0:00

If you're sitting here thinking

0:00

what actually makes for a

0:02

scalable bookkeeping business,

0:02

then this is the episode for you.

0:06

And today's episode, I'm going to be

0:06

breaking down the nitty-gritty between

0:09

what it takes to be a scalable business.

0:11

That means taking your business to

0:11

the next level and breaking through

0:15

all of those different barriers

0:15

and all those different issues that

0:18

really take you to that next notch up.

0:20

So in today's episode, I'm gonna be

0:20

covering three core parts, which each part

0:24

will also include sub parts of it as well.

0:26

So I think today is jam packed with a

0:26

lot of information today, A lot of great

0:30

details that can really help you to

0:30

create that scalability in your business.

0:33

So, number one is standardizing

0:33

processes and systems.

0:36

Number two is building

0:36

a high performing team.

0:38

And number three is

0:38

implementing growth strategies.

0:41

If you have been dying to get your

0:41

business to that next level, and

0:43

you feel like you've plateaued,

0:43

then this is the episode for you.

0:46

Because if you implement these three

0:46

strategies, it will help you to

0:49

take things to the very next level. So let's talk all about creating

1:46

a scalable business model here

1:49

for your bookkeeping firm. So I really wanted to dive into three

1:50

major points today, which I'm going to

1:53

kind of break down, give you some details,

1:53

give you some step-by-steps and ways that

1:57

you can actually utilize the things I'm

1:57

going to break down today and actually

2:01

implement them into your business. So you can actually create

2:03

a scalable business model.

2:05

Right? So the first one is going to be

2:05

standardizing processes and systems.

2:09

Number two is building a high performing team. And number three is

2:11

implementing growth strategies.

2:13

If you can do all three of these, it could

2:13

typically help you to scale your business

2:17

and really bring it to the next level. And really that's the intention of

2:19

today's podcast episode, because

2:22

I think a lot of the times. We get overwhelmed and confused about,

2:23

you know, those people out there who are

2:26

just like, you could build a business in a

2:26

weekend and it could just be skyrocketing.

2:30

I just think that business just takes time. And I think that there are ways to

2:32

fast track the success and to fast

2:36

track the clients coming in and

2:36

whatever that looks like for you.

2:40

But I really do believe if

2:40

you do these three things.

2:42

So standardizing the processes and

2:42

systems, building a high performing team

2:46

and implementing those longterm growth

2:46

strategies, it can really help your

2:49

business to totally scale your business

2:49

can scale by yourself because I do

2:54

want to cover that from the beginning. If you notice number two is all about

2:55

building a high performing team,

2:58

which we'll dive into what that looks

2:58

like and why you would need that.

3:02

But you can scale as well as a solo

3:02

individual inside of your business.

3:07

But you can only go so far because you

3:07

can only take on so many clients by

3:10

yourself before you get burnt out before

3:10

you get overwhelmed and stressed out.

3:15

And so I just want to preface that. You can get really far by yourself in

3:17

the business, but if you really truly

3:21

want long-term growth from the business. Then you will have to build a high

3:23

performing team and it doesn't need to be.

3:27

This like 10 person team. It could be literally two to three people.

3:30

It could be one extra

3:30

team member alongside you.

3:33

It really doesn't matter, but the

3:33

more people that you have, the

3:36

more support and the more expansion

3:36

you can create in your business.

3:39

So let's start with number one, which is

3:39

standardizing your processes and systems.

3:43

so if you've been following me for any

3:43

time, then you know that I'm obsessed.

3:46

With systems, processes, tech,

3:46

automation, all those things.

3:50

That's literally what workflow queen

3:50

was built for was to help accountants

3:53

and bookkeepers to really implement

3:53

those systems, tech, automation,

3:57

all those different things. Right. And so this is kind of my zone

3:58

of genius and something that I

4:00

really absolutely loved doing. So the first thing is

4:02

documenting your workflows.

4:05

And so if you don't know what a workflow

4:05

is, essentially, that means like all

4:07

the steps of the things that you need

4:07

to perform to get something done.

4:10

And so that could be things

4:10

like reconciling a bank account.

4:13

Your, one of your workflows

4:13

could be onboarding your client.

4:16

It could be something as simple

4:16

as cleaning up the balance sheet.

4:20

It could be pulling statements. It's could be a wide variety

4:22

of things, essentially.

4:24

It's just action that you're taking. From start to finish, to execute

4:26

something with an end result.

4:30

And so you really just want to be

4:30

documenting these things and you

4:33

might be telling yourself, well,

4:33

what's the point in documenting them?

4:36

If it's just me, I could tell you

4:36

from experience that documenting

4:41

workflows systems and everything

4:41

that we have in the business.

4:44

Also helped me as an individual

4:44

to not have to re remember

4:48

everything every single month. So how many of you listening have been

4:50

in that scenario where every single

4:53

month you're going to pull those same

4:53

reports, that she was one as an example,

4:57

Wix, because it's complicated and

4:57

you have to go to all these different

4:59

places for all the different reports. You got to pull them in every month.

5:02

You always forget. Every month you go through the same cycle.

5:05

This is why documenting

5:05

those workflows Tuesday.

5:08

If you have no intention to hire. Really we'll save you.

5:11

And also if your business

5:11

grows to a point where.

5:14

Like you don't have a choice,

5:14

but to hire it's better that

5:17

you're proactive and documenting

5:17

those things in, in, in advance.

5:20

Right. And so my recommendation for

5:21

this is to just take your time.

5:24

As you're doing things you can

5:24

film yourself via a loom video.

5:28

you could actually buy it for

5:28

a free recording software.

5:30

And essentially loom allows you to

5:30

like screen record what you're doing.

5:33

And typically I will like screen record

5:33

what I'm doing and talk out loud to

5:37

walk the person through the steps,

5:37

whether I'm the one who's going to

5:40

launch that video or someone else,

5:40

it just makes life so much easier.

5:44

So we can use things like loom to help us.

5:47

There's things like a scribe. How is another great option too?

5:50

There's so many different ways

5:50

that you can be capturing all

5:53

of these different workflows. And these SOP is what we call them,

5:54

which is a standard operating procedure.

5:58

There's a lot of different outlets of

5:58

places that you can go in order to.

6:02

Be capturing these workflows and stuff. And like I said, it's seriously makes

6:04

your life so much easier because at the

6:08

end of the day, It's even for yourself,

6:08

if you have to re remember something

6:12

every single year, every single month

6:12

or every quarter, maybe if the pay.

6:16

Estimated quarterly tax payments for your

6:16

client or even for your own business.

6:19

And you just forget all the steps,

6:19

it just makes life so much easier.

6:22

And so you could totally document

6:22

these in like a virtual setting.

6:25

If you do have like a virtual

6:25

team or you want a virtual team.

6:28

Whatever works for you. I do recommend creating

6:30

templates and checklists. And so this is all part of standardizing

6:32

your processes and systems is if you

6:36

can have some sort of a checklist

6:36

and that checklist could be like how

6:39

to do something, the template could

6:39

be like a template for onboarding.

6:44

And when we talk about

6:44

templates, that's things like

6:46

in, for example, I use a sauna.

6:48

Which is my project management

6:48

system, but essentially a sauna

6:51

allows me to create template projects. So every time we onboard a new client,

6:53

we initiate this onboarding template

6:57

and it has all the different workflows,

6:57

all the different steps, all the

7:01

different checklists that we need in

7:01

order to start the onboarding for our

7:04

clients, whether that's things like

7:04

setting up the Google drive folders.

7:08

Maybe it's also setting up

7:08

their QuickBooks online account.

7:11

Getting their banks added to their

7:11

bank feeds inside of QuickBooks,

7:15

whatever that looks like we don't

7:15

have to recreate and reinvent the

7:17

wheel every time we onboard a client. And it's because we've templated and also

7:19

create a checklist and those workflows.

7:24

And so if you can't, I would really

7:24

recommend that you get into some

7:26

sort of a project management system. Like I said, I use a sauna.

7:29

I love a sauna. I teach us on a there's other

7:30

different options out there.

7:34

There's things like click up. Or things like keeper.

7:37

It really just it's different

7:37

strokes for different folks.

7:39

And to be honest, my recommendation

7:39

is take one of your clients.

7:42

And put them all into different

7:42

project management systems that

7:45

you have your eye on and just

7:45

test it out, see what works good.

7:48

What makes sense? And if maybe it doesn't make sense

7:49

because you don't know the software,

7:52

then maybe see if you can get education

7:52

around that specific software.

7:55

So if you didn't know, actually teach

7:55

a sauna and I actually give you all the

7:59

templates and all the checklists that

7:59

you need and the workflows in order

8:02

to execute your firm and to really

8:02

build it and support your clients.

8:07

I give everything from like running the

8:07

business, the different templates and

8:10

the different things all the way down

8:10

to like taking care of your clients,

8:13

the social media, all the different

8:13

things that you can possibly think of.

8:17

And that's in one of my programs

8:17

is called kickoff with a sauna

8:20

for bookkeepers and accountants. And it's a great program because

8:21

you sign up, it'll teach you how to

8:24

use a sauna from a to Z, and also

8:24

provides you all the templates,

8:28

all the checklists and everything. If you're not ready for kickoff with

8:30

a sauna, or maybe you're using a

8:33

different project management system,

8:33

like click up or keeper, we've.

8:36

I actually had a lot of students sign

8:36

up for kickoff with a sauna and use

8:39

our templates for different platforms.

8:41

The templates are the gold and like

8:41

where the foundation comes from.

8:45

If you're not ready for something

8:45

like a whole program dedicated

8:48

to a project management system. And maybe you just want to learn how to

8:49

document your workflows, then I'm going

8:53

to recommend looking at our program. It's a $37 program.

8:55

It's called workflows in a weekend. And I will link all of this

8:57

below the episode for you.

9:00

So that way you could click through to it. This is a great like starter program.

9:03

If you just want to get used to like my

9:03

teaching methods, it's actually going

9:06

to help you learn how to document your

9:06

workflows and take them out of your head.

9:10

So you're going to do all the work to

9:10

document them versus the difference

9:13

between workflows and weekend. I kick off with the sauna is

9:15

kickoff with the sauna walks.

9:17

We give you all the workflows, give you

9:17

all the templates, all the checklist.

9:21

Without you having to reinvent the

9:21

wheel and all you have to do is tweak

9:23

it to be maybe change it to be your

9:23

way versus like how I run things.

9:28

Right. So I'll drop those two below.

9:30

If you want it to be able to have

9:30

something that's already kind of

9:33

preset for you and ready for you. Now another thing too, about

9:35

standardizing your processes

9:37

and systems is providing clear

9:37

communication and training.

9:40

And so whether you have a team or not, my

9:40

recommendation is as you grow the business

9:45

and you realize that you do need to bring

9:45

some people on into the business, you

9:48

need to create some sort of a way to help

9:48

those people that are working for you.

9:52

know and understand how to talk with

9:52

you, how to talk with your clients

9:57

and also go with, through some sort

9:57

of a comprehensive training, whether

10:00

it's prerecorded training, or it

10:00

could be something like, an agenda,

10:03

an agenda for a zoom meeting where you

10:03

guys are going through a very strict.

10:06

Agenda of how to train this team member. In order to execute working

10:09

with you and you might be

10:11

asking yourself, well, Alyssa. If I end up hiring another bookkeeper

10:13

or an account manager or all

10:16

these different people, I expect

10:16

them to know how to do the books.

10:19

Yes, same here. But the thing is, well, whoever

11:27

you hire does not know how your

11:31

company specifically operates. The way that I'm telling you from

11:33

experience of someone who teaches

11:37

thousands of bookkeepers and accountants

11:37

from around the world, I could tell you

11:41

that everybody runs their from different.

11:43

So while you might love that this

11:43

bookkeeper knows and understands how to

11:47

reconcile, they won't No one understand

11:47

how to reconcile to your standards.

11:52

Your standards are going to be way different. I know some people out there,

11:53

I know some bookkeepers.

11:56

That literally like take

11:56

the statement ending balance

11:58

and throw it into the recon. And they go to reconcile and they

12:00

just like, whatever QBO, like

12:04

automatically selects from them

12:04

will be the total of the reconcile.

12:07

They just agree with it. Well for me.

12:09

in my, from my team better go line

12:09

by line from that statement to double

12:13

check and check off each of those boxes. Inside of QBO when they're going

12:15

through the reconciliation, from

12:18

what the statement's saying. So just from that little thing, the

12:19

bookkeeper knows and understands how

12:23

to reconcile, but it's up to you to

12:23

train them on how you're doing things

12:27

specifically within your business. And so if you have some sort of

12:29

like a training, like I said, an

12:31

agenda will really go a long way. So, what I mean by an

12:33

agenda is be strategic.

12:35

When you're training your team

12:35

members, you don't want to be chaos

12:38

and be on these like a zoom call with

12:38

them, trying to talk them through,

12:42

you know, how to do certain things. And you're, ping-ponging back and forth

12:43

because I know that that's how I am.

12:46

And so the best thing I could do for

12:46

myself is literally like write an

12:49

agenda out of what you guys are going

12:49

to cover for that hour zoom call.

12:53

So if you just hired a team member, you

12:53

book an hour, call with them, have an

12:56

agenda that says the first five minutes,

12:56

we're going to talk about how to use loom,

12:59

which is our screen recording software. The next.

13:02

Five minutes. We're going to talk about how to

13:02

use our project management system.

13:05

The next five minutes is how

13:05

we use QuickBooks online.

13:08

However you want to create it. The reason why you want an agenda

13:10

is it acts as a checklist of

13:13

all the things that you covered. So as you cover them, you can cross

13:14

them off on your agenda checklist.

13:17

And then you can also

13:17

even just be on track.

13:20

And the beauty is that same agenda can be

13:20

like your timestamps for the zoom video.

13:24

So essentially you would

13:24

download that zoom video.

13:26

Of the training you did with that team member. And they can go back and look back at all

13:28

the different parts of the zoom training.

13:33

To be able to remember what

13:33

you said, because they're not

13:35

going to remember everything. So make that stuff easily accessible.

13:38

So when we're talking about these

13:38

processes and systems, it's easily giving

13:42

information away to whoever it is, whether

13:42

it's for yourself or a team member.

13:47

We do teach how to create an

13:47

internal training program.

13:49

inside of my group coaching

13:49

program, it's called breakthrough.

13:52

And in breakthrough, I actually give

13:52

you the sample agenda because we have

13:56

our team members train for four weeks. The first two weeks are heavy on like how

13:58

we operate the company, how we operate

14:02

with the clients, so on and so forth. So it's prerecorded, but if you don't

14:04

want to prerecord it, because that

14:07

does take time and I can tell you from

14:07

experience, it does take a lot of effort.

14:11

Then you could use that same

14:11

information for an agenda.

14:14

So inside a breakthrough, we'll

14:14

teach you how to hire them.

14:16

The interview process, the job

14:16

description, everything that you could

14:20

possibly think of in bringing them

14:20

on, and then also even onboarding and

14:23

training those team members as well. So I'll drop that link

14:25

below as well for you guys.

14:27

Also making sure. And when we're talking about standardizing

14:28

your processes and systems, To utilize

14:32

cloud-based tools for automation. And so whenever you start to get

14:34

better at creating those systems

14:37

and processes, you're documenting

14:37

things, you're getting to that habit.

14:40

Now you could take a step back

14:40

and say, what can I actually

14:42

automate from all of this? What can I make?

14:45

Go faster? Maybe there's a way to

14:46

use something like Zapier.

14:48

Zapier is like one of my favorite. Pieces of software and app.

14:51

So Zapier essentially like

14:51

can connect different tools.

14:53

So for example, when someone signs

14:53

our contract inside of Dubsado,

14:57

which is where we host our proposals. For our prospects when they sign and

14:59

pay their first invoice in Dubsado.

15:03

We have a tool called Zapier

15:03

that essentially connects

15:07

Dubsado with like Google drive. And essentially we could say when someone

15:09

signs up proposal it, then we'll create

15:13

the Google drive folder for that client. And so instead of us having to manually

15:16

do everything in onboarding, we're able

15:19

to use tools like Zapier to be able

15:19

to automate things or make it easier.

15:23

Template things. If you can templating onboarding

15:24

emails, like the welcome email,

15:27

instead of having to re-type it every

15:27

time, keep a stack of like good email

15:32

templates, ready for you to use. And I actually have a mini course.

15:35

It's called the mother load of

15:35

email forms and swipe files.

15:38

I will drop a link below. If you are interested in snagging, like

15:39

a whole entire list of all the different

15:44

email templates I use in my firm. That are already pre-written for you

15:45

with the subject lines and everything.

15:48

All you have to do is tweak it to

15:48

maybe be your brand voice or tweak

15:51

it to make it make sense for you. I do have that also comes with the

15:53

different forms that I use in my own firm

15:57

as well, like our onboarding form as well.

15:59

And so I'll drop that below. So my recommendation for you, if

16:00

you don't want to purchase any

16:03

of those things, that's totally. Okay. Just my recommendation is.

16:06

Make it easy for you, make it easy for

16:06

your team, make it easy for anybody

16:09

who's working with you to learn

16:09

and understand what you're doing to

16:12

follow certain systems and processes

16:12

to come up to your standards, create

16:16

as many checklists and templates. This will just free up

16:18

so much brain space.

16:21

And this really truly is how

16:21

you scale a business in general.

16:24

Like we're not talking specifically

16:24

about the accounting space in general.

16:27

If you want to scale a business, you

16:27

really have to create those templates,

16:31

those checklists to make you move faster,

16:31

to be able to better serve your clients.

16:35

And also have a consistent system. So number two of this conversation around

16:38

building a scalable bookkeeping business

16:42

is building a high performing team. And so you might be listening, thinking.

16:47

Oh, my gosh, Alyssa, the idea of

16:47

trying to build a team, it's just me.

16:49

I don't even want anybody else to work for me. I want to wear this badge that it's just

16:51

going to be me and I can handle all of it.

16:55

Trust me when I tell you this, that used

16:55

to be me until I started actually hiring.

16:59

I now realize, like I never want to

16:59

operate my companies without my team.

17:03

Like, I love being able to step away

17:03

when life and emergencies happen.

17:08

So let's talk about the actual

17:08

building of the high-performing team.

17:11

So regardless if you want a team in

17:11

the future, or you want a team now,

17:14

or maybe you're like Alyssa, I need a

17:14

team like right this second, so I can

17:17

use and eat up all this information.

17:19

Then I highly recommend you grab

17:19

a notebook and get ready because

17:22

high-performing teams are like a

17:22

lot of people think that they're

17:26

hard to come by, but they're not. If you do the right recruitment and

17:27

the right hiring process, you can

17:30

find and retain the right talent. And so my whole goal in what I do

17:32

here at workflow queen is to help

17:36

people have like the confidence. Confidence to know that like

17:37

you can find quality people.

17:41

For example, every person I've

17:41

ever hired has been incredible.

17:46

It's a lie. My first person I ever hired

17:46

was a terrible mistake.

17:49

And that was because it was a

17:49

mistake, but also a learning process.

17:52

But it was a terrible experience

17:52

because I didn't know what I was doing.

17:55

I hired terribly. I did not know how to interview them.

17:58

I just trusted like, oh, they were

17:58

just gonna, you know, do exactly what

18:02

they said that they were going to do. I did not know what I was doing.

18:05

And I know a lot of people in the

18:05

industry who have done the same, where

18:07

they just like post on a Facebook

18:07

group saying I'm looking for someone.

18:10

And next thing you know, they're just going with their gut and they're just hiring someone.

18:13

I've done the same things that don't get me wrong. Like it took me years to like, get

18:15

this down to a T with my tiring,

18:19

but it got to a point where like

18:19

now every person I've ever hired has

18:22

been so incredible, so dedicated.

18:26

I've never had someone like just come

18:26

work for me and just ditch, like the week

18:30

later I've heard those experiences before.

18:32

And so like, I think I have a tried and

18:32

trued method into hiring, and I think

18:37

that as long as you can follow each of

18:37

those steps, it makes life so much easier.

18:40

So when it comes to hiring, like it's

18:40

just, it don't take this lightly.

18:44

Like, I really do recommend that you

18:44

take your time and your hiring, and as

18:48

much as you're desperate to have someone

18:48

now, I really recommend that you don't

18:52

rush into it because if you rush into it,

18:52

you're going to make the wrong decisions.

18:55

And then you're going to have the bad thing happened. It's taken me up to three months

18:57

to find a really good team member.

19:01

And we have a lot of really

19:01

intricate ways of doing things.

19:03

I've also not run ads to job

19:03

descriptions before I've shared

19:07

it with you know, fellow people in

19:07

different courses that I'm a part of.

19:10

And they've helped me find someone

19:10

there's so many different routes of ways

19:14

that you can actually be hiring someone. But one of my pieces is

19:16

like, seriously, no joke.

19:18

Take your time. It is so crucial to find the

19:20

right person who's going to fit

19:23

your, the culture of the business. The values that you uphold everything in

19:25

between and making sure that they even

19:28

have the skill set to perform whatever

19:28

role they actually are being hired for.

19:33

And so take your time, write your

19:33

job description, go through, get your

19:37

interview questions, ready to go, create

19:37

your hiring process and take the time

19:42

to actually go through and, and find the

19:42

right person, create that assessment.

19:46

What are the things that you want defining

19:46

those roles and those responsibilities?

19:50

What do you want from them?

19:53

Once you take a step back and you really

19:53

nailed down the foundation, which is

19:57

like the job description, the interview

19:57

questions, the assessment that's when

20:01

you're going to go into the actual

20:01

hiring and the actual finding in like,

20:04

you're going to be looking for somebody. And so this depends on

20:06

where you want to post it. There's things like indeed you can

20:08

go through a Facebook group for like

20:11

bookkeepers, but to be honest it depends

20:11

on what you want from this person.

20:15

So if you want someone who doesn't

20:15

also want to run their own business,

20:18

then I don't recommend posting. And like, for example, if you're a

20:19

part of bookkeeper launch, I wouldn't

20:23

recommend posting a bookkeeper launch

20:23

because everybody there is predominantly

20:26

trying to build their own business. And while I have known some people who

20:28

have found some people in bookkeeper

20:32

launch who like maybe thought they

20:32

wanted to run their business, but

20:35

then realize that it's not for them. That is possible, but like that percent

20:37

is very small compared to how many people

20:41

are in that group that are actually

20:41

trying to run their own business.

20:44

And so for me, like at my firm, I

20:44

don't want people who are also trying

20:49

to run their own bookkeeping business. On the side.

20:51

I just don't want to have to compete with somebody. And also, I don't want someone just

20:53

working for my business just to come in.

20:56

Just to get all the SLPs and the

20:56

system and just kind of ditch out.

20:59

And so for me, I don't even

20:59

put myself in that scenario.

21:02

So I just don't really look for

21:02

people who are also, you know,

21:05

managing their own business. And that's just the choice that

21:07

I made and that's totally okay.

21:10

It's up to you. What you decide on. I know a lot of people in the industry

21:12

who loves serving people and almost like

21:16

taking other bookkeepers under their

21:16

wing to help them grow their business

21:19

while working for them simultaneously. And that can work too.

21:22

It's really up to you, but

21:22

for me it works a certain way.

21:25

And so you just have to

21:25

define what you need.

21:28

And so that's where you're going

21:28

to go to look for those hires.

21:30

Right? So for me, I'm not going to

21:30

go to these Facebook groups.

21:32

I'm going to go into indeed. I'm going to go to places like LinkedIn.

21:36

I'm going to go to a

21:36

bunch of different places.

21:38

There's like ZipRecruiter, there's a bunch of different places that you can go to higher.

21:41

I do layer in assessments and strategic

21:41

interview questions, everything that you

21:46

could possibly think of that will help us

21:46

to define those roles and, and explain to

21:50

somebody what we're looking for with them. We have a very unique way that

21:52

we create our job descriptions.

21:55

It's like a sales page, like job description. That makes someone like immediately

21:57

as are reading it, being like, oh my

22:01

God, hell yes, this is the job for me.

22:04

It's like, it's not boring. It's not just a bunch of bullet points.

22:06

Like really explains what to expect,

22:06

the way that they're going to feel.

22:10

So on and so forth. And I think that that's been a big

22:11

part of our strategy for hiring.

22:15

And I think that that's what. Been really incredible to watch because

22:16

like, as we've hired people, On our team.

22:21

It's so interesting to hear them when they're like, oh my God, I read the job description.

22:25

Every single line. I was like, yes, this is me.

22:27

Yes. This is me. And I kept reading every person

22:27

we've hired that ended up going

22:30

100% all the way through the process

22:30

and getting hired have said that.

22:34

And I think that that just

22:34

goes to say that you need to

22:36

do like an, a unique approach. If you can.

22:39

To that, which this might be like a

22:39

overwhelming topic, but it all starts

22:42

like before you can even create the

22:42

performing team to work for you.

22:45

You need to first find the right people. So like it all starts at the foundation.

22:49

Right. So if you need support with any

22:50

hiring vetting, finding, training,

22:54

onboarding, all of that stuff, we

22:54

actually have this covered inside of

22:57

my group coaching program, breakthrough

22:57

for bookkeepers and accountants.

23:00

I'll link this below. Inside of breakthrough.

23:03

We have a whole entire module

23:03

called empowered company culture.

23:06

Where we actually break down

23:06

the hiring process, the finding

23:08

process, the vetting process. Down to the actual onboarding.

23:13

And then also even the longterm

23:13

growth of your team members.

23:15

So things like KPIs, performance

23:15

reviews, letting go of your team members,

23:20

moving them into leadership roles. So we actually cover from start

23:22

to finish the whole entire hiring.

23:25

Life journey of someone who

23:25

is brought onto your team.

23:29

And so if you want the interview

23:29

questions, you want the job

23:31

descriptions, you want all of that stuff. We provide that inside of breakthrough

23:33

and we have coaching and support that if

23:37

you don't know what roles to hire for.

23:39

We have resources for that. And also you come to coaching calls

23:40

and ask questions and we're more than

23:43

happy to help guide you on what is

23:43

probably the next best hire for you.

23:47

So another thing too, when you're

23:47

building your high-performing team

23:49

is to really cultivate that, right. The values that you uphold and also even

23:51

building the culture in the business.

23:55

And so what I mean by that is like

23:55

you hold every individual holds

23:59

their own standard of values and

23:59

everybody has their own way of

24:02

doing and being in their business.

24:05

And so, for example, for me, like,

24:05

I like really fun businesses.

24:08

Like I like it fun. I like to set a slack message every

24:10

once in a while of like a funny gift.

24:13

I want our team to be excited. I want them to love our.

24:16

Our clients, there's a certain

24:16

like type of way that I like to be.

24:20

And I expect my team members

24:20

to be the same as well.

24:23

And so if you could define like the type

24:23

of culture you want in your business

24:26

and the values that you uphold, this

24:26

will make your life so much easier.

24:29

We do cover this inside a breakthrough. Of your values and culture.

24:33

So that way you can learn to

24:33

like, not only document them,

24:35

but also live and breathe them.

24:37

If that makes sense. So if you can, and this helps you to

24:38

attract the right people, because if

24:42

you've ever hired someone and felt

24:42

resistance, it's probably because you

24:44

didn't even define your own values. And so they might not value

24:46

the same thing as you do.

24:49

And that's, what's super important, right? I also really consider

24:51

outsourcing non-core tasks.

24:54

And what I mean by this is we're so

24:54

determined from step one of creating those

24:59

standardized processes and procedures.

25:02

The, yes, those are great

25:02

to have templates and

25:04

workflows in these checklists. But sometimes you need to let

25:06

the team have their own autonomy.

25:09

And what I mean by that is like,

25:09

give them the opportunity to work on

25:12

projects and things that don't have a

25:12

step-by-step every single thing they

25:17

have to follow through all the way. Like let them expand, let them

25:19

show you what they're capable of.

25:24

So maybe give them a project of

25:24

like reworking the cleanup system.

25:28

Like let them, like, just give

25:28

them a couple of core things

25:31

that you want to make sure are

25:31

covered in that cleanup process.

25:35

And the rest of it is up to

25:35

them to create the outcome.

25:38

And I think that there's so

25:38

much beauty in this because

25:40

when I've let my team take over. Their project side and giving them a

25:42

project and they've done non-core tasks.

25:46

It was so transformational. We actually got to see what their

25:47

strong suits were, what they really

25:50

enjoyed and so on and so forth. So my recommendation is.

25:53

Give them tasks that are beyond just like

25:53

the ones that are step-by-step checklists.

25:57

This also depends on the team member. There are some team

25:58

members that I've hired. That really are just a lot better at

26:01

following like the steps to things.

26:05

And that's totally okay. Every single team member is

26:06

going to be different, right.

26:09

So the last thing that I wanted to

26:09

cover in this episode about the creating

26:13

a scalable bookkeeping businesses,

26:13

implementing growth strategies.

26:16

And so this is really where you're going

26:16

to be setting clear and defined goals

26:19

to help you develop that strategic plan. And so this isn't just going

26:22

down to like the numbers.

26:24

So for example, if you want to say, I want

26:24

to hit six figures or maybe you want to

26:28

hit seven figures inside of your business.

26:31

That's great, but we need

26:31

to go further than that.

26:33

We need to go deeper than that. So what does that look

26:34

like on a quarterly basis? What does that look

26:36

like on a monthly basis? What does that look like for the number

26:38

of clients that you're going to serve?

26:41

What type of services are you going to offer? And so I think that when you're developing

26:43

these strategic plans, it's really looking

26:47

holistically at the business to say, what

26:47

do we need to be tweaking over this year

26:51

to help us get to where we want to go? The next two is exploring

26:53

expansion opportunities.

26:56

So this is really where you're going to look through. What are the options and the

26:58

things that are available to me

27:02

to help me grow the business. So for example, maybe exploring your

27:03

expansion means maybe niching down.

27:08

So maybe at this point you've never

27:08

niched down and you just served generic

27:11

businesses, but you found that maybe

27:11

you're attracting more veterinarians

27:15

or you're attracting more lawyers. And you guys really

27:17

enjoy working with them. See if you can expand into

27:19

that industry and go all in.

27:23

And so when you're talking about

27:23

opportunities and that expansion

27:26

within them, it's so important

27:26

to take a step back and say,

27:29

where are these doors opening? Because sometimes you don't see

27:31

the doors opening because you're

27:33

so busy doing the day-to-day work. And this is why it's so important to

27:35

have a team, because then you can finally

27:38

have a clear mind to see all these doors

27:38

that are opening and see what is giving

27:42

you the option to go a different route. Don't resist it sometimes.

27:46

But also don't get distracted. It's like a happy balance.

27:49

That part I'm still figuring out myself.

27:52

But I'll have great ideas, but

27:52

some of them are just not worth us.

27:55

You know, stepping into, but then

27:55

there's other great ideas that I have

27:58

that are just like, you know what? This is perfect. We need to go through this route

28:00

and we need to make it happen.

28:03

A lot of it is niching

28:03

or changing softwares.

28:05

The expansion opportunities

28:05

really come from the different

28:08

partnerships are making with people. Maybe the different routes that you're

28:09

going, or a coach that you're working

28:12

with, whatever that looks like for you. You have to look and notice when those

28:14

doors are opening for you to give you that

28:18

opportunity to truly expand the business.

28:20

And the next thing too, is evaluating

28:20

everything based on your KPIs and so

28:25

KPIs or key performance indicators. We're so emotional because we are

28:28

so attached to the day-to-day in the

28:31

business that we forget to reflect and

28:31

look at the black and white data that's

28:34

right in front of us, which is our KPIs.

28:37

And so my recommendation is to track KPIs,

28:37

whether it's like two to three per like

28:42

department of the business that way you

28:42

could see, like, how are we progressing?

28:46

Are we still gaining clients? Actively every single month?

28:49

Are we going up or are we going down?

28:52

Using this black and white data helps

28:52

you to make like non emotional decisions.

28:57

And I know that they can be overwhelming. Cause a lot of people are like,

28:58

Alyssa, I don't even know what KPI's,

29:01

I don't even know where to start. We do cover KPIs inside of breakthrough.

29:05

That is within our empowered

29:05

company culture module.

29:08

We will break down the KPIs. We'll give you examples of KPIs and

29:10

the KPI spreadsheet, how to track

29:13

them, how to have conversations with

29:13

your team based off their performance

29:16

from KPIs and so on and so forth.

29:19

But if you could take just a couple of

29:19

core things that you can track in the

29:23

business, even if it's like number of

29:23

new clients signed a month and that way.

29:26

You could see over time,

29:26

the progression of you guys.

29:30

You know, getting these clients and how

29:30

often you're getting them, it helps you

29:34

to see these trends in the business. And lastly, when it comes to

29:36

implementing the growth strategies

29:40

is really creating a very strategic

29:40

marketing and branding like process.

29:45

And so if you could take a step back

29:45

and say, if I really want to grow this

29:49

business and really hit those goals that

29:49

I want, what are the different things that

29:53

you're going to do to market the business? So I recently was talking to a friend

29:55

of mine that we meet once a month.

29:58

She's like another business owner. And she said something to me

30:00

that I'm probably gonna butcher,

30:02

but I'm gonna try my best to

30:02

remember exactly how she said it.

30:05

She essentially said that if you want to.

30:07

grow your business. Stop trying to double your business,

30:08

but instead try to 10 X your business.

30:13

And so I had her like, kind of explain

30:13

through what that actually meant.

30:17

And so what she meant by that was. If your just sitting down and looking

30:19

at your goals and saying, I'm going

30:22

to two X, my business, you're going

30:22

to stay pretty comfortable in the

30:25

way that you market and the way

30:25

that you do things in the business.

30:28

Because all you have to do is double

30:28

everything that you did the year

30:31

before to make the next year doubled.

30:34

And so the reason why she says,

30:34

if you really want to grow the

30:37

business, you would tent, you

30:37

would try to 10 X the business.

30:40

Means that if you're going to 10 X

30:40

your business, you're going to get

30:43

real creative, real quick on the

30:43

different things that you're going to

30:45

need to go, because now you have to

30:45

go even bigger in order to sell more

30:50

and to do more and to create better

30:50

operations and better team members.

30:54

And so it just really resonated with

30:54

me when she had told me that quote.

30:58

So once again is, if you want to grow

30:58

your business, don't try to double it.

31:02

Try to 10 exit. And that just means being different

31:03

and unique in the different strategies

31:06

and approaches you have, because

31:06

if you're trying to 10 X, oh man,

31:09

you're going to do things hardcore. At 10 X, whether you actually

31:11

want a 10 X or not, it's just the

31:15

mindset around trying to 10 X.

31:18

So just to kind of circle back to what

31:18

we kind of talked about on creating a

31:22

scalable bookkeeping business in this

31:22

episode is number one, standardizing

31:25

your processes and systems. Number two, building a high

31:27

performing team and number three,

31:30

implementing growth strategies. These things aren't easy.

31:33

It's hard to do it alone. It is possible though, and it

31:34

is 100% worth it to be able

31:38

to take the time in the break. And then what you need is a human.

31:43

Maybe that's a vacation or spending

31:43

more time with your family.

31:45

You need those things. If especially you're trying to replace,

31:47

you know, salaries, whether it's your own

31:50

and your husbands or whoever it is, right. Just know that you're not alone.

31:54

In this process. I offer a wide variety of different

31:55

programs from workflows in a weekend,

31:59

kick off with a sauna breakthrough

31:59

for bookkeepers and accountants.

32:02

I have so many different resources for you

32:02

guys that will support you along the way.

32:05

And if I can't support you in any of

32:05

our programs, please feel free to reach

32:09

out to me on instagram @workflowqueen or

32:09

email me at support@workflowqueen.com.

32:14

And I will be more than happy to

32:14

recommend you to maybe a system

32:17

or program that will support you. For example, I don't cover sales and

32:18

marketing, so I'm going to recommend

32:22

another human being who I absolutely

32:22

love her name is Melissa Honan.

32:26

On sales and marketing stuff. I also don't help people start their

32:27

bookkeeping business and that's Serena

32:31

Shoup over ambitious bookkeeper. If you don't know where to

32:33

start, just reach out to me.

32:35

And I'm more than happy to connect

32:35

you on the path that you need to go.

32:39

And I hope you enjoy today's episode.