December 5, 2024 • 27 mins
Unlock the secrets to transitioning from a liberal arts background to a thriving accounting career with Gary Massey from Massey and Company CPA. Gary's journey from global accounting firms to launching his own practice is a testament to resilience and authenticity. Learn how stepping out of the corporate world and fostering genuine relationships can propel your client base to new heights. Gary shares invaluable insights on marketing with confidence and leveraging CRM tools to create connections that last. This episode is a treasure trove of practical advice for anyone ready to step out of their comfort zone and embrace the world of networking and business growth.
Discover how accounting firms are transforming their marketing strategies in the digital age. We explore the critical role of SEO, blogging, and social media, and how platforms like YouTube are becoming powerful tools for reaching wider audiences. Learn about enhancing content through Google Business Profiles and the future potential of AI tools in content creation. Elevate your position as the advisor your clients need by strategically growing your influence and staying ahead of industry trends. Don't miss out on future episodes of CFO Chronicles that promise to keep you informed and inspired in the world of finance and marketing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Today we're diving into the world of tax strategy
and small business accountingwith Gary from Massey and
Company CPA.
Gary and his team specialize intaking the stress out of taxes,
irs negotiations and strategicplanning for small businesses.
They bring a wealth ofexperience helping clients
navigate complex tax issues,maximize strategies and savings
(01:10):
in good standing with the IRS.
I'm excited to hear Gary'sinsight on how small businesses
can approach tax planning,reduce their liabilities and
make informed financialdecisions.
Gary, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You're most welcome.
Thank you, James.
It's great to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So, Gary, let's start at the beginning.
How did you get in to the worldof accounting?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Okay, that's a great question.
I actually came from a liberalarts background.
When I was in college, I was ahistory major.
I didn't know anything aboutaccounting.
And then, along in college, Iwas a history major, I didn't
know anything about accounting.
And then, along the way, Ireally fell into it.
Somebody suggested that I go tograd school to study accounting
, which is the last thing that Iever thought about, but it was
a good time in my life for that,and so I went to grad school to
(02:00):
study accounting tax accountingin a brand new program, and
that's how I did it.
That's how I ended up at it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Very interesting and I'm assuming, based off of how
long the firm's been around, forit's been a successful career
path.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, it's been great .
I actually started my careerworking for the large global
accounting firms, for the famousfirms, and I did that for a
long time and I also work forsome regional firms and I
eventually started my ownpractice about 10 years ago
approximately, and it was thebest thing that I ever did.
And I must tell you that in thevery beginning, when I was
(02:43):
working for other people in bigfirms, it was with a bit of pain
.
You know, being an employee oflarge accounting firms, there
was a lot of pain involved.
But when I started my own firm,I just love it.
I'm happy to wake up everymorning, go to work because this
belongs to me and it's verycreative and I really never knew
that it would be so exciting,but it really is.
(03:05):
When it's your firm, it makes ahuge difference.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What motivates you to go out on your own?
Because it can be very dauntingto start something on your own.
You don't have that security ofI mean even just as basic, as I
know I'm going to get paidevery week if you're working for
a larger firm that's beenaround for a while.
So what motivated you fromleaving the corporate world to
(03:30):
you know what?
I'm going to do this on my own.
I'm going to bring on my ownclients.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Sure, I started doing this as a side gig while I was
working for other people.
I would go to work during theday and I'd come home at night
and work on some of my ownclients, and that's how I
learned the basics of themanagement of an accounting
practice.
That's how I really began, andI didn't feel the risk because,
(03:58):
as I said, I was working duringthe day for somebody else.
And then, along the way, I hadan opportunity to work for
another company as somethingthat I really fell into.
It was a marketing directorposition at an evaluation firm,
and I just once again fell intoit, and what I learned there was
(04:21):
really golden.
It was really about marketing,the basics of marketing and I
developed self-confidence in myability to sell, and that was
incredible.
Just to know that I could dothat, to come to the realization
that I could sell, that I couldmarket and sell and become
(04:42):
confident in that.
That enabled me to open my ownpractice.
If it hadn't been for that andfor those guys who I was working
with, I don't think I would behere today.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's cool.
I think a lot of peoplestruggle with finding the
confidence to sell for their ownfirm, especially relying on a
lot of referrals.
Someone else has already kindof pre-sold, pre-sold your
services.
What would you say to those whoare listening who may be in
(05:11):
that position where you knowit's tough to go and find new
clients who they've never heardof you?
They're just used to closingreferrals yeah, it's not that
hard.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Uh, what you have to do is you have to go out into
the world.
First of all, you have to leavethe desk.
You have to go out into theworld and just talk with people.
So in the very beginning, Iused to go to a lot of
networking events and I had agood time doing that.
There's always some food to eatand opportunities to meet new
people and I would go and Iwould just talk and I would get
(05:45):
to know people.
I would be myself, I wouldalways be myself, never
pretending to be something else,and I would just get to know
people and I would.
Those days we had business cardsand I would develop a Rolodex
of business cards and I wouldget to know people and I would
make acquaintances or maybefriendships with them.
(06:05):
And that's how I got out infront of my desk and I started
going to various regularnetworking events, like BNI, you
know, which were regular, and Igot out there, I started going
to lunch with people, going outfor coffee with people, and I
learned different techniques.
One of the first things that Ilearned when techniques One of
the first things that I learnedwhen I was working for this
(06:26):
evaluation firm is about a CRM,which is a software to keep
track of marketing, and it'ssomething that I never knew
about before.
So I learned about a CRM and howto put it together and how to
do follow-ups.
That's one of the mostimportant things that I learned
is that in your CRM, you have torecord who you met, where you
(06:49):
met them, what their contactinformation is their email and
their telephone number and thenyou schedule follow-ups with
them.
And wow, I never knew aboutthat, but that's what you do.
You have a follow-up.
So you've spoken with somebodyand then maybe, whether it's two
weeks or six weeks or whateverit is, you have a follow-up.
Or maybe you send an email andyou don't hear from them, or you
(07:14):
make a phone call and you don'thear from them.
So in a certain amount of time,follow up and you just keep
doing it over and over and overagain and eventually you'll be
talking with people and you'lltell them about yourself and
you'll be yourself and they'llbe happy to get to know you.
And one of the great thingsabout accounting, tax and
(07:34):
accounting is that everybodyneeds it, so it's not such a
hard sell.
It's not like you're sellinginsurance, which is much harder
to sell.
Everybody needs this.
But once you can learn thetools like I said, CRM, and get
a business card and beself-confident, you can really
do it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That's awesome.
I think it gets overcomplicated too much and, at the
core, all you're doing is justhave more conversations with
people who fit the bill to buythe things that you offer, find
people who have a need and youhave the solution and just have
as many of those conversationsas you can on a daily basis.
(08:19):
That is, at its core, what itcomes down to.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That's right.
There are a couple otherchallenges which you need to
deal with along the way.
One of the first challenges isyou have to know what you're
selling, to identify what it is,what the service is, what the
product is.
And then, even harder, is toknow what you're going to charge
Pricing.
Pricing is very, verychallenging and at the very
(08:47):
beginning, people usually startlow, which is fine because
you're developing confidence andwhatever price you pick, you
have to be able to say it withconfidence.
This is what I deserve, becauseeverybody charges pick.
You have to be able to say itwith confidence.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
This is what I deserve.
Everybody charges.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You don't go to the store and buy a loaf of bread
without paying for it.
Everybody has to pay for whatthey buy, so you have to be
confident about that.
But along the way you developthat confidence to talk about
price and you set a price andthen you stick with it and you
know there are some people whowill say it's too expensive,
whatever it is, and there areother people who are going to
(09:23):
pay you and that's good.
And you just start doing thatand start collecting and over
time you can increase prices andadjust prices to a more
appropriate level, little bylittle, and after a while you'd
be surprised it really works.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, all of a sudden , you have a while.
You'd be surprised it reallyworks.
Yeah, all of a sudden, you havea business and there's a
handful of people paying monthafter month, and it's a machine
that's running.
Now, something I always thinkabout with pricing when speaking
to our clients and telling themyou can always increase your
price, your price and if you'regetting a lot of people saying
yes to what your price is,probably a sign that you want to
(10:03):
have a really good offer or two.
Your price is too low.
If everybody's saying yes allthe time, it's probably time to
increase that price and add getpaid for what you're worth,
which is what you're saying.
So, yeah, that's great insight.
(10:23):
What is your marketing strategylook like today?
From 10 years ago when you gotstarted, I can only imagine it's
changed a lot with how farsocial media and in the online
presence of businesses come.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yes, that's absolutely true.
So when I started my ownbusiness social media, was not
so advanced and as I said beforeI did a lot of networking
events.
I would go out all the time.
I tried to go out like almostevery day to different kinds of
events.
So today it's not like that.
(11:13):
I don't go out so much.
Maybe I should, but I don't goout so much to the social events
, to networking.
I do a lot of online marketingand what I find to be the most,
and it is really, reallycritical.
And after you do it and you'velearned it, you would be
surprised after a while thephone starts to ring.
People find you online, whichis what search engine
optimization is about.
People finding you online andthey call you or they send you
(11:36):
an email and all of a suddenstarts to take off, and that is
my recommendation.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
That's cool, and it doesn't happen overnight like
you said it is kind of no itdoesn't?
It's that graph that it's justflat, flat, flat, and then all
of a sudden it goes up by like90 degrees.
It's that overnight successthat everyone thinks people
achieve but they don't see.
You know the three years ofwhat you were doing to optimize
(12:07):
so that your website was goingto show up.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
That's right, and you know, speaking with other other
business people is veryadvantageous.
You can learn from other people.
I, for one, am happy to talkwith anybody who wants to chat,
Any accountant.
Anybody who wants to talk withme, I'm happy to do it.
There is plenty of business foreverybody.
There are no secrets that I'mgoing to hide from anybody.
I'm an open book and I'm happyto share.
(12:34):
There's business for everybody,but SEO the search engine
optimization is what I havefound to be the most effective,
much more than going tonetworking events, that's how I
started, but now it's the SEO,and SEO involves, for example,
blogging.
I have a blog and I put stuffout there and eventually the
(12:59):
blog gets found.
You have to learn certainskills, but if I can do it,
anybody can do it.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's cool.
What else are you focused onunder SEO, because that is a big
umbrella acronym for what fallsunder search engine
optimization.
You mentioned you're doing someblogs on your website.
What falls under search engineoptimization?
You mentioned you're doing someblogs on your website.
Are there any other areasonline that you're planting
these seeds to help your SEOpresence?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, well, so when we publish a blog, we also
repost it on social media, sothat would be Facebook, linkedin
.
I think we put it on maybeInstagram and Twitter, some
other places I don't see a lotof benefit from that.
(13:50):
But why not?
It's easy to do, it's free, Ithink, and why not?
Maybe it'll work.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, One spot we started also to do.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
What we started to do recently is a little bit more
YouTube.
Okay, so that remains to beseen.
I've recently put out a bunchof YouTube videos.
You folks can look at them.
Maybe they're good or not, Idon't know.
It's a whole different skillset doing videos, but that's
something new that we're goingto give a try.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, it all starts.
It starts zero to one.
Right, you can't just get tothat 10,000 subscriber on
YouTube without making thatfirst video.
That's probably not going to bethat great, but over time and
practice they can learn feedback, and I'm sure your first blog
wasn't as solid as maybe some ofyour most recent blogs have
(14:44):
been, but you took the step toget it started and now you have
the momentum.
That's probably true.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
One thing that I have learned on the subject of SEO
and getting better is that whenyou write a blog or any kind of
what they call content, youwrite a piece of content.
You can always improve it.
You can make it better, you canadd, you can make it longer,
you can put pictures in, you canmake it a better piece of
content and then publish itagain.
(15:10):
So that's a skill, that's acertain thing which I learned
along the way.
You can always do that.
I don't know about videos, I'mnot sure I can do that in a
video, but certainly when itcomes to written content you can
make it better.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Of course.
Now, gary, in the world of AI,which is so rapidly taking over
so many, so many areas ofbusiness, excuse me, are you
sitting back and are you writingout the blog start to finish?
Or or is there some AIassistance or some AI tools
you're using in your businessright now?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm not quite there yet, but that's something that
we have to learn.
That's obviously new, and it'sa skill that needs to be learned
too, so that'll just supposedlyit'll make it easier, but that
remains to be seen.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay, cool One thing you mentioned you're posting on
a couple of different socialmedia platforms.
One spot I would add in for youthat would make a pretty big
impact is posting your articlesyou're writing on your Google
business profile, so anothergood spot where you're if you're
not already doing thatpublishing them there as well.
(16:23):
You might not necessarily get alot of people reading them, but
the bigger benefit is all ofyour keywords for your SEO,
which is the main objective ofyour blog post.
So if you're not already doingit, I'd highly recommend just
putting one on there.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Great idea.
One area that we have not doneis what do they call it?
Google ads, paid advertising?
I have never done it.
I know some people do.
I'm very curious to hear how itworks, but I have not done that
myself.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We can have a conversation after this
recording if you want to hear alittle bit about it, because
there's a lot of cool stuff todo with Google local service ads
to help get your phone ringing.
So, yeah, we can certainly chatabout that.
Tell me a little bit about youknow, 10 years, 10 years of
entrepreneurship.
What stands out to you as maybeone of those, like critical
(17:23):
moments of this is where thingsreally took a turn for the
better.
But if I like, was there anymoment that happened that you
can look back on?
That is a defining moment inyour entrepreneurship journey.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Well, the adoption of certain technologies.
I think that, as we got betterwith CRM, that made a big
difference.
And then, along the way, weadopted a platform called it's a
workflow platform.
We use a tool called Monday.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And Monday is a workflow platform.
There are others, there areother competitors and I'm sure
that most are very good, buthaving a workflow tool helped a
lot.
So that made a big differencealong the way once we did that.
And then the other thing Iwould add is along the way, when
(18:23):
you start to bring in people tohelp you, that's a very big
deal At the very beginning.
Somewhere along the way I wasable to bring in somebody to do
admin support.
That was a big deal for me,because then I was paying
somebody else and I wasresponsible for them, for that
person's livelihood.
(18:44):
I had to make sure that I wasmaking enough money to pay for
it, but at the same time itenabled me to grow significantly
, significantly.
So I think that was a.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That was a big deal for me that's really cool where
the firm is at today.
Is it what you imagined itwould be 10 years ago when you
got started?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think I had no idea what I was getting involved in,
but it's much better than Iever anticipated.
It's a great lifestyle, asyou're bringing people to help
you, and it just starts to growexponentially.
I'm really amazed by what agood thing it is.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
That's cool.
What would be your advice youwould give to anyone else who's
maybe a couple of years intobusiness and they want to reach
that 10-year milestone of beingin business, what's super
important for them to be keepingin mind or pushing towards, or
(19:49):
just be reminded of?
Be?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
reminded of.
Well, if you have an accountingfirm it's what we've already
discussed about selling Don'tjust sit at home and wait for
the phone to ring.
There are proactive things thatyou can do to grow your
business.
If we're talking with businesspeople generally, what I always
(20:11):
tell people is that they have tobe organized, they have to keep
their books and I mean maybewe're talking to accountants now
and it's obvious to them, but Ithink even for an accounting
firm, you have to keep the books, and a lot of us don't like to
do that.
You know, to reconcile the bankaccount on a monthly basis.
(20:35):
That has to be done.
So I speak with business peopleall the time and I tell them
make sure someone is checkingthe books, make sure that you're
being organized, make sure thatyou're printing financial
statements so you know how thebusiness is going, where you can
improve, what are your growthareas?
For us, for example, we havetax revenue.
(20:56):
We have bookkeeping, accountingrevenue, we do tax
representation, which is whenpeople have tax problems.
These are all different revenuesources so we keep detailed
records for all of that, so weknow what's doing well and what
we need to improve on.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's great.
That's great.
What's next for the firm?
You mentioned adopting digitalstrategies.
You hinted a little bit, maybeon AI, but what's the firm
working towards as you go into2025?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
towards as you go into 2025?
Well, good question.
So I see from experience thatpeople complain a lot about
their accountants all the time.
I hear it like every day.
Whenever I speak with a newclient, they're always
complaining about theiraccountant.
So why?
What do they complain?
They're really complainingusually about two areas.
One, that the accountantdoesn't return phone calls or
return emails, so they're notgetting enough attention, or you
(22:05):
might call it responsiveness.
So that's very important.
But beyond that, what I hear alot of complaints is that their
accountant was not proactiveabout planning.
So one of the main to-do itemson my list is getting better
about planning.
(22:26):
I think people really want itand they really appreciate it.
It's a difficult service areabecause it's a bit intangible.
You have to figure out how tocharge for it and I've heard
different stories and differentways people charge for doing tax
planning.
But whatever you decide isappropriate.
I do think that tax planning isvery important.
That's going to help you tokeep your clients happy and they
(22:49):
really appreciate that taxplanning, because the returns
themselves tax returns andfinancial statements nobody
cares about as long as they'renot involved in any kind of tax
trouble.
Nobody wants to be in troubleand they want to pay as little
taxes as possible.
But if an accounting firm cando some kind of figure out the
(23:11):
right recipe for tax planning, Ithink that is very important
for all of us.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I agree.
I haven't met too many peoplewho've said, oh, I wish I paid
more in taxes last year.
Being proactive and getting infront of your clients without
them having to come to you andsaying, hey, this is the plan,
this is how we're going to saveX amount of money.
Here's the roadmap, this iswhat we're going to do.
(23:38):
This is what's required fromyou.
I think that's so importantVersus, like you said at the
start and a couple of times,kind of sitting back behind the
desk hoping business is going tocome to you, hoping for these
things, but just get out thereand be proactive.
At the end of the day, you'rejust another human speaking to
another human in exchange foryour services, for money.
It doesn't need to getcomplicated, that's right.
(24:02):
Gary, thank you so much forcoming on.
How can people get in touchwith you if they want to reach
out?
It's my total pleasure.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I'm happy to speak with anybody who wants to have a
chat.
You can go to my website, whichis wwwmassieandcompanycpacom
and the spell dot A-N-D, or theycan call the office and the
phone number is on the websiteand I'm sure that you must have
show notes which will put thecontact information.
(24:33):
You're welcome to reach out andI'm happy to chat anytime.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Perfect.
We'll put the link in there sopeople can reach out.
Hope they do.
Gary is awesome speaking withyou.
Thank you so much for coming onand we'll speak to you soon.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of CFO Chronicles the
secrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
(25:01):
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
(25:22):
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
(26:08):
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Today we're diving into the world of tax strategy
and small business accountingwith Gary from Massey and
Company CPA.
Gary and his team specialize intaking the stress out of taxes,
irs negotiations and strategicplanning for small businesses.
They bring a wealth ofexperience helping clients
navigate complex tax issues,maximize strategies and savings
(01:10):
in good standing with the IRS.
I'm excited to hear Gary'sinsight on how small businesses
can approach tax planning,reduce their liabilities and
make informed financialdecisions.
Gary, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You're most welcome.
Thank you, James.
It's great to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So, Gary, let's start at the beginning.
How did you get in to the worldof accounting?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Okay, that's a great question.
I actually came from a liberalarts background.
When I was in college, I was ahistory major.
I didn't know anything aboutaccounting.
And then, along in college, Iwas a history major, I didn't
know anything about accounting.
And then, along the way, Ireally fell into it.
Somebody suggested that I go tograd school to study accounting
, which is the last thing that Iever thought about, but it was
a good time in my life for that,and so I went to grad school to
(02:00):
study accounting tax accountingin a brand new program, and
that's how I did it.
That's how I ended up at it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Very interesting and I'm assuming, based off of how
long the firm's been around, forit's been a successful career
path.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, it's been great .
I actually started my careerworking for the large global
accounting firms, for the famousfirms, and I did that for a
long time and I also work forsome regional firms and I
eventually started my ownpractice about 10 years ago
approximately, and it was thebest thing that I ever did.
And I must tell you that in thevery beginning, when I was
(02:43):
working for other people in bigfirms, it was with a bit of pain
.
You know, being an employee oflarge accounting firms, there
was a lot of pain involved.
But when I started my own firm,I just love it.
I'm happy to wake up everymorning, go to work because this
belongs to me and it's verycreative and I really never knew
that it would be so exciting,but it really is.
(03:05):
When it's your firm, it makes ahuge difference.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What motivates you to go out on your own?
Because it can be very dauntingto start something on your own.
You don't have that security ofI mean even just as basic, as I
know I'm going to get paidevery week if you're working for
a larger firm that's beenaround for a while.
So what motivated you fromleaving the corporate world to
(03:30):
you know what?
I'm going to do this on my own.
I'm going to bring on my ownclients.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Sure, I started doing this as a side gig while I was
working for other people.
I would go to work during theday and I'd come home at night
and work on some of my ownclients, and that's how I
learned the basics of themanagement of an accounting
practice.
That's how I really began, andI didn't feel the risk because,
(03:58):
as I said, I was working duringthe day for somebody else.
And then, along the way, I hadan opportunity to work for
another company as somethingthat I really fell into.
It was a marketing directorposition at an evaluation firm,
and I just once again fell intoit, and what I learned there was
(04:21):
really golden.
It was really about marketing,the basics of marketing and I
developed self-confidence in myability to sell, and that was
incredible.
Just to know that I could dothat, to come to the realization
that I could sell, that I couldmarket and sell and become
(04:42):
confident in that.
That enabled me to open my ownpractice.
If it hadn't been for that andfor those guys who I was working
with, I don't think I would behere today.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's cool.
I think a lot of peoplestruggle with finding the
confidence to sell for their ownfirm, especially relying on a
lot of referrals.
Someone else has already kindof pre-sold, pre-sold your
services.
What would you say to those whoare listening who may be in
(05:11):
that position where you knowit's tough to go and find new
clients who they've never heardof you?
They're just used to closingreferrals yeah, it's not that
hard.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Uh, what you have to do is you have to go out into
the world.
First of all, you have to leavethe desk.
You have to go out into theworld and just talk with people.
So in the very beginning, Iused to go to a lot of
networking events and I had agood time doing that.
There's always some food to eatand opportunities to meet new
people and I would go and Iwould just talk and I would get
(05:45):
to know people.
I would be myself, I wouldalways be myself, never
pretending to be something else,and I would just get to know
people and I would.
Those days we had business cardsand I would develop a Rolodex
of business cards and I wouldget to know people and I would
make acquaintances or maybefriendships with them.
(06:05):
And that's how I got out infront of my desk and I started
going to various regularnetworking events, like BNI, you
know, which were regular, and Igot out there, I started going
to lunch with people, going outfor coffee with people, and I
learned different techniques.
One of the first things that Ilearned when techniques One of
the first things that I learnedwhen I was working for this
(06:26):
evaluation firm is about a CRM,which is a software to keep
track of marketing, and it'ssomething that I never knew
about before.
So I learned about a CRM and howto put it together and how to
do follow-ups.
That's one of the mostimportant things that I learned
is that in your CRM, you have torecord who you met, where you
(06:49):
met them, what their contactinformation is their email and
their telephone number and thenyou schedule follow-ups with
them.
And wow, I never knew aboutthat, but that's what you do.
You have a follow-up.
So you've spoken with somebodyand then maybe, whether it's two
weeks or six weeks or whateverit is, you have a follow-up.
Or maybe you send an email andyou don't hear from them, or you
(07:14):
make a phone call and you don'thear from them.
So in a certain amount of time,follow up and you just keep
doing it over and over and overagain and eventually you'll be
talking with people and you'lltell them about yourself and
you'll be yourself and they'llbe happy to get to know you.
And one of the great thingsabout accounting, tax and
(07:34):
accounting is that everybodyneeds it, so it's not such a
hard sell.
It's not like you're sellinginsurance, which is much harder
to sell.
Everybody needs this.
But once you can learn thetools like I said, CRM, and get
a business card and beself-confident, you can really
do it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That's awesome.
I think it gets overcomplicated too much and, at the
core, all you're doing is justhave more conversations with
people who fit the bill to buythe things that you offer, find
people who have a need and youhave the solution and just have
as many of those conversationsas you can on a daily basis.
(08:19):
That is, at its core, what itcomes down to.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That's right.
There are a couple otherchallenges which you need to
deal with along the way.
One of the first challenges isyou have to know what you're
selling, to identify what it is,what the service is, what the
product is.
And then, even harder, is toknow what you're going to charge
Pricing.
Pricing is very, verychallenging and at the very
(08:47):
beginning, people usually startlow, which is fine because
you're developing confidence andwhatever price you pick, you
have to be able to say it withconfidence.
This is what I deserve, becauseeverybody charges pick.
You have to be able to say itwith confidence.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
This is what I deserve.
Everybody charges.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You don't go to the store and buy a loaf of bread
without paying for it.
Everybody has to pay for whatthey buy, so you have to be
confident about that.
But along the way you developthat confidence to talk about
price and you set a price andthen you stick with it and you
know there are some people whowill say it's too expensive,
whatever it is, and there areother people who are going to
(09:23):
pay you and that's good.
And you just start doing thatand start collecting and over
time you can increase prices andadjust prices to a more
appropriate level, little bylittle, and after a while you'd
be surprised it really works.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, all of a sudden , you have a while.
You'd be surprised it reallyworks.
Yeah, all of a sudden, you havea business and there's a
handful of people paying monthafter month, and it's a machine
that's running.
Now, something I always thinkabout with pricing when speaking
to our clients and telling themyou can always increase your
price, your price and if you'regetting a lot of people saying
yes to what your price is,probably a sign that you want to
(10:03):
have a really good offer or two.
Your price is too low.
If everybody's saying yes allthe time, it's probably time to
increase that price and add getpaid for what you're worth,
which is what you're saying.
So, yeah, that's great insight.
(10:23):
What is your marketing strategylook like today?
From 10 years ago when you gotstarted, I can only imagine it's
changed a lot with how farsocial media and in the online
presence of businesses come.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yes, that's absolutely true.
So when I started my ownbusiness social media, was not
so advanced and as I said beforeI did a lot of networking
events.
I would go out all the time.
I tried to go out like almostevery day to different kinds of
events.
So today it's not like that.
(11:13):
I don't go out so much.
Maybe I should, but I don't goout so much to the social events
, to networking.
I do a lot of online marketingand what I find to be the most,
and it is really, reallycritical.
And after you do it and you'velearned it, you would be
surprised after a while thephone starts to ring.
People find you online, whichis what search engine
optimization is about.
People finding you online andthey call you or they send you
(11:36):
an email and all of a suddenstarts to take off, and that is
my recommendation.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
That's cool, and it doesn't happen overnight like
you said it is kind of no itdoesn't?
It's that graph that it's justflat, flat, flat, and then all
of a sudden it goes up by like90 degrees.
It's that overnight successthat everyone thinks people
achieve but they don't see.
You know the three years ofwhat you were doing to optimize
(12:07):
so that your website was goingto show up.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
That's right, and you know, speaking with other other
business people is veryadvantageous.
You can learn from other people.
I, for one, am happy to talkwith anybody who wants to chat,
Any accountant.
Anybody who wants to talk withme, I'm happy to do it.
There is plenty of business foreverybody.
There are no secrets that I'mgoing to hide from anybody.
I'm an open book and I'm happyto share.
(12:34):
There's business for everybody,but SEO the search engine
optimization is what I havefound to be the most effective,
much more than going tonetworking events, that's how I
started, but now it's the SEO,and SEO involves, for example,
blogging.
I have a blog and I put stuffout there and eventually the
(12:59):
blog gets found.
You have to learn certainskills, but if I can do it,
anybody can do it.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's cool.
What else are you focused onunder SEO, because that is a big
umbrella acronym for what fallsunder search engine
optimization.
You mentioned you're doing someblogs on your website.
What falls under search engineoptimization?
You mentioned you're doing someblogs on your website.
Are there any other areasonline that you're planting
these seeds to help your SEOpresence?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, well, so when we publish a blog, we also
repost it on social media, sothat would be Facebook, linkedin
.
I think we put it on maybeInstagram and Twitter, some
other places I don't see a lotof benefit from that.
(13:50):
But why not?
It's easy to do, it's free, Ithink, and why not?
Maybe it'll work.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, One spot we started also to do.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
What we started to do recently is a little bit more
YouTube.
Okay, so that remains to beseen.
I've recently put out a bunchof YouTube videos.
You folks can look at them.
Maybe they're good or not, Idon't know.
It's a whole different skillset doing videos, but that's
something new that we're goingto give a try.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, it all starts.
It starts zero to one.
Right, you can't just get tothat 10,000 subscriber on
YouTube without making thatfirst video.
That's probably not going to bethat great, but over time and
practice they can learn feedback, and I'm sure your first blog
wasn't as solid as maybe some ofyour most recent blogs have
(14:44):
been, but you took the step toget it started and now you have
the momentum.
That's probably true.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
One thing that I have learned on the subject of SEO
and getting better is that whenyou write a blog or any kind of
what they call content, youwrite a piece of content.
You can always improve it.
You can make it better, you canadd, you can make it longer,
you can put pictures in, you canmake it a better piece of
content and then publish itagain.
(15:10):
So that's a skill, that's acertain thing which I learned
along the way.
You can always do that.
I don't know about videos, I'mnot sure I can do that in a
video, but certainly when itcomes to written content you can
make it better.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Of course.
Now, gary, in the world of AI,which is so rapidly taking over
so many, so many areas ofbusiness, excuse me, are you
sitting back and are you writingout the blog start to finish?
Or or is there some AIassistance or some AI tools
you're using in your businessright now?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm not quite there yet, but that's something that
we have to learn.
That's obviously new, and it'sa skill that needs to be learned
too, so that'll just supposedlyit'll make it easier, but that
remains to be seen.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay, cool One thing you mentioned you're posting on
a couple of different socialmedia platforms.
One spot I would add in for youthat would make a pretty big
impact is posting your articlesyou're writing on your Google
business profile, so anothergood spot where you're if you're
not already doing thatpublishing them there as well.
(16:23):
You might not necessarily get alot of people reading them, but
the bigger benefit is all ofyour keywords for your SEO,
which is the main objective ofyour blog post.
So if you're not already doingit, I'd highly recommend just
putting one on there.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Great idea.
One area that we have not doneis what do they call it?
Google ads, paid advertising?
I have never done it.
I know some people do.
I'm very curious to hear how itworks, but I have not done that
myself.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We can have a conversation after this
recording if you want to hear alittle bit about it, because
there's a lot of cool stuff todo with Google local service ads
to help get your phone ringing.
So, yeah, we can certainly chatabout that.
Tell me a little bit about youknow, 10 years, 10 years of
entrepreneurship.
What stands out to you as maybeone of those, like critical
(17:23):
moments of this is where thingsreally took a turn for the
better.
But if I like, was there anymoment that happened that you
can look back on?
That is a defining moment inyour entrepreneurship journey.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Well, the adoption of certain technologies.
I think that, as we got betterwith CRM, that made a big
difference.
And then, along the way, weadopted a platform called it's a
workflow platform.
We use a tool called Monday.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And Monday is a workflow platform.
There are others, there areother competitors and I'm sure
that most are very good, buthaving a workflow tool helped a
lot.
So that made a big differencealong the way once we did that.
And then the other thing Iwould add is along the way, when
(18:23):
you start to bring in people tohelp you, that's a very big
deal At the very beginning.
Somewhere along the way I wasable to bring in somebody to do
admin support.
That was a big deal for me,because then I was paying
somebody else and I wasresponsible for them, for that
person's livelihood.
(18:44):
I had to make sure that I wasmaking enough money to pay for
it, but at the same time itenabled me to grow significantly
, significantly.
So I think that was a.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That was a big deal for me that's really cool where
the firm is at today.
Is it what you imagined itwould be 10 years ago when you
got started?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think I had no idea what I was getting involved in,
but it's much better than Iever anticipated.
It's a great lifestyle, asyou're bringing people to help
you, and it just starts to growexponentially.
I'm really amazed by what agood thing it is.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
That's cool.
What would be your advice youwould give to anyone else who's
maybe a couple of years intobusiness and they want to reach
that 10-year milestone of beingin business, what's super
important for them to be keepingin mind or pushing towards, or
(19:49):
just be reminded of?
Be?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
reminded of.
Well, if you have an accountingfirm it's what we've already
discussed about selling Don'tjust sit at home and wait for
the phone to ring.
There are proactive things thatyou can do to grow your
business.
If we're talking with businesspeople generally, what I always
(20:11):
tell people is that they have tobe organized, they have to keep
their books and I mean maybewe're talking to accountants now
and it's obvious to them, but Ithink even for an accounting
firm, you have to keep the books, and a lot of us don't like to
do that.
You know, to reconcile the bankaccount on a monthly basis.
(20:35):
That has to be done.
So I speak with business peopleall the time and I tell them
make sure someone is checkingthe books, make sure that you're
being organized, make sure thatyou're printing financial
statements so you know how thebusiness is going, where you can
improve, what are your growthareas?
For us, for example, we havetax revenue.
(20:56):
We have bookkeeping, accountingrevenue, we do tax
representation, which is whenpeople have tax problems.
These are all different revenuesources so we keep detailed
records for all of that, so weknow what's doing well and what
we need to improve on.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's great.
That's great.
What's next for the firm?
You mentioned adopting digitalstrategies.
You hinted a little bit, maybeon AI, but what's the firm
working towards as you go into2025?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
towards as you go into 2025?
Well, good question.
So I see from experience thatpeople complain a lot about
their accountants all the time.
I hear it like every day.
Whenever I speak with a newclient, they're always
complaining about theiraccountant.
So why?
What do they complain?
They're really complainingusually about two areas.
One, that the accountantdoesn't return phone calls or
return emails, so they're notgetting enough attention, or you
(22:05):
might call it responsiveness.
So that's very important.
But beyond that, what I hear alot of complaints is that their
accountant was not proactiveabout planning.
So one of the main to-do itemson my list is getting better
about planning.
(22:26):
I think people really want itand they really appreciate it.
It's a difficult service areabecause it's a bit intangible.
You have to figure out how tocharge for it and I've heard
different stories and differentways people charge for doing tax
planning.
But whatever you decide isappropriate.
I do think that tax planning isvery important.
That's going to help you tokeep your clients happy and they
(22:49):
really appreciate that taxplanning, because the returns
themselves tax returns andfinancial statements nobody
cares about as long as they'renot involved in any kind of tax
trouble.
Nobody wants to be in troubleand they want to pay as little
taxes as possible.
But if an accounting firm cando some kind of figure out the
(23:11):
right recipe for tax planning, Ithink that is very important
for all of us.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I agree.
I haven't met too many peoplewho've said, oh, I wish I paid
more in taxes last year.
Being proactive and getting infront of your clients without
them having to come to you andsaying, hey, this is the plan,
this is how we're going to saveX amount of money.
Here's the roadmap, this iswhat we're going to do.
(23:38):
This is what's required fromyou.
I think that's so importantVersus, like you said at the
start and a couple of times,kind of sitting back behind the
desk hoping business is going tocome to you, hoping for these
things, but just get out thereand be proactive.
At the end of the day, you'rejust another human speaking to
another human in exchange foryour services, for money.
It doesn't need to getcomplicated, that's right.
(24:02):
Gary, thank you so much forcoming on.
How can people get in touchwith you if they want to reach
out?
It's my total pleasure.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I'm happy to speak with anybody who wants to have a
chat.
You can go to my website, whichis wwwmassieandcompanycpacom
and the spell dot A-N-D, or theycan call the office and the
phone number is on the websiteand I'm sure that you must have
show notes which will put thecontact information.
(24:33):
You're welcome to reach out andI'm happy to chat anytime.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Perfect.
We'll put the link in there sopeople can reach out.
Hope they do.
Gary is awesome speaking withyou.
Thank you so much for coming onand we'll speak to you soon.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of CFO Chronicles the
secrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
(25:01):
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
(25:22):
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
(26:08):
business's potential.
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