Looking to get more out of your bookkeeping business?
Since 1979, Roger Knecht, who is the President of Universal Accounting Center, has worked hard to help accountants and bookkeepers excel in their careers.His post-secondary school trains and certifies individuals in accounting, bookkeeping, tax and consultative skills so they can get paid what they're worth.
He has developed proven strategies, processes and procedures for business owners to increase their profits and sales up to 71%.
During this interview, you'll also discover...
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The importance of creating a plan and goal for your business
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What are the 4 keys to success and profit
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What are the accounting principles that will grow your firm
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Michael Palmer: 01:38 Welcome back to The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer, and today's show is going to be a terrific one. Our guest is the president of Universal Accounting Center. Since 1979 UAC has worked to help accounting professionals excel in their careers as a post-secondary school trains and certifies individuals in accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and consultative skills to help them get paid what they're worth and I love that part. He is an expert and helping people launch and grow highly successful accounting and bookkeeping firms. Roger Knecht, Welcome back to the podcast.
Roger Knecht: 02:15 Well, thank you. This is an honor and a privilege. I appreciate it.
MP: 02:25 Beautiful. Now, Roger, before we get into all the wonderful things I know we're going to hear from you, can you give us a bit of a backstory about you and how you became to be involved with Universal Accounting Center?
RK: 02:34 Oh, sure. So it actually goes back a number of years ago, so I'm getting older. Uh, back in the late nineties, I had the opportunity to, uh, work with universal accounting in the sense that I was at the time a head hunter or recruiter. I was doing temporary and direct placement for some, uh, companies where I would essentially take their graduates, people that had gone through the various accounting programs that they had and placed them either in temporary assignments or direct for employment. And I was having great success. I found that their graduates were very competent and capable. They were well trained and so were the clients of mine were paying for these, uh, new employees to come in and do the work. I was regularly asked if I knew of anyone else that was similarly trained or skilled. And so I found it, it was a great car, a great kind of relationship, at least for me.
RK: 03:22 I kind of found this little gold mine, if you will, that I could take their graduates and place them in assignments. And I was really enjoying working with their graduates, being that they had the skills that I felt were needed on the, in the worksite. And so I got to know the president of the school, got to work with some of the employees there. And in that time became a consultant where I was doing some things on the side, helping them as a school go out and acquire new students and enroll various people in their programs and very short order. The opportunity became available for them to offer me a position. And I took it. My wife really encouraged me taking the opportunity and I did. So. And from that grew up through the ranks and universal accounting. We grow the, grew the business quite a bit.
RK: 04:06 Uh, ended up experiencing quite a bit of growth to where we received the inc 500, inc 5,005 years running accolades, our corporate headquarters in the State of Utah. So we received some Utah 100 awards for five years running, so a number of awards for our growth in our success. And so really had a great deal of, let's say, Opportunity in the organization as a grew. And the second president of the school happened to retire a few years ago and in his retiring he pegged me to be the third president of the school and I found myself being given this opportunity and was both privileged and honored, but also let's say a scared and, and curious as how as I, how was I going to put my fingerprint on the, on the company. And over the last number of years I felt that I've done a good job in doing so and, and pleased with where it is today.
MP: 04:59 You know, I love that, that story of how you progressed from being a user of the offering right up to growing and, and, and progressing along in your career right up to president. It's so refreshing to, to hear these stories and yours in particular because what I, what that speaks to me is number one, you actually like what you do and you get to work for a company where he had really liked the product and you in fact I would say like is probably not the word. It's more love. You love what you do, you love what you do for people and here you are at the, at the very top to be able to make all sorts of things happen and, and differences not only in your company but as well the industry.
RK: 05:41 Well the love comes from the students. Uh, we're a postsecondary school and so as a school we're basically training people to have the skills, the confidence they need to go out and excel in their careers. And where I found a lot of people were coming back to the school or coming back with the stories of their successes. Originally, it was obviously with those that I had more direct contact as they were going out and finding employment, but we're about 70% of our students. We're actually starting and building accounting firms. It was amazing to me that over the course of the years as I traveled the United States and Canada primarily, I would find that I would run into people, whether it be a conferences or wherever, they'd come up and and share with me their story of how they were able to with confidence go out and finally start the business that they always wanted or go out and market their services in a way that they were confident that they were able to get the clients they didn't think they could or should or may have deserved and how it changed their lives. And I've got story after story having done this for so many years of of women who have just become independent and men who have changed their careers and, and it's just a story upon story and that's where our success is. So you're right, it's, it's nice to know that as I'm providing for my family, as I am putting a roof over my children's head and putting clothes on their back and feeding their bellies, I can do so with confidence knowing that I'm doing something that I love, that I know is making a difference and it's improving people's lives.
MP: 07:04 Beautiful. It really is a congratulations on that. Now, you mentioned a couple of things when you were talking about the, the path that you've taken. Is that one of the reasons why you took notices that Universal accounting center was putting out some phenomenal people to come and do the work that you were looking for them to do? Why do you, what do you know? What do you feel makes Universal accounting center unique within the accounting world?
RK: 07:32 Well, one thing is, is I think quite obvious. We are a postsecondary school, so we are regulated as a school. And so the training that we provide, the certifications that we're able to offer are basically from a school point of view. But what really makes us unique is I believe the coaching that we offer. What I've really felt strongly about, and this is even become more so in my 10 years, the President, is that the coaching we need to offer, it needs to be such that as a student takes the training into the real world and they go out into either their client or their employer to do the work they need to do. So with confidence. And so often to have that coach in the back that is someone that they've worked with for 12, 18, 24 months, it's given them the confidence to call and maybe role play a situation or ask an accounting question that they otherwise wouldn't have someone to reach out to. And so the support that we off the caliber of people that I'm working with that are our coaches for our students really gives our programs and our school here a unique, uh, perspective that our students don't get anywhere else. In my opinion.
RK: 08:36 That's, that's you know, really when you think of it, uh, being a postsecondary institution, I mean you can go and put your, any kind of training that you do, any kind of learning that you do is, is beneficial I believe. I mean my dad used to always say it never stop learning. I mean that's the whole point is learn, learn, learn, always learn, just make, it may be a lifelong learner, but then with your organization, you actually have a body of work that is designed to, to end somebody with a, a, a, a certificate, something valid that says, look, I've achieved this level in my career and sort of puts a, I think a stamp on the experience and the training that someone has done and that can be converted into value in the marketplace.
MP: 09:22 Well, when you think of it, there's so many people out there that through either experience or training, they've gotten certain skills, but it says a lot. When you can go to a third party and get some training, be tested and actually have this third party give you a credential to say you in fact do know what you thought you did. A, they've tested you and they've confirmed that you actually have that skill. And so to be able to say you're someone like a certified professional bookkeeper and carry a PB designation after your name or you're a certified professional tax preparer and carry that PTP designation. Maybe it's where you're a quickbooks specialist and you have that qs designation after your name. Those means something simply because of in the accounting profession. There are a variety of things you can go do. But really where's your expertise?
RK: 10:06 This is just kind of a tangent, but I've, I've had people who've chosen more of a career in the larger companies working within larger companies and uh, they'll go out and become like a CIA certified internal auditor or CMA, a certified management accountant. Well, these are all designations to say what we've chosen within the accounting profession to specialize in. And when you're a professional bookkeeper and you carry that PB designation, it shows that you're proficient in the day to day applications of small business accounting procedures and that's huge, especially when you're out there offering and providing accounting bookkeeping services to small businesses.
MP: 10:45 Absolutely.
MP: 10:50 You've worked with accounting professionals who have started and built their own successful firms. What, what, what have you noticed or trends that you've seen that really is that secret sauce for success?
RK: 11:05 Well, in the years that I've done this, I can honestly say that the people who have impressed me, that have built thriving practices that have gone out there and maybe even exceeded their own expectations, it boiled down to two things, their confidence and their competence. Whenever you've got the confidence enough to look a business owner in the eye and say that you can do their work, you can take care of their accounting needs, you can provide them the financial information they need to more intelligently make business decisions in their company. That confidence is something that that's hard to fake. And when you're out there marketing your services or you're presenting your services in the office to a client, a potential client, and they can see in you that confidence that really can sell your services and it removes any self doubt that that may exist both on your part and the client's part.
RK: 11:56 So that confidence is, I think the first key. The second is competence. There's a lot to be said for the ability to do accounting services. You know, you know the debits and credits, you know how to make the transactions, record the entries, produce the financials. I think that's all great and Dandy, but the competence to do it not just in a skillset but in a professional way that's profitably. You've got the efficiency behind you. You know how to quickly do it in such, such a way that you can actually do it with a profit margin and be in business. That's different because I'm not doubting some people's abilities to go out there and record transactions, but I will challenge them to say, can you do it competently that you're in the end profitable and able to offer this service? In a way that you're able to run a viable business.
RK: 12:40 And so when you've got the confidence, and sometimes that comes from either credentials, whether you've maybe become a CPA and ea, a professional bookkeeper, professional tax repair, that confidence is huge, especially when you have those credentials after your name perhaps. But the competence to say, I've got a system in place, a way of doing the work that's efficient, that allows me to be profitable, that's huge. And that's one of the reasons why I really love pure bookkeeping. Pure bookkeeping provides that system that's needed in the back office to ensure that the work's being done efficiently so that they can actually with confidence, go out and market the services knowing that the back office can do the work in a way that's profitable.
MP: 13:20 Yeah, I, I agree and I think what really when someone has something that takes care of and, and ha just knows that something's handled like a certain certification, right? They know that that has been handled. We've got that. We've done the training. It puts, it puts one into a whole new level just from a mindset perspective. So similar to pure bookkeeping, it's, it's systems, their systems, processes that are, have been proven time and time again. When you implement those, it's now handled, it's done. And that no longer needs to be a part of our, our thinking. So in the case of a certification, you know, you wake up in the morning, it's like, you're not going to be like, oh dude, do I need to get a surfy certification? Oh, what would be different if I had a certification? It's like, uh, um, you know, all these questions that's gone.
MP: 14:05 It disappears. And the funny thing, Roger, and I think you would agree, is that when people don't have the certification or they don't have systems in place, what comes up in their life? The barrier, the barriers that come up in life are related to those things because that's what they're thinking about when they've, when they're handled, when they're in place, no one's going to ask them about it. No one's going to talk about it. It'll be as if it never happened in many cases, but yet you'll be dealing with new problems, bigger problems, but more interesting and probably problems that lead to more, more income and more growth for your business. But it's really, it's in your mind and that's the beauty as remove all the things that don't need to be there. The that draw it are noise that are taking you away from being successful and doing the things that you love and want to do. Remove them, have them handled and when they're handled then there's new things and we just keep progressing. And I guess that's the journey towards successful business or successful practice. What are your thoughts?
RK: 15:00 Well, first of all, these clients that we're getting when we're offering accounting services, they're, they're serious about their business. That's what they're doing for their living. That's what they do passionately. And so we need to, I think, take that same passion to our own profession. If we're bookkeepers, accountants, tax preparers, and we're trying to provide quality services, let's do so professionally. And one of those things that we can do professionally is just step up our game. And where these certifications are helpful is they help you actually, uh, kind of meet that demand of now you're able to step up your game and be that professional that they expect you to be when you're being paid for a service. And one of the things that I think these credentials also bring to the table is there is a lot of you don't know what you don't know and what can really pull away from confidence is self doubt.
RK: 15:49 When you're starting to doubt, am I doing the right thing? Is this the next thing I ought to be focused on? Uh, am I running my business or is it running me? And what we can do with these certifications is remove a lot of that self doubt so that you're actually prioritizing correctly what needs to be done so that you can build your business and put first things first. And so really it's meant to be a way of taking what maybe you could do on your own in maybe months or a year and takes it down to now. You can do it in weeks, if not months. So what we're trying to do here is just pull out all the ambiguity and make it so that you can just follow tried and proven systems. Starting to building an accounting practice isn't anything new. I'm, I jokingly say that accounting is the second oldest profession.
RK: 16:31 I say that because I think it's always been around and we'll always be here. And since for Luca Petroleum, you know, over 500 years ago, the accounting model really hasn't changed. Debits and credits are exactly what they are. T accounting it is, is what it is. What's changing in our profession is how artificial intelligence is coming into the accounting software. Uh, how our roles are changing with our clients. They're needing less historical data and they're needing more realtime data. Well, if you want to remain on the cutting edge, you've got to remain relevant offering quality services and it's these types of things that come from you're taking your profession seriously and staying up to date.
MP: 17:06 Beautifully said. Absolutely love that. And you know, we have a lot of listeners, Roger, that are literally just looking to get started. Uh, and we also have listeners that are maybe, you know, they've started but they're there, they're not really haven't taken that next step. What you say is to really embrace the PR profession and treat it like a profession and be serious about it. What advice would you give to those two categories? Someone that's just looking to get started and then someone who's, you know, already just started but looking to grow from beyond where they're at?
RK: 17:42 Oh, excellent question. And you know, I would imagine there are plenty of people that are in both scenarios, both starting or building their firms. So the advice I'd give it before things and actually as I'm saying this, I'm going to throw in a bonus. So let's do four with a bonus. Love bonuses the ass. So the four things, first of all is passion. That's just focus first and foremost on what you're passionate about. Some of the people that I work with want to go out there and do a full service accounting practice where they're offering bookkeeping services and they got accounting services and tax services and consultative services. That sounds all great and dandy, but let's just do it in baby steps. Which of those are you most passionate about? That when you get excited, it's obvious and the business owner when you're talking is going to see that enthusiasm for the work.
RK: 18:26 If it's about bookkeeping, getting clean, crisp financials, then focus on the bookkeeping services and just say that you're doing bookkeeping work. If it's accounting where you like to take the financials and tell a story and help the business owner understand what the numbers are saying and what the trends are showing, then be an accountant and oxy actually offer that type of accounting services. If you're really passionate about tax and helping people leverage their tax situation and really get tax savings where they may not have in the past, then go after the tax services and be passionate there later. You can offer add these other things, but the first and foremost thing is what are you passionate about that will help you more easily sell your services because then it's contagious. All of the sudden the business owners talks to you and they see within you that energy, that light that they don't have for the same thing, but they know it needs to be done and you're the right person for them to be working with and paying to do it.
RK: 19:21 The second thing is quality. Don't ever shortcut what you're doing, especially where a lot of us start our practices carrying our names, your connect accounting services. Well, your name is out there. By all means offer quality services. Do what you're saying that you're going to do in the timeline you commit to and be someone that they can trust and rely upon and a lot of that's going to come down to systems. What systems do you have in place to provide the quality of work that you're, you're saying you deliver. If you say that you deliver monthly financials to your client by the 10th of the following month by darn, you need to do it and you need to do it in a way that they expect it. So some of the clients just want the, the tertiary financials. They just want to see the cashflow, the income statement, the balance sheet, and they're happy.
RK: 20:09 Other people, they want to see some of the expense details and they want to review the, the minutia of it. Well, are you prepared to give them what they feel they need as the business owner to run their business? The third thing is commitment. I can't stress this enough. The people that I've seen successful are the ones that are committed. They don't run their day watching the clock. They don't, uh, try and get consumed by everything they're committed to what the thing is that needs to be done now. And they stick it through until it's done. And sometimes that means early days. Sometimes that means late days. Sometimes that means missing your favorite television show and putting it on DVR and watching it on the weekend. Whatever it means, your commitment is what's gonna make the difference. What it really boils down to is no excuses. The fourth thing is knowledge of the numbers.
RK: 20:59 And I think this is really key. When a person who is paying for accounting services, paying a bookkeeper to uprooted, produced the financial statements has a question. Have you bothered to look at the information you're handing over to the client so that if they ask a question about it, you know what they're talking about. You need to know the numbers behind your client's business. You need to know their business better than they do. Here at Universal Accounting Center, we referred to it as becoming their profit and growth expert. That's who you need to be for your clients and as a profit and growth expert, you know their numbers better than they even do it and it will take a little bit of time. It will take a few months of preparing the financials to get acquainted with the nuances of the numbers, but that's the goal is the commitment of doing the work and then the knowledge of the numbers too.
RK: 21:45 Now, you're familiar with the intimacies of what's going on in the business, but the bonus I'd throw in there is a vacation. So many of the people that I know who are passionate, that are doing this quality work in a committed way. Guess what? There is a burnout and a yes. As you start build your practice, you're going to put in maybe the long hours and you're going to neglect your spouses. You're going to maybe be torn away from family, but the best thing I can tell you is don't let that go on too long. By all means, put on the schedule a vacation, and I can go into this in a greater detail later on, but there's been studies that show that you need a vacation about every eight to 12 weeks. I strongly recommend that you always have something on the horizon that you're looking forward to that can give you purpose and meaning as to you're not just working and going through this for the motions. You're actually working towards, Hey, I'm going to have this vacation in a few weeks and I'm excited about it. There's something that's, that's proven in psych, in the psychology of it all to say that it helps with our health. It helps with our mental stability. So the vacations, if you can have something on the horizon about eight to 12 weeks out that you're looking forward to, that's going to be huge. That gives you the energy you need to work through all of this stuff that you're doing as you're building your firm.
MP: 23:05 Hallelujah.
MP: 23:12 I absolutely love the bonus.
RK: 23:14 You're welcome.
MP: 23:15 I love the bonus and I think right now, I want every single person listening right now. Pull out your calendar, your schedule, whatever you call it, whether it's on your phone or you write it down. I want you to look out there at 10 to 12 weeks and I want you to block something that is going to be a vacation and I don't want you to do anything but block that time out and it doesn't have to be anything but that time. Who knows what you're going to do? Where are you going to go, who you're going to spend the time with, but block it and start planning it and, and take Roger's advice. I mean, if there's something that's going to put some fuel in your rocket pack, I think that one bonus tip right there is going to be a little tidbit that will, if you're not already doing it, that's just going to be rocket fuel for your, for your life, for your family, for your business, for your customers. Because you've got to take care of yourself.
RK: 24:11 You do. And you know, Michael, I appreciate you adding that in there. So I'm just going to add one little tidbit. Some people, when I bring this up, assume that I'm saying you've got to take this three week long vacation to Tahiti or to Europe. That's not what it is. It could be as simple as just a weekend that you're looking forward to where you're going to take off with someone special in your life, whether it be your family, your spouse, uh, maybe it's going to see your mom and it's just something you're looking forward to. Maybe it's a camping trip. Everybody's got their own thing that they like that re re Rabiger rates them, invigorates them. And that's what we're looking for is we're trying to just say, what's that thing you're looking forward to? That when you have a moment, somebody asks, you know, if you've got something on the calendar, you're able to with enthusiasm say, this is what I'm looking forward to in a week, I'm going here. That's exciting.
MP: 24:57 Yeah, I love that Roger. And I think what happens is, is um, when, especially when it comes to vague, the talk of vacation is that it's the belief that it's got to be something big or it's got to be expensive. And you know, if you did a very big expensive vacation every, uh, 10 or 12 weeks, that could be, it might not just be possible. So then that shuts down even doing what we're talking about. So I would say that this is it, let's call it minimal viable vacation, that MVV is practice. Just having those blocks of time where you really saying, this is a vacation. This is a time for me. This is a time for my family, or, or whatever it is. But primarily it's for you because this is you. If you are not in good shape, if you're not in good health, if you're not a good mentally, you can't run your business to the level that you want.
MP: 25:49 You can't get where you want to get to. And so this is about taking care of yourself first. This is the oxygen mask on you first. But I guess what you get to put the oxygen mask on you and you can bring along your family and friends with you while you're doing it and have some fun. And, and just, I think Roger, that if, if our listeners starts doing this, this will lead to bigger, better vacations because you can start to make this a part of your, your daily thinking. It's like, Oh yeah, in 12 weeks or now it's nine weeks, I'm going to be doing this. And then you're going to do that. But then what's it going to be the next time? Maybe you'll do something else. Maybe you know, you'll start to see the results in your business that'll lead you to having different, you know, different types of vacations or different, different times that you're going to spend with it.
MP: 26:32 So I just love that you brought that up. I love the idea and I don't think we've really tackled it on the podcast in the past, but this is, this is a gold nugget that I don't think many people are leveraging that can make a really big difference in the quality of your life and that the end of the day, that's what this is all about. This, we have businesses, we do work, we do differently. If you're not getting what you want in your life, you're not having any satisfying life, then something's got to change. Something needs to be different because that's why we're doing it.
RK: 27:05 Well, Michael, I'd be happy to come back and elaborate on this, but I'll, I'll end on this point and then maybe we can move on and it's simply that a lot of the successful people I know are passionate about what they do. They love it. They get enthralled by it, they stay late at the office, they're workaholics. They are committed to the work. And what happens is an all of us see it as we get older, the days or they, although they may be long, the years are short. It's amazing how fast years go by before you know it, the years past, it's over, you're onto the next year. We're already in the middle of this year and it's astounding to me. So there's a quote that I use and that I'll reference here and then we can move on and it's basically no success can compensate for failure in the home. And what I really feel that boils down to is as we're all thriving to provide for our families and do something we love and excites us and really can make a difference for our clients. I think we need to never lose sight of what we're doing here. We're living the life and we don't want to be on our death beds with regret. Believing that we were doing what we needed to when we neglected the very thing that we were most excited and passionate about. So yeah, we can definitely come back and revisit that and I'd be happy to. Can you read the quote one more time? No. Success can compensate for failure in the home.
MP: 28:21 Beautiful. That is golden. Well, as much as I'd like to just keep on talking about vacations, taking them to a, we will move on. Um, but I love that quote and that one's going to be a, that one's going up on the website and a, I hope all listener hope you've written that down and please take on the challenge of planning something and doing that. Getting back to business and what we can do. Um, you know, what, what services, you know, you mentioned AI and all these changes that are occurring and you know, yeah, the world is changing fast, but what services should a bookkeeping firm really consider offering?
RK: 29:03 So, um, this is going to be kind of an interesting thing because I'm sure other people have maybe commented or [inaudible] mentioned this before, but as I've attended a number of the accounting conferences in the past, say three to five years, there's been a growing trend. And what it is, is this discussion of how bookkeeping is becoming more commoditized as the various accounting softwares are able to automate the processes that they do. Uh, whether you go to the intuit conference with QBO or whether you're at sage or you're listening to fresh book or zero, all these different software programs are moving more and more towards helping the business owner get their accounting information in time in an easy way so that they can more intelligently run their business. And so it's removing more and more the bookkeeping process of recording the transactions. Now, before I go any further, anybody that's a bookkeeper, please do not be worried.
RK1: 29:57 Your profession is not going away. The need for you is not disappearing. It's just changing and it's changing. Similar to what happened back about 25 years ago when we moved from recording by hand and journals and ledgers and we finally started having access to computers. And Yeah, I'm going back to the years where computers were filling rooms and we were actually dealing with ticker tape. The accounting process went through this evolution where it actually allowed us to go into business and offer the services that we have today. The accounting software is a blessing and it is helping our profession, but to remain relevant with our clients, you're going to need to know what software is most appropriate for them. And I would encourage if you're not already going to these accounting conferences that are available because there's a variety of plugins that further assist the accounting software and many of them are industry specific.
RK: 30:50 But here's the answer to the question you just posed, Michael, where I think it becomes more and more relevant today is that the bookkeeper, they have access to the accounting information of the business in such a way that no one else has. It's like reading a book that you're the only one that has the training to read. I like to refer to accountants and bookkeepers as interpreters and the language of business as accounting. You know the language, the business owner doesn't need to learn the language, but what you do is you translate or interpret the information for them. And so you become more and more vital to the client as you're able to more and more help them understand what the numbers are saying. And so I think for the bookkeeper, really what's going on is many bookkeepers, they don't feel that they have oftentimes the permission or the expertise to advise the client on the trends that they're noticing.
RK: 31:46 And so we here at Universal Accounting Center want to suggest that to become profit and growth experts, literally helping empower the bookkeeper to helping empower the accountant with the tools they need to now become strategic advisors for their clients so that they can now help the clients more understand and use the information from the financials to make more intelligent business decisions. And then the power comes from offering these consultative services. And I really stress these three things. If in your services you're able to emphasize that what you do with your clients is first help them understand accounting. Second, you help improve profit and third, you help them build value within their companies, removing the risks associated. Uh, then you're doing huge services for your clients and you're now standing out from your own competition in your market, in your market. There's going to be a lot of people that may claim to be accountants and bookkeepers, which they perhaps are.
RK: 32:45 But what you're able to say is that you're a bookkeeper, your accountant, and more your story. You're a strategic advisor. We again teach that you need to become a profit and growth expert offering these services where you help your clients understand the accounting, improve their profits and build value in the organization. And so those, those skillsets of being that coach, that, that a consultant, that strategic advisor I think are where the bookkeepers now have opportunities to grow their firms in offering services that bring in additional revenue. I mean, you get paid very well are offering these services because they're more value-based.
MP: 33:28 I absolutely agree in and what I can, what I can almost hear the listener, uh, asking as well. I get all of that, but how do I, how do I start to implement that?
RK: 33:41 Well, there's a number of steps. The first thing is I really think Pure Bookkeeping being in place, that you have the back office structured in a way that the work can get done efficiently and profitably. So we've got to definitely emphasize that as you're growing your practice, you've got to have those systems in place that the work is getting done. Uh, the second thing is, is delegation. You've gotta be willing to delegate the things that you're perhaps not best at or maybe you're really good at it, but because you're the owner of the, of the accounting firm, the bookkeeping firm, you need to be doing other things. And I would suggest be the consultant with your clients. You shouldn't be necessarily the one in the back office recording the transactions or preparing the financials. You need to be reviewing the financials and delivering them and helping the client and understand and interpret them.
RK: 34:28 But the last thing is probably not the most obvious, but I'm going to stress it as being perhaps one of the most important. And it's one of our nine principles that we teach for profitability. And it's the fact that nothing happens until you make a sale. I think what happens is the accounting professionals walked in times get, uh, kind of excited and become placated by the fact that they have a busy practice. And what I would always emphasize is, what are you doing to market and acquire the next client? What are you doing to get the next client? And I always want to ask that because too often I think we get lacks of days ago and the marketing efforts, and we just need to make sure that we are always marketing and growing and there are so many businesses out there that can benefit from our services. It's what are we doing to find them and help them see that there's so much more to be had in bookkeeping than just historical financials. And a, that's kind of a passionate thing that I bring to the profession now is really helping accounting professionals realize that they can be so much more for their clients. They just need to step up their game and become more of accounting professionals.
MP: 35:38 I absolutely love it so much. So much gold. You've given us a, and in this episode Roger and I, I want to have you come back, if you'll accept come back. I think there's probably a dozen things, topics we could probably tackle with your experience, your expertise. I mean you've been at this and you're passionate about doing, doing all of this and I really want to have you come back so we can fully tackle some of these and dive deeper and, and definitely dive deeper into having more vacations. Right. It's been great having you.
RK: 36:09 I, it's an honor. It's a privilege and I appreciate the opportunity. I hope that this has been, as you said, something that everyone's benefited from. I would like to believe everyone's taken some good notes.
MP: 36:19 Yeah, well we're, that speaks to having the notes. We'll have the notes and I definitely want to have you gave, um, some really good, uh, lists like the, the four keys to success with the bonus. We won't forget that and we'll have those in the show notes. But before I let you go, Roger, what, what would be a great next step after listening to this, there are listener wants to get more from you. What do you recommend that they do?
RK: 36:46 So working with a number of accounting firms, one of the things that we do is something like a personality assessment. Um, I don't know if each of you have had the opportunity to do one for yourself. There's disc Myers Briggs color coding, there's a variety of them out there. But what we offer for accounting firms is the ability to do one on their own company. And it's essentially kind of like a SWOT analysis is really identifying what your strengths are as well as, as well as the opportunities in your organization to really kind of improve your business model. And we refer to it as a business score and it's based on the eight drivers that literally determine the value of your business. And these eight drivers are essential in any company, whether it's a new business and old business, a small business or a large business that's irrelevant.
RK: 37:31 It's basically a business score that applies to business. And it's something that I'd like to offer for free, so everyone here with the podcast can go to universal business builder.com and at universal business builder we have a form that you can go through and answer some questions about your company and with that we'll provide a score. It will be an overall score and it will also show the eight drivers that made up that score with basically where it is that you're doing well and what it is that you need to document and a really kind of focus on to make sure it doesn't change because it's working and then where are those areas of opportunity that exist in your company that you could do a little bit better in to improve the value of your business. Whether it be that you're choosing to have an exit strategy years from now selling your business or perhaps go out and get a small business alone or have a line of credit whenever you have a third party entity looking at your business. This business score is what they're looking at, so you might as well have a chance to look at it yourself before anyone else does and we're offering you this opportunity for free to go to universal business.com and
RK: 38:36 take that a quick questionnaire and we'll send you the results of that as well.
MP: 38:42 Thank you so much Roger, and we will have that link in the show notes as well for the listener.
RK: 38:51 Perfect. Hey, thank you, Michael. I appreciate this opportunity MP: 38:59 That wraps another episode of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. To learn more about today's wonderful guest and to get access to all sorts of valuable free business-building resources, you can go to Thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com until next time, goodbye.
