Your office.
Does it look like a tornado whipped through it or is everything organized and tidy?
For some bookkeepers, when life gets hectic, it's pretty tough to keep their desk in order.
Have no fear, today's guest has some great suggestions to help you get on track.
Lisa Campbell-Marchese is the owner of a bookkeeping company called The Marcam Group.
Throughout her 25 years of experience, she had to learn different tricks to handle not only the constant referrals she received and current workload, but she's had to do it all while balancing being a mother too.
She understood things had to change to increase her efficiency and make her work/life balance realistic.
As a result of being open to learning new strategies, she's been very successful and now she'll share some of her golden tips with you.
During this informative interview, you'll discover...
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Why having 3 monitors in your personal workspace can help you be more productive
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Why you'll want Jetpack Workflow & Hubdoc to be your new best friends
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Why having systems is crucial in organizing any part of your life
To find out more about Lisa, visit here.
To learn about Jetpack Workflow, click this link.
To read about The E-Myth Bookkeeper, check this out.
To access the Own Your Inbox: Manage E-mail Like An Expert 2-part webinar mentioned in this episode, click Part 1 & Part 2.
This episode was voted as one of the Top 10 Recommended Interviews to Inspire You to Build Systems into your Bookkeeping Business
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Michael Palmer: 01:12 Welcome to The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer, and today is going to be a terrific episode. Our guest is a licensee with Pure Bookkeeping North America and has some great success stories and I, since I've known her, I've just seen her business explode. She's the owner of The Marcam Group and has 25 years of experience in the bookkeeping industry. Welcome to the podcast, Lisa Campbell- Marchese.
Lisa Campbell-Marchese: 01:30 Hey, thanks for having me.
MP: 01:20 Thank you for being here and I hope I got all the words right and everything.
LCM: 01:30 Sounds great.
MP: 01:35 Did I put Mark? Mark Casey? Oh, Marquese oh my goodness. Well, let me do it again. Lisa Campbell- Marchese.
LCM: 01:45 Thank you, Michael. Yes.
MP: 01:55 Awesome. Well it's great to have you here and you know, I remember our first conversation and to see where you've gone from that point to where you are today, it's really cool to be, have been a part of your journey.
LCM: 02:10 It's quite, it's been quite the ride. Yeah.
MP: 02:12 So tell us a little bit about your career journey up to where we are today.
LCM: 02:17 Okay. So I started off many, many years ago when I had a salon myself and I didn't know anything about the financial end of it and I didn't really trust anybody else. To know the financial end of it. So I went to college and I learned a little bit about accounting and I started doing it myself. And what happened was I found a lot of my clients also had businesses and they found out that I handled the financials and they started asking me if I would handle their financials. And so it kind of just gradually grew where I was doing my work, I was doing my clients work and I found that I enjoy the financial end of it more than the actual running the business end of it for another type of business. And it kind of just exploded there.
MP: 02:50 Wow. And so you, you kind of are, I guess like many bookkeepers where it kind of evolves into you doing this work.
LCM: 03:11 It does it. What happens is you end up with, you know, a few clients that are very happy with what you're doing and then they tell somebody else. And of course, they tell somebody else. It's all word of mouth. I've never done any advertising. I'm not even on Linkedin. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that. Like you, what's been the experience you people just keep referring you, you find these clients, how has it been? Well, what happens? I think the more, the more groups that you get involved with as well, um, helps and I find like I'm on, um, the IPPC and QuickBooks as a certified ProAdvisor. And so when you have your name up there like that, I think, I guess that's advertising but what happens is you get inundated with calls and you kind of, um, you know, screen them and see if they're suitable towards your business, which is something that I did not know how to do until I got involved with PBS.
LCM: 03:59 So I learned a lot there and that absolutely qualifying people. I mean, there can be a lot of time wasted talking to people who are just not fit right. And what happens, I think you get, you get inundated with clients and you want to take them all, especially when you're starting up. Even though I had been doing it for a long time, it wasn't on a fulltime basis. And when I decided to go more of a full-time business, I found that I was getting clients left right and center and they're not all a good fit. And so you have a hard time keeping the right clients in and you also have a hard time keeping everything organized. You kind of get overwhelmed with work and then that's when you're going to start to mess up.
MP: 04:35 Absolutely. So let's jump back in time before you became a pure bookkeeping licensee. What was, what was life like? What was your business like? What were you dealing with?
LCM: 04:43 I was dealing with a lot of clients where I found that I was putting in a lot of hours and not getting basically the compensation that I should've been getting. Because you want to do your best, you want to grow your business, you want to make sure everything's good and you want to show them that you can do more. But what happens is because you've got the time, you end up devoting a lot of your personal time into these clients and then the next client comes along and you can't give them as much time. The old clients as much time as you used to because now you're trying to accommodate a new one and you kind of get lost in the shuffle and you're trying to find files and you're trying to make sure this deadline is met and you kind of get lost.
MP: 05:24 And what was that like for your life?
LCM: 05:30 Hectic. It was, it was trying to balance kids and husband and work and the house and the whole nine yards. It was, it was quite difficult. And how long for your business, how long was it that you were operating like that low? Probably three. Four years. And Yeah. You, what, what had you decided to even consider doing something different? Well, I got an email from you actually, and you emailed me a few times about the pure bookkeeping system and I kind of brushed it aside and then I looked at it one day and I thought, well, it's not going to hurt to watch this webinar about this program. And I'm telling you, as soon as I watched it, I was hooked. I just like, I don't care what it is, I need to have this.
MP: 06:09 Right. Was that the, the first, so the first vide, was it the first video that you watched? Are they the actual seven secrets of growing your bookings?
LCM: 06:16 The seven secrets.
MP: 06: 20 Oh, got it.
LCM: 06:25 That's what I watched and I thought, wow, that makes so much sense. And at that point in my life, I was looking for a way to kind of get myself organized before I looked at expanding and you and I had a conversation about that. I wanted to know if PBS was going to help me basically get everything in line and make it like a smooth-running machine before I started expanding further and you assured me that it would. And so I dove in further and I got the license and I went through all the steps that I was supposed to go through. And sure enough, it did exactly what it said it would do. Awesome. I love that. I'll always,
LCM: 06:55 I'm just, I care so much about our customers, our clients and, and I, I have to feel like they're family. So I always, I'm like always worried that, okay, I know it'll work, but what if it doesn't? You know, I'm no right. And so I always, but you know, since I started with pure bookkeeping and the work that we've been doing since 2009 it's just, I'm always worried about it but never comes back to being the issue is that people do the work. Of course
LCM: 07:20 there are, yes there is work involved and you have, but like Debbie says all the time you have to work on your business, not just in your business. And that's so true. Yeah. Yeah. But you're also there for your, for your clients, you, you respond to emails, you respond to phone calls and it's very obvious that you do want, you personally want to see everybody grow.
MP: 07:45 Absolutely. And you know what's interesting for us, right, is as we, you know, in the early days we, we had a lot of time and, and resources to work with every single licensee. And what's happened with our growth is it's become a lot more challenging to do that. So we've now started to add resources. We just added a team member. It's our director of client success. Theresa Doug. Well, you're gonna love her. She's an amazing business coach. She's an amazing woman. She's done all sorts of amazing things and she's going to be tasked with making sure that nobody slips through the cracks and that they get the help and support that they need. So you'll be one of those people to check-in. She'll be checking in when, because that's great. That's it, right? Our promise is really, you know, it's the proven system to grow your business and we want to make sure that we adhere to that and make sure that you get what you need. So I'm happy that you've gotten where you need to go. And the seven secrets of growing your bookkeeping business. It's so funny to hear these past stories because this is now, you've been at least licensee for how long?
LCM: 08:42 Oh, two years. I don't know how many years.
MP: 08:45 Yeah. You know what? You were definitely the early days. So now let's talk about that. Cause I want to, I always hear these little snippets from you about, oh my business grew and this happened. But yeah, we've never this deep conversation about what that's been like and, and it's actually candy for me because I love hearing our customers be successful. So there was the first kind of 90 days. How did it go when you first started with Pure Bookkeeping?
LCM: 09:07 Well, it was a lot of work because there was a lot of reading. I, it, it gave me the incentive to make this happen. I knew I had a dream. I knew I had a goal and I knew that I needed some direction. I couldn't do it by myself. I don't know everything about everything. And so diving into it was at first a little intimidating. It looked like, oh, there's so much work to do. But then as you go through it, you realize why you're doing it. And every little step you take seems to make more and more sense. And as you keep doing the processes that are, you know, part of the system, it becomes so systematic in your brain. You don't even think about it after a while. So I think that those first 90 days that, that worksheet, that, that work program that you do, I think that's imperative that new licensees do that because it's really hard to dive in just on your own.
MP: 09:58 Yeah, absolutely. And you know what, I was just as you're saying that I'm, I'm a, I've, we've changed so much of it, the online training program and the guided implementation program, it's all probably completely different. I mean when you went back in the day when you started, it was like you had to walk uphill to school both ways, right? Your bookkeeping now it's now its debt. It's, I don't want to say downhill. It's like, uh, you got the wind at your back. Cause we've got all sorts of new things to help you do it more streamlined, more easy and more quickly.
LCM: 10:26 Right. Well and the, the website format that you've got now is really, really efficient. Like just, for example, the other day I was doing a specialized report for somebody that I hadn't done in a long time. So I just opened up your website, typed it in the search, and there it was like, I know that I read it in the book, I know that I've done it. And I thought, well, I don't need to go through all that. I can just plug it in right there. So that website changed when you develop that new website, that was a, a great thing to do.
MP: 10:51 Yeah. And that's the, the Pure Bookkeeping Central. And you know, we had Matt, everything was paper, we pushed everything into, into the cloud and, and so it's, it was a massive undertaking. But yeah, it's great.
LCM: 11:03 But it was worth it and it was very valuable to us as licensees because even if I'm at a client's office, I can still log in and find what I need.
MP: 11:09 Yeah. Beautiful. Great to hear. And lots of great things coming as well. Good. Looking forward to it. Yeah. So some, so the first 90 days in the first bid into your business, what was, what were the results that you've gotten in terms of you did all this work and you're working on your business, but why? Why did it matter? What, what did you end up with?
LCM: 11:28 Well, what I found was I ended up with a more organized system where I could save time because I knew exactly where things were. I knew exactly how they were labeled and I set it up for each client. And so at first, that's very cumbersome. You Think, oh Geez, I have to reorganize this and all that. But when you get through that, you actually end up being that much more efficient. And the other thing I found out, because I took all the suggestions in the system and, and marketed myself in a different way, I ended up increasing revenues over 60% in the first year. I wasn't even expecting that, but I did, which in turn paid for my license. So, you know, it's, it's been a win-win for me all around
MP: 12:09 Beautiful. And I love, I do remember hearing about that. That growth that you surprise and growth that you have is huge. Yeah. Which is, which is awesome and yeah.
LCM: 12:18 Yeah. And I've been able to maintain that. I wouldn't even consider going back to the way that we used to do it now. Everything is done by the book according to the system. This is how we do it and there's no devaluing what we offer. We keep it up high as suggested and it works. If people want you to work with them, they are willing to pay for it.
LCM: 12:47 It's beautiful. and that a big part of that is the mindset, which is one of those hard things to, to explain to people how they get it, but you did the work, you, you, you know, you went deep into your business, you structured it in a different way, you invested in your business and all of that leads to a different and new mindset that you have about what it is that you do and what you really value your time. You value the work that you do and you have confidence because of all of this investment and time and improvement that you've done, you've got the confidence to say, Hey, this is how we do things around here. And if you like this, this is what it's going to cost. And if not, then you know what, there's another person down the street you could probably go work with. Absolutely. And that's, that's just music to my ears to hear it.
LCM: 13:30 Yeah, it's, it's been quite the experience. All positive.
MP: 13:33 Beautiful. Great. So now in terms of what, say the first year and then what are some of the things that you've done in your business since then?
LCM: 13:41 Added more clients. I've added a staff member, I've added more monitors.
MP: 13:46 Yeah, three. My Dad did see that when we were looking at your office. Now I've got two. So I'm like jealous now.
LCM: Oh, you need the third.
MP: 13:52 Absolutely need the third.
LCM: 14:58 I find that as I keep going, now that I've got my systems in place, I just keep trying to find more and more ways to be more efficient. So there is a third party software that I will use there. I mean, just basically having a headset that makes you more efficient. There are so many things that you add after you make your business efficient with PBS, you want to make it like more and more efficient and you just keep going because you've got this mindset of it's all systematic and it all works.
MP: 14:23 Yeah, it's beautiful bringing system. So, you know, when I saw those monitors as I said, I had monitor envy and um, and so I'm, I'm very similar. Everything's gotta be, I have a system around it and, and be efficient. So let's talk a little bit about some of your tricks, no tricks, but like secret weapons. Like you, you mentioned some other apps, you mentioned the three monitors. Tell us about the three monitors. Let's start there. Why do you want to have three monitors attached?
LCM: 14:50 Okay. I'll tell you why I have three. But first of all, it's two computers. I have one computer attached to one monitor and then another computer attached to the other two. And the bonus for that is I will have a client's set of books open on the middle screen and then on the right screen, I will pull up any excel or pdf that I need to view. Rather than having to close the window or split the screen, I'm dragging and dropping across my screens constantly, which makes it more efficient. Screenshotting, if I'm doing a rescue job and I'm logged into a client's computer remotely, I can screenshot the issue, drag it over to my right computer, go back to their database and fix it up. Now the left computer I use for email and calendar, that's all I use it for. So there's a system to my desk.
LCM: 15:35 I'm telling you, once you start on systems, you just can't stop. I'm going to systemize my kitchen.
MP: 15:45 Awesome. That's another podcast episode. I worked on systems.
LCM: 15: 55 Absolutely. My mom was like, never come back. I'm like helping her with systems and processes and stuff. So that's so cool. And you've got the different machines and I love that concept of doing that.
MP: So what other things do you use? What other apps? Uh, what, what's, how were you applying the philosophy, I guess, using other tools that are out there? Um, Hubdoc is an excellent tool. I work mostly I would say 99% remotely across Canada. Um, I don't feel the need that I need to go into a client's office. It's very rare. Um, so when you take an app like Hubdoc, are you familiar with hub. Dot. We've had to Jamie on the, he's been on one of the episodes.
LCM: 16:33 I use hubdoc myself. I absolutely love it. Right? So having that there, for example, I could pull hubdoc open on my left screen, which is my email screen, um, download any documents that I need, check all of that. It's, it's just a tool that makes things that much more efficient. I've done things like taking a webinar on email management because apparently, we spend six hours a day checking email. So there's a system that I learned for managing your inbox that made it more efficient. I also found that my desk was too small, so I bought a bigger desk and I made basically a workstation. I made sure that everything was hooked up. You know, the proper lights, the scanner, the monitors, the computers, the calculators, the different hole punches. Everything needs to be right at your fingertips. You've got to be efficient. MP: 17:15 Love it. So tell me about it, so you mentioned something around your email. What is it that you're using for email?
LCM: 17:25 Well, I'm using Outlook, but there was a webinar that I took on inbox management rather than, rather than creating folders for all your clients, there's a system where you archive and you know there's a followup section and there's a junk section and you learn how to create rules on your emails because I'm sure you get inundated with emails that you don't really care about. And we don't need to waste time on that. And apparently people go back and forth checking their emails while they're trying to do work well, that's trying to multitask and you're not really being efficient in either one. So they recommend you take breaks at certain times during the day and that's when you manage your inbox and then you go back to it.
MP: 18:00 Beautiful. Yeah, it's pretty neat. There's a lot of different webinars out there that are, you know, really helpful. Do you, what was this a paid webinar? Was it a free Webinar?
LCM: 18:10 No, it was a free Webinar. It was just a credit that I was doing for my CPB.
MP: 18:15 Yeah. And do you remember what it was called?
LCM: 18:20 It's on the IPBC website.
MP: 18:24 Let's find the link. We'll find the link. We'll post it on. So for the listener, it will be at Thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com under the episodes or if you go in and, and uh, join the free resources, you can sign up and you'll have access to this episode and all sorts of, uh, of goodies there. But we'll make sure that the link is available for everyone on this site.
LCM: 18:46 The only, the only sort of catch there is I believe the link is only available to IPBC members. Well, everybody will just log the, they'll have to become an ICB IPBC member white. And I strongly recommend that everybody does. I also strongly recommend everybody gets their ICPB.
MP: 19:02 Yes. And we're, we have listeners all over the world, so I'm just gonna and I've mentioned this before in other episodes, the IPBC is the institute of professional bookkeepers. It's the leading industry association, Bookkeepers Association in Canada. It's an amazing and organization. Every country has great ones. You have to absolutely belong to an association. I see B in the US there are several in Australia. The UK is massive for ICB. But for this, let's talk about the theory. Why do you belong to the IPM?
LCM: 19:35 I belonged to it because I think that we need to kind of set ourselves apart. There are, as you know, bookkeepers out there where they, you know, so-and-so, his aunt's friend's cousin does the books. Well, they're not really trained to do the books and that's why we get hired to fix them up. So I think belonging to an association where you've kind of proven that you know your stuff and you have resources with other professionals and you can discuss issues and you know, continue your education with the required credits that you need. I think it's beneficial because it sets you apart as somebody who does this professionally. You're not doing this on the side and you've actually been trained. It makes you more valuable, which adds to your cost, which adds to your complete success as far as you know, systemizing your, your business and creating your rates the way they should be.
MP: 20:20 Beautiful.
MP: 20:29 You know, it's interesting, I love that we're having this conversation because Dave and I, Dave works, he's the business manager for North America and we're sitting there talking about how, you know, we have team members that work all over the world doing different things for us and, and so he said, add, you know, 20 years ago or 15 years ago, I would have never imagined that we can all work independently from our homes and you know, from the beach or whatever. And I said, you know, it's great and I agree with you, but it's a double-edged sword because when you're working alone, you, you miss the learning from other people. There is a lot of learning. It's I was working with a contractor recently and they were showing me a bunch of things that they had done on their computer and I was like, wow, that's I, Whoa, I want to do that and I learned something which I think the ITBC is really powerful for in any other association is that you get to see people, colleagues doing the same thing over Canada that you learned from. Right, and if you're, if you're all just working out on your own Solo, you're going to stall out your development and your progress because you're not around other people.
LCM: 21:33 Yes. It's, it's really important that you stay on top of things, that you connect with other people. Even if you have a networking group in your area, even if it has nothing to do with your business, get out there, start talking to people, find out what's going on and stay up on the webinars, the w the required webinars to maintain your CPD status. It's not about they want to make sure you work and you do this and that. It actually helps your development. You learn about new things that are out there because if you don't learn, somebody else's going to learn and they're going to take your business.
MP: 22:03 Yeah. And uh, and that's, it's that in itself is, is enough to go out there and join one of these associations. And I think my experience just in terms of people in our associations, the confidence level that, that, that boost of confidence knowing and seeing and having a comparison to where you are and where others are, I mean it's, it's priceless.
LCM: 22:15 Absolutely. And quite frankly, the cost and investment in IPBC or any of these associations are very low in the grand scheme of things. So it's, it's like just a great idea to do that. So I always like to make sure if you're going to be successful, you gotta become involved in one of these associations in my, in my humble opinion.
MP: 22:35 Well, no, and I agree with you and I, and also, you know, clients come and go and if you're not out there and you're not involved in anything, how are you going to replace those clients that leave?
LCM: 22:50 That's right. You know, we knock on doors and stuff. Yeah, we can do that. But you don't really need to do that.
MP: 23:00 Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um, in terms of your, you talked about your office set up, we've talked about some of the things that you do to help you be more successful. Tell us a little bit about the staff member. You mentioned you added a staff member. What was that like for you?
LCM: 23:17 Um, well that was actually kind of interesting because she's brand new. She was a night auditor at a hotel. She's actually my step sister. And what happened is she ended up having twins and then it dawned on her, how am I going to go back to work? So she asked me cause she trained with me. So I said okay. And I sent her off to Mack and she did her, her level one accounting and ran her through some tasks and she's basically just been following me and, and learning everything she can. But she learned PBS the get-go. Also learning how to do the books. She was learning our systems at the same time. So it's actually been quite helpful because I'm not just saying, okay, you have to do it this way and then you have to do it that way. I'm actually saying you're going to follow this page and then you're going to go to that page and this is what I expect from you.
LCM: 24:02 And it's worked out really well. So she's grown up, her career has grown up inside the Pure Bookkeeping way of doing it. She doesn't know any other way.
MP: 24:20 It's perfect. You know, we have a licensee out in Calgary and that's in western Canada, uh, Alberta and she, she joined last December and she was, she called me up, she did the online training program and she said, you know, I feel like I'm working for the best boss in the world, which is Debbie. Right? And I said, at first, I'm like, what do you mean by that? She goes, well, Debbie, she's just telling, she's laid it all out. I just, I know exactly what to do. And she's just getting started. She's been bookkeeping for a long time, but she's just launching her business. And so I just love hearing your story because it's very similar to the one that, uh, Darlene had shared in that, you know, having all of this laid out for people is very satisfying.
MP: 24:58 And Michael Gerber who wrote E-myth, uh, the original e-myth, which is to build a system-dependent business and, and the concept of it really was, you know, this is how his, his in the book, he talks about how a person joins and they hand a book to them and they say, this is how we do things around here. And what happens is job satisfaction goes way up because people know exactly what it is that they need to do. They know exactly how to do it and they're no, there's, there are measures in place to let them know that they've done a good job of it. And what those three things lead to lead to great job satisfaction.
LCM: 25:35 Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I find as well, you know, with, okay, her name is Alex and I find this, he kinda gave me a thought. I recognize that I have been very fortunate that I can provide full-time income support.
LCM: 25:52 My children work from home because family comes first. If I'm needed at the school or something, I can jump out. And she had her twins and she'd had this conversation with me and I thought if I can do this, why can't she do this? She's got the smarts, she can learn, I can show her how to do it and I'm going to do exactly the same thing with the next person I bring on because I think I'm, I'm not being biased, but as mothers we need to put our children first and we have a career that we need to establish as well. So having guidelines in place and systems in place helps us make it more efficient so that we can balance family and work.
MP: 26:25 Beautiful. And that's really what it's all about. It is, you know, your family is number one and that's it. So you build the world around you to support the family.
LCM: 26:35 Exactly. And I find that it's given me the, um, the confidence, as you said earlier, to be able to say no to my clients to say, you know, at five o'clock my phone is off, do not call me, you know, when my hours are, you know, I know what you need and your deadlines will be met and there you go. That's it. That's another software that we should talk about is what's the workflow. Okay, let's talk about it. What are you using? So what I've actually done is, you know, the checklist, the session checklist that, that we have in PBS. Yes. Okay. I have, I use a program called jetpack workflow and it's cloud-based workflow management. Are you familiar with that one?
MP: 27:18 You know what, it's absolutely hilarious because we've been in conversation with them to have them on to our podcast and, and, and I've been just busy lately cause we're doing so many new things and implementing so many new things. I've been literally waiting to want to send out an email to everyone saying who is using this product? Because I need to know before we go and talk about it. I need to know our licensees getting value from using this, this program. Absolutely. This is, this is great. I'm very happy. So let's start again.
LCM: 27:51 Okay. So jetpack workflow is, is very sim color. Um, in the way that PBS works there, there is this an intimate group of people who will talk to each other back and forth. If you have an issue, you have a question, you want something added, you can email the developers directly and they will get back to you immediately. The same way you do, if we contact you or Debbie or Dave, somebody always gets back to us right away. So jetpack workflow is cloud-based work management. It takes a little bit of setup time. Um, but again, they're willing to help you with that. And that's included in your annual fee as well. You don't pay extra for that. You put all your client's information, all their documents, your due dates, your deadlines, who's assigned to it. If you have staff working with you, who is managing the project, who's, who's assigned to complete it, it is an amazing tool to make sure you don't miss a deadline.
LCM: 28:42 And what I was getting at with the checklist is I've actually created those checklists on the jet pack so that I'm not doing them in paper form anymore. They're on the cloud within jetpack.
MP: 28:58 Wow. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.
LCM: 29:05 We create each little item on the checklist is a task that needs to be done for the client and it gets kind of merged in there with jetpack workflow. So that's a tool I would highly recommend. I have used other ones I used a client to track, um, and I'm not bashing them. I just find the fact that it's not cloud-based does not help me. Um, if I need, if I'm at a client's office the odd time and I need to check something out or get a login code, I can just log into my jet pack and it's right there.
MP: 29:24 Beautiful.
LCM: 29:30 So I would highly recommend you get on conversations with them.
MP: 29:33 Yeah, well it's just a, it's just literally we're going back and forth. We're just going to get a day to that. That's great to know. And what I would actually, I'm going to put you on the,
MP: 29:42 the hot seat is you know, would you be willing to do a webinar for our licensees to show them how you're using it with Pure Bookkeeping? I think that'd be really valuable. So we'll, so that'll be coming. We'll schedule that and we'll do a, a member webinar and they can see how you're using it and, and we'll, we'll even get a check jet pack. It's jet pack workflow, right jetpackworkflow.com. I think it's dot com they also have, um, they've got demos on their site now. Yeah, you can go if you want to check it out just to see what it does. Um, and what I love is the fact that they will book a one on one with you and help you actually set up your clients, your tasks, your jobs, how to archive, how to pull things up, how to document this, that, and the other thing, you can pull documents themselves, they're so you link them to your computer or your Dropbox is just amazing.
LCM: 30:29 That's great.
MP: 30:34 Yeah. You know what, for the listeners, I know that, and I can't remember the fellow's name, but the fellow that runs, runs the organization was saying, you know, they wanted to offer all of our listeners a great, you know, trial offers some sort of thing. I don't even know what it is, but go to the episode, I'll get in touch with them, I'll get Dave to do it. Uh, we'll make sure a link is there as well for jetpack workflow and there'll be some cool offer that they'll give, they'll give to you. So I'll be calling them up on it for sure. It's definitely worth every penny.
LCM: 31:00 Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. So that's, that's a big, big one I believe it is. And you know what people say, Oh, you know, I've got to invest in PBS and then I've got to pay a jet pack.
LCM: 31:12 It's all worth it because each of these little things that you add increases your productivity, which increases your bill out rate. Yeah, it's fabulous. Yeah, this is, this is great. So let's talk a little bit about the lead flow and getting, getting clients. Have you, what has been your strongest referral source? Quickbooks. Quickbooks and so terrified pro advisor for QuickBooks. So I'm up there in the cloud. So anytime anybody's looking for a bookkeeper in their area, I will have weeks where I get to three referrals a day and I don't have time to actually answer them all. And then I'll have weeks where I get nothing and, but there's always something. Wow. So that has been, I would say word of mouth number one, QuickBooks certification is number two. I don't think there's a lot from the IPBC. I use the IPBC more as a professional thing, not as a way to get clients.
MP: 32:05 But I'd strongly recommend being a QuickBooks pro advisor. The certification, you know, I've heard it several times recently in the last, let's say six months. It's a, I think they've made changes to their interface and the marketing that they're doing gap, which I hear that all the time. So listeners hear hearing it here now again, make sure you're doing it. Become a QuickBooks pro advisor and there's a great business and leads and I love that you said you've got a system, you know, using the Pure Bookkeeping System to validate and vet and qualify prospects, which is, which is cool.
MP: 32:40 And that might be another thing to tag on for our licensees is to talk a little bit about how you do that so that they can see, hear it from you as well. Okay. Yeah, this has been great. Anything else you'd like to share? We used to keep them around 30 minutes or so, these episodes, but we could probably keep on talking.
LCM: 32:56 We could talk forever. Michael,
MP: 32:57 We're going to have him back. We're going to have you back on the show for sure. Lots of cool things you're doing and just loving it that your business is growing and, and that you're able to, you know, manage your life with the family and your priorities and as well now you've passed that on to somebody else. That's, that just uh, makes me smile. So it's good to hear that.
LCM: 33:17 Good thing. Yeah, it's all been very good. I'm going to strongly recommend that everybody reads the, um, the EMF bookkeeper.
MP: 33:25 Yeah, absolutely. That that was a big valuable tool. I just find that you know, once I started with Pvs, honestly, I one little tool after the next kept piling on and you start to look at things so differently that you just, you keep going and you keep going and you just keep trying to find ways that make you better.
LCM: 33:38 Yeah, absolutely and it works.
MP: 33:43 Absolutely, and we'll have, we'll put all the links for our listeners to the EMF where he can get that. We've got the seven secrets of growing your bookkeeping business. We actually have a really great offer where you can get the EMF bookkeeper, you get a course that goes with the seven secrets to growing your bookkeeping business. The webinar, you get a coaching session with one of our team members. You get Q&A as well. Another, another add on business accelerator program, so lots of cool stuff. We'll have a link to that in the show. As you can hear. It's been very valuable for Lisa. It's been just great. Thank you for sharing your success for us and with our listeners and some of the cool things that you're doing. It's been great.
LCM: 34:17 Well, thanks for having me.
MP: 34:22 Yeah, well, that wraps another episode of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. To learn more about today's guests and to get access to all sorts of valuable free business-building resources, you can go to Thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com until next time, goodbye.
