0:00

And so I went through all

0:02

of the little folders and things

0:04

that I had stored different goals

0:06

and I pulled them all into

0:08

one place and had a whole

0:10

week to really think about what

0:12

I wanted my goals to be

0:15

for next year and that brought

0:17

tremendous clarity. You're

0:26

listening to The Successful Bookkeeper

0:28

with your host Michael Palmer.

0:30

Listen each week as inspiring

0:33

guests share their secrets of

0:35

success to help you increase

0:37

your confidence, work smarter, and

0:39

build a business you love. This

0:41

episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is

0:44

brought to you by pure

0:46

bookkeeping.com, the proven system to

0:48

grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome

0:58

back to the successful Bookkeeper

1:00

podcast. I'm your host, Michael

1:02

Palmer, and today's show is

1:04

always with this guest. Just

1:06

an absolute delightful experience for

1:08

me, and I know it

1:10

is for you, the listener.

1:12

Our returning guest is a

1:14

great friend of the podcast

1:16

and a friend of mine.

1:18

She's the president of Graham

1:20

Consulting and Training, Inc., which

1:22

provides practice management and bookkeeping

1:24

services exclusive to law firms.

1:26

Nancy Quinn Vaughn, welcome back to

1:28

the show. Thank you so much

1:31

Michael. Always a delight to be

1:33

here. Yes, I always look forward

1:35

to, you know, when I wake

1:37

up and I'm like, oh, I

1:39

have a podcast episode today, whenever

1:41

you're on the list, I go,

1:43

oh, this is great. This is

1:46

great. Thank you. Yeah. And so

1:48

let's jump in. You know, it's

1:50

the new year. How is it going?

1:52

How is this new year going for

1:54

you? Oh, it's going. It's going.

1:56

The first week my

1:58

assistant was... second week,

2:01

I was sick and now we're

2:03

into the third week and my

2:05

newly hired bookkeeper that was going

2:08

to just get us going right

2:10

out the gate, had to take

2:12

some leaves indefinitely. And then for

2:15

the last couple of days I've

2:17

been in emerge with my daughter.

2:19

So, you know, kind of business

2:22

as usual and a small business.

2:24

That's right. You know, it's

2:26

crazy how life just keeps

2:28

on happening. No matter how

2:31

much you plan and figure it

2:33

all out life happens in a

2:35

small business. I mean it happens

2:37

in Wherever you are life

2:39

is happening Hopefully so but in

2:41

a in a small business Pro

2:44

and con is that you actually

2:46

have the flexibility to deal with

2:48

it But when you're dealing

2:51

with things the business doesn't

2:53

have you Right? I've been thinking this

2:55

week, actually, you know, running a small

2:57

business is a little bit like having

2:59

a toddler. Do you remember those days

3:02

when your kids were toddlers or have

3:04

you blocked that out? I feel like

3:06

they're still toddlers. Some day I'm sure

3:08

my wife, sometimes I think my wife

3:10

probably thinks I'm a dollar. But you

3:12

know, like you're just frantically trying to

3:14

catch up with them, you know, they

3:16

just, they rip out all the toys

3:18

in the family room and as you're

3:20

cleaning that, they're in their bedroom pulling

3:22

all of the clothes out of the

3:25

drawers and you just feel like you're

3:27

chasing, chasing, chasing, and then finally you

3:29

catch up and you sit down with

3:31

your cup of coffee and you think,

3:33

no, you know I got this. I'm

3:35

good, I can do this. And you

3:37

know, then you go and you wake

3:39

them up from their nap and they

3:41

throw up all over you and you're

3:43

just back on that roller coaster.

3:45

And small business can be a

3:47

bit of a roller coaster for

3:49

sure. Absolutely. Especially at

3:51

times, this is one of those

3:54

bumpy parts of the ride for

3:56

you with all the people getting

3:58

sick staff. You know, we've... You've

4:00

been on the podcast lots of

4:02

times. We've talked about staff and

4:04

comings and goings and this work

4:06

and that didn't work and people,

4:09

right? People, I remember my mother

4:11

in her business, when she decided

4:13

to finally sell it and get

4:15

out of it, it was like,

4:17

I can't handle the issues that

4:19

come up with people. Right and it's

4:22

like she was a bistro and so

4:24

it's like I can't come in I'm

4:26

sick I'm not the right fit you

4:28

know I was good and then I'm

4:30

not good anymore dealing with all of

4:33

these issues with people that stacked on

4:35

Top of all of the other health

4:37

concerns or issues that you yourself as

4:39

an owner have it's it's a lot

4:42

and everybody's going to have it and

4:44

I'm sure that's why the listener right

4:46

now can relate to this. Right 100%

4:48

but on the flip side of that

4:50

actually it was so wonderful for me

4:52

when I ended up being emerged with

4:54

my daughter just to be able to

4:56

text my staff and say sorry I'm

4:59

not in and you know the IT

5:01

guys coming you're going to have to

5:03

handle that don't forget to say this

5:05

and this and it was all handled

5:07

and and and it was amazing not

5:09

to have the full thing on my

5:11

shoulders. Yes, and you've built systems

5:13

and process in your business to

5:15

help you deal with some of

5:17

these things and that's the that's

5:19

the pro of having a small business

5:22

like this as you do have the

5:24

ability to dictate your own schedule.

5:26

And that's why many get into

5:29

business, one of the reasons, right?

5:31

More freedom. More freedom. Yeah. Yes.

5:33

Yes. It's so funny what you

5:36

think you're getting when you get

5:38

into small business is so different

5:40

from what you're actually getting.

5:43

Yes. Part of that's part of

5:45

the emeth, right? Right. You know,

5:47

the emeth is that business is

5:49

going to be more fun, more

5:51

money, and more freedom. And

5:53

it's for most. It's the opposite

5:55

of that for a long time

5:57

until you build systems and process.

6:00

and actually figure the business out in

6:02

all areas of the business from sales

6:04

and marketing to the process and the

6:06

people. And there's a big chunk of

6:09

it, which again, we talk about the

6:11

EMF all the time, but if you

6:13

haven't read it. yet emith revisited by

6:16

Michael Gerber his very first book about

6:18

building a system-driven business is the one

6:20

to read first in my opinion and

6:22

then of course we have the emith

6:25

bookkeeper that was written by Debbie Roberts

6:27

and Peter Cook who've both been on

6:29

the show so you've all read all

6:31

of that you've done a lot of work

6:34

around it and so you have those systems

6:36

and I remember actually speaking to

6:38

you in the latter part of last

6:40

year you had an issue with staff,

6:42

someone was leaving, and it's like, I've

6:44

got to hire again. And so I

6:47

was like, oh, and I spoke to

6:49

you like two weeks later, and it's

6:51

like, you'd hired a person. And that's

6:53

because you've done it a number of

6:55

times, you've got the system, you know

6:58

what you're doing, you've got it all

7:00

laid out for yourself, and you've

7:02

taken a big chunk of the challenge

7:04

out of it by having those systems

7:06

in place to do that hiring. And

7:09

you're getting better at picking

7:11

people. Yeah, and that's the

7:13

thing about system is that

7:15

you put your systems in

7:17

place and for me, I

7:19

started with the pure bookkeeping

7:21

system. That was my little

7:23

roadmap. And so I didn't

7:26

have to start from absolutely

7:28

nothing. I took that system, but

7:30

then you tweak it and you

7:32

tweak it and you make it

7:34

work for you. And yeah, that's

7:36

the thing. I now have the

7:39

ads. I have a little binder

7:41

with all of the ads that

7:43

I've put in, so I don't

7:45

have to do that from scratch.

7:47

And, you know, I've got the

7:49

interview questions and, you know, what

7:52

do you have to do to

7:54

set up an employee? And that

7:56

has been so helpful, just

7:58

so helpful. How am I

8:00

doing? It's funny, you think when you're

8:03

writing everything down that you've written

8:05

down everything. And that goes to

8:07

any system, whether that's a system for

8:09

doing a reconciliation or hiring somebody.

8:11

But then if you come back to

8:14

it six months later, you realize,

8:16

oh, actually, a lot of

8:18

that was still in my

8:21

head and I missed these

8:23

couple little steps. And so

8:26

I think for hiring, that's

8:28

what I have done over

8:31

the course of the last

8:33

few years. You know,

8:36

each time you refine

8:38

it and you refine

8:41

it and you refine

8:43

it. And each time it's a little

8:46

bit easier. the new year and setting

8:48

a tone for a successful year in

8:50

our listeners bookkeeping business and so I'll

8:53

be curious for you to share like

8:55

what do you do at the start

8:57

of a year to start to plan

9:00

things out maybe talk a little bit

9:02

about that process whether it be like

9:04

you know it's towards the end of

9:07

the previous year and then you're now

9:09

in the in the new year what's

9:11

what's what's that process for you? At

9:13

the beginning of the year I do

9:15

absolutely nothing. Zero. The reason for

9:17

that is because Goal setting is all

9:20

done in December. Goal setting is

9:22

all done in December. And

9:24

also my workflow software, I

9:26

use pure workflow, is all set

9:28

up. And so all those little things

9:30

that I used to have to remember

9:33

at the beginning of the year, they

9:35

just all pop up in my workflow.

9:37

And so that piece is already done

9:39

for me. But I was telling my

9:41

daughter. that I was going to do

9:44

the podcast and that the topic

9:46

was going to be goal-setting and

9:48

she laughed at me and she

9:50

said, oh mom I could do

9:52

that podcast for you. She says,

9:54

I'm sitting by the fire on

9:56

Christmas Eve. And she was

9:58

mocking me a little bit. as children

10:00

do. But honestly, that is

10:03

my process is I sit down

10:05

in December. I'm a member of

10:07

Mark Wickersham's value pricing academy.

10:10

And Mark does this amazing

10:12

session at the beginning of

10:14

every December on goal setting.

10:16

It's one of my favorite things

10:18

in the year to listen to

10:20

that. And so I've adopted a

10:22

lot of the things that he

10:24

talks about there. And so in

10:27

the beginning of December, I start

10:29

thinking about What went really well

10:31

this year? And you know, Mark suggests

10:33

that you set yourself up for

10:35

success by thinking of the good

10:37

stuff, put yourself in a good

10:40

space. And then we start, you

10:42

know, what didn't go well? Why didn't

10:44

it go well? How do I

10:46

want to do that differently next

10:48

year? So I sort of start

10:50

thinking about those things and, you

10:52

know, write them down. But then

10:54

I literally put myself in my

10:56

favorite chair beside the Christmas tree.

10:58

with the fire going in my

11:01

mind and it's Christmas next

11:03

year. It's Christmas Eve. I'm sitting

11:05

down with my glass of wine

11:08

and the trees on and the

11:10

fires on reflecting on the year. What

11:13

do I want to feel? What do

11:15

I want to be able to stay

11:17

about this past year? How does it

11:19

feel? How do I feel? What have

11:21

I done personally? What have I done

11:24

to the house? What have I done

11:26

in my finances? What have I done

11:28

in my business? And I write it

11:30

out as though that's already done. I'm

11:32

really excited because we did our

11:34

trip to Europe this year that we

11:37

have been planning for five years and

11:39

my business built up and we have

11:41

now grown our staff to this many.

11:44

And just think through all of the

11:46

things. that I want to accomplish and

11:48

how is that going to feel how

11:50

am I going to feel sitting there

11:53

having accomplished that and then I write

11:55

it out how I feel what it

11:57

looks like and that's sort of my

12:00

template for the year

12:02

and then I start thinking okay

12:04

well if that's where I

12:06

want to be then what things

12:08

do I have to do and

12:10

put in place in order to

12:12

be there in a year and

12:14

at that point then I get

12:17

out my little template I have

12:19

made lots of little Google templates.

12:21

I get my little Q1 Google

12:23

template that has all my little,

12:25

okay, there's my little slot for

12:27

business. What am I going to

12:29

do in Q1 for the business?

12:32

What am I going to do

12:34

personally? What am I going to

12:36

do for the finances? And

12:38

start thinking through, okay, what do

12:40

I want to accomplish in Q1 to

12:42

get me further down the line to

12:44

sitting in that chair feeling those things

12:47

next year? And I try to be

12:49

as specific as I can and make

12:51

it real. And then I put that

12:53

in my little binder and I

12:55

try to look at that frequently. That's

12:58

the key. There have been years where

13:00

I write that all out and then

13:02

I forget where I put it

13:04

and that is tremendously ineffective. You have

13:07

to sort of it has to be

13:09

real. You make it real for yourself.

13:11

And then you keep it somewhere where

13:14

you can revisit it often. And it

13:16

doesn't mean those things are going

13:18

to happen quite often. They don't because

13:20

something else has come up, but it

13:23

gives me a starting point. Yeah, and

13:25

that's where we start. So we start

13:27

with where we want to be in a

13:29

year. How are we going to get there

13:31

in Q1? I used to break it down

13:33

for all four quarters, but I found personally,

13:36

I know a lot of people do that.

13:38

Personally, I find it's better to do it

13:40

one quarter at a time. And then weekly,

13:42

I have my weekly template, and I

13:44

think, okay, well, you know, this week,

13:46

what am I going to focus on?

13:48

And I try to look at that

13:50

Mondays. Try to start the week,

13:52

looking at, okay, what are we going

13:55

to do this week to move on

13:57

the quarterly goals, which is going to

13:59

move us? to the annual goal.

14:01

Got you. It's great. I think a

14:03

couple of things out of that

14:05

is number one, like it sounds,

14:07

you know, it's not digital for

14:09

you. You have a Google template,

14:11

but you print things off, you have

14:14

a binder. Yeah, I also have

14:16

a Google doc that has sort

14:18

of my master list of every

14:20

project I have ever thought about

14:22

wanting to tackle. So yeah, but

14:25

there's something for me in the

14:27

actual writing out. That's right. I

14:29

think that's a piece of it's

14:31

like writing out, but it's also

14:33

when you said, oh, you know,

14:35

you forget about it. I mean,

14:37

I have tons of, you know,

14:39

documents and things that just like

14:42

you, it's like it gets, it

14:44

disappears into the ether because it's

14:46

on the laptop or an iPad

14:48

or my phone. Whereas sometimes having

14:50

something just physical that you can

14:52

go back to is there, right?

14:54

And you... it's on your desk,

14:56

it's on the shelf, it moves

14:58

around, like I have notes and stuff

15:00

from last year that they're still there

15:03

and I can pick them up, look

15:05

at them and bring them back. And

15:07

I think that's the key piece. For

15:09

some, that might be an improvement on

15:11

the way they're doing it if they've

15:14

gone to the digital side, if it's

15:16

not working or things are getting lost.

15:18

Something to think about where do

15:20

you store these goals and these aspirations

15:23

that you have for the year? Because

15:25

if you don't look at it, if

15:27

you don't bring it up, it's gone.

15:29

It's in the past. Right. And I

15:31

used to have them all over the

15:33

place. And just this past year, actually,

15:35

I had four wisdom teeth out

15:38

at the beginning of December. And

15:40

I planned to be off for a

15:42

week, and then I had this wild

15:44

allergic reaction to something. and I was

15:46

off a second week and not sick

15:48

enough that I couldn't come into the

15:50

office at all, but I was definitely

15:52

not going to spend any time on

15:54

any client work. And so I went

15:57

through all of the little folders and

15:59

things that I I had stored different

16:01

goals and I pulled them all

16:03

into one place and had a

16:05

whole week to really think about

16:07

what I wanted my goals to

16:09

be for next year and that

16:11

brought tremendous clarity. And I think

16:13

it would be really interesting to

16:15

talk this time next year because

16:17

I had nothing else that I

16:19

felt I could work on. I

16:21

worked in a lot more detail

16:23

on my goals for next year

16:25

and I have as a result

16:27

of that. significant clarity.

16:30

That I think too is the

16:32

key is you've got to be

16:34

really really clear and when you

16:36

get clear then you know what

16:38

you're working on and and that

16:41

is very very helpful. It's not

16:43

all sort of all ethereal and a

16:45

great big mouth and I sort of

16:47

know I have goals and they're kind

16:50

of this I have such

16:52

specificity this year because I

16:54

had a lot more time and I

16:56

think What came out of that for

16:58

me is I really want to make

17:00

that time. You know, we don't always

17:03

make time for ourselves and our own

17:05

business. But because I was sick, I

17:07

gave myself permission to not work on

17:09

client work for a whole week, which

17:12

normally I would have a little bit

17:14

more trouble doing that. You know, there's

17:16

pressing things that need to get down.

17:18

I feel like you need to jump

17:20

on that. And I think I would

17:22

like to build that in to my

17:24

business. Just taking that. week or two

17:27

to really focus on goal

17:29

setting. Beautiful. It's a great process.

17:31

I love what you have that

17:33

you do. It's head of the

17:35

game, December, planning things out, and

17:37

if people haven't done it this

17:39

way, they could stop and take

17:41

the time to do it now.

17:43

There's no... For sure. Yeah, the

17:46

second best time would be now.

17:48

It used to be the first

17:50

week in January was always my

17:52

goal setting week. Which was great,

17:55

but... During it

17:57

in December is...

18:00

finding so much better because

18:02

you're, December is always a

18:04

crazy month anyways with Christmas

18:06

and all of that. And

18:09

just sitting down and doing

18:11

it in December gives you

18:13

the ability to just hit

18:15

the ground running in January

18:18

and that has been super

18:20

helpful over the last few

18:22

years. Wonderful. It brings me back

18:25

to when you were speaking about

18:27

it. I had seen, it was

18:29

a nice fresh reminder of the

18:31

fact that what we think about

18:33

is what we attract or

18:36

create. Then there's lots of

18:38

different theories on this. Some

18:40

people would, you know, whether

18:42

it's the reticular activation system,

18:44

they call it the rass,

18:47

reticular activation system, whether it's

18:49

your energy, attracting other energy,

18:51

whatever the case may be,

18:53

the idea being that if

18:55

you're thinking thoughts, That's what

18:58

makes up your your experience. So if

19:00

you're thinking about just work work work

19:02

all I'm doing is working and it's

19:04

busy and I'm in my business and

19:06

work work work work all that's going

19:08

to bring and be in front of

19:10

you is more of that Whereas when

19:12

you stop to think about your business

19:15

create goals return to those goals

19:17

Create that energy of why you

19:19

know the positive experiences of why

19:21

you're doing it you're actually filling

19:23

your mind with the outcomes that

19:26

you want and that's what a

19:28

you'll attract or create in in

19:30

your life and I think that's

19:32

a good for me it was a

19:34

good reminder of the thoughts

19:36

being a shepherd of your own

19:39

thoughts is paramount to everything as

19:41

a human and if we are

19:43

not a shepherd of our thoughts the

19:45

wolves will get in and sheeps are

19:48

missing. Yeah. So that's part of what

19:50

you're doing when you're doing the system

19:52

that you do is you're sitting down

19:54

creating this, but then you're also bringing

19:56

that back every time you bring it

19:58

back, you're resetting your thoughts. and making

20:00

sure that your thinking is aligned

20:03

with the goals and where you're

20:05

going with that. And it gives

20:07

you focus. And it's interesting,

20:10

Tony Robbins does this, he does

20:12

all these little videos, and I

20:14

was listening to one of

20:16

them a few years ago, and he

20:18

talked about doing a session with a

20:21

race car driver. And the race car

20:23

driver was talking about, you know, when

20:25

you, when the car goes out of

20:28

control. You need to focus

20:30

on where you want the car

20:32

to go, not where it's going.

20:34

And what Tony Robbins brought

20:36

out of that was, you

20:38

know, where you, what you're

20:40

focusing on is where you're

20:42

going to go. And so

20:44

if you don't have something

20:46

specific to focus on, then

20:48

you could just end up going

20:51

anywhere. You know, you don't,

20:53

you don't have a real

20:55

place where you're where you're

20:57

going to go, whereas if

20:59

you've got a really specific

21:01

thing that you're really focused

21:03

on, you're much more likely

21:05

to succeed in that, because you

21:07

know where you're going. Absolutely. So

21:09

great. And these are things that

21:12

you're doing for your business. In

21:14

the year, do you break it

21:16

out by area of the business,

21:18

like what for this year? What

21:20

are you specifically working on? Because

21:23

people might be on, you know,

21:25

where am I going to work

21:27

on my business? How do you make

21:29

those decisions? Right. Well, that's

21:32

an interesting question. Some

21:34

of it is what I

21:36

wanted my personal life. So

21:39

for example, last year, my

21:41

buildings were down significantly. And

21:43

as much as I cringe

21:45

when I look at my

21:47

income statement for last year,

21:49

last year was a year

21:51

where I really focused on

21:53

doing some life stuff because

21:55

coming out of COVID, we

21:57

had just done so much work.

22:00

all of the government applications and

22:02

extra work that came out of

22:04

a lot of those COVID benefits.

22:06

We were just going flat out

22:08

for a few years and a

22:10

lot of life stuff just got

22:13

put to the side. And so

22:15

last year for one reason or

22:17

another I ended up being off

22:19

about 10 weeks. And that was

22:21

that was deliberate and I knew my

22:23

income statement was going to look the

22:26

way it does. But I got, we

22:28

went on a couple of trips. It

22:30

was our 25th anniversary. We went to

22:33

New York with friends. We did a

22:35

family trip to Florida. I got my

22:37

wisdom teeth out, had some stuff for

22:40

that. I did some stuff in the

22:42

house. And again, that was sort of

22:44

what the goal was for last year

22:47

was to do more life stuff because

22:49

we had really put that off for

22:51

a while. So I guess I look at

22:54

what's going on in my personal life.

22:56

Is there something that I need

22:58

to make time for? I look

23:00

at what do I want my

23:02

finances to be? What do I

23:05

want my finances to look like?

23:07

What do I want the profit

23:09

to look like? And what do

23:12

I need to do? I look at

23:14

what work do I want to

23:16

do? Do I want to be

23:18

grinding out bank reconciliation and

23:20

data entry? Or do I

23:23

want to? try to work

23:25

on something more interesting. And

23:28

so there's those sorts of

23:30

things. And then also I

23:32

have to look at what is going

23:35

on in my client's industry.

23:37

I have a niche. I work,

23:39

as you said, exclusively with the

23:42

legal profession. And last

23:44

year, the primary software

23:46

for my clients for

23:48

many, many years was

23:50

a desktop software called

23:53

PC law. And That created a lot

23:55

of challenges we had to figure out how

23:57

to log in remotely to each of the

23:59

clients. we had to talk them

24:01

into allowing us to log in

24:04

remotely and COVID helped quite a

24:06

bit with that because some of

24:08

our clients were fairly resistant

24:10

to that. But it was

24:12

a software that I was

24:14

super comfortable with, I'd worked

24:16

on it for decades, and

24:18

suddenly last year PC law

24:20

just completely raised their prices to

24:23

the point where clients are

24:25

just leaving them in droves and that

24:27

created a whole bunch of challenges for

24:29

us because now all of a sudden

24:31

we are no longer expert in the

24:34

software that we're working on. We've got

24:36

clients that have migrated to four or

24:38

five different softwares and now we had

24:40

to learn a bunch of new software

24:42

and we had to decide are we

24:45

going to support all the legal software

24:47

or are we just going to choose

24:49

some? And so that became what we

24:51

had to work on? So yeah, just

24:53

I sit down at the beginning of

24:56

the year and and do what

24:58

I think is going to be

25:00

the goals for the year. You

25:02

know last year our goals were

25:04

going to be building relationships with

25:06

our clients and doing marketing

25:08

and that turned out not

25:10

to be the plan at

25:12

all because suddenly we had

25:14

to migrate to new software.

25:16

So, you know, you make

25:18

your goals, but you also

25:20

have to have a little

25:22

bit of flexibility depending on

25:24

what's going on in your

25:26

life, your business, and your

25:29

client's lives and businesses. We

25:31

talked about it in the

25:34

beginning, and what, you

25:36

know, life, life gets,

25:38

life, life, is what

25:40

happens when you're busy

25:42

making plants. Exactly. uncertainty and

25:45

challenges that arise as we talked about

25:47

you're going through some of those with

25:49

health health some health issues with your

25:52

staff and your daughter and yourself and

25:54

those are always ongoing but there's there's

25:56

things like you said you just the

25:59

shift in software It's uncertain. Where

26:01

is this going? How do

26:03

you handle these uncertain times

26:05

and challenges that come up

26:07

throughout the year? That's a

26:09

great question. I think how you

26:12

handle the challenges is not

26:14

just sort of based on the

26:16

year, it's how you handle the

26:18

challenge of being in small business.

26:21

And there are a number of things

26:23

that I have learned over the years.

26:25

about being in small business.

26:28

And I started learning that

26:30

from my dad. My dad

26:32

was the managing partner in

26:34

a small law firm. And so

26:37

small business has been my life

26:39

as far back as when I

26:41

was a kid going into my

26:43

dad's office. And over the years,

26:45

he's talked about the challenge of

26:48

being in small business. And it

26:50

has been amazing to be able

26:52

to go to my dad. And

26:54

when I'm in a panic, because,

26:56

oh, there's just so much work

26:58

or there's no work, or just

27:01

be able to talk to somebody

27:03

who's been there and say, and

27:05

have him say, yep, that's normal,

27:07

that's small business. There's some

27:10

comfort in having people that

27:12

you can talk to. But in terms

27:14

of handling the challenges, there are a

27:16

number of things that I have learned

27:19

to do over the years to at

27:21

least keep some measure of sanity in

27:23

all of this. One is really

27:25

keeping an eye on what the

27:27

trends are in both in your

27:29

industry so in the

27:32

bookkeeping industry right now

27:34

you know there's just

27:36

huge things going on with

27:38

AI huge things going on with

27:41

technology keeping an eye on where

27:43

things are going. Also if you

27:45

have a niche keeping an eye

27:48

on what the trends are. in

27:50

their businesses. So when everybody switched

27:52

from PC law, that was not

27:54

a surprise to me. I had

27:57

seen that coming over a number

27:59

of years. the bead with which

28:01

it happened last year because they

28:03

just suddenly raised their price. That

28:06

was a bit of surprise, but

28:08

I already knew that that was

28:10

coming. I had seen that coming

28:13

because I've been keeping an eye

28:15

on that. And so just making

28:17

sure that you're not so engrossed

28:19

in the work that you're doing

28:21

that you don't see what's ahead.

28:24

That's a really important piece.

28:26

because they're not as challenging

28:28

if you see them coming.

28:30

There's enough things that are

28:33

challenging that you don't see coming,

28:35

but there are things that you

28:37

can definitely keep your eye on.

28:39

So keep one eye on the

28:42

future watching for the trends. That's

28:44

an important piece for dealing

28:46

with the challenges. The other thing is

28:48

run your business and I got really...

28:50

caught up in doing work when I

28:53

lost a staff member a couple years

28:55

ago and really took my eye off

28:57

the ball and paid a price for that.

28:59

And that really taught me no

29:01

matter what is happening in the

29:03

work you still have to run

29:06

your business. I read this book,

29:08

actually think you recommended this book,

29:10

Michael, many years ago called the

29:12

Checklist Manifesto. Fabulous book. If you

29:14

want to learn how to write

29:16

really great checklist, it's a fantastic

29:18

book. And there was a section

29:20

in there. on checklist for

29:22

planes, if something goes wrong.

29:24

And because, you know, when you're

29:27

in a plane and you're flying

29:29

a plane, something goes wrong, that

29:31

is high pressure situation. And so

29:34

the pilots have this checklist. And

29:36

about three or four items down

29:38

on this checklist of, you know,

29:41

check this, do this, do this.

29:43

It says, fly the plane. Because

29:46

you can get so engrossed

29:48

in the panic of the

29:50

situation that you forget to

29:52

do what you're supposed

29:54

to do. Amazing. And so

29:56

I think you know making sure

29:58

that even when The pressure is

30:00

on and the deadlines are on and

30:03

things are going wrong and your staff

30:05

isn't here. You still have to keep

30:07

an eye on your business and run

30:09

your business even and man that's hard.

30:12

You know, when I get stressed, I

30:14

just want to jump into the work

30:16

because the work needs to get done

30:18

and also it's a nice little hiding

30:21

place to just be in the work

30:23

and not thinking about all of the

30:25

things that are going wrong and that

30:27

are hard. It's a little bit comforting

30:29

to just jump into the

30:32

familiar. So yeah, run your

30:34

business. Surround yourself with

30:37

other people. That is

30:39

key in small business. In

30:41

my experience is don't

30:43

try to do that all alone.

30:47

the more people you can get

30:49

on your team. I have an

30:51

amazing team, an amazing team. I

30:53

have a tremendous business coach, best

30:55

decision I ever made, when I

30:57

learned about Debbie Roberts and I

30:59

read that E. Miss Bochie Perf.

31:01

And I learned that how Debbie

31:03

expanded her business was to hire

31:05

a business coach. I thought, okay, well,

31:08

you know what? If Debbie Roberts

31:10

succeeded by hiring a coach, I'm

31:12

going to hire a coach. And

31:14

I did. And phenomenal decision. I

31:17

have a great IT guy, you

31:19

know, I'm pretty techie. My old

31:21

IT guy used to tell me

31:23

he hated when my name popped

31:26

up on the screen because he

31:28

knew he was actually going to

31:30

have to come out to the

31:32

office because I had already

31:34

done the, you know, turn it

31:36

on and off and restart

31:39

and end the troubles

31:41

and the troubles. But

31:43

I can do it. But is that

31:45

the best use of my time? I

31:47

read this book. I can't remember

31:50

the author. You might know

31:52

it, Michael. It's called The

31:54

Big Leap. Fabulous book. And

31:56

the author talks about working

31:59

in your... zone of genius. And

32:01

in running a small business, that's really

32:03

key is, you know, what should you be

32:05

doing? There are a lot of things you

32:07

could do, but where are you going to

32:09

have the greatest impact in your business? And

32:11

that's probably not spending three days trying to

32:14

hook up your new printer. So we have

32:16

an IT guy, we can call him, he

32:18

can log in, solve most of our

32:20

problems, or he can come out. I

32:23

have stuff, I have wonderful stuff, I

32:25

have wonderful stuff, I have wonderful stuff,

32:27

I have wonderful stuff, I have wonderful

32:30

Wonderful staff. I have an accountant who

32:32

I can just call quickly if

32:34

I have a question. I don't

32:36

have to sit on the Canada

32:38

Revenue Agency site and research the

32:41

answer to every single question that

32:43

I need an answer to. Interestingly,

32:45

the recent addition to our team

32:47

last year was we hired somebody

32:50

to come in and clean the

32:52

office and that has been life

32:54

altering. Life altering in a way

32:56

that I can't even describe because I

32:58

used to come into the office and

33:01

I think, I've got to get in

33:03

here and clean the office and it

33:05

would weigh on me. And then a

33:07

week would go by and and

33:09

the next week would go by

33:12

and I'd be working and doing

33:14

deadlines and it would just bother

33:16

me so much the office needs

33:18

to be cleaned. And now I

33:20

don't even think about that and

33:22

it gave me. Huge bandwidth. So

33:24

create a team for yourself

33:27

and community. That is vital.

33:29

Find a community of other

33:31

bookkeepers. I'm part of the

33:34

pure bookkeeping community, successful bookkeeper

33:36

community, part of the valued

33:38

pricing academy community, and I

33:40

have met so many people

33:42

who do things so much

33:44

better than I do and

33:47

have taught me wonderful things.

33:49

I'm thinking about Lisa Campbell

33:51

and her A2A program. Oh

33:53

my goodness, the first time

33:55

I ever did her master

33:57

class? I was so depressed.

34:00

because she had so many systems

34:02

and I thought I had great

34:04

systems until I ran into Lisa

34:06

and saw all of her systems.

34:08

And then I thought, oh, like,

34:11

should I even be a bookkeeper

34:13

because I'm still behind? And I

34:15

had to wallow a little bit.

34:17

But you know, then it made

34:20

me pick myself up and really

34:22

tighten up where I didn't realize

34:24

I need tightening. And finding people

34:27

who are ahead of where you

34:29

are is so helpful in

34:31

bookkeeping. There's just so

34:33

much out there's so much

34:36

technology now, so many different

34:38

choices for workflow systems and

34:40

apps and things. Find people

34:43

who are really good at

34:45

that and get ideas. But

34:47

also the other thing that

34:50

I've learned is just because

34:52

it works for somebody else. doesn't

34:55

necessarily mean it's going to work

34:57

for you in the same way

34:59

and that's okay. That's right. And so

35:01

I remember, you know, Lisa, Lisa Campbell

35:04

for a while was using ClickUp. Now

35:06

she's come over to Pure Workflow, which

35:08

is awesome, because Pure Workflow is so

35:11

much better. But I remember thinking, okay,

35:13

well, Lisa Campbell's using ClickUp, so I

35:15

am going to switch to ClickUp. And

35:17

you know, I did, and I just,

35:19

I couldn't make it work. I tried

35:22

and I tried and it just

35:24

did not work for me. And

35:26

then I think I actually switched

35:29

to pure workflow before Lisa

35:31

did. I think you're right. Yeah.

35:33

And pure workflow has been

35:35

amazing for me. But now

35:37

I've watched Lisa do a

35:39

couple of seminars on how

35:42

she uses pure workflow. And

35:44

I don't actually use it

35:46

exactly the same way. She

35:48

does a lot of staff

35:50

monitoring. On it, I used it more

35:52

for partially for a CRM because

35:54

I can keep so much client

35:56

information in there. It's of all

35:58

of the workflow systems. never used.

36:00

That one allows me the most

36:03

flexibility to keep so much information

36:05

right in the workflow system, which

36:07

is fabulous. But I also have

36:10

a spreadsheet and I got that

36:12

idea from Kelly Parks. Kelly, I

36:15

think you know, Kelly, she

36:17

runs the workflow watering hole,

36:19

she speaks at a lot of

36:21

things and and she's also amazing.

36:23

One day in the workflow watering

36:25

hole, Facebook group, she posted

36:27

a spreadsheet. that she uses.

36:30

And it's a spreadsheet that

36:32

just shows everything in her

36:34

business that needed to be

36:36

done. Every reconciliation. And I

36:38

thought, wow, that's super cool.

36:40

And so I have adopted

36:42

that in addition to pure

36:45

workflow because that works for

36:47

me. And I remember the

36:49

Lost Society when they used

36:52

to come in and do

36:54

audit. They had this software

36:56

program, it was a customized

36:59

software program that had everything

37:02

that they had to look

37:04

at in the audit. And

37:06

everything that they had to

37:08

fill in was highlighted in

37:10

yellow. And as they filled

37:12

it in, as they went through

37:14

the audit, they would change

37:16

the color of the square.

37:18

We thought, oh, that's so

37:20

cool. And so now my

37:22

Kelly part spreadsheet that has everything

37:25

on it that anybody needs

37:27

to do in our firm in any in

37:29

a month at the beginning of

37:31

every month my admin goes through

37:33

and she turns every one of

37:35

those squares yellow and as the

37:38

staff go in and they do the

37:40

reconciliation or you know they they post

37:42

the payroll journal entry or whatever they

37:44

need to do, they turn the square

37:47

green and so that's actually on a

37:49

Google Doc, not a spreadsheet and the

37:51

Google Doc is shared with everybody on

37:53

in our staff. And so all mental

37:56

people are going in there and they're

37:58

turning the squares green and moment, I

38:00

can look at that spreadsheet and

38:02

see in a second, how far are

38:04

we this month? And if it's early

38:06

in the month and it's all yellow,

38:08

I'm good with that. If it's

38:10

later in the month, then there's

38:13

a lot of yellow, that's where

38:15

I can start getting concerned. And

38:17

then we can go into pure

38:20

workflow and I can drill down

38:22

and see, okay, well, where are

38:24

they on that task? But you

38:27

know, that's two fabulous ideas that

38:29

I've taken and tweaked a little

38:31

bit and I've now gotten over

38:33

so-and-so who's amazing, does it this

38:36

way, so I have to try

38:38

that way. And I think

38:40

the other thing is it's

38:42

so inspiring to have people

38:44

who are ahead of

38:46

you for learning and

38:49

for inspiration, but not

38:51

for comparing. That's

38:58

right. The trick of it is

39:01

to realize that when you're in

39:03

that situation and you're feeling that,

39:05

those are good feelings because you're,

39:07

it's showing you where you need

39:09

to go, where you want to

39:12

go. If it didn't, it would

39:14

be like saying, oh, you know, that

39:16

person, look at that, they have

39:18

that workflow. If you didn't care

39:20

for that or wanted or needed

39:22

in your life, it wouldn't

39:24

bother you. It's where the judging is

39:27

showing you a gap. and it's the

39:29

relationship you have with that gap

39:31

that is can be a negative

39:33

relationship or you can turn

39:35

that into a positive relationship

39:37

and it's like the human

39:39

condition will be like where you went

39:42

to oh I'm not I lack I'm

39:44

not as good as you know I'm

39:46

a failure I'm all these things the

39:48

fast you can recoil from the human

39:50

condition of going there to Oh, this is

39:52

important. What's my plan? I'm going to

39:54

be there. I will do these things.

39:56

I will be as good as that,

39:58

or whatever the case may be. It's

40:00

you know, you're in the right place

40:02

because if you are the best, if

40:04

you are the smartest person in

40:07

the room, you're limiting yourself.

40:09

There's no more growth

40:11

available to you. Yes. And, and, but

40:13

also, it's important to remember, you

40:16

know, the things that so hard

40:18

for me is when I see

40:20

people who started their business so

40:23

much later than I started my

40:25

business. And in so few years,

40:27

there's so much. further ahead than

40:29

I am. And I've just had to learn

40:32

to say, okay, but you know what?

40:34

Maybe they don't have the same

40:36

challenges that you have or maybe,

40:38

you know, they've put more work

40:40

in than you have and you've

40:42

wanted to have these other things

40:44

in your life and that's okay.

40:46

You go at your own pace

40:48

and in terms of comparing where

40:50

you are to where you used

40:52

to be. That's right. Not where other

40:55

people are. And you know, when I

40:57

thought about it, you know, well, here

40:59

I am, but where was I 10

41:01

years ago? Yeah, you know, 10 years

41:03

ago, I was still working at home

41:05

with my friend who used to come

41:07

in once a week and work in

41:09

my basement as my staff. And I can

41:11

remember, I used to be driving

41:13

around the town where we lived

41:16

thinking, oh, if I just had

41:18

an office. My life would be

41:20

so much different if I just

41:22

had my own office. And you

41:24

know, and now I have my

41:26

own office. And yeah, my life

41:29

is different, but now I have

41:31

new goals. And I think that

41:33

is part of the entrepreneurial condition.

41:35

You always have more goals than

41:37

you have time or money. And

41:39

when you accomplish your

41:41

big goal, there's three more

41:44

or ten more. Absolutely. That's

41:46

the beautiful part of it.

41:48

Right, and I remember thinking, oh, if

41:50

I could just, if I could just get

41:53

to six figures, you know, that would be

41:55

the ultimate. Just hit six figures, you know,

41:57

that was my goal. That was my goal.

42:00

I failed at for several

42:02

years. You know, but every year

42:04

I'd get a little bit

42:06

closer and now six figures

42:08

is way in the rear

42:10

view mirror. And you know,

42:13

now there's new goals. It's

42:15

just, which is great, which

42:17

is great. But yeah, but

42:19

in terms of having challenges,

42:22

I think that. You're always

42:24

going to have challenges and

42:26

you've got to figure out

42:28

ways to meet the challenges

42:31

that you have. Reading

42:33

and continuing education are absolutely

42:36

vital, I think, in our

42:38

profession and in meeting the

42:40

challenges of small business. I

42:42

have learned so much from

42:44

business books. I love books

42:47

on business. I find that,

42:49

you know, usually there's at

42:51

least one tiny little nugget

42:53

of gold that you'll find

42:56

in each business book that

42:58

just fits the way you

43:00

do things, makes things better,

43:02

makes you think differently, and

43:04

just committing to lifelong learning

43:07

and committing to the fact

43:09

that you're just always going

43:11

to have to be shifting

43:13

and changing and learning to

43:16

be in small business is

43:18

another vital way of meeting

43:20

the challenge of being in

43:22

small business. Really is. You know,

43:25

as you were speaking about the

43:27

journey, a poem came up in

43:29

my mind, reminded me of the

43:31

poem, which is the road not

43:33

taken, and that's by Robert

43:36

Frost. So if people have

43:38

not Read that poem this

43:40

is a good one to

43:42

read every now and then

43:44

if you're an entrepreneur because

43:46

being an entrepreneur

43:48

is the road The more

43:50

challenging road the less traveled

43:53

road is the entrepreneurial road

43:55

and the end of it

43:57

to give it away is is for

43:59

this for the author of the poem,

44:01

he chose to take the less traveled

44:04

road and that's what made the difference

44:06

in his life. So it's like one

44:08

of those things as an entrepreneur,

44:11

it's not a well-traveled

44:13

road. There's ups, there's

44:15

downs, there's constant learning,

44:17

there's constant failure and

44:19

success, there's new goals,

44:21

you reach one, there's

44:23

comparisons. There's so much, but

44:26

yet that's what makes a full

44:28

life. And there's so much. You

44:30

know for everyone that listening

44:32

you're likely one of those

44:34

people that would choose the

44:36

less traveled road in this

44:38

situation for your life So it's

44:41

been definitely I Think it's

44:43

a it's a poem you want to

44:45

read every now and then

44:47

to give you a little

44:49

bit of inspiration Just based

44:51

on everything you've said in

44:53

this episode, which is creating

44:55

your road to travel this

44:57

year. And who knows what

44:59

will come along when you've

45:01

chosen this path and the

45:03

goals that you've said and

45:05

aspirations that you have of where you're

45:08

going to end up. Yeah,

45:10

absolutely, right? And I think, you

45:12

know, knowing that things are going

45:14

to come up and that

45:16

there's going to be challenges,

45:18

you know, you could almost

45:20

take the position, well why

45:22

even bother goal setting and

45:24

why even bother planning because

45:26

you can't control anything anyway?

45:29

But I think you have to you have

45:31

to try to at least say

45:33

this is what I want to

45:35

accomplish and and sort of hold

45:37

that loosely. Hold that loosely. You

45:39

say this is what I want

45:42

to accomplish. But then look for

45:44

the surprises and the surprises are

45:46

not all bad. You know, sometimes

45:49

opportunities have come up that I

45:51

haven't planned for and they have

45:54

been amazing. Absolutely amazing. And you

45:56

know, I'm never bored. I have

45:58

to say that. I'm a lot

46:00

of things, I'm a lot of things,

46:03

and I think that anybody who is

46:05

listening, who is running their own small

46:07

business, you know, I'm a lot of

46:10

things, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, I'm, you

46:12

know, over the moon when we have

46:14

success, I'm all kinds of things, but

46:16

I am never bored. Beautiful,

46:19

beautiful, beautiful. Well,

46:21

this has been fantastic and we'll, I'm

46:23

sure have. an update from you in

46:25

the future. And I'm excited for our

46:28

listener. You know, I'm hoping they've gone

46:30

away inspired. Maybe they already have their

46:32

goals set out. If you don't, this

46:34

is a perfect time to create a

46:37

few and to get excited about what

46:39

you're creating in your business. And for

46:41

those that have created some goals and

46:43

are working away, you know, there's a

46:46

little bit of something for everyone that's

46:48

listening. This is a great road. being an

46:51

entrepreneur, great road to be

46:53

on, great business to be in, great

46:55

customers to serve and help them

46:58

on their roads. And so that's

47:00

what we have, year by year,

47:02

to look forward to, which is

47:05

exciting. Nancy, this has been, we

47:07

had, I will say, Dave, who

47:09

I know our listener, here's about

47:12

time to time. Don't actually ever

47:14

get to me. I should have Dave

47:16

on the podcast one of these days.

47:18

Kind of just popped into my head.

47:20

Maybe it's been there before, but Dave

47:23

is the producer of the podcast and

47:25

books all the guests and creates the

47:27

make sure those questions to ask and

47:29

where we're going with this and will

47:32

our listeners like this? He's the real

47:34

brains behind this whole thing. I just

47:36

sit here and ask these questions and

47:38

look good, but... He had the most

47:41

questions created for you ever that I've

47:43

ever seen. I think, wait a

47:45

minute, what was it? It was

47:48

25 questions. I think Dave was

47:50

hoping that we'd do 25 episodes

47:52

and have a year almost punched

47:55

out, but we tackled a few

47:57

and we through as we normally...

48:00

do we answer a lot of them through

48:02

just a conversation and so Nancy it's

48:04

been a great conversation with you and

48:06

I know I know we'll do another

48:08

one in the future so on behalf

48:10

of our listener thank you My pleasure

48:13

as always, it is just a

48:15

delight. I am a faithful listener

48:17

of your podcast and I have

48:19

learned so many things from the

48:21

guests that you have had on

48:23

and it's just my pleasure to

48:25

come on and share a little

48:27

bit of my journey with you

48:30

and your listeners. Beautiful. Thank

48:32

you Nancy. The pleasure

48:34

is all ours and

48:36

with that we wrap

48:39

another episode of the

48:41

successful bookkeeper podcast. to

48:43

learn more about today's

48:45

wonderful guest and to

48:48

get access to all

48:50

sorts of valuable free

48:53

business building resources

48:55

you can go

48:58

to the successful

49:01

bookkeeper.com. Until next time,

49:04

goodbye. For more information and

49:06

to download the resources mentioned

49:08

in this episode, please visit

49:10

us at the successful bookkeeper.com.

49:12

Thank you for listening.