45

in it to really attract the right person. So my recommendation it's a

29:47

seriously, such a super easy read.

29:51

I think I read it on like a flight and

29:51

I don't remember where I was flying

29:53

to, but I definitely remember like

29:53

reading on a flight and listening.

29:55

At onto, audible as well. So create your job description.

29:59

And by this time you should

29:59

start now posting it somewhere.

30:02

So a lot of people are like Alyssa,

30:02

I don't know where to post it and

30:04

I don't know, blah, blah, blah. Well, my first question to you is, do

30:05

you want someone who's also trying to

30:07

build their own bookkeeping business? If your answer is yes.

30:10

You don't mind that someone else is

30:10

also building their business and working

30:14

for you, then post it in groups like

30:14

bookkeeper launch inside these, online

30:18

bookkeeping, Facebook communities. You could do on things like indeed,

30:20

there's a lot of different options.

30:24

You could do it on LinkedIn. There's a lot of different options of

30:25

where you could post your stuff, but

30:27

if you don't want someone who's also

30:27

trying to juggle their own business.

30:31

Then my recommendation is, do

30:31

not post it inside the Facebook

30:33

communities, that are for bookkeepers

30:33

who are also running their own firm.

30:37

And this is where I see a lot of mistakes. So I came from the

30:39

program bookkeeper launch. I hear a lot from bookkeeper launch

30:41

students who post in those groups.

30:44

Subcontractor group for bookkeeper

30:44

launch all these different areas,

30:47

but keep your launches a program by

30:47

the way, if you've never heard of it.

30:50

the problem that they have is they're like, well, now they're at this point where this person

30:52

literally like, just got hired and

30:55

their business just kind of blew up. So if you don't want to have to

30:56

risk that, then I would recommend

30:58

not searching in those places. Not to say that they're not quality

31:00

people, but it's just in my business.

31:04

The people who work for me,

31:04

don't also juggle their own firm.

31:07

Now I'm I can't force that on someone.

31:11

If I'm only giving you five hours

31:11

a week, then you have every right

31:14

to do whatever you need to do. To be able to like sustain

31:16

your cost of living.

31:18

And so, like, I can't force you

31:18

to like, not have other jobs.

31:21

If I'm only giving you five hours a week. So just remember that.

31:24

So for me though, anybody who works at my

31:24

firm does not also juggle their own firm.

31:28

And that's because one at my firm,

31:28

I, the last thing I need is for

31:31

someone to steal my processes

31:31

and everything that I've built.

31:35

And the things that I literally sell to

31:35

our students, here at workflow queen.

31:39

And so I just have to be very careful

31:39

about who I hire, but that's my decision.

31:42

My decision was I didn't want

31:42

to bring on someone who was also

31:44

juggling their own business. And that's kind of changed

31:46

over time and that's okay.

31:48

So just think back to what you

31:48

want, and that will help you to

31:51

identify where you're going to

31:51

start looking for these hires.

31:54

So once you start to actually post on

31:54

these things is where you're going to

31:57

start getting applications coming in. And my recommendation is in

31:59

your job description to really

32:01

include some detailed steps of

32:01

how people should apply for us.

32:04

We have them send us over a loom video, or

32:04

some sort of a screen recording video of

32:09

themselves, just introducing themselves. We are not judging them by their

32:11

looks Or any of that kind of stuff,

32:13

we're really just making sure that

32:13

they feel the confidence, or you

32:17

could just tell when someone like

32:17

really genuinely wants the job.

32:20

Not only that, but it will

32:20

immediately weed out people who

32:23

are too lazy to even do a video. And it's like my favorite way to do it.

32:26

I see it all the time in like Facebook

32:26

groups in the bookkeeping space.

32:29

Or people are like, I get so tired of

32:29

people who want me to do a video for

32:34

the application and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, those are the people that

32:35

like, I don't want to hire because like,

32:39

I want people who are going to go above

32:39

and beyond for the job description,

32:42

because it tells me you're going to

32:42

go above and beyond in your job role.

32:45

And so we do the loom video. They also have to send

32:47

over a PDF of their. resume as well.

32:50

And then we go into the interview process.

32:53

So this is where we will

32:53

actually reach out to anybody

32:55

who actually followed the rules. The other thing we put in our job

32:56

description that totally forgot to say.

32:59

It's a secret subject line. So we actually hide a secret

33:00

subject line within the bullet

33:03

points on the job description

33:03

of like what the job duties are.

33:07

And for us, it says I've

33:07

found my dream company.

33:09

So it literally has a bullet point that

33:09

says, just to make sure that you're paying

33:12

attention, we want you to include in

33:12

the subject line, when you submit your

33:16

application, I found my dream company.

33:18

And so in the actual

33:18

job application, like.

33:22

steps of like how to apply. We say, upload the loom video

33:24

of yourself saying, Hey.

33:27

Introducing yourself, talking

33:27

about yourself, whatever.

33:29

Include your PDF resume and then also

33:29

include your secret subject line.

33:33

I can't tell you how many times people

33:33

do not include the secret subject line.

33:37

We don't open those applications at all.

33:39

Like we will not in any capacity.

33:42

I don't care if it's the best

33:42

employee I would ever possibly have.

33:45

They clearly couldn't follow instructions. So like, I am very adamant about this.

33:49

I don't even bother to open up that email. Because if you're not following the

33:51

secret subject line tells me, like,

33:53

you're not going to follow, like

33:53

reading through everything else.

33:56

They could literally do everything

33:56

else, like include the loom

33:58

video and include the PDF. I still won't look at it.

34:01

So if they've checked off all three

34:01

of those boxes, then our team actually

34:04

will start filtering through the

34:04

applications to see who is someone

34:07

that we are really drawn towards.

34:10

Um, maybe that's through their

34:10

resume or the conversation that they

34:12

had, that we want to, get a deeper

34:12

conversation as, as in an interview

34:15

on, so we'll, set up those interviews.

34:18

During those interviews, we use like

34:18

a series of questions that go through

34:21

like the culture of the company, to

34:21

make sure that they're a culture fit.

34:24

We also cover things like team fit. Client fit.

34:27

Like we want to make sure that we're hitting all areas. If you're in breakthrough, we do

34:29

include the interview questions.

34:32

So if you ever need those questions,

34:32

you can use the same ones that

34:35

I use for my own firm as well. Then once you're in the interview, this is

34:36

where we're actually going to go through.

34:39

And if we already know predominantly

34:39

a lot of the times when we're on that

34:42

interview, that we like really liked this

34:42

person that we want them to move forward.

34:46

And so our process is if they move

34:46

forward, we send them a series of

34:50

questions that they need to answer. Like they're like tasks almost that.

34:54

We need them to answer. In order for us to like, make sure

34:55

that they know their **** pretty much.

34:58

And so with that, we also require that

34:58

they give us all the answers back within,

35:02

I think it's, I can't remember, but I

35:02

think it's either 48 hours or 72 hours.

35:06

It's something that I am

35:06

no longer involved in, like

35:09

the constant hiring process. And so I always forget this part.

35:12

So it's either 48 hours or 72 hours, but

35:12

essentially from the moment that we tell

35:16

them on the first interview, like, Hey,

35:16

we're going to send you over a series

35:19

of tasks that we want you to complete. And they're usually just

35:21

compiled in an email. Can you do us a favor and just get

35:23

it back to us by like Sunday night

35:26

and like give them a hard deadline. The reason why we do that is because

35:28

like, we get a lot of people who will

35:31

submit their stuff at like a pretty good

35:31

rate of time of when they submit it.

35:36

But then we have some people who

35:36

do it like an hour before it's due.

35:39

And those are the people we almost

35:39

immediately that's part of our criteria

35:42

is if someone submits their homework that

35:42

we asked them for during the interview

35:46

process to like further test them, if they

35:46

get it to us an hour before, like, When it

35:52

was due, we immediately don't hire them. And that's because that tells us

35:54

that they're going to procrastinate

35:56

and there's already one master

35:56

procrastinator here on my team.

35:58

And that's me. I don't need another procrastinator.

36:01

Like, you know what I mean? But I'm also like the leader.

36:03

Like I can kind of get away with

36:03

doing that on my team, you know?

36:07

and so in that, process, we're

36:07

taking the answers that people give.

36:10

So the people who are actually

36:10

answering those tasks.

36:13

And they're doing it thoroughly, and

36:13

we're now assessing what they had to say.

36:16

And this is where we're finding key

36:16

little things that they're doing

36:19

that tell us that they went above

36:19

and beyond to find that information.

36:22

So for example, I think one

36:22

time we did, in the series of

36:25

questions, we asked someone. You're in charge of, I don't know,

36:27

organizing the Gmail and creating

36:30

labels for everything we gave him. No context.

36:33

One of the girls who went,

36:33

who we ended up hiring.

36:36

I ended up going to our website and

36:36

finding out what services that we

36:39

offered, what programs we offered,

36:39

all the things that we offered.

36:42

And they went in and compiled those tags.

36:44

The ways to organize the Gmail. And not that question.

36:48

that we had asked them inside of that email. And so the reason I bring that up

36:50

is because that told me that they

36:52

were investigative, that they are

36:52

willing to go and figure out a solution

36:57

without asking me further questions. And that's what I really

36:59

appreciate from team members. We ended up hiring them and they

37:01

worked for me for like three years.

37:03

So it's just, I'm telling you that

37:03

when you do these little things,

37:06

I know it sounds like a lot. It really isn't that much.

37:08

When you go through the process over

37:08

and over again, it becomes really easy.

37:12

So once they go and answer

37:12

these questions, if someone

37:14

answered them thoroughly, they're

37:14

like surprising you their.

37:16

Our amazing the interview went great.

37:18

Then maybe there's an opportunity for

37:18

you to pick, you know, that person

37:22

and maybe that's the person that

37:22

you ended up extending the offer to.

37:25

This is where you're going to do an official offer, where they're going to sign contracts.

37:28

They're going to do all that fun stuff. My HR company helped us create

37:29

our extending of the offer.

37:32

Stuff. And that's why I love that HR

37:33

company they're called Yahr and I'm

37:36

gonna link them below for you guys. But at this point, this is

37:37

where you're saying, Hey, I'd love for you to work with me.

37:40

And like I said, I'm only covering

37:40

phases one and two, which is

37:43

identifying your hires and then actually

37:43

going through the hiring process.

37:46

I could maybe say for another episode,

37:46

Phase number three, which is onboarding

37:49

training and maintaining these

37:49

team members and then phase four,

37:52

which is leadership and letting go. And so I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

37:55

I hope you took a lot of notes. If you have any followup questions

37:56

or you're interested in maybe even

37:59

taking breakthrough, because we

37:59

cover all of the different phases.

38:02

We give you all the assets, we're

38:02

here to support you in coaching calls

38:06

and also in the Facebook community. There's opportunities to get

38:08

one-on-one coaching for me.

38:10

There's just so much, would you

38:10

homework reviews where you could

38:12

submit your job description so

38:12

we can like give you feedback.

38:15

If you're interested in breakthrough that

38:15

I highly recommend, maybe just getting

38:19

on a console call and letting me know

38:19

about your business, where you're at, and

38:22

I can give you recommendations if you're

38:22

ready for breakthrough right now or not.

38:25

And you can go to

38:25

breakthroughwithsystems.com/consult-call

38:30

or you can just click the link

38:30

in the description below and book

38:33

a consult call for just in case

38:33

that LinkedIn at work, because.

38:36

I'd be surprised. If I remembered the actual link name.

38:39

So if you want it, I believe you can

38:39

also go to workflowqueen.com/consult-call

38:45

and let's get on a call and let's

38:45

talk through right through, and the

38:48

different assets that we helped give you. And that's just one small

38:50

portion of breakthrough.

38:52

We also cover mindset, offers a

38:52

rescaling, all of your offers to

38:56

adhere to these new hires systems. So internal, external systems.

39:00

Quality control everything that

39:00

you could possibly think of down

39:03

to hiring, even down to removing

39:03

yourself from the day-to-day.

39:06

So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you have any followups, please

39:07

feel free to reach out to me on

39:10

instagram @workflowqueen or at

39:10

support@workflowqueen.com I hope

39:14

you have the best date ever.