Full Transcript for Finding the Right Accountant

WEBVTT 00:00:05.150 --> 00:00:23.775 This is Forest to Frame, where we explore how restoring forests creates beautiful spaces. A podcast dedicated to conversations with industry leaders, shaping the future of the forest industry. And now, here's your host, Russ Vaagen. 00:00:23.795 --> 00:00:32.018 Hey everybody, Russ here again for another episode of the Forest to Frame podcast. Welcome. 00:00:34.451 --> 00:01:19.290 Today, I wanna talk a little bit about business related stuff and personnel. You know, we've been, I've had the great opportunity and good fortune to have a lot of people work for me over the years, whether it was when I was vice president or plant manager over at Vaughan Brothers and a series of different jobs and, you know, And I've always enjoyed having people work for you. And then here at Vaughan Timbers, excuse me, we've been, right now got about 80 employees and people always go, how do you employ people in these small towns? 00:01:19.349 --> 00:04:01.947 And when I was at Vaughan Brothers, we reopened the Midway Sawmill up in Midway, British Columbia. And I don't think it's ever easy. I think you have different situations in urban environments and big cities and mid-sized cities and rural America. But in rural America, overall, we're always operating in an area where people have traditionally worked in forest products. And so whether it was the mill or whether it's the mass timber facility, you have people that typically have worked in that arena in the past and they live nearby. But I would say, you know, notwithstanding the location, the hardest part of hiring that I ever experienced was post COVID. That was just crazy ridiculous, because everybody was looking for people and it was really expensive. But one of the things that I want to talk about is like these key positions when you're running a business That's the hardest part because there are people that work with you closely, you have to count on. And I'm getting better at building systems so that we follow the same thing over and over again. I've always said that I want to really define the rule, the expectations. and then try as much as possible to live within the rule and deal with the exceptions. Because if you don't set the rules for things, all you're doing is dealing with exceptions. And so that makes it really hard to stay consistent and get consistent results. But, you know, I think in both Vaagen Brothers Lumber, my experience there, I was there I think 17 years, and my experience here at Vaagen Timbers since 2017, I think the hardest position to hire for is in the, for me, it was always in the accounting field. And I actually was an accounting major for a small amount of time. When I was at Washington State University, I ended up being business management and human resource management, but I did have some exposure to accounting. And then I worked for BDO Seidman right out of college for a little bit of time in Seattle. And so I've always, you know, been around accountants. And, you know, there's different accounting, there's, you know, there's your traditional bookkeeper, bean counter, whatever you want to call that, and you have your tax prep people. 00:04:02.507 --> 00:04:39.163 And then you have people that are in, you know, finance and other parts of that whole accounting world. And, you know, the tricky part is that I think it attracts A lot of people who are risk averse, and it's a good field to go into, it's always in demand. And so I think a lot of people get talked into that field, but they also, a lot of people are risk averse. And so they really are focused on the numbers and doing the right thing and making sure the numbers align. 00:04:41.396 --> 00:07:06.543 But sometimes you need to, if you're in a business, you need to take some risk. So I would just say, I've had good fortune to work with a lot of great accountants. And then some others that were probably good accountants in one of these areas may not have been as good of an accountant in another area. And those things are really hard to define when you're not an accountant. And It's just, and it's also one of those things that it takes a while because it's not the same as other fields of the business where you can see the results right away. And You know, the other part about it that's really tricky is if you have somebody that's not 100% honest or doesn't have the diligence to deliver the bad news, or, you know, maybe dishonest and just, you know, wanna move things around, it's really hard to undo that. So I've talked to a number of people, you know, you know, that have been accounting leaders. And now there's just seems like there's more information and people out there. There's also a lot of contract accounting services out there. And you may not if you're running a midsize business, you know, like maybe, you know, a service business with a few people, or maybe, you know, 15 or less employees, you probably don't need like a full time controller, certainly not a full time CFO. And so, you know, you could go out and try a few different services, or maybe somebody who works part time for a number of different clients, and get what you need. But It's also a personnel fit because if you have a certain risk tolerance and your accountant doesn't, that can be tricky because you have to be willing to forecast and you have to look at, okay, what do we think is possible? What do we think is real? And what's the worst case scenario and model that? And certain people in the accounting world, I think, really have a hard time seeing beyond what is just right in front of them. And that's not their fault. I mean, that's what they're wired for. And they're really good at that part. 00:07:07.124 --> 00:07:27.851 But I think that a lot of people in my field and in my position as an executive, as a CEO, a founder, have a hard time deciphering those things. And then you end up having some turning all your numbers over to somebody that doesn't