January 8, 2025 • 18 mins
Setting clear goals at the start of a new year is essential for any business's success. We encourage deliberate planning to review past performance, establish actionable goals, and stay aligned as a team throughout the year.
• Reflecting on last year's successes and challenges
• Setting realistic and actionable goals for 2025
• Weekly meetings for team alignment
• Updating and refining standard operating procedures
• Proactive client communication and training strategies
• Discussing budget and marketing efforts
• Documenting meeting notes for accountability and progress tracking
• Emphasizing work-life balance alongside business growth
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is something that every single business
should be doing, so, if you'renot, definitely add this to your
list of things to review inthis meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to what your CPA Wants you To Know.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Tax and accounting help can be expensive, so we've
created this podcast to helpguide you through it all and
make you feel like you have aCPA in your back pocket.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm Carson Sands.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm Taryn Sands.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm a CPA with over 10 years of experience helping
people start and grow theirbusinesses.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And I'm an MBA with a specialization in marketing and
entrepreneurship.
Taxes suck and we want to makesure you don't pay more than
your fair share.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We're here to share everything your CPA wants you to
know in a fun and easy tounderstand way.
Let's get started.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Let's do it.
Happy 2025, everyone.
I seriously cannot believe I'msaying that.
I feel like every single yeargoes by quicker and quicker.
But here we are and we werejust discussing what we would
like for this first episode of2025 to be and, if I'm not wrong
(01:20):
, I think this is our 90thepisode, or somewhere close.
So what did we want to kick offthe new year with?
What do we want to give you?
And we recently had kind of ourend of year meeting with each
other and I thought that thatwould be such a good idea to
share on here and give you kindof a look into how we run our
(01:44):
business and the things that wedo as not only accountants but
business owners, since we doshare a lot of accounting advice
and tax advice with personaland business finance here, but
we offer a unique perspectivebecause we not only are
accountants but we also run ourown business together.
(02:04):
So this meeting is something wedo every single year, either at
the end of the year or the verybeginning of January, before we
really ramp up for tax season,and I just wanted to share what
we go through during thatmeeting so that you can
replicate that in your businessas well.
In our business, it is justCarson and I who are making like
the big decisions.
We are 50-50 owners, so we'rethe only ones that are looped
(02:28):
into this conversation and thenlater, if there's any big goals,
we would be giving them to,like our podcast editor VA, all
of those other people that kindof help us behind the scenes.
But if you have employees ormanagers or supervisors or
anything like that, it would begood to bring them into a lot of
this, because I think thebiggest mistake business owners
(02:50):
make sometimes is not lettingthe people that truly matter and
are doing a lot of the work inon what the goals are.
So everybody has to be on thesame page and it doesn't matter
if you have a large company or avery small company, like we do.
Everyone has to be on the samepage and that's why we like to
do this meeting.
So getting on the same page iswhat this is all about, and
(03:10):
looking at what happened lastyear and what is to come for
2025 is the goal of the meeting.
So the first thing, we just setgoals for the new year and to do
that, we kind of work backwards.
So what is our goal?
Are they monetary goals.
Is it time, like, do we want toreduce the time that we're in
the office because the kids arereally needing us more this next
(03:33):
year?
Whatever those goals are, wewrite them down and we work
backwards.
How are we going to meet thosegoals?
And we don't just talk about it, you know, on January 1st, and
then forget about it.
So we do set on our calendartime to go back monthly and
quarterly to talk about it.
Like, are we actually doing thethings to meet our goals?
I think that's a huge thingthat every person is guilty of
(03:58):
at some point or another.
But definitely put at leastquarterly meetings to talk about
your goals and write them outso that you can look back at
that when you're trying toupdate and see if you're moving
towards your goal and what stepsyou're taking to get you there.
So if we were to set that wewere going to need more time
(04:19):
with the kids, we would make alist of actionable steps to to
get us there.
Or if you wanted a revenue goal, what is that going to be For
us this year?
This is actually the first timein like seven years that we
have updated our hourly ratepricing, so that is one of our
strategies for growth.
This year we have increased ourpricing and we actually talked
(04:42):
about this in a few of ourquarterly meetings last year and
so we felt the need to sharethat with our clients as soon as
possible, in case the priceincrease was something that they
weren't comfortable with.
They had time to make thatdecision, so we've let everyone
know multiple times.
So now, going into our busytime of year, everyone knows,
and everyone's on the same pageIf they don't like that price
(05:05):
change, then they definitelyhave had time to make other
arrangements or anything likethat.
So, working backwards to meetthose goals and plan ahead.
The next thing that we swear byis weekly meetings, and these
become very hard whenever we getinto tax season, because
sometimes we're not in theoffice at the same times, and if
we are, we're in meetings.
(05:26):
So if we want those weeklymeetings to work, then we have
to have them.
So we set the day For us it'salways Monday, because I feel
like it's so good to get on thesame page from day one, and
mostly what we cover in thatmeeting is what's going to
happen for the week.
So this doesn't apply to everybusiness, but I'm sure that you
can think of how it applies toyours.
(05:48):
We have all of these taxreturns going out and we have to
make sure that we stay at agood pace and make sure that
we're meeting clientexpectations.
So if we tell them that theirtax return will be ready in a
week or two weeks, we have tomake sure that we stay on a
really good schedule to makesure that all of them go out at
the same time.
So on Monday we're statingthese are the tax returns going
(06:09):
out Monday, tuesday, wednesdayand if something happens in the
week by the end of the week,these are the ones that were
promised out and we discuss that.
We also discuss any ones thatare having issues like we're
still needing things from people, and we take the time then to
follow up with them so thatwe're not getting super behind.
So this could look different inany type of business, but I
(06:32):
think it is important to touchbase, even if it's like a five
or 10 minute meeting everysingle week.
So what we do at the end of theyear is just decide on the date
, because what we have to do isblock off our calendar.
We use Calendly for anyone toschedule a meeting with us if
they have a question or anything, and if we don't have Calendly
blocked off for those meetings,then people would be able to
(06:54):
book during that time.
So if you are going to startimplementing this, make sure
that you block it off on yourcalendar and make sure that
nothing else can happen duringthat time.
Another big thing that we do andwe update every single year at
this time and it can be at yourbusy time your busy time is
probably way different than oursbut we update our SOPs, or our
(07:15):
standard operating procedures,and that just means it's a fancy
way of saying who does what.
So for us, there is a lot ofmoving parts for a tax return.
The documents come in scanningthe organizing, doing the tax
return, sending invoices,getting signatures there's all
of these steps.
So what we've done is we'velisted out all the steps for tax
(07:37):
season and also different timesof the year.
So one of our SOPs is when wehave a new client, we have to
have a new client form and thenthat has to be scanned in.
They have to have a new foldercreated and they have to be put
in all of our stages so thatthey get our updates, they get
our emails, all of that.
So that's something that has tobe done, and making those steps
(08:00):
and listing them out and whohas to do what is so very
important, especially if youhave a small business like ours.
I feel like those are the typesof businesses that just wing it,
and I can tell you right nowthat it makes a huge difference
if you're winging it versus ifyou're taking the time to do
these, because that's exactlywhat we were doing in the
(08:22):
beginning and we have changed tomaking sure that we spend time
on things like this, and it hassaved us a vast amount of time
in our business.
So, if you're listening to thisgoing, no, I mean, I don't feel
like I need to do that.
Maybe it's just me or there'stwo of you Absolutely you do.
Take some time to set up thoseprocedures and figure out who
(08:44):
does what, so that everyone ison the same page.
So, after we review the SOPs,we always update those, because
every single year, there'ssomething that maybe didn't go
as well during tax season orduring the year and we're like,
hey, we need to add this step.
So we always review them andmake some tweaks at this time of
the year.
(09:07):
Hey there, have you ever thoughtof setting a meeting with your
CPA to discuss personal finances?
If you have, we have theperfect thing for you.
We created a four-week workbookto walk you through everything
your CPA wants you to know aboutpersonal finances.
So we're going to dive intopersonal finances with budgeting
(09:28):
, savings, retirement,calculating what you have now
and what you need to get to,where you want to go, setting
financial goals and lifeinsurance.
This also includes four weeksof email support from us when
you buy the workbook, because wewant you to pick it up and hit
the ground running.
Check the show notes for thelink to purchase and use code
(09:51):
podcast when you check out for adiscount.
Now back to the show.
The next thing we do is discussany big purchases we're going to
be making during the year.
So this year there was nothingreally big on our radar, but in
the past you know we've built anew office and we've had to redo
(10:14):
all of our computers and thingslike that.
So we would discuss anythinglike that and make sure that it
is on our agenda for the year.
The next thing we do and thisis a huge part of our business
now, but it actually wasn'talways a very big part of our
business, and that is we focuson client training.
So what does that actually mean?
(10:36):
Well, for us is we had to buildan email list for our clients,
and we didn't always have that.
It's one of those steps thatcome up as you continue to grow
and you need to get moreorganized and more efficient.
So we built our email list andwe have everyone added that's a
client to our email list.
We have to make sure that wealways add somebody if they're a
(10:56):
new client and we keep thatupdated.
And then the training part ofthat is what do you want your
clients to do?
How do you want them tointeract with you?
How do you want them tointeract with you?
How do you want them to giveyou documents?
How do you want them to paytheir invoices, all of those
things?
And if you don't do clienttraining, it makes everything
quite messy.
(11:16):
And if you do we've been doingthis for a few years now I want
to say like three years, butonly maybe two really well, then
you get the result you want andthings are so much more
efficient.
So what that looks like in ourbusiness is that we plan and set
emails throughout the year forour clients telling them what to
(11:38):
do, reminding them of due datesand things that are coming up.
So that's way easier to do whenwe're doing it in January, for
instance, there are due datescoming up and things that we
need them to know going intoJanuary, like filing their 1099s
or how we want their taxdocuments to come to us.
Do they need to upload them?
(11:59):
Can they drop them by ouroffice?
All of those things arequestions that come in and
result in hundreds and hundredsof emails.
So at the beginning of the yearwe need to plan out all of
those emails and then they goout when they're supposed to.
So now we've done this for acouple of years.
We have all those emails and wejust need to tweak them.
(12:21):
So recently we have made somechanges to our processes, and
that's what we were working onnow is just updating those
emails that are training everysingle client, like saying hey,
this is how we want to work withyou and this is how it's most
efficient, so that they knowwhat to do without having to ask
.
So we also send out things likea tax prep checklist and that
(12:45):
helps everyone, not email us andgo.
Hey, I forgot.
What all do I need to provideyou this year so that eliminates
a lot of emails, so anythingthat eliminates questions and
helps them along the way duringthe year to remember due dates,
remind them.
We have all of that set upbefore we get into the year and
what it has done is it'sactually made things run so much
(13:10):
smoother.
Our clients aren't asking usall the time what to do because
we've already jumped in theiremail and said, hey, tax season
just started, here's what youneed to do.
And then there's another emailthat goes out a little bit later
saying, like reminder, here'sthe due date, here's our
turnaround times right now andhere's what you need to do once
you're ready to file your taxreturn.
(13:31):
So that eliminates a ton ofemails and it eliminates a ton
of phone calls.
So we've learned that the hardway and I think this could apply
to almost any business.
So, just getting on top of whatdo you want your clients to
know and how can you addressthat before they even ask?
The next thing we do andhopefully all businesses do this
(13:52):
is that we look at last yearand we say what we think went
well and what we think could bebetter.
Now we have meetings along theyear, like every quarter, about
this too, so we kind of alreadyknew what those answers were
going to be.
But this is a time that we talkabout the entire year.
(14:13):
Look at all of our reports ifit's revenue based or time,
number of clients, that type ofthing and be like, okay, what
could we do better to makethings run smoother or to make
more revenue, whatever our goalsand just talk about how last
year went.
This is something that everysingle business should be doing,
(14:35):
so if you're not, definitelyadd this to your list of things
to review.
In this meeting Next up, we talkabout marketing for the next
year.
So this has a lot to do withwhere's our money going to go.
We have so many people askingus to donate to a specific
organization where we getadvertisement for that, or we're
(14:59):
putting money on ads or gettingnew t-shirts and pins.
Like, what are we going to dofor marketing?
And for us it isn't a lot.
We don't spend a lot of moneyon marketing, but we do spend a
lot of money on advertisingwithin the community.
So that looks like donating tothe school and then they will
advertise our logo on certainthings.
(15:21):
So we do a lot of that and wehave to discuss, like, what
we're going to continue doingthis year, what is our budget
for that, and what we may notcontinue doing this year.
I know so many business ownersprobably get overwhelmed with
the number of phone calls andemails for asking for donations
and sponsorships andadvertisement blocks and we get
(15:43):
it.
We do too.
We just try to make thosedecisions at the beginning of
the year so we know what ourbudget is and we know what we
want to spend and what we canspend, and so that we're all on
the same page.
Finally, in this meeting we justdiscuss what our focus is for
the year, and that can be hardsometimes and I think as your
(16:04):
business grows it definitelychanges.
So we were in a big growthperiod for the first probably
five years of our business andthen we hit a point where we
didn't want to grow anymorebecause we were sacrificing too
much of our time.
So we had to make a lot ofchanges that year.
And then you can also be in ayear where you're like you know,
(16:25):
last year we did great, I likedhow things felt, and we don't
want to grow, we just want tostay about the same, and that's
where we are this year.
But every single year wediscuss it, discuss how the last
year felt and discuss what'sour focus for this year.
Is it growth, are we downsizing, or do we just want to stay the
(16:47):
same?
And for us this year, that isjust staying the same.
We probably will be here forquite some time, considering we
have three busy kids and we justdon't want to sacrifice any
more of that family time at themoment.
But, depending on your answerfor that question, there is a
lot of things that you should beputting into place and talking
about in your next meetings,whether they're monthly or
(17:09):
quarterly, and talking aboutwith your employees or people
working for you like contractors, all year long.
So these notes that you make inthe meeting are so important
moving forward in 2025.
Don't just write them down andforget about them, or don't just
have the meeting and not writeanything down.
Make sure that you are typingout at least a quick meeting
(17:32):
agenda and putting down youranswers to all of these things
so that you can go review themas the year progresses and make
sure that you're staying on topof your goals and your focus for
the year.
I know this is not our typicalepisode, but I hope someone
enjoyed it and finds thishelpful to have a meeting
(17:53):
similar to this with yourbusiness, your business partner
or your employees before theyear starts.
If you do, and if you do lovethis episode, I would really
appreciate it if you share itwith someone who you think would
also like it, or share it onsocial media and tag us Until
next time.
Thank you so much for listeningto what your CPA Wants you To
(18:16):
Know, podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
This podcast is intended to provide accounting
and tax information foreducational purposes only.
All tax situations are uniqueand should be handled with the
assistance of a tax professional.
This is something that every single business
should be doing, so, if you'renot, definitely add this to your
list of things to review inthis meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to what your CPA Wants you To Know.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Tax and accounting help can be expensive, so we've
created this podcast to helpguide you through it all and
make you feel like you have aCPA in your back pocket.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm Carson Sands.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm Taryn Sands.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm a CPA with over 10 years of experience helping
people start and grow theirbusinesses.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And I'm an MBA with a specialization in marketing and
entrepreneurship.
Taxes suck and we want to makesure you don't pay more than
your fair share.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We're here to share everything your CPA wants you to
know in a fun and easy tounderstand way.
Let's get started.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Let's do it.
Happy 2025, everyone.
I seriously cannot believe I'msaying that.
I feel like every single yeargoes by quicker and quicker.
But here we are and we werejust discussing what we would
like for this first episode of2025 to be and, if I'm not wrong
(01:20):
, I think this is our 90thepisode, or somewhere close.
So what did we want to kick offthe new year with?
What do we want to give you?
And we recently had kind of ourend of year meeting with each
other and I thought that thatwould be such a good idea to
share on here and give you kindof a look into how we run our
(01:44):
business and the things that wedo as not only accountants but
business owners, since we doshare a lot of accounting advice
and tax advice with personaland business finance here, but
we offer a unique perspectivebecause we not only are
accountants but we also run ourown business together.
(02:04):
So this meeting is something wedo every single year, either at
the end of the year or the verybeginning of January, before we
really ramp up for tax season,and I just wanted to share what
we go through during thatmeeting so that you can
replicate that in your businessas well.
In our business, it is justCarson and I who are making like
the big decisions.
We are 50-50 owners, so we'rethe only ones that are looped
(02:28):
into this conversation and thenlater, if there's any big goals,
we would be giving them to,like our podcast editor VA, all
of those other people that kindof help us behind the scenes.
But if you have employees ormanagers or supervisors or
anything like that, it would begood to bring them into a lot of
this, because I think thebiggest mistake business owners
(02:50):
make sometimes is not lettingthe people that truly matter and
are doing a lot of the work inon what the goals are.
So everybody has to be on thesame page and it doesn't matter
if you have a large company or avery small company, like we do.
Everyone has to be on the samepage and that's why we like to
do this meeting.
So getting on the same page iswhat this is all about, and
(03:10):
looking at what happened lastyear and what is to come for
2025 is the goal of the meeting.
So the first thing, we just setgoals for the new year and to do
that, we kind of work backwards.
So what is our goal?
Are they monetary goals.
Is it time, like, do we want toreduce the time that we're in
the office because the kids arereally needing us more this next
(03:33):
year?
Whatever those goals are, wewrite them down and we work
backwards.
How are we going to meet thosegoals?
And we don't just talk about it, you know, on January 1st, and
then forget about it.
So we do set on our calendartime to go back monthly and
quarterly to talk about it.
Like, are we actually doing thethings to meet our goals?
I think that's a huge thingthat every person is guilty of
(03:58):
at some point or another.
But definitely put at leastquarterly meetings to talk about
your goals and write them outso that you can look back at
that when you're trying toupdate and see if you're moving
towards your goal and what stepsyou're taking to get you there.
So if we were to set that wewere going to need more time
(04:19):
with the kids, we would make alist of actionable steps to to
get us there.
Or if you wanted a revenue goal, what is that going to be For
us this year?
This is actually the first timein like seven years that we
have updated our hourly ratepricing, so that is one of our
strategies for growth.
This year we have increased ourpricing and we actually talked
(04:42):
about this in a few of ourquarterly meetings last year and
so we felt the need to sharethat with our clients as soon as
possible, in case the priceincrease was something that they
weren't comfortable with.
They had time to make thatdecision, so we've let everyone
know multiple times.
So now, going into our busytime of year, everyone knows,
and everyone's on the same pageIf they don't like that price
(05:05):
change, then they definitelyhave had time to make other
arrangements or anything likethat.
So, working backwards to meetthose goals and plan ahead.
The next thing that we swear byis weekly meetings, and these
become very hard whenever we getinto tax season, because
sometimes we're not in theoffice at the same times, and if
we are, we're in meetings.
(05:26):
So if we want those weeklymeetings to work, then we have
to have them.
So we set the day For us it'salways Monday, because I feel
like it's so good to get on thesame page from day one, and
mostly what we cover in thatmeeting is what's going to
happen for the week.
So this doesn't apply to everybusiness, but I'm sure that you
can think of how it applies toyours.
(05:48):
We have all of these taxreturns going out and we have to
make sure that we stay at agood pace and make sure that
we're meeting clientexpectations.
So if we tell them that theirtax return will be ready in a
week or two weeks, we have tomake sure that we stay on a
really good schedule to makesure that all of them go out at
the same time.
So on Monday we're statingthese are the tax returns going
(06:09):
out Monday, tuesday, wednesdayand if something happens in the
week by the end of the week,these are the ones that were
promised out and we discuss that.
We also discuss any ones thatare having issues like we're
still needing things from people, and we take the time then to
follow up with them so thatwe're not getting super behind.
So this could look different inany type of business, but I
(06:32):
think it is important to touchbase, even if it's like a five
or 10 minute meeting everysingle week.
So what we do at the end of theyear is just decide on the date
, because what we have to do isblock off our calendar.
We use Calendly for anyone toschedule a meeting with us if
they have a question or anything, and if we don't have Calendly
blocked off for those meetings,then people would be able to
(06:54):
book during that time.
So if you are going to startimplementing this, make sure
that you block it off on yourcalendar and make sure that
nothing else can happen duringthat time.
Another big thing that we do andwe update every single year at
this time and it can be at yourbusy time your busy time is
probably way different than oursbut we update our SOPs, or our
(07:15):
standard operating procedures,and that just means it's a fancy
way of saying who does what.
So for us, there is a lot ofmoving parts for a tax return.
The documents come in scanningthe organizing, doing the tax
return, sending invoices,getting signatures there's all
of these steps.
So what we've done is we'velisted out all the steps for tax
(07:37):
season and also different timesof the year.
So one of our SOPs is when wehave a new client, we have to
have a new client form and thenthat has to be scanned in.
They have to have a new foldercreated and they have to be put
in all of our stages so thatthey get our updates, they get
our emails, all of that.
So that's something that has tobe done, and making those steps
(08:00):
and listing them out and whohas to do what is so very
important, especially if youhave a small business like ours.
I feel like those are the typesof businesses that just wing it,
and I can tell you right nowthat it makes a huge difference
if you're winging it versus ifyou're taking the time to do
these, because that's exactlywhat we were doing in the
(08:22):
beginning and we have changed tomaking sure that we spend time
on things like this, and it hassaved us a vast amount of time
in our business.
So, if you're listening to thisgoing, no, I mean, I don't feel
like I need to do that.
Maybe it's just me or there'stwo of you Absolutely you do.
Take some time to set up thoseprocedures and figure out who
(08:44):
does what, so that everyone ison the same page.
So, after we review the SOPs,we always update those, because
every single year, there'ssomething that maybe didn't go
as well during tax season orduring the year and we're like,
hey, we need to add this step.
So we always review them andmake some tweaks at this time of
the year.
(09:07):
Hey there, have you ever thoughtof setting a meeting with your
CPA to discuss personal finances?
If you have, we have theperfect thing for you.
We created a four-week workbookto walk you through everything
your CPA wants you to know aboutpersonal finances.
So we're going to dive intopersonal finances with budgeting
(09:28):
, savings, retirement,calculating what you have now
and what you need to get to,where you want to go, setting
financial goals and lifeinsurance.
This also includes four weeksof email support from us when
you buy the workbook, because wewant you to pick it up and hit
the ground running.
Check the show notes for thelink to purchase and use code
(09:51):
podcast when you check out for adiscount.
Now back to the show.
The next thing we do is discussany big purchases we're going to
be making during the year.
So this year there was nothingreally big on our radar, but in
the past you know we've built anew office and we've had to redo
(10:14):
all of our computers and thingslike that.
So we would discuss anythinglike that and make sure that it
is on our agenda for the year.
The next thing we do and thisis a huge part of our business
now, but it actually wasn'talways a very big part of our
business, and that is we focuson client training.
So what does that actually mean?
(10:36):
Well, for us is we had to buildan email list for our clients,
and we didn't always have that.
It's one of those steps thatcome up as you continue to grow
and you need to get moreorganized and more efficient.
So we built our email list andwe have everyone added that's a
client to our email list.
We have to make sure that wealways add somebody if they're a
(10:56):
new client and we keep thatupdated.
And then the training part ofthat is what do you want your
clients to do?
How do you want them tointeract with you?
How do you want them tointeract with you?
How do you want them to giveyou documents?
How do you want them to paytheir invoices, all of those
things?
And if you don't do clienttraining, it makes everything
quite messy.
(11:16):
And if you do we've been doingthis for a few years now I want
to say like three years, butonly maybe two really well, then
you get the result you want andthings are so much more
efficient.
So what that looks like in ourbusiness is that we plan and set
emails throughout the year forour clients telling them what to
(11:38):
do, reminding them of due datesand things that are coming up.
So that's way easier to do whenwe're doing it in January, for
instance, there are due datescoming up and things that we
need them to know going intoJanuary, like filing their 1099s
or how we want their taxdocuments to come to us.
Do they need to upload them?
(11:59):
Can they drop them by ouroffice?
All of those things arequestions that come in and
result in hundreds and hundredsof emails.
So at the beginning of the yearwe need to plan out all of
those emails and then they goout when they're supposed to.
So now we've done this for acouple of years.
We have all those emails and wejust need to tweak them.
(12:21):
So recently we have made somechanges to our processes, and
that's what we were working onnow is just updating those
emails that are training everysingle client, like saying hey,
this is how we want to work withyou and this is how it's most
efficient, so that they knowwhat to do without having to ask
.
So we also send out things likea tax prep checklist and that
(12:45):
helps everyone, not email us andgo.
Hey, I forgot.
What all do I need to provideyou this year so that eliminates
a lot of emails, so anythingthat eliminates questions and
helps them along the way duringthe year to remember due dates,
remind them.
We have all of that set upbefore we get into the year and
what it has done is it'sactually made things run so much
(13:10):
smoother.
Our clients aren't asking usall the time what to do because
we've already jumped in theiremail and said, hey, tax season
just started, here's what youneed to do.
And then there's another emailthat goes out a little bit later
saying, like reminder, here'sthe due date, here's our
turnaround times right now andhere's what you need to do once
you're ready to file your taxreturn.
(13:31):
So that eliminates a ton ofemails and it eliminates a ton
of phone calls.
So we've learned that the hardway and I think this could apply
to almost any business.
So, just getting on top of whatdo you want your clients to
know and how can you addressthat before they even ask?
The next thing we do andhopefully all businesses do this
(13:52):
is that we look at last yearand we say what we think went
well and what we think could bebetter.
Now we have meetings along theyear, like every quarter, about
this too, so we kind of alreadyknew what those answers were
going to be.
But this is a time that we talkabout the entire year.
(14:13):
Look at all of our reports ifit's revenue based or time,
number of clients, that type ofthing and be like, okay, what
could we do better to makethings run smoother or to make
more revenue, whatever our goalsand just talk about how last
year went.
This is something that everysingle business should be doing,
(14:35):
so if you're not, definitelyadd this to your list of things
to review.
In this meeting Next up, we talkabout marketing for the next
year.
So this has a lot to do withwhere's our money going to go.
We have so many people askingus to donate to a specific
organization where we getadvertisement for that, or we're
(14:59):
putting money on ads or gettingnew t-shirts and pins.
Like, what are we going to dofor marketing?
And for us it isn't a lot.
We don't spend a lot of moneyon marketing, but we do spend a
lot of money on advertisingwithin the community.
So that looks like donating tothe school and then they will
advertise our logo on certainthings.
(15:21):
So we do a lot of that and wehave to discuss, like, what
we're going to continue doingthis year, what is our budget
for that, and what we may notcontinue doing this year.
I know so many business ownersprobably get overwhelmed with
the number of phone calls andemails for asking for donations
and sponsorships andadvertisement blocks and we get
(15:43):
it.
We do too.
We just try to make thosedecisions at the beginning of
the year so we know what ourbudget is and we know what we
want to spend and what we canspend, and so that we're all on
the same page.
Finally, in this meeting we justdiscuss what our focus is for
the year, and that can be hardsometimes and I think as your
(16:04):
business grows it definitelychanges.
So we were in a big growthperiod for the first probably
five years of our business andthen we hit a point where we
didn't want to grow anymorebecause we were sacrificing too
much of our time.
So we had to make a lot ofchanges that year.
And then you can also be in ayear where you're like you know,
(16:25):
last year we did great, I likedhow things felt, and we don't
want to grow, we just want tostay about the same, and that's
where we are this year.
But every single year wediscuss it, discuss how the last
year felt and discuss what'sour focus for this year.
Is it growth, are we downsizing, or do we just want to stay the
(16:47):
same?
And for us this year, that isjust staying the same.
We probably will be here forquite some time, considering we
have three busy kids and we justdon't want to sacrifice any
more of that family time at themoment.
But, depending on your answerfor that question, there is a
lot of things that you should beputting into place and talking
about in your next meetings,whether they're monthly or
(17:09):
quarterly, and talking aboutwith your employees or people
working for you like contractors, all year long.
So these notes that you make inthe meeting are so important
moving forward in 2025.
Don't just write them down andforget about them, or don't just
have the meeting and not writeanything down.
Make sure that you are typingout at least a quick meeting
(17:32):
agenda and putting down youranswers to all of these things
so that you can go review themas the year progresses and make
sure that you're staying on topof your goals and your focus for
the year.
I know this is not our typicalepisode, but I hope someone
enjoyed it and finds thishelpful to have a meeting
(17:53):
similar to this with yourbusiness, your business partner
or your employees before theyear starts.
If you do, and if you do lovethis episode, I would really
appreciate it if you share itwith someone who you think would
also like it, or share it onsocial media and tag us Until
next time.
Thank you so much for listeningto what your CPA Wants you To
(18:16):
Know, podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
This podcast is intended to provide accounting
and tax information foreducational purposes only.
All tax situations are uniqueand should be handled with the
assistance of a tax professional.
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