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Balancing Acts: From Bookkeeping Basics to Professional Growth · The Perfect RIA

• 0:20
  Amber Kuhn: Hello TPR nation. This is Amber Kuhn with your
• 0:23
  Follow up Friday, where I'll be recapping this week's episode
• 0:26
  highlights and action items. On Monday, Matt was joined by Duff
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  Tucker, BELAY's Account Services Manager who helps companies get
• 0:34
  bookkeeping services in place. Matt and Duff kicked off by
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  talking about the biggest mistake that small business
• 0:40
  owners make when it comes to bookkeeping, which, according to
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  Duff, is that they think it's best to manage it themselves.
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  It's understandable that they need to wear multiple hats, and
• 0:51
  because it's so important, they think they need to be involved,
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  but it's really not the best use of their time. Bringing on
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  someone who is a subject matter expert can give a business owner
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  a clear vision and allow them to make educated business
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  decisions. Matt pointed out that most business owners don't
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  realize how bad their bookkeeping is until they're
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  faced with an audit, or they realize there's fraud going on.
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  And Duff added that a lot of time they run their business off
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  assumptions instead of regularly checking numbers. And with this,
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  if you're stretched thin, you don't necessarily have the time
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  to always look at the reporting. So when you have a bookkeeper,
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  they can truly focus their time and energy on identifying things
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  happening in the business and pointing out anything that might
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  seem odd. Duff said, There's a misconception that you only need
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  good books for tax purposes. But in addition to having everything
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  in order for your taxes, having good books also helps you manage
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  and run your business, and someday, as Matt pointed out,
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  your business will be sold. The longer you've had cleaner books,
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  the better that will go. Matt and Duff then talked about
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  having a program like QuickBooks. And if you're not in
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  a program like that constantly, it's always evolving, and you
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  won't be efficient with it. Instead, with having a
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  bookkeeping professional, they're always in the program so
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  they understand the changes that happen and in terms of safety
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  and protecting clients, Malay sets up their bookkeepers to
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  have view only access for bank accounts and credit card
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  statements, and they recommend using bill.com if the bookkeeper
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  is doing bill payments, they can set the payments up for you, but
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  then you approve the payment. You always want to make sure
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  that there's a check and balance with this. As far as when you
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  should consider bringing on a bookkeeper. Duff says they
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  typically start working with clients once they're around the
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  $200,000 revenue range, and it's during a discovery call that
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  will label determine how many hours you need someone for. Duff
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  said they have a 90 day onboarding process, and they
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  recommend a 30 minute meeting once a week to get started, and
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  then make sure the bookkeeper has access to everything they
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  need and can really take a deep dive into what needs to be done.
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  And in that first month, they'll get a good understanding of how
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  the books are being managed and what adjustments need to be
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  made. It's also important to agree on when bills will need to
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  be paid, because with a fractional bookkeeper, you can't
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  expect a quick response on things, especially if you only
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  have access to them a few hours a month. So having a weekly
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  meeting and setting bill payment days, having the bookkeeper send
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  a recap email each week, and then having an understanding of
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  the best way to communicate will really help that relationship.
• 3:35
  Let's get an action item. If you're attending the RTS Tax
• 3:38
  Summit next week, be sure to connect with BELAY, who's one of
• 3:42
  our event partners, and if you're interested in a free
• 3:45
  financial consultation for your books, please visit the link in
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  today's show notes and mention The Perfect RIA and too often,
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  bookkeeping isn't at the top of the list of things you need to
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  focus on until there's something catastrophic happening. Make
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  sure you have clean books and bring someone on to help. On
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  Thursday, Jamie is talking about time, and what that looks like
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  depending on what stage people are in their lives. This episode
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  stemmed from advisors who said they struggle with finding the
• 4:14
  time to work on their professional development,
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  especially attending conferences, because they're at
• 4:19
  the point where they're also raising kids. But the thing is,
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  there will always be something that tugs and eats away at your
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  time. It's hard to try to do all the things, so you end up
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  looking for what you can just not commit to in order to make
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  it easier for the person at home. But how do you handle
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  situations when you know it'd be great to attend an in person
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  event, but you have guilt because you're leaving the thing
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  is that most people have other obligations and
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  responsibilities, so you're not unique in this situation. Jamie
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  said The difference is that the people who show up know where
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  they want to go and know who they want to become. So you can
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  always say you'll put things off until later, but realistically,
• 5:01
  you don't know what the future holds. And Jamie said what tends
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  to happen is that you look back and see that you had way more
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  time than you thought. So how do advisors still elevate their
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  career without sacrificing their family time and commitments. For
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  Jamie, she has the entire next year mapped out by October,
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  including the following year's surge schedule. Jamie spent some
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  time talking about surge scheduling and how for Shilanski
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  and Associates, they have two big surges and mini surges. The
• 5:29
  first big surge is in March and April, and this is where they
• 5:33
  get strategic about the information they're getting from
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  their clients. The next big one is in October and November, and
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  for this one, they concentrate on estate planning. For many
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  surges, these happen about one week every month, and part of
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  the reason for these are to help the team so that if a client
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  needs to meet with an advisor outside of the big surge, they
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  have a place they can schedule them. And this is also the time
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  where prospects are seen. Jamie said, once she has her search
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  calendar set up, then she looks at the year to decide which
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  events does she want to attend and what professional
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  development does she want to be a part of? For her, this is
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  about one quarter two of these she wants to be an in person
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  event, and the others will maybe be a course that she's taking
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  online, but ultimately, four ways that she's educating and
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  elevating herself, so she's blocking out the time and
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  planning based on where the conference is going to be from
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  there. She talks with her spouse about family trips. She pointed
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  out that her number one responsibility is to provide for
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  her family so her family trips don't come before her work
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  schedule. Jamie's pro tip is that if you're at a conference,
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  you should stay one more day so you can get all the information
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  out based upon what you've just learned, implement those ideas
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  at that time instead of trying to do it later, once you're back
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  into household obligations, Jamie then shared some tricks
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  and hacks that she's learned over the years. When you want to
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  attend a conference, but you feel bad because it stresses
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  your spouse, your parents or other people in your life. So if
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  you have a dog, find a doggy daycare. Maybe hire someone to
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  walk them or take them to the vet before your trip. And if you
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  have children, Jamie said to make sure that there's enough
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  support in different capacities. So look for outside resources,
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  such as a neighbor to help out in the afternoon or part time
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  nanny. Maybe someone in to help clean the house or do your work
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  or laundry, consider grocery or meal delivery and make sure that
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  the house is stocked with food. Think of those things that you
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  do and end up being of the responsibility of the other
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  person while you're gone, and how can you help mitigate that
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  so the other person will feel supported? Another tip for this
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  is, when you're doing your yearly name have a conversation
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  with your spouse about what they want to learn and what their
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  goals are. By having these conversations, it allows the
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  other person either to be on board or share their concerns.
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  Jamie wrapped up by saying that you never have more time than
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  you do right now. So get your wall calendar, map out your
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  surge, your conferences, and have conversations with your
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  spouse so you can figure out what needs to happen, so you can
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  continue to learn and grow your nation. Next week is our
• 8:15
  mastermind TPR live and the RTS Tax Summit. We are set for an
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  incredible week of events, so you're missing out and you want
• 8:22
  to be in the know for next year's event, reach out to us at
• 8:26
  lifestyle@theperfectria.com. Thank you for joining me, and
• 8:29
  please share this or any of our episodes with another advisor or
• 8:33
  team member who you think might benefit from listening, and be
• 8:36
  sure to subscribe to The Perfect RIA Podcast so you don't miss an
• 8:40
  episode until next time. Happy planning.