Favourite Customers

Our favourite business Owners are the ones that engage in their financials as a way to understand their business better.  They use them to make decisions about what’s working what isn’t and where improvements can be made.  Our favourite Business Owners stop and chat with us about how they are doing, about what their plans are and about business ideas.

In other words, our favourite business Owners take advantage of our knowledge.

For a bookkeeper, the job is done when the information is entered, reconciled and the appropriate reports are sent to the government. Phew, that was a lot of work, now where’s the next one?

Bookkeeping looks like this:

  1. Bookkeeping data entry
  2. Reconciliations of accounts to check for missing information and accuracy
  3. Preparation of reports for government and management
  4. Reading and interpretation of those reports
  5. Glean information and apply to business practices
  6. Trial, feedback, tweak, feedback, try something else, feedback, celebration for some success, tweak some more, feedback, rinse, repeat
  7. Tax planning and long-range forecasting

When most people think of bookkeeping they think of those first 3 steps.  Accountants are pros at the last step.  The business people who are growing their businesses are performing steps 4-6.  Our favourite Business Owners use our services to engage in those 3 business building steps.  We’ve assembled a team here with a great depth of business and computer knowledge and experience.  Ready, willing and able to help Our Business Owners.

What we are finding is that for the straight commodity service of plugging in numbers and spitting out appropriate reports, we may not be the best.  There I said it.  We have considerably more skill than that and we focus more on the interesting, fun jobs.  I’m not that great with time, in that counting on me to remember that you have reports due by the 15th, might be optimistic.  That’s why we are looking so deeply into automation.  I shouldn’t have to remember things like that – no one should have to these days.

Looking into the business model and examining our business helps us see our strengths and weaknesses.  We have figured out who we like working with and why.  This helps us tailor our offerings, our marketing and our intake process.

I am writing this post, so far, in one sitting and you are reading it at one time.  This feels like a lie because these ideas have developed over the last 30 days of the 100 Day Challenge.  In fact, they continue to solidify as I am writing this.  I’m trying to say, this stuff takes time – thinking time.  It takes awareness of your business, your strengths and your weaknesses.  It takes truth, courage and wisdom.

Who are you serving?  Who are your favourites?  What do they really want from you?  How can you use your strengths (or your business’s strengths) to help them the most?  How can you attract more of the people who will benefit most from what you offer?

Similar posts
  • Janet Thinks About Scaling Her Busine... “Janet” Janet was in the building supply store checking in on things when she heard her name called. They were a major supplier, therefore a major part of her business. She wanted to make sure they knew who she was and that they were happy with her. She looked around to see who was calling [...]
  • Scaling Up Means You Need a Bigger La... The question I get asked the most is “How do I get more customers?” The answer is rarely about marketing. Usually they are trying to scale up by doing more of the same.  It’s like trying to reach higher without getting a bigger ladder. The business owners who scale successfully find a bigger ladder and [...]
  • The Conventional Unconventional Path When does the unconventional path many people follow become the conventional path? It happened again the other day. I was speaking with 2 business owners. One who had built a business to almost 100 people in 6 years. The other owner was following the conventional route to starting a business by writing his business plan, [...]
  • You are the product of the 5 people c... You have the same health, the same bad and good habits and the same beliefs as the 5 people closest to you. Choose those people wisely. The research is in and this holds for your personal life. I see the same hold for business. More than anything, you share the same beliefs with the people [...]
  • Feeling Overwhelmed Doesn’t Have to b... There is this myth in business that feeling overwhelmed is situation normal. The idea is that there is more to do than you can possibly do and that you have to wear many hats, even if they don’t fit well. The only reason it feels that way is because of the MBA model of business. [...]