031 Optimizing An Accounting Firm For Fun

How do you make running an accounting firm just a little less soul sucking, a little more sustainable not only for yourself, but for the rest of your team? How do you get people plugged into the roles that will energize them? As I've learned more about myself, I think I've developed a better picture of what this looks like. So let's talk about it today. Optimizing an accounting firm for fun. I'm starting to realize the part of getting old is developing a better understanding of what you are and what you aren't. And the more that you learn about yourself, like the secondary effect of that is you better learn the people who will better fit around you and make up for the things that you lack. And even beyond that, show you a path to optimizing kind of your day to day for the best version of yourself, leaning into the things that are gonna come naturally to you, that you're gonna be energized to do. I think so much of work is energy and oftentimes just the ability to attack work like with that excitement to be your best self if we can find a way to bring that energy to the work that we do every single day. So many problems take care of themselves, not only for you, but for your team. So much of what we do is energy based output, inspiration, all these things. So if we can find a way to lean into the things that give us energy, you're fundamentally going to be a higher output, higher growth person. But, but for me, man, there's things that I'm good at, there are things that I am not good at. I've shared in the past. The first decade or so of my career I spent just doing US tax prep. And after maybe seven years I had a level of confidence that was like, yeah, I could pretty sure I can run with most things and confidently speak with just about anybody about how to do that stuff. Built that skill took a really long time, as I think it does for most people, but that doesn't mean that I enjoyed it. Like ultimately where I got was like, I realized I'm actually pretty mediocre at this if I look at the people around me. But there's other things that I'm exceptional at. So like at a certain point I had to be like, this is not going to be like the best opportunity for me longer term. And that was where I transitioned more towards. At that point I went back to graduate school, got an mba, was planning to leave accounting altogether. But then I saw what a killer opportunity, like cast accounting practice, back office Stuff was and came back and said, hey, I want to build this accounting practice from scratch. Kind of here's my vision for it. And it's because of something that I didn't yet know about myself was what I love to do is like just create things from scratch. And that may be really obvious in hindsight given, you know, content creation and like all these other things that I do, but that wasn't something that I knew about myself. And even like into the days of creating video, like I hadn't quite connected the dots on what does that mean for me and how I approach decision making around business opportunities and the type of things I build my days around. But also like who then become the people who I'm best suited to work with. Who are the types of people who can shore up the things that I don't enjoy, the things that are most soul sucking, take the most energy from me so that I can be at my best. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I think we take a lot of self limiting beliefs into our work around the aspects of work that we just kind of have to trudge through whether we like them or not. I think having like kind of thought about this the last three to six months quite a bit, read a few books on it. Where I'm at now is that like so much of what we do is within our control, so much more than I think we realize. It's easy to be like defeatist about, oh, I'm never going to find the perfect person for this and that and to be really impatient. That's a hard one for me. If I don't see a way to solve that problem in the next 12 months, it's really easy to just be like, well, this is my life and I'm going to be stuck this way kind of forever. And even that acceptance, whether it's well founded or not, that acceptance can be really discouraging. So a few frameworks that I think broaden your mind a little bit and hopefully give you a little bit of inspiration around just how much agency you have to craft what your professional life looks like. It is truly 100% up to you. Doesn't mean there won't be hard decisions to make along the way. But the best version of that I actually think now starts with a level of awareness about ourselves that we don't all have. I certainly didn't have a few years ago. So you've probably heard almost all of these things before. And honestly I think I had heard all of these things 10 years ago and they didn't really sink in for me until I had kind of seen these things through the lens of what firm running looked like for me. So I'm going to run you through a couple of frameworks I can share how I saw those kind of projected across my firm running experience and how they would change how I would approach that going forward. So the first big one the E. Myth Revisited have we all read this book by now? If you haven't, definitely do. It's a little dated these days but is still helpful. I'm an audiobook guy and it's like a real smooth knock it out in a week and a half while I'm exercising sort of book. Like very, very easy listen. But E. Myth basically says, I mean, there's a lot of things in E. Myth, but one of the core parts of that book is that people fall into one of three camps. So I'll read this little kind of summary Expert Excerpt so three types of people Entrepreneurs, managers and technicians. So here's an excerpt of our battling personalities. The entrepreneur is the innovator, looking around and seeing a world of opportunity. She's a high energy dreamer and visionary. She sees all the angles, all the possibilities towards success and is intently focused on the future. Now, as I read through these, I suspect one of these will probably resonate with you, potentially even different ones for different stages of your career. Sometimes that energy and constant opportunity chasing creates havoc and chaos. She tries to pull people along and gets frustrated when things slow slow down or lag behind. Without the entrepreneur, there would be no innovation. The manager in you is pragmatic and craves order more than opportunities. She sees problems to fix as the entrepreneur innovates and creates new things. The manager arranges things into rows, organized and orderly. Without the manager, the business could never function. Lastly, there's the technician, the doer and the tinkerer. The technician and you loves controlling the workflow and getting things done. She's frustrated by the entrepreneur's flakiness and need to constantly change ideas and irked by the manager's meddling in her workflow. But she's happy when the entrepreneur and the manager create more work for her to do. Without the technician, nothing in the business would ever get done. So you can probably see versions of all three of these things in yourself, but most of us trend kind of in one direction. Oftentimes this rears its head through like an aspirational lens. Maybe the job that you have to do is one of these things, but what you would really Prefer is that other thing. So most of us start just by the nature of the org chart in some form or another as a technician. But when we have that freedom of like leaning into which of these things are we most naturally suited to, most of us are going to kind of trend one of those ways. And so I am absolutely the entrepreneur, the shiny object guy, the guy that creates all sorts of issues because I have too many ideas and the guy who's terrible at actually following through on the execution of all those things and ultimately needs a team in order to actually make anything happen. Like that's how I'm wired. Kind of an interesting spin on this conversation is just how much entrepreneurship and innovation is required to run an accounting firm firm. On the grand spectrum of all of the businesses out there, I would argue that an accounting firm is one of those more kind of known quantity businesses where 95% of firms are largely selling the same services, just maybe in slightly different ways. Another interesting thing here is for larger firms, if you've got a regional firm, and let's say you work at in an office for a regional firm, oftentimes the last thing you want there is an entrepreneur. Like, yes, you want people to think outside the box and all that, but the larger your organization gets, and I talked about this a bit in the Q and A the other day when we were talking about big, foreign, regional. The bigger a business gets, the more you need people to do things to a system which is kind of counter to like, you know, the maybe more exploratory way of doing work that could identify new and better ways of getting things done. So within accounting firms, unlike in like general small business, I think there's maybe less of a space for the entrepreneur than there is in many other types of businesses. And there's absolutely accountants who I know who have gotten bored of running accounting firms because of those constraints. These are probably the types of folks who most quickly lean into getting out of the work and delegating all aspects of running the firm. Maybe because there's other businesses they want to work on or maybe just because they want to grow that practice to a, you know, much bigger size. That entrepreneur. That's definitely me. Now when I looked around through the team I had on the tax side and on the accounting side, we had some discussions about where, how people envisioned themselves. And oftentimes when you put this framework in front of somebody, what they saw themselves as did not necessarily align with the role that you had put them in. And so back when I really first did a deeper Dive on this book a couple few years ago, probably the most valuable thing I got out of it was it's a very, very simple framework that I can sit down with my team members and is easy to understand. It didn't require this super deep dive, soul search sort of thing to get to the bottom of. And it led to some really constructive conversations around, hey, let's plan out like the next 18 months and ensure that the trajectory we have you on is something that you're gonna be excited about, they're gonna be energized about. Because even if you're capable of doing something else, like, at the end of the day, you're gonna be at your best when you're plugged into that role that like, you are just super driven to do, because that's just kind of how you're wired, at least at this stage in your career. This was a helpful framework for me, especially with the team. I have never been a big, like, personality profile guy. Like, there's all the different versions of those tests. I think in some ways they're kind of limiting. I do think they're valuable to maybe be more conscientious and how you understand the people around you and the way that their minds work and, and all of that. And maybe where I have missed the boat on some of those personality assessments and in the past is that it's one of those things where maybe I've had the opportunity to go through graduate school where we did a ton of those things and I kind of got burnt out on them. But on the other side of that, I probably have. I may be giving people more grace just due to a wider awareness of the differences and how we all think and that sort of thing. But the fact that I do that does not mean that my team is necessarily capable of doing that. So I have heard of people having good experiences going through those personality profiles. Maybe that's something else to explore. I'm not going to go super deep on that here. The one other framework I wanted to touch on traction, eos and my accountant community. We've gone through two book clubs now on eos and there's people that absolutely swear by it. Specifically, one aspect of EOS that was really helpful for me in opening my mind is the conversation around visionaries versus integrators. And this is not necessarily. I don't think an EOS is one of those things where people are like super wizards on it and they jump on you as soon as you get it wrong. So apologies in advance. The visionary versus Integrator conversation I think is more around like you as a business owner finding your ideal partner or like at the top of the business finding like that perfect pairing, the peanut butter and jelly that can make stuff happen. But it's also about like understanding through the lens of your own capabilities the things that you are going to lack and how to find the perfect person to fit in there. So it's kind of like uh, E myth, sort of like three buckets. Um, in this case there's just two. So I'll kind of cruise through what those look like real quick. The visionary most similar to the entrepreneur in E Myth, the visionary is full of grand ideas, not focused on just one job. Bounces around strong relationship building skills, encompasses company culture, constantly innovating, slash evolving and emotional. This book spoke to me through the lens of me being a visionary and struggling to find the peanut butter to my jelly. So if you're a visionary, this may especially resonate with you on the integrator side. An integrator drives leadership meetings, exceptional product project management skills, thrives on meeting goal timelines, excels in conflict resolution, accountable and logical. So the analogy there to emyth is the integrator is probably most similar to the manager. If you've never taken the assessment like the visionary versus integrator assessment, I'll put a link in the show notes. There's a free one you can do that takes all of 15 minutes and it'll give you a score, not just like a binary are you on this spectrum or the other? But it will give you a score for visionary and it will also give you a score for integrator. And so me for example, I'm like a 87 visionary or something like that, which is fairly high visionary and like a 50 something integrator which is not very high. And the further on one spectrum or the other that you are, the more you benefit from finding a person who can wear like that other side of the business. So like me being so heavily skewed visionary makes me really hard to. It makes it really hard for me to execute on things without that integrator that can sort of counterbalance me. And of the folks I talked to like going through sessions in my community and stuff like that, other accountants, most of the folks hanging out there did kind of trend visionary and I suspect that's because visionaries are probably more drawn to these kind of public channels and building communities and learning from each other, that sort of thing. I sort of get the impression that visionaries are more active out in networking and that sort of thing. Whereas the integrators are like, their job is kind of like to coalesce all that madness down to like right, what does that actually mean for our team and how do we actually execute on all these things? But the last book club we went through that went super deep on this visionary and integrator relationships. A book called Rocket Fuel was really helpful. Um, I think especially if you find yourself in a place where you're maybe struggling to see the long term sustainability of the firm that you're running. Maybe because there's certain things that you've learned come with firm running that like you just are just super, super soul sucking. I think for most of us there's parts of doing this stuff that we love, parts of doing this stuff that we don't. And for me, this, this Rocket Fuel book, I'll link it in the show notes, was really inspiring through the lens of knowing that as kind of a reminder that there's absolutely people out there that can fill in the gaps. And so many of our, I don't know, kind of our dark days around, like, how am I ever gonna make this better? Like this thing that I'm struggling with, this is never going to be fun for me. I don't want to be doing this for the next 20 years. Oftentimes we can get, we can fixate on those things, get stuck on those things without like implementing a process to mitigate that stuff. Even if it's something that still needs to happen one way or another. Doesn't mean you gotta do the one to like be the one to like carry that rock all by yourself. Maybe the most eye opening part of the Rocket Fuel book was an example they went through with a legal firm. The example is a little dated, but it was basically one and a half million dollar firm. You had a leader who was a visionary type and they were kind of struggling to get beyond that threshold they were at. And they were talking about sort of that discovery process of the visionary trying to find the perfect integrator to work with to kind of take that firm to the next level. And he built out. They called it the wish list strategy. Basically a giant list of, boy, it would sure be nice if I didn't have to do all of these things. And this wish list they worked off of for the first year with that integrator and he was success, successfully able to offload all these things and like that context, like settle out. It's like, well yeah, that like that all makes sense. But what blew my mind was the list. The completeness and all of the detail in this list that were like holy smokes if I didn't have to do all that stuff in firm running that would make firm running feel a lot more sustainable to me. That was really eye opening to me. So I'm going to cruise through this list just to because it was helpful for me to like open up my mind in regards to how self limiting my own thoughts on delegation were. Like can I really ever delegate that? Like the answer is almost universally yes. So first item here Be the quarterback for the move to Southfield. They were looking at a new office including phones, computers, boxes and furniture. Oh my gosh. My firm moved offices once. Ugh. To review insurance policies, meet with agents, compare prices and companies and coverages Workers compensation business, home, lake house malpractice, employee liability policy 3. Help analyze and implement Eastside office if It's a go. 4. Analyze numbers for each person. Help put a number on each person. That's a traction concept, the idea that every person ought to have a number that they're kind of working towards. Help us set up proper goals for the coming year. 5. Set up and implement employee review system. Make sure it gets done and done right. I just love the broad brushstroke of that like hey, go do this thing. Don't only do it like get it done, but also make sure it gets done right. 6. Help us come up with better bonus and compensation systems. 7. Go through and review all employee files to ensure they have all proper documentation signed in and file. Make sure all attorneys have signed contracts. Make sure they cover everything. 8. Get a handle on how we close files. We want to do it all on disk and get rid of storage costs. Get a handle on what the storage company has and when we can start purging old documents to save money. 9. Make sure phones are being answered quickly and promptly. If not, figure out why. 10. Make sure all core values are being lived by all. Brainstorm and set up ways for core values to become part of everyone's daily lives at the firm. Sidebar it's probably a helpful exercise for you to have a wish list of your own that you just keep even if you don't show it to anybody. What are the aspects of firm running that you're like, if I didn't have to do this, I wouldn't miss it. That's probably a big list. 11. Make sure all 90 day priorities are being done and help people who are having a hard time getting them done. 12. Be My Eyes on the books so I don't have to review bank statements, watch money and account daily or weekly. 3. Review vendor list and start getting a handle on all payables and start negotiating and looking for alternatives example copy services, postage, subpoena services, running filing services, etc. 14. Review and perfect new employee time procedure. 15. Get a handle on what could make secretaries more efficient and happier. 16. Make sure everyone is working to capacity, no slackers. 17. Make sure office is as paperless as possible. 18. Interview and compare several time matters people and hire a new person for the office. Get time matters working as to make us more efficient. 19. Organize word systems so it's easy. Probably need different software for that purpose. 20. Make sure clients are being called and informed about their pending cases. Follow up on it. Pull files and see if this is being done. Make sure lawyers are putting proper notes in files. I love the level of detail of this. When I heard this I was like what is my dream wish list? That's something that I need to be building. 21. Get a good handle on lawyer teams and make sure they're running smoothly. Get a handle on capacity of each person. 2. Help us cut costs. Simple as that. Help help us cut costs. 23. Come up with manage and organize quarterly events for team building. 24. Review and negotiate all contracts including advertising. 25. Look for missed opportunities for getting new business. Review what is and what is not working. 26. Be My Eyes and ears when I'm not there or when the rest of the executive team is not there. 27. Be in charge of all scorecards, blue sheets and gathering financial information. Interact with our lawyers and CPAs when needed. 28. Eventually run our quarterly meetings. 29. Make sure we roll out what we need one when we need to roll it out. No idea. 30. Interview and make sure tech people and web people are the best we can get for the money. 31. Monitor what other employees are doing on their systems via monitoring systems that has been bought and implemented that one didn't age well and 32. Manage each team. Go to each team meeting. Make sure of good follow through. Make sure each team and the meetings themselves run smoothly. Do you have your wish list? We don't all love all the things that we do every single day, but I do think there's value in beginning to build that wish list to help you be more mindful of when you get to the end of the day. What are the things that were most soul sucking to me I think that stuff can kind of get blurry in the rear view mirror when you get to the end of the day and you're like, boy, this just isn't fun. But usually when it's not fun, it's coming down to a few specific things. Or when you're feeling really energized, it's because you got to do that thing that you love, maybe work with that client that's really energizing, or work on marketing because you're pumped about that, that sort of thing. What this list opened up for me was like I was actually, I think, way too limiting in my views on what could be delegated and the amount of work that I would have to do to actually effectively delegate these things. They said over the course of their first year together, this visionary with their new integrator, like this wish list was kind of their source of truth. And it's not to make light of how hard some of these things are and how you do ultimately have to get into the details. But man, for me, this is like, this is one of those things where it's so much that it feels impossible because of the volume of it, right. And oftentimes I will get frustrated when I don't see like a 12 month or 24 month path out. And so I do nothing but like, ultimately that's not taking you where you want to go, right? So if you take one thing from this, know that whether you're a solo firm owner, whether you're in a big firm, I think we have a lot of self limiting beliefs around what can be delegated and how much we can optimize our jobs for the things that, that give us energy and the things that we enjoy. It doesn't mean it won't take time. It doesn't mean it won't take trying it with a few different people to find that perfect fit. But the very best part of firm running and firm leadership and having that agency is the fact that you're in the driver's seat. And oftentimes we're so focused on what's happening today and that client need today that we're not beginning to lay the groundwork for what that more energized version of you turning up for work every day looks like. So that was kind of inspiring to me. That actually would change, like some of my thoughts that I had coming out of firm running and maybe give me a little more optimism for how I could design that thing in something in a way that felt a little more sustainable for me. So put some links in the show, notes to all the books and a little self assessment that we talked about here. If you've had good experience with eos, or, like, finding an integrator for your visionary, that sort of thing. Would love to hear about it. Thanks for coming and hanging. We've got Q&As tomorrow. See you then.