Doing what's obvious, but not easy

Damien Greathead: 00:00:07

And we're back episode number two of strategy

Damien Greathead: 00:00:09

and the virtual controller. I was listening to a webcast the

Damien Greathead: 00:00:12

other day penny. And they were saying that most podcasts rarely

Damien Greathead: 00:00:18

get beyond eight episodes. And I know one hour episode planning

Damien Greathead: 00:00:21

were well and truly beyond eight episodes. So I'm delighted to be

Damien Greathead: 00:00:24

here with you today for Episode Two how I say Penny,

Rita Breslin: 00:00:27

I'm doing fine, got my vaccine and ready to rock

Rita Breslin: 00:00:31

and roll out of town here in about a week or so.

Damien Greathead: 00:00:34

Getting back on the road after the vaccine.

Damien Greathead: 00:00:36

When was the last time you were on a plane?

Rita Breslin: 00:00:40

flying back from India through Hong Kong and

Rita Breslin: 00:00:43

landing in San Diego in January of 2020. And having one of my

Rita Breslin: 00:00:49

sisters who worked at a at a hospital call me ago, I heard

Rita Breslin: 00:00:54

that you were in Asia. Yeah. chuckles Tell me what was going

Rita Breslin: 00:00:56

on. And I explained to get ready, this is going to get

Rita Breslin: 00:00:59

messy. Last time I was

Damien Greathead: 00:01:04

looking forward to getting back on a

Damien Greathead: 00:01:06

plane. My goodness, that's exciting. Yeah, because the

Damien Greathead: 00:01:09

world and particularly that the accounting world, which was

Damien Greathead: 00:01:13

spent on copy at conferences and visiting firms, and obviously

Damien Greathead: 00:01:18

visiting the firm in India, that was the norm. So not not doing

Damien Greathead: 00:01:22

that for 12 months, as has been a bit of a change, hasn't it?

Rita Breslin: 00:01:25

Yeah, and not having conferences for me, you

Rita Breslin: 00:01:29

know, virtual work was, you know, we do we did we live in?

Rita Breslin: 00:01:34

We will I mean, resume and Slack, you know, so either way,

Rita Breslin: 00:01:37

we're aware, that wasn't a big deal. But still, you know, I'd

Rita Breslin: 00:01:41

narrowly I would have been over in India by now. And then, also,

Rita Breslin: 00:01:46

we had, we had tickets booked for different conferences where

Rita Breslin: 00:01:50

my team was coming from India, United States. And because they

Rita Breslin: 00:01:56

come over here and get training, so it just, it was different.

Rita Breslin: 00:01:59

And then also dealing with clients who, you know, all of a

Rita Breslin: 00:02:04

sudden, you've been wanting them, you got to get rich, just

Rita Breslin: 00:02:08

in case, you know, and all of a sudden it had to happen had to

Rita Breslin: 00:02:11

happen. And that was that was an interesting endeavor.

Damien Greathead: 00:02:15

Yeah, we've come we've we've sort of

Damien Greathead: 00:02:17

interesting, we've been you. And I've been talking about a lot of

Damien Greathead: 00:02:20

these key key elements of this transformation for 10 plus

Damien Greathead: 00:02:25

years. But it seems to take a global pandemic for for people

Damien Greathead: 00:02:30

to finally stand up and take notice and actually do a lot of

Damien Greathead: 00:02:34

the things that we've been talking about for a long time

Damien Greathead: 00:02:36

didn't.

Rita Breslin: 00:02:37

Yeah, and again, I think, I think one of the things

Rita Breslin: 00:02:40

that comes back as it cuts for us full circle, you can be

Rita Breslin: 00:02:43

virtual, and you can do a lot of things virtually, but you still

Rita Breslin: 00:02:47

have to have the first thing going for you. And that is

Rita Breslin: 00:02:49

relationship. Yeah. And, and so, you know, people are raring to

Rita Breslin: 00:02:54

get back into it. There's all this Scot discussion about how

Rita Breslin: 00:02:59

often we're going to go back, what's the new normal, you know,

Rita Breslin: 00:03:02

all of that, but it's all about the thing that people have been

Rita Breslin: 00:03:05

missing is the relationship. And, and it doesn't just apply

Rita Breslin: 00:03:10

to a firm and their clients, it's within the firm internally,

Rita Breslin: 00:03:16

the relationships that get built, and the trust that gets

Rita Breslin: 00:03:20

built in a team that works together. And, and being able,

Rita Breslin: 00:03:27

having that trust in the first place. And going virtual, is a

Rita Breslin: 00:03:30

far different cry than not maybe having it and then going

Rita Breslin: 00:03:35

virtual. And that was definitely a discussion I had with the firm

Rita Breslin: 00:03:39

this morning about how they've had that problem.

Damien Greathead: 00:03:44

Yeah, and I'm looking forward to learning more

Damien Greathead: 00:03:46

about that, as we were discussing prepping for this

Damien Greathead: 00:03:48

episode. But before we do that, just a bit of housekeeping

Damien Greathead: 00:03:50

folks, the website for the podcast strategy, and the

Damien Greathead: 00:03:54

virtual controller is s a t v c.co. So sh t vc.co. Go there,

Damien Greathead: 00:04:02

you can obviously, like the episode review the episode, you

Damien Greathead: 00:04:06

can find any articles because we'll be talking about the

Damien Greathead: 00:04:09

different books and different articles. You can find those and

Damien Greathead: 00:04:12

links to all of those at that website as well. So sa t vc.co

Damien Greathead: 00:04:18

is the website for strategy and the virtual controller just

Damien Greathead: 00:04:21

wanted to remind listeners as well Penny about the sort of the

Damien Greathead: 00:04:25

premise of what we built the podcast on and it was the book

Damien Greathead: 00:04:29

by David maister, which is called strategy in the fat

Damien Greathead: 00:04:32

smoker. And I think the most important part of the title is

Damien Greathead: 00:04:36

the is the subtitle that is doing what's obvious, but not

Damien Greathead: 00:04:40

easy. And so a quick a quick overview of the book is

Damien Greathead: 00:04:45

regarding the often or even usually know what we should be

Damien Greathead: 00:04:48

doing in both our personal and professional lives. We also know

Damien Greathead: 00:04:52

why we should be doing it and how often so we know these

Damien Greathead: 00:04:55

things. And the same is true in our firms, the things that we

Damien Greathead: 00:04:58

should be doing and Why we should be doing it. So figuring

Damien Greathead: 00:05:01

all that out, it's not too difficult. What's the very hard

Damien Greathead: 00:05:04

part is actually doing what you know, to be good for you in the

Damien Greathead: 00:05:07

long run in spite of short run temptations. And so what we're

Damien Greathead: 00:05:12

really talking about is, we know the strategies that they're out

Damien Greathead: 00:05:18

there in the ether, in in books and on websites and in podcasts.

Damien Greathead: 00:05:22

And in webinars. Now, it's the actual hard part of choosing

Damien Greathead: 00:05:27

which strategies you want to pursue, identifying which ones

Damien Greathead: 00:05:31

are going to be good for you in the long run, and then doing the

Damien Greathead: 00:05:35

hard work to get them implemented. So if you haven't

Damien Greathead: 00:05:38

read strategy in the fat smoker, really great book. And again,

Damien Greathead: 00:05:43

you can find the link on the podcast website, which is sa

Damien Greathead: 00:05:46

tvc.co. You can find the link there and order that off Amazon.

Damien Greathead: 00:05:52

But a really fascinating read about we know what's obvious to

Damien Greathead: 00:05:56

do for ourselves for our firm, but actually doing it day in

Damien Greathead: 00:06:01

day, day out for the long run. That's the really difficult

Damien Greathead: 00:06:05

part. So have a read of his book. And that will give you a

Damien Greathead: 00:06:08

little bit of inspiration to come on this journey with us. So

Damien Greathead: 00:06:12

Penny, while we're here, sort of talking a little bit about us a

Damien Greathead: 00:06:16

little bit about the podcast, your company's called money,

Damien Greathead: 00:06:19

Penny, tell us who you are, what you do, and who were the types

Damien Greathead: 00:06:23

of clients that you work with?

Rita Breslin: 00:06:25

Well, let's see, I am a facilitator between

Rita Breslin: 00:06:32

accounting firms, bookkeeping firms, and an outsourced back

Rita Breslin: 00:06:38

office full of trained accountants who know how to run

Rita Breslin: 00:06:43

just about every not American based in some other outside

Rita Breslin: 00:06:48

North America based accounting programs and tax programs. We do

Rita Breslin: 00:06:54

that, plus we test apps, integrating two accounting

Rita Breslin: 00:06:58

programs.

Damien Greathead: 00:07:00

And fundamentally, what you're doing

Damien Greathead: 00:07:04

is you're helping firms with the process with their workflow with

Damien Greathead: 00:07:09

the automate level of automation, and then bringing in

Damien Greathead: 00:07:16

the right resources to load balances. That's a fair way.

Rita Breslin: 00:07:20

How do you insource the work? And then how

Rita Breslin: 00:07:23

do you prep it so that the people on your team, whether

Rita Breslin: 00:07:26

they're internal to your office, or external to your office, or

Rita Breslin: 00:07:29

they're an app? How does that all flow together to get an end

Rita Breslin: 00:07:34

result for the client end result is you have a good relationship

Rita Breslin: 00:07:37

with the client? And you're doing value added work for the

Rita Breslin: 00:07:40

client?

Damien Greathead: 00:07:42

What do you mean by insource? The

Rita Breslin: 00:07:44

work, okay, you got a client? And you need to,

Rita Breslin: 00:07:51

if you're going to, you got to decide who's going to run the

Rita Breslin: 00:07:53

company. Okay, let's call it a business because it is a

Rita Breslin: 00:07:56

business. Yep, this is Apple's to do some type of accounting.

Rita Breslin: 00:08:00

So you who's going to run your business? You are the client,

Rita Breslin: 00:08:04

you are the employees, you are the apps? Who's gonna run it?

Rita Breslin: 00:08:10

And who's gonna make the decision on how all of that is

Rita Breslin: 00:08:15

going to happen? And what's the backup strategy when it fails?

Rita Breslin: 00:08:22

because nothing's perfect. So that's, that's what I work at.

Rita Breslin: 00:08:28

Because I've got it, I've got to insource the work to me, and to

Rita Breslin: 00:08:32

my team. So in order for that to happen efficiently, you've got

Rita Breslin: 00:08:37

to insource it to your office efficiently. So I start with

Rita Breslin: 00:08:41

that first, then, once that's moving smoothly, if you need us,

Rita Breslin: 00:08:48

we're there, then we build the team to match the needs of that

Rita Breslin: 00:08:53

firm.

Damien Greathead: 00:08:55

Okay, and what I was thinking in terms of what

Damien Greathead: 00:08:59

is insourcing, it's essentially going to your clients, your

Damien Greathead: 00:09:02

small, medium sized business clients and saying to them,

Damien Greathead: 00:09:06

you're experts at making widgets, whatever those widgets

Damien Greathead: 00:09:09

may be, we're experts at accounting. So we will take off

Damien Greathead: 00:09:12

that accounting function off your hands off your plate, get

Damien Greathead: 00:09:16

that done for you, so that you can use your very limited

Damien Greathead: 00:09:19

resources for to focus on what you do best. And I think that's

Damien Greathead: 00:09:25

really a part of it as well, isn't it is when we're in the

Damien Greathead: 00:09:28

business of accounting, that's what we do best. So let us work

Damien Greathead: 00:09:32

with your business so that you can focus on on making the

Damien Greathead: 00:09:36

widgets and doing what you do best, and we will insource that,

Damien Greathead: 00:09:41

that accounting function for you.

Rita Breslin: 00:09:44

Yeah, but if you do that, you have to decide

Rita Breslin: 00:09:47

that's what you really want to do.

Damien Greathead: 00:09:49

Yeah,

Damien Greathead: 00:09:50

I mean, good point. Yeah. Because that's true. Because

Damien Greathead: 00:09:53

businesses that do accounting there's a couple of different

Damien Greathead: 00:09:56

things that they can they can do. Isn't isn't their job. They

Damien Greathead: 00:10:00

can be a tax practice, they can be a payroll firm, they can be a

Damien Greathead: 00:10:05

what's hard

Rita Breslin: 00:10:06

and a lot of an audit for them?

Damien Greathead: 00:10:07

Yeah, absolutely,

Rita Breslin: 00:10:09

they could do a, you got to make that decision,

Rita Breslin: 00:10:11

they could be off just I just want to do after the fact,

Rita Breslin: 00:10:14

bookkeeping, I want to just sit here and do that, you got to,

Rita Breslin: 00:10:18

this is something that if you want to do it, and you want to

Rita Breslin: 00:10:23

present to your client that you're going to do it, it has to

Rita Breslin: 00:10:27

it, you've made a promise it has to work, it, it actually has to

Rita Breslin: 00:10:33

happen, that you can't just put out there, we are a firm of the

Rita Breslin: 00:10:39

future, an advisory firm, we are a you know, fractional CFO,

Rita Breslin: 00:10:48

there has to be some give back to the client, the if you're

Rita Breslin: 00:10:52

going to do that, if you're going to say, give me all that

Rita Breslin: 00:10:56

stuff, you go make your widgets, you go sell your services, you

Rita Breslin: 00:11:00

go do whatever it is that you do, and I'll take care of all of

Rita Breslin: 00:11:03

this, then there has to be some reason, and that they would give

Rita Breslin: 00:11:09

it to you, that supersedes what they perceive is them being able

Rita Breslin: 00:11:14

to do it internally and control it internally. Because they're

Rita Breslin: 00:11:18

giving up a lot with the expectation of getting something

Rita Breslin: 00:11:22

important back that makes it worthwhile for them to, you

Rita Breslin: 00:11:26

know, follow your rules to get the stuff coming in.

Damien Greathead: 00:11:30

And I think that's the trap that a lot of

Damien Greathead: 00:11:31

firms make isn't fall into rather, is that they become the

Damien Greathead: 00:11:36

generalists across everything. As they're trying to grow their

Damien Greathead: 00:11:40

business and and and shore up their revenue, they take on

Damien Greathead: 00:11:45

anything, they take on everything, they take on a bit

Damien Greathead: 00:11:47

of bookkeeping, they take on a bit of tax, they take on a bit

Damien Greathead: 00:11:50

of payroll, depending on what they are, they may not take on

Damien Greathead: 00:11:54

audit, but I have seen firms that will though the the name

Damien Greathead: 00:11:58

sort of grows from accountants to accountants and advisors, and

Damien Greathead: 00:12:03

all of a sudden, you go to their website and there's this long

Damien Greathead: 00:12:07

laundry list of every single service that they've ever

Damien Greathead: 00:12:10

provided. Never really become an expert in one and and so I think

Damien Greathead: 00:12:14

that really is the the topic of today's conversation becoming

Damien Greathead: 00:12:19

laser focused on what it is that you want to do. And also being

Damien Greathead: 00:12:24

comfortable with this idea of this is not this is not what I

Damien Greathead: 00:12:29

want to do. Yes. And and making that delineation. So Penny,

Damien Greathead: 00:12:32

what's your sort of experiences in the firm's that you've worked

Damien Greathead: 00:12:35

with, in terms of firms that have quickly and easily or not,

Damien Greathead: 00:12:41

maybe not quickly, but have identified who they are and what

Damien Greathead: 00:12:44

they want to be when they grow up versus others?

Rita Breslin: 00:12:47

Well, it, it's, I think it's obviously easier for

Rita Breslin: 00:12:51

a newer startup, you know, mainly because they come into

Rita Breslin: 00:12:56

the game in the middle of this can highly connected world with

Rita Breslin: 00:13:03

lots and lots of good quality apps and training from those

Rita Breslin: 00:13:10

apps to assist them. And moving along. The decision making of

Rita Breslin: 00:13:17

whether they're going to be an accounting firm, a bookkeeping

Rita Breslin: 00:13:20

firm, are a virtual controller, our partial CFO, fractional CFO,

Rita Breslin: 00:13:27

those are much easier. And it goes along smoothly with those

Rita Breslin: 00:13:32

folks. They start with us small. And then before you know it,

Rita Breslin: 00:13:37

they're just throwing work at us like crazy, because they

Rita Breslin: 00:13:40

actually have the relationship with the client, they went into

Rita Breslin: 00:13:43

with that idea. It's much more difficult, I think for firms

Rita Breslin: 00:13:48

that are already well established with especially if

Rita Breslin: 00:13:51

they do all of those things that you brought in the priority

Rita Breslin: 00:13:55

silo, the firm. And by siloing it the adoption of something

Rita Breslin: 00:14:01

that is transparent, such as a workflow tasking application is

Rita Breslin: 00:14:09

difficult for them to accept. And so it's just it's kind of

Rita Breslin: 00:14:13

like, well, these are my clients, and I like them this

Rita Breslin: 00:14:17

way. And I do it this way. Yeah, but the firm wants to do it. We

Rita Breslin: 00:14:21

want to do this fractional CFO, and you know, we can't do it

Rita Breslin: 00:14:25

without everybody being involved. So you kind of have

Rita Breslin: 00:14:28

to, if you're the firm partner, or partners, owners, you first

Rita Breslin: 00:14:34

have to decide, do you want to do this? And what is this? What

Rita Breslin: 00:14:41

is it that you define as your fractional CFO controller client

Rita Breslin: 00:14:47

advisory? What's your definition of it? What do you what do you

Rita Breslin: 00:14:52

picture you doing that makes that so special? What's what is

Rita Breslin: 00:14:59

the deliver of Well, that you plan on giving to that client.

Rita Breslin: 00:15:05

I'm working right now with the firm that has an idea in mind.

Rita Breslin: 00:15:10

And that they wanted, they go, Well, we got to get branded, we

Rita Breslin: 00:15:12

got, we got to get a logo, we got to get a website got and I

Rita Breslin: 00:15:15

said yes, you do you do. And here's, here's somebody will do

Rita Breslin: 00:15:18

that is because they came to me and I said, Okay, we've got

Rita Breslin: 00:15:20

something to do that. I said, Now, all of that's being done,

Rita Breslin: 00:15:22

let's talk about what you're going to deliver. What is it

Rita Breslin: 00:15:25

that you're going to deliver, you got a nice idea. But you've

Rita Breslin: 00:15:29

got to give the client something. And I don't mean like

Rita Breslin: 00:15:32

a piece of paper or anything. But you've got to give them a

Rita Breslin: 00:15:36

reason to want to come back every month, and do this again

Rita Breslin: 00:15:39

with you.

Damien Greathead: 00:15:40

And I think that's a really good point is

Damien Greathead: 00:15:42

that we will will touch the touch on this in another episode

Damien Greathead: 00:15:46

as well. But what is a fractional CFO? What is what is

Damien Greathead: 00:15:50

an advisor? What is an advisory? And I think a lot of small,

Damien Greathead: 00:15:53

medium sized businesses, they all need these types of

Damien Greathead: 00:15:56

services, but they don't know why. And they don't know what

Damien Greathead: 00:16:00

they actually are like, I understand the benefit of a cash

Damien Greathead: 00:16:04

flow forecast. But do your small business owners? And do they

Damien Greathead: 00:16:09

really understand it? Do they

Rita Breslin: 00:16:10

do they why you why you need to have those

Rita Breslin: 00:16:13

documents, do it. And if they don't value it, if they don't

Rita Breslin: 00:16:18

understand it, they're not going to give it to you. And if

Rita Breslin: 00:16:20

they're not going to give it to you, then your whole idea of

Rita Breslin: 00:16:22

being a fractional CFO means you're not closing the books

Rita Breslin: 00:16:26

every month. Now you could say, well, you know, we're using

Rita Breslin: 00:16:29

QuickBooks and 00. And they don't close the books and like

Rita Breslin: 00:16:32

they do they do they create a monthly report. And and what's

Rita Breslin: 00:16:39

the value of that monthly report? Well, then you're

Rita Breslin: 00:16:44

looking at that report, right. And on a certain day, every

Rita Breslin: 00:16:46

month, you know, this client, their books are going to be

Rita Breslin: 00:16:49

done, they're going to be close. And you can guarantee those

Rita Breslin: 00:16:52

numbers and you can look at those numbers. And you can

Rita Breslin: 00:16:54

compare them to not only prior months, but you can compare them

Rita Breslin: 00:16:58

to what you now know about that client. Because you've had the

Rita Breslin: 00:17:02

time as the CFO to learn about the client, you've developed a

Rita Breslin: 00:17:06

relationship. So now you can talk to them about their

Rita Breslin: 00:17:10

business, not about a p&l or balance sheet. Which doesn't

Rita Breslin: 00:17:17

mean anything to them. It doesn't mean anything, unless

Rita Breslin: 00:17:20

the goal for a bank loan is something really,

Damien Greathead: 00:17:23

yeah. And what are you

Rita Breslin: 00:17:25

providing? What's your deliverable? What is it

Rita Breslin: 00:17:27

that you do? That's so good, that somebody is going to pay

Rita Breslin: 00:17:31

you a reoccurring flat fee every month, and follow every rule and

Rita Breslin: 00:17:37

use every app that you give them the way you want them to use it?

Rita Breslin: 00:17:42

To make your life easier to be a CFO? What are you giving back?

Rita Breslin: 00:17:48

And that's where I have seen over and over again, the fail,

Rita Breslin: 00:17:53

and you go in and you get it you get you get it? somebody goes,

Rita Breslin: 00:17:57

Okay, we want you to do a bookkeeping, and you know, the

Rita Breslin: 00:18:00

books are okay, and we got all the feeds coming in. And we'll

Rita Breslin: 00:18:02

go in and we'll go, Yeah, but you haven't accepted anything

Rita Breslin: 00:18:05

from the feeds for the last four months. And nothing's been

Rita Breslin: 00:18:07

reconciled in this account for six months. And you're on your

Rita Breslin: 00:18:11

website saying that you're you're doing fractional CFO

Rita Breslin: 00:18:14

services, or you're doing client advisory services? What do you

Rita Breslin: 00:18:17

advise them on? And when? What was the deliverable that you

Rita Breslin: 00:18:20

gave them? And if they gave you that flat rate? How much time

Rita Breslin: 00:18:26

are you spending? Asking? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it

Rita Breslin: 00:18:30

and not getting it? used up? Even the modicum of profit,

Rita Breslin: 00:18:34

you're going to make off that flat rate, and you just didn't,

Rita Breslin: 00:18:37

everybody's just frustrated, and nobody's happy, and you're not

Rita Breslin: 00:18:40

doing what you want to do.

Damien Greathead: 00:18:42

And so basically, what's happening

Damien Greathead: 00:18:43

there is that the clients not bought into this process of

Damien Greathead: 00:18:47

using the applications, the team's not bought into using the

Damien Greathead: 00:18:51

do it following the process, accepting the transactions, etc.

Damien Greathead: 00:18:55

Because they don't understand why they don't understand what

Damien Greathead: 00:18:58

the deliverable is. And I think I think a lot of firms over

Damien Greathead: 00:19:01

complicate it. I think, a lot of firms, a lot of firms, either

Damien Greathead: 00:19:06

overcomplicate it, and then combine that with old processes.

Damien Greathead: 00:19:12

To your point. Yeah, to your point about we need to accept

Damien Greathead: 00:19:16

the transactions on a regular basis on a daily basis on a

Damien Greathead: 00:19:21

weekly basis. You see a lot of firms that are that are trying

Damien Greathead: 00:19:24

to run this service, but only coming into a client's books

Damien Greathead: 00:19:27

once a month. And there's no way that you're going to be able to

Damien Greathead: 00:19:30

process all of the data at once a month, because that's what

Damien Greathead: 00:19:33

they used to do in there right updates when when it was just

Damien Greathead: 00:19:37

half a day dedicated to a particular client. But to be

Damien Greathead: 00:19:41

successful it is you need to be in the clients books every

Damien Greathead: 00:19:43

couple of days, don't you?

Rita Breslin: 00:19:44

Well, yeah, depending on the size of the

Rita Breslin: 00:19:46

client, you do, but you also need to be in them, if nothing

Rita Breslin: 00:19:49

else, just to get an understanding of the client. I

Rita Breslin: 00:19:53

mean, you if you're looking at a lot of data, once a month on a

Rita Breslin: 00:19:57

client, hey, you know, it was It's not unusual to get somebody

Rita Breslin: 00:20:02

who has 300 transactions a day coming in, because all the feeds

Rita Breslin: 00:20:06

can because of the kind of business or I will see that all

Rita Breslin: 00:20:08

the time. How are you going to know if there's an issue that

Rita Breslin: 00:20:14

you need to deal with? Or bring up to the client? Or if there's

Rita Breslin: 00:20:18

potential here, you know, maybe it's time for you to get a 401k.

Rita Breslin: 00:20:22

Maybe it's time for you to open up a money market account, if

Rita Breslin: 00:20:25

they're a smaller new startup business, maybe it's time that

Rita Breslin: 00:20:28

you know, you, you know, what, why, why is this? Why these

Rita Breslin: 00:20:33

transactions so out of whack, compared to what we saw last

Rita Breslin: 00:20:37

month, or in like the last six months,

Damien Greathead: 00:20:40

the last time of your example, last time of

Damien Greathead: 00:20:43

Ramon Ramon, what are these every every couple of months,

Damien Greathead: 00:20:46

there's a $10,000 transaction that's that that is being

Damien Greathead: 00:20:49

reported as income? What is that just being able to ask those

Damien Greathead: 00:20:52

questions,

Rita Breslin: 00:20:53

be able to ask that question. And, and if

Rita Breslin: 00:20:56

you're not in them on a regular basis, and it doesn't need to be

Rita Breslin: 00:21:01

you, if you're the if you're the partner owner, you are the

Rita Breslin: 00:21:04

person driving this inside you that has to be in there all the

Rita Breslin: 00:21:07

time. But certainly, if you've got a team, you your team is

Rita Breslin: 00:21:11

somebody is touching that clients books, enough to know

Rita Breslin: 00:21:15

the client, so that when you do talk to them, because you should

Rita Breslin: 00:21:20

as a deliverable, if you're going to be somebody's

Rita Breslin: 00:21:23

fractional CFO, client, advisor, controller, whatever you want, I

Rita Breslin: 00:21:28

sure as heck Hope you're talking to them every month, at minimum,

Rita Breslin: 00:21:32

at minimum, that you're speaking to them, one on one, you know

Rita Breslin: 00:21:39

that this is a in the days of COVID, either a virtual meeting,

Rita Breslin: 00:21:45

but certainly outside of that, and we get into the end of it

Rita Breslin: 00:21:49

Fingers crossed, that you actually meet with this person

Rita Breslin: 00:21:52

and this business, to you know, develop that relationship, and

Rita Breslin: 00:21:57

to get a feel for it. because let me tell you something, it's

Rita Breslin: 00:21:59

not always just in the numbers. It's It's, it's, it's, you know,

Rita Breslin: 00:22:04

you got to look at a person and see if they're sweating or not,

Rita Breslin: 00:22:08

and why. But if you're not doing that, you're really not doing

Rita Breslin: 00:22:13

what your website says you're doing. So admitted, sit down, we

Rita Breslin: 00:22:18

you know, in that, in that book, you know, I just I put here's a

Rita Breslin: 00:22:22

list of what the world considers client advisory in a general

Rita Breslin: 00:22:27

because it's different with every firm, but sit down and

Rita Breslin: 00:22:29

look at it. Here's all the things that you do in your firm.

Rita Breslin: 00:22:33

just list them. What is it that you really want to do? And I

Rita Breslin: 00:22:39

think that's what I do.

Damien Greathead: 00:22:41

Yeah, because it's easy to put on on your

Damien Greathead: 00:22:43

website, advisory or part time controller, or just add another

Damien Greathead: 00:22:48

line item to the to the exhaustive growing list on

Rita Breslin: 00:22:53

marketing people told you to do it.

Damien Greathead: 00:22:55

Yeah. But but the realization is to actually

Damien Greathead: 00:22:59

do this successfully, you need time you need resources, you,

Damien Greathead: 00:23:05

you need to you need the clients. It's not just as easy

Damien Greathead: 00:23:09

as putting it on our website. And we'll do it for one or two

Damien Greathead: 00:23:12

clients that request it, it really has to form a part of

Damien Greathead: 00:23:18

your core value proposition, doesn't it? And it actually

Damien Greathead: 00:23:21

means letting go the few things because

Rita Breslin: 00:23:23

because if you have if you got if you got your

Rita Breslin: 00:23:25

old stuff, your old processes, they're all means doing things.

Rita Breslin: 00:23:29

It's too damn easy to fall back into that. It's way too easy for

Rita Breslin: 00:23:35

somebody to come in and say, Yeah, but I'm not going to do it

Rita Breslin: 00:23:38

that way. It's way too easy to submitted, say, you have a

Rita Breslin: 00:23:42

client doesn't want to do that. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's

Rita Breslin: 00:23:46

just, you're either in for a penny in for a pump, if you got

Rita Breslin: 00:23:51

to put it on your website. And if you're going to go to a

Rita Breslin: 00:23:53

client, you're going to sell them CFO, fractional CFO

Rita Breslin: 00:23:57

services or advisory services, then what are you going to

Rita Breslin: 00:24:00

deliver, that makes it valuable enough for them to follow

Rita Breslin: 00:24:04

through on what you need for them to do all these apps that

Rita Breslin: 00:24:07

are out there? That and and I could go through a litany of

Rita Breslin: 00:24:11

them because we I did this morning with a client. It's like

Rita Breslin: 00:24:14

if the client doesn't use these apps that you give them, then

Rita Breslin: 00:24:19

everything fails. Everything fails, sorry, sorry, you just

Rita Breslin: 00:24:23

bought an expensive app and you and you just spent a lot of time

Rita Breslin: 00:24:27

learning it and you gave it to a client and the client never used

Rita Breslin: 00:24:30

it. So you're back to picking up the phone and begging for

Rita Breslin: 00:24:33

something. What makes them want to use it is the fact that the

Rita Breslin: 00:24:39

first time they use it, they get a yay from you and a piece of

Rita Breslin: 00:24:45

information that they did not know and you gave them some kind

Rita Breslin: 00:24:49

of value.

Damien Greathead: 00:24:51

And my classic example there Penny is when we

Damien Greathead: 00:24:54

worked at when I worked at receipt bank and you talked we

Damien Greathead: 00:24:56

talked to her a number of firms The you're absolutely right that

Damien Greathead: 00:25:02

they would stumble at the first hurdle, which was getting the

Damien Greathead: 00:25:06

app in their clients hands and getting their clients to use it

Damien Greathead: 00:25:09

snapping pictures of the receipts of the of the bills as

Damien Greathead: 00:25:12

that and most importantly doing it as they're coming in. So

Damien Greathead: 00:25:15

while they're waiting for their coffee, snapping a picture of

Damien Greathead: 00:25:17

it, as soon as the at&t bill comes in, snapping a picture of

Damien Greathead: 00:25:21

it, scanning it, forwarding it, whatever it is, and and when we

Damien Greathead: 00:25:25

dug into it, the reason being it was the conversation that was

Damien Greathead: 00:25:29

happening between the the accountant and the client. And

Damien Greathead: 00:25:32

it typically went something like this and it was Penny, I need

Damien Greathead: 00:25:35

you to use this this app called receipt bank. Because it's going

Damien Greathead: 00:25:39

to make my life easier, it's going to get me all the

Damien Greathead: 00:25:41

information that I need to do my job. And almost immediately, you

Damien Greathead: 00:25:48

saw the the eyes roll back in the clients head because they're

Damien Greathead: 00:25:51

like, Wait, you're charging me a fortune. And now you're giving

Damien Greathead: 00:25:56

me this stuff that I'm probably paying for to make your life

Damien Greathead: 00:25:59

easier. I don't get it. I'm not bought into this, I you know,

Damien Greathead: 00:26:03

I'm not bought into this. Whereas the most successful

Damien Greathead: 00:26:07

firms that we saw were, didn't really talk about our role. But

Damien Greathead: 00:26:11

they talked about the accountants role, but they

Damien Greathead: 00:26:13

talked about that deliverable. Penny, I need you to use this

Damien Greathead: 00:26:17

app, because what it means is on the first day or the second day

Damien Greathead: 00:26:21

of every month, we're going to be able to provide you with your

Damien Greathead: 00:26:24

p&l with your this month versus last month, we're able to

Damien Greathead: 00:26:29

provide you with your your month to date year to date reports

Damien Greathead: 00:26:34

that we're going to sit down and have a conversation about that

Damien Greathead: 00:26:37

was the deliverable. And that's what the client valued. And that

Damien Greathead: 00:26:41

is what got the client engaged in this whole process and

Damien Greathead: 00:26:45

adoption of technology. So that's really important is

Damien Greathead: 00:26:49

understanding, Mr. Mrs. client, I need you to do a certain

Damien Greathead: 00:26:53

activity back to your what's in it for me. And then here's why

Damien Greathead: 00:26:58

you need to do it. And it has nothing to do with me. But it

Damien Greathead: 00:27:00

has everything to do with you and your business.

Rita Breslin: 00:27:03

I have to sometimes we take on direct

Rita Breslin: 00:27:06

businesses. And I've got two CFOs that have hired us to do

Rita Breslin: 00:27:12

and there were startups to get them started using and in one

Rita Breslin: 00:27:18

case, the guy didn't have any software in place, not

Rita Breslin: 00:27:22

whatsoever. And to get them to use the apps. It was it was

Rita Breslin: 00:27:27

always like, why should I do this? Okay, I would put them on

Rita Breslin: 00:27:32

a zoom meeting. And I would show them the workflow. And then I

Rita Breslin: 00:27:35

would show them, this is what you will get. And this is when

Rita Breslin: 00:27:38

you would get it. So in both cases, they they they each took

Rita Breslin: 00:27:45

different apps, the ones that I showed them, the good because

Rita Breslin: 00:27:49

they got what was comfortable for them in their company based

Rita Breslin: 00:27:53

on their employees. And the way they work. They both had were

Rita Breslin: 00:27:57

project based. They both had to track by project expenses and

Rita Breslin: 00:28:03

income. They both had a lot of similarities. But it was all in

Rita Breslin: 00:28:07

how they wanted to look at things. And it took a good one

Rita Breslin: 00:28:13

to two months of me playing around with stuff and showing

Rita Breslin: 00:28:19

him in every m it was always constantly, what's it going to

Rita Breslin: 00:28:22

look like for me? What am I going to get from this? How is

Rita Breslin: 00:28:26

this going to make my life easier? Her over and over and

Rita Breslin: 00:28:30

over again? And it was kind of like you? Oh, oh, and it? That's

Rita Breslin: 00:28:38

great. Oh my God, oh, you know, you get though you get that zoom

Rita Breslin: 00:28:41

want and they would go that worked Perfect. Okay, put that

Rita Breslin: 00:28:43

together. And, you know, and this is I'm not, I'm not gonna

Rita Breslin: 00:28:48

do any of the accounting. When we're not responsible for

Rita Breslin: 00:28:52

anything other than making sure the data is in the right place.

Rita Breslin: 00:28:55

Here. We're just playing traffic cop. That's all we're doing. The

Rita Breslin: 00:28:58

CFO goes to companies, each of them has to provide a

Rita Breslin: 00:29:03

deliverable to their board every month. And we give it to them.

Rita Breslin: 00:29:09

And they manage the whole thing. But they are using the apps that

Rita Breslin: 00:29:14

we gave them 100% because they got what they needed.

Damien Greathead: 00:29:20

And I think that's a really good point.

Damien Greathead: 00:29:21

Actually, it's gonna take time, whether it's your clients,

Damien Greathead: 00:29:24

whether it's your team, it's going to take time and

Damien Greathead: 00:29:28

reinforcement and repetition, repetition, repetition. And I

Damien Greathead: 00:29:33

think a lot of again, I think someone will probably strike me

Damien Greathead: 00:29:39

down for this. But I think the Intuit firm the future and a few

Damien Greathead: 00:29:44

of the sort of you've got to jump into advisory. I think

Damien Greathead: 00:29:47

they've done accountants and bookkeepers a bit of a

Damien Greathead: 00:29:49

disservice because they've given this idea that if you build it,

Damien Greathead: 00:29:53

they will come that oh, I put it on the website and my clients

Damien Greathead: 00:29:58

will be falling over themselves. The older the surveys have said

Damien Greathead: 00:30:02

small business clients want their accountant to give so that

Damien Greathead: 00:30:05

they'll be falling over themselves to take up these

Damien Greathead: 00:30:08

services. But again, most small businesses don't really know

Damien Greathead: 00:30:13

what a CFO does. Most small business don't know what advisor

Damien Greathead: 00:30:17

is, most accounting firms don't know what advisor is, your team

Damien Greathead: 00:30:21

certainly doesn't know what's going on and how you're going to

Damien Greathead: 00:30:24

deliver it. So it is really important to get clear about who

Damien Greathead: 00:30:28

you are and what you're delivering, why you're

Damien Greathead: 00:30:30

delivering it. And then you've got to drill it into into your

Damien Greathead: 00:30:35

team, your partners, your clients, to get their buy into

Damien Greathead: 00:30:38

this process. I mean, I always remember the example of it took

Damien Greathead: 00:30:42

me a long time to get addicted to smoking, you had to be really

Damien Greathead: 00:30:45

dedicated to get addicted to smoking. Because that first

Damien Greathead: 00:30:49

experience, there's no way that there's no way that if that

Damien Greathead: 00:30:53

anyone would continue to smoke. And so I don't think it's not

Damien Greathead: 00:31:00

the right, not the right analogy here. But repetition is really

Damien Greathead: 00:31:05

critical. And that's why I think having clear clarity on who you

Damien Greathead: 00:31:12

are, and what you want to be is really, really important. And

Damien Greathead: 00:31:15

you

Rita Breslin: 00:31:15

don't have to do all of that. If it's not what

Rita Breslin: 00:31:18

floats your boat, if it's not what gets you up out of bed in

Rita Breslin: 00:31:21

the morning, if you don't want to be that kind of firm. Okay,

Rita Breslin: 00:31:27

no problem, there's a lot out there that still needs to be

Rita Breslin: 00:31:31

faced, like audit work and compliance work that needs to be

Rita Breslin: 00:31:34

done. You don't have to be that. But if you want to be that, then

Rita Breslin: 00:31:39

you have to focus on it. And then if you have other people

Rita Breslin: 00:31:42

working with you, be they partners or employees, you all

Rita Breslin: 00:31:46

have to talk the same language. Or everybody has to say the same

Rita Breslin: 00:31:50

thing with the CLI. Nobody can say, Don't worry, I'll take care

Rita Breslin: 00:31:53

of that for you. And then backpedal on something and allow

Rita Breslin: 00:31:56

it to fall. If you're not, it's, it's everybody's got to be in on

Rita Breslin: 00:32:01

this. Everybody has to be a team player, everybody. And I mean,

Rita Breslin: 00:32:05

everybody. I don't mean just the accountants and bookkeepers in

Rita Breslin: 00:32:08

your firm. I mean, your administrative staff too. And

Rita Breslin: 00:32:12

the apps that you work, they all have to be fit into what you

Rita Breslin: 00:32:18

want. And there are a lot of apps out there. But if

Rita Breslin: 00:32:21

something's working for you, and it's working via clients, then

Rita Breslin: 00:32:27

you don't you know, it doesn't hurt to have somebody that can

Rita Breslin: 00:32:31

look at new and upcoming apps, there's certainly changes that

Rita Breslin: 00:32:35

are occurring. But But still, if it's working, everybody should

Rita Breslin: 00:32:39

be in everybody, if you're going to have a workflow. Everybody

Rita Breslin: 00:32:45

should be in the workflow. Oh, yeah. Whether whether they've

Rita Breslin: 00:32:48

got an active client or not, whether they are actually

Rita Breslin: 00:32:51

working on a client, they could just be an admin staff, they

Rita Breslin: 00:32:54

could be just a high level CPA, who never really does any of

Rita Breslin: 00:32:58

that tasking. They got to be able to see what's going on.

Damien Greathead: 00:33:02

And how many times have you gone into a firm

Damien Greathead: 00:33:04

where there's maybe three partners and three different

Damien Greathead: 00:33:07

ways to prepare a tax return?

Rita Breslin: 00:33:09

Oh, God, yeah. It doesn't, that's not going to

Rita Breslin: 00:33:12

work. In this kind of, of a world. Yes, that's what that

Rita Breslin: 00:33:18

that is not gonna work, you can do that if all you want to do is

Rita Breslin: 00:33:21

detect. And let me tell you, there are so many clients that

Rita Breslin: 00:33:24

we have the just strictly bookkeeping firms, and they love

Rita Breslin: 00:33:29

having the relationship with the client, they send us all the

Rita Breslin: 00:33:32

traffic cop work to do they have the relationship with the

Rita Breslin: 00:33:34

client. And invariably, I get calls, do you know a CPA just

Rita Breslin: 00:33:38

wants to do tax returns? Yes, it is, there is, if that's all you

Rita Breslin: 00:33:44

want to do. There's nothing wrong with it. And there's

Rita Breslin: 00:33:48

plenty of work out there to do it. So, like, you'll run into

Rita Breslin: 00:33:54

somebody got you know, I asked somebody who needs an audit, and

Rita Breslin: 00:33:57

I don't do that. And I don't want to do that. And so I need

Rita Breslin: 00:34:00

to connect with another firm that does that. So but because

Rita Breslin: 00:34:06

these are these are firms that have said this is what we're

Rita Breslin: 00:34:08

going to do. This is what we like to do. And everybody in the

Rita Breslin: 00:34:13

companies in on the plant, nobody goes off script. I did

Rita Breslin: 00:34:19

that comparison between the two firms, which place would you

Rita Breslin: 00:34:21

rather work and and and the place that you know, everybody

Rita Breslin: 00:34:25

said raise the angle? Yeah, I want to work in that firm. I

Rita Breslin: 00:34:28

could tell you she she plans this out. Every year she goes

Rita Breslin: 00:34:34

through a major planning and review with her team. Where are

Rita Breslin: 00:34:39

we at? How did we do not from a standpoint of of, you know,

Rita Breslin: 00:34:45

client stuff, but how did it work for you? How did how did

Rita Breslin: 00:34:49

using these tools work? Did you see anything that was different

Rita Breslin: 00:34:53

that could be better? Are we all on the same page. She brings

Rita Breslin: 00:34:56

them in constantly but once a year. She has a Big Huge week

Rita Breslin: 00:35:02

with her team, and it's away from the office. And it's always

Rita Breslin: 00:35:07

in a beautiful setting, whether it's in a resort somewhere, and

Rita Breslin: 00:35:11

they just sit down, and they have a good time being a team,

Rita Breslin: 00:35:15

as well as working out, how did this work, what didn't work? And

Rita Breslin: 00:35:19

then the last thing is, now, how did that work for the clients

Rita Breslin: 00:35:23

and what didn't work for the clients. So start with what you

Rita Breslin: 00:35:26

want, get a team that wants what you want, and agrees with it,

Rita Breslin: 00:35:31

and then go find clients that are willing to come along

Rita Breslin: 00:35:34

because they like what you gave them. I have another client who,

Rita Breslin: 00:35:38

who he, he's great, he's he's at a Texas Ed, you know, he's

Rita Breslin: 00:35:44

strict about what dates he wants each client's books closed,

Rita Breslin: 00:35:49

because he has a meeting, and he has a set deliverable that he

Rita Breslin: 00:35:53

gives to them. And he's, he's on it, man. He's like, it'll be

Rita Breslin: 00:35:57

slacking me, Hey, we got a day, they're gonna get this done yet,

Rita Breslin: 00:36:01

don't worry, we will cool Don't worry about and it just, he, he

Rita Breslin: 00:36:06

holds to it, he doesn't let it slide, we let him know, if we're

Rita Breslin: 00:36:10

running into a time issue because we're not getting

Rita Breslin: 00:36:13

something that we need to complete it. He is on it with

Rita Breslin: 00:36:16

the client, hey, we're gonna have a meeting in three days,

Rita Breslin: 00:36:18

you need to give me that information. Otherwise, I'm not

Rita Breslin: 00:36:21

going to be able to give you everything that we usually do.

Rita Breslin: 00:36:24

You know, and all it took was a couple of times with clients to

Rita Breslin: 00:36:27

tell them that. But the thing is, he gave them that

Rita Breslin: 00:36:31

deliverable?

Damien Greathead: 00:36:32

Exactly a bit because that the client

Damien Greathead: 00:36:35

experience that they had the conversation about this month

Damien Greathead: 00:36:38

versus last month, or whatever happens in that meeting. And I'm

Damien Greathead: 00:36:42

assuming the clients perceived a little bit of value in that

Damien Greathead: 00:36:45

meeting, which was enough of that, that dopamine, if you

Damien Greathead: 00:36:48

will, to be like, Oh, yes, we're gonna get addicted to this,

Damien Greathead: 00:36:52

because this helps us make better decisions in our

Damien Greathead: 00:36:55

business.

Rita Breslin: 00:36:55

Oh, yeah, they're on a board of all of his

Rita Breslin: 00:36:58

clients, there are quite a few that we noticed that the amount

Rita Breslin: 00:37:01

of work that he's doing for them, and that he's sending over

Rita Breslin: 00:37:05

to us has increased greatly.

Damien Greathead: 00:37:08

I mean, it's one of those funny things that

Damien Greathead: 00:37:10

accountants always come back with more work whenever they sit

Damien Greathead: 00:37:14

in front of their clients. So how do we take up time, but

Damien Greathead: 00:37:18

again, we'll we'll build on that Penny, one of the articles that

Damien Greathead: 00:37:20

we've been discussing from Harvard is around creating a

Damien Greathead: 00:37:23

purpose driven organization and on the website will have a link

Damien Greathead: 00:37:27

to the article. So you can go in and have a read of it. But I

Damien Greathead: 00:37:32

thought it was interesting, because as with all things in

Damien Greathead: 00:37:36

Harvard, it's always talking about fortune 500 companies and

Damien Greathead: 00:37:40

the importance of this is how the world's biggest companies

Damien Greathead: 00:37:44

made made millions of dollars for their shareholders. What

Damien Greathead: 00:37:48

about first small medium size accounting and bookkeeping

Damien Greathead: 00:37:52

firms? And being a purpose driven organization? How How

Damien Greathead: 00:37:56

does that translate to these smaller firms, these smaller

Damien Greathead: 00:38:00

businesses that you and I are working with,

Rita Breslin: 00:38:02

or you you heard that story about the CPA that

Rita Breslin: 00:38:07

meets with her team once? They actually have brought me out to

Rita Breslin: 00:38:11

some of them. So I've actually sat in for the week. Last time

Rita Breslin: 00:38:15

was in the Dominican, so but I said, I'm not doing that, again,

Rita Breslin: 00:38:19

that's too long of a flight. But it's as long as going to India.

Rita Breslin: 00:38:24

But the, they have been like just last week. Sorry, on on.

Rita Breslin: 00:38:30

This was a zoom meeting with a very small firm. She is just now

Rita Breslin: 00:38:36

opening our second office, she has one in California, she's

Rita Breslin: 00:38:39

going to open one in Montana. And she has a meeting every week

Rita Breslin: 00:38:50

with our team in both places, but also she has every year she

Rita Breslin: 00:38:56

has it her mission statement of the year internally. And like

Rita Breslin: 00:39:01

two years ago, it was finding the the technology apps, her

Rita Breslin: 00:39:07

little black dress that she wanted to work with. And that

Rita Breslin: 00:39:10

would work well and that everybody could get in on then

Rita Breslin: 00:39:14

it was the next one was the next year was how do we make this

Rita Breslin: 00:39:19

process flow and and get the work done faster? And make sure

Rita Breslin: 00:39:24

that we're getting it timely done? And what are we delivering

Rita Breslin: 00:39:28

to the client? And now it's this year, it's client expectation.

Rita Breslin: 00:39:33

So everybody has that in front of them. What's the expectation

Rita Breslin: 00:39:36

of the client? And are we meeting it? What we've we've got

Rita Breslin: 00:39:40

the contracts in front us, we got the engagements in front of

Rita Breslin: 00:39:43

us, this is what we've promised them and are we meeting it and

Rita Breslin: 00:39:47

also asking the client, what's your experience of us? Are we

Rita Breslin: 00:39:52

hitting our mark, and so every year she's done something. And

Rita Breslin: 00:39:57

in although she's doing a lot of things in her firm She has

Rita Breslin: 00:40:00

something in front of her that she's focusing on, because it's

Rita Breslin: 00:40:03

huge to make these changes. And she's just she's the one we met

Rita Breslin: 00:40:07

her three years ago, she was just one account, working by

Rita Breslin: 00:40:11

yourself. Not go to office.

Damien Greathead: 00:40:14

Wow. And I think that's actually a really

Damien Greathead: 00:40:16

important point Penny is we don't need to save the world.

Damien Greathead: 00:40:20

You know, you sort of even the title of that article creating a

Damien Greathead: 00:40:24

purpose driven organization. It's up to you to define

Damien Greathead: 00:40:26

purpose, purpose in terms of your clients purpose in terms of

Damien Greathead: 00:40:30

your team. And I like the fact that just each year, we're going

Damien Greathead: 00:40:34

to chip away at a very particular part to drive us

Damien Greathead: 00:40:38

forward. And I think that's something that that hopefully

Damien Greathead: 00:40:43

listeners can take, can take away from today's episode is,

Damien Greathead: 00:40:47

you don't need to fix the world today. But if there's one small

Damien Greathead: 00:40:51

aspect, and hopefully today's is becoming really clear on why

Damien Greathead: 00:40:57

we're in business, what are we in business to do? And what are

Damien Greathead: 00:41:02

we not in business to do? So I think that's, that's something

Damien Greathead: 00:41:06

to really come away from today's episode is, what is it that you

Damien Greathead: 00:41:11

are? Why are you in business?

Rita Breslin: 00:41:13

Yeah. And you have to be happy, and you've got to

Rita Breslin: 00:41:19

be happy. And,

Damien Greathead: 00:41:22

yeah, I've seen a Venn diagram where

Damien Greathead: 00:41:25

there's happiness, revenue, and I can't remember what the third

Damien Greathead: 00:41:28

one is. I'll try and dig that out for the next episode. But

Damien Greathead: 00:41:31

it's very much this Venn diagram, where right in the

Damien Greathead: 00:41:34

middle is your sweet spot. And so that's where you should focus

Damien Greathead: 00:41:37

in terms of what are the types of services and clients that

Damien Greathead: 00:41:41

make you happy? What are the types of clients and services

Damien Greathead: 00:41:43

that are profitable. And then as I said, I can't remember that

Damien Greathead: 00:41:46

one down the bottom there, but there is definitely a Venn

Damien Greathead: 00:41:48

diagram of this sweet spot, that is where you should operate.

Rita Breslin: 00:41:54

And, you know, I think, I think it's, it's, it's

Rita Breslin: 00:41:56

much easier for a even small, medium sized firm, to be able to

Rita Breslin: 00:42:01

do that. I mean, if you're working in a huge, you know,

Rita Breslin: 00:42:04

mega, Super Regional, you know, big, huge firm, you're doing

Rita Breslin: 00:42:09

that by division. But it the, at the end of the day, you've got

Rita Breslin: 00:42:16

to love what you do. And your clients have to love the

Rita Breslin: 00:42:20

deliverable you're giving them. And if you can get those two

Rita Breslin: 00:42:23

things in sync, then you know, the clients are going to do what

Rita Breslin: 00:42:28

you want, you know, there's no more begging, they're going to

Rita Breslin: 00:42:30

be anxious to give you the information. They're going to be

Rita Breslin: 00:42:33

anxious to communicate with you. I know because I'm not just

Rita Breslin: 00:42:37

dealing with firms. I'm dealing with small businesses that come

Rita Breslin: 00:42:40

to me, and I tell them right up front, we'll get you better have

Rita Breslin: 00:42:44

a CPA, because I'm not going to be the last word when it comes

Rita Breslin: 00:42:48

to that kind of stuff. I'll do all the traffic cop you want, I

Rita Breslin: 00:42:51

will help facilitate it. But you know, they still keep on coming

Rita Breslin: 00:42:56

back. Because they're getting what what we told them they

Rita Breslin: 00:43:00

would get. I didn't over promise. And I didn't tell them

Rita Breslin: 00:43:04

I could do something that one I wasn't. I don't want to do.

Rita Breslin: 00:43:09

Could I be capable of doing something like that? Yes. Are

Rita Breslin: 00:43:15

you kidding me? I'm not stupid. And I've spent 25 years doing

Rita Breslin: 00:43:20

this working with accountants. And, and I've done a few tax

Rita Breslin: 00:43:25

returns in my life. I've met I've closed a few sets of books

Rita Breslin: 00:43:29

in my life. But it doesn't make me happy to do it. But I'm

Rita Breslin: 00:43:34

really honest. Like, Oh, God, now I know, I have not that kind

Rita Breslin: 00:43:41

of person. Right now. I'm sitting here talking to you and

Rita Breslin: 00:43:44

both knees to jumping up and down. And like I've sat one,

Rita Breslin: 00:43:48

squirrel.

Damien Greathead: 00:43:51

I mean, it's a good point, because I'm probably

Damien Greathead: 00:43:54

one that we'll finish on is he as he said, he'd done a few tax

Damien Greathead: 00:43:58

returns, you've closed a few sets of books in your time, your

Damien Greathead: 00:44:00

client wouldn't know a good set of books, you can actually turn

Damien Greathead: 00:44:03

it for him.

Rita Breslin: 00:44:04

I guess I could for some of them. I could I

Rita Breslin: 00:44:06

could, I could put anything out there. And they would be okay.

Damien Greathead: 00:44:10

But I do know if they get out. They do know if

Damien Greathead: 00:44:12

they've got enough cash in the bank to meet payroll. They do

Damien Greathead: 00:44:15

want to know if they've got enough cash to pay their bills.

Damien Greathead: 00:44:18

They want to know that they've got a little bit of cash that

Damien Greathead: 00:44:20

they can put into savings. They want to know that they grew last

Damien Greathead: 00:44:24

last month or last quarter.

Rita Breslin: 00:44:27

I had one the other day she's she called me.

Rita Breslin: 00:44:30

She goes okay, we plan on having a baby. Can you teach me how I

Rita Breslin: 00:44:34

can manage my money and my business a little bit better.

Rita Breslin: 00:44:39

And we looked through a p&l. I showed her a comparison what she

Rita Breslin: 00:44:42

did even during COVID how she did a little bit okay. And then

Rita Breslin: 00:44:46

I introduced her to the profit first method. I said, here's

Rita Breslin: 00:44:49

this book you need to read. And I'm going to tell you, you know

Rita Breslin: 00:44:52

what, let's open up a good interest money market account.

Rita Breslin: 00:44:56

You're not getting it from your bank. Let's open it up over

Rita Breslin: 00:44:59

here. gave her a flat FinTech ad. And I said, I don't care

Rita Breslin: 00:45:04

what you do just put this amount every month, you can manage

Rita Breslin: 00:45:08

that. Right? You can manage that, right? And she goes, Yeah,

Rita Breslin: 00:45:10

I can go go ahead do that every month. And, you know, her friend

Rita Breslin: 00:45:16

who told you I also do a bit book spa, she told her to have

Rita Breslin: 00:45:21

this conversation with me, because I with her, I told her

Rita Breslin: 00:45:23

two years ago to do this. And she's like, going, I can't

Rita Breslin: 00:45:26

believe how easy that was. And, you know, sometimes that's all

Rita Breslin: 00:45:30

it took. But that's about as far as I go. That's that. But I

Rita Breslin: 00:45:34

mean, that just was a little bit of a conversation that you can

Rita Breslin: 00:45:40

have with any client. And I know, I know, all of my firm

Rita Breslin: 00:45:44

clients would have found another way to make money off of that

Rita Breslin: 00:45:47

conversation. And I would have added value to that's not my

Rita Breslin: 00:45:51

business. And that's not what these clients are to me, because

Rita Breslin: 00:45:53

they're my guinea pigs. So but I mean, you know, how often do you

Rita Breslin: 00:46:00

get a call that says, hey, we're trying to have a baby, and I

Rita Breslin: 00:46:05

need to? What do you think I should do about putting some

Rita Breslin: 00:46:07

money away? We want to buy a house. And you know, my

Rita Breslin: 00:46:10

husband's doing really well, I'm doing, but we, what do you think

Rita Breslin: 00:46:13

we should do?

Damien Greathead: 00:46:15

And you want to be able to take that call,

Damien Greathead: 00:46:16

you don't want to you want to have the time to have that

Damien Greathead: 00:46:19

conversation, because that's where the value is. And so

Damien Greathead: 00:46:22

Penny, I think if we sort of round out today's episode, and

Damien Greathead: 00:46:25

we sort of start thinking about what we're going to touch on on

Damien Greathead: 00:46:28

on our next podcast episode. It's becoming taking some time

Damien Greathead: 00:46:32

out to become very clear on the types of services and the types

Damien Greathead: 00:46:39

of people that you want to work with. That's what I'm sort of

Damien Greathead: 00:46:43

picking up out of today's episode,

Rita Breslin: 00:46:44

deliverables that you're willing that you can

Rita Breslin: 00:46:46

commit to.

Damien Greathead: 00:46:48

Cuz you can't just love a tax return over the

Damien Greathead: 00:46:50

fence. You can't just love a p&l over the fence. Can you and

Damien Greathead: 00:46:53

expect to expect the client to be delighted?

Rita Breslin: 00:46:57

Yeah, and not and and don't be surprised if

Rita Breslin: 00:46:59

somebody else comes in and takes them away from you?

Damien Greathead: 00:47:02

Yeah. And I think once we've I think that's

Damien Greathead: 00:47:06

important. What are the deliverables? What are the end

Damien Greathead: 00:47:09

deliverable services, types of clients we want to be working

Damien Greathead: 00:47:13

with, I think it's really important to become crystal

Damien Greathead: 00:47:16

clear on that. Because once we've done that, we can then

Damien Greathead: 00:47:20

move into the actual, well, what do we need to do to get us

Damien Greathead: 00:47:24

there? What are the what are the activities that we need to let

Damien Greathead: 00:47:27

go of? What are the activities that we need to look at our

Damien Greathead: 00:47:30

process and automate? And and that's I think the part about

Damien Greathead: 00:47:36

our next episode is where we once we've got clarity here, on

Damien Greathead: 00:47:41

what we are, what we want to be who we want to look after, and

Damien Greathead: 00:47:43

what we want to deliver to our next episode

Rita Breslin: 00:47:45

is how do you get clarity with your employees?

Rita Breslin: 00:47:48

Yep, yeah. Yeah. Because you might get clear, you might you

Rita Breslin: 00:47:53

you might be rate dialed right in on what you want. But you

Rita Breslin: 00:47:57

better make sure that the people around you want the same thing.

Damien Greathead: 00:48:01

And I think maybe that's where we start our

Damien Greathead: 00:48:03

next episode, because we've seen a whole host of firms absolutely

Damien Greathead: 00:48:07

derailed because the the vision of the the owners and the vision

Damien Greathead: 00:48:13

and the understanding of the teams are completely different,

Damien Greathead: 00:48:15

or even multiple owners who don't have the same.

Rita Breslin: 00:48:18

Yeah, that's what

Damien Greathead: 00:48:21

maybe that's where we are we we we lead off

Damien Greathead: 00:48:24

on our next episode, where we dive deeper into being crystal

Damien Greathead: 00:48:29

clear on what we want to do. What are the types of services

Damien Greathead: 00:48:32

we want to provide? What are the deliverables that we want to

Damien Greathead: 00:48:35

deliver? And then we can focus on how we're actually going to

Damien Greathead: 00:48:39

get there and delivering them. So Penny, this has been a really

Damien Greathead: 00:48:43

good way to kick things off. I think we we often launch

Damien Greathead: 00:48:48

straight into the app or firms launch straight into the app

Damien Greathead: 00:48:51

straight into the workflow straight into reporting and all

Damien Greathead: 00:48:55

these whiz bang reporting apps but they don't spend any time on

Damien Greathead: 00:48:59

the front end really defining who they are, and what they want

Damien Greathead: 00:49:04

to deliver to their clients.

Rita Breslin: 00:49:06

Get your brand going.

Damien Greathead: 00:49:07

Yep,

Rita Breslin: 00:49:08

yeah, gotta get your

Damien Greathead: 00:49:10

jump on the website, si t vc.co. You can see

Damien Greathead: 00:49:14

the Harvard Business article you can see strategy in the fat

Damien Greathead: 00:49:18

smoker and where to download or order those from penny. We will

Damien Greathead: 00:49:22

see you next week when we get into to team on strategy in the

Damien Greathead: 00:49:27

virtual controller.

Rita Breslin: 00:49:28

All right, you got it.