July 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Rachel Phillips isn’t guessing. She built a remote-first accounting firm that now supports 40+ employees and most of them are moms.
Before remote work was normal, Rachel Phillips owner of Fully Accountable made it essential. In this episode, she unpacks how her team’s flexibility has become their unfair advantage and why the office is never coming back.
What you’ll learn:
- Her strategy for sourcing elite part-time and full-time finance talent
- The power of marketing-style job ads (and how yours are repelling talent)
- Why refund-prone leads cost more than you think
- The “chargeback at 2 AM” story that changed how she runs her business
- The mindset shift that helped her stop being reactive and start building intentionally
This one’s for founders who want freedom and growth and don’t want to choose between them.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of CFO
Chronicles.
We have an amazing guestjoining us today.
She is from Fully Accountable.
She started as an intern andhas worked her way to the owner
yes, you heard me correctly fromintern to owner.
She has gone from law toaccounting.
We are joined by RachelPhillips.
We talk about running a fullyremote firm pre-pandemic before
(00:23):
everyone was going remote howshe's building her team, where
she's sourcing the best talentto fulfill on her team side and
the different strategies her andher team use to deliver
world-class results for herclients.
As always, let me know yourthoughts on the episode, would
love to hear your feedback andenjoy.
Rachel.
Tell us all about yourself andFully Accountable.
(00:47):
I'm so excited to have you onthe show today.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh my gosh, james, thanks for having me.
Goodness, where to even start?
So I'm Rachel, ceo over here atFully Accountable, and I was
actually employee number one.
Started as an intern here andhave worked my way up and now am
the owner of the company.
So that's been an amazingjourney for me, but partially
(01:13):
because I love this company andwhat we're doing.
So Fully Accountable is reallyan outsourced accounting
department.
We fit the need for whateverthe business needs with all
customizable solutions.
So we can be your CFO, we canbe your accountant, we could be
your sales tax team you name it,we can be it for you.
We're trying to make sure thatwe fit what you need, not trying
(01:36):
to fit you into a box.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I love it.
You got.
You started your career in law,if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
That's correct.
I am a lawyer, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Can you tell me a little bit about that transition
from law to working in theaccounting space?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, totally.
So I focused my entire legalcareer in mergers, acquisitions,
tax and corporate compliance,and so it was a pretty smooth
transition when I ended up inaccounting and tax, Because so
much of what you focus on inmerger and acquisition world are
(02:12):
financials, valuations, youknow the accounting of the
company, the strategy with thefinancials, that, when you
couple it with the legal pieceof contracts, team, HR, you
really can round out as a CFO bybeing able to do financials but
(02:32):
also being able to look at itfrom a more operational legal
perspective as well.
And so I just took mynon-accounting experience and
really just pivoted to reallydive deep into financials and
then marry it with thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So interesting.
Under your leadership withfully account, fully accountable
has grown to three people, orfrom three people to over 40
employees, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, we're sort of a pivotal,pivotal moments or strategies
that contributed to this growth.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Totally so.
The first one for us was I hadactually implemented a work from
home model or hybrid model formost of our team from the
beginning.
So, starting in 2015, we hiredour first work from home
employee.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh, you're doing it way before.
It was cool and the trendything after the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And here's why we're from a town called Akron Ohio
and I love Akron Ohio, but it'ssmaller and there's only so much
talent that's willing to driveinto a small office in Akron
Ohio.
And I said to myself there areso many other good accountants
and CFOs out there that I wantto work with those people, and
so we opened it up to be workfrom home, that I want to work
with those people, and so weopened it up to be work from
home because, in our opinion,accounting can be done at any
(03:47):
time of the day.
It doesn't have to be doneduring banking hours, and so
that allowed us to tap into themarket of the best talent.
In so doing, I found that thereis a very niche category of
women who are moms that want tobe both mom and a professional,
but working in a top 10 CPA firmisn't an option for them
(04:08):
because they can't go to soccergames and they can't get their
kids on the bus and have thatcareer.
And so my entire mission becamegoing out and finding the women
that want to be both mom andthe professional and giving them
more opportunities.
And now 90% of our controllerbased are all women who get kids
on the bus, but also are givingsome of the most pivotal
(04:31):
guidance to our clients that arehelping them succeed and growth
and scale.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's so cool.
Where have you found to be thebest spot to find your talent?
And I have a spot in mind, butI'm curious to hear your answer
first, and then I'll sharewhat's worked for us.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So we use a platform that will push.
We use Jazz HR as a platform topush out all of our job ads,
but what I found is having areally good marketing job ad
that attracts the people thatyou want to work with to you.
So the better your job ad, thebetter the quality of the
applicant to match what you'relooking for you'll get.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's it, really it's.
It's no different than writingan ad to attract clients.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You're writing an ad to attract talent to your team.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I think so many people miss that and I know I
did in like for the longest time.
It's the exact same skillset.
It's we're we're trying toattract the right client.
We're trying to attract theright team member to join.
The reason I asked that um westarted using a site and a lot
of other um connections of minein the marketing space have used
(05:36):
a site called hire my mom andoh, yes, I love them yes.
Awesome.
Yeah, we um.
We recently brought on a teammember from there and we had
another ad up and you can findsome amazing talent out there.
So when you mentioned thatyou're looking for moms who are
able to get the kids on the busand they wanted, you know, do X,
y and Z.
(05:57):
Awesome spot for people to findtalent there.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Oh my gosh, I love, yeah, hire my mom, it's amazing
there.
Oh my gosh, I love, yeah, hiremy mom, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That's so cool, awesome.
So, rachel, given your focus one-commerce and digital
businesses, what uniquefinancial challenges do these
companies face and how doesFully Accountable address them.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, so the number one biggest thing for them is
revenue recognition.
So, because they do all oftheir business online, there's
no POS system where somebodygoes and swipes their credit
card.
There are a lot of hidden fees,expenses, chargebacks, refunds,
that in a typical accountingworld, what you see is people
just recognize the revenue ofwhat's being deposited in their
(06:38):
bank account and what we do iswe say no, no, your revenue is
what you actually charged.
And then we do a very detailedrevenue breakdown and from there
we can do it either by campaign, by channel, by product, but it
gives you a lot more insightson your sales and your products
than just knowing what hit thebank account.
The second piece of it is goingto be the dialing in of all of
(07:00):
your advertising, your cost ofgoods and your labor, of all of
your advertising, your cost ofgoods and your labor, and making
sure that we're looking atthose to make sure they're
within the ratios that we wantso that you're able to continue
to grow and scale.
One of the things that I seereally frequently is that
somebody will be profitable ontheir ads, but when we break it
down, they're only massivelyprofitable on two or three and
(07:21):
then they've got a half dozenothers that they're upside down
on, and if they just took thosedollars and deployed them to
their profitable ads, they couldbe making a lot more money, and
so those are areas that we'realways dialing in and trying to
help clients find more money onwhat they're already doing
without having to change a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That's cool.
Is there a success story thatcomes to mind real quick and you
don't have to share the name ofthe business?
But is there one that standsout where you're like yeah, we
did notice this specific adcampaign wasn't working and we
did X, y and Z or you guysimplemented your magic and what
was the end result?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah.
So the big one was we wouldhave had a client that was doing
a lot on Snapchat because theythought they had to be on
Snapchat, but they were losing aton of money there.
And when we pulled that back andwere able to deploy the dollars
, not only were they able toscale more on Instagram and
Facebook, or Meta but we foundthat all of the sales that were
(08:19):
coming from Snapchat had ahigher likelihood of refunding
or charging back, and so theywere actually costing them money
, not only higher acquisitionrates as well.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's awesome.
That's so cool.
That's the real superpower ishaving that data behind the
numbers and not the emotional.
Oh, I just need to be onanother platform, Really looking
forward to those.
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And I think one of the other things right now is
like AI and tech is so big inthe accounting space and I
actually really do believe thoseare assets to accounting and
more accountants and accountingfirms should be leaning into it.
But it's really the person thatfound that, not the technology,
and so how can you marry havingreally good tech to feed you
(09:03):
reports quickly, error free andefficiently and then having an
expert reading those and thengiving the guidance and feedback
to the client is really wherethat power falls clients with
(09:25):
their paid ads.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They're using meta, they're using, maybe, youtube,
google, all these differentchannels.
How do you bring new clientsinto your firm?
What?
What's that same way is thepoint yep, seo, ppc, um.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
We do outbound activity, so we we are trying to
make sure that not only are weservicing our clients that way,
but we also know that becausethat's the space that we live in
and so that's what we use.
Linkedin is another great placefor us, because it's a lot of
professionals and businessesthat are on there, but your
traditional Google is where wegenerate most of our leads.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, where people are searching, that's where
they're hanging out right,Exactly right Searching.
That's where they're hangingout.
Right, Exactly Right.
Do you have a team in-house nowdoing that with you, or do you
have the luxury from all of yourclients who specialize in that
you're able to cherry pick?
Okay, this is the person wewant to work with.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Combination of the both.
We have somebody that's thelead marketing director here,
and then she cherry picks theappropriate people to do the
things that would be outside ofher wheelhouse.
I think that we should alwaysbe empowering and leaning on the
people that do this as theirexpertise and not settle for
somebody doing it halfway justto save a couple dollars,
because you'll make way more byinvesting than trying to save
(10:36):
those dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So wise, that's so good.
I got another question for youhere.
So, reflecting on your journeyfrom law school to tech
leadership, what advice wouldyou offer professionals looking
to pivot into entrepreneurshipor starting their own ventures?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Oh, my gosh so two pieces.
One would be I do think anunderstanding on accounting is
honestly crucial for businessowners.
I don't think you need to be anaccountant, but I think
understanding what a balancesheet is and a profit and loss
and a cash flow can be reallyhelpful for you, specifically in
early stages of your business,when maybe you can't afford or
(11:15):
really aren't at the level ofneeding a CFO.
Being able to read thosefinancials is key.
And then the other piece ofadvice that I always that always
comes to my mind forentrepreneurs is have the
endurance to take a risk onyourself.
I think, when I look back on myjourney I there were periods of
time where I didn't take apayroll.
There were periods of timewhere I would do four different
(11:39):
jobs.
I would learn a job on the spot, but I knew that I was my best
asset and I was going to takethe biggest risk on myself
because I knew what I wascapable of.
And I think that businessowners that are willing to
endure and be willing to takethe risk on themselves are going
to reap the rewards of that.
It might just take time, butit's consistency and showing up
(12:01):
each day that are going to getthem there consistency and
showing up each day that aregoing to get them there.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What's one of the biggest risks that you feel you
took, or when you bet onyourself Is anything that comes
to mind as you kind of retellthat story.
Yeah, Gosh.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So the biggest piece for me was stepping up and being
the early stages of our company, which ended up lasting the
first almost five to seven yearswas being our sales rep, and I
did not.
I'm not naturally anextroverted person.
I honestly would have likebutterflies getting on sales
calls, but I knew our productand I believed in our product so
(12:39):
I felt I was the best person toshow up on that call to sell to
the potential client and eachcall got a little bit easier.
Going to each event got alittle bit more comfortable.
Being in front of a crowd Eachtime I got in another podcast
felt a little bit more natural.
But being willing to do a jobthat I was not trained in, be
(13:00):
willing to do a job that thereare a lot of people out there
that could likely maybe do itbetter from a technical piece,
that was a big area that I took,a risk that I think has paid
off dividends for me now.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I love it.
What are you most proud of withwhere Fully Accountable sits
today?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Our team by far.
I would say we have invested ina really good team.
Our average employee has beenhere over five years, which is
double the US average, andcontinues.
I have three people that arehitting their 10 year mark this
year, so to me that is somethingthat just feels really
(13:40):
rewarding, because they believein what we're doing too.
I have interviewed each personthat is here.
I have personally met eachperson that is here.
It's just a group of peoplethat you're excited to show up
and work with each day that doesreally good work for all of our
clients.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I love that.
We're a little jumping all overthe place now and this is me,
but I kind of want to go back tothat.
That mindset of like notquitting and pushing forward Is
there also.
There must have been a timewhere you like you got really
close to stopping or quitting orthinking maybe I should just go
(14:18):
over here, like Like the thenine to five and I can turn off
work at five o'clock on a Fridayafternoon.
That sounds really good rightnow.
This has been a tough week or atough month.
Can you walk me through maybeone of those moments that stand
out more to you and now lookingback, probably being like I'm so
happy, I just pushed a littlebit more and didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Totally so.
We got our first ever chargeback, and so for people who
aren't familiar with, that, isthat somebody buys your service
or did something, calls yourcredit card company, says it's
fraud.
You didn't deliver.
They'd been a client for fouryears.
It was the first time anybodyhad ever done this.
I happened to check my email attwo in the morning.
I immediately got up andstarted writing a response,
(15:03):
gathering all the data, workedfor eight straight hours doing
this, and somewhere around twoo'clock the next day in the
afternoon I said to myself whatare you doing?
Like there was no reason foryou to do that at 2 am, like
starting that at 10 am todaywould have yielded you the exact
same result as starting it at 2am.
(15:24):
And there was this shift for methat said you can do this and
you can accomplish this, but youcan also have some boundaries
in your life where it doesn'thave to consume you, and
something about puttingboundaries for me around email
work actually not only made memore productive but actually
helped me do a better job,because I knew that at 7 pm I
(15:46):
wasn't going to check emailagain.
So what was I going to do?
Get done for that day and tieup that wasn't going to be
touched again until seven oreight the next morning.
And not only did it help otherpeople respect me more, it
actually helped me just be abetter employee and then emulate
that for my employees as well.
And so now I have people thatare, we have clients that
(16:06):
actually respect boundaries.
We don't have clients callingat midnight just because they
think they can, and now the cellphone always works at midnight,
right Email is constantly beingchecked.
So we have a company wherepeople get to have work life
balance.
I don't know, I have a hang up.
You know there's not reallywork-life balance.
You're you're balancing workingreally well when you're working
(16:27):
and home life when you're home,and that balance is allowing
work to be work when you'reworking and home to be home when
you're at home.
And that for me was like thepivotal moment of not everything
has to be done in that momentand you need to set up your
boundaries and be clear on whatyou stand for, and you will be
better for it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So many things come to mind as you're saying that,
like just I've I've been in thatscenario before and the yeah,
looking at emails at late whenyou shouldn't you see something
that maybe gets you way tooexcited, way too down.
You can't sleep for one reasonor another because your emotions
are now out of whack.
(17:08):
So just being super intentionalis what I'm hearing mostly of,
like this is the way it's goingto be and you can't make change
unless you make the change.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Exactly, and working with clients is tough, right,
for a couple of reasons.
The first one is you build arelationship with them.
I have a guy on my team thathas had a client for eight and a
half years, which is a reallylong time, and so when something
happens to their business, hefeels it personally, like it
very deeply, and so in thatexample that was somebody that I
(17:38):
knew just needed money.
They were actually verysatisfied with our service.
It was just a play to claw backsome money, and so the offense
that I felt was what caused meto like feel like I had to be so
reactive.
When I was younger, somebody hadgiven me a piece of advice that
it said you don't actually likeeverybody and that's okay.
So you need to be okay that noteverybody's going to like you,
(18:05):
and I kind of use that advice tosay not everybody is going to
see the relationship that youfeel the exact same way and
that's okay.
Like your client, it is apaying relationship and while
you can be incredibly friendly,at the end of the day it is
transactional and you have to beat peace with that.
And so it's allowed me toremove some of the emotion, to
not get so upset when thoseevents tend to happen.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You must be a long time listener, rachel.
I've been.
That's always my question I endwith is the best piece of
advice.
So you're throwing me for aloop.
Now how to?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, how to end the podcast.
That's really good advice andI've also been, you know,
informed and just like kind ofeducated from some other mentors
as well that when working withclients, everything like
perception truly is reality andas the owner, from my seat, I
may see something different thanwhat the client feels and at
(18:53):
the end of the day, it's whatthey feel is what's going to be
their truth, not what maybe thenumbers are saying or what's
happening.
So that's really solid andsound advice that you just
shared, that you know at the endof the day it is transactional
and this is the line and you canhave the friendly relationship,
but there is very much a linein the sand of what it is at its
(19:14):
core.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Exactly, yeah, and I just I always encourage my team,
like if you're taking itpersonal, that's good, because
that means that you care.
Just learn to leave it thereand don't let it keep you up at
night, because you'll you'lldrive yourself nutty if you do.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, and that's a fine line, and I think that just
comes with experience and repsand knowing okay, this one maybe
got away from me it it ate atme way too much.
This one, maybe it should haveeaten at me a little bit more
than it did and you find thatbalance.
So you've shared your bestpiece of advice.
So I'll ask you this what'snext for the business?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, for us it's to lean into technology.
How can we continue to leverageall the tech that's out there
right now so that ouraccountants and CFOs really can
become strategists and guidancefor you guys, for our clients?
I think that, again, we shouldbe using that type of stuff
because it reduces errors and itgets things done quicker, which
(20:14):
means us, as service providers,can give you advice and help
you pivot a lot more quickly,and that's where we're headed.
I think that the next versionwill be just a stepping stone.
In the next five, 10 years,it'll be interesting to see how
much tech has been enabled intothe accounting space.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love that.
That's so good.
I think there's so many firmsleaning into it because it's not
going away.
It's not a trend, it's here tostick.
I think there's still a coupleof firms out there that are
scared and they want to dothings the old school way
because that's the way they'vebeen doing it, but unfortunately
, they will be left behind.
It's a harsh reality.
So I love to hear that you'refull force and you're driving
(20:57):
into the technology.
So that's awesome.
Yeah, force, and you're drivinginto that the technology, so
that's awesome.
Rachel, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing your story
and sharing all of your insight.
This was an amazingconversation.
I hope a ton of listeners get aton of value from this.
How can people get in touchwith you if they want to
continue the conversation orreach out to you, learn what
you're doing or even potentiallywork with you?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You can always reach me byemail at Rachel at fully
accountablecom.
Um, you can visit us at ourwebsite, fully accountablecom.
Uh, we're always on LinkedInand our Facebook, so any of
those platforms.
If you message us, we'll besure to get in touch with you.
Um, that way too.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Awesome.
I really encourage everyonelistening to get in touch with
Rachel.
Thank you so much again forcoming on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Thanks for having me, James.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Perfect.
So, rachel, that was amazing.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, if possible, could I justre-record the intro with you,
because I mentioned two sponsorsand then it said nothing else
about one of our new sponsors.
I didn't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I didn't have the thing pulled up.
Yeah, yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Okay, whatever you need to do, yeah, yeah, go for
it.
Okay, cool, can you?
Well, we'll have to work somemagic on the front end, so I
can't even remember how youstarted, but it'll, it'll work
out fine not worried welcomeback to another episode of cfo
chronicles.
We have an amazing guest joiningus today, but before I
introduce who we have, I do wantto give a massive shout out to
our sponsor, universalaccounting.
Make sure to check them out,get Get in touch with them.
They are the premier accountingfirm builder.
(22:25):
If you're looking to level upyour skills grow the premier
accounting firm, level up yourbookkeeping skills, make sure to
get in touch with them.
They're amazing at what they do.
Rachel Phillips from FullyAccountable, thank you so much
for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Thank you for having me, James.
I'm really looking forward tothis.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
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
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
(23:15):
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnow.
To date on what's happening inthe world of accounting and
financial growth, We've gotexciting topics coming up, so
stay tuned for the next episodeof CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
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
(23:55):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome back to another episode of CFO
Chronicles.
We have an amazing guestjoining us today.
She is from Fully Accountable.
She started as an intern andhas worked her way to the owner
yes, you heard me correctly fromintern to owner.
She has gone from law toaccounting.
We are joined by RachelPhillips.
We talk about running a fullyremote firm pre-pandemic before
(00:23):
everyone was going remote howshe's building her team, where
she's sourcing the best talentto fulfill on her team side and
the different strategies her andher team use to deliver
world-class results for herclients.
As always, let me know yourthoughts on the episode, would
love to hear your feedback andenjoy.
Rachel.
Tell us all about yourself andFully Accountable.
(00:47):
I'm so excited to have you onthe show today.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh my gosh, james, thanks for having me.
Goodness, where to even start?
So I'm Rachel, ceo over here atFully Accountable, and I was
actually employee number one.
Started as an intern here andhave worked my way up and now am
the owner of the company.
So that's been an amazingjourney for me, but partially
(01:13):
because I love this company andwhat we're doing.
So Fully Accountable is reallyan outsourced accounting
department.
We fit the need for whateverthe business needs with all
customizable solutions.
So we can be your CFO, we canbe your accountant, we could be
your sales tax team you name it,we can be it for you.
We're trying to make sure thatwe fit what you need, not trying
(01:36):
to fit you into a box.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I love it.
You got.
You started your career in law,if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
That's correct.
I am a lawyer, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Can you tell me a little bit about that transition
from law to working in theaccounting space?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, totally.
So I focused my entire legalcareer in mergers, acquisitions,
tax and corporate compliance,and so it was a pretty smooth
transition when I ended up inaccounting and tax, Because so
much of what you focus on inmerger and acquisition world are
(02:12):
financials, valuations, youknow the accounting of the
company, the strategy with thefinancials, that, when you
couple it with the legal pieceof contracts, team, HR, you
really can round out as a CFO bybeing able to do financials but
(02:32):
also being able to look at itfrom a more operational legal
perspective as well.
And so I just took mynon-accounting experience and
really just pivoted to reallydive deep into financials and
then marry it with thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So interesting.
Under your leadership withfully account, fully accountable
has grown to three people, orfrom three people to over 40
employees, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, we're sort of a pivotal,pivotal moments or strategies
that contributed to this growth.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Totally so.
The first one for us was I hadactually implemented a work from
home model or hybrid model formost of our team from the
beginning.
So, starting in 2015, we hiredour first work from home
employee.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh, you're doing it way before.
It was cool and the trendything after the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And here's why we're from a town called Akron Ohio
and I love Akron Ohio, but it'ssmaller and there's only so much
talent that's willing to driveinto a small office in Akron
Ohio.
And I said to myself there areso many other good accountants
and CFOs out there that I wantto work with those people, and
so we opened it up to be workfrom home, that I want to work
with those people, and so weopened it up to be work from
home because, in our opinion,accounting can be done at any
(03:47):
time of the day.
It doesn't have to be doneduring banking hours, and so
that allowed us to tap into themarket of the best talent.
In so doing, I found that thereis a very niche category of
women who are moms that want tobe both mom and a professional,
but working in a top 10 CPA firmisn't an option for them
(04:08):
because they can't go to soccergames and they can't get their
kids on the bus and have thatcareer.
And so my entire mission becamegoing out and finding the women
that want to be both mom andthe professional and giving them
more opportunities.
And now 90% of our controllerbased are all women who get kids
on the bus, but also are givingsome of the most pivotal
(04:31):
guidance to our clients that arehelping them succeed and growth
and scale.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's so cool.
Where have you found to be thebest spot to find your talent?
And I have a spot in mind, butI'm curious to hear your answer
first, and then I'll sharewhat's worked for us.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So we use a platform that will push.
We use Jazz HR as a platform topush out all of our job ads,
but what I found is having areally good marketing job ad
that attracts the people thatyou want to work with to you.
So the better your job ad, thebetter the quality of the
applicant to match what you'relooking for you'll get.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's it, really it's.
It's no different than writingan ad to attract clients.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You're writing an ad to attract talent to your team.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I think so many people miss that and I know I
did in like for the longest time.
It's the exact same skillset.
It's we're we're trying toattract the right client.
We're trying to attract theright team member to join.
The reason I asked that um westarted using a site and a lot
of other um connections of minein the marketing space have used
(05:36):
a site called hire my mom andoh, yes, I love them yes.
Awesome.
Yeah, we um.
We recently brought on a teammember from there and we had
another ad up and you can findsome amazing talent out there.
So when you mentioned thatyou're looking for moms who are
able to get the kids on the busand they wanted, you know, do X,
y and Z.
(05:57):
Awesome spot for people to findtalent there.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Oh my gosh, I love, yeah, hire my mom, it's amazing
there.
Oh my gosh, I love, yeah, hiremy mom, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That's so cool, awesome.
So, rachel, given your focus one-commerce and digital
businesses, what uniquefinancial challenges do these
companies face and how doesFully Accountable address them.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, so the number one biggest thing for them is
revenue recognition.
So, because they do all oftheir business online, there's
no POS system where somebodygoes and swipes their credit
card.
There are a lot of hidden fees,expenses, chargebacks, refunds,
that in a typical accountingworld, what you see is people
just recognize the revenue ofwhat's being deposited in their
(06:38):
bank account and what we do iswe say no, no, your revenue is
what you actually charged.
And then we do a very detailedrevenue breakdown and from there
we can do it either by campaign, by channel, by product, but it
gives you a lot more insightson your sales and your products
than just knowing what hit thebank account.
The second piece of it is goingto be the dialing in of all of
(07:00):
your advertising, your cost ofgoods and your labor, of all of
your advertising, your cost ofgoods and your labor, and making
sure that we're looking atthose to make sure they're
within the ratios that we wantso that you're able to continue
to grow and scale.
One of the things that I seereally frequently is that
somebody will be profitable ontheir ads, but when we break it
down, they're only massivelyprofitable on two or three and
(07:21):
then they've got a half dozenothers that they're upside down
on, and if they just took thosedollars and deployed them to
their profitable ads, they couldbe making a lot more money, and
so those are areas that we'realways dialing in and trying to
help clients find more money onwhat they're already doing
without having to change a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That's cool.
Is there a success story thatcomes to mind real quick and you
don't have to share the name ofthe business?
But is there one that standsout where you're like yeah, we
did notice this specific adcampaign wasn't working and we
did X, y and Z or you guysimplemented your magic and what
was the end result?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah.
So the big one was we wouldhave had a client that was doing
a lot on Snapchat because theythought they had to be on
Snapchat, but they were losing aton of money there.
And when we pulled that back andwere able to deploy the dollars
, not only were they able toscale more on Instagram and
Facebook, or Meta but we foundthat all of the sales that were
(08:19):
coming from Snapchat had ahigher likelihood of refunding
or charging back, and so theywere actually costing them money
, not only higher acquisitionrates as well.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's awesome.
That's so cool.
That's the real superpower ishaving that data behind the
numbers and not the emotional.
Oh, I just need to be onanother platform, Really looking
forward to those.
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And I think one of the other things right now is
like AI and tech is so big inthe accounting space and I
actually really do believe thoseare assets to accounting and
more accountants and accountingfirms should be leaning into it.
But it's really the person thatfound that, not the technology,
and so how can you marry havingreally good tech to feed you
(09:03):
reports quickly, error free andefficiently and then having an
expert reading those and thengiving the guidance and feedback
to the client is really wherethat power falls clients with
(09:25):
their paid ads.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They're using meta, they're using, maybe, youtube,
google, all these differentchannels.
How do you bring new clientsinto your firm?
What?
What's that same way is thepoint yep, seo, ppc, um.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
We do outbound activity, so we we are trying to
make sure that not only are weservicing our clients that way,
but we also know that becausethat's the space that we live in
and so that's what we use.
Linkedin is another great placefor us, because it's a lot of
professionals and businessesthat are on there, but your
traditional Google is where wegenerate most of our leads.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, where people are searching, that's where
they're hanging out right,Exactly right Searching.
That's where they're hangingout.
Right, Exactly Right.
Do you have a team in-house nowdoing that with you, or do you
have the luxury from all of yourclients who specialize in that
you're able to cherry pick?
Okay, this is the person wewant to work with.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Combination of the both.
We have somebody that's thelead marketing director here,
and then she cherry picks theappropriate people to do the
things that would be outside ofher wheelhouse.
I think that we should alwaysbe empowering and leaning on the
people that do this as theirexpertise and not settle for
somebody doing it halfway justto save a couple dollars,
because you'll make way more byinvesting than trying to save
(10:36):
those dollars.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So wise, that's so good.
I got another question for youhere.
So, reflecting on your journeyfrom law school to tech
leadership, what advice wouldyou offer professionals looking
to pivot into entrepreneurshipor starting their own ventures?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Oh, my gosh so two pieces.
One would be I do think anunderstanding on accounting is
honestly crucial for businessowners.
I don't think you need to be anaccountant, but I think
understanding what a balancesheet is and a profit and loss
and a cash flow can be reallyhelpful for you, specifically in
early stages of your business,when maybe you can't afford or
(11:15):
really aren't at the level ofneeding a CFO.
Being able to read thosefinancials is key.
And then the other piece ofadvice that I always that always
comes to my mind forentrepreneurs is have the
endurance to take a risk onyourself.
I think, when I look back on myjourney I there were periods of
time where I didn't take apayroll.
There were periods of timewhere I would do four different
(11:39):
jobs.
I would learn a job on the spot, but I knew that I was my best
asset and I was going to takethe biggest risk on myself
because I knew what I wascapable of.
And I think that businessowners that are willing to
endure and be willing to takethe risk on themselves are going
to reap the rewards of that.
It might just take time, butit's consistency and showing up
(12:01):
each day that are going to getthem there consistency and
showing up each day that aregoing to get them there.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What's one of the biggest risks that you feel you
took, or when you bet onyourself Is anything that comes
to mind as you kind of retellthat story.
Yeah, Gosh.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So the biggest piece for me was stepping up and being
the early stages of our company, which ended up lasting the
first almost five to seven yearswas being our sales rep, and I
did not.
I'm not naturally anextroverted person.
I honestly would have likebutterflies getting on sales
calls, but I knew our productand I believed in our product so
(12:39):
I felt I was the best person toshow up on that call to sell to
the potential client and eachcall got a little bit easier.
Going to each event got alittle bit more comfortable.
Being in front of a crowd Eachtime I got in another podcast
felt a little bit more natural.
But being willing to do a jobthat I was not trained in, be
(13:00):
willing to do a job that thereare a lot of people out there
that could likely maybe do itbetter from a technical piece,
that was a big area that I took,a risk that I think has paid
off dividends for me now.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I love it.
What are you most proud of withwhere Fully Accountable sits
today?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Our team by far.
I would say we have invested ina really good team.
Our average employee has beenhere over five years, which is
double the US average, andcontinues.
I have three people that arehitting their 10 year mark this
year, so to me that is somethingthat just feels really
(13:40):
rewarding, because they believein what we're doing too.
I have interviewed each personthat is here.
I have personally met eachperson that is here.
It's just a group of peoplethat you're excited to show up
and work with each day that doesreally good work for all of our
clients.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I love that.
We're a little jumping all overthe place now and this is me,
but I kind of want to go back tothat.
That mindset of like notquitting and pushing forward Is
there also.
There must have been a timewhere you like you got really
close to stopping or quitting orthinking maybe I should just go
(14:18):
over here, like Like the thenine to five and I can turn off
work at five o'clock on a Fridayafternoon.
That sounds really good rightnow.
This has been a tough week or atough month.
Can you walk me through maybeone of those moments that stand
out more to you and now lookingback, probably being like I'm so
happy, I just pushed a littlebit more and didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Totally so.
We got our first ever chargeback, and so for people who
aren't familiar with, that, isthat somebody buys your service
or did something, calls yourcredit card company, says it's
fraud.
You didn't deliver.
They'd been a client for fouryears.
It was the first time anybodyhad ever done this.
I happened to check my email attwo in the morning.
I immediately got up andstarted writing a response,
(15:03):
gathering all the data, workedfor eight straight hours doing
this, and somewhere around twoo'clock the next day in the
afternoon I said to myself whatare you doing?
Like there was no reason foryou to do that at 2 am, like
starting that at 10 am todaywould have yielded you the exact
same result as starting it at 2am.
(15:24):
And there was this shift for methat said you can do this and
you can accomplish this, but youcan also have some boundaries
in your life where it doesn'thave to consume you, and
something about puttingboundaries for me around email
work actually not only made memore productive but actually
helped me do a better job,because I knew that at 7 pm I
(15:46):
wasn't going to check emailagain.
So what was I going to do?
Get done for that day and tieup that wasn't going to be
touched again until seven oreight the next morning.
And not only did it help otherpeople respect me more, it
actually helped me just be abetter employee and then emulate
that for my employees as well.
And so now I have people thatare, we have clients that
(16:06):
actually respect boundaries.
We don't have clients callingat midnight just because they
think they can, and now the cellphone always works at midnight,
right Email is constantly beingchecked.
So we have a company wherepeople get to have work life
balance.
I don't know, I have a hang up.
You know there's not reallywork-life balance.
You're you're balancing workingreally well when you're working
(16:27):
and home life when you're home,and that balance is allowing
work to be work when you'reworking and home to be home when
you're at home.
And that for me was like thepivotal moment of not everything
has to be done in that momentand you need to set up your
boundaries and be clear on whatyou stand for, and you will be
better for it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So many things come to mind as you're saying that,
like just I've I've been in thatscenario before and the yeah,
looking at emails at late whenyou shouldn't you see something
that maybe gets you way tooexcited, way too down.
You can't sleep for one reasonor another because your emotions
are now out of whack.
(17:08):
So just being super intentionalis what I'm hearing mostly of,
like this is the way it's goingto be and you can't make change
unless you make the change.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Exactly, and working with clients is tough, right,
for a couple of reasons.
The first one is you build arelationship with them.
I have a guy on my team thathas had a client for eight and a
half years, which is a reallylong time, and so when something
happens to their business, hefeels it personally, like it
very deeply, and so in thatexample that was somebody that I
(17:38):
knew just needed money.
They were actually verysatisfied with our service.
It was just a play to claw backsome money, and so the offense
that I felt was what caused meto like feel like I had to be so
reactive.
When I was younger, somebody hadgiven me a piece of advice that
it said you don't actually likeeverybody and that's okay.
So you need to be okay that noteverybody's going to like you,
(18:05):
and I kind of use that advice tosay not everybody is going to
see the relationship that youfeel the exact same way and
that's okay.
Like your client, it is apaying relationship and while
you can be incredibly friendly,at the end of the day it is
transactional and you have to beat peace with that.
And so it's allowed me toremove some of the emotion, to
not get so upset when thoseevents tend to happen.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You must be a long time listener, rachel.
I've been.
That's always my question I endwith is the best piece of
advice.
So you're throwing me for aloop.
Now how to?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, how to end the podcast.
That's really good advice andI've also been, you know,
informed and just like kind ofeducated from some other mentors
as well that when working withclients, everything like
perception truly is reality andas the owner, from my seat, I
may see something different thanwhat the client feels and at
(18:53):
the end of the day, it's whatthey feel is what's going to be
their truth, not what maybe thenumbers are saying or what's
happening.
So that's really solid andsound advice that you just
shared, that you know at the endof the day it is transactional
and this is the line and you canhave the friendly relationship,
but there is very much a linein the sand of what it is at its
(19:14):
core.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Exactly, yeah, and I just I always encourage my team,
like if you're taking itpersonal, that's good, because
that means that you care.
Just learn to leave it thereand don't let it keep you up at
night, because you'll you'lldrive yourself nutty if you do.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, and that's a fine line, and I think that just
comes with experience and repsand knowing okay, this one maybe
got away from me it it ate atme way too much.
This one, maybe it should haveeaten at me a little bit more
than it did and you find thatbalance.
So you've shared your bestpiece of advice.
So I'll ask you this what'snext for the business?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, for us it's to lean into technology.
How can we continue to leverageall the tech that's out there
right now so that ouraccountants and CFOs really can
become strategists and guidancefor you guys, for our clients?
I think that, again, we shouldbe using that type of stuff
because it reduces errors and itgets things done quicker, which
(20:14):
means us, as service providers,can give you advice and help
you pivot a lot more quickly,and that's where we're headed.
I think that the next versionwill be just a stepping stone.
In the next five, 10 years,it'll be interesting to see how
much tech has been enabled intothe accounting space.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love that.
That's so good.
I think there's so many firmsleaning into it because it's not
going away.
It's not a trend, it's here tostick.
I think there's still a coupleof firms out there that are
scared and they want to dothings the old school way
because that's the way they'vebeen doing it, but unfortunately
, they will be left behind.
It's a harsh reality.
So I love to hear that you'refull force and you're driving
(20:57):
into the technology.
So that's awesome.
Yeah, force, and you're drivinginto that the technology, so
that's awesome.
Rachel, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing your story
and sharing all of your insight.
This was an amazingconversation.
I hope a ton of listeners get aton of value from this.
How can people get in touchwith you if they want to
continue the conversation orreach out to you, learn what
you're doing or even potentiallywork with you?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You can always reach me byemail at Rachel at fully
accountablecom.
Um, you can visit us at ourwebsite, fully accountablecom.
Uh, we're always on LinkedInand our Facebook, so any of
those platforms.
If you message us, we'll besure to get in touch with you.
Um, that way too.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Awesome.
I really encourage everyonelistening to get in touch with
Rachel.
Thank you so much again forcoming on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Thanks for having me, James.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Perfect.
So, rachel, that was amazing.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, if possible, could I justre-record the intro with you,
because I mentioned two sponsorsand then it said nothing else
about one of our new sponsors.
I didn't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I didn't have the thing pulled up.
Yeah, yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Okay, whatever you need to do, yeah, yeah, go for
it.
Okay, cool, can you?
Well, we'll have to work somemagic on the front end, so I
can't even remember how youstarted, but it'll, it'll work
out fine not worried welcomeback to another episode of cfo
chronicles.
We have an amazing guest joiningus today, but before I
introduce who we have, I do wantto give a massive shout out to
our sponsor, universalaccounting.
Make sure to check them out,get Get in touch with them.
They are the premier accountingfirm builder.
(22:25):
If you're looking to level upyour skills grow the premier
accounting firm, level up yourbookkeeping skills, make sure to
get in touch with them.
They're amazing at what they do.
Rachel Phillips from FullyAccountable, thank you so much
for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Thank you for having me, James.
I'm really looking forward tothis.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
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
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
(23:15):
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnow.
To date on what's happening inthe world of accounting and
financial growth, We've gotexciting topics coming up, so
stay tuned for the next episodeof CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
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
(23:55):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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