I read this review description for a business, and it has stuck with me. It wasn’t for a bakery. Or a restaurant. It was for a women’s clothing store. It made me want to find the store just to see what was so great about the customer experience that it could draw a review so sweet and delicious.

We work for our clients, but unlike many businesses, we need to collaborate to accomplish things. It’s not like many businesses where the interactions are transactional. Without cooperation on shared tasks and clear communication, we can not complete our work for them, and our workflows will remain incomplete, which is super frustrating.

I have written previously that my husband, Jeff, has a few organizational quirks, such as not embracing naming conventions, but he excels at setting expectations and enforcing boundaries.

He has a fly fishing guiding company, Calmwaters Fly Fishing, which is committed to the preservation of fish for generations to come, so they are a catch-and-release guiding company and use barbless hooks on their flies. He gets many inquiries from anglers who would like to keep their fish, and he always says no to these requests. Always…

If you have read my musings in the past, you will know that my husband and I have two Australian Shepards. I have written that the one on the left, Sharkie, is a gentle beauty, and the one on the right, Tippet, is…well.. enthusiastic.

And anxious.

And unruly.

And doesn’t listen.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again “Letting go of clients is hard”. Really, really hard. I am never going to minimize the hand-wringing of churning out clients. But you should start to identify which clients are Tippet clients.

You don’t need to be all gloaty, but for crying out loud, let your clients know the weight you are taking off them with the services you provide.

The pain you have taken away from your clients may become their everyday expectation.

A cool reverse advertising campaign run by The Cossette Group for The Canadian Dairy Farmers more than 17 years ago, has stuck with me. The tagline was “Stop Cooking With Cheese”, and I use the saying often.

It was based on the premise that parents wanted to get their twenty-something-year-olds out of the house, but they were taking too good of care of them - they were not motivating them to leave. Cooking with cheese is obviously amazing (if you don’t like cheese, you are probably an alien…), so why would anyone leave a house that cooks with it?

We have all been there with clients pushing us against the wall on deadlines.

• Last-minute government filings

• “Emergency” calls on financials for loan documents

• Banks freezing accounts

• Payroll not hitting employee bank accounts

You can all name numerous instances where clients have waited until the 11th hour to supply documents, approve reports or let you know trouble & required information deadlines are brewing.

It is all relevant to the stage your business is in - it’s all about you!

I often talk about the need to guard your scheduler ferociously.

But I think it’s important to define how you guard it - who you let book, why you let them book and how you let them book.

Are you exhausted right now?

Most folks we know are, right?!

Together, we are all coming off a couple of tough years, and collaborating in an entirely (or mostly) virtual model requires us all to work differently. The old ways don't work as well anymore - we can't just pop our heads over the cubicle walls and ask co-workers “what’s up"?”. Instead, we have to peck things out in an email/Slack/Teams/WhatsApp… or schedule* a Zoom/call them to ask questions. It takes more work. And confusion can often reign supreme.

You are not being hired, you are engaging.

Lucky for you dear reader, this week my email is super quick. I have stuff on the go that I need to put my energy towards.

But I wanted to ship out a quick note reminding you that if you are a business owner, make sure you think like one. And make sure your communications and processes reflect it.

Accounting professionals are uniquely positioned to offer their clients business devastation insurance advice.

To mitigate the total loss of not just their livelihood but also to protect them personally.

I bet you thinking “wait, what isn’t that the role of insurance brokers?”

Yes, but… you should be a partner in this because insurance is based on business valuations and income. But by and large insurance brokers don’t follow up enough on the health of a business and owners almost always don’t take the consequences of misinformation seriously enough.

You are so not alone if you struggle with pricing your products and services!

Even the most seasoned of business owners wonder and worry if they are doing it right.

It’s a fine balance between leaving money on the table and pricing yourself too high on the work you really want.

And then buckle down to make it happen.

I am going through big changes in my business right now. And as I preach “Change is hard. Not changing will be harder.”

I have really nailed down what lifestyle I want. I think many of you may be navel-gazing right now as well. The last few years have got a lot of folks re-evaluating their lives and their work.

It will be harder to step in it, if you have a clear idea of who you are dealing with.

My Dad* is a bit of a rough & tumble guy. He wears Carhartt coveralls, a green polka-dot welder’s cap and is generally a little scruffy. Clean but definitely scruffy. He looks like your average working Joe and talks like one too. He loves a good convo about backhoes and tractors while sitting at a bar with buddies.

A blog about dogs and loyalty. We can learn a lot about it from our canine friends.

Take a few minutes to assess if you are creating sustainable client loyalty.

Work through what you are doing well and craft up ways to improve where you are falling down.

My corporate and personal tax experience is a calm and, dare I say, enjoyable (almost) one.

My tax dude, Mike, sends a Typeform , I fill in only new/changed info.

Then he sends a Karbon checklist, which auto-nags me to get my shit into him - including warnings of the consequences of missing his deadlines.

Next up is an Ignition engagement with the option to pay for and schedule a tax planning meeting - right, this is extra and I have to commit to it with my wallet.

He uses RightSignature for me to sign off on my tax returns.

All of it is automagical!

It’s interesting times for clear directions.

I’m going to preface this discussion with I wouldn’t want to be making Covid decisions for the masses & imparting them. I have the utmost empathy and admiration for anyone trying to keep us safe from our silly selves. And I am more than happy to follow whatever directives I can figure out - I’ll do my part willingly.

Zapier is one of the most versatile apps, and their blog is one of my “must follows.”

Building authentic customer testimonials is a key driver for increasing your business.

But it is no small feat. This article from Zapier is solid advice that you can action smoothly and quickly.

Enjoy!

Bookkeeper’s and accountants are at the forefront of advising SMBs. We are already trusted.