CBCL mentorhship Rossana week 7

So hi everybody, Linda Artesani, Artesani Bookkeeping, and I am here with Rosanna and it's our week 7, the last week of our mentoring, but it never really ends. So, but we're gonna, we're gonna dive into some more business type conversation today. So I'm going to let Rosanna introduce herself real briefly, tell us a little bit about your company, and then we'll get into some of the things we were just discussing. Yeah, so I'm Rosanna.

Hi, my name is Rossana Leib and my company is Next Door Bookkeeping, and my focus is actually working with lawyers. But today I would like to ask Linda what she thinks, or what— how to work with, with the client, if what part the client do and then what part we do. As doing the bookkeeping part and how to charge it also. So I know it's a difficult question. But yes, that's my question.

I like that. How do we charge? Because that's, that's the number one. And if you notice, there's— I can't even tell you how many people that are experts out there that will help us learn how to charge. But that is definitely a deep question. One of the things we were talking about was that it's kind of slow right now. So I find I find it slow even more. I find I'm exceptionally busy, but I am slower in the getting the clients in the door time of the year right now. It never comes in a nice, like, even flow where you have one and you get to onboard them, you get going with them, and then you've got them in the process, and then the next one comes. It always seems like feast or famine, right? You're either slammed with a whole bunch of people or you're stuck with, like, you're sitting there going, where did everybody go? And I asked you a pretty important question. I said, how are you marketing? And your answer was?

I don't. Okay.

Well, you do—

Networking, just networking right now.

Yeah, well, you do, that's what I say, you do network because you go to the BNI and you do do that part of it. But do you have anything in your mind that you might want to do to get your marketing off the ground for just specifically working with attorneys or anything in mind?

Yes, specific because with attorneys, I mean, besides the networking, LinkedIn is Right now my option, because I don't think that Facebook would be something that for the lawyers, I feel it needs to be more professional. And so LinkedIn would be the one that I go with. And then other than that, I don't know what else can I do really.

What do you want to do on LinkedIn? What were you thinking of doing? Were you thinking of making posts or making videos?

That's my weakness actually, to do making some posts. And I was thinking about doing some video too, short videos. But I still, I still, I need to feel comfortable also. And then also, what do I post? Or when do I post? That would be the question for me too.

Well, I post all the time. I make my content on my blog. And then I post it and share it on Twitter and LinkedIn, Facebook. Most of my clients, if I get leads, a lot of them either come— most of them come through seeing my YouTube video through my blog. I have not yet had anybody say, hey, I found you on LinkedIn. I've not had anybody say, hey, I found you on Facebook. I know people are successful with that. But for me, it's not been a lead that's worked for me. Google and doing YouTube videos. But that also takes time. You have to put regular content out all the time. And then you have to really— the best way to do it, I think, is to provide valuable content where you're helping others. And then the people will come to you. And if you know something that you know, even like showing how to use lien law or showing how to do work with attorneys, it really— you want to target it to your— you want to target it to who you want to receive the message. And that's— The hardest part is figuring out, they call it your avatar, figuring out who you're writing to and who you're creating content to and who do you expect to get results from. And that's really the beginning step to figure out where you want to go with that. And honestly, I don't think I've been the best at figuring out my target. I tend to just lead with my heart and write what I feel like writing on any given day. And I don't really look at the way I probably should. I tried to do that whole keyword stuffing. Everything sounded like a sales pitch and I couldn't even stand what I was writing. And I've since kind of abandoned that and gone back to what I feel like writing, which it's always worked for me a long time for so far. So I'm not going to abandon that. I did also answer questions on the Intuit community and that has gotten me some SEO because those questions are a way to get answers. I don't know if it works still the same today, but I know they're working on that website. So maybe it will still have that same, same juice to keep it going so that you'll get some back. I've had people reach out to me. One of the things you want to do is make sure that you have a way that you can tell where somebody's come from. That can come from a phone call and ask, where did you— how did you find me? Just ask that simple question. On my lead page, if you fill out a contact form, it says it right in there. How did you find me? And to make it even easier, I write down the places that I've been using for my, for my marketing so that maybe it says, did you find me on Facebook? Did you find me on LinkedIn? Did you find me through LeanLaw? Did you find me through YouTube? Google. A lot of people find me through Google, but it takes time for you to get Google up and running. Have you done the Google Find My Google page? Okay, so that's the thing that we, we just posted that. I just, I think Matthew posted it in one that he did with Easton, and that was really valuable, I think, because you have to make a whole Google website. It's not much, doesn't give you a lot to work with. But that little piece tells Google that you're a real business and you're out there, and it's just going to help you boost your SEO. And there's also analytics in there. And you can create your blog post in your website and then take pieces of it in a link and put it into QuickBooks— I mean, into the Google page— and then share it out that way. That's a good way to do it. And that way you're able to get that extra boost from Google because Google's the king, right? That's where do you go when you're looking for anything?

You go to Google.

So that would be my recommendation. You might find that LinkedIn works for you. Some people say it does. It makes sense because you would think that's where professionals go. that's where you should go for working with attorneys. That would make a lot of sense, or Twitter. But Twitter's supposed to be really big. I still don't like Twitter that much. I'm getting to like it more. It's not been my favorite, only because it seems you gotta be on it all the time. You can't go to it every day or so. It's kind of like something you have to always be on. And there's just so many places, like where do you go and how do you spend How do you market your time? How do you spend your time the best, right? That's the hardest part. Mm-hmm. But then when you get back to your— getting back to your question about the client and how do you train the admin to work with you, you had mentioned letting her know, how do you let her know if she needed to add an account? I wouldn't let her know how to make— you don't want them making— if she's not like a bookkeeper, you don't want her making— you're gonna end up having to clean up a big mess of accounts that— if she starts making accounts like, oh, let's see, office supplies, Staples, and then you're like, no, It's just office supplies. Don't make it Staples and then OfficeMax. And that's sometimes what people think to do. And then you might have a really— we already have a pretty big chart of accounts with attorneys anyway. I don't think you want to have the admin doing that. So I think you kind of think of what— put her hat on and think of what's her work process going to be. And I think I'd start with that to figure out what you want her to be trained in.

Yeah. Okay.

And do it in steps too. Like start with little small steps, like little, little maybe 15 or 20 minute sessions of what she needs to do. and learn. And that way you can kind of build off of it and make like a process. Because you're probably going to run into this with working with attorneys, you run into working with a lot of admin that may be entering the invoices, maybe entering the accounts payable, and they really don't even know how to do that. Maybe you can show them how to upload to Hubdoc or something. And then you've got the access to the documents and they're getting attached in, in the program. So.

Okay, that's good advice.

And then the pricing. So pricing, pricing is always difficult, right? I think you have to find your level and figure it out and try not to think of it in hours and dollars because it's really—

you can—

one of the places you can look, and I was just looking at this the other day with my friend and partner Sarah, we were on looking at the words and how they're working with QuickBooks Live. Take a look at how they've set their system up because they've got a price on it and they've got how many transactions and how they're figuring it out. If you want to look at it that way, if you want to look at value pricing, you start to look at the profit— I mean, the sales, the revenue and percentages. I typically look at it when I try to figure out what I'm going to charge a customer and I have a minimum in mind. So I can— I even have that on my website, like the minimum is $350. And then I also look at how much, how, how many, how many transactions are in there. I do kind of look at the time it's going to take, but I do look at more, especially when I'm doing a cleanup. I found in the past when I'm doing a cleanup job, I had this happen once and it made it with a good life lesson. I gave a price of like $999 to fix this guy's— it wasn't a law firm one, it was to fix his file. And I thought that was a great number and I kind of pulled it out of the air. And then he wanted— he loved it. He thought the work I did was wonderful. And he said, how much do you charge per month? And I was like, oh, I can do this for $250 a month. And you know what he said? He said, why would I spend $250 a month when I can wait till the end of the year and pay $999?

Right.

And that's when the light bulb went off. I was like, okay, from now on I'm going to look at the job and say— because you get used to it. You look at jobs and you can kind of look at it and go, boom, this is what I think. And I mean, I could certainly look at whatever you think you have going on, and I can give you an idea off camera what we think this particular job—

Sure.

You know, we're not gonna look at people's documents, but if you wanted to do that and then kinda look at it that way and then multiply it by the 12, and this is what you would charge all year to do it. And then you look at back work. Back work, I kinda look at it saying, okay, if I'm doing a big bulk amount of work, it's probably about 85% of what the actual work would be if I was doing it monthly. And then 85% of the cost. And then you can figure it out that way. If you want them to sign, if they sign up for you in the year, you can give them that deal on the back work. But I wouldn't give them the deal on the back work unless, unless they're going to sign up with you long term. So you could kind of package it that way if you wanted to. Because a lot of times they come to you and they're excited about cleaning it up. And most of them will tell you when the job is done, I, I'm not going to do this again. I'm not going to be in the same position again. Yeah, you hear the story and then at the end of the job, they're like, they don't— it just disappears. And people like that. And then you hear from them the next year like, oh, I know. And then they come with their tail between their legs and you're like, you know, wouldn't you want real-time data to run your business? Don't run your business from the past. You want to run your business going forward. But it's hard to train people that way. And I know you like working with the smaller firms.

Yes. I love helping small firms.

Yeah, everybody— like, I understand why you like helping them, especially because a lot of times you get the smaller ones, they're just kind of— they might be coming off of working at a big firm and they're just starting, and you really get to help them understand accounting.

Right, that's my goal. I mean, helping the startups especially that really need the help and need to understand to do it— I mean, to do it right away correctly. And especially because of the by association regulation, this is a big deal. So I try to— hopefully I try to advertise that networking, that part, you know, especially too.

Do most of them come to you with messes though? They've already had a mess before they get to you?

Yeah, I mean, I don't have anybody, anybody that would have a perfect— the books Perfectly. I mean, there's nobody. I think it doesn't exist until you work with them and do it the correct way.

I've had one client that came to me. He just started on his own. He had been up in a firm up in Massachusetts, and he's here in Florida. And he came to me, he was just starting, and he came to me before he even opened his doors. And we started out right that way. So that, that's a great client, right? You can't have him. He's the sole guy, but Yeah, it was wonderful. I mean, we set them up perfectly from the get-go, first chart of accounts, everything was wonderful. But it's rare. Usually when they're starting out, they don't even think they— they don't have the money to have a bookkeeper even or an accountant.

That's the thing. They don't start up like that and they don't even think about— that's the last thing they would think about anyway.

Yep. They don't realize that they need you until they get going and then their business starts to take off and then they're like, oh my God, I haven't looked at this. And they know, most of them do know that if they have a trouble Trust account, it's, it's a little more involved.

Yes. Oh, yes. And what is nice about it, when you help them, you find the revenue, you find some revenue for them. They're like, oh my God, really?

You're a hero.

And they love you forever. Yeah.

Hey, you can keep them out of trouble too. If you can keep them compliant, you keep them out of trouble. So there's a lot of benefits to working with an accountant for certain in this industry, especially most industries. I think most people know that they, if they're working and they're busy, They don't really— it's a good thing to say to a client at the end of the day if they're like, I don't know if I can afford it. And you're like, when do you do your accounting now? And they usually tell you, I come home from work, I get out of court, I'm in my office, and I come home from work and I do all my work and I'm like 9, 10 o'clock at night. You want your life back?

Right.

I can help you get your life back, maybe even help you get a vacation somewhere down the road. And that can kind of be the hook that will be, I think I'm going to try this. And then they realize it's worth having an expert do what we know what to do because we know how to practice law. Right? If you work with a contractor, I don't know how to do roofing. I mean, I just know what I know and it works out really well and you hire professionals for the things you don't know.

So. Yes. Okay, well, great.

Well, this is good and we will stay in touch for certain.

Yes, this is our last time.

I know, it went by fast. It went by fast even though we had a lot of interruptions, but it went by fast. It's been fun. And now we have sources of referrals because she's gonna refer one to me, I'm gonna refer them to her with those smaller ones. That'll be great. And I'll see you on the Accounting Pros with LeanLaw too, I'm sure, when that starts back up again.

Oh yes. Oh yeah, I can't wait. So that's gonna be great.

Yeah.

All right, well, it's nice.

It was good. Thank you for letting me do all this on camera too, because I know sometimes it's kind of Like, oh, I don't know, I don't want to be on camera. You've been great. I mean, you started out with your husband, if you look back to the very first ones, and he's not even around anymore.

No, no, he's not. Now it's all talk for him that is like, oh, I don't need to be there. So no, thank you, thank you so much.

Oh, I'm glad we've got this relationship. We'll keep it going.

Yes, definitely keep, keep it going because yes, I will still need you.

I will need your help.

Yes, you will.

I'll need your help too. You never know, one hand always washes the other. We always learn from each other.

Yes, I agree. You always do. Everything benefits for both of us, definitely.

Well, thanks, Rosanna. And, well, this is the last one, so we'll see you on Facebook anyway, and we'll stay connected.

That's right.

Okay, thank you.