By Linda A. Hunt

This month, I have been really frustrated – there just does not seem to be enough time in the day to get everything that I need to done. I was becoming irritable and burnt. Then it hit me! I was not maximizing my most precious resource - managing my time and I was allowing those “Time Vampires” back in.

A “Time Vampire” is anything or anyone that steals your time – a new employee, a talkative client, the telephone, your mother-in-law, broken office equipment, etc. Time is an irreplaceable resource and effective use of your time, more than any other habit, increases your productivity. While it is important to understand how much time you spend on activities that produce a result, it is equally important to identify ways in which your time is stolen from you.

Here are the 6 secrets I use to eliminate “Time Vampires” and maximize my productivity:

1. Create a Daily Routine. I actually do this by the week. I have an excel spreadsheet that lays out what I will work on during the week and when. It includes everything from answering email to the time I will have lunch each day. I do this on broad terms. For example, Monday 10 AM to Noon bookkeeping.

I also schedule in two hours of unscheduled time just to handle those unexpected things that come up.
 
2. Plan Your Phone Calls. Plan your phone calls. Make a brief note of what you want to say and what you want to find out. It saves time for everybody and makes for better communication.

3. Set “Do Not Disturb” Periods. Plan a definite time each day when you conduct a meeting with yourself!

4. Don’t Over-Commit. Beware of over-commitment. Remember you are the only one who can protect your time. Learn how to politely say “no.”

5. Set Deadlines. Set reasonable deadlines for all jobs and stick to them. Available time always gets filled with something!

6. Think, Then Act. Avoid the “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” phenomenon. Think first, then act. Nothing is so urgent that there is no time to consider the decision-making process.

Hi – it’s Laurie this week. Unlike Linda, my office this week has slowed down due to clients’ on vacations. I love this time of year because it gives me an opportunity to review current procedures and make any necessary changes to improve work flow. Also Linda and I have been so busy working on our upcoming Pricing and Packaging Boot Camp that will be coming out in late September, so keep your eyes open for it.

In this week’s article Linda covers one of my favorite topics, Maximizing Your Precious Resource that is time. Here are some great tips!

Laurie

By Linda A. Hunt

One of the things that has always been important to me, is creating long-term relationships with our clients. Whenever, I meet with a prospective client, that is exactly what I tell them. I make my intentions known upfront by saying, “My firm and I are looking to enter into a working relationship with you that benefits both of us for the long-term.” This simple statement really sets the tone for our forthcoming working relationship.

Here are the 6 secrets I use in my own firm to create great long-term client relationships.

1. Be a good listener. Taking the time to identify the needs of your client by asking them questions and concentrating on what they are really saying gives you knowledge. Knowledge is power.

Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel. Be careful to not make assumptions. Thinking you intuitively know what your client wants can get you into trouble. Do you know the three outcomes/deliverables that are most important to your client?

2. Identify and anticipate needs. Your clients are not buying your services – they are buying solutions to a problem they are experiencing. When we begin working with a new client, we review all of the requirements/deadlines they may experience throughout the year. This enables us to be proactive and anticipate upcoming needs well in advance.

3. Make your clients feel important and appreciated. In my firm we have created a client appreciation system where we are in contact with our clients throughout the year, letting them know how much we appreciate their business and care about what is going on with them. So when one of our clients obtained their 20th client, which is a very big deal for them, we automatically sent them a celebration cookie bouquet to share in their triumph.

People value sincerity – it creates good will and feelings of trust. Clients are very intelligent and will know whether or not you really care about them.

4. Help your clients to understand your process. You may have the very best process for getting things done and if your clients don’t understand what that is, they will get confused, impatient and angry. Take the time to explain how your process works, not the nitty gritty details, a broad overview so that they can visualize the way the work is being completed.

5. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you can improve your services. This does not mean that you have to incorporate into your process what they are saying but it does give you good insight into what they are thinking. Find a simple way in which your clients can give you feedback. My computer host company actually sends me a short survey to complete each time a work order is completed.

6. Treat your staff well. Employees and subcontractors are your internal clients and deserve to be treated well. Thank them and find ways to let them know that they are important. Remember without them, you would be doing all of the work yourself!

We got so many great responses to our question “What’s Keeping You from Having Freedom in Your Bookkeeping Business?” Here’s a breakdown of what you are saying keeps you from having freedom:

 
 • Not Having Standard Processes In Place - 34%
 • Not Having Enough Time - 25%
 • Not Having Enough Clients - 25%
 • Not Having Enough Money/Cash Flow – 17%

Here’s our answer to YOUR biggest freedom buster:

Not Having Standard Processes in Place

Creating and implementing standard processes in your business, whether you are a solo-preneur or have a staff people working for you, is a key ingredient to creating the freedom you desire!

By streamlining your operations you not only pave the way to more business but bigger profits and a business that virtually runs itself! Systems create consistency and consistency creates the reputation your business is built on!

To learn more about how to create systems for your business, check out our brand new coaching program, Success Secrets Master Mind.

“I have total freedom in my business.  The only thing I would change is the speed at which I gain new clients.  I LOVE my business!”
Dawn B

Hi Dawn,
WhooHooo!  Thanks for sharing how much you love your business. 

It is important to remember that even though running your own business can be challenging there are also those moments when all of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and it’s smooth sailing.

If you are interested in learning more about creating freedom in your bookkeeping business, be sue to join us on July 29th for our free teleseminar, Creating Freedom In Your Bookkeeping Practice.

For more details and how to sign-up, go here.

By Laurie L. O’Neil

With today’s technological push, finding great ways to utilize some of the new technology out there can be time consuming and very painful. One thing you will learn about me is that I am a great proponent of pushing time to the end of its limits. Time is the very essence of our business. One of my biggest challenges was figuring out how to maximize my time.

Going on-site to clients in not always feasible so what are some other remote methods out there?

One of my favorites is a site called Log me In. www.LogMeIn.com. This allows me to remote into my client’s desktop. It has printing capabilities. It also acts in a real-time fashion and has easy set-up. You can use LogMeIn for any training capabilities you may have with your clients. You can even switch the control of the mouse back and forth between you and your client. You can use it on a Mac computer as well and you can download it free for 30 days.

Another similar software is webex. www.webex.com. Webex works in the same fashion as LogMeIn but setting up the printing can sometimes be cumbersome. I have also found that it can be sluggish as well. Webex is constantly making improvements to their product and sending out new releases.

Another software that has been around for quite some time is Go to My PC www.gotomypc.com. GoToMyPC is efficient and user friendly. It has some of the same features offered with LogMeIn and webex but it can be more costly.

No matter what your preference is, each package can help you to achieve great results in order to get the work done for the client remotely. Each package can support whatever your needs may be but can vary based on price. Research each and try them all out.

By Linda A. Hunt

About two months ago on a Monday morning I received a fax from one of our clients disengaging our services. As you can imagine, this is not the type of fax that anyone wants to receive, especially on a Monday morning! The reason stated for letting us go was due to “poor economic conditions” and had “absolutely nothing to do with the services they received”.

This particular client’s business is a privately held equity fund and is heavily involved with the stock market. Even though I had knowledge that overall the market has been in a bit of a downturn, this fax surprised me for several reasons:

1)    Even with the great working relationship we have with this client, there was no discussion with us before executing his decision and my staff assigned to the account had no idea this was coming.

2)    He felt the finance function was expendable! Leading me to question – had failed in demonstrating the value we provide to our client?

Immediately upon receipt of the fax, I called my client to uncover the underlying motivation for their decision to disengage us.  I knew there were alternative ways in which we could continue to work together while they rode out this rough patch and wanted to communicate that. When I reached my client, I heard the distress in his voice. He was being pressured by the investors in the equity fund to lower costs and he felt that we were one cost that they could do without because he has a financial background. (I won’t go into what a big mistake I believe this is.) He was already under stress and now he was increasing that stress by adding the work we performed to his already over burdened work load. He had made his decision and at that time could not see any other alternative. All I could do was respect where he was in the process and check in on him periodically.

Here’s the thing I have learned over the years - people will react to situations in ways that may or may not make sense to you and there is nothing you can do about it – it is out of your control. My client’s reaction makes no sense to me and is out of my control. All I can do is talk to my client, satisfy my curiosity to determine if there is something that we could have done differently or better and know when it is time to move on from trying to “fix it.”

Experiencing any loss of revenue is not fun and while this loss has impacted my firm it has not crippled us because of measures I have taken over the years that have helped to cushion and even out the sources of our cash flow. Here are a few of the things we have done:

Ø  Diversified our client base and making sure one industry NEVER represents more than 30% of our total revenue base. While the majority of our clients are service based businesses they are NOT all in the same industry. This is very important. When I first started my business we were working with a lot of interior designers/decorators. Then the about 10 years ago the northeast, where we are located, experienced a major hiccup in the real estate and home improvement industry. My interior decorating clients were not getting business or paid and that rippled into my firm not getting paid, causing a major problem to my cash flow.

Ø  Added recession proof businesses to our client portfolio. There are businesses out there that are ALWAYS busy, like lawyers and funeral homes. After experiencing “not getting paid because my clients were not getting paid”, I started thinking about businesses that are always busy and added a few of them to our client portfolio. Think of these businesses like an insurance policy.

Ø  We limited businesses in complimentary specialties within an industry to less than 40% of our total revenue base. For example: general contractors, electricians, plumbers, interior designers, etc. At the time our interior decorating clients were not getting paid, guess what? Our general contractor clients were not getting paid. It is important to remember that a downturn in an industry such as home improvement affects a good number of complimentary specialties. Having almost you entire client portfolio in complimentary specialties within one industry can be the end of your business.

Ø  We NEVER allow one client to make up more than 25 % of our total revenue base. Having one client that constitutes more than 25% of your total revenue base is very risky and you have placed the control of your business in your client’s hands, unbeknownst to them.

By implementing these guidelines over the years, we have been able to “recession proof” our business and keep at bay any major cash flow losses from losing a client. The percentages above are the ones that work best for my firm and it took us a couple of years to incorporate all of them. If you have been in business for a while, this is not something that you can do overnight and that is okay. As long as you are aware of this and incorporate measures into your future marketing efforts to diversify your client portfolio you will be just fine.

Remember, in life there will always be situations that are completely beyond your control and that is okay. Protecting your business involves making sure that you and your business, are not reliant upon any one customer, industry or employee for that matter.

By Linda A. Hunt

Last night I was talking to a friend who commented that I had become quite a marketer. I really don’t think of myself as a marketing person, just someone who knows a lot about finance/accounting and a little bit about marketing. Today I thought it would be fun to share with you my history as it relates to marketing. Read on for a good laugh!

Phase I – Minimal Effort
When I first started my business, I was naïve enough to think I did not have to do any marketing or what I refer to as my minimal marketing phase. I made a few contacts, had a few clients and thought I was golden. When I found myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I then entered the stop/start phase.

Phase II – Start Again/Stop Again
This is when I would start marketing doing a variety of activities, get new business, stop marketing because I was busy, wait for the “busyness” to slow down and then start the cycle all over again. After I had repeated this a couple of times, I entered the “let’s run around like a chicken without a head” phase.

Phase III – Running Around Like a Chicken without a Head
In this phase, you probably met me because I attended every possible networking event that existed – no kidding! I was exhausted from all of this running around and completely discouraged because I was seeing very little return for all of my marketing efforts. Let’s not forget to mention all of the money I spent attending these events.

Phase IV – Peace and Consistency
Somehow sanity returned and I entered the peace and consistency phase! Ok, a mentor of mine sat me down and said “What are you doing? Take a look at what has worked in the past, what you like and don’t like about it and come up with a new plan.” That is exactly what I did.

When you are the owner of a small business, marketing is the lifeblood of your business. Without it, there are no clients - without clients there is no cash – without cash there is no business. Here are a few tips that helped me regain my marketing sanity, are effective and helped me to even out the flow of new business my company receives each year.

• Target Your Marketing Efforts – you cannot be everything to everyone, when you try, your marketing message is confusing and not effective. Take the time to truly define who you are targeting. The more you can niche your business the clearer your marketing message is. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you won’t work with anyone outside of your niche. The clearer your marketing message, the more prospective clients are attracted to you.

• Focus on Benefits, Not Features – your prospective clients aren’t interested if your services utilize the latest technology. They want to know the benefits – what will solve their problems – this is what will make them take action. Always highlight how your services will save them time and money.

• Tell Your Prospective Clients What Action To Take and How – To you it may seem obvious, but it’s not always to a prospective client. Walk them through all of the actions they must take to accomplish what you want them to – call you and hire you for your services!

• Track and Measure Your Marketing Results – you must track and measure your marketing results so you can repeat what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

• Market Consistently – you can’t market one month, then wait three months and market again. Your marketing efforts need to be consistent over time.

• One Thing At A Time – implement one new marketing strategy at a time. Make a plan for that strategy, assign a time frame and then breathe. By focusing your efforts on just one new strategy at a time, your attention is focused and you will be able to tell sooner rather than later if this is something that is working for you.

I would love to hear from you and find out about your experience with marketing! If they are anything like mine, we’ll have a lot to talk about. Email me at info@bkpr-network.com.
 

Hi – it’s Laurie this week. I am just returning from the beach in Rhode Island. If there is anything you will learn about me is I work hard and I play hard. I love the beach and enjoy riding through the country with my Harley. In the past week I have been able to connect with a lot of you. I have enjoyed learning about your practices and finding out more about you. As always, Linda and I love hearing from you so don’t be shy, drop us a line.

In this week’s article, Linda brings up a good question: What Marketing Phase are you in? This brings back so many memories for me. I was the chicken. What are you?

Last night we held the second part of How to Price and Package Your Services. What a fabulous call. It was great speaking with so many of you with and being able to answer your questions live!

Wishing you financial serenity,

Linda & Laurie

By Laurie L. O’Neil

In my second year of business, I was contemplating hiring an employee or hiring a subcontractor. I decided on the subcontractor. I had my first heartening experience as a business owner. I had a client that had a high volume of work that needed to be done quickly and a lot of back work. I needed someone to help get everything up to date, so I hired a subcontractor. Being of a naïve nature, I did not have any agreements with her. Well you guessed it; she cut me right out of the middle and took over the account. This was the beginning of compiling contracts for employees and contractors.

This is a difficult topic because not all states will uphold Employment and Non-Compete Agreements. Connecticut is a state that will and they can be enforced. Also you will need a good attorney to review these documents.

Here are some things that should be covered in Non-Competes and Employment Agreements:

When it comes to a Non-Compete agreement be sure you cover: 

1. Geographical area – within reason
2. Timeline of non-compete needs to be reasonable
3. Terms of employees/contractors soliciting your clients.

When it comes to an Employment Agreement or Contractor Agreement:

1. At-will employment for employees
2. Termination clause for both employees and contractors
3. Discussion of general duties and expectation
4. A clause to not solicit employment from clients
5. Breach and liquid damages
6. In case of any issues, what state will enforce the breach

The important part of business growth is protecting the time and money you have invested into the building of your company. Employment/Subcontractor Non-Compete Agreements protect that investment. You do not want to be in the job of being a recruiter for your clients nor do you want to continually find clients for your employees to take away.