What do I even CHARGE for this? Moving away from HOURLY billing [7.7.26]

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I'm driving this one.
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Dan, as he said, gets to be a passenger princess so he doesn't have to do all the work, and- As you've noticed, we are trying to give you guys a lot more content than just QuickBooks.
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So I mean, this is a- All right this is a topic that I think is very pertinent for for our industry.
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Uh, you know, what do- Our hourly what do we charge, right?
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I mean, this whole-
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Yep
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idea-
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You just jump straight through.
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Yeah.
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Here's our sponsors.
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Click those, get some stuff.
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Um- If I also just created a full course based on what we're talking about in my community with templates, how-tos, instruction, everything if you wanted it.
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And, of course, Dan, Dan got you on anything Intuit.
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All right, now let's talk about it.
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Well, I mean, when I left Intuit- Uh-huh you know, going from an employee making an hourly wage and not really concerned about the nature of the conversations that I'm having with, with people, to me it made no difference.
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Mm-hmm.
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You know?
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And, and, and I didn't get the luxury of saying no to answers- No you know, when somebody calls and- Did any of us?
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Yeah.
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So when I left, I was like,"Well, what, what do I charge," right?
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Mm-hmm.
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And, you know, going from an hourly type of employee to an entrepreneur or, you know, business owner, at, at that point, that was a huge question for- Mm-hmm for me.
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What was your findings as you were growing your-
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Sa-
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your business?
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Same thing.
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I mean, when I first started, I I'm gonna date myself, but I- found my...
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Well, my original clients that I had, if anybody's read my book, um, were all from my current op- the operations facility that was going out of business and/or being sold.
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I took on them.
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But as I grew, I would go to Craigslist, and I would look up ads for people looking for a bookkeeper, people looking for an office manager part-time, a few hours a week.
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And I charged, when I first started I think I was 20 bucks an hour, because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, Dan.
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I really didn't.
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I mean, I, I knew enough to be worth$20 an hour, which back in 2006 was actually pretty dang good.
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Then I went up to 25 when I knew, when I was like,"Okay, I know what I'm doing." But yeah, hourly.
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Hourly, right?
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It's, that's what we did because you went in the office, you got in there at this time, you left at this time, I pay you for those three hours.
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So, yes.
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Yeah.
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Absolutely.
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So I'm curious, and I just put it in the, in the chat there, you know, how did you first decide what to charge your clients?
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Did you, did you crowdsource, right?
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Did you, did you go to Craigslist, look what other people were charging?
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Yep.
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Or did you- Or what they're asking for did you have a mentor- Research that would, uh- Yeah you know, des- uh, de- Uh, provide guidance as to- Yep as to what to charge?
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I'm, I'm really curious- uh, what the, what the-
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Carol, for decades?
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You've gotta be only at least 42.
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So- Carol started at two years old.
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Out of the womb she started charging-
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Yeah
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hourly.
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The hourly mom.
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Yes, but that's what we do, right?
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And that's what our clients were, especially, I think, prior to, uh, really a lot prior to COVID or prior to being in an office.
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We were very hourly.
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And, uh, I got off of hourly, I think, after about eight...
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I was like,"Nope, we're going, we're going to scope." but I wa- I did that after I realized that I was punishing myself, like what we've said right here.
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So in the beginning, what took me five hours to do, after four or five years only took me an hour.
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And I realized I'd go into these offices and get the same...
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Well, no, I didn't go into offices.
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I only did offices for probably my first year, and then I was like,"Nope, we're all remote." But I'd, I'd get the work done, and I was like,"This sucks." What took me five hours, I was making 125, I now make$25 for.
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But the work, the end product is the same.
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And so that's when I, I realized, okay, I need to switch all my clients to a monthly flat fee is what I did at the time, and I think that was around 2000 and...
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I started my first company in 2006.
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I think by 2011 everybody was a monthly flat fee.
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And I would say,"Okay, this is what you pay me monthly.
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This is just how much it is." And that was almost, it was an adjustment.
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They're like,"But wait." I'm like,"You'but wait.'" Um, but
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it allowed me to be efficient.
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Yeah,'cause it's a penalty.
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Like the, what, what you're saying on this slide here is that as you become more- Yep efficient and as we are in this state of affairs where technology is giving, is allowing you to become more efficient in, in doing the, the day-to-day work or the work that you are doing- Mm-hmm it's a penalty.
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Uh, like your, your, your, it, by, by relying on the time it takes, then, you know, you're ultimately hurting yourself by, by charging-
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Absolutely
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hourly.
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You're punishing yourself for being an expert and being efficient at what you do.
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The better you get, the more you're punishing yourself, and it's not fair to you.
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I know we all, when we first start, I get it, it makes sense, and I try to work with people that are...
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When they first start I'm like,"Nope, don't first start that way," because then what happens is you've gotta train your clients later on, and nobody...
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Training...
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New clients are easy once you have the confidence.
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Training and updating the old clients is the hardest part.
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Yeah.
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And of course you have relationships, so they feel, they feel like you owe them.
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So you can't it's harder.
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They're like,"But I've been here so we- you were only$10." Like, yes, so you should respect the fact that I did all this for you, and now we gotta get here, right?
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And, and I think that- Yeah that is the hardest part.
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So- I- I- when it comes to that selling, right, we have to quit think of it...
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I, I just taught this last week.
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Amy, I see Amy's on here.
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She was on it.
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I did this in my community last week.
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But it's, to me, it's a mindset, and it's a confidence thing.
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When we first start, we don't have a lot of confidence.
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This is our own company.
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I just need to pay my bills.
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I don't even care.
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At this point, if somebody walks up to me with a$20 bill, I'm probably gonna do it because that$20 pays my something, right?
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Not these days, but gives you two do- gallons of gas.
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But that's how we started, is we just had to make money.
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But then as we get going, we're like,"Uh-oh, now I'm in trouble.
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Now I'm taking on 25, 30, 40 clients, and all these people are coming at me, and I have to log all this time," and you can't be efficient.
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So y- you...
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here's a little bit of, you know, when you're hourly, you're selling your time.
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When it's fixed, it's deliverable.
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When it's value, it's an outcome.
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And somebody mentioned Ron Baker does have his value-based pricing.
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I, it depending...
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It, to me, there's no wrong way except for hourly.
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I hear relationship pricing, fixed pricing, value pricing.
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Honestly, to me, it's all kind of it's one set and this is what you're gonna get.
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My last company that I had was very it was scope here.
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But it's ca- it, all of our, um, clients were cash basis, and they would go in and we'd say,"Here is what we will do.
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Here is how we weigh it," and everything we did was completely measurable.
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"Here is what it costs you." And- Mm-hmm.
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Yeah they didn't ask us,"How long does it take?" You know?
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We did track hours internally.
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But that's so we can make sure that the health of the client was okay and that we weren't going out of scope.
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It just, you, we did that internally.
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Not everybody does that.
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But we, that's how we did it.
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And I'm telling you- Yeah my, my first company, Dan, was, um, we did, we were fractional controller and CFO services, and we did software as a service.
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And we had, um, we only had, like, 35 clients, but very high-value clients, like 5 to 8,000 a month.
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It, my net profit on that was, like, 26% versus my last company that I just sold.
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The net profit was 46% because we were so efficient and scope based.
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Mm-hmm.
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So anyhow- Yeah, and- What do you...
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You, right now, how do you do it?
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What have you...
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I know you don't do accounting anymore,
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but- Yeah, well, most,, uh, clients or my, the people that I work with are project based, right?
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So I'm still trying to, you know, find my lane, between hourly and and, and the value.
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But you know, what I'm, what I'm understanding over, over the course of, you know, having some of these conversations is that- That people will value what they feel and not necessarily the, a, a deliverable, right?
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Like great- Yeah you're, you're giving me these, uh, the, these financial reports and, and, telling me how to decipher them so that I can make, informed decisions based off of that.
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But what is that really getting me, right?
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Like, the, it's, it's giving me confidence.
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It's giving me peace of mind.
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It's giving me, whatever that emotional attachment is to, to the outcome.
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So when when we're talking about, things taking really quickly, like I, I mean, I was immediately thinking about data migrations from, from desktop to online.
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The, the actual process of doing that is really just a few clicks, right?
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Mm-hmm.
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It, it, it doesn't take a whole lot to actually do the m- the migration.
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It's the what happens afterwards, right?
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Like, how-
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Yeah
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how well did that come, you know, reading the tea leaves after that.
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Yes.
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And that comes from, you know, the experience of doing it- Ex- absolutely over and over and over again, right?
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Yep.
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S- so, yeah.
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And that's what's important.
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And then I, I, I feel that our clients shouldn't be punished when we make a mistake, right?
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And if we're charging hourly, I don't know.
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I, when we charge hourly, I feel like we would get, you'd get scrutinized more.
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"Well, what'd you do in that hour?
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What exactly did you do?" Yeah.
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And I'm like,"How dare you?" Especially if you're on site with somebody.
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Uh,
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yes.
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Yes.
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"Well,
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you stopped out, you stepped outside to take a phone call." I'm like,"Give me a break." but when it's deliverable or this is what I'm doing for you, then I can just say,"Did this get done?
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Here it is.
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This is what it is." And when we switched out of hourly and switched into that, we stopped having those conversations.
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And I did see someone ask, just you guys, if if there's anything that you want Dan or I to really...
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Uh, like, the chat is awesome.
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Have a chat amongst yourselves.
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We look at it, we definitely try to look at it, but since it scrolls, if there's something you really want answered d- go to the Q&A and throw the question in and we will, we make sure we hit every one of those.
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I just don't wanna miss anything.
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I did see something that says, from Pauline,"How do you include phone, text, and email conversations?" The answer is I don't.
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I always use Client Hub, and they have to communicate to us in one spot because allowing them to communicate with me everywhere is not scalable.
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I can't tag it, I can't track it, I can't keep them in scope.
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It allows me to keep them just in one place and assign tasks.
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So and then definitely with the, the time estimate, I put together a whole worksheet on that that tells you how to back into what the actual time is, and it's the same model I used for my own company to...
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'cause when we, when we re-scoped and tried to decide what are we repackaging.
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So yeah.
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A- and then I would love to see what are you guys doing right now?
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Uh, just throw in chat.
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H- our, our...
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I didn't do any questionnaires on this.
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I probably should have, but I didn't.
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So Dan's way more thorough in that way.
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Um- I'd like to see your...
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How are you guys, how are most of us, you guys doing it?
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Are some of you still hourly?
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Fixed value?
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What do you do?
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Dan can answer in that one.
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There's one about the Q at B- Yeah I'll let you answer that.
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Oh, I...
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So let's get...
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I think I've gotten here.
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So let's really quick talk about how you set.
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This kind of gets backs into how you get out of hourly.
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And find your floor, and what your floor is, that's your true cost, your time, your software.
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What does it actually cost you?
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And what I usually tell people is set, give yourself a basic hourly rate.
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I know we're talking about not hourly, but we're accountants and we have to back into things, and we back into things with math.
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So- Find, find yourself an hourly rate.
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For our, um, I think for our last client we set it, or our la- my last company, I think we set it 150.
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That's our basic hourly floor rate, whatever.
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And then what we would do is we would write out the scope of what everything is, and every single thing we did was measureables.
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For example, um, if they were, if they were...
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Most of our clients would pay, don't, nobody come for me, but this was our business model.
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They paid 5.99 a month.
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This got them quarterly financials, reconciliation, whatever, one a- um, annual personal tax return and one annual business tax return.
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And because we're handling the books, it made it very easy.
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And then our monthly for the books was, um, we did up to three accounts that we reconciled, whatever, and there could be up to 200 transactions.
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And then on top of that we'd add more for more bank accounts, more for more transactions.
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But everything was extremely measurable, and we were able to scope that out.
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And then I was able to back into what that time took, and essentially what it was, is it was three hours a quarter for the accounting or one hour a month.
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And so when you, you know, we were, I think we backed out 150 a month for tax.
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So what it came down to is we had a really, we, again, we had a really n- high net profit.
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So we're making, what, six...
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We're making 450 a month and it cost was, we essentially, 150, but then you, you know, what we were paying.
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So-
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Mm-hmm
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scope is important.
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Even in value, I still think there's scope.
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You still gotta...
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'Cause if you tell someone,"Hey, I'm gonna do all your AP," well, what does that mean?
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You have to be able to have that.
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And then a- anchor to the outcome, right?
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This is where it's important.
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Um, what is the outcome?
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What are they doing?
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This is what the client needs to know.
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When our clients come to us, they, they're panicked.
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They don't like accounting.
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They don't like what they're...
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They don't wanna do any of this.
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So if you anchor to the outcome,"I am gonna solve this for you.
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You never have to think about it again.
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I will deliver this on your plate for X." Great.
00:14:46.121 --> 00:14:46.591
Done.
00:14:46.621 --> 00:14:53.572
And I always try to s- rem- get, get us in our mindset that, remember, our clients don't know this and it scares them.
00:14:53.711 --> 00:14:57.711
So any- anyhow, thoughts on that, Dan?
00:14:57.741 --> 00:14:58.751
How, how you feeling?
00:14:59.951 --> 00:15:09.902
Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, I'm, I'm seeing people in the, in, in the chat, and I think, I, I think maybe some, some framing as f- as far as, like, what is it that you, that you're pricing here, right?
00:15:09.902 --> 00:15:19.889
Because, you know, s- You could, you could be, you know, fractional CFOs type, type of stuff versus, you know, the, the, the monthly bookkeeping and tax, right?
00:15:19.889 --> 00:15:27.340
So I guess the, the, the process is the same, you know, regardless of, of what service that you're, that you're offering.
00:15:27.799 --> 00:15:37.100
Um- Yeah but yes you know, Carol had a g- had a great comment that, you know, she didn't understand what to charge until she did it a couple times.
00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:38.309
Uh- Yep, a- and you don't
00:15:38.309 --> 00:15:38.600
with- That's normal you
00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:42.389
know, there, there is an educational cost that you're gonna have.
00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:48.600
"Hey, I'm, I'm gonna need to learn a new tool," or, you know, maybe, you know, try s- try something a little bit differently.
00:15:48.629 --> 00:15:54.240
That's gonna take time you know, that, that you may wanna bake in bake in with that.
00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:55.820
Absolutely.
00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:56.970
I, I agree.
00:15:56.990 --> 00:15:59.850
And but that's, that's all part of doing business, right?
00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:00.379
We all learn.
00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:01.090
We live and we learn.
00:16:01.370 --> 00:16:13.200
And that's why I was saying I also, there's been many a times where I'm working on things, and I'm like,"Oh, I did that completely wrong." And then the client knows you did it wrong, or they call it out, and then they start questioning everything you've done'cause they're paying you hourly.
00:16:13.259 --> 00:16:14.259
They're like,"Well, what have you done?
00:16:14.269 --> 00:16:30.009
Do I need credits back?" And you're like,"Ugh, if I had just told you this, I would've lived, I would've learned." And a- again, it just brings more value, I think, in the long run, and it shows more confidence in your pricing, which is important in our industry.
00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:30.570
Yeah.
00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:32.879
Like I said, hourly just is really-
00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:41.129
I, I, I do have a- a pain in the business I do have a question or, or a comment for- Yeah You know, for what you had there, like the, the, the scope part of it, you know?
00:16:41.129 --> 00:16:41.389
You go back, back.
00:16:41.389 --> 00:16:43.149
Like, where you, where you're scoping it in there.
00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:48.259
You know, that is your, your guidance, right?
00:16:48.269 --> 00:16:54.009
A- and a- Mm-hmm to understand, like, w- when somebody is driving outside of their lane or not, right?
00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:58.039
Like, they're texting you, and that's not part of your engagement or something like that.
00:16:58.039 --> 00:16:58.379
Yep.
00:16:59.279 --> 00:16:59.590
Yep.
00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:13.099
When you, when you have to bring up those conversations, like,"Hey," you know, like, do you, do you take g- good cop, bad cop you know, rou- roundtrip, uh, you know conversation with, with a client?
00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:15.730
Or, like, that I think is where a lot of people...
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:32.740
And, and, um, you know, Devora was asking in the Q&A, like, how do you switch this from- Yeah billing hourly to you know, some kind of subscription- Yeah or, or outcome, uh, and have those conversations, w- the tough conversations that we may or may not want, wanna have, uh
00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:33.650
Do you...
00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:34.279
Can I...
00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:39.480
What I've done with mine is I told them we went to fixed because I felt it was fair for my clients.
00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:41.089
It was fair for everybody.
00:17:41.369 --> 00:17:43.690
I would tell them I'm an extremely efficient person.
00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:45.450
I wanna be able to do a lot of things.
00:17:45.819 --> 00:17:48.180
And by me billing hourly, it's inefficient.
00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:51.960
Um, and also, I, uh I can't remember.
00:17:51.990 --> 00:17:58.640
I, I, I have a script that I, I didn't say, but I do have a script of what I used back in the day when I told people, and it worked.
00:17:58.849 --> 00:18:12.619
And when we switched those ones off of hourly into fixed fee, somebody else said,"I'd be afraid I'm gonna lose them." So here's the thing, is when you get on a fixed fee- You should, th- there might be a little bit of an increase of some sort.
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:17.996
At least there'll be an increase because Let me take one more step back.
00:18:17.996 --> 00:18:19.776
Sorry, I'm, I'm thinking through this in my head.
00:18:19.786 --> 00:18:22.945
So what I did for my clients of the work that I was doing, right?
00:18:22.945 --> 00:18:24.726
So I took a full year of those clients.
00:18:25.046 --> 00:18:28.685
I averaged their, their monthly whatever.
00:18:28.685 --> 00:18:30.796
I averaged it, and I'm like,"Okay, cool.
00:18:30.796 --> 00:18:34.016
So this averages out to$800 a month," is what they're paying.
00:18:34.016 --> 00:18:34.766
A little bit less.
00:18:35.195 --> 00:18:39.695
And then I took that$800 and I backed into what everything was.
00:18:40.006 --> 00:18:43.695
That allowed me to get on a, a fixed fee for them, and I'm like,"Look, we just took an average.
00:18:43.695 --> 00:18:44.566
This is what you're paying anyways.
00:18:44.566 --> 00:18:48.766
We put them in there." And then I was able to become efficient, do more things.
00:18:48.806 --> 00:18:57.056
I actually, even from just averaging, it was a good starting point for my current clients to get them into that one amount.
00:18:57.326 --> 00:19:00.615
Now I'm not having to stop and log time, stop and log time, invoice them.
00:19:00.615 --> 00:19:05.046
I've actually probably just saved a good hour plus of my own time- Yeah that is now billable.
00:19:05.276 --> 00:19:06.056
I'm like,"Okay, cool." Busy work.
00:19:06.056 --> 00:19:08.205
"So I got 150 bucks back," right?
00:19:08.205 --> 00:19:08.476
Yeah.
00:19:08.726 --> 00:19:12.685
And then from there it was easy to add to and to adjust moving forward.
00:19:12.806 --> 00:19:14.615
So that's how I, I did mine.
00:19:14.615 --> 00:19:20.365
I literally dubbed all of my invoices for the year, did an average at the end, and then build into the scope.
00:19:20.556 --> 00:19:22.215
That's how I did my past ones.
00:19:22.445 --> 00:19:24.625
Moving forward, I took that amount.
00:19:24.945 --> 00:19:35.496
I did market research, c- um, a competitive analysis of my market to see what other people were charging, because sometimes my clients would be like,"Well, I'm gonna go check out so-and-so." I'm like,"Great.
00:19:35.715 --> 00:19:40.455
Here are three people that I suggest that I really like that I think you should go get quotes from.
00:19:40.786 --> 00:19:43.726
And some are lower, some are higher, but I want...
00:19:43.796 --> 00:19:47.895
You know, here you go." But I also made sure that I laid out what they're getting with me.
00:19:47.905 --> 00:19:49.476
You get this personal relationship.
00:19:49.476 --> 00:19:50.355
I know you.
00:19:50.736 --> 00:19:53.536
Um, there's a learning curve with anybody.
00:19:53.576 --> 00:19:54.935
I'm guaranteeing this.
00:19:54.955 --> 00:20:00.816
And I think of all my clients, when I first switched them from hourly to fixed, I didn't lose any.
00:20:01.445 --> 00:20:01.986
None.
00:20:02.026 --> 00:20:04.226
Not a single one, because it was done correctly.
00:20:04.226 --> 00:20:07.316
It's not one of those rip the Band-Aid, because these are still our clients.
00:20:07.766 --> 00:20:11.905
I, um, like to think that when we have access to their books, we know them personally.
00:20:11.905 --> 00:20:12.105
I...
00:20:12.445 --> 00:20:13.125
Amy was on...
00:20:13.145 --> 00:20:15.445
Again, I'm, I may call out Amy just'cause her name's in front of me.
00:20:15.766 --> 00:20:20.185
But last week when I was t- teaching this, um, we know these people personally.
00:20:20.486 --> 00:20:22.115
We see their transactions.
00:20:22.336 --> 00:20:24.375
We know where their money's going.
00:20:24.605 --> 00:20:25.786
We know how they're doing.
00:20:25.786 --> 00:20:28.365
And when you can read somebody's financials, I...
00:20:28.375 --> 00:20:32.605
To me, it's like how computers look at us with zero, one, one, zero, one, one.
00:20:32.816 --> 00:20:42.165
When I can read financials of a company and a person, I'm like,"I know you." so we have that kind of bond that's maybe one way, like our bond to them.
00:20:42.976 --> 00:20:44.615
But just remember that and treat it like that.
00:20:44.645 --> 00:20:46.415
Like, there...
00:20:46.796 --> 00:20:47.276
Everybody's...
00:20:47.316 --> 00:20:54.945
Most people are gonna push back because nobody wants to spend more money, but as long as you know you're worth it and you're ready- Yeah even if you have a little script, you're ready.
00:20:54.986 --> 00:20:58.496
So the pain in the ass fee, go ahead, Dan, I wanna see you.
00:20:58.806 --> 00:21:01.746
I, I see that Dan wants- Well, I think we're getting- to answer that live.
00:21:02.086 --> 00:21:09.506
Well, when we get, when we get to where you're, you're, you're, you're pricing your, your things you, you talk about it- Yeah from the bottom up.
00:21:09.506 --> 00:21:10.246
So I, I wanna-
00:21:10.405 --> 00:21:10.576
Yeah
00:21:10.605 --> 00:21:11.526
I wanna get to that slide.
00:21:11.816 --> 00:21:13.615
I wanna address that when you get to that slide.
00:21:14.028 --> 00:21:18.788
About how you, um- Absolutely how you might, how you might wanna price a, a, a pita.
00:21:19.528 --> 00:21:20.307
We gotcha.
00:21:20.657 --> 00:21:21.758
We gotcha, Sandra.
00:21:21.768 --> 00:21:21.887
We're...
00:21:21.988 --> 00:21:22.198
Those...
00:21:22.208 --> 00:21:23.817
That's our favorite conversation.
00:21:23.907 --> 00:21:24.278
Okay.
00:21:24.407 --> 00:21:27.288
So of course, here's, uh, slides are here.
00:21:27.288 --> 00:21:28.218
You have the handouts.
00:21:28.228 --> 00:21:31.627
Take pictures if you want, but these are really just kind of to help you.
00:21:31.637 --> 00:21:37.827
So you just, again, you don't wanna, you don't wanna quote the mess blind.
00:21:37.827 --> 00:21:41.258
So it's good to have a diagnostic fee if you can.
00:21:41.258 --> 00:21:53.397
If you're gonna go in and do someone's cleanup, if you're just gonna look for yourself, typically you're gonna go back to them and go,"I would do this." Well, I feel better about it when I'm like,"Hey, I'm gonna charge you 250 bucks to go in, do a diagnostic," whatever.
00:21:53.627 --> 00:22:00.907
"I'm gonna give you exactly what needs to be done, and you can then take my quote to 500 people if you want and, and get somebody else to quote- Yeah off of you," right?
00:22:01.367 --> 00:22:04.708
And then you can create, and Claude can help you with this.
00:22:04.708 --> 00:22:09.407
You can get all of your,"Here's what I would do," make him put it into a beautiful presentation for you and send it off.
00:22:09.428 --> 00:22:10.048
Or Anchor.
00:22:10.048 --> 00:22:11.258
Anchor is great like that.
00:22:11.637 --> 00:22:15.518
Um- Mm-hmm but when they have that diagnostic, they're like,"This is exactly what needs to be done.
00:22:15.897 --> 00:22:20.298
Here is my proposal on what I would do it," but this is your diagnostic that you own anyway.
00:22:20.307 --> 00:22:21.188
But this allows you to...
00:22:21.258 --> 00:22:23.528
You're not not being paid for your work.
00:22:23.538 --> 00:22:24.057
Mm-hmm.
00:22:24.057 --> 00:22:37.057
Somebody's gonna do this somewhere, and they're also respecting you as an expert, that you're going in to be like,"I'm not getting in your books and digging through your books and then telling you what needs to be done for you to go quote me out elsewhere," right?
00:22:37.057 --> 00:22:37.067
Right.
00:22:37.067 --> 00:22:40.218
And I think that's something that a lot about a lot of us...
00:22:40.218 --> 00:22:43.428
Look, Carol did, Oh, that was a big one.
00:22:43.768 --> 00:22:53.258
The dia- so you guys, just so you know, when I'm referring to a lot of this stuff, I'm referring to my previous company, which, as I mentioned, was very cash-basis, very simple.
00:22:53.468 --> 00:23:00.678
So when I'm talking these low numbers, I don't want everybody to be like,"She undercharged." These clients were, like I said, an hour a month accounting stuff.
00:23:00.917 --> 00:23:04.557
So 250 for us was actually pretty good for that, but-
00:23:04.597 --> 00:23:08.577
I mean, I mean, what, what you're talking about- Quote accordingly with a, with a, with a diagnostic, right?
00:23:08.607 --> 00:23:15.407
Like anything that- Mm-hmm is upfront conversation, you know, is- Yep is a, is a gray area, right?
00:23:15.438 --> 00:23:19.448
Like, you know- Yeah offering free consultations is the same thing, right?
00:23:19.468 --> 00:23:27.647
Like I had one yesterday- Yeah that wanted to meet for 15 minutes, and put something on my calendar, and 10 minutes in, no-show.
00:23:28.067 --> 00:23:32.867
And, It was an interruption to my day and my workflows- Yeah of, of doing that.
00:23:32.867 --> 00:23:33.317
Yeah.
00:23:33.788 --> 00:23:45.748
You know, so of course the thought came to me as like,"Well, I should probably charge for free consultations and apply that, you know, towards, you know- Yeah an ongoing thing where- Yeah you know, they get some skin in the game," because it was all just flippant.
00:23:45.748 --> 00:24:03.571
"Oh, something came up." A- and like, well, if you're not gonna value my time in- enough to- Show up for a meeting that's, doesn't cost you anything, then- Yeah you know, that tells me the future of our, of our working relationship too
00:24:03.721 --> 00:24:04.142
Yeah.
00:24:04.142 --> 00:24:04.451
Yeah.
00:24:04.451 --> 00:24:04.892
I agree.
00:24:04.892 --> 00:24:07.801
I've had somebody throw time on my calendar twice and no-show twice.
00:24:07.801 --> 00:24:12.612
I wrote back and go,"Hey, just so you know, you've no-showed me twice." I would love to help you.
00:24:12.612 --> 00:24:24.271
It sounds like you need help, but from here forward, I'm gonna have to charge you a deposit of$500 for our next call, and then we can put it towards whatever, because I just, the, y- you've cost me time that other people- Yeah could have been on my calendar.
00:24:24.271 --> 00:24:25.692
And it is, it is really rude.
00:24:26.051 --> 00:24:27.942
And I know he knew about it,'cause I sent...
00:24:27.951 --> 00:24:29.791
The reminders go out, right?
00:24:29.801 --> 00:24:29.961
Mm-hmm.
00:24:29.961 --> 00:24:32.352
So it's just, don't be rude like that.
00:24:32.352 --> 00:24:39.352
But yeah- Yeah I mean, we have to be, as accountants, I think we all, we are captains save the world.
00:24:39.382 --> 00:24:39.961
There we go.
00:24:40.162 --> 00:24:40.981
We wanna help.
00:24:41.132 --> 00:24:44.342
I mean, any of us that you talk to and we sit down, we just wanna help our clients.
00:24:44.342 --> 00:24:48.132
We're like,"Oh, I just, there's this one old guy, and he..." I hear this all the time.
00:24:48.132 --> 00:24:53.112
"He's so old, and I just feel bad for him." I get it, but what about you?
00:24:53.211 --> 00:24:57.672
Like you know, I mean, we all have, I call it, we all have our one charity case.
00:24:57.692 --> 00:25:01.771
We all have our one, we're like,"We will, I will never stop doing things for this person,"'cause they love.
00:25:01.781 --> 00:25:03.561
But try to just give yourself the one.
00:25:03.571 --> 00:25:03.602
Mm-hmm.
00:25:04.061 --> 00:25:06.491
The rest of them- you're in their books.
00:25:06.571 --> 00:25:06.961
You, you can't
00:25:06.961 --> 00:25:07.096
save the world.
00:25:07.096 --> 00:25:08.311
You know they got money.
00:25:08.311 --> 00:25:08.521
Yeah.
00:25:08.521 --> 00:25:08.922
Yeah.
00:25:08.922 --> 00:25:10.172
You're like,"I know what you've got.
00:25:10.192 --> 00:25:11.321
Don't lie to me, buddy.
00:25:11.321 --> 00:25:18.721
I know what you're spending money on." Like, if you can't give it to me, the person that sees it, then, you don't respect what I do, and I deserve better.
00:25:19.241 --> 00:25:21.862
And again, it's just like a, it's definitely a mindset.
00:25:21.912 --> 00:25:29.142
Uh, we, in our mind, I think it's that imposter syndrome that there's 108 people on here that do what I do.
00:25:29.152 --> 00:25:30.362
Somebody else is gonna get it.
00:25:30.362 --> 00:25:31.142
It's not true.
00:25:31.182 --> 00:25:39.521
I mean, all of, of all of us on here, none of us likely have ever battled over the same client or- Right you know, send out proposals, ever.
00:25:39.541 --> 00:25:41.922
There's death and taxes, man.
00:25:42.112 --> 00:25:44.451
Our- our industry is going nowhere.
00:25:44.451 --> 00:25:45.652
I don't care what AI says.
00:25:45.652 --> 00:25:46.922
We talked about this last week.
00:25:46.922 --> 00:25:47.991
I don't care what it says.
00:25:48.001 --> 00:25:50.291
We're going, we're going nowhere.
00:25:50.481 --> 00:25:53.082
I mean, unless the IRS goes under, but they wouldn't do that.
00:25:53.122 --> 00:25:53.872
They need our money.
00:25:53.922 --> 00:25:54.451
So-
00:25:54.531 --> 00:25:54.791
Right
00:25:54.971 --> 00:25:55.531
yes.
00:25:56.092 --> 00:25:59.932
That was a big ran- you know, that's a total Sharrin derail rant.
00:25:59.942 --> 00:26:01.201
So yeah.
00:26:01.201 --> 00:26:03.761
D- definitely always do a paid diagnostic.
00:26:03.771 --> 00:26:07.811
It shifts the, it sets the bar right at the beginning that you don't work for free.
00:26:07.832 --> 00:26:07.862
Yeah.
00:26:08.192 --> 00:26:10.801
And- Right I know what I'm doing, and I am the
00:26:10.801 --> 00:26:10.862
expert.
00:26:10.862 --> 00:26:12.652
And you're gonna give them something, right?
00:26:12.912 --> 00:26:13.152
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:13.152 --> 00:26:18.731
They're, they're, they're gonna get something for that if they decide not to, you know, move it forward.
00:26:18.791 --> 00:26:18.811
Yeah.
00:26:19.602 --> 00:26:21.961
And then, and then you, you feel whole, right?
00:26:21.961 --> 00:26:26.582
That- Yeah you know, you didn't give give away the, the farm for free.
00:26:27.352 --> 00:26:32.082
Um, but- Absolutely But then you can apply that towards your, towards your scope.
00:26:32.951 --> 00:26:33.321
Yeah.
00:26:33.321 --> 00:26:40.662
And you, and honestly, I think nothing makes me feel better than when I give somebody a beautiful diagnostic and it's all pretty.
00:26:40.662 --> 00:26:42.902
Like, I'm like,"Look how pretty this is.
00:26:42.902 --> 00:26:44.511
There's no way they can't hire me.
00:26:44.511 --> 00:26:48.211
It's so pretty." And then they'll go shop around and hire somebody for$100 less.
00:26:48.241 --> 00:26:49.521
They'll usually end up back.
00:26:50.672 --> 00:26:52.162
Uh, but honestly- Yeah, and, and now- if it goes somewhere for$100 less- and now we're
00:26:53.082 --> 00:26:55.271
seeing- please well, I can hire somebody on Fiverr.
00:26:55.352 --> 00:26:56.021
I can-
00:26:56.332 --> 00:26:56.541
Yeah, you
00:26:56.541 --> 00:27:05.071
should uh, I can have c- I can talk to Claude about this or, you know- Yeah now, now I think that that's gonna be the common answer is like,"Why can't I, why can't AI do this for me?"
00:27:05.733 --> 00:27:06.423
Yeah, it can.
00:27:06.433 --> 00:27:07.023
Go for it.
00:27:07.273 --> 00:27:07.294
Yeah.
00:27:07.304 --> 00:27:20.983
Absolutely go for it, but when it messes you up and when it doesn't have the correct answer, because AI's only what you feed into it, and it will make up things, you go ahead and give me a call back, and my fix-it fee is three times the cost of what I would've normally charged you.
00:27:20.993 --> 00:27:21.804
Like, just so you know.
00:27:23.354 --> 00:27:25.163
Oh, Jessica, we will get you...
00:27:25.183 --> 00:27:27.493
I will- Maybe, there we go, Dan.
00:27:27.493 --> 00:27:28.094
That's a clone and conquer thing.
00:27:28.094 --> 00:27:28.844
I'm gonna add, um- Isn't it?
00:27:28.884 --> 00:27:30.134
That is a clone and conquer.
00:27:30.163 --> 00:27:34.673
How about I'm gonna build a course in my community for how to do a proper diagnostic.
00:27:34.673 --> 00:27:36.183
I will, I'll get that going.
00:27:36.183 --> 00:27:38.233
I owe, I owe a lot of content this week.
00:27:38.233 --> 00:27:39.614
Amy's waiting for content on me.
00:27:39.653 --> 00:27:41.743
I owe a lot of checklists, but I'm...
00:27:42.183 --> 00:27:43.064
I love that stuff.
00:27:43.584 --> 00:27:45.983
So also, the best thing to do is phase the work.
00:27:48.023 --> 00:27:53.824
Uh, when you go to someone, you're like,"Hey, here's all of this," k- keep in mind, we're, we're all smart, right?
00:27:53.824 --> 00:27:55.584
We're all, we're all freaking geniuses.
00:27:55.584 --> 00:27:56.314
I mean, hello.
00:27:56.574 --> 00:27:57.134
Hello.
00:27:57.483 --> 00:28:00.433
Um, so in our head, this is easy.
00:28:00.523 --> 00:28:05.163
So I always like to keep somebody on my team that doesn't speak account-ese, accounting-ese.
00:28:05.183 --> 00:28:06.273
Like, they don't get it.
00:28:06.683 --> 00:28:13.973
To me, I think that makes sense, because you have somebody who doesn't know what, what you're saying, and can help the clients.
00:28:13.973 --> 00:28:14.943
Like, they can dig in.
00:28:14.943 --> 00:28:21.094
They're like,"I don't get this." So when you're dealing with your clients and you're putting this in, just remember they don't speak your language.
00:28:21.614 --> 00:28:30.953
So it's good to go phase o- so if you give them everything, they're like,"Okay, cool, so you can do that in a week, right?" And you're like,"Ah, no." So it's good to give phases, and I always underpromise, overdeliver.
00:28:30.963 --> 00:28:32.723
This will take 30 to 60 days.
00:28:32.723 --> 00:28:34.384
Hey, I got it to you in 30.
00:28:34.403 --> 00:28:35.003
I'm awesome.
00:28:35.003 --> 00:28:35.743
This will take this.
00:28:35.743 --> 00:28:36.473
I got it to you in this.
00:28:36.723 --> 00:28:38.243
But I usually only do that in cleanup.
00:28:38.243 --> 00:28:40.564
I don't do that in my monthly and my fixed fee.
00:28:40.763 --> 00:28:47.604
If I tell you you're gonna get your close, again, this is where you set yourself as an expert, you get paid correctly.
00:28:47.794 --> 00:29:03.003
When I say you're gonna get your financials on the 20th, if I get their financials done on the 10th and they don't pay me for the 10th, I actually put it into Client Hub and I schedule it to send to them, to push to them on the 20th, like, at 12:01 AM on the 20th.
00:29:03.814 --> 00:29:04.384
It's done.
00:29:04.384 --> 00:29:06.574
It's off of my to-do list, and they got it on their thing.
00:29:06.574 --> 00:29:07.943
So that's another thing.
00:29:07.943 --> 00:29:23.814
Phase your work, and it also makes it easier swallow in the phase for the client to be able to go,"Look, I'm charging five grand for this, but it's 1250, 1250, you know, 2500." And that's easier for them than, you know, five grand up front, for some of them, so.
00:29:25.574 --> 00:29:27.473
Dan, I'm pausing for interjection
00:29:27.493 --> 00:29:27.653
Oh.
00:29:28.884 --> 00:29:29.953
Sorry, I was answering, uh...
00:29:29.973 --> 00:29:33.334
I was, I was, uh, plugging you in the, in the chat, so- Oh, you
00:29:33.334 --> 00:29:33.894
were
00:29:34.743 --> 00:29:35.074
So
00:29:36.054 --> 00:29:38.453
so- Aimee, I have a response from a client of the day.
00:29:38.453 --> 00:29:41.544
I was actually gonna cut and paste and send it to you so you know I'm not full of crap.
00:29:41.844 --> 00:29:46.064
I've been promising Aimee my client hub access, and they're like,"I promise Shanna we almost have it.
00:29:46.064 --> 00:29:49.534
I just don't want her to think I'm lying to her." But yeah, my client hub's pretty beautiful.
00:29:49.584 --> 00:29:50.584
I promise, it really is.
00:29:50.584 --> 00:29:54.213
I'll make David send you a message to prove it.
00:29:54.243 --> 00:29:54.713
Go ahead.
00:29:54.784 --> 00:29:55.344
Sorry, Dan.
00:29:55.344 --> 00:30:10.084
But yeah, I mean, this, this is definitely, you know, putting your s- getting something up front and putting up the guardrails and then and then delivering on that, I think is the, the best way to proceed, especially when there's things that you don't know.
00:30:10.413 --> 00:30:11.963
You, like, you don't know what you don't know.
00:30:11.963 --> 00:30:16.733
Like, they know more about their business than you do but you're gonna find out.
00:30:17.104 --> 00:30:31.403
And- Yep and having that encapsulated in, in your engagements so that you can protect your valuable time, because that's the only thing- Mm-hmm that we don't have more of, that we can't create.
00:30:31.403 --> 00:30:31.473
Yeah.
00:30:31.513 --> 00:30:45.374
We can, we can craft things that will be more efficient and, and be more useful of our time and, you know, where it just takes five minutes today that used to take an hour yesterday.
00:30:45.814 --> 00:30:55.604
But that, getting to that point is, is something that you need to, you know, build into your, your, your engagements.
00:30:56.324 --> 00:30:57.644
Yep, I, I agree.
00:30:57.884 --> 00:30:59.463
Same, uh, like the cap, the unknown.
00:30:59.463 --> 00:31:07.713
That's why whenever I do things, everything, every single thing that we did was, is based on it's measurable.
00:31:07.753 --> 00:31:10.713
It is measurable, because that's how we get scope creep.
00:31:10.723 --> 00:31:16.574
That's why people are like,"Well, it says this," and you're like,"Yeah, but it says this, this, this." it just, it really allowed us...
00:31:16.594 --> 00:31:18.023
And then you, again, you gotta...
00:31:18.983 --> 00:31:20.503
C- current clients is the hard part.
00:31:20.503 --> 00:31:21.784
Old dog, new tricks, right?
00:31:21.874 --> 00:31:22.064
Yeah.
00:31:22.084 --> 00:31:22.443
I always...
00:31:22.503 --> 00:31:30.173
So when new vendors come into the accounting space and they try to sell to the ac- to accountants, I'm always like,"Can I teach you how to sell to accountants?" We are the worst.
00:31:30.173 --> 00:31:30.973
We hate change.
00:31:30.973 --> 00:31:34.523
We will not change unless there's evidence, right?
00:31:34.864 --> 00:31:36.173
So same with our clients.
00:31:36.173 --> 00:31:37.463
They're gonna be the same way.
00:31:37.824 --> 00:31:42.634
So it's easy to do the new ones, but you have to change it moving...
00:31:42.673 --> 00:31:46.243
You have to just set that frame of mind and then, and then move it forward.
00:31:46.263 --> 00:31:55.534
And just, you really have to make everything de- measurable, absolutely measurable So this is where it comes into a confident quote.
00:31:55.544 --> 00:32:08.884
For those of you that have that confidence of um, I don't know how to charge, what you never say is,"I'll give you a discount." So I never discounted my services.
00:32:08.913 --> 00:32:09.304
Why?
00:32:09.334 --> 00:32:10.933
My services are my services.
00:32:10.933 --> 00:32:11.463
They're my time.
00:32:11.473 --> 00:32:13.233
You don't get a coupon code for that.
00:32:13.693 --> 00:32:14.574
I did all of this.
00:32:14.574 --> 00:32:15.114
I learned this.
00:32:15.114 --> 00:32:16.104
There's no coupon code.
00:32:16.644 --> 00:32:17.834
There's two ways to do it.
00:32:17.923 --> 00:32:29.403
One, the first thing, which I am releasing in my community, Amy, I know we were talking about this, is my, So when we onboard or when we onboard a client, there's a set of stuff we do regardless, right?
00:32:29.433 --> 00:32:30.703
We do it no matter what.
00:32:31.213 --> 00:32:31.993
We just have to.
00:32:32.003 --> 00:32:33.564
If we're good accountants, it's what we do.
00:32:33.763 --> 00:32:44.483
So what I did is I actually took those deliverables, those tasks internally, tasks internally, and I put them into an actual onboarding scope of work for my clients.
00:32:44.683 --> 00:32:47.854
So my clients can see, here is what we do.
00:32:47.864 --> 00:32:52.473
Here is absolutely everything, and it looks super impressive, but it's true, and I put a dollar amount to that.
00:32:52.554 --> 00:32:54.013
I put$500 to that.
00:32:54.233 --> 00:33:04.723
Now, that is what I use to,"If you sign in the next seven days, I will discount this 500 because I have, I have clients starting th- in two weeks, but I don't have anyone starting here, so I can get moving.
00:33:04.753 --> 00:33:09.844
Otherwise, I'm gonna have to charge you for it." So we did that, and they could see everything, and that's what I discounted.
00:33:10.233 --> 00:33:14.284
Now, the best way to do it when it comes to your actual services is this way.
00:33:14.284 --> 00:33:15.523
Here's your three different levels.
00:33:15.534 --> 00:33:22.003
Here's basic, here's what you should be, and here's the, the, you know, the Mercedes of it.
00:33:22.493 --> 00:33:30.023
So when people are like,"Oh, I can't afford that," you never say,"Let me discount it for you." Say,"What can we remove from the scope to get it to your price range?" Yeah.
00:33:30.263 --> 00:33:32.614
But always have your baseline.
00:33:32.903 --> 00:33:33.913
Don't remove...
00:33:33.913 --> 00:33:35.084
Never remove the things.
00:33:35.084 --> 00:33:38.913
Like when my- we'd have clients who are like,"Oh yeah, we've got these things on the balance sheet, but we don't...
00:33:39.233 --> 00:33:39.913
I don't want to pay you.
00:33:39.913 --> 00:33:51.653
Don't touch them." I'm like,"I'm not touching your books." The minute you hand me your books and I hand you financials, I'm responsible for everything, and I can't carve out in your financials,"Not responsible for this." You just can't do that.
00:33:51.663 --> 00:33:53.124
So it's, I'm, it's on your...
00:33:53.163 --> 00:33:59.733
Either we journal it off and it's gone, which isn't necessarily right, but if I'm gonna be handling the books, it's there.
00:34:00.064 --> 00:34:07.284
Um, so this is how I've always done it, offered it in the three levels, and I never, ever, ever...
00:34:07.284 --> 00:34:11.833
Our lowest was at 599, then I think it went 7 and then 1099, then there were additionals.
00:34:11.844 --> 00:34:11.864
Yeah.
00:34:12.523 --> 00:34:14.893
Nobody was on for less than 599, ever.
00:34:14.903 --> 00:34:14.934
Right.
00:34:15.753 --> 00:34:20.264
So, so this is, this is a great example of what I wanted to talk about with the PITA client, right?
00:34:20.273 --> 00:34:33.543
So- Uh-huh um, this, this came up in one of the, one of Hector's reframes where they started complaining about the things that clients do that annoyed them, right?
00:34:33.563 --> 00:34:45.956
And, uh, you know, where they're texting or, you know, they're not following the,, the prescribed, you know- guardrails and, and, and guidelines that you've established in your engagements.
00:34:46.326 --> 00:34:55.306
And so, you know, he just, he s- he said,"Well, what would it cost someone so that wouldn't av- annoy you?" Right?
00:34:55.315 --> 00:34:59.025
Like, when- Yeah at what point would that be okay, right?
00:34:59.045 --> 00:35:06.416
And, and she w- Yeah he w- he's, she was resisting, you know, having that, having that conversation as far as, like, putting a number to it.
00:35:06.856 --> 00:35:09.246
He's like,"What would it be," right?
00:35:09.275 --> 00:35:15.425
And it's, she would be, she threw out some, you know, really high number, you know,$15,000, right?
00:35:16.376 --> 00:35:18.226
Or, or- Wow you know, something like that.
00:35:18.235 --> 00:35:25.715
And, and he's like,"Okay, you have now just identified your premium level service," right?
00:35:25.755 --> 00:35:26.045
Yep.
00:35:26.115 --> 00:35:35.905
And then all you have to do- Yep to figure out the rest of them is just peel back things that wouldn't be part of that premium level.
00:35:36.226 --> 00:35:54.815
And that way- Yep you can set up, you know, three or four or however many levels there are, and when they start to creep into the premium level, it's really just, well, it sounds like you're, uh, this type of thing is, is something that you're, you're, you're looking to do on, on ongoing.
00:35:55.215 --> 00:35:59.195
Why don't you go into your client portal and just change it to the premium level?
00:35:59.795 --> 00:36:01.675
And we'll- Yeah you know- Yep we'll continue to...
00:36:01.706 --> 00:36:04.266
And then they're, then they self-police themselves.
00:36:04.275 --> 00:36:05.496
Oh, no, no, no, that's not...
00:36:05.775 --> 00:36:12.106
Well, okay then, for that you wanna go through email or whatever, you know- Yep the communication path is.
00:36:13.523 --> 00:36:20.123
So rather than, rather than working from the bottom up, you know, y- in this case it's, it's more of a top-down where-
00:36:20.134 --> 00:36:20.684
Yes
00:36:20.833 --> 00:36:30.903
these are the services, all of the services and things that I would be willing to do, and here's how I would be able to, willing to do them, and you affix a fee to that, and then you just-
00:36:30.914 --> 00:36:31.414
Yes
00:36:31.744 --> 00:36:37.634
easily remove the things where, where what you're saying is,"Hey, what am I not doing?"
00:36:38.344 --> 00:36:38.614
Yeah.
00:36:38.614 --> 00:36:39.244
For this dollar?"
00:36:39.244 --> 00:36:39.773
Yeah.
00:36:40.114 --> 00:36:41.713
And you just have to set a floor.
00:36:41.773 --> 00:36:43.934
Like, I am not gonna work on any...
00:36:43.943 --> 00:36:49.034
Like I said, you have to set your boundaries more than anything, and don't back, don't, don't let anybody back into those.
00:36:49.083 --> 00:36:51.623
Be like, I mean, and I, I use Anchor.
00:36:51.643 --> 00:36:52.873
Again, I love Anchor.
00:36:52.873 --> 00:36:54.653
I- they don't pay me, just so everybody...
00:36:54.653 --> 00:36:55.724
I, I don't get paid.
00:36:55.724 --> 00:37:05.563
I, I don't even, when the, the, that referral fee, I have them give the money back to the, the client because I, and I d- I don't wanna be known as biased, but I do love their product.
00:37:05.893 --> 00:37:07.204
You're a promoter- And that's what I love in there is- of
00:37:07.204 --> 00:37:07.514
their product,
00:37:07.514 --> 00:37:07.724
right?
00:37:07.764 --> 00:37:08.097
I, I- Like,
00:37:08.097 --> 00:37:08.219
you,
00:37:08.219 --> 00:37:09.244
you wouldn't- We partner.
00:37:09.244 --> 00:37:10.793
They love me, I love them.
00:37:10.804 --> 00:37:10.824
Yeah.
00:37:10.873 --> 00:37:12.313
Um, but I don't get money.
00:37:12.313 --> 00:37:14.623
I'm not, I don't want to be paid from any of my, any of my people.
00:37:15.264 --> 00:37:17.623
Not there's anything wrong with referral fees, I just like to make it clear.
00:37:17.974 --> 00:37:22.643
Anyhow, but that's how I have everything set up in there is I'm like,"This is my baseline.
00:37:22.653 --> 00:37:23.704
This is my bottom line.
00:37:23.713 --> 00:37:25.034
We don't go lower than this.
00:37:25.034 --> 00:37:25.534
I'm sorry.
00:37:25.534 --> 00:37:29.094
This is, if you need lower than this, I'm doing less than my job.
00:37:29.134 --> 00:37:33.043
I'm doing less than my, my my due diligence.
00:37:33.043 --> 00:37:43.744
I'm doing less than what I, I..." My insurance would be pissed at me if somebody came back and said,"She gave me this and put her company name on it," but they're wrong, right?
00:37:44.043 --> 00:37:44.923
And I know that.
00:37:44.934 --> 00:37:49.204
So we do have a, a, a level of liability that we have to be careful for.
00:37:49.204 --> 00:38:00.574
So while we are chasing the almighty dollar because we need to pay our bills, don't put yourself in a position to get a client that, number one, doesn't respect you and your expertise.
00:38:00.594 --> 00:38:07.704
Number two, doesn't value, which I guess is, i- is not gonna, that doesn't think that you're worth the money.
00:38:07.744 --> 00:38:09.514
So let them go to Fiverr.
00:38:09.684 --> 00:38:11.403
Let them- Yeah get screwed there.
00:38:11.403 --> 00:38:11.554
Yeah.
00:38:11.554 --> 00:38:12.114
I mean, there, there's that- But don't you
00:38:12.114 --> 00:38:13.503
do it there's that philosophy
00:38:13.903 --> 00:38:13.994
of
00:38:13.994 --> 00:38:14.204
like-
00:38:14.204 --> 00:38:14.244
There you go, Gene.
00:38:14.244 --> 00:38:14.923
I like it
00:38:15.353 --> 00:38:25.713
hey, if you, if, if tomorrow you just doubled your prices and half of your clients walked, you would still be making the same amount of money with half the work.
00:38:25.724 --> 00:38:26.423
Yes.
00:38:26.813 --> 00:38:31.349
That's what we did in, um, in 2020- four when I
00:38:31.349 --> 00:38:31.530
merged
00:38:31.739 --> 00:38:32.110
my two
00:38:32.110 --> 00:38:35.322
companies together And probably, probably less than half the work.
00:38:35.322 --> 00:38:43.349
Uh, probably less- Way less because the, the people that are, that don't value the work that you do are probably taking most of your time, and energy, and effort.
00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:43.969
Yes.
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:46.599
We, we raised ours by...
00:38:46.630 --> 00:38:57.449
So we used to keep our QuickBooks and our payroll in our monthly subscript- our monthly fixed fee, because I'm like,"Y- well, you have to use QuickBooks, and we're doing your payroll journal entry," so I put it in.
00:38:57.460 --> 00:39:01.809
But as the, the things kept rising, I would have to raise my clients by, like,$5.
00:39:01.860 --> 00:39:06.769
I'm like,"This is stupid." So we went to all of our clients and I said,"I am handing you back your subscriptions.
00:39:06.769 --> 00:39:08.690
You're- no matter who you go to, you're gonna have to pay for them.
00:39:08.690 --> 00:39:12.760
I'm not gonna be responsible for them." But I left their pricing of their package the same.
00:39:12.920 --> 00:39:16.809
So they were 599 plus the, I paid the 45 and whatever.
00:39:16.989 --> 00:39:22.219
I essentially got a$75, 75 to$150 increase per client.
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:28.739
And then to them, when they get those transactions on their bank account, I'm still 599, but then they thought the Quick...
00:39:28.750 --> 00:39:30.409
It was an easier pill to swallow.
00:39:30.699 --> 00:39:30.829
Yeah.
00:39:30.829 --> 00:39:34.659
Gave us, I think, a$70,000 increase in revenue over the year.
00:39:35.010 --> 00:39:35.469
Not...
00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:38.860
That's just reve- that's just the money, right, that we were covering.
00:39:39.099 --> 00:39:45.500
But not only that, the time it took to not have to reconcile all of the statements because, you know, if they...
00:39:45.510 --> 00:39:51.519
Back before, this was back when Intuit didn't let you split out the bill, so everything went to the accountant, so I'd have to...
00:39:51.519 --> 00:39:52.550
You know, we'd have to reconcile.
00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:56.760
So we got so much time back, and it was a great way to, to do that.
00:39:56.800 --> 00:39:59.369
So yes, I love that.
00:40:00.039 --> 00:40:02.809
Now, this is, I think, where a lot of accountants have the problem, right?
00:40:02.860 --> 00:40:05.079
We are, we know our product really well.
00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:07.960
We know what we're worth, but we're not always the best salespeople.
00:40:07.980 --> 00:40:09.199
Some of you are gonna disagree.
00:40:09.579 --> 00:40:13.210
Um, my friend James Donovan, he does accounting leads now.
00:40:13.230 --> 00:40:13.699
I love him.
00:40:13.699 --> 00:40:14.039
He's great.
00:40:14.039 --> 00:40:14.239
He...
00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:17.199
If you ever need good leads, that guy is, is awesome.
00:40:18.170 --> 00:40:29.610
He, he says he loves what he does, and he'll get tons of leads in, but then the problem he'll have is the, the company will be like,"We just aren't closing any leads." So they just can't close.
00:40:29.650 --> 00:40:30.449
Either they're not...
00:40:31.079 --> 00:40:38.460
They, there's no follow-up, so they don't have a CRM, or they're just not good with this ask piece, which his company does that well.
00:40:38.469 --> 00:40:44.929
Again, I don't get paid, I just think James is re- I think he's the best in our, in our area or in our field for that.
00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:48.150
So this is, it's a game, right?
00:40:48.150 --> 00:40:48.639
If you ever...
00:40:48.659 --> 00:40:52.630
I, I'm sure there are books out there that teach you this, but say the number and then just wait.
00:40:53.219 --> 00:40:54.719
Hey, it's 1,500 a month.
00:40:55.905 --> 00:40:57.085
And then it's a game.
00:40:57.315 --> 00:40:59.115
He who speaks first loses.
00:40:59.126 --> 00:41:00.666
Lawyers will tell you that, right?
00:41:00.666 --> 00:41:01.106
Right.
00:41:01.106 --> 00:41:08.266
And then sometimes it's best, and we have Claude and AI for this now, so give yourself a script.
00:41:08.585 --> 00:41:12.045
Go in and be like,"Hey, Claude, I'm having problems with this.
00:41:12.246 --> 00:41:16.795
Can you give me, like, they say this, I should say this?" And then just get to know it and have it in front of you.
00:41:16.795 --> 00:41:20.016
You could say it how you want to say it, but just having it in front of you is...
00:41:20.016 --> 00:41:22.766
makes it a lot easier, especially because we're on Zoom.
00:41:22.766 --> 00:41:23.456
You can have it...
00:41:23.766 --> 00:41:30.155
Like, right now I have me and Dan are tiny in front of me- Mm-hmm but I've got my whole what's on my slides here, my slide.
00:41:30.246 --> 00:41:31.246
So you can have that.
00:41:31.255 --> 00:41:31.976
Nobody knows.
00:41:31.985 --> 00:41:33.996
It's the beauty of, of Zoom these days.
00:41:34.445 --> 00:41:36.505
But definitely own it.
00:41:36.715 --> 00:41:37.606
Own that price, man.
00:41:37.606 --> 00:41:38.385
You, you've earned it.
00:41:38.385 --> 00:41:39.615
You priced it, you earned it.
00:41:40.175 --> 00:41:40.485
Yeah.
00:41:40.565 --> 00:42:02.585
And, and just what we were saying before, like, uh, uh, there's this woman on TikTok who, who, who handles, like, toxic work en- work environments, and she, she's ta- the scenario is she's, she's going in for an interview, and she's overqualified for the in- for the, the, the job that she's applying for, and they want- Sorry, I
00:42:02.585 --> 00:42:03.045
couldn't find the mute.
00:42:05.246 --> 00:42:05.646
Bless you.
00:42:06.295 --> 00:42:08.085
Uh- Thank you but she is, um...
00:42:08.396 --> 00:42:13.545
You know, they want to pay her less than what her expected salary is.
00:42:13.916 --> 00:42:21.485
And so sh- she's like,"Okay, which one of my qualifications do I not bring to the table?" You know?
00:42:21.485 --> 00:42:37.186
And, and just having that tough conversation during that negotiation period where- Yeah she could say,"Well, you want to pay me X amount of dollars for X plus Y amount of work." Right?
00:42:37.186 --> 00:42:50.215
So taking stuff off the table and, and doing less work to fit the value of what it is- Yeah that you're, you're, you're charging for is the cl- the crux of our conversations that we're-
00:42:50.235 --> 00:42:50.485
Yeah
00:42:50.536 --> 00:42:53.856
we're gonna be having, you know, now moving forward.
00:42:54.864 --> 00:42:55.184
Yep.
00:42:55.403 --> 00:42:57.043
Nope, I absolutely agree.
00:42:57.514 --> 00:43:02.224
And, you know, I, you guys, I'm not even gonna lie, I still have a hard time with this.
00:43:03.023 --> 00:43:14.943
I don't have an accounting firm anymore, I have my advisory, and I know how it feels that when you're like,"Hey, this is my price," that next word out of their mouth is possible rejection.
00:43:15.063 --> 00:43:19.934
And I've been in sales for a long time, and I, I used to sell vacuums and timeshare.
00:43:20.474 --> 00:43:22.244
I can sell anybody's product.
00:43:22.253 --> 00:43:24.054
I could sell Dan's product day and night.
00:43:24.344 --> 00:43:27.333
My own, I'm really terrible at selling, believe it or not.
00:43:27.333 --> 00:43:33.023
I am a terrible salesperson of my own product because I don't want that rejection.
00:43:33.023 --> 00:43:36.744
When they say no, they're saying no to me personally.
00:43:36.824 --> 00:43:36.844
Yeah.
00:43:37.134 --> 00:43:37.914
And that's how I'm
00:43:37.914 --> 00:43:38.313
taking it.
00:43:38.344 --> 00:43:40.043
Well, and the energy and effort that you put into crafting-
00:43:40.103 --> 00:43:40.414
Yes
00:43:40.784 --> 00:43:47.224
that offer, and they say- Yes and their first thing, and, and any- if there's anything- That's too much but yes right out of the gate-
00:43:47.474 --> 00:43:47.824
Yeah
00:43:47.824 --> 00:43:49.114
then it's a, it's a personal thing.
00:43:49.123 --> 00:43:49.443
Yeah.
00:43:49.804 --> 00:43:51.494
It's hard because it's yours.
00:43:51.494 --> 00:43:52.793
It's everything that you do.
00:43:52.864 --> 00:43:57.514
And I d- the reason I'm telling you this is because I know I come on all strong and confident.
00:43:57.563 --> 00:43:59.014
I'm being joking, but maybe I do.
00:43:59.284 --> 00:44:01.353
But I struggle with this still to this day.
00:44:01.384 --> 00:44:05.114
Like, I, not even joking, I watch things, I...
00:44:05.193 --> 00:44:11.014
because I struggle with it, that imposter syndrome, that rejection.
00:44:11.014 --> 00:44:12.213
None of us like it.
00:44:12.253 --> 00:44:17.373
And whenever somebody tells you no or it's too much, you rethink everything.
00:44:17.733 --> 00:44:19.143
But don't.
00:44:19.233 --> 00:44:20.173
Just don't.
00:44:20.804 --> 00:44:31.373
Own it, and just know that maybe you need to maybe not adjust your pricing, maybe you need to adjust your niche or your or your client level.
00:44:31.384 --> 00:44:33.083
Like, I, I...
00:44:33.534 --> 00:44:41.043
My specialty is working with people that do startup solopreneurs that do not make a million dollars a year, not even...
00:44:41.054 --> 00:44:45.173
And, like, some of my people are not even at 300K, and there's nothing wrong with that.
00:44:45.414 --> 00:44:50.873
But a lot of people that do what I do, Dan, and you know in this space are like,"Oh, we work with people that are from 5 to 10 billion." I'm like,"What?
00:44:51.543 --> 00:44:53.724
How do you help the little guys get to-
00:44:53.893 --> 00:44:54.204
Yeah
00:44:54.393 --> 00:45:05.385
how do the little guys, how do the solopreneurs get to- Yeah 300, 500, 1 million if nobody's gonna help them?" But that also means that I'm working with people that- Have a lower...
00:45:05.536 --> 00:45:09.195
They, they can't afford as much, but that just means I adjust down.
00:45:09.545 --> 00:45:11.856
It doesn't mean I'm not as good as what I, at what I do.
00:45:12.076 --> 00:45:17.246
Just means I adjust down what I can't, what I offer for them so I can be affordable to them.
00:45:17.255 --> 00:45:18.186
And to me, it's worth it.
00:45:18.226 --> 00:45:20.045
Like- Yeah we all have our places.
00:45:20.275 --> 00:45:21.166
But if I wanna make...
00:45:21.226 --> 00:45:25.335
I could offer my same services to higher level, but I don't want to.
00:45:25.335 --> 00:45:27.865
Those aren't the, I don't- Yeah I don't have passion for the ones making 5 million.
00:45:27.865 --> 00:45:30.286
I have passion for the ones that wanna make 250 a year.
00:45:31.365 --> 00:45:31.666
Right.
00:45:31.876 --> 00:45:32.719
Where they're gonna send the hell with
00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:32.795
you.
00:45:32.795 --> 00:45:33.385
You're like me, Dan.
00:45:33.385 --> 00:45:34.735
You're like the little guy, right?
00:45:35.315 --> 00:45:35.615
Yeah.
00:45:35.945 --> 00:45:36.135
Yeah.
00:45:36.135 --> 00:45:37.376
I want, I want those- The underdogs.
00:45:37.456 --> 00:45:43.056
I want the, yeah, an underdog without the, uh, without the little pill to turn into the superhero.
00:45:43.835 --> 00:45:43.996
The...
00:45:44.206 --> 00:45:44.726
Oh, there you go.
00:45:44.755 --> 00:45:45.726
I forgot about that.
00:45:45.775 --> 00:45:46.096
Yes.
00:45:46.295 --> 00:45:47.416
No, absolutely.
00:45:47.596 --> 00:45:54.025
So, I mean, it, this is, uh, I was gonna do this little pushback scenario, but we won't.
00:45:54.025 --> 00:45:56.655
I feel like, um, you and I have a, a pretty...
00:45:56.666 --> 00:45:59.615
We're talking about it enough, so I won't, I won't make us do that.
00:46:00.166 --> 00:46:00.186
Yeah.
00:46:00.195 --> 00:46:06.755
So this- I, I do like this because this, this speaks to what, what people have been asking,"Well, like, how do I- Yes how do I implement these things?"
00:46:07.106 --> 00:46:07.746
Yes.
00:46:07.865 --> 00:46:13.096
So I, my, my philosophy in life has always been low-hanging fruit first.
00:46:13.096 --> 00:46:15.885
Knock out the low-hanging fruit'cause it gets us in the...
00:46:15.905 --> 00:46:17.835
A lot of people go,"Do the harder stuff." No.
00:46:18.155 --> 00:46:19.746
You guys, we all know me by now.
00:46:19.746 --> 00:46:19.905
I'm ADHD.
00:46:20.735 --> 00:46:22.646
I live in procrastination.
00:46:22.715 --> 00:46:24.655
I work better under pressure.
00:46:24.666 --> 00:46:29.606
Like,"You've got five minutes to get this done." I work way better that way, and I know that.
00:46:29.615 --> 00:46:30.876
It's just something I've understood.
00:46:30.956 --> 00:46:36.876
So low-hanging fruit gets me easy, gets me into it, gets me going, gets me happy.
00:46:36.876 --> 00:46:38.206
So this one, new clients first.
00:46:38.215 --> 00:46:40.096
I set up my brand new scope.
00:46:40.405 --> 00:46:46.505
From this day forward, this is what I'm gonna charge to all these new people, and I've set those boundaries.
00:46:46.505 --> 00:46:47.686
I've put that line in the sand.
00:46:47.686 --> 00:46:48.516
I've set the ground.
00:46:48.846 --> 00:46:52.965
And then I go back and I'm like,"Okay, now let's look through my client list.
00:46:53.146 --> 00:46:54.385
Who's coming up on renewal?
00:46:54.465 --> 00:46:56.396
Okay, these guys are gonna be the easy ones.
00:46:56.405 --> 00:46:57.536
Let's..." They're renewing.
00:46:57.536 --> 00:46:58.485
A renewal date's great.
00:46:58.496 --> 00:47:01.226
And if you don't have a renewal date, this is something that Anchor is great at.
00:47:01.235 --> 00:47:07.545
Well it auto, there's auto-renew, and they also have a price increase, which I love.
00:47:07.556 --> 00:47:10.175
Like, you could do a percentage or a dollar amount price increase annually.
00:47:10.505 --> 00:47:13.056
If you don't do renewals, you probably should.
00:47:13.106 --> 00:47:13.646
Um, my...
00:47:13.715 --> 00:47:17.956
Because then this is something else I teach, and your contract should be annually.
00:47:17.956 --> 00:47:19.126
This is a whole other thing.
00:47:19.126 --> 00:47:25.356
But for to add value to your company, if your contracts are annual, it doesn't mean you have to hold people to an annual contract.
00:47:25.356 --> 00:47:27.186
It just means they are annual.
00:47:28.936 --> 00:47:36.635
So I, the renewal ones are the easiest'cause every, usually at renewal people are expecting some sort of price increase, and it's easiest to go,"Hey, it's a renewal.
00:47:36.635 --> 00:47:41.150
We're moving you to fixed fee." and if you don't have a renewal, then do that.
00:47:41.150 --> 00:47:41.193
And
00:47:41.193 --> 00:47:43.295
you normally put a percentage with that, with
00:47:43.536 --> 00:47:43.666
that increase?
00:47:45.016 --> 00:47:46.445
I always did a 3%.
00:47:46.445 --> 00:47:46.865
Okay.
00:47:46.865 --> 00:47:48.996
I didn't do a huge, because if...
00:47:49.056 --> 00:47:52.786
I am the type, for example, and I know I mention my community a lot, but that's why I'm here.
00:47:52.786 --> 00:47:52.815
Mm-hmm.
00:47:53.795 --> 00:47:58.175
Whatever you join my community at is what you'll pay forever unless you upgrade.
00:47:58.275 --> 00:48:08.606
So when my rates go up in January, my people that are in there now, as long as they don't leave, they'll always pay that, that dollar amount, and I think that's fair.
00:48:08.726 --> 00:48:10.615
So I like to do that with my clients too.
00:48:10.675 --> 00:48:16.396
3% is normal cost of living increase, and I'll give them the slow upgrade.
00:48:16.405 --> 00:48:24.675
And if they add more services, I put it to what they're But whatever they are currently paying, I only do a 3%.
00:48:24.695 --> 00:48:32.255
And I've had 0% churn on that 3% increase, and everybody felt it was, it was more than enough- Fair and sufficient.
00:48:32.255 --> 00:48:35.346
And keep in mind, these guys are, they're already within scope.
00:48:35.775 --> 00:48:37.286
They're not going out of scope.
00:48:37.286 --> 00:48:43.295
So I'm not doing any more work, I'm just getting a little bit of a raise which then I can pass on to my team.
00:48:43.326 --> 00:48:45.346
Um, and it wasn't too much.
00:48:45.346 --> 00:48:47.666
5% I thought hit harder.
00:48:47.666 --> 00:48:48.865
A few people didn't like that.
00:48:48.865 --> 00:48:49.815
3% was good.
00:48:50.365 --> 00:48:52.606
And Amy, when they, when they sign...
00:48:52.606 --> 00:48:54.335
Yes, so Anchor does that for me.
00:48:54.335 --> 00:49:02.215
When they sign, it tells them that they'll have an annual increase, and it also gives them a 30-day notice that your, your, um, contract is increasing by 3%.
00:49:02.556 --> 00:49:07.065
Or,"Here, here's your current rate and here's your new one." So it does it for me, which has been great.
00:49:08.146 --> 00:49:10.206
So, and, and that's the thing, like Dan was saying.
00:49:10.206 --> 00:49:15.545
So when we increased all 85 of our clients, two churned.
00:49:17.056 --> 00:49:19.795
But the offset when I had...
00:49:19.806 --> 00:49:20.635
You know, we're accountants.
00:49:20.635 --> 00:49:21.306
We have spreadsheets.
00:49:21.306 --> 00:49:22.005
I had a whole spreadsheet.
00:49:22.005 --> 00:49:24.085
Here's what they pay now, here's what they would pay.
00:49:24.246 --> 00:49:25.146
Here's the delta.
00:49:25.335 --> 00:49:26.496
Here's who I left.
00:49:26.635 --> 00:49:27.876
Like, here's who left.
00:49:27.885 --> 00:49:30.706
And I was still far in advance.
00:49:30.706 --> 00:49:40.666
Losing two clients, actually, I gained, I think, like, another 15,000 a month, and I gained all that time from those two clients that I lost, so it wasn't really that big of a thing.
00:49:40.706 --> 00:49:52.795
And if they're gonna churn over$50,$75, either their business is not that good, they didn't value what you did, or may- you might, maybe that was one of those clients that...
00:49:52.985 --> 00:49:54.525
Some clients, you have to shake them, right?
00:49:54.525 --> 00:49:57.206
You can't even shake them to let them understand what you're doing.
00:49:57.235 --> 00:49:59.956
And you just, you can't hold yourself accountable for that.
00:49:59.965 --> 00:50:03.806
Like, y- not everybody's gonna listen, right?
00:50:05.126 --> 00:50:05.786
Exactly.
00:50:06.186 --> 00:50:09.436
Um, and, and, and not everybody's gonna value what you value.
00:50:10.476 --> 00:50:10.795
Yeah.
00:50:11.155 --> 00:50:11.465
Yeah.
00:50:11.755 --> 00:50:13.295
Ab- absolutely, and they're not.
00:50:13.306 --> 00:50:25.615
And that's where it's just holding to, Amy, I will, I'll, Amy, I'll hit you up in the community on the Anchor increase, and I'll do a little, I'll do a, um, video for you, just so you know.
00:50:26.016 --> 00:50:30.775
Um, y- yeah, you, that's where you just, you have to say,"This is what I'm worth.
00:50:30.786 --> 00:50:31.945
This is who I am.
00:50:32.585 --> 00:50:40.326
This is, this is what it is." And I, I think for me, anything sales and people are spending money, what they want the ROI.
00:50:40.556 --> 00:50:42.246
We're not handing them a tangible item.
00:50:42.255 --> 00:50:45.005
Like, I go, in my passport holder's Coach.
00:50:45.025 --> 00:50:46.675
I paid$100 for this.
00:50:46.726 --> 00:50:47.806
To me, there's value in that.
00:50:47.806 --> 00:50:48.166
Why?
00:50:48.175 --> 00:50:50.416
It's got the damn Coach logo on it and it's glittery.
00:50:50.436 --> 00:50:50.936
I like it.
00:50:50.936 --> 00:50:53.815
But I also could've went on Amazon and got one of these for five bucks, right?
00:50:54.135 --> 00:50:56.416
The value is, is I, I find value in this.
00:50:56.416 --> 00:50:58.576
The other one, it does what it was, but I want this.
00:50:58.905 --> 00:51:01.556
And, and, and that's how you have to think of your product.
00:51:01.565 --> 00:51:02.615
This is the value.
00:51:02.655 --> 00:51:03.376
This is what I want.
00:51:03.396 --> 00:51:05.525
Not everybody's gonna want what you have.
00:51:05.536 --> 00:51:06.735
They're gonna want this.
00:51:06.746 --> 00:51:10.115
And there's nothing wrong with that, but just hold close that you are Coach.
00:51:10.275 --> 00:51:12.846
Be Coach, or Louis Vuitton, whatever you see yourself as.
00:51:13.726 --> 00:51:15.766
Um, unless you wanna be$5 Amazon.
00:51:15.766 --> 00:51:18.016
There's also nothing wrong with that.
00:51:18.016 --> 00:51:28.027
I don't want anybody to think- Right wrong with that as long as you are pricing correctly to where you're getting your value.
00:51:28.188 --> 00:51:29.288
That's all, right?
00:51:29.447 --> 00:51:34.237
So I don't want anybody to think I don't want anybody to think that I'm I've...
00:51:35.228 --> 00:51:40.838
You'll never hear me get up and go,"Don't take a client under$2,000 a month." You will never hear me say that'cause I don't believe it.
00:51:41.307 --> 00:51:47.708
So Anchor, Gene, is a Anchor is an invoicing system.
00:51:47.708 --> 00:51:51.398
They do proposals, invoicing, auto invoicing.
00:51:51.438 --> 00:51:51.898
It's amazing.
00:51:51.898 --> 00:51:55.628
It's like if you know what Ignition is, I think it, their thing is use Anchor.
00:51:55.657 --> 00:51:58.737
But look up Anchor Invoicing, and you should be able to pull it up.
00:51:58.748 --> 00:51:59.637
They're, they're awesome.
00:52:00.797 --> 00:52:09.307
And the proposal platform allows you to put your put your templates and, and manage the, the billing, right?
00:52:09.307 --> 00:52:18.398
So, like, if you set up those different, different levels, uh, it allows them to go in and choose the right, right one or pick and choose, right?
00:52:18.418 --> 00:52:18.648
Like,
00:52:18.967 --> 00:52:19.057
when
00:52:19.288 --> 00:52:19.849
you're sending the- Let me actually,
00:52:19.849 --> 00:52:22.228
let me drop you guys my link because I think you get...
00:52:22.237 --> 00:52:23.168
Oh, I'm so sorry, Dan.
00:52:23.947 --> 00:52:24.177
That's okay.
00:52:24.188 --> 00:52:26.557
I'm getting, I'm trying to get better at not interrupting.
00:52:26.757 --> 00:52:27.077
Sorry.
00:52:27.148 --> 00:52:27.438
Go.
00:52:28.228 --> 00:52:29.018
Oh, sorry.
00:52:29.027 --> 00:52:39.027
Um, but it allows you to you know, when you're sending the proposal, they can choose what service offering based off of the package that you've that you've given them.
00:52:39.777 --> 00:52:46.418
So that way allows you to put those things on co- not co-, cruise control.
00:52:46.447 --> 00:52:47.768
That's the word I was looking for.
00:52:49.487 --> 00:52:50.288
Yeah, definitely.
00:52:50.297 --> 00:52:50.677
Hold on.
00:52:50.688 --> 00:52:50.717
Yes.
00:52:50.728 --> 00:52:51.447
I'm trying to get
00:52:51.458 --> 00:52:55.998
my- And, and Kim yes, it is similar- Copy to Ignition, right?
00:52:55.998 --> 00:53:01.797
So if you're using Ignition, you can use, you can do these similar things in, in Anchor
00:53:03.784 --> 00:53:09.523
I just dropped, um, I just dropped my link in there because if you use my different link, you get 50 bucks.
00:53:09.713 --> 00:53:15.253
So yeah, the one thing I do like about Anchor is that they don't have user fees.
00:53:15.914 --> 00:53:17.864
So you can add your entire team, and there's no...
00:53:17.873 --> 00:53:18.824
You pay per.
00:53:19.264 --> 00:53:22.583
So it's$5 per payment collected.
00:53:22.884 --> 00:53:27.603
So no matter how many proposals you send out, whatever, it's per payment, and then you can push the credit card.
00:53:27.614 --> 00:53:31.574
Did you say that already, Dan, and I'm just repeating exactly what you just said'cause I wasn't listening?
00:53:31.574 --> 00:53:31.634
I
00:53:31.634 --> 00:53:32.284
did not.
00:53:32.403 --> 00:53:32.963
I did not.
00:53:32.974 --> 00:53:33.034
Okay, good.
00:53:33.034 --> 00:53:35.474
You're, you're, you're adding more color to, uh, my black and white, uh, treatise.
00:53:35.793 --> 00:53:36.173
Okay.
00:53:36.403 --> 00:53:37.543
I, I was on...
00:53:38.423 --> 00:53:39.344
It's definitely...
00:53:39.364 --> 00:53:40.153
They're apples and...
00:53:40.153 --> 00:53:43.233
Uh, you, it's just UI, UX, um, what you want.
00:53:43.273 --> 00:53:44.353
Ignition is different.
00:53:44.893 --> 00:53:47.503
Anchor, I think, I, I just, I preferred it.
00:53:47.503 --> 00:54:00.003
I was on Ignition, but when I switched to Anchor, I think I saved$600 a month on processing fees,'cause I wanted my whole team on there,'cause I wanted my CPAs to be able to go in and send out proposals.
00:54:00.213 --> 00:54:02.704
But I didn't wanna pay$150 for them to be on there.
00:54:03.204 --> 00:54:06.483
All right, let's, um, let's answer...
00:54:06.494 --> 00:54:07.994
We have just a couple minutes left.
00:54:07.994 --> 00:54:09.114
Let's answer some questions.
00:54:09.114 --> 00:54:11.634
So boundaries around friends and relatives as clients.
00:54:11.634 --> 00:54:12.353
So here's the thing.
00:54:12.353 --> 00:54:14.653
We all wanna give our friends and relatives deals.
00:54:15.014 --> 00:54:17.514
Our friends and relatives should wanna support us and pay more.
00:54:17.784 --> 00:54:22.344
So I, I usually would give them, like, I would set a percentage.
00:54:22.344 --> 00:54:24.474
I'm still that person that, that does that.
00:54:24.474 --> 00:54:26.134
I would set a percentage and go,"Here you go.
00:54:26.153 --> 00:54:28.353
Here's what it is." But I would never personally do it.
00:54:28.353 --> 00:54:30.123
I'd hand it off to someone on my team.
00:54:31.134 --> 00:54:34.184
And that's totally up to you if you wanna do that.
00:54:34.193 --> 00:54:42.043
Honestly- I find it's, sometimes I find it's best to not work with my friends and relatives because they expect way more from you.
00:54:42.043 --> 00:54:43.793
When something goes wrong, they're mad at you.
00:54:45.634 --> 00:54:50.514
Sometimes it's better to be like, hey, like find somebody that you could trade with.
00:54:50.523 --> 00:55:05.074
Not trade, but be like,"Hey, you send me all your friends and family, I'm gonna send you my friends and family- Yeah'cause we shouldn't work on it, and let's agree on a, a price or whatever." Find somebody who's like your same realm, and be like,"I'm not gonna do it, but I negotiated this with my friend and she handles all my friends and family."
00:55:05.114 --> 00:55:05.164
Right.
00:55:05.454 --> 00:55:06.653
And that to me, that's the
00:55:06.934 --> 00:55:06.994
best way.
00:55:06.994 --> 00:55:09.813
Like this person is sharing without the blood relative.
00:55:10.393 --> 00:55:10.474
Yeah.
00:55:11.184 --> 00:55:17.514
Because then if they don't do it right, you know they're your clients, so the last thing you wanna do is go to a barbecue on 4th of July and they're talking to you about their taxes.
00:55:17.514 --> 00:55:32.594
You're all,"Shut up, I don't care." Like my friends that, uh, my firm used to do stuff, they'd hit me up,"Sharrin, the CPA, I haven't heard from the CPA." I'm like,"I'm not the CPA and I don't own the firm anymore." But nothing, because they know how to get ahold of you and I'm very strict about with my clients the boundaries of how they can communicate with us.
00:55:32.884 --> 00:55:36.744
But friends and family ha- they know where I live, they have my texts, and I'm like,"Get...
00:55:36.744 --> 00:55:37.764
I, I don't care.
00:55:37.923 --> 00:55:47.623
I, I, I don't care." You almost should charge your friends and family more, because I think they're, they hold you to a higher, higher level- Exactly of work.
00:55:47.634 --> 00:55:54.003
Yeah, they, they expect more but deliver, you know, but w- w- but want to pay less because-
00:55:54.063 --> 00:55:54.403
Yeah,
00:55:55.083 --> 00:55:58.364
yeah they, they, they know, they know where your skeletons are.
00:55:59.474 --> 00:56:00.804
Yeah, absolutely.
00:56:01.103 --> 00:56:05.534
Sheila real quick said, um, in the middle of the company is getting sales leads to understand.
00:56:05.554 --> 00:56:06.014
Okay, yeah.
00:56:06.114 --> 00:56:09.583
So, uh, the good thing, like what James does, is he just sends...
00:56:09.603 --> 00:56:11.574
You don't have to have them do the sales.
00:56:11.574 --> 00:56:13.594
They actually just send the leads.
00:56:13.594 --> 00:56:15.193
They set it up to where you just get leads.
00:56:15.193 --> 00:56:20.233
It's a whole SEO thing, and the leads just come to you directly so that you don't have anybody middle.
00:56:20.244 --> 00:56:21.114
You don't have to.
00:56:21.143 --> 00:56:23.063
Or you can train them, depends on what you want.
00:56:23.083 --> 00:56:24.914
But they just get the leads to you.
00:56:24.914 --> 00:56:41.193
And I agree with you because what I find is I'm working with a lot of business owners, is the owners wanna keep the sales, and I don't blame them because they know their service, they know their product, and they're like,"I wanna push everything off of me except for the sales." And I actually agree with that.
00:56:41.454 --> 00:56:49.474
I think it makes the most sense- Mm-hmm and it keeps, it also lets them speak to the client from the beginning, keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on in their company.
00:56:49.664 --> 00:56:54.123
I think it's a smart place for the, the business owner to be if it's something they enjoy doing.
00:56:54.184 --> 00:56:55.023
You don't have to.
00:56:55.023 --> 00:56:55.083
Right.
00:56:55.083 --> 00:56:57.454
You can stay in your spreadsheets if it's what you enjoy.
00:56:58.114 --> 00:56:58.753
Exactly.
00:56:59.965 --> 00:57:00.606
Yeah, so, um-
00:57:00.615 --> 00:57:01.275
All right, Dan.
00:57:01.315 --> 00:57:02.405
Look at us- Great- closing on time
00:57:02.405 --> 00:57:03.315
great discussion.
00:57:03.545 --> 00:57:10.795
I think we had, uh, we had some lively engagement in the chat, in the, the Q&A, so thank you for putting this together.
00:57:11.275 --> 00:57:19.376
Um, you- Of course you are, um, you know, in your Clone Conquer Hub, this is something where you're gonna learn more of, uh, if-
00:57:19.405 --> 00:57:20.155
Yeah, absolutely
00:57:20.166 --> 00:57:22.945
if you join, join in, uh, with Sharrin's community.
00:57:22.956 --> 00:57:23.155
Um, I
00:57:23.155 --> 00:57:26.315
did- I think it just released, actually, this, the billing- Yeah one.
00:57:26.346 --> 00:57:29.295
Like, one with templates and everything, and how to back into things.
00:57:29.295 --> 00:57:29.615
I've got...
00:57:29.615 --> 00:57:32.335
Like I said, I'm not traveling for the next six weeks, Dan.
00:57:32.335 --> 00:57:33.496
So I am gonna be...
00:57:33.536 --> 00:57:34.835
All I'm doing is content.
00:57:34.835 --> 00:57:35.615
I'm so excited.
00:57:35.615 --> 00:57:35.775
We're gonna- Thank you all we're
00:57:35.775 --> 00:57:38.306
gonna hear more of Sharrin instead of-
00:57:38.815 --> 00:57:39.545
Uh-oh
00:57:39.606 --> 00:57:42.695
seeing more of Sharrin, of where is Sharrin today.
00:57:42.706 --> 00:57:42.726
Yeah.
00:57:43.346 --> 00:57:45.206
It's gonna be, what is Sharrin working on?
00:57:45.766 --> 00:57:46.096
There you go.
00:57:46.096 --> 00:57:46.945
And how can it help me?
00:57:47.065 --> 00:57:53.396
And, Dan, I'm e- I'm excited for our next one, which is, again, we're going into Client Hub versus Method CRM.
00:57:53.445 --> 00:57:53.686
Yeah
00:57:53.835 --> 00:57:57.686
I'm excited about our next one,'cause you know me, I'm a, I'm a Client Hub girl.
00:57:57.695 --> 00:57:57.976
Yeah.
00:57:57.976 --> 00:58:12.456
We're, we're gonna get into kind of the nuts and bolts of a practice management software- Mm-hmm um, and, not necessarily pitting one against the other because you know, as we were talking about Anchor versus Ignition, right?
00:58:12.456 --> 00:58:14.335
It's really just wor- what works for you.
00:58:15.126 --> 00:58:24.936
They, they are gonna do similar things and They're going to have their strengths and, and weaknesses, and it's really just determining what works best for you today.
00:58:25.275 --> 00:58:26.335
Um- Yeah maybe it's both.
00:58:26.536 --> 00:58:29.126
You know, it, it- Yeah certainly could be, it could be both.
00:58:29.135 --> 00:58:31.606
There is a case that could be made- Yeah For both.
00:58:31.896 --> 00:58:37.425
Uh, but we're going to have Yousif who is, I like to call him the Dan DeLong of Method.
00:58:37.425 --> 00:58:49.315
He w- he used to work at Method, and he now has his own practice customizing Method to do what, what it is that you need it to do, and Sharrin, of course, being a power user of Client Hub is going to-
00:58:49.505 --> 00:58:50.126
Mm-hmm
00:58:50.126 --> 00:58:54.945
p- pick up the, the, the Client Hub mantle, and I'll just be- Absolutely
00:58:56.536 --> 00:58:56.585
referee.
00:58:58.056 --> 00:58:59.556
Oh, it's me versus him, huh?
00:59:00.135 --> 00:59:00.675
Well, no.
00:59:00.706 --> 00:59:02.976
I mean, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll talk these things through.
00:59:02.976 --> 00:59:04.496
We'll have a discussion about them.
00:59:05.195 --> 00:59:09.806
They're not pitting one against the other, but it's really just understanding where-
00:59:09.856 --> 00:59:10.416
Yeah, the
00:59:10.416 --> 00:59:17.766
difference one has a strength and one, uh, might have a, might have a weakness, Love it before, you know, diving into that deep end of the pool.
00:59:18.065 --> 00:59:22.306
So we will see you in, uh, in a couple weeks and, uh, look forward to seeing you then.
00:59:22.626 --> 00:59:28.706
And as always, have a great week ahead and, um, we'll, we'll see you next time on the Power Hour.
00:59:29.945 --> 00:59:30.865
Bye, guys