Latest / The Accounting Leads Now Podcast / He Spotted a $500K Payroll Leak. The Owner Had No Idea.

Transcript

He Spotted a $500K Payroll Leak. The Owner Had No Idea. · The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success, the podcast where we explore the stories, strategies and the sharp thinking behind the financial leaders shaping today's most resilient businesses.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Donovan, and today's guest is someone who's redefining what it means to be a trusted financial partner.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Sonny Grappone is the founder of Precision Accounting and Consulting, a firm known for blending rock-solid financial accuracy with high-level strategic insight.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: His team helps businesses do more than just keep the books.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: They help leaders make decisions with clarity, confidence and control.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Whether it's navigating complex financial landscapes, identifying inefficiencies or proactively planning for growth, sonny brings a steady, client-focused mindset that a lot of firms talk about but very few deliver on.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to dig into his entrepreneurial journey what sets Precision apart and what he sees coming next for the accounting world.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Let's jump in, sonny.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So great having you on here today.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to get into more of your story, but let's kick things off with your origin story.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: What led you to launch Precision Accounting and Consulting?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a combination of things.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I graduated, I would say, from college back in 2000.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: What was it?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: 2018, I think no, no, I'm sorry.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Wow, it's been a while.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: 2016.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And you know I worked a lot in corporate for a while.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I worked in New York City, manhattan.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm located in Long Island, new York.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: So I worked in Manhattan.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Some pretty big firms Cantor Rich Gerald was the last one that I worked at.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I got really tired of the corporate world.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: In corporate accounting you really don't learn the crux of accounting.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Just to give an example of that, in most of my jobs, because the corporations were so big, you would work on one piece of a financial statement as opposed to the whole big picture.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So basically, I really got tired of that and it came to the point where it was more about sanity than, you know, money, you know.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So when I came back, I took less money coming back home and to be closer to my wife and kids, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: You know I worked for an individual that I consulted with and you know he pretty much put it out there for us.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: You know he said the business is out there for you to, you know, to make that, whatever you bring in, you know I would like you to be a part of it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: You know there wasn't a lot of people taking that initiative but I kind of took it upon myself as I had my own side business on the side already, you know.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And I kind of took it upon myself as I had my own side business on the side already, you know, and I made a lot of networking.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: You know I knew I had to get in front of a lot of people and make a name for myself in my industry.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: You know we are a niche accounting firm.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: At first we were.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: We did a lot of hospitality, hotels, restaurants, you know.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: And I've kind of expanded that and went outside that box and I got us a huge alliance with a construction payroll company.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: That kind of launched us and we became very heavily involved in construction and then later branched off into law firms and now we take care of medical practices, manufacturing, you know.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So it basically turned into as my, my part.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: My boss at the time put it out there, you know, if you want to bring in the business business, it out there for you.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: And I uh, exceeded those expectations and he ended up becoming a partner with me in my own practice now, which we've had for, uh, for a good amount of time now that's awesome.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: What?
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: What was the?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Or?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I guess was there a specific moment or gap you saw in the market that pushed you to go all in on your own firm?
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: sure, uh, the covid.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: So, um, you know, like I said, we precision was always there but it didn't, you know, surpass its peak of revenue until after COVID.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Because there was such a need of good accounting out there.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Because what happened was it was a time when people were suffering and they needed money, they needed funding right, so they had to go to these banks to get PPP.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: A lot of people are applying for the employer retention credit, all these different types of loans.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: In order to do that, especially with the PPP, you need the proper financials and nobody ever looks at their financials.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: With their account, you know.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: They're more in tune with where's my financials for my taxes, you know.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And finally, when they need good financials, you know and they realize, kind of what their account was doing, what their account was doing.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: One plus one didn't equal two.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: They didn't have both sides of the equation.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: So we kind of capitalized on that because we were very familiar with what was needed on the PPP background, on certain tax credits that people needed to apply for, what credentials they needed, and we pounced on that while people needed a good accountant, and we succeeded.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: You know, word of mouth spread and our reach also.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people attest to this that are in business.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: After COVID our reach was specifically only New York, but after COVID it exploded because now we were able to work remote with people all over the country.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So now I have clients in California, every major city pretty much Florida, chicago, seattle, tennessee we have a few clients in there.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: So that really was the main jumping off point for us in my business.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: personally, from what I've seen, us in my business personally, from what I've seen, okay, understood, how involved did you get with ERC?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Because we started, that's I would say, where we really started to cut our teeth in the accounting world, got introduced to the accounting space and then, very quickly, a prospect we were speaking to said hey, I'm actually I'm not looking for accounting leads, I'm looking for tax credit leads.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: And this was very early days with the ERC and he introduced me to the employer attention, tax credit.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And we ran with that, I think, for the next two and a half three years until every man and their dog was selling it, and then it just became saturated and hard to find a business who had more than you know, three people who didn't know about it.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I'm curious, like, what was your experience?
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Like how did you guys navigate those waters?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Because in the early days it very much sounded to people like this sounds way too good to be true, I don't want to do this.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So how did you guys navigate that and find success?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You know it was it was.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: first of all, it was life changing.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I have to say the employee retention credit was like to us it was too good to be true.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: My partner, Doug he is what we call the tax guru he's just heavily invested in the tax code.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: One half of our business CFO, the other half is tax planning.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: He's always in the tax code, so when he found out about it, he found out about it literally the day before it was brought into legislation.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And he brought this to me and he's like, he's like, this can't be true.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: He's like, and he's reading it to me and I'm like this is way better than PPP.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: And how does nobody know about this?
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: You know, and so we, you know know, we talked to, uh, we consulted with, a few tax attorneys and you know, because we were like you know, we got to get on this.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Nobody knows about it.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So we had a few restaurants that we uh had under our belt at the time and we kind of told uh, you know the restaurants, this is tax credit.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: You know why don't we try it out?
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: So they had about eight locations.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: So our first one we got them about 4.5 million, all right, and when we applied for this, like I said, nobody was talking about this.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: We were like way ahead of the curve.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: But it went six months where it was just silence and we were like, if we got this wrong, we are in serious trouble, because now we just filed an amendment right to these people's payroll uh, they're 941s, right, and if they don't get this credit now, they're gonna owe a lot of money because they're gonna get that credit back and if they get audited.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: So we were like a lot of sleepless nights.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Uh, those were six months and, uh, hoping that this was going to be true, because we, you know, we went over it numerous times and then, once the first check came in, it was like it just came in full steam ahead and it was just like they started talking.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And you know, by by the end of this whole thing, I mean we had processed.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I can't even tell you, probably over you know, thousands, I would say.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: We processed, we made a lot.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It definitely became way oversaturated.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: We went by very strict guidelines, you know.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: We didn't go by um supply chain.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: You know, which a lot of people did, because we, we knew it was going to be iffy and it was very hard to prove.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Um, we strictly went by revenue and we fell into the uh realm of hospitality where almost every restaurant qualified.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: You know, um, that's another jumping off point where how I expanded my business was, um, I made um good potential leads with um guys that were marketing this and, um, there was two guys in particular that were marketing this and had no idea how to process it and needed a good processor.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: They came to me specifically and I brought this to my partner and it just like took off for us.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I mean we, and because of that now we are still getting business from those ERC clients in other areas of accounting, whether it be tax planning, whether it be just regular accounting.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: You know we've got them involved in wellness programs.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Now there's a whole host of things that we've been involved in that have been directly connected to ERC.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But at the same time it's a double-edged sword, because when people hear ERC they lose a bad taste in their mouth Like, oh, I got called about that six, seven times.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: You know, and I'm like you know, we're a legit CPA firm, right.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: So like you, know we went by the books.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome that you know buy the books.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: That's that's so cool.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I'm pumped to hear you had so much success there and you're able to help out so many other businesses and just the ripple effect that was created.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So that's awesome.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned a couple times now the hospitality space.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Do you work with any other industries?
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Is there a patterns that you find maybe in the hospitality space with other industries that are challenges these industries face?
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: yeah, uh, a lack of good accounting, like I said, especially in hospitality.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: They're very unorganized.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Uh, we still do a lot of restaurants but, like I said, my firm position has like kind of veered off that end because, at the same time, um, hospitality is not black and white right like every other.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: And I just say this no knock against other accounts, but we've hired other accountants, especially guys with a lot of experience and that didn't have experience in hospitality.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: We brought them in and they couldn't make heads or tails right because they don't do things the conventional way.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: So, um, that's why I've made it a point to dive into other industries, um, that are a little more profitable too.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Uh, because a restaurant client will take you anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a month easily, as opposed to a construction client or a law firm or whatever it may be.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: So I've actually dived into a lot in the construction industry, specifically with unions and non-union, primarily wage type of work.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to develop a new niche in the job costing area.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: One thing I will say is 75% of contractors, guys, that GCs, that own these businesses, they do not job cost, they don't cost anything.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, when I tell you they do not know how much they are making off their projects.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: It astounds me because I'm like, how do you not know how much they are making off their projects, it?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It astounds me because I'm like, how do you not know how much you're making off each one?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And none of them know.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: And they know it's so valuable but they don't know where to start.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: It's so overwhelming to them.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: So, um, and there's not a lot of accounts that do it or offer it, so I'm trying to capitalize on it, that niche, and it's actually working, you know.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: So that's the area, that the different area that I'm going outside of hospitality right now, that I'm trying to really hone in on and see the end, because people could see the value in it.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's, it is interesting from, I mean, any professional's point of view, where they're sitting, like what may seem obvious to everyone else is not so.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: That's that's why you're paid for what you do and it's where you can.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: You can, you know, bring back the nights where people can fall asleep now because they know what's going on.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it is interesting.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's things that we come across with our clients or everyone we speak to.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It's like how, how do you not know that?
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Like it seems so obvious.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But I've, I've been blessed where I get to work with accountants now and cfos.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I think I have more insight to my own numbers or I'm getting, I'm getting better in that regard.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But a lot of this stuff is just like I I have no idea what I'm looking at or where to look, because it's not my area of expertise.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I just didn't.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just I didn't.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Even I didn't know what I didn't know.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So that's so many businesses in outside of their area of expertise, I guess yeah, it's just you got to bring that awareness to them.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: You know so many people.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: It amazes me a lot of business owners and this is no fault to their own, you know they operate with the um mentality is like you know, if I can make payroll and I can pay myself, I'm okay.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You know, and that is not the way to run a business.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: And they run that business like for years, like that, which, like I'm like you know.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: So imagine if I give you these numbers now in detail.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: You know, do like simple, like a trend analysis, right, like let's see how you're doing month to month.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Let's compare these numbers.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: You know, what are your percentage changes?
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: You know, did you go up in your cost of goods sold and your expenses?
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Why did you go up 20?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: You know why?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I just had a client.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Uh, last week I was going over with you know, we were going over prior year comparisons.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: His revenue stayed same and his payroll went up almost $500,000, and he had no idea.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: You know, like this is like you know and like I'm, like you know this is why you're losing so much money.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: It's like how do you not know that your payroll's gone skyrocketed?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: That's a significant increase, you know, and he just didn't have his hand on the pulse.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: And now you know, a, a month later he's pretty much, you know, making a profit.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: He's made the cuts that he needs to, and you know that's the value.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Because if I don't bring that type of um, you know, um insight, then I'm just like any other account.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm just getting your financials for your taxes and you know so that that's where we kind of have to capitalize.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: You know, in my industry at least, yeah, that's fair.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So what are some of the most common red flags?
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: You see when a new client first comes to?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: you Balance sheet, balance sheet, balance sheet, balance sheet.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: So the balance sheet is like it's like a bad word, I feel like to other accounts, or like they just when we get these books, nobody pays attention to the balance sheet, you know, or they don't communicate with their tax account at the end of the year.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: They're supposed to give your accountant these entries to make so they can agree to the tax return, right, but a lot of accounts aren't doing that.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So, like we get these balance sheets that are like horrendous and then, like you know, the only things that people will look at if they do look at their financials are their profit and loss statements.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: And profit and loss statements, their balances don't carry forward, right, but balance sheets do.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So you'll see these huge balances creep up that are, like you know, $300,000, you know, in liabilities.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And like you, know they have assets that are just like with negative balances and it's just like you know.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: So, like, those are like and like that.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: For example, right in a time when there's high interest rates and people are looking for competitive lending, you know they're going to ask you for financial statements and if you don't have those proper financial statements, you you're you're screwed.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Or you're going to get somewhere where, like hospitality for example, they're paying these pos systems, toast square, all these.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: They lend you money.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Now, right, they're paying upwards of 50 percent in interest rates and like that, you know, and they don't ask for financials.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: But because of that, right, so you're going to have to pay for it.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: You know, and these are simple things that can be prevented if you just take the right steps in the beginning.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: That's brutal.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: 50%.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, sonny.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: How, how, how do you guys help shift your clients' mindsets, or you know, from just keeping the books clean to using their numbers to actually drive decisions?
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: So it's funny, it's like you kind of have to like paint by numbers for them.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: You know it's like you got to really and, like you said, like this is to no insult to them at all, this isn't because that's not their job and I actually want that.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: I want people that are not going to get involved right in more so the day-to-day accounting, because, like this is what I do, let me do what I do and let me help you make money, you know, but I want someone that knows that, like law firms are perfect example of that.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: They'll always tell you I'm just concerned with making money.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: You do your thing.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I don't want any surprises, right?
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: So when I get those type of people, it's all about the presentation on how you deliver those numbers when you send those emails.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: If you're just sending an attachment with a P&L balance sheet, cash flow statement and say here's your finances for the month.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: If you have any questions, please contact me.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: They're just going to go right past it.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: So, like you know, I'll make like a nice presentation where I'll kind of like, even you can now use an AI, you know, like it can make these white paper presentations for you that can break down significant data that will kind of jump out at you.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: You know, like I was explaining before, you know, showing them where their numbers are shifting.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: You know on a month to month basis.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Or you know your.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: You know your net income went down from prior month.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: You know 20%.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: You know here's why.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: You know you have expenses that you're not capitalizing that should be depreciated right now.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: That will give you significant tax savings, you know.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: You know, but in like, you know very short one page that kind of hits you like in the stomach where, like, I got to do something here.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: You know that that's, it's all about the delivery and how you're presenting it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: You know, in order for them to actually look at that, if I'm going to hand them you know a financial statement and just say, here, you know, unless they're savvy enough, where they can, you know, make heads or tails and they are owners like that?
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Uh, you know you're not going to get much from them, but that's that's how I approach that yeah, that's great.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I think it's probably just from my, where I'm sitting.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I I mean, I had to to unfortunately let go of a bookkeeper I used for a couple years and you know since hired a new, new fractional CFO to come in and help but we were running with never even getting a P&L for I think two and a half, three years, like it didn't even, and I it was just something that I wasn't even aware of that we should have.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Until speaking with more clients and more prospects and helping our clients get more of their own fractional CFO clients, I was like, wait, wait a minute.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: All these things that I'm helping you get to help other businesses I don't even have in my own backyard.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And since doing that it's opened up a whole new light of okay, this is what our numbers are saying.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And it's scary at first when, like you said, oh, you're paying yourself, you're running payroll and things are good.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Starting to see and learn more about the numbers, it can be scary.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: But now we have those, I guess, starting points or metrics to build from.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: But to your point of what you're preparing to send your clients I think that's so important because, even though I work in this industry from the marketing perspective, learning about accounting and fractional CFOs.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I'm still not the best at reading the P&L or the reports that are sent over, so having someone who can jump in to break that down so it's more digestible, like you said, to paint by numbers and almost assuming your clients don't know what they're looking at, because even just by saying if you have any questions, let me know, they probably have a ton of questions.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: They're just not going to let you know.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: So I really like how you're proactive and getting ahead of that and saying here's what you should focus on, here's the important pieces.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: If you're going to skim through, this is the stuff that you know.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: It's bolded and, of course, relying on ai or not relying, but utilizing ai to help with that heavy lift I think that's awesome.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I'm sure your clients appreciate that as well yeah, it's a big, it's a big change and it's a big um area that I've been expanding on, um using and even using ai to kind of help me know, figure out stuff that would take me hours, you know, and just you know, giving it to them in that sense.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, and you have some clients that, like you know, I've had some clients that do take a proactive approach but take the totally wrong approach to looking at their financials.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: You know, I have the guy you know that was losing probably about 100 grand a month, like literally for two years still kept us and I, just you know, and he's looking at how much heat his uh heating lamps are, uh using, you know how much electricity they're using on a daily basis and he's and he's losing 100 grand a month and I'm like dude it's your payroll.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: You know you're paying overtime, you're paying benefits.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: You know, like you can't be doing this in the hospitality industry.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: It's just not going to work, you know.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: And same thing in the construction industry.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: You know, like guys would um.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Another thing that we try to be proactive with that I've started is um insurance, right, and so these guys they um, especially in startups any startup they're gonna get killed with insurance.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: And if they're not, when you ask them, how are you paying for your premiums?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: You know, at the end of the year, I don't know.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I'm paying it out of profit.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: You know why are you paying out of profit?
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Why aren't you billing your clients from it?
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: You know, because, if you like I'm just using an example workers' compensation is a perfect example general liability insurance right, they base that off payroll right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: So if your payroll gets higher, right, you're going to get hit with an audit at the end of the year saying that you estimated your payroll to be this and now it's this.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: You owe us a lot more money.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: That's what put these.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: It puts these uh contractors out of business.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Uh, a lot of these startups I would say 50 of them go under because of that.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: They can't afford their audit at the end of the year.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: So, like I'm educating them now, like you know, coming in and telling them, like you know, listen, like you know, here's your insurance policy, here's your payroll.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Like, let's come up with a game plan to kind of gauge your payroll to make sure you're keeping up with your policies and, if not, let's, let's bid them into your projects.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Like this is how much you should be pricing in, you know?
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And uh, that that's another thing that's been huge, because these are, this is a reoccurring problem that they're not seeing and they don't have the awareness to realize that, and nor should they.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: You know who's going to think of that, you know.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, that's my job, you know, and so it's just filling those gaps, you know, to where people don't see um, what's what's?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: one thing you believed in early on in your entrepreneurial journey that has since changed um, you know, a handful of years in dealing with rejection.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, dealing with rejection.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: You know, uh, when it was, when my first time getting into business and getting clients, like, and the second I got like a lead in right, or like I had a meeting with them, I'm already planning like months ahead already, like saying like, all right, this is going to be my revenue, this is how much I'm going to have now, and like they're just being let down, like.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: You know, like where they don't sign with me, or you know that.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: You know, learning how to deal with that disappointment, you know, in the beginning, was really hard for me, you know, and like obsessing over it, you know, at nighttime, like just being like what did I do wrong?
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: You know, like, and literally, and I would come with the proactive approach after, if they didn't, I would be very professional and I would say, listen, just for my, for my, you know, awareness like what, where did I go wrong?
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: How come?
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: You know, sometimes it was just like it wasn't the right fit, but most of the time, too, it what?
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: They?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Just a lot of people find it hard to change accounts for some reason and they just like still want to stick with their own guy.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: You know, um, but I've gotten now.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I've gotten a lot better with it too, and um and pricing.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Also, I would say pricing I used to be, especially in the beginning, right, you want any business, so you take anything, right.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: But now I kind of live and die buying prices.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: You know, I know my value, I know what I'm worth and I know what I'm going to bring to the table and I know how much I'm going to be saving you and at the end and my motto is that I want to save you more than my fee, you know, at the end of the year and usually that's my goal and I usually accomplish that.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So you know, I usually do not bunch, you know, on my prices.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: You know, and more people respect that, believe it or not, and I get more clients that way to be honest with you, as opposed to just like you know, oh, you want it for X amount of dollars per month, ok, you know, and it's like it's just that I just it doesn't give off the right vibe in my opinion.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: So those are two things I would say.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: That's really good.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Any hard won lessons you'd pass on to other firm owners or CFOs you'd pass on to other firm owners or CFOs.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: You know, in this industry, you know, being a CFO know your audience, right?
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: I think that's a very important lesson.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You know, me and my partner talk about it all the time.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: You know it's like you know, going outside of your scope, right, like when you give a contract and like, all of a sudden, you're doing stuff that's outside of your scope, right, like when you give a contract and like, all of a sudden, you're doing stuff that's not in that contract, right, like you know, for example, if I have a client that you know is not interested in financials and they're okay with that and they're okay with getting all they want is their tax return done, or they want quarterly financials, you know, or they, you know they want to speak to you once every six months.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: You know filing that and we're like going overboard, trying to deliver more than they want.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: You know, and, um, it doesn't make a difference at the end of the day, like you know, like know your audience, give them what they want, you know, and at the end of the day, you know they'll I feel they'll respect you and stay with you longer.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I have noticed that, um, as opposed to guys that you know want to move onward and we didn't do enough, for we did over the amount for it and it didn't save the relationship you know.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: So, really knowing what you're delivering to your clients and just being aware of that, Perfect.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I got two, two final kind of rapid fire questions for you, sonny, and then just one where people can get in touch with you.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: But I'm really curious to know what's the best financial advice that you've ever received.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Best financial advice I have ever received.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, that's the best financial advice I have ever seen I've been ever given.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I would't say like it's more financial advice.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I would say it's just more of um, how I?
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I guess the the 30 like um, I should say more so, like the um 30, 30, 30 rule, like, and I take that down to my mother, you, and that's not even from some big, it's literally from my mother.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: When I got my first job, when I was 16, my mother always made me pay my own bills, like insurance, whatever, and she wouldn't make me break down like here's your monthly expenses every week, divide by four and that's what you're putting away per week.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And she was very strict with me and you know she was very strict with me and you know, 30% for your bills, 30% for savings, and then you know you're over 30%, you know to 40%, you know you kind of split up if you want to invest it and then 20% for play.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: You know, and like, so many years later I still live by that and you know.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And also, always having six months worth of expenses in the bank.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: You know, and that's something I always tell my clients and it's never failed them and I would say 50%.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Do it probably a little less, but anytime, like COVID happened or anything like that, they wouldn't regret that.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: You know so, but that's.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: I still use that 30-30-30 rule.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: You know till this day.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: You know of allocating, you know savings, my bills, my investments, and then just having some play money love it.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: it's so simple, but yet probably so few execute on the simplicity of things.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Um, when you're not deep in the spreadsheets and strategy, how do you recharge Golf Nice?
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: What's your rating?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I am currently at a 11.5 right now.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I was lower, but you know I shot at 83, though yesterday I was very happy.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool yeah so yeah, it's just a great release, great for networking too, you know.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I just like being outdoors for four hours.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Kind of just forget about everything, anything that can make you be present.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I'm game.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: How often do you get out during the week?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I've been so bad this summer for getting out.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to be way more intentional the rest of the summer about booking time so that I go rather than oh there, let's find a tea time yeah, well, long island is like crazy with tea times especially.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, I live literally right next to uh beth page, so they're having the ride up there this year and, um, so, like beth page, no joke people are lining up to love the day before, like today, people are lining up at 8 am for tomorrow morning in the parking lot sleeping out for a tea time.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: So it's like insane.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I actually joined the club this year, so you know, so that's helped a lot and so I would say probably twice a week.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Twice a week if I'm lucky, like you know, one during the week with the client and then on the weekends, you know, getting out early, you know, because I got two kids under four.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: So you know, my wife only lets me if I get out, like around like 6 o'clock in the morning.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: So where are you guys located?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: by the way, I'm in eastern Canada, new Brunswick.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's great.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I actually have a few guys I work with in Canada also.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I got to get down to Banff.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Man, I'm dying to get down and play to I think it's Alberta or something like that where Banff is right.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, near Lake Louise, cool.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: So, sonny, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you if they have questions?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: They want to potentially hire you.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: They just they want to pick your brain.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Continue the conversation.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Where should we send them?
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you could go to precisionaccountingconsultingcom.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, you know you could also reach out to me via social media LinkedIn.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: You know Sonny Rappone, president of precisionaccountingconsultingcom.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: There are other precision accounting, but just put down Melville, new York, and our website will come up.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you could just reach out for a free consultation.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: And you know, and my email is sgr at precision accounting consultingcom and you could also reach out through email.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: We'll put it all in the show notes so people can get in touch.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Sonny, thank you so much for coming on sharing your story, sharing your insight.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I learned a lot.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I know the audience will learn a ton too.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate this.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Thanks again, Thank you so much for having me, it was a pleasure.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I hope you found value in today's conversation.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: First, make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's discussion, please rate and review the show.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: It helps others discover the insights we share here.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Second, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and attract the high end clients you deserve, head over to accountingleadsnowcom or click the link in the show notes to book your strategy.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Call it's time to position yourself as the advisor your clients need.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: And don't forget you can connect with me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of accounting and financial growth.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: We've got exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Until then, keep pushing forward.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Your growth is just one strategic move away.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: We hope today's episode provided valuable strategies to help you attract more high-paying clients.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: Be sure to subscribe, follow and share with fellow professionals.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: Connect with us on LinkedIn and leave a review or comment to join the conversation.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Your feedback helps us bring you the best insights in finance and marketing.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.