My $100k Mistake: My Firm Was Missing These Processes

And so I thought we were finally at this place where we could really start to hire some more people so that we could grow the company and start hitting some of those big goals that I set. But what I quickly realized is that we were missing some key processes and procedures. And so when people came on the team, they really didn't know what to do because all of the processes and procedures were inside of my head. And I realized that in order for us to grow like I wanted us to, we were going to actually have to take a step backwards and. And get some of those processes and procedures documented so that people could join the team and help. And when I look back at it, I'm certain that that pause in growth, it ended up costing the company probably $100,000 in growth just in that year. When we first start our firms, for a lot of us, we're going fast, and we're just trying as hard as we can to get some clients in the door so that we can start generating some revenue for our business. And for a lot of us, that is the difference between being able to leave our corporate job and go full time into our. But what happens for a lot of us is we're going so fast that we don't take the time to document processes and procedures. And what happens is, you get to that point that you're ready to start hiring somebody to give you some bandwidth to work more on the business. And in the business, they join the team, and because they don't know exactly what you want them to do and how you want them to do it, they've got like a thousand questions for you. You'll start to get frustrated and overwhelmed by all the questions. And a lot of times, for me at least, I found myself, I was like, you know, screw it, I'll just do it myself. It's faster and easier for me to just do these things by myself. You get rid of the team, and then you're back to square one. So my name is Michael King, and welcome back to the Connected Accountant. Today. I want to share with you three reasons why having documented processes and procedures are so important. And then I want to share with you the six processes and procedures that I think are absolutely critical to any financial services firm. Whether you are just doing it as a side hustle or whether you've been in the game for a number of years or so. Without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in. Three big reasons why having processes and procedures are so important. Like I mentioned a minute ago, without them, you're going to frustrate new team members. And you know, we all want to bring great people onto our team. We want to have top talent and people that love working with us and with our clients. And when you bring those people in, they're going to have this expectation that you've kind of got your stuff together. They're going to expect that there's some things in place so that they can come in and start immediately adding value. And so if you don't have those processes in perspective, procedures in place, the best talent, they're going to join your team and they're going to quickly nope out because they want to know what to do so they can start adding value immediately. Number two, having processes and procedures means that you're going to have a consistent experience for your clients. And this is so huge, particularly when you get to the point that you want to start raising prices if you're kind of doing something different a month in and month out, it gives clients this sense that it's amateur hour, that you really don't know what you're doing. And so they start to get the, you know, notions, these beliefs that you're not worth top dollar because you're amateur hour. And so for that consistent experience perspective, I can't recommend enough having processes and procedures and finally just some internal efficiencies. You know, I talk a lot about, you want your personal life to drive your business and not the other way around. But when you don't have some core processes in place, you're always kind of reacting and you're always trying to remember how did you do this last time? And that really, really slows you down. And if you want to have ma revenue maximum clients with a great customer experience and a great team around you so that you can build your business up, you've got to have those processes and procedures. But you're probably asking yourself, alright, Mike, I get it. I know why I need them. I'm here today to know what they are. Let's dive into what those six key processes and procedures are. Number one, this one's so huge. Just to start things off on the right foot, you want to have an awesome client onboarding and offboarding process. So let's talk about onboarding first. When you finally get that sale and it's time for clients to start working for you, you want to wow them out of the gate. You want to show them so quickly that they chose you and that was a win for them. Like the fact that they chose to work with you was a home run and they're like super happy that they picked you. And so you want to deliver this amazing experience right out of the gate. Because I will tell you from having goofed up onboarding processes before, like onboarding experiences before, when you don't do that, they immediately start wondering, are you the right guy or girl for them? And that's when they start to like, well, I talked to this other vendor that charged a little bit less. Maybe I should have gone with her, maybe I should have gone with him. But when you hit them out of the gate, which is this awesome experience, it really sets the stage for everything else. And I think you've got to be intentional about that. You need to have a process in place. You know, as soon as the sales call is over, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to send them this, and then this is going to happen. And as a matter of fact, I'm another episode which I will link to as soon as it goes live, where I walk through how to create an amazing onboarding process and experience for your clients. So definitely be on the lookout for that. The other piece of that is you want to have a good client off boarding process. And I think this is like super overlooked a lot of times. Regardless of why the relationship ends, you want the client's last experience with you to be a good one. You want them to have that like good vibe, those good feels about you. So that in the future, if they've got a friend that needs somebody, they can say, you know, hey, Mike, wasn't for me, my business didn't go where I thought it was or think needs change. But I think Mike would be an awesome accountant for you or an awesome fractional CFO for you. Would you like an introduction? But a lot of us, we botch the off boarding and we leave a negative taste in their mouth. And regardless of how long you serve them with excellence, if the off boarding process is rough, if it takes them forever to get the final month's books closed out, or to get the permissions handed over in QuickBooks to the new accountant, whatever the case might be, they're left just kind of feeling meh about you. And that's what they're going to remember. Not all the great things you did before. So really, really take some time, be deliberate about that client onboarding and offboarding process, the next one. I kind of alluded to this earlier. You want to have a great team onboarding and offboarding process. So onboarding is when you hire somebody New, are they going to have your company email address? Are you going to need to give them access to LastPass or Google Drive? There's all these different things that have to go into place so you want to understand what those things are so that when you bring that awesome new hire onto your team, whether it's a 1099 or a W2, they get the sense that you've got your stuff together. And also you don't want to pay them for lost time. You don't want to pay them for hours where you're like, oh gosh, yeah, I do need to give you access to Google Drive. And sorry, I forgot to add you as a user on my QuickBooks account. And so you're spending a bunch of time, they're spending a bunch of time. And while that's all going on, the clock's running, they're charging you and the client's not getting a great experience either in the, in the interim. Now, a lot of people will have a good team onboarding process, but I would also encourage you to have a good offboarding process. Now normally, hopefully not normally, but a lot of times when somebody leaves, you've got to cut their access pretty fast. They've got access to all kinds of sensitive client information, whether that's in QuickBooks or Xero or your tax accounting platform or Google Drive. Team members have access to really sensitive information. You want to be able for a data protection and an information protection standpoint, get that access removed quickly and efficiently. Having a good offboarding process will make sure that you know exactly what to do when it's time for that team member to move on. The third process, I want you to really, really think hard about having in place report prep. And this is more important, I think for fractional CFOs than anybody else because a lot of our deliverable is in that like CFO report or whatever that monthly and quarterly call might look like. But the thing is, if you don't have a systematized or processed out way of generating those reports, they can take a ton of time because you'll end up going down rabbit holes, right? What I found to be the most effective there is understanding what the layout of the report looks like. And then I documented this like analytical approach to how do I analyze the data and what types of things will flag me to bring up particular metrics on the conversation with the client. And what I found is I had this belief that I can't process this out. Like there's this art to the way that I look at financials and put that, you know, against company goals. But when I really sat down and said okay, well if I had to, how would I do it? And I realized that like 80, 90% of what I do could actually be processed. And it was a game changer on the time it spent to prepare for those fractional CFO calls. The next one, regardless of bookkeeping, accounting, fractional CFO work, another great process is report delivery. How are you going to send financial reports or your fractional CFO report or any other reports that you might give to your clients? And when I say delivery, I mean what is the look and the feel? What are the things that you're highlighting? In what manner are you doing that in? And this is less for you even though there are some definitely some efficiencies to be had. But it's more around creating a consistent client experience. And I'll tell you now that I've worked with.