Axiom CPA

A New Year's Resolution for Your Business

Joey Brannon — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0000

It is a week into the new year, and perhaps you are still feeling good about your New Year's resolutions. But have you made any resolutions for your business? I would like to suggest just one. This one resolution could be the stepping stone to much greater success down the road. We know that nothing happens overnight; we know that slow regular progress is the key to lasting success. So I would like to suggest one resolution you can make this year that, if continued, will build on itself in successive years and literally change the way you do business.

The change I propose is a simple one, but that does not mean that it is easy. What I would like you to commit to it over the next year is working a plan. I am not advocating that you build a fully fledged strategic business plan from scratch. Nor am I advocating an intensive SWOT analysis, or reams of new initiatives and ideas. I want to keep it simple. I want you to commit to run your business according to a plan over the next 12 months.

Working the plan means that you are being intentional about where you spend your time and energy and money. It is the only way to consistently move in a single direction over the course of weeks, months, and ultimately a year. It requires a measure of discipline, but not as much as you might think. What you really need is a system and a routine to follow. I'm going to give you my prescription for working a plan if you have never had one before.

Stephen Covey in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People advocates beginning with the end in mind. That is exactly where I would like you to start your plan. Think about three areas in your business where you would like to see improvements over the next year. Examples might be higher sales, lower employee turnover, higher customer satisfaction, lower inventory levels, higher average sales price, lower debt, better profitability, etc. I am sure that you can come up with more than three, and that is a good exercise to go through. But when you are done go back to your list and prioritize it. Which is the most important improvement you can make? Which is the second most important, and the third most important? The secret to developing a really good plan is intense focus. You must limit yourself to only three areas for the year.

Now that you have identified three areas for improvement I want you to identify what success looks like in each area. If higher sales is an area of focus how much higher do sales need to be for you to consider yourself successful? If you want a higher average sales price, what do you want the price to be? You must get really specific, and this is where most people stop doing the work. Don't wimp out on this part of the activity. It is the hardest, but it is also the most important.

So now you have three areas of focus, and a definition of success for each area. Think about how much progress you can make toward that success over the next 90 days. You might just divide the difference between where you are now and where you want to be into four quarters and attack it that way. But your progress is rarely linear. You will usually make a lot of progress in the beginning and things will level off toward the end, or progress will be slow initially and then accelerate rapidly toward the end. It just depends on the type of change are trying to make. How do you imagine things progressing and where could things be 90 days from now? Write down what success looks like for each area of focus 90 days from now.

For each area of focus there is going to be a laundry list of possible projects and tasks that will move you toward your goal. If this is the first time you have ever tackled this kind of business planning, you would be wise to limit your focus over the next 90 days to only two projects in each area. This does not sound like a lot, but two projects over three areas of focus equals six projects over 13 weeks. If each project has four or five tasks that means you are adding 30 things to your to-do list for the next quarter. You don't need to do any more than that.

Now it's time to get to work. The key to making significant progress in your business over the next year comes down to carrying out your to-do list on a weekly basis. I have developed a simple spreadsheet that I have used over and over again to help business owners stay focused on their quarterly projects and one year goals. I suggest that you print it out, fill it in, and keep it on your desk where you can see it every day. If your plan is staring you in the face when you arrive in the morning, and it's one of the last things you see when you turn off the lights at night you are much for likely to focus on your priorities and goals when scheduling your time.

There are couple things you should remember as you start this process. First, it is unlikely that you will maintain steady progress throughout the year. There will be times when you fall off the tracks, and lose focus on your plan for days or weeks. Accept this, know that it will happen, and prepare yourself for the day when you will have to get back on track. It can be incredibly discouraging to fall behind on your plan. That's one of the reasons I only advocate three areas of focus and two projects per quarter. Even if you get distracted after six or seven weeks the worst-case scenario is that you will lose little more than a month's worth of progress. With each quarter comes a chance to push the reset button and start over. If you successfully complete all your projects for the quarter and your areas of focus show significant progress toward your year-end goals you can begin the next quarter with a whole new set of 90 day goals and corresponding projects. But if some things remain undone do not feel bad about continuing to work on those things for more than one quarter. If your annual goals were important enough to list in the first place, they are important enough to focus on until you see progress.

Second, your success rate is directly proportional to the level of outside accountability in your life. If no one knows about your plan it will be very easy to just stick it in a drawer if you fall behind. Private failure is something most of us have become very accustomed to. But public failure is a different prospect entirely. I encourage you to tell people about your plan. But be careful. If you have a team your first inclination may be to share it with key employees. If this is the first time you have engaged in a planning exercise you may want to reconsider laying all of this out to your employees. I think it is better for first timers to share their plan with fellow business owners, outside coaches, or other business advisors before they get involved in leading a team through the strategic planning and execution process.

The reason for this is trust. A leader who develops a plan, follows that plan for a few weeks or months, then abandons the plan because things have gone off the tracks may seriously damage the trust relationship with key employees. Successive efforts to introduce business planning will be met with skepticism and halfhearted efforts. That is why I think it's better to seek accountability from outside your team. It is highly likely that at some point during your first year of planning you will fall of the tracks. It is better to have your personal accountability group rake you over the coals and get you back on track than it is to have your employees discouraged and disenchanted with the whole idea of strategic planning and execution.

There is nothing worse than looking back over the last year and realizing things have not changed. I hope to help you avoid that depressing feeling. Putting together a simple, achievable plan is the first step. Aim low. Don't get too ambitious. Get an early win in the books, and build on that success once you know what it feels like. Working a plan this next year could be the start of a whole new chapter in your business life.

"Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play" by Randy Illig and Mahan Khalsa

Joey Brannon — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:03:14 +0000

Last month we hosted the first Axiom Book Club lunch where we learned a game changing approach to professional selling. Randy Illig and Mahan Khalsa developed the framework for their book "Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play" from the trenches of professional selling. Their take on the sales process is built around collaboration and trust rather than manipulation and closing.

I spent about an hour walking attendees through the book and giving some examples of how the principles in this book have helped transform our selling process at Axiom. We will be doing six more of these events in 2012 beginning the third Thursday in February and every other month thereafter. Look for announcements on this blog three weeks prior to each event. Hope to see you there.

Discover the Best Sales Training Resource on the Planet from Joey Brannon on Vimeo.

When Quitting Doesn't Suck

Joey Brannon — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:05:51 +0000

Last month I wrote a piece on quitting and the difference between throwing in the towel and failure. Since then I've read a book that challenged my thinking in several areas. The book is Dr. Henry Cloud's "Necessary Endings: The employees, businesses and relationship that all of us have to give up in order ot move forward." For anyone that believes perseverance and sticking it out are the only ways to success this book offers a cold dose of reality.

Now, I don't think Dr. Cloud and I are miles apart in our thinking, but I did recognize that my propensity to be optimistic and hopeful is not helpful in every situation. There were three key takeaways that I got from the book.

First, hopelessness is necessary to drive difficult cheange. Unless you see the present course of action as hopeless you will keep pressing on. You will keep throwing money into a losing business. You will keep wasting time in a dead end relationship. And you will keep giving too many chances to the wrong employee. Hopelessness is your ally in defeating the status quo, in getting unstuck from the ruts of bad habit and unproductive routine.

In order to get to the point of hopelessness Cloud says we must do the exact opposite of what every self help book teaches. Rather than envisioning the future as rosy and ideal, Cloud says to play the present tape forward. Imagine things progressing along their existing path. Imagine nothing gets better and things just run their course. What kind of misery are you in for? How ugly is it going to get? See it, touch it, taste it, and feel it in all its misery and ugliness.

Seeing where your present path is headed makes it easier to embrace the kind of uncomfortable change required to start a new course. It turns out this strategy is rooted in Cloud's understanding of how the past works, and it is an integral part to the second big takeaway.

Second, Cloud asserts the past will repeat itself unless: 1) you have a different person to believe in or 2) you have radically different behavior to believe in. This sounds like common sense but it isn't the way we live. Often hope is the only strategy for underperforming sales, struggling business units and dead beat spouses. I'm not saying we shouldn't exercise mercy and grace, but I am saying it's foolish to put your faith in something that has only let you down miserably, even if that something is your own behavior.

Third, when the necessary ending involves a person we must distinguish between the person and the behavior. The ending should start with the behavior and move on to the person only if they can't get things under control. Cloud makes a great point about employers who say "David needs to change," or "Sue needs to get her act together." The truth is neither David nor Sue is under any compulsion to change. Their behavior is working out just fine for them. It's the employer or the co-worker that is suffering.

Recognizing this problem allows an effective leader to have make unacceptable behaviour the employee's problem. A conversation detailing the behaviors that are now the employee's problem should be followed by a frank series of consequences for failure to change. In short, we need to stop making these folks problems our own. Give them back their problems and give them consequences for failure to change. After that let them deal with the consequences.

This book was refreshing for me because it gave me some clarity on things in my life and business that need to reach a point of hopelessness. Our time and billing system is a good example. For six years we had been trying to do innovative, value added work alongside timesheets and it just wasn't working. Reaching a degree of hopelessness allowed me to make some bold commitments, learn a new way of managing our workflow and implement real change in a very short amount of time.

In an attempt to reconcile Cloud's book with my previous post I can say that reaching necessary endings really isn't anything like quitting. On the contrary, getting to and accepting a necessary ending is about seeing the reality of our failures. Too often these gray areas masquerade as problems in need of perseverance and hope. The reality, while stark and depressing, is that pruning through the acceptance and hastening of necessary endings is the secret many successful entrepreneurs have learned the hard way. I highly recommend Cloud's book.

Quitting Sucks

Joey Brannon — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:20:49 +0000

Think back to a time in your life when you quit something. Quitting sucks. I don't mean quitting something bad like smoking or drinking or watching purple dinosaurs with your kids. I mean when you quit something that's hard, something that requires more than you are willing to pay...at that moment. Quitting sucks. It sucks for you, it sucks for the people in your life when you quit and it sucks for the unseen dozens, hundreds or thousands who were counting on you not to quit.

I quit something that I have regretted for the last 16 years. When I was in college I played soccer. I was on scholarship, not a big scholarship, but it was decent enough the coach thought it justifiable to subsidize my education. But I quit. As soccer increasingly impeded my social life and ambitions outside the classroom I decided I would stop.

It took about a year, but it happened. The gnawing regret set in and now every time I think about that hastily made decision I wish I had decided differently. I wish someone would have tried harder to talk me out of it. I wish I would have paused to consider the "no going back" part of my decision. I wish I would have understood that quitting is a one-way street. There is no going back. I wish...I wish...I wish...

And that's why I quit and that's why I still regret it. I was wishing my way to an easier, less stressful, more enjoyable college career. I should have been working my way there, but I wasn't. I was wishing. And unless you're a fairy godmother (or have access to one) wishing will get you little in life.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon I caught myself watching Rudy on cable. Rudy is the story of Dan "Rudy" Ruettiger, a small football player with a big heart. Rudy earned his way into Notre Dame football history by not quitting. There is a scene in the movie at a time when Rudy has been denied admission to Notre Dame for the third or fourth time. He's sitting in a church, incredibly distraught and he asks the priest "Have I done everything I possibly can?"

That, in a nutshell, is the story of Rudy Ruettiger. It explains his success at Notre Dame and the stamp he has placed on the world. He could have blamed the admissions staff, the system of privilege, his parents inability to help, or any other of a hundred excuses. But he didn't because he knew those things were irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was whether or not he had done everything he possibly could to achieve his goal.

When you quit you stop asking "Have I done everything I possibly can?" When you quit you are usually saying something like "I wish it would have turned out better." It is OK to fail. As business owners we have innumerable opportunities to fail every day and every week. There are goals we miss, initiatives that die on the vine, projects that fall flat, employees that don't work out and customers that get upset. Quitting says "that's life and there's nothing I can do about it." I want to challenge you to ask a question instead. Ask "Have I personally done everything I possibly can to make this happen?" If the answer is yes, you might be failing. If the answer is no you are on the verge of quitting. Act wisely after you answer. Sixteen years later you'll remember your choice, and you'll remember it with pride or regret.

Pay for Performance, Creating a Self Managed Organization

Joey Brannon — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:28:48 +0000

Today I an spending a very enlightening 7 hours with Dr. Bill Abernathy learning about pay for performance. If you have any questions on performance pay post them in the comments and I will follow up with Dr. Abernathy to get you an answer during Q&A or breaks.

Doctors vs. Trainers: The Changing Role of CPA's

Joey Brannon — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:57:33 +0000

According to Jason Blumer the accounting profession as it relates to small business is experiencing a paradigm shift driven by technology. This shift requires CPA's to reevaluate the role they play in client's businesses and strive to redefine what it means to bring value to that relationship. I am thankful for Jason's voice and leadership. I believe he is dead on in his reasoning and vision for what our profession can and should become.

As I work out what this shift means in our business I try to imagine what it is that our clients need us to do. What does this new landscape look like from their point of view and how could their world change for the better because of it. In any field experiencing rapid change it is helpful to contrast the old school of thinking with the new.

In an effort to distinguish old line services from the new CPA paradigm I want to draw an analogy. Traditionally CPA firms have been much like the old school family doctor. You went in when you were sick, often you were told to wait it out and it would take care of itself, and if you ever needed medicine the experience left you wondering if the cure was worse than the illness.

The role of CPA's is changing as the profession and the tools at its disposal evolve. Technology is a huge part of this, but it's not the biggest factor. By far the greatest driving force behind these changes is the new role young CPA firm owners are choosing for themselves. Rather than old school family doctors they fashion themselves as personal trainers, and they do so in three interesting ways.

First, they view business growth and progress as a wholistic undertaking. For example, they understand that accounting is a function that reaches deep into business processes. Tax planning is a component of overhead management. Revenue generation is a result of sound marketing and execution. In the same way that a personal trainer would not presume to increase upper body strength while neglecting the back and legs these CPA's don't mandate accounting changes that hamstring other parts of the business. They're discussions often range from technical accounting matters to customer service, to product mix, to human resources. They understand that the more integrated their solutions are to the entire business the more successful they will be.

Second, this new breed of CPA's understands that the process is iterative. When you visit a trainer you don't begin fixing everything at once. You may be tasked with improving your cardiovascular fitness first so that you can endure more strenuous workouts later. Over time you will work on nutrition, flexibility, endurance, balance, explosive strength, coordination, etc. You tackle one area at a time and build on that success in a process similar to continuous improvement. Similarly, business owners can benefit from a long term approach that doesn't try to address every area at once. Improvements in record keeping efficiency can create more time for strategic planning. More detailed and accurate records can support the creation of more relevant and insightful key performance indicators. The separation of responsibilities can not only improve internal controls but make the expansion of the organization chart less stressful. This iterative approach is much more effective than the old school philosophy of "bring me your problems and I'll fix them."

Third, the relationship itself between a forward thinking CPA and client is constantly evolving. When you begin working with a personal trainer the role is primarily one of teacher and encourager. As you make progress and become more knowledgable the role transitions to one of counselor and coach. As your training and development become more advanced you and your trainer may find that you are both learning from each other and benefiting from one another's experience in different ways. This same dynamic occurs as business owners progress in their knowledge and understanding of the principles that most impact business growth. After a while their experiences and hard won knowledge help the CPA see new options for other clients who might be facing similar challenges.

Ask yourself whether your experience is more like that of visiting an old school family doctor or working with an engaged personal trainer. If you aren't satisfied ask your CPA to trade the black bag and stethoscope for a medicine ball and stopwatch.

My Personal 90 Day Makeover

Joey Brannon — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:52:02 +0000

For the past week I've been enjoying a vacation with my family. It has been over 2,500 miles of good times, countless one liners from 3 and 6 year old passengers and lots of good, old fashioned road trip family time. It was also the first time in over a year that I have had more than a couple of days away from the office to think and reflect on how things are going. It was during those times of reflection that I decided to get honest, perhaps more honest than I have been with myself in a while.

I am in the business of helping clients build better businesses and as I look back over the last few years I have to admit that I have not done a good job at following some of the advice I dispense on a daily basis. I'm not going to sugar coat it. I am not where I thought I would be six years after starting Axiom. There are plenty of reasons, some strategic and some tactical, some environmental. However, the biggest reason has been staring me in the mirror for the past week.

The great joy of my job is working with extraordinary clients. What has always impressed me about these folks is that you know, you just know, that whatever they decide to do they will do it well, do it profitably and help a lot of people in the process. So I asked myself "If some of my most successful clients were in my shoes what would that look like on a daily basis?" I thought back to biographies of great leaders that I've read, contemporary and historical, and asked myself what habits they would try to cultivate.

I came up with a list of twelve things that I want to do better. Some of these areas are more personal and some are more business oriented. But I don't think you can successfully segregate the two, nor should you if you want to be genuine and sincere in all you do. So here is the list of things I am committed to improving in my daily routine.

Wake up at 5 am, every day. I am at my best early in the morning. I've known this since college, but without discipline I fall into a habit of getting up when everyone else does. By then I have lost the time and the environment to get my day off to the best start possible.

Have a personal quiet time. I am a spiritual person and I need time for scripture reading, meditation and prayer. When I don't make time to commune with God my priorities get skewed and I lose focus on what is important.

Exercise. I am 38 years old living in the body of a 45 year old. To accomplish my personal and professional goals I need both better stamina and better general health. Besides that I have two little boys that I want to be able to beat at any sport well into their teenage years. Daily exercise needs to be part of my life.

Professional appearance. I need to do a better job looking the part. Impressions matter when you are doling out business advice and to be taken seriously I need to take my wardrobe and all aspects of my personal appearance seriously. I am going to raise the standards for my dress in and out of the office.

In first. I set the tone for both work ethic and punctuality in the office. Getting there first insures that I have time to start my work day without interruption while setting a good example. It also means that I can establish some professional habits in my workday that will help increase my productivity.

In-reach. Clients set the stage for any success we enjoy. Without them there is no business to be had, no projects to complete, no expectations to exceed. Each day I need to have at least one deep, personal experience with a client to understand what is important to their success, what matters most to their business and family and how we are trying to help.

Out-reach. Clients are not the only ones I need to engage with on a deeper level. Community leaders, referral partners, colleagues and other professionals are all critical to our future success. Each day I need to be engaged with the people who can help spread the message about what we do, how we do it, and how different we are from our competitors.

Prospecting. New clients rarely beat down your door. Each day I need to be actively recruiting the clients I want to work with most. It is not enough to plan, strategize and coordinate. I need to be engaged in these conversations every day.

Plan tomorrow today. This is a practice advocated by time management and effectiveness gurus all the time. I have often done this but doing it every day is essential to realizing my full potential. For the next 90 days I will plan tomorrow before ending my day.

Evaluate the day. Reflecting on what went well and what did not is essential to making continuous positive change. Before ending each day I will spend a few minutes writing down my thoughts on where I succeeded and where I still need to improve.

Read. I need to feed my mind good material at the end if each day. Whether it is a few pages or a few chapters I need to make this a consistence part of my routine.

Improve my diet. To keep better tabs on what I am putting in my body I will keep a daily log of everything I eat. I need to be more disciplined and I just need to lose some weight. Research shows that people who track what they eat are more successful at changing their habits so that is what I am going to do.

Why am I telling you all of this? For one simple reason. I am ready for a change. I am ready to step up to the next level and I am smart enough to know that it is not going to be easy. By making this declaration publicly I hope to enlist readers of this blog, clients, family members, friends and co-workers in my journey. For the next 90 days I commit to make each of these activities part of my daily routine. Sundays will be a little different as I rest and worship, but most of these resolutions will still be part of my day. If you are interested in how I'm doing you can track my progress here. I will also post daily updates on my personal site, JoeyBrannon.com. Feel free to hold me accountable, to encourage, cajole, needle, and urge me on. In 90 days I plan to be a better person running a more successful business.

A Holiday of Dependence

Joey Brannon — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:28:49 +0000

I love July 4th. Some of my fondest memories center on an annual July 4th family reunion in Florida's panhandle. My love for the holiday has grown as I've have become a fan of our country's early political history. I can thank one of my favorite clients, Wayne Dahlke, for introducing me to some of the great historical fiction writers covering this era.

As I recall reading some of Wayne's books and various biographies of our government's early leaders I am sitting among family members enjoying a truly wonderful and blessed weekend to begin a week long family vacation in Texas. Outside of Boston or Philadelphia I think you would be hard pressed to find an Independence streak that runs as deep and wide as the one through the Lone Star State.

But the thing about Independence is that it's just the first step on a journey. What you do with independence will determine whether you continue to enjoy its benefits. And the great paradox is that independence is anything but isolation and autonomy from the rest of the world. In the same way that the early United States had allies, champions and heroes you have a constellation of encouragers, helpers, partners and supporters interested in your success.

Business owners are perceived as having a great degree of independence, and in many respects that is true. But those who flaunt their autonomy soon find that progress is much more difficult alone. I want to encourage you this holiday. I would like you to spend a few minutes thinking about how dependent you are on the people who mean the most to you and your life.

Family first. Those closest to us are most likely to be taken for granted. Team You has a deep bench and you probably don't realize how often your spouse, your children, your parents, your nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws and extended family admire, appreciate, and support all you do. Remember how big this family is, how great is its love for you and that little else will matter if they aren't part of your journey. I have been blessed beyond measure that the number of family members contributing to the person I am extends from Florida to Texas to Colombia and areas between. I love you all greatly.

Friends forever. A decision to share your life with friends is a bold move. Deep friendships are exciting, joyful, a little edgy and always moving forward. Friends who care for you make you a better person than you would have been otherwise. They tell you things you might not want to hear and make sure you don't beat yourself up too often. To guys like Todd and Matthew and Larry and Frankie and Peter and about a dozen others I am grateful for my dependence on you.

Colleagues. The people you spend your days with include coworkers, customers, vendors, neighbors, competitors and countless others. Those people care about you or they wouldn't bother. We get busy prioritizing and optimizing and sometimes lose sight of how much these folks mean to all we do. My coworkers and clients are my business. Without them what I do everyday would be fundamentally different. Their decision to do business with me is strictly voluntary and I am incredibly grateful for their decision to do so. To Robbie, Patty and Mandy as well as Irene, Solondria, Mary, Theresa, Sam, Chad and Lynn I need to say thanks. To every client that has ever hired us to help with something I want to say thanks as well. It is a great blessing that the list of clients I'd like to name is longer than most readers would want to endure.

The list goes on. These three groups, family, friends and colleagues are common to all of us. But my list keeps going and so does yours. I hope you get a chance today to spend time with some of these people that mean so much to you. I hope you also take a minute to reach out to a few others and let them know that your Independence Day is filled with thankfulness and gratitude for your dependence on them. I just did it and my July 4th is off to an EPIC start!

The Death of an Industry (& it's great for clients)

Joey Brannon — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:01:22 +0000

My profession is undergoing cataclismic change just like many other other knowledge based businesses that have traditionally been heavilly data dependent. There's a mouthful in that sentence and I think Jason Blumer is exactly on the mark with his recent post The Accountancy Revolution. Jason tackles the issue from the side of the CPA. I'm going to take a stab at what this means for the client.

In the past clients were drowning in accounting data. They had to gather it, record it, reconcile it and report it. This was great news for CPA's and bookkeepers. The world of "write up" (i.e. producing monthly financial statements) was a great source of recurring revenue.

Here's the problem. Any business owner can now go out and buy or subscribe to a very capable software or web-based accounting system for under $400/year. Once setup properly and integrated into their workflow this system CREATES the accounting data in the form of purchase orders, estimates, sales orders, packing slips, invoices and checks. GONE are the days of gathering accounting data.

These same systems when interfaced properly with banking and credit card web sites pull down any missing data, reconcile existing transactions and leave the operater with a bit of coding to do on the new transactions. Over time the system learns to do this coding automatically further reducing the workload on the operator.

The final mile is covered when vendors are setup on autopay, paper statements are ceased and all payables can be handled through semi-automated services like bill.com.

This is bookkeeping nirvanna for a small business owner and it represents the death of an industry to accountants. I'm pretty happy about it, but those who have been in the business much longer than I have may not be so upbeat. Still, for the client this is phenomenal news. Here's what you should be doing about it.

Automate. Find out how much of your current accounting and record keeping system can be automated. I sat down with a son getting ready to take over dad's business last week and by the time we were finished we had re-engineered the work flow so that after a new customer was setup ZERO data entry was required in quickbooks. To quote Home Depot "You can do this, your CPA can help!"

Redesign. Ask your CPA to help you redesign any processes that create bottlenecks or high error rates. One business we helped had high error rates on invoices. We moved all the work that went into invoices right to the front of the order and had the client sign a "sales order" instead of a contract. Now when the order is complete an accurate invoice is created with ZERO errors with one click of the mouse.

Embrace the technology. This is the hardest part for most clients, but realize one thing. Reluctance to use technology is about YOU, not some realistic concern that the bank is going to steal all your money or that every customer is going to receive incorrect invoices. Nothing your CPA is going to recommend should be risky or unproven. It's all as safe as online banking. It's all secure and it all works. I tell clients, "Give it 90 days and it will change your life."

Decide to standardize. The most variable element in any business is the owner. We worked for a very short time with a business that had four or five different ways of invoicing customers. I appreciate the desire for great customer service, but this business was so focused on accomodating special invoice formatting requests that their actual service was slipping. When it comes to business processes you must decide how things will get done and then do them that way...EVERY TIME. Unless you do this automated systems won't work.

The small business accounting industry is changing, for both you and your CPA. Embrace it, use it to advance your business and don't get left behind your more open minded competitors. Once the basics are covered you and your CPA will have the time and accurate numbers to plan strategically for your future, and evaluate whether current plans are operating as expected. You can tackle exciting new initiatives like Open Book Management that catapult your business to a new level.

The role of the small business CPA is changing from that of a doctor who fixes things when they're broken to something more akin to a personal trainer. You need to have your CPA come alongside to give your bookkeeping system a good physical and possibly a rehab. Then you will be ready to get in the best business shape of your life. More on that in the next post.

Hard Work Is Not What You Think It Is

Joey Brannon — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:37:30 +0000

Year after year I come to understand a single principle more clearly. Business owners who out perform their peers are hard workers. Further their employees are hard workers. Further still, they have invested in creating a culture of hard work. But just what is hard work? It is not what you might first think.

As business owners we have the flexibility to choose what it is we want to do each day. There is little accountability. There is much freedom. To the uninitiated it is easy to move from idea to idea, initiative to initiative and to do so whenever the urge strikes. This often leads to a trail of unfinished projects, abandoned goals and forgotten strategies. The hard workers are those that invest in the planning to decide what things they should be doing. And then these same hard workers execute, tie up loose ends and get closure. That's it.

I talk a lot about the planning piece in this blog. And many business owners actually enjoy the process, even if they must learn how to do it effectively. It is disciplined execution that separates the leaders from the rest. I will give you three examples of what effective execution looks like.

First, leaders execute within a predictable schedule and set of processes. These might include daily meetings, weekly meetings, monthly planning sessions, quarterly goal setting and annual strategy reviews. Vern Harnish describes a rhythm in organizational life built around such processes. It is not easy to do. The discipline to do the same things every day, week in, week out is not sexy. Business owners like the fact that they can set their own schedule. But unless they subject themselves to the type of structure their team needs to communicate and receive feedback their goals will be hard to attain.

Second, leaders do the hard things, the unenjoyable things. Sometimes you will hear successful business owners attribute their success to working smart, not hard. When questioned further I have found that most of the time this boils down to doing the unenjoyable thing first. To understand this consider the business owner that knows she must reconcile customer accounts before the team can move forward with several important proposals. Rather than sit down to reconcile the accounts the undesirable task is pushed off all morning while less pressing business is completed. After lunch the owner does a complex proposal herself because staff cannot complete it without the reconciliation. Finally, as everyone else is leaving for the day the dreaded task is begun and by 8 pm it is done. The next day everyone considers what a "hard worker" they have for a boss.

By contrast the business owner who shuts the office door and tackles the task at 8 am is done by mid morning, turns over the proposal for staff to complete and spends the afternoon golfing with a customer. Is this working smart or just doing hard things first?

Third, leaders live lives of public accountability. Accountability is in short supply for business owners. No one does their annual reviews. No one pats them on the back for a job well done. Yet they understand the need for someone to hold their feet to the fire when things start to look bleak. While it is true many leaders will join peer groups and hire business coaches their ability to create accountability for themselves goes far beyond having a handful of people look over their shoulder.

Leaders make their vision and goals known to as many people as possible. Whether it is a business or personal affair, they proclaim their intent for all to hear. After all, the prospect of a public failure is much more motivating than a private one. They make public statements about leading their industry. They talk openly about passing competitors. They don't mince words or talk in vague language. One of my favorite examples of this type of behavior is Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group. Sir Richard's shenanigans are legendary and when he does something to land on the front page he knows how that public spectacle will serve as motivational fuel to succeed in the future.

The next time someone talks about hard work think intently about exactly what they mean. Working hard is not the same as doing hard things. Working hard conjures up images of long hours, bleak prospects and calloused hands. Doing hard things is more about determination and discipline, two things that can get you back on the golf course that much faster.