Latest / The Accounting Leads Now Podcast / The Financial Blind Spots That Are Holding Your Business Back – With Ken LaCroix

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The Financial Blind Spots That Are Holding Your Business Back – With Ken LaCroix · The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success, the go-to podcast for fractional CFOs and accounting firm owners who want to attract more high-paying clients and increase their revenue.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Hosted by James Donovan from Nine Two Media, this podcast dives into marketing strategies specifically designed for lead generation and client acquisition.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: In each episode, you'll hear from industry leaders sharing their success stories.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And Welcome back to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Today, we're diving deep into the financial side of business growth with a guest who knows how to turn numbers into real strategic decisions.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Ken LaCroix is a seasoned fractional CFO who helps business owners move beyond gut instinct decisions making and leverage financial data to maximize profitability and scalability.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: His unique approach bridges high level strategy with day to day operations, ensuring that businesses aren't just growing, but growing profitably.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: In today's conversation, we'll uncover hidden financial blind spots, the key metrics that truly drive success and how CEOs can make smarter, data-backed decisions that lead to long-term sustainability.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Ken, welcome to the show.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you, james, appreciate it.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having us on.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Really looking forward to diving in, hearing a little bit more about your story, how you're helping out your clients and how you guys really show the data behind so business owners can make more database decisions.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: How did you get into this world, ken?
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: So we're.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: You know, my background in the virtual or fractional CFO space goes back about 15 years here in Orange County.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: We're in Southern California, and I just sold off one of my prior companies to private equity and 2009,.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: If none of you remember, it was a very difficult time to be a CFO.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: You know, the middle of the financial crisis.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: So I just hung my shingle out and said, look, I'll do CFO work for these small companies.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: At the time it was less than 10 million and I like it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: We had some success, but we had lots of failures.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: I like to describe it as phenomenal analysis on horrible numbers, because that sub $10 million space, the accounting is always wrong.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: It's not how wrong is it or is it going to be wrong, it's always wrong.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: So it was very, very frustrating.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: So I spent a lot of my time getting better at outsourced accounting, getting better at getting the numbers better underneath it, and then the technology sort of aligned, if you will, around attaching to financials.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Qbo became much more mainstream and we could get to the data much, much easier, much, with a lot less pain for our clients and for us, frankly, as well, and so we just morphed into Insightful Partners about seven years ago to be really the virtual CFO that's focused on the FP&A space, financial planning and analysis.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: So we like to think of ourselves as very focused on the FP&A side, looking a little bit at the numbers in the rear view mirror, but really looking at where we are and where we want to go.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I love how it seems like there's a big boom in the last year, year and a half, with fractional CFOs or virtual CFOs coming in and it seems like business owners are starting to realize a little bit more how much value there is there.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Do you find there's still difficulty, or is it a bottleneck when you speak to new prospects or even existing clients who work with you that there's a lot of education that needs to take place first before they truly understand how much value you're actually bringing to them?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: It's really a great insight it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: So I've been at this for what?
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: 15, 16 years now.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I thought everyone knew what a fractional CFO was, and so, as we've done a little bit of market research and I've been at this for what?
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: 15, 16 years now I thought everyone knew what a fractional CFO was.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: And so, as we've done a little bit of market research and I've been educated by some good people on the marketing side of things, I realized that there's still a tremendous number of business owners and their management teams that have no idea this exists.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: So I thought there would be much less of an education component at this stage, but they're still very much an education component.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I would say that our biggest hurdle our biggest competitor, if you will is really the status quo.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I think business owners don't always understand what accounting does, and, again, our clients are in the $5 to $50 million space well before they have a CFO.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: They might have a controller, they might have a pretty good handle on getting their numbers done on a monthly basis, but there's not a lot of insight coming from it, there's not a lot of foresight coming from it, and so I think the business owners want to get more from accounting, but accounting is sort of well.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: We just kind of published the past and then, by the way, the month is already halfway over, I got to get ready for my next round of month-end close and financials and all this stuff I have to put together and then they go to their CPA.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: That's maybe done their taxes for them and they ask for you know, I'd kind of like to know a little bit more about my cash flow forecasting.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Or I want to know more about budgeting, and they say, yeah, we don't really do that, we just kind of do your taxes.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Irrespective of the number of wonderful accounting firms that are doing client advisory services CAS, if you will there's still a tremendous number of accounting firms that really just do basic accounting and basic tax preparation.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: So what we find is that we have a frustrated business owner, but they really don't know where to turn.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: And that status quo piece is they don't quite understand the accounting department.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: They don't want to disrupt it, they know they can't do without it, and so our biggest challenge is letting both the decision makers call it the president, the founder, the decision maker overcome the decision influencers, which we'll call the existing sitting accounting department that says look, everything's working fine, we don't need anyone to come in and look at it.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: We don't really need anyone to do anything to upset our apple cart, if you will.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: So I think that's our biggest struggle overall in general.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Do you feel the existing bookkeepers, the existing accountants that are in place with these businesses, do you think there's a fear that they don't want you and your team or other fractional CFOs coming in because they feel like they're going to be pushed out of the picture?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Because, from where I'm sitting and my knowledge is, you're actually going in there to complement what they're doing and really strengthen the business.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: You're not going in there to replace the bookkeeper at all.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: You're not going in there to replace the tax filing at the end of the year.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: You're focused on the future stuff, not everything that's happened in the past.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: You're absolutely correct, and there is a fear and, whether they know it, consciously or just subconsciously, people get into accounting because there's an element of control, there's an element of satisfaction, there's an element of effort equals results.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: There's no place in business more rewarding for getting the right story and picture than accounting, because you can do something called a reconciliation.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: It tends to be unique to accounting, but we have these outside statements that we can compare to our internal work and we can say look, we balance.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: And so that reconciliation mentality combines or results in look, I'm only as good as the effort I put forth, and it takes a long time to get these reconciliations done.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: So my worth is tied to the amount of time I'm spending or the amount of manual procedures that I'm applying to these numbers I'm spending, or the amount of manual procedures that I'm applying to these numbers when, in reality, with bank feeds and matching bank feeds, you don't need to do a reconciliation at all.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: In fact, in many cases, your reconciliation is click here to complete reconciliation, because you're doing a mini reconciliation every day, which is really where we should be.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: We should be looking at that bank account every day and finding out where we are and using those numbers every day.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: So I would argue that why would you do a reconciliation until the end of the year?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Because you're doing it daily.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Why would you do the formal process inside of an accounting system to do it?
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: That's wasted time.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: You can do 12 reconciliations at the end of the year in the same amount of time.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: It would take you to do one every month.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: It's a very different, radical viewpoint, but it makes my point that we want to move from data entry to data analysis.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: And if everything's a bit and a bite, if everything's already electronic, which it usually is, then let's just move it through the system electronically and let's spend all of our time managing accounts payable, managing accounts receivable, managing the GL, managing the month-end close or the weekend close or the weekday close.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: That's the stuff that really matters.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Someone once described from an outsider's perspective, say an owner's perspective.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: They described accounting as giving me a report that I don't understand, six weeks too late, and so that's what we're trying to solve, and that's frankly scary to accounting.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: It's scary to that Part of it is they don't really understand what their real role is, which is to help make better decisions.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: But they might also be a little scared that.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Well, what if I had to make a decision?
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: No one's ever asked them to do that before, so there's a lot of fear involved and we just try and hold their hand through it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: We're not looking to replace them at all.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: There's nothing that we want to do inside the accounting department other than you use the numbers for better decisions for everybody.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: You mentioned that that's one of the biggest bottlenecks.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Is, you know, the business owner?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: They go back to their bookkeeper, their accountant hey, you know is the business owner.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: They go back to their bookkeeper, to their accountant hey, ken's team's gonna come in, they wanna do X, y, z and the CPA, the bookkeeper's like no, that doesn't need to happen.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: How do you overcome that as a firm to close new business when that is such a common obstacle or objection that you'd be getting on sales calls?
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Let's just call it a long sales cycle, so it solves itself.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: When you're in a situation that you'd be getting on sales calls, let's just call it a long sales cycle, so you know it solves itself.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: When the business owner or their management team finally says I'm willing to take on the status quo, I'm so frustrated, this has gone on so long that I'm willing to do whatever it takes.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: In that change management and we all remember the J curve of change management it gets worse before it gets better, by definition.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And so in that early stage where it gets worse, all the naysayers can jump right on and say look, told you, this is horrible.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Hey, look, it's only been a week, it's only been.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: You know five steps, it's only been.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: And then the rewards come much later, when you can do something about some of those inefficiencies and you really gain it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: So the naysayers have sort of a front row seat to derailing it in the early stages.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: So we just sort of wait.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: We just keep pinging the business owner and say hey, do you have all the answers that you needed this month from your financial reports?
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Do you know exactly what your sales are going to be three months from now?
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: You must have it by now, because we've been talking about it for so long.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: And finally they just sort of say, look, I still don't have it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: And you're right, I really need this.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: My Vistage group is telling me I need this, my peer group is telling me I need this, my coach is telling me I need this, so they just have to take on the accounting department.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: And so it usually doesn't happen in the first month, but usually we can be pretty persuasive after a quarter or two.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: All right, there's a couple of different directions or questions.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I have based off of that because there's a lot of insight and value getting added here.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: But I mean speaking of the J curve, like everyone's right until they're not.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So I love that you're speaking about and just how visual that is of it's going to be worse until it gets better and everyone can say, yep, told you this wasn't gonna work, what a waste of money.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: But what are we doing?
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden crickets because things are getting better and then so it almost sounds thankless in a way, until you're back in the light where you know you're going to be.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: It is, we develop thick skins and we develop really a very strategic.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: That's where the strategic mindset comes through.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: We're not solving a problem right in front of us.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: We're not even solving for the technology that we're implementing.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: We're not even solving for the process.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: That's the bonus that comes from it.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: We just happen to need more granular data by definition.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: We need it much faster by definition, and we don't want to add bodies to do that by definition.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: So we're not hung up on the technology, we just know that that's our pathway to get to where we need to go and, by the way, that helps everyone along the way.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: So having that vision of that and we do create a vision in our minds of that future state really helps us kind of get through this.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: And maybe someday I'll put together a PowerPoint of all the objections that I get for that, because they tend to be some pretty funny objections, if you will.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: But for now we're just kind of soldiering on through it, but for now we're just kind of soldiering on through it.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I love that you also mentioned a long sales cycle and, you know, just following up for like a month, maybe two months, maybe even three months of just kind of pinging hey we're here, are you getting what you need?
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: And just, I would love to hear a little bit about more, a little more about what that process looks like, because I think inherently in the financial world call it the accounting world, the fractional CFO industry, sales doesn't feel natural because there's a heavy reliance on referrals.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: So someone comes in from Facebook, linkedin, wherever the platform is, it doesn't matter, because it's a human who's looking for service.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: But that cold conversation, pitching them, selling them, it's uncomfortable, even though, again, you're having a conversation with another human.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: But then that follow up process, which clearly that's where the money is Not.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: A lot of people are closing deals on the very first conversation.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So it really is in the follow-up what keeps you and your team motivated or, I guess, strict on that follow-up to get those deals closed, because I think a lot of your peers would.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Just they fall off and if they don't respond to that proposal that was sent out, that that's the first time they're seeing the cost of the service.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, they didn't like the proposal, and that's just it.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: It dies.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: But it sounds like you have a different approach.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: So it's a different approach, but to be honest it's a very recent approach because I'd say that we definitely fit the mindset of, hey, our stuff is good enough.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: It should just be evident to everyone how good this is.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And we don't want to be salesy, we don't want to be that guy, that girl, that person, that function that follows up.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: We've all had pesky sort of sales process experiences that are not nice and so we naturally hold ourselves out as professionals.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: We hold ourselves out as, hey, our stuff should stand on its own, and I was guilty of that for the last 14 and the last 15 years and we were fortunate enough to have an awful lot of referrals.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: We get a lot of platform referrals.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: We're in a good spot to get a lot of that.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: But I recently changed my thinking when, among the number of different accounting marketing books and marketing and professional services books I read but specifically around accounting, the follow-up process and this is my insight, it's my personal one and I believe strongly in it that follow-up process is demonstrating to your potential client what you will bring as a professional.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: And if you don't do that, then you're telling them, maybe consciously or subconsciously, and maybe they're receiving it consciously or subconsciously, that I just don't care that much about your books, I don't care that much about the decisions you have to make.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: So, turning it from a sales process into a demonstration of care, and we add another layer to it.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: We're a little more bold, if you will.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: We add an accountability layer to it.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: We don't say, hey, just following up, or I'm still thinking about you.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: We say you must be getting the decisions you need because you haven't called us, Like you must know your 13-week cash flow now, because you haven't really responded to us to do that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: And again, we're cheeky in a way.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: But there's a layer of accountability there that says look, when you're ready, we're here for you and we are still thinking about you and we still think this is relevant, even though you haven't looked at it for three months or six months or even a year.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: So you know, we just have that as our mantra.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Like, how do we show a potential client how good we are through diligent and respectful but accountable follow up, Because that's how we do our engagements.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: We're diligent in our engagements, we're respectful in our engagements, especially around the accounting department and other people, but we're also brutally accountable.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: We're brutal with the business owner and the one piece that I found successful in selling to business owners about what it is that we do and why you should hire someone fractional and why shouldn't I hire someone full time and why this model and not a different one.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: We have the ability to tell you exactly what you should be.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: We have the ability to tell you exactly what we're seeing in the financials.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: You can fire us tomorrow and our family's livelihoods are not at stake.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: We can just move on to the next client.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: In fact, that might be a much better fit than the current client.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: That'd be better for everyone.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: So if you don't respond well to what we're seeing and what we think you should be doing from an accountability standpoint and making better decisions and rolling with the team and helping everyone in your organization, then just fire us and find someone else.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: And if you're a consultant with one client which is what I call employees If you're a consultant with one client which is what I call employees you're going to really resist.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: If I'm a CFO or I'm a controller or heck, if I'm a bookkeeper or an accountant, I'm going to really resist telling sort of my management team, the person that signs my check, some bad news, Because what if they don't take it right?
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: What if they fire me?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: My family's at risk?
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to do that.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: So we remove that element from it and say, look, fire us if you want, but we think this is what you should be doing Again, respectful right and all of that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: But I think that's one of our biggest advantages is, in addition to seeing things across multiple businesses, we don't care if you don't like it, we're going to tell it to you anyway.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: That's our mission, that's our values, that's what we hold.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Sacred is are we having those difficult conversations?
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: Are we having those serious conversations around what's really happening?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Anyone can give the first 90, but if you're not willing to give that last 10%, I think you're really doing a disservice to your clients, because that's what they're paying you for your strategic insight, which they don't have, and you need to be giving that 100%, whether they are going to like the answer or they're not.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: But that's why we don't measure our performance based on churn, because churn could be a good thing, because we need to make ourselves available for those business owners that want to hear it.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: And I'm not suggesting that everyone has to hear it.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Not everyone is ready.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: It's that change management piece.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Some of the clients that we fire, some of the clients that fire us, some of the clients that say, hey, this is not working.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: They come back in a year or two and say now we're ready.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: There's no shame in that, there's no problem with that.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: It's just we've been able to help a bunch of other companies in the meantime until they're ready.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Instead of this painful you know, geez, I've got to get on this call again.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: On both sides we're going to talk about the same thing we've been talking about the last three months On both sides.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: We're going to both make excuses as to why it didn't happen this time.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: But hey, it's going to happen tomorrow, it'll happen next month.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: So I also want to I just go back to your mindset shift in the follow-up because what you're saying is so true and so important.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: There and I really hope everyone hears that is you're.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: You're almost giving a free trial of some sort, like a taste of what it's like to work with you, just based on how diligent you are, because you truly know how important it is for that business to work with you because you have the solution they need.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I think so many look at it like oh, I'm going to bother them.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: When should I call this?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: It's not about you.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: It's about your potential client, who you have the solution for, and it's making that switch, like you just said.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: It really has nothing to do about Ken following up.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: It's about the business owner who you said.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: This is my solution that you said you're asking for.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to keep reaching out to you because I know this is the right fit for you, and it's a revelation that took me 14 out of my 15 years in this space to come to.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: So I get it.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I get it that it's really difficult to do, but it was a light switch for me, just a light switch.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: So I'm so pleased that I was able to at least see that, because I truly believe that's the case.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: How much of a difference have you seen, either in the bottom line or just like the health of the business or your confidence?
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: On these, I don't want to say sales calls, because it sounds salesy for lack of better words, but just the consultations or the conversations with prospects, when you made that switch to I'm here to help you.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: You're not the other way around.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: If you're here to help me and feed me, put money on my table, I'm going to make your business better and in turn, that's just going to make my business better.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: So let's create a new word, right?
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: You said let's not use the sales process.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I just thought of a new phrase we can use.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: We can use engagement education.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Let's just call it that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I'm here to educate you on our engagement.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: One of my I hesitated to call them competitors because we don't run across anybody else.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Again, our competitors are status quo.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Our competitors are not doing anything.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: But our secret sauce might be slightly different than someone else's secret sauce.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: My background might be very different than other people's background.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Our team's background might be different.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: We can all approach things from slightly different ways.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: So let's call it just I'm just going to educate you on our engagement and here's how we do things.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: So we're a work in process.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Again, these are long sales cycles and I would say I only came to this realization in the third or fourth quarter of last year.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: So I don't know that we've seen a marked difference.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: What I've seen is I approach things very differently.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: I approach things from a different.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: I can't speed things up.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: There's still that change management piece of it, but I know that people are willing to take my phone call and it appears as though we're having good conversations around.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Not ready, not ready, not ready as opposed to crickets, crickets, crickets.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: So once you know that it's not crickets, once you know that you're either a fast no, which we love like hey, not you, someone else not ready, call me in, fill in the blank.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: That's awesome Because now no one's wasting their time.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: So that, I think, is the biggest benefit, is that I've freed up all kinds of time about worrying, thinking, wondering, answering internal questions about where is this, where are they?
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, they're a quick no.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: That's wonderful, and we'll put them on our little newsletter list to follow up and maybe someday they'll come back or maybe they won't, but we can move on to the people that are better prospects for better fit.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: I'll call it.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: So.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: It's really engagement, education and finding the right fit.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: We don't have to win every bake-off.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: We want to find the right fit, we want them to find the right fit.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: So that's how we approach it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: So a work in process.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Check back in with me in a year and I'll have some better numbers for you, because we're all about data.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: But I would say it's just, it's freed up some time to do better follow-up because we're not chasing the ones that are clearly enough.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: And there's so much, so much power in that as well.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Like I would much rather at the end of that educational engagement, hey, if it's not going to fit, just tell me.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: You're not going to hurt my feelings, I'm an adult.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: You're an adult Because then you're not going to hear from me which you don't want to.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to waste my time and we can just move on and like, yeah, being told no, I'd much rather that than that gray area where so many people live and they think, wow, I've sent out all these proposals, okay, but they're a no.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: You just haven't heard the no yet.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: And wouldn't you rather hear that?
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: You mentioned having a lot more solid conversations.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Now how do, how do you or your firm generate these new conversations so you are able to bring on more clients and provide a higher level service to them?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: I would say it's so.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: The other big aha that we kind of knew but we didn't do a really good job of making sure of, is no lingo.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Do not use the words that we use internally or that we use as a profession.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Don't use those with our potential clients.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: So in accounting we have invoices and in the business world they have people that owe them money and we have bills to pay for accounts payable.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: And where's your accounts payable Aging and they have stuff I got to pay for things that impact my cash.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: That's how they view the world.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: So, getting rid of the lingo, getting rid of the hey, do you have your 13-week cash flow projection and your budget and your forecast and your re-forecast?
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: And do you know your product profitability and do you know your customer profitability?
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: All the jargon that we use where we in essence I'll use an old term show up and throw up.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: We don't do that anymore.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: We talk about what it is that they're really looking for, what their perceived pain point is, and we just focus on that in, hopefully, words that they can relate to and understand.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: And again, we talk a lot about change management.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: We describe, we truly let them know that our biggest competition right now is the fact that you may not want to do anything right now, that you may not be willing to make that change, and I think that just leads to much more open conversations about what it's really going to take for both of us, both sides, to be successful.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I love the removal of the accounting jargon because that's not how I mean any other business owners thinking right.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: They have their own language for the industry they're in.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: So if you really simplify it, you know like fifth grader language where everyone can understand it, I can see why you're having a lot better conversations.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Is there?
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: What sort of strategy are you using to get people come through the door?
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Do you have paid ads on, say, meta?
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Are you doing organic outreach on LinkedIn?
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Is it cold calling?
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: What works well for your firm?
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: So we're on version 3.0 of our marketing and I would say version 1.0 was a swing and a miss, and version 2.0 was a swing and a miss.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: So my business partner I looked at each other and said we can't sub this out anymore.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: We can't sub out the responsibility for this.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: We both need to make sure that we have responsibility for it, and then people do stuff for us.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: So we devote between five and 10 hours a week between us to marketing, to this, this process, and that's happened since, I'd say, the last six months, and so we now are less impatient around getting some tools in place and we're much more patient about building the true foundation of all the different areas that are needed, I think, to market well in this space.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: So we're still a work in process when it comes to that technology process.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: We've got that dialed in right Over 15 years.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: We made enough mistakes.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: We know who our ideal customer is, we know who they're not.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: But the marketing thing, to be honest, it's an eye opener for us and we've been strongly investing in marketing for three years and we don't have much to show for it.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: So I think the biggest change for us is we're no longer subbing it out to our virtual CMO.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: We're no longer trusting what the marketing agency might say.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: We're really guiding them and we found that to be much better conversations.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: We found it to be much better fit on either side.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: It's not just a series of things that get done.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: It's a series of things that we think we need to do to build this, and so we're fortunate.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: We've been around long enough.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: We get some nice referrals and we have some nice client bases.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Again, we've been at it three years, so we need to make some progress on it.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: I think we are doing the right things now to do it, but it's really lengthening that horizon of what it will really take Not taking the quick win, not trying to find that quick win.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: We did paid ads and failed miserably.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: We did again show up and throw up blog posts and failed miserably.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: Lots of failed miserably pieces before we realized that it's a long process and my business partner Wes and I we need to take responsibility for it.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: We're not doing the work, but the buck stops with us each and every time.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: What I'm hearing is more of a partnership.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Look versus.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Here's the vendor, do the thing and where's all of our money?
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Because you guys did marketing, which is a very vague term yep, that's a great way to summarize it perfect, um ken.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Last question for you what advice would you give to any other entrepreneur listening or anyone who's looking to get into the space, or just anything about building and building a successful business and pushing through when things get tough?
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Process, process, process.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: We overlook process early on because we can wing it.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: It's relatively easy to wing it because nobody knows what we should be doing.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: We're the only ones that really know what the Excel spreadsheet or the Power BI dashboard or the Fathom platform or the financial reporting should be, and in fact they're all the same.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: It's income statement, balance sheet and maybe a statement of cash flows.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: So I would say that, early on, define your process because, in the same way that the follow-up process impacts indicates how well you're going to perform the services, the infrastructure, the how does this work?
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: You know when the client decides to move forward and they ask how does this work?
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Having really concrete answers around that and a really good process that doesn't drop the ball, miss the email, overlook something, quality control, any of that.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Have those things in place.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: They don't need to be perfect, they don't need to be complex, they don't need to be overwhelming, but at least start thinking of those things.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: So your first client okay, it's easy to do everything.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: But your second client how will I get the documentation?
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: What does the first meeting look like?
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: What's our agenda?
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: It won't be right.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: The third client it'll be a little bit better.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: It still won't be right.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: But by the 10th client, 20th client, you've probably got a pretty good system there and then it doesn't become difficult because at 15 clients or 20 clients you lose track of things.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: You're going to make mistakes.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: So I would just say invest early on in your thought process around the process.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Don't let it get in the way of doing the work.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Still get the client to do the work, but just recognize that hey, let's learn from this and build that process little by little.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Awesome, so good.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Ken, how can others get in touch with you if they want to continue the conversation?
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: Hit me up on LinkedIn, Ken LaCroix.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Insightfulpartnerscom is our website.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: We're happy to have a conversation anytime.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: I'll sit on the phone with someone in this space or a business owner for 15 minutes Anytime.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: You can tell I love to talk.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: You can tell I have my opinions.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Would love to continue the dialogue.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Are you still there?
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: I'm still here.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Again, just in case the audio wasn't too great.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: So, Ken, for those who want to continue the conversation with you, how can they get in touch?
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Hit me up on LinkedIn, ken LaCroix.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Hit us up on our website, insightfulpartnerscom, ken.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: At insightfulpartnerscom.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Hit me up anyway.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: You can tell I love to talk.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: You can tell I have my opinions.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: I'll sit down with anybody in this space or a business owner for 15 minutes and have a conversation about anything.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Love to do it.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I love this space.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I love what you're doing, james, with this space, so just hit me up.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: I really hope everyone reaches out.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Continues that conversation.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: We'll put your links in the show notes.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Ken, thank you so much for coming on.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: This was awesome getting to know a lot more about your business and the way you approach business.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's really cool.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: So thanks again for coming on.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you for doing this.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: It's really helpful for all of us in this space.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Thanks, James.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I hope you found value in today's conversation.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: First, make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes.
• 33:35
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• 33:36
  Speaker 2: It helps others discover the insights we share here.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Call it's time to position yourself as the advisor your clients need.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: We've got more exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Until then, keep pushing forward.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Your growth is just one strategic move away.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: We hope today's episode provided valuable strategies to help you attract more high-paying clients.
• 34:20
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• 34:25
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• 34:30
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• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.