0:00

This is Mike Michalowicz, the inventor and

0:02

author of Profit First, and I have

0:04

extraordinary news. For the first time ever,

0:06

the app is here that automates Profit

0:09

First entirely around the principles I created.

0:11

I have been involved in every stage

0:13

of the development of this app. It

0:16

has all of the principles of Profit

0:18

First, plus all of my newest findings.

0:20

Your business is about to be permanently

0:23

profitable. Get the app today. Today,

0:29

right here, right now, this is

0:31

the moment that you will finally

0:34

say, I'm growing my accounting practice.

0:36

And you're going to discover exactly

0:39

how, right here, right now, on

0:41

the Grow My Accounting Practice podcast.

0:43

Welcome back, everyone. I'm Ron Saharian,

0:46

co-founder of Profit First Professionals. And

0:48

I am Liz Sporn, a guide here

0:50

at Profit First Professionals. And Mike is

0:52

in Texas at a junk convention. Yes.

0:55

And you folks are listening to GMAP.

0:57

This is the podcast where we teach

0:59

you step by step how to grow

1:02

your accounting, bookkeeping, and coaching practice. And

1:04

we're going to give you action items

1:06

that you can take right now to

1:09

grow your practice. We have insider access.

1:11

We have a great guest. Liz has

1:13

her trippy questions. And man, we are

1:16

so thankful for you listeners for listening

1:18

to Grow My Accounting Practice podcast. Don't

1:20

forget to like, comment, turn on

1:22

your notifications so you never

1:24

miss an episode. And, and,

1:26

and, and this episode is

1:28

brought to you by Impact

1:30

Global Solutions. We love them. Yeah,

1:33

they're awesome. I wonder if Lawrence

1:35

would ever want to be on

1:37

our podcast. Wink, wink. You're letting

1:39

the cat out of the bag,

1:41

Liz. I am so clever. Yeah.

1:43

So clever. So yeah, we're doing

1:45

a couple more shows with Mike

1:47

not being in the studio here.

1:50

He's spreading the gospel. Yeah, he was.

1:52

So I got a text from our member,

1:54

Melissa Garza, who was there. She

1:56

texted from, she said, look who I

1:58

saw. Look who I saw. so she

2:00

takes the picture of her with Mike

2:03

and then Mike from the stage and

2:05

he shouted her out and she was

2:07

so psyched. Yeah, I was coaching Melissa

2:10

about how to leverage, you know, her

2:12

opportunity to go to see Mike speak.

2:14

Not to go see Mike speak. I

2:17

mean, you know, we've seen that, but

2:19

how to leverage the audience, right? Because

2:21

she's got a niche in the junk

2:24

world. And so, you know, strategizing and

2:26

all that's a benefit of members guys.

2:28

I mean, nothing's better than when Mike

2:31

is speaking to your industry, right? He's

2:33

on stage and he happens to say,

2:35

oh, by the way, there's a few

2:38

profit first professionals or there's a profit

2:40

first professional in the audience. Make sure

2:42

you guys give Melissa Garza your business

2:44

card, your contact information. You know, what

2:47

we did was we prepared, you know,

2:49

how to take advantage of it. What

2:51

is the follow up afterwards. What is

2:54

the sequencing? What is the offer? What

2:56

is all of this stuff? And that's

2:58

just a little insider access of what

3:01

we offer membership that is never going

3:03

to be publicized. Yeah, that's great. It's

3:05

super fun. She was so thrilled, so

3:08

excited. Um, and she was saying it

3:10

was outside. Did you see that? It

3:12

did. It looked like he was at

3:15

like some farm concert. They were they're

3:17

at a fairgrounds. Kid Rock. It looked

3:19

like he was kid rock. I mean,

3:22

yeah, it was, I've never seen an

3:24

outdoor one. And she said it's really

3:26

hot. She goes, I hope he's, I

3:29

hope he's ready for some Texas heat

3:31

because it was hot out there. Yeah,

3:33

that's crazy. And speaking of heat, we're,

3:36

we got fires here in Jersey. Oh

3:38

my gosh. It smells like crazy. It

3:40

reminds me of that thing that happened

3:42

last year when they all came down

3:45

from Canada. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

3:47

yeah. This morning it scared me. It's

3:49

a green wood lake. I know. I

3:52

know. We looked at a piece of

3:54

property. two weeks ago up there crazy

3:56

it's close it's that close i mean

3:59

they're you know all sorts of stuff

4:01

so now i guess um we're we're

4:03

as bad as california we've got brush

4:06

fires we got earthquakes we got rotten

4:08

politicians we've got high taxes, unfriendly business

4:10

communities. Let's live here our whole lives,

4:13

Liz. Someone's going dark really fast. Let's

4:15

break it up. The listeners aren't here

4:17

to hear about New Jersey. They're not.

4:20

And this is in November, everybody. So

4:22

we're still a little... It's not November.

4:24

It's January. But I'm saying when Ron's

4:27

going dark right now, it's November. We're

4:29

going to be very happy in January.

4:31

Yeah. 2025. All right. Anyway, let's bring

4:33

in our guests. So today we are

4:36

so excited. Oops, I have the wrong

4:38

sheet. That's hilarious. That's a different guest.

4:40

We're not excited about that guest. We're

4:43

excited about this guest. All right. So

4:45

today we are joined by our friend

4:47

Lawrence Widom of Impact Global Solutions. Lawrence

4:50

is the founder of Impact Global Solutions

4:52

and they are a leading outsourcing mentor

4:54

and strategist. He's a leading outsourcing mentor

4:57

and strategist who helps US CPA firms

4:59

address the talent shortages by integrating offshore

5:01

resources. His expertise has supported over 350

5:04

firms in boosting profitability and achieving sustainable

5:06

growth. I know he has met with

5:08

so many of our members and they're

5:11

so thrilled by every conversation that he's

5:13

had with them so far, and I'm

5:15

so grateful for his time and expertise

5:18

and his sharing. And so without further

5:20

ado, welcome, Lawrence. Oh, my. Thank you,

5:22

Liz. Thanks, Ron. Nice to see you

5:25

both. So happy to have you here.

5:27

This is so great. How you doing

5:29

today, friend? Yeah, awesome. Awesome. It's actually

5:31

today. And again, it won't be today

5:34

when it gets released, but it's daughter's

5:36

fifth birthday today. So it's a good

5:38

day. Oh, wow. Growing up quick. Happy

5:41

birthday. Thank you. Thank you. It goes

5:43

goes very quickly. Sure does. I met

5:45

Lawrence when he was a bachelor making

5:48

the rounds in good old Essex County,

5:50

New Jersey. I think I was a

5:52

kid. I was a kid at that

5:55

point. You were. You were. None of

5:57

it. You still had that funny accent.

5:59

You were trying to get the Jersey

6:02

accent. Yeah. More so. More so. Yeah.

6:04

So I've invited Lawrence to be an

6:06

exclusive partner of profit-first professionals because of

6:09

the education that he brings forward, the

6:11

support that he helps our members with.

6:13

So we wanted to make it official.

6:16

So Lawrence is the official educator of

6:18

profit-first professionals globally to help our members

6:20

with preparing them for readiness for outsourcing.

6:22

Lawrence, can you share a little bit

6:25

about what you actually do and how

6:27

you do it? Yeah, no definitely and

6:29

I've and again love love profit first

6:32

love the members and being again worked

6:34

with many of them in different capacities

6:36

over the years so but now Really

6:39

the difference between me and anybody else

6:41

that I know in the profession right

6:43

now is that I'm not here to

6:46

sell people to them right at the

6:48

end of the day I'm not here

6:50

to provide them the talent. I am

6:53

really here to help educate the firms

6:55

understand Just what they don't know about

6:57

it right where should they go right

7:00

what really is their true vision around

7:02

outsourcing like why are they even doing

7:04

it right making sure they have a

7:07

plan in place making sure they have

7:09

goals around doing it and they're educated

7:11

on what it's going to look like

7:14

right whether they go to choose to

7:16

stay domestic and they and hire talent

7:18

from different vendors here on shore whether

7:20

they choose to go offshore and go

7:23

to india the philippines south america or

7:25

any anywhere else in the world What

7:27

are those cultural differences they're going to

7:30

face? What are the challenges they're going

7:32

to have? And really, what do they

7:34

need to work on internally in their

7:37

business to ensure that they have a

7:39

successful time doing it? At the end

7:41

of the day, we can't control the

7:44

people that you hire. However, fully, you

7:46

can train them, obviously, if you have

7:48

the right systems in place. And but

7:51

we can make sure you with the

7:53

right provider and the right vendors that

7:55

are gonna work with you right and

7:58

that that are a good fit for

8:00

you and are on the same track

8:02

but if you don't know yourself. It's

8:05

very difficult to do that and that's

8:07

why a lot of firms. fail when

8:09

they first start. OK, so you're not

8:11

a you're not a staffing firm. You

8:14

don't provide resources. You provide readiness, getting

8:16

them ready, which is so important. I

8:18

know when we first met, I have

8:21

a background in staffing. You clearly have

8:23

a background in staffing. It was amazing

8:25

to look at how unsuccessful. the accounting

8:28

and bookkeeping industry was in hiring offshore

8:30

resources. Can you share a little

8:32

bit about what you saw in

8:35

some of these businesses that propelled

8:37

you to create what you're

8:40

doing today? Basically, what are

8:42

they doing wrong? What aren't

8:45

they ready for? And it ranges

8:47

from this is not just sole proprietors and

8:49

small firms. This is this goes up

8:51

to some of the largest firms like

8:53

I've worked with now like a top

8:56

10 CPA firm being the largest. And

8:58

they have a lot of problems when

9:00

it comes to like they have 1300

9:02

people offshore and you would think, OK,

9:05

yeah, they're doing it really well. That's

9:07

that's seven, six, seven percent of their

9:09

total staff count is offshore. And they

9:11

they know themselves that they're not

9:13

doing it as well as they

9:16

could be. There are some other

9:18

firms with 20 to 40% of

9:20

their talent offshore and leveraging it

9:22

to that capacity. One of the

9:24

biggest things is that they've really

9:26

put very little thought around it

9:28

when it comes to what is it

9:31

going to look like for them?

9:33

Have I invested in the training?

9:35

Have I changed my processes to

9:37

actually fit the type of talent

9:39

that I'm now bringing in? to the firm

9:41

and a lot of them haven't a

9:43

lot of them have said here's my

9:45

process this is what I want you to

9:47

do and they haven't really taken

9:49

feedback or changed it and saying

9:52

hey listen I mean this isn't

9:54

domestic team members that it's not

9:56

the same pool of talent we're

9:58

digging into from before and

10:00

which means that these people have different

10:02

skill sets, they have different cultures, they

10:05

have different learning processes. And we're dealing

10:07

with everybody virtually now. So we now

10:09

need to change what we're doing to

10:11

make it effective. And if we don't,

10:13

and this is the problem, if we

10:16

don't invest that time and effort into

10:18

it, you're really only gonna be able

10:20

to utilize them for 50 to 60%

10:22

of what they're actually capable of doing.

10:24

I love this. And you know, this

10:27

is, this is something I feel like

10:29

the, the old way of doing things

10:31

was here's the job, take it or

10:33

leave it. And it worked when you're

10:35

in front of people and you could

10:38

see them. And I think for the

10:40

most part, there's still plenty of that.

10:42

But when you say we have to,

10:44

we have to change things in order

10:47

to, to sort of match where we

10:49

are now. What's one of the first

10:51

things that, that you see, I immediately

10:53

go to the idea of front loading

10:55

and like, I love the questions that

10:58

you were asking, where do you want

11:00

to go? Why do you want to.

11:02

do this? How do you want to

11:04

start? What do you need to work

11:06

on? Where do you go first in

11:09

terms of changing your process to make

11:11

sure that or taking a firm to

11:13

change their process to make sure they

11:15

can find the best talent and keep

11:17

them? Yeah. So I mean, I personally,

11:20

like I created a readiness assessment, right?

11:22

So I'm looking at different areas there

11:24

within a firm. And this goes for

11:26

small firms to large firms. And it

11:28

opens the door. It somewhat opens the

11:31

floodgate of covering different areas, like from

11:33

processes internally to vision, to their mindset,

11:35

right, to communication channels in their office,

11:37

like, and IT systems that are in

11:39

place. Let's look at everything that you

11:42

have in place. Now, let's give it

11:44

a score. Let's look at where you're

11:46

at, where you can be, and let

11:48

me give you the advice as to

11:51

how to get there, right? Some firms

11:53

can now take that and just run

11:55

with it and say, yeah. perfect. I've

11:57

got this, I can now go and

11:59

do it. For small firms, they can

12:02

change very quickly, right? For larger firms,

12:04

it becomes like bigger change management projects

12:06

because you've got to really like dig

12:08

into, you're going to cause a lot

12:10

more disruption if you just change something

12:13

quick. Yes. Right. So, but generally speaking,

12:15

a lot of the small funds can

12:17

take it and they can run with

12:19

a lot of it and then they

12:21

can come back and ask questions. But

12:24

the first place to start after the

12:26

assessment is really generally it's processes. It's

12:28

have I documented my processes effectively? Have

12:30

I not just wrote them down, but

12:32

have I put images in there, created

12:35

videos around that and used a lot

12:37

of the tools that we've got access

12:39

to now to you can do it

12:41

quite easily right and effectively in that

12:43

sense as well and and it gives

12:46

people a much easier time to actually

12:48

learn the process and understand like, okay,

12:50

do I need to change this? Right?

12:52

If you don't have a visual, if

12:55

you don't have it documented, it's very

12:57

difficult to be able to scale a

12:59

certain process. Correct. There's the line by

13:01

Einstein. If I can't see it, I

13:03

can't think it. So they need to

13:06

be able to see where they are,

13:08

where they want to go, and then

13:10

you can figure out how to get

13:12

there. I love this. That's great. Exactly.

13:14

And a lot of firms may have

13:17

something, right? It's not that I go

13:19

in and I see that you don't

13:21

have anything, generally they have, but they've

13:23

created it maybe. Six seven eight years

13:25

ago, and they never revised it or

13:28

even and they've got new technology now

13:30

that they're not doing things in a

13:32

certain way anymore So it's it's generally

13:34

just revamping in a lot of cases

13:36

But also digging into more detail right

13:39

the more you can separate that process

13:41

into like think of it like an

13:43

assembly line, right? That is when you

13:45

can actually now hire less skilled people

13:47

to do certain tasks. You can train

13:50

people and create better controls over certain

13:52

portions of a task as well. And

13:54

this is this is where like the

13:56

Amazons and these large manufacturing facilities scale

13:59

so quickly because they look at a

14:01

process and break it down so that

14:03

you can be less skilled and higher

14:05

less skilled people to do that certain

14:07

part of a process. Perfect. I love

14:10

that. So when you think about outsourcing,

14:12

so now we've done a little bit.

14:14

Actually, can you dive into your readiness

14:16

screening? Can you sort of talk about

14:18

or share any case studies or examples

14:21

of the readiness screening? Because I know

14:23

I've seen it and I thought it

14:25

was great and you might have already

14:27

chatted with some of our members about

14:29

it, but can you dive in a

14:32

little bit more to that readiness screening?

14:34

Yeah, so I mean, I love it

14:36

from the fact that a firm can

14:38

go into it now and take it.

14:40

And within five minutes upon completion, they're

14:43

going to get a live score and

14:45

live feedback along with a detailed report

14:47

that's customized based on their specific answers

14:49

that will come back and say, here

14:51

are the issues that we're seeing based

14:54

on your answers. And this is their

14:56

self-assessment. This is them answering these questions.

14:58

And it's going to give you steps

15:00

as to how to improve that as

15:03

well. right now we've done we've done

15:05

it with small firms i've done this

15:07

with large firms and again it only

15:09

had good feedback from it and and

15:11

also appreciate the feedback that some of

15:14

the profit first members gave as well,

15:16

like I've done a custom group that

15:18

they've come in and again, only receive

15:20

good feedback. I think the worst feedback

15:22

I received was like, just getting into

15:25

it was a little bit confusing on

15:27

the landing page. So again, I've revised

15:29

that name, right? But the actual contents

15:31

around it was great and super hopeful

15:33

that a lot of the like, I

15:36

think we had a sample size of

15:38

about eight member firms from profit first

15:40

come in and say, yes, I'm happy

15:42

to do it. So, and they had

15:44

good feedback. Somebody said they printed it

15:47

out and it's on the desk now.

15:49

Oh, that makes me so happy. Thank

15:51

you for doing that. The group that

15:53

I gave you, they're the eager ones,

15:55

the ones that are most eager right

15:58

now. They signed up right away. Yeah,

16:00

it's the dapper groups. Oh, nice. Awesome.

16:02

Oh, even better. Even better. That's a

16:04

group within a group. Lawrence, earlier you

16:07

mentioned some percentages. You mentioned a large

16:09

firm. had seven to 8% of their

16:11

headcount offshore. Another one had 20 to

16:13

40%. Have you found that there is

16:15

a nice metrics or a mix of,

16:18

hey, this is a nice balance of

16:20

onshore and offshore? Yeah, and this is

16:22

where I think nobody really had a

16:24

goal set in mind before. So what

16:26

I did is I went and assessed.

16:29

as many firms that I knew that

16:31

were currently outsourcing and asked them try

16:33

to figure out like exactly what their

16:35

headcount was and there were different ways

16:37

they're doing it some I've got a

16:40

lot of relationships with the bigger firms

16:42

so I went and talked to them

16:44

about exact numbers as to how many

16:46

they've got compared it to their US

16:48

entity right to figure out then the

16:51

percentages so the firms that are doing

16:53

it well as you get into the

16:55

larger size firms their goal really is

16:57

to get to about 20 percent of

16:59

their team. As you go down the

17:02

pipeline in terms of headcount in the

17:04

US, you'll find that small firms anywhere

17:06

from let's say if they have four

17:08

or five people on shore up to

17:11

about 25, you can see the numbers

17:13

shifting a little bit closer to about

17:15

40%. right of their team offshore because

17:17

there are a lot of support roles

17:19

that can be done not just accountants

17:22

bookkeepers but also virtual admin you've got

17:24

again certain types of it support certain

17:26

types of customer support and these other

17:28

aspects that can become very valuable for

17:30

a small business that and marketing and

17:33

these types of aspects where otherwise they're

17:35

going to be paying a lot more

17:37

for that right and these and what

17:39

I found is if they have a

17:41

target in mind I would say. shoot

17:44

for the 25 to 30% if you're

17:46

a smaller firm initially. And how long

17:48

does that take, right? It's not a

17:50

tomorrow type of thing, right? There needs

17:52

to be a good timeline that's put

17:55

in place. But a small firm can

17:57

easily get to those types of numbers

17:59

within in a couple of years

18:02

of off-shoring, realistically, right,

18:04

based on their growth

18:06

that they're seeing. Have

18:08

you seen a company

18:10

that is 100% outsourced?

18:12

I have not seen, well,

18:14

other than some of the

18:16

outsourcing companies, but no, no,

18:18

no, no. So I would

18:20

say that realistically. I'm here

18:22

in America, I'm the sales

18:24

guy, I'm the CEO, but

18:26

all the work is done off-shore.

18:29

So yes. But they are typically not

18:31

US domestically owned. Okay in

18:33

the sense of it's not it's

18:36

it's a outsourcing firm or an

18:38

individual from a different country that

18:40

has been traveling to the US

18:42

Some of these outsourcing firms are

18:45

now acquiring CPA or accounting practices

18:47

in the US and funnel it

18:49

and going through that business to

18:51

build out their own business They're

18:53

not necessarily servicing CPA firms and

18:56

bookkeeping firms. They're servicing Private

18:58

clients right in a sense and they

19:00

but they're filtering everything through the US

19:02

entity But nobody is set on shore

19:05

whatsoever, right? They'll just travel periodically to

19:07

the US, right? So they generally has

19:09

to be some face when it comes

19:12

to US owned accounting and bookkeeping firms

19:14

I've seen it where it's as low

19:16

like as high as like 90 plus

19:18

percent in terms of there is an

19:21

owner in the US there's maybe one

19:23

employee and then there is eight to

19:25

ten people offshore. I've seen that in

19:28

multiple cases. I've seen where the

19:30

offshore staff is actually the predominant

19:32

side in doing all of client

19:35

communication and everything, but it takes

19:37

years to do that realistically. That's

19:39

great. Has the quality of

19:42

resource improved over the years,

19:44

meaning in the beginning it

19:47

was mostly data entry, then

19:49

it became into more bookkeeping

19:52

and accounting? Are we yet

19:54

there at tax and CFO

19:57

services? Yeah, so we are

19:59

there from... I'm seeing CFO services.

20:01

I'm seeing tax strategy services. I'm

20:03

seeing tax planning right and it's

20:05

taken a good number of years

20:07

realistically like I would say tax

20:09

planning and tax strategy and Really

20:11

has only come about in the

20:13

last three to five years more

20:15

so and that's predominantly in India

20:17

when it comes to that tax

20:19

side But you were also seeing

20:21

like in the past six or

20:23

seven years the Philippines previously was

20:25

purely just bookkeepers and accountants and

20:27

virtual administration like they have now

20:29

got tax preparer tax preparers there

20:32

as well but they'll say no

20:34

we don't have experience we're not

20:36

going to be like a senior

20:38

tax manager or anything like that

20:40

but they they've developed courses and

20:42

at the end of the day

20:44

India also has now is able

20:46

to actually get the CPA license

20:48

you couldn't do that before a

20:50

couple of years ago. They had

20:52

to travel to Dubai or to

20:54

the US to actually take the

20:56

CPA. Now they've they've made a

20:58

partnership and the CPA is allowed

21:00

to actually give licensing within India

21:02

as well. Is that because of

21:04

the talent shortage? They're doing that?

21:06

I would say it was always

21:08

a developing piece. But since COVID,

21:10

that's when it really opened the

21:12

doors to it. It was because

21:14

there was a decline in the

21:16

number of CPA graduates as well.

21:19

So obviously they are Interested to

21:21

keep that number up in a

21:23

lot of cases as to the

21:25

number of CPAs coming into the

21:27

profession. So they've opened the doors

21:29

more so to Worldwide realistically to

21:31

be able to people to be

21:33

able to take that testing Okay,

21:35

great. So for our listeners who

21:37

maybe haven't experienced outsourcing just yet,

21:39

what are the mistakes that you

21:41

have the crystal ball, right? You

21:43

can tell them, hey, don't do

21:45

this, make sure you don't do

21:47

that. What are some of those

21:49

things? So take baby steps, right?

21:51

I think there's a big push

21:53

to jump in the deep end,

21:55

right? and implement very quickly. I

21:57

think that it's, what I've seen

21:59

is that's where people get really,

22:01

they burn their hands doing it

22:04

in a lot of cases. You

22:06

need to have- What do you

22:08

mean? Number of people, number of

22:10

hours? Yeah, yeah, number, generally number

22:12

of people, right? So at the

22:14

end of the day, when we

22:16

look at an outsourcing firm, they

22:18

prefer typically to dedicate- full-time employees

22:20

or staff because if they're not

22:22

being utilized fully for a firm

22:24

then really now they have to

22:26

sell bundles of hours and they

22:28

and it's very difficult for them

22:30

to manage it right if they've

22:32

just got a huge seasonality for

22:34

a certain hours or certain numbers

22:36

of returns so they like to

22:38

dedicate people now accountants are also

22:40

better at managing people than projects

22:42

typically right and for the perspective

22:44

of accountants are used to hiring

22:46

people and giving them work Loads

22:48

that way and training them and

22:51

managing their time compared to Treating

22:53

a tax return just like a

22:55

project where this is a three-hour

22:57

project Let me hand this off

22:59

and expect it back perfectly right

23:01

so when there's a human element

23:03

They tend to be able to

23:05

manage them and have the right

23:07

expectations a bit better right but

23:09

now what that means is a

23:11

Lot of outsourcing firms are somewhat

23:13

upselling you to hiring a full-time

23:15

person. Yeah necessarily need one Right.

23:17

Now, so you've got to really

23:19

make sure there's a plan in

23:21

place to utilize them. Right. And

23:23

also when you're doing that, that

23:25

they're going to be your, your

23:27

team member. Right. So I've seen

23:29

in a lot of cases where

23:31

they'll be underutilized and then they'll

23:33

think it's not working. Right. Whereas

23:35

they haven't put any time or

23:38

effort into the training aspect, the

23:40

same as they would if they

23:42

hired somebody. Right. So that onboarding

23:44

is very important. And this is

23:46

where that gradual piece comes in.

23:48

Right, I believe more firms should

23:50

pay for let's say an extended

23:52

period of a trial to understand

23:54

how to do it and really

23:56

listen to the outsourcing firms feedback

23:58

as to how should I be

24:00

passing this work along, right? What

24:02

is the best what is the

24:04

best practices in doing so, right?

24:06

Let me get to know some

24:08

of the managers and the coordinators

24:10

that I'll be working with so

24:12

that they can figure out, okay,

24:14

is this firm the right firm

24:16

for me to partner with and

24:18

start growing with growing a team

24:20

with, right? That takes a bit

24:23

of time. Right, because otherwise you're

24:25

somewhat getting married for a six

24:27

month to a year long period

24:29

at a minimum when it comes

24:31

to hiring a full time employee.

24:33

Yeah. Awesome. What about the flexibility

24:35

in rates and negotiations? You know,

24:37

I'm always concerned about I'm not

24:39

concerned about people being profitable. I'm

24:41

concerned about the spread where the

24:43

company might be, you know, I

24:45

need say a senior level person,

24:47

the bill rates 50 bucks. They're

24:49

only given the person 25. That's

24:51

a 50% markup in my world.

24:53

Does that still go on? Is

24:55

there, should we be negotiating? How

24:57

thin are the margins these days?

24:59

So salaries have gone up. quite

25:01

considerably when it comes to India,

25:03

the Philippines, especially over the past

25:05

few years, because of A, the

25:07

number of businesses and firms getting

25:10

into it, in terms of more

25:12

CPA firms are building their captives

25:14

and accounting firms are building their

25:16

own captives. So the market is

25:18

becoming more densely populated, meaning it's

25:20

just getting more and more competitive

25:22

to hire this talent. So salaries

25:24

are going up. That is spreading

25:26

the margins, look, narrowing the margins

25:28

slightly. However, I've also seen quite

25:30

considerable price increases in the US,

25:32

so it's marginal, right, at the

25:34

end of the day. It's very

25:36

small, a small difference. Now, you

25:38

could have made huge margins if

25:40

you'd have got into this 10,

25:42

15 years ago, much different than

25:44

today, but it's just not the

25:46

same, right? We've got to balance

25:48

that. So it has changed a

25:50

bit. it. Should you negotiate? I

25:52

have I've yet to find a

25:54

firm offshore that doesn't love to

25:57

negotiate. So yes, I would negotiate,

25:59

right? That's the culture of parsley,

26:01

right? It's they like to negotiate.

26:03

But I would also like look

26:05

at the work that you're doing

26:07

and say, do I really I

26:09

know that you really want a

26:11

senior person to do this project,

26:13

because it's easier to communicate with

26:15

them and those types of aspects.

26:17

But Should it be a senior

26:19

doing this? Or can I actually

26:21

have a junior or a semi

26:23

senior with less experience doing it?

26:25

As long as I put good

26:27

controls around it, right? So this

26:29

is where I think firms need

26:31

to look at the work better

26:33

first to assess. Should I go

26:35

actually with a more junior employee

26:37

and then spend a little bit

26:39

more time internally to fix it

26:42

and create controls that now we

26:44

can scale better? And thus doing

26:46

so, you increase your margins at

26:48

the end of the day, because

26:50

now you do have that flexibility

26:52

at price a bit more. I

26:54

love it. Thank you so much

26:56

for that. Is there any more?

26:58

So we're getting near the end

27:00

of our time. And I love

27:02

those for, first of all, I

27:04

say baby steps all the time.

27:06

I think we'd love to go

27:08

all in on that. So thank

27:10

you for the reminder of the

27:12

baby steps. Any other, I always

27:14

go to like step one. for

27:16

people. So speaking of baby steps,

27:18

what's the first thing that you

27:20

recommend? Paul Whitman. After they call

27:22

you and they take that assessment.

27:24

And what is the first thing

27:26

that you recommend a firm does

27:29

when they're when they're looking to

27:31

start this process? So research is

27:33

a big part of it, right?

27:35

And this is where I speed

27:37

that up greatly, because I've done

27:39

due diligence on them. About 90

27:41

plus outsourcing firms, right? And not

27:43

just not just offshore but onshore

27:45

as well. Yeah the domestic options,

27:47

but it's it's that research and

27:49

understanding, right? I believe in if

27:51

you get educated like the first

27:53

question that or the first comment

27:55

that I get from people is

27:57

typically I don't know what I

27:59

don't know, right? And it's true.

28:01

It's a little bit nerve wracking

28:04

saying, now I'm going to go global. Now

28:06

I'm going to use talent from overseas.

28:08

I understand that there's a lot of

28:10

people telling you that in the conferences,

28:12

but it is. I mean, it's slightly

28:15

overwhelming in a lot of cases to

28:17

really take that step and take that

28:19

trust in, hey, listen, they are secure,

28:21

right? They know what they're talking about.

28:23

They're also accountants. But again, if they're

28:25

in India, if they're in the Philippines,

28:28

How do you know that they really

28:30

know that they know US gap? Yeah.

28:32

Right. How do you know that they've

28:34

worked with other CPA firms and accounting

28:36

firms just from what they're telling you?

28:39

Right. And this is where it comes

28:41

with asking questions, learning. And this is

28:43

where I can give that. Right. I

28:45

highly, I highly recommend and a lot

28:47

of accountants love to talk to their

28:50

peers about that as well. Yeah. i

28:52

would just warn that it's not the

28:54

same for everybody as well so from

28:56

one accountant using one provider maybe a

28:58

great fit for them and have an

29:01

awesome experience right i've then also heard

29:03

of situations and seen them where they've

29:05

referred them to that provider and

29:07

it's been a terrible fit for

29:09

that company partially because expectations weren't

29:11

the same right they didn't maybe

29:13

do the exactly the same type

29:15

of work and that's where it's

29:17

quite individualized right you've got to

29:19

know what you want and then then you've

29:22

got to take steps to find the right

29:24

provider to that it's going to match

29:26

up to what you're actually looking for right

29:28

because a lot of these providers will say

29:30

yes to a lot of things they'll say

29:32

yes I can do this yes and it's and

29:35

it's and it's not the case right sometimes

29:37

they may be able to hire talent to

29:39

put in place for that but they don't

29:41

have if they don't have experience or

29:43

controls in place around that specific service line

29:46

it can make your life a lot more

29:48

difficult and if you're not expecting to have

29:50

to train and build those out it

29:52

becomes frustrating right so this is where just

29:55

take that time doing that research step right

29:57

and really planning out and looking at

29:59

yourselves first so that you can treat

30:01

somebody that's coming on board as a

30:03

partner and actually educate them on your

30:06

firm as well before you get into

30:08

it. Love it. Wow, well said. Lawrence,

30:10

where can our audience reach out to

30:12

you, find out more about Jane, how

30:14

are you? Yeah, so I mean, I'm

30:17

traveling around all over to be able

30:19

to speak at different conferences, so a

30:21

lot of the CPA societies and stuff.

30:23

Talk about first a little bit as

30:25

well and then but come and look

30:28

at my podcast as well business beyond

30:30

borders I interview a lot of the

30:32

providers I interview people around that But

30:34

also I'm very active on LinkedIn. So

30:37

just look up Lawrence Whitsom And you'll

30:39

find me there and I'm also releasing

30:41

sort of an education course soon on

30:43

teacher bulls Where firms can come in

30:45

by it by a user and then

30:48

again if you if you'd prefer to

30:50

do it yourself somewhat and learn about

30:52

it first Go do that first, right?

30:54

And it's going to be quite a

30:56

cost-effective program for them to get the

30:59

basics done. And then, and then if

31:01

you need additional support after that, come

31:03

see me, right? I'm happy, more than

31:05

happy to have a conversation. Give me

31:08

a call. Give me an email. Always

31:10

open for the conversation. Awesome. Awesome, guys.

31:12

And that website is www.impact-global.co. Tell them

31:14

Ron sent you. That's great. Yeah. Awesome.

31:16

Nice job, Lawrence. Thanks, Lawrence. Great to

31:19

see you as well. You can have

31:21

a swing by boot in some time.

31:23

Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. No, I'll be up

31:25

there soon. All right. Cool, man. See

31:28

you soon. Bye, friend. Thank you. That

31:30

was fun. Yeah, awesome. Great stuff, right?

31:32

Yeah, totally. I mean, you know, my

31:34

background in staffing. So, you know, when

31:36

we were talking many, many moons ago,

31:39

I was like, this dude knows what

31:41

he's talking about. Because there's a lot

31:43

of smoke and mirrors out there when

31:45

it comes to staffing. I mean, please,

31:47

you can't, you know, it's hard to

31:50

find someone down the street, let alone

31:52

across the planet. So. The cross is

31:54

really scary enough. Well, they're humans. They're

31:56

humans. I mean, back in the 90s,

31:59

when I was doing staffing in the

32:01

2000s, it was like, offshore, just, just.

32:03

hire somebody and expect that they're going

32:05

to be awesome. No. No. Janks. Janks.

32:07

All right. So, hey. What did you

32:10

learn? I was going to say, what

32:12

did you learn, Ron? I'll go. I'll

32:14

go. So, he's speaking my language. I,

32:16

as you know, I love training and...

32:18

talking hiring and talking team building. And

32:21

so the front loading process and having

32:23

that assessment that he is able to

32:25

talk people through and say, here are

32:27

the 10 categories to think about. These

32:30

are the things that's a readiness. Are

32:32

you ready to do this? Not, let's

32:34

go do it. I love that idea

32:36

of the baby steps and let's figure

32:38

out where there are some holes. probably

32:41

not everything. It's probably a little refinement

32:43

a tweak and maybe one big bomb

32:45

to process. But I just, I love

32:47

the reminder to front load and take

32:49

some baby steps. Yeah, I like the

32:52

percentages. Now, I always find it fascinating.

32:54

What is the percentage of outsourced versus

32:56

onshore? What is the percentage near shore

32:58

versus rural? All sorts of stuff. And

33:01

starting with, you know, a 20% or

33:03

starting to try to achieve 20, 25%

33:05

is a good, is a good ratio

33:07

to try to do. It's not getting

33:09

off too much, but it's also, you

33:12

know, you got to be invested. You

33:14

got to make sure that this person

33:16

and you treat them just like. you

33:18

would be enrolling anybody else into your

33:21

company. Yep, I love it. Awesome. All

33:23

right, guys, what'd you learn? Don't forget

33:25

to review, comment, and subscribe. Bro, my

33:27

accounting practice podcast. And don't forget about

33:29

theprofitproapp.com. Check that bad boy out. Check

33:32

it out. Check it out. Okay, I

33:34

forgot to do this. So I'm just

33:36

gonna do it. It felt like it

33:38

was like I was missing something. So

33:40

I'm gonna do the trippy question and

33:43

then we'll roll right into some insider

33:45

access. So this is a, I saw

33:47

this one and it really piqued my

33:49

interest because I just had this situation.

33:52

What do you wish you were better

33:54

at saying no to? What do you

33:56

wish you could say no to better

33:58

Ron? You? Fair enough. But

34:00

I'm so good at getting you to say

34:03

yes. No, what am I? Well, I'm

34:05

actually good at saying no. I mean

34:07

that's that that's you know, I'm I got

34:09

it from my wife. She's the fun

34:11

police. So she tells me no all the

34:13

time. No, no, no, no. What do

34:15

I know? Eating. So there you go.

34:17

Yeah, snacks. Yeah, snacks. Salty snacks. Oh, no,

34:20

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:22

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:24

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:26

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:28

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:30

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:32

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:34

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

34:36

no, no, no, no, I'm done. Yeah.

34:38

Yeah. I can't control myself. Yeah. Yeah. I

34:41

need to say no to snacks in

34:43

the evenings. No. No. Yeah. No, no. Evening

34:45

snacks. No, no. No, no. No, no.

34:47

No, no. But I get told no

34:49

a lot too. This is right. Yeah. Right.

34:51

So mine is once I say yes

34:53

to something, I can't get out of it.

34:56

So I'm dealing with the situation right

34:58

now. I was going to do something.

35:00

I was going to quit the other day.

35:02

I went in. Band. I went into

35:04

this meeting and I couldn't do it. And

35:06

I was like, okay. And I came

35:08

home and they're like, how'd it go?

35:10

And I was like, it didn't do it

35:13

again. I can't say no. I can't

35:15

do it. It feels like I'm quitting. I

35:17

don't like to quit anything. And it's

35:19

really hard. So once I like dedicate

35:21

myself to something, I just, it can't say

35:23

no. You got to kill it in

35:25

your heart, right? And that's so hard for

35:27

you to do. Cause once you go

35:29

in, you're all in. You're all in

35:31

Liz. Oh, it's so hard. Oh, it's so

35:34

hard. Anyhow, what do you have trouble

35:36

saying no to people? We'd love to hear

35:38

that. Absolutely. Oh, there it is. Nice.

35:40

Look at this. Look at that. I

35:42

got it. Nice. You got it. All right.

35:44

Insiders Access. This is something that we're

35:46

doing here within Profit First Professionals that you

35:49

can do in your own company. And

35:51

that is Outsource. Outsource. Outsource. We have

35:53

a wonderful outsourced... She's not even an outsourced...

35:55

I don't even know how to say

35:57

it. She's a team member. I mean, Charlene.

35:59

Charlene is an integral part of this

36:01

organization. She started out as an offshore

36:03

resource. She's still offshore, but she started through

36:06

an agency. But over the years, she

36:08

became so valuable, that man. We had to

36:10

offer her full-time employment, and she's been

36:12

moving. She's in another country now, too,

36:14

as well. She's in Australia. She's in Australia.

36:16

And one of the things we do

36:18

is we have certain standards here. And so

36:21

regardless of where the person is sitting,

36:23

your corporate standards are your corporate standards.

36:25

Don't minimize them for anybody, regardless of where

36:27

they are. Boom. Nice.

36:29

Awesome guys. Thank you Lawrence. Thank you listeners.

36:31

Liz, great job on the board today. Thank

36:34

you. Don't forget to review and subscribe to

36:36

Grow My Accounting Practice Podcast. Reach out to

36:38

Lawrence. Ask him for some advice. Get him

36:40

on your calendar. Hire him. Contract him. You

36:42

will not be sorry. Will not be sorry.

36:44

They also need to go to Profit First

36:47

Professionals and check out what we've got going

36:49

on. I agree. You should head on over

36:51

to ProfitFirstProfessionals.com. We have a ton of resources.

36:53

We have some amazing blogs that are very

36:55

insightful. very helpful. And our new CFO program.

36:57

And all about the CFO program, all of

37:00

those things. If you are interested in learning

37:02

more about becoming a profit first professional, I

37:04

urge you to go to that website, click

37:06

on the become a member, become a profit

37:08

first professional that will route you to filling

37:11

out a quick little application and we'll get

37:13

you on the calendar with either Ron or

37:15

myself. And we'll just have a conversation. Let's

37:17

just see if this makes sense. Let's see

37:19

if and how we can work together. But

37:21

we'd love chatting with you. And if it's

37:24

not right, not now, that's okay. We can

37:26

still be friends. You can still listen to

37:28

podcasts. We still love you. That's all right.

37:30

All right, friends, thank you so much for

37:32

your time today. Have a wonderful day. See

37:34

ya.