Growing Your Firm | Strategies for Accountants, CPA's, Bookkeepers , and Tax Professionals – Details, episodes & analysis

On this episode of Growing Your Firm, David Cristello interviews Max Minsker, the founder and CEO of Bookmate, a remote accounting firm. Max shares insights into his journey of establishing Bookmate, focusing on tax returns and bookkeeping services. 

The discussion delves into his unique approach to packaging and pricing, highlighting his atypical path to success in the industry. Tune in for valuable insights on building a successful accounting firm.

The listener will learn about how Max Minsker founded and runs Bookmate, a remote accounting firm focused on tax preparation for new companies, as well as the atypical path he took to building a successful firm.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm podcast, host David Cristello, founder and CEO of Jetpack Workflow, welcomes Laurence Whittam, the Managing Director at Impact Global Solutions. Laurence specializes in helping CPA firms build successful outsourced teams. 

The discussion delves into the evolving landscape of the industry, where the challenge is no longer about finding talent but selecting the right fit for each firm. 

They explore criteria, best practices, and the importance of building strong relationships with team members. Tune in to gain insights on how to effectively integrate outsourced teams and enhance your firm's performance.

Key Takeaways:

• Importance of knowing and building relationships with your team members.

• How to assess and select the right outsourced team.

• Best practices for integrating outsourced teams into your firm.

Join David and Laurence for a deep dive into optimizing your firm's approach to outsourcing and team management.

In this episode of Growing Your Firm, brought to you by Jetpack Workflow, host David Cristello welcomes back Geni Whitehouse, founder of The Impactful Advisor and Information Technology Alliance (ITA) president, who specializes in the wine industry. 

Geni, also known as the Countess of Communication and author of "How to Make a Boring Subject Interesting: 52 Ways Even a Nerd Can Be Heard," discusses the latest trends in her membership base, the importance of niche advisory services, and effective communication strategies. 

Join us as we explore insights into talent acquisition and dive deep into various industry-specific challenges and opportunities.

The listener will learn about the book "How to Make a Boring Subject Interesting" and the author's journey from being a tax professional to finding ways to resonate with clients and deliver value. 

They will also learn about leveraging humor, embracing unique qualities, improving communication skills, transitioning to advisory roles, and addressing challenges in the accounting industry.

When I was younger, people said I was too creative to be an accountant, and too organised to be a creative. Turns out the combination of those two skills is exactly why I was able to create The Profitable Firm (PF): a creative agency working exclusively and only with accountants.

I qualified as a Certified Public Accountant in the States, and worked as an auditor for the State of Arizona before coming to the UK in 2001. When I moved here, I got a job as an auditor at a local accountancy firm in Scotland, but very quickly got moved to business development and setting up a consultancy division for that firm. I then moved on to managing the European office of a global network of accounting firms, and following that set up PF. (For five years I also ran a successful international wedding photography business alongside the creative agency.)

I now focus my energies on helping inspire and educate accountants on the power of content marketing, which PF uses itself to show accountants by example how this is done.

I love training, teaching, and coaching. I'm always honoured when asked to speak to accountants - and although I like big groups well enough, I prefer the smaller, more focused groups where I can get to know people as individuals, and help them with what's troubling them in marketing. I have presented on a large scale and small scale for organisations including Xero, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), the UK200 Group, BKR International, AccountingWeb, Accountex, and Thriveal CPA Network.

PF is based "everywhere", with a core team working from the UK, South Africa, and the United States delivering outsourced marketing to accountancy firms all over the globe.

I keep my creativity alive with photography, sketchnoting, and writing. I'm now a dual British-American citizen, and (after much travel) I confirm that Scotland is the most beautiful country in the world. I drink copious amounts of black coffee.

**In an attempt to keep my LinkedIn contact relevant, if you send an invite to connect with me, please include a note as to how we are connected. No offense, but random recruiters, financial managers and coaches won't make the cut if we haven't met. THANKS!**

My personal mission is to help CPAs and small businesses to leverage technology for their success.

Once a practicing CPA I discovered a passion for technology. After years of churning out tax returns and completing audits I discovered my Hedgehog (see Jim Collin’s, Good to Great) and decided to marry my passions for the accounting industry and technology.

I am honored to be recognized as an industry leader on technology topics impacting CPA’s. This allows me the opportunity to be a speaker at industry conferences around the country. I embrace these opportunities to educate CPA’s on a wide variety of technology topics such as, cloud computing, Microsoft updates and many other topics.

During my journey I have made a number of exciting stops. Notably, as a member of the Maryland Association of CPA’s Board of Directors and ultimately Chairman of the Board. I have also participated at a variety of levels with the American Institute of CPA’s including currently on the PCPS Executive Committee. I am a regular presenter for state and national conferences, discussing technology and leadership topics for CPAs.

Live Oak Bank is exclusively focused on helping accounting and tax professionals achieve growth by offering competitive financing solutions. Live Oak is one of the largest small business lenders under the SBA loan programs. Because I only finance accounting and tax firms, I am specialized in your practice intricacies. Ask me how to get started on your working capital, acquisition, real estate, or debt consolidation needs.
[email protected] 910.550.1403 www.liveoakbank.com/accounting

I teach bookkeepers and accountants how to utilize tech and automation to create better workflows, systems, and processes so they can run their practice on autopilot, stress less, and save time!

Are you wondering how this became my life?

After being in the accounting world for five years, I struggled with streamlining my practice... I felt frustrated, nervous and couldn't sleep at night because I didn't know where my client work was. I was overwhelmed by all the daily tasks, lost track of work and just couldn't keep up.

I hit a wall and decided to make a change, so I started to automate my practice. I created workflows, systems and processes to help me run my practice so I could scale, take on more clients and provide quality service in the meantime!

Now, I’m a full-time educator. I’m an Asana Certified Pro and my courses have helped hundreds of bookkeepers and accountants LIKE YOU!

Driven to solve painful problems with smart, passionate, and empathetic people ||

Jetpack Workflow is used by thousands of accountants in 18+ countries to help them better manage their client work and get their jobs done on time.

At Jetpack Workflow, we strive to live out our values of:

+ Leave it better than you found it.
+ Default to Action
+ Stay on Target
+ Serve with Humility

I have a background in (lean,cost effective, measurable, value driven) marketing, specifically for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups.

I am the CEO of Peisner Johnson, a state and local tax accounting firm that’s been around since 1992. I started with the firm as a staff assistant 25 years ago and has worked my way up to CEO. Currently, the firm has 25 employees and serves sellers in the United States and Canada. 

Since law changes in 2018, state and local taxes have become more complicated so Peisner Johnson has really stepped up to serve their clients as best as possible. The executive team, led by me as the CEO, has implemented new strategies to grow our relationships with our clients. “What’s Next” calls and value-based pricing are just two of the ways we've improved our customer (and employee) experience.

Throughout my career, I learned that growing in your positions means being good at managing your work and managing people, you have to be good at both.

IT'S YOUR BUSINESS. YOUR PROFIT SHOULD COME FIRST.

We serve entrepreneurs and small business owners to grow their businesses, PROFITABLY. traditionally accounting and bookkeeping services are transactional - do the books, prepare the taxes, etc. Numbers in numbers out, and you pay a fee. But what about profit? What if at the end of the day, by working with your accounting firm you actually fattened your wallet? My firm does just that.

Yes, we are excellent at bookkeeping and accounting, but you should expect that from anyone you work with. What makes us different is that we drive profitability in your business.

We are certified in the Profit First method, have direct hands-on experience increasing profits for multiple businesses, and have access to profit specialists throughout the globe. What his means is we have the strategies to make your business more profitable than it has ever been before. And we are ready to do it for you starting right now.

Our commitment to each of our clients is simple. We take the accounting, payroll and tax filing worries off of you, so you can spend your time growing your business. We provide business and financial consulting services.