Hey, Hi, I Missed You All!
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST VWXYZ. I think I missed something. Oh, it’s U!
I have been hitting the road pretty hard these last five weeks.
And those few days when I wasn’t away, I was crafting my content for eight - count ‘em, eight - live and virtual sessions that I hosted/am hosting between the end of August and tomorrow. That’s a ton of content, and I still needed to manage my wee bookkeeping firm, work with my app partners and keep my templates fresh.
So, with all of that, something had to give, and it was my blogging, pushing to social and emailing that got cut from my roster. It was the easiest to move aside and would have the least impact on the running of my business and doing a good job of the speaking and work commitments I had made.
I hope you missed me popping into your algorithms and inbox!
Did I overcommit? Um, yes! But I love delivering content, especially the live stuff, so I’m glad I’m doing it all, even if it was a hustle to build so many presentations!
Here’s what I learned, though, and there is a lesson for all of you.
When I don’t blog and email, I don’t sell nearly as many templates as when I do.
So, not doing this impacted my passive-ish revenue. You may want to consider adding blogging, then pushing to social and email campaigns if you want to grow your business - they work!
I also learned that even though I can do something, it does not mean I will do something.
Or I should do something…
I can write and push out campaigns in Squarespace, but clearly, I didn’t. In this case, it was a time constraint, but I did realize that I should punt some of this work off. I can write the content in a Doc and have someone else proofread, edit, add templates and events to the post, choose an image, format it and convert it to the email, ship to social channels… ⬅️⬅️⬅️Do you see how cumbersome this is!? Why was I even ever doing this!?
I needed to remove myself from the admin side of posting and just write!
So I did. I hired a marketing company, MediaBooks*, while I was super busy (no time like the present; if I don’t do it even when I don’t have time to commit to their role fully, I never will). They are going to be managing my blogging, social pushes and campaigns once I get some articles written up for them. This will force me to get a few weeks ahead of content, so having them on is making me commit to my writing more effectively. It is also freeing me up from the nuances of Squarespace, which bogs me down on just getting on with what I love to do - write to you!
MediaBooks has been super flexible, which I appreciate. I am not ahead of my articles yet, so they are doing other Squarespace-y things I wasn’t getting to.
They added categories to my blog to make the posts more relevant to the content folks are searching for
They are fixing up my “Apps I Love” page because, well, I don’t love that page…
And they are going to revamp my bookkeeping website completely
These are all tasks that have been simmering on my back burner, and MediaBooks has already turned the heat up on them. The key one coming is my bookkeeping site because it is an outdated hot mess, and I am honing in on a super tight niche** and starting a wait list for clients I will take on in the spring.
Go me on delegating this. Finally. I waited too long, but now is better than later, amirte?
The second lesson for y’all, other than consistent marketing communications bump sales, is to delegate what you hate, what you shouldn’t be doing for your time-value or what you simply aren’t getting done.
So, where have I been running around these last five weeks?
Some were work-related, which always seems like fun to me. Spending time with my cherished accounting community means the world to me. I am invigorated being around so many smart, sharing, caring, awesome folks!
I was at the Tri-Merit/Unique CPA Bridging The Gap conference in Chicago at the end of August. There will be another one in August of 2024 that you should attend!
And I was at the CPB Canada Ignite conference last week - this is my will-not-miss, changed-my-business event. Some of my American friends were there for the first time, and they were blown away at the level of education, collaboration, passion for our industry - and party skills - our Canadian Certified Bookkeepers have :-}
I have such affection for these two events that I am on the committee for both - I feel honoured to be a part of them.
I also had a vacation tucked in between these two conferences. My BLT’s*** daughter got married in Ireland, so we turned that joyful occasion into a few weeks of discovering that lovely country. My husband and I love a good road trip, and this was exactly that.
I am grateful to myself for engaging my new marketing company, because I have another three-week vacay planned for the end of October. And this will lead to me jetting off to host a session at Las Vegas for QBConnect, where I’m sure Ryan Reynolds will be waiting to meet me. I will then be laying low on business activities and leisure travelling for a good part of the winter.
I am in the sunset stage of my working life, but it is still too much fun for me to retire entirely. Delegating the day-to-day bookkeeping work (which I CAN do) and the marketing admin work (which I CAN do) to people I trust to complete the work well is freeing me up to focus on the things which I LOVE to do in business - allowing me to sustain a lifestyle I LOVE.
Win, win, win!
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Featured Template ~~~
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Without a clear and practical workflow, our work product is inconsistent, we miss deadlines, and we waste a ton of precious time.
It takes immense energy and time for you to get the processes & systems mapped out tightly.
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What You Get:
Workflows included: Full Cycle Bookkeeping, Cash Coding, and Combined Firm/Client & Rescue File Systems
Email templates
Contracts (need to be legally vetted for your region)
Best Practice Notes
Checklists of tasks & to-dos
This workflow is fully comprehensive - every detail to create consistent, compliant and real-time financials is in these workflows!
Join Your Peers Here
- Dext & Financial Cents Present How to Use Software to Build a Collaborative & Engaging Remote Work Culture For Your Virtual Firm
Sept 28, 2023
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
In a remote-first world, how can accounting and bookkeeping teams stay collaborative and connected? Enter software.
Software can be a powerful tool, depending on how you use it in your firm. From workflow to automation and data sharing, software can make your firm work like a well-oiled machine. In this webinar, I will show you how to create a remote culture you and your team will thrive in.
Sociable
- said in your head in a loud sing-songy voice
FreshBooks has some exciting announcements and a super cool prize draw coming up on October 3rd. Check out the hype on #FreshAdventures on Twitter/X
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
*I hired MediaBooks because their email campaigns resonated with me, and they are in the accounting space. They are also Squarespace experts. And I liked their vetting and onboarding process. Seems like a good fit all ‘round.
**My tight niche is going to be bookkeeping for accounting and bookkeeping firms - their firm’s books, not their clients’ books. If your books are falling behind or you want someone to take them off your hands, stay tuned for my site re-vamp.
***BLT - Bestie long time; I am super blessed to have had her in my life for over 40 years!
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
15% off discount code: BLOG
