Latest / The Accounting Podcast / Building a $200K Accounting Firm in Just 15 Hours a Week (from the Earmark Podcast)

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Building a $200K Accounting Firm in Just 15 Hours a Week (from the Earmark Podcast) · The Accounting Podcast

• Attention: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding! Blake Oliver: [00:00:19] Hello and welcome back to Earmark. I'm Blake Oliver and my guest today is Erica Goode, CPA. Erica is the author of the 15 Hour Accountant and the host of the Consultants and Money podcast. After transitioning from corporate accounting at KPMG and Walgreens, Erica runs a thriving $200,000 plus per year accounting firm working just 15 hours a week. She's a fractional CFO for consultants, helping them pay themselves consistently, maximize retirement contributions, and build cash reserves. Erica's unique approach combines financial expertise with work life balance, proving that success doesn't always mean long hours. Welcome to the show, Erica. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:02:13] Hey, Blake. Thanks for having me. Blake Oliver: [00:02:15] You are living what many CPAs, both in public and in industry, would consider to be a dream, earning six figures, multiple six figures of income and only working 15 hours per week. And you've got ten clients and you're doing CFO type services. Is it just you, Erica? Do you have employees? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:02:40] I, uh, from an accounting standpoint, the IRS would say I only have one employee, and I have that's me. And I have, um, one non US based contractor who acts as a senior bookkeeper for me. Blake Oliver: [00:02:55] Okay, great. So what a great setup. Um, and is it really like, is it really 15 hours a week, like, like what's your schedule like? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:03:04] Yeah. Uh, it really is usually a little bit less than 15 hours a week. I never seem to make it quite up to the 15 hours. Um, but I have a really strict schedule. It's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Uh, no work Wednesday or Friday. And on the days that I work, I work 9 to 3. And that adds up to let's see, that'd be 18 hours, but I take an hour lunch in there, to which I'm not counting, and I always take an hour lunch away from my desk and eat a real lunch and maybe go for a walk, maybe, uh, change some laundry in between, uh, working and, uh. Yeah. And that's that's really what it is. I'm not lying. I, I don't know, I for a long time, I didn't want to talk about it because it felt like I was doing something wrong, that I was cheating, that I don't know. And then about a year ago, somebody gave me the opportunity to talk about it. I think you were there, Blake. And, uh, I said all the things, and I was like, oh, well, that wasn't so bad to say it. And should I really be ashamed of of what I've done and what I've worked for? Because this is just really what I wanted when I was in industry. Blake Oliver: [00:04:18] And welcome to our live stream viewers. We've got quite a few folks who have joined us live today. So if you have questions for Erica and you want to learn more about how she did it, please put those questions in the comments on LinkedIn or on YouTube. And if you're listening to the podcast version and you want to join us live for future earmark interviews, you can do that at earmark. Com slash webinars or download the earmark app at earmark app and look at that events section of our home screen, and you'll be able to register for future live events. Um, okay. Well, I want to dig into the mechanics of how you do this, but before that, let's go back in time a little bit. You were at KPMG first. Mhm. What were you doing at KPMG? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:05:07] Yeah. I started in audit. I was like an you know a normal first year like anybody else and went into the audit practice. I was there for a little over two years, made senior and then immediately left after I made senior. Um, I had been I got recruited away from uh, from KPMG, from a former KPMG manager to go to Walgreens. But KPMG was your standard, um, audit, you know, couple first years working all the long hours doing all the ridiculous stuff, ticking and tying and, um, work papers and working until, you know, 9:00 at night all through busy season and come in on Saturday and maybe on Sunday, too, and all the things. But I also met my husband at KPMG, so it was time well spent. Blake Oliver: [00:05:54] That's right. And, uh, that was that in Chicago? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:05:58] Well, I was in Chicago. He was in Boise, KPMG, and we met at first year training in Orlando. Blake Oliver: [00:06:05] And now you live in Idaho. Now we live in Idaho. But you're not in Boise. You're out. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:06:11] No, I'm closer to Salt Lake City than I am Boise. We're in the bottom right corner. If you imagine Idaho bottom right corner, about 2.5 hours north of Salt Lake City. It really in the middle of nowhere where they grow all the potatoes. It is not near a city. Blake Oliver: [00:06:26] But you have lots of beautiful outdoor activities that you can do in your time when you're not working. Right. What do you like to do? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:06:33] Yeah. Our neighborhood backs up to about 2 million acres of national forest. And so we just, you know, I'm a one minute drive from walking into desolate nothingness, if that's your thing. Blake Oliver: [00:06:47] Yeah, yeah, if that's your thing. Right. Which which it seems like it is. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:06:50] It's my. Blake Oliver: [00:06:51] Thing. That's great. What do you like? Camp? Do you hike? Do you bike? Like, what do you do? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:06:57] Yeah, I'm a big hiker. I'm a big, like, quiet, space type person. So I'll just go out by myself. Maybe with a dog. I don't know if you can see her in the background. This is my best friend right here. And she's hiding behind him. Yeah, she's behind a plant, but. Okay, that's my my hiking buddy. And we go to the creeks and, um, as a family, we do a lot of camping. We have a camper, like a trailer, uh, not tent camping, but we visited a ton of national parks. We're really situated in a nice place between, like, the Tetons and Yellowstone and all the national parks of Utah. And so we just have a lot of access to a lot of amazing, beautiful places. And so we just try to do that as much as we can. Blake Oliver: [00:07:43] Well, that must have been very different than when you were working at, uh, at Walgreens. Was that also in Chicago, or did you go to like, where was the Walgreens? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:07:52] Yeah, Walgreens headquarters is in Deerfield, Illinois. So it's just north of Chicago. And yeah, I went from KPMG Chicago to Deerfield, Illinois, and that's, uh, yeah, it was all of my Chicago ness. Blake Oliver: [00:08:04] So what was the moment when you realized that, uh, corporate accounting was not for you anymore and you wanted to go off on your own? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:08:11] Um, I was, you know, everybody thinks. And I think this is what a lot of people do. You leave corporate and you go start a firm. I was just trying to leave corporate. I had hit a space of burnout. Uh, a season of burnout I had at the time. We had one baby. She had just turned a year old. I got this huge promotion, and it just. It honestly just wrecked me. I, um, was really, like. I really wanted the role. I wanted that, like, um, I wanted the raise, I wanted the promotion, I wanted the title, and I took it, and and I was going to prove to everybody that working moms can do it all. And and I did it all. But it felt awful. And I just went through this awful season of burnout, and it really showed me what I didn't want to be and what I didn't want for my life and what I didn't want for my family. And it was just really telling. And I lasted seven months in that awful job. And, uh, it was just a bad situation, right? It wasn't an awful job. The work was good. The company is good. It was just wrong. Wrong job for the wrong person at the wrong time type thing with a one year old. And I moved within the company and changed roles. Actually took a demotion to get out of there. And, um, did that for another few years. And but I because of that experience, I had realized that it in in these this season of life with the little kids. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:09:43] We had another one on the way eventually, you know, eventually few years down the road and I just I didn't want the dragging of my kids behind me. I didn't want that to be my life, because we would wake up and we would, I would like, get the kids out of bed and I would drive with them to work. We had on site daycare. It was amazing. We had on site daycare. They could come with me to work. I could see him at lunch, which was great, but like, I always felt like I was dragging my kids behind me to make a meeting to get back to, you know, home so I could make dinner so I could hop back online so I could do more work later until 10:00. And it was just this grind that I didn't want for my kids and I didn't want for me. And it wasn't the life that Ben and I had envisioned for our family. And so I had decided to just leave, um, leave work like I had just decided to leave my career. I was going to go be a stay at home mom. I had no plans to do anything other than just not work, because that was all I could fathom at the time that I could muster through was just be Mom. And so I had I put in my notice. I gave my boss lots of notice telling him that I was going to do this. He was so gracious, tried to convince me for an hour or two not to leave, made me offers like for flexible work arrangements that were amazing and unheard of and and it just it wasn't what I needed at the time. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:11:07] I just wanted to go home and just be mom. And when he realized that he couldn't convince me to stay, he immediately changed his tone and he was like, okay, if you don't, if you want to come back to work, you need to start your own accounting firm. And I immediately was like, that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. I would never do that. I would like I was like, no, I that's not my thing. I would never do that. And honestly, we never talked about it again. And the thought was out of my head. And so eventually I, you know, a few months down the road, I left and I was just a stay at home, just a stay at home mom. Stay at home moms do lots of hard work. But yes, I was. I was a stay at home mom for two years then, and after those couple years, I just genuinely missed accounting. I missed the work. I never left because I didn't like the work. I never left because I didn't like the people. It was just a really tough structure to raise a family in, in the way that I wanted to do that. And so I missed the work and accidentally got my first client, and the rest is history. And then I accidentally started an accounting firm, which I said I would never do. Blake Oliver: [00:12:17] So how do you accidentally get your first client? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:12:21] I had met a so my daughter was in taekwondo. She was, I guess she would have been six at the time, 6 or 7. She was in taekwondo and the business owner of this taekwondo studio just had a really good energy. Really nice lady just connected with her. Well, and I made an off the cuff comment like, hey, if you ever need help with accounting, let me know. I do that kind of stuff, which is kind of it's kind of funny, like I do that kind of stuff. I had managed $2 billion budgets at a fortune 50 company, and I'm, you know, like, oh, I kind of do accounting, right? Like, it's funny what we'll do with ourselves when we're in a different situation. And um, and so yeah. And I immediately when I said it, she was like, great, when can you meet? And I was like, oh, oh, she's like, I need help with my QuickBooks. And I like I had literally never seen QuickBooks because I didn't work at companies. I didn't audit companies that were using QuickBooks. Right. I was auditing and working for companies with huge glass and huge like SAP and all of the things. Blake Oliver: [00:13:23] Oracle. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:13:24] Yes, exactly. And so she's like, I need help with QuickBooks. And I was like, oh, I'd better go learn QuickBooks. And so that that was my first client and. Blake Oliver: [00:13:35] You figured it out. I figured it out like you, you had the like you said you'd been working with $2 billion budgets. So this small business, I mean, it must have been a little bit of an adjustment though, like because the type of accounting that we do for small businesses is very different in many ways. Yeah, I had. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:13:53] Never actually done cash basis accounting. Yeah. And it's way easier. Blake Oliver: [00:14:00] Did did you make the mistake at first of like trying to do the proper accrual accounting and realizing this is way too much work for the effort? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:14:06] Yeah, I was I think it was just like, wow, I don't have to mess with all of the things that board of directors care about and CEO's care about. Like this person in front of me cares how much money is in the bank at the end of the month. That's literally what they care about. And I can care about that too. And the accounting for that is different, but a little bit easier. Blake Oliver: [00:14:27] So that was when that was in 2018. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:14:32] That would have been 2018. Yeah. Okay. Blake Oliver: [00:14:33] So now we're in. What year is it 2024. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:14:37] 2024. Six years later. Blake Oliver: [00:14:39] Six years later, you have now gotten to ten clients and they are paying an average. Do I have this right of $1,875 per month each? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:14:52] Yep. Just about. Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:14:54] Okay. So your your what is your total revenue for 2024. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:15:00] Total revenue. And I know you're looking at you're referencing the book I think I had a range in there for something about like 200 to 250. I think it'll be closer to the 200 range. I wrote the book in April and as things have happened. Right. Like clients come and go and it's only ever a forecast, right? A forecast is only ever guessing. And I think it'll be closer to the 200 range like low two hundreds. But the profit will be what I predicted. So. Blake Oliver: [00:15:30] Yeah. And what is the pretax owner benefit on that 200. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:15:34] Yeah. It'll be right around 180. Blake Oliver: [00:15:36] Not bad. Not bad at all. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:15:39] No, I'm not complaining. Blake Oliver: [00:15:40] And I imagine the cost of living in. What's your what's your, uh, town? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:15:45] Uh, it's. You've never heard of it? It's called Soda Springs, Idaho. It is about an hour away from the nearest Walgreens. If you're, uh, caring about where those are. And, yeah, it's cost of living is different. Blake Oliver: [00:15:57] Yeah. That's great. So I imagine you're able to, like, sock away a good amount of that, you know, and save it. And I mean, yeah, if you, if you do that enough and your husband's a CPA too. Is he, is he working as a CPA? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:11] Yeah. He he's the finance director for one of the local plants here. The plants in mine, it's a big agricultural and mining town. And so for one of the mines, he's a finance director. Blake Oliver: [00:16:22] Well, you two must be doing great. Then. You could probably, like, retire early. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:27] If we can. Blake Oliver: [00:16:28] Is that part of the plan? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:29] That's part that. We hope that's part of the plan. Only I built this business that I love, and I have no interest in stopping it. Blake Oliver: [00:16:35] Right. And it's 15 hours of less than 15 hours a week. So you can just do that as long as you're you're happy. And gosh, now with like Starlink internet, you could probably do it from anywhere. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:45] Well, that's literally what I have to use at my house anyways. Really? Blake Oliver: [00:16:49] Okay. Yeah. No, no, we don't have internet. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:51] Yes. We don't have a solid internet where we are. So. Blake Oliver: [00:16:54] So you're coming to us from via satellite right now? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:16:56] Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I could be I mean, kind of. I am in the middle of nowhere. So this is this is what we have to use. Oh, that's. Blake Oliver: [00:17:03] A brave new world. Like, I think you're the first person I've interviewed on this podcast that had Starlink. Maybe. Really, maybe Chad Davis, but I think he was still using, um, you know, like, uh, hotspots at the time. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:17:17] Oh, okay. I tried hotspots for a while, and it just like everything, especially as the pandemic hit and people relied on internet more. Yeah, it just degraded. And finally, I just bit the bullet and had to go Starlink. And I've been so happy with it. But you're right, I could just take my little satellite receiver with me and go wherever I. Blake Oliver: [00:17:35] Want. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:17:35] As long as. Blake Oliver: [00:17:36] You can get a clear view of what? The northern sky. You're. Yeah. You're good. Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:17:40] And they won't even sell you. Sell to you if you're in a city because they just can't get reception. Blake Oliver: [00:17:46] Yeah. So. So what, what kind of speeds do you get with Starlink? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:17:51] Oh, I'm a bad tech person to ask. Obviously. Give me a range. Blake Oliver: [00:17:55] Yeah. I mean, so it basically feels like high speed internet. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:17:58] Yeah, yeah, it's the highest speed I can get here. Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:18:01] What's it cost? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:18:03] Oh, I think I pay. It was like a at the time that I signed up. It was a $600 equipment fee up front. Okay. And then 120 monthly. Blake Oliver: [00:18:13] That's what I pay for fiber here. That's incredible. I mean, I'm ready to start my, like, off road dream and just have, like, a satellite on top of my camper or something. Totally cool. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:18:24] Or you can move to the middle of nowhere. Blake Oliver: [00:18:25] I can move to the middle of nowhere. I can just be. Yeah, exactly. Um, live in the mountains, right? Yeah. That's my apocalypse plan, right? Zombie apocalypse plan is go to Idaho. I think you all are well. Well prepared for. Blake Oliver: [00:18:37] It. Well, when the pandemic hit, there were a. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:18:39] Lot of people that came. Blake Oliver: [00:18:41] Survivalists are all out in Idaho, right? Blake Oliver: [00:18:43] Uh, yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:18:44] You know what? Honestly. So not to get sidetracked, but when when the pandemic happened and I have, like, a city mindset. Right. And I'm just like, I text friends. I'm like, uh, are we worried about how much milk there is? Or like, are we worried about food? And they're like, oh, and they're also ranchers. So they're like, no, I've got 900 pounds of beef in my basement. If you need any, let me know. I'm like, okay, we're good. Blake Oliver: [00:19:06] Okay. Good to know. Um, so you had one client to start getting us back on track here? Yes. Sorry. No, no, it's my fault. Um, you had one client to start, and then how did it grow? You know, to ten over those years? Blake Oliver: [00:19:23] Yeah. Were you. Blake Oliver: [00:19:24] Advertising? Were you, like, knocking on doors? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:19:26] No. It grew super slowly. Um, I had committed that if I was, if I was going to work, I was only going to work when the kids were at school, and at the time I started the firm, they were three years old and, uh, seven, three and seven and three year olds, uh, three year old preschool is like, you know, you drop them off, they have a snack and you pick them up. So I was working on a margin of time that I had available. And so it was just every time that youngest went to more school, I then had an open door of more hours. And then I determined how many clients, if any, can I take on with these extra hours I now have. And so I literally was only growing as fast as preschool grew, and then half day kindergarten and then full day first grade. And so it was this very slow process. And so I didn't even advertise. I didn't tell anybody I was doing anything probably for three years. I only started marketing halfway through my, you know, my firm right now. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:20:27] And it was just like word of mouth that I'd be like in a car pool at Girl Scouts. And I'd say that I did bookkeeping, bookkeeping, and some be like, oh, can you talk to so-and-so? And that would be how somebody would find out about me, and that would be my second client and my third client. And eventually when, um, the floodgates of time opened up with full day school, both kids were in full day school. That's when I really started. I put up a website and I marketed and I started a newsletter, and it did all the things to tell people I was. I was available, um, for CFO and bookkeeping work. And that's where, you know, and it wasn't a flood. I was still very I had such I still have such strict boundaries because of the fear of going back to burnout that like, I'm always very slow at onboarding anybody and not the onboarding is not slow. I will never onboard more than one person at a time. Like it's always just a very methodical, intentional growth speed. Blake Oliver: [00:21:27] You're picky about the clients you take on because you've only got limited time. You've limited your capacity. Blake Oliver: [00:21:34] Yeah I do. So and I'm. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:21:36] And I'm quick to fire too. Like, yeah, that sounds terrible. But like, I promised myself I wouldn't work with jerks. And if I have a client that we're not a good fit and somebody is not being kind, then I have a 30 day clause on my contract, and neither one of us and either one of us can execute it. ShareFile provides secure, easy-to-use technology that helps deliver an exceptional client experience and streamline document-heavy workflows. Their mission – to simplify and secure your work with clients, enhancing your internal processes and boosting client satisfaction. By automating manual tasks and inefficiencies, ShareFile can help your firm handle more engagements, eliminate disparate processes and get paid on time with streamlined invoicing and client billing built into your workflows, and simplify your client touchpoints with an easy-to-use client portal with automated notifications, reminders, and status updates. Whether you’re in the office or working remotely, ShareFile has the tools to help your firm work smarter this tax season. Ready to elevate your firm’s efficiency and modernize client experiences with ShareFile? Head over to earmarkcpe.promo/sharefile. That is earmarkcpe – dot – promo – forward-slash – S-H-A-R-E-F-I-L-E. Blake Oliver: [00:21:55] So you started out doing some QuickBooks bookkeeping work for this one client that you got accidentally? Yeah. And now you have three tiers of services that you discuss in the book. Your bottom tier is bookkeeping, and that's around $500 a month. Is that still the case? Blake Oliver: [00:22:16] Yeah, 5. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:22:16] To 600. Blake Oliver: [00:22:17] Now. Okay. Blake Oliver: [00:22:18] And then you have tier two, which is mini CFO. Yeah. 1400 a month. Yep. What is what does that include? Blake Oliver: [00:22:26] You know. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:22:27] I think I think there's a hole in the fractional CFO space. When you look at prices on those. They they really range in the low four figures that 2 to 4000 range is like a starting point. And there's so many, uh, solo entrepreneurs who are starting businesses who need the support, like who need the monthly face time with their accountant, with their with the CFO type person. And there it wouldn't make sense for them to pay $3,000 a month for that. They're not they're they're making 2 to $400,000 in revenue a year. And so that tier of service is really giving them that for the right price point. Um, and it's their bookkeeping and us meeting every single month, just talking through the things that somebody who's starting and growing a really small business needs. Blake Oliver: [00:23:18] And then your top tier is fractional CFO, all the bells and whistles, as much as $5,000 a month. Yeah. Tell me about that. What? What are your clients who have you as a fractional CFO get? Blake Oliver: [00:23:32] Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:23:33] So they're so it's basically everything in that mini CFO. And then as you know, as businesses grow, we know complexities happen. Right. And employees come on board and you have all these different things that are hard to predict. And you just need a right hand money person to help you think through it. And so that's where I come in. We're still meeting on a monthly basis, but there's so much more ad hoc that comes up and so much more nuance when you start adding employees that I'm just there as the person to be the expert in the finance space, where the CEO doesn't have the time, nor the knowledge of the tech stack or the IRS tax code, or whatever it may be to be the person in that seat as well. And so I come in and on a fractional basis and support them in that way. Blake Oliver: [00:24:19] So that's when the clients have employees. They start to have more complex accounting needs. Blake Oliver: [00:24:26] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:24:27] Are all of your clients in the consulting agency space? Have you kept it to just that? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:24:35] Yep. Yeah. And that's what that's what helps the efficiency of my firm. And the pricing is that people ask like, well, how can you put a price out there for any client? I'm like, well, because I'm only accepting clients that are this type of client with these kinds of books, with this kind of structure. And so I know how those companies run. I know how those businesses run, and that is the right price for that business. Now, if a construction company came in and said, hey, I want a mini CFO, fractional CFO, I would not take on that client. And if I did, I wouldn't quote that price, because that's a different that's a different accounting structure to manage. Blake Oliver: [00:25:11] As soon as you have to manage project accounting or you have to manage inventory, it's a totally different scope. Yeah, but with consultants, with B2B professional services, the bookkeeping is pretty similar and can be automated, I imagine all the way up the the scale. Blake Oliver: [00:25:29] Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:25:31] Yeah. There's so much that, you know, and that's where the, the 15 hours comes in is based on you scale your processes, not your clients, so that you can bring down your time. And it's when you can scale the, the efficiencies of those processes, whether it's bookkeeping or forecasting, that you're almost becoming the, the managerial level level of reviewer as opposed to the doer. And so you can operate at a higher level of your, of your degree, of your, of your licensing and then have like the value is in the meeting with the clients and bringing them, you know, ideas and trends and exceptions, not in the they don't care that I do the bookkeeping. They just want the bookkeeping done. They don't care how I do it. They just care. It's done. It's right. And then we can talk about the effects of it and that's where the value comes in. Blake Oliver: [00:26:21] So you're working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. About six hours you allocate to that? Yeah. Um, how much of that time is in client meetings? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:26:34] I would say the client work is probably 50 to 60% of that. If I have ten clients, then it's, you know, eight hours of meetings every month. But the actual work is probably half of the time I spend. And then the other half is marketing, you know, admin work for your own firm, KPIs, whatever. Whatever else comes up that we, we have to do to just keep our firms afloat. Blake Oliver: [00:27:03] So, so like on a typical day, you might have one client meeting. Blake Oliver: [00:27:08] Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:27:09] Well, just based on like I have a close process, I have like a standard operating procedure of how I close books and, you know, the higher tier clients we meet on the second, the second week of the month, the middle tier clients we meet on the third week, and so I try to batch those meetings together. So I have a day of meetings or a half day of meetings, and I'm not sprinkling it out throughout the month. It's really in lockstep with my month end close. Blake Oliver: [00:27:33] Esop we have a question from one of our live stream viewers. Hk geek says, Erica, tell us how you kindly let a potential client know you can't or won't work with them, considering it's someone who would be a good client, but you just don't have capacity at the moment, do you waitlist them or refer them to another? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:27:56] Yeah, that's a great question. Um, the the answer to that is if I know I'm already at capacity, my website changes so that it's no longer an intake form. It's a waitlist form. And so they know that if they're putting their name on my website, they know that they're getting waitlisted right away. And and even if they waitlist, I reach out to them the very next day and said, hey, I saw you submitted this. Just want to let you know I saw it. I'll have you on the waitlist and I'll let you know when something becomes available. Um, if and you know, in the same if if I just don't think it's a good client fit, then maybe they get through the intake form, and I'm just, you know, it's a kind. Hey, I'm sorry we don't support clients with your complexities or in your industry or with your structure. And if I have a referral, I'll refer them if I just don't want to refer them to somebody, I just say, I wish you the best of luck and be kind about it. But I'm like you said, like I'm really picky on who who I, who I let through the doors and um, and it's, it's served me well to treat it like that. Blake Oliver: [00:29:02] So you use QuickBooks online for the bookkeeping and you've got somebody helping with you that helping you with that as a contractor. Um, what about the forecasting the CFO type of stuff? How do you systematize that so that you're not spending a ton of time on all the prep for these monthly client meetings? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:29:24] Now I use I started when I first started, it was all in Excel, and Excel is great, but that wasn't scalable and there are difficulties with doing it in Excel. I transitioned to Fathom Reporting pretty early on, and that's what I use to keep that process really efficient. And it does. I know there's a lot. And you know, I'm a huge fan of fathom. There are a ton of options in that tech space for apps that can do that. And I think if somebody's listening to this, I don't think fathom is the only option out there. I think it's what I've used, I love it, I have no plans on changing, but if you find something that works for you and your clients, as long as it's syncing to your accounting software, I think it makes all the difference in the world again, to be the reviewer and the exception finder, not the person doing. Because I think as soon as we spend so much time doing, we lose the eye for reviewing and for actually bringing value to our clients. Blake Oliver: [00:30:24] So what? What is the output that fathom provides to you that you use? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:30:29] Yeah. So they have three functionalities in their software. They have KPI reporting like a dashboard. They have monthly reporting like a PDF that it would spit out and then forecasting. And for my purposes I thought I was going to use KPI dashboard. My clients just don't. They don't they never latched on to it and it wasn't what they were looking for. But I do a monthly reporting for that. So once I have QuickBooks closed, everything syncs to fathom and then it spits out a monthly report that's custom to that client. And it's not that I have one monthly report and all of my CFO clients get it. It's like as you talk to these clients, they view things differently and they care about different things. And so we for ten clients and this sounds unscalable, but like for ten clients I have ten different reports, but every month those are automatically those are automatically just pushing out of the system. Once I get them in place. Blake Oliver: [00:31:25] Quickbooks. Blake Oliver: [00:31:26] Gets closed. The data refreshes into the fathom template for each client that you've built, and then you can push those reports out to the client. Blake Oliver: [00:31:34] And then I just review. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:31:35] The report and push it out to the client and say, here's what we're going to talk about at our meeting this month. And then when we get into the meeting, we might talk about that report. For 20% of the time, it's all past reporting. So we want to make sure it's accurate for tax purposes. But what the meeting really turns into is a forecasting meeting. And we jump into Fathom Live. And we're forecasting live for things that they know are happening in their business, whether it be, uh, sales pipeline growth or potential we're building that in or if they have a big expenditure coming or if they're hiring somebody. We're just talking through all of that to see what that does to their cash flow at the end of the day. Blake Oliver: [00:32:13] And that leads us into our next listener question, which is from Dennis. Dennis asks if you have a set agenda for your monthly meetings. What items do you cover routinely? Blake Oliver: [00:32:24] Yeah, yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:32:25] It's actually kind of just what I just talked about. We always start with open items. So as the month is going, clients are emailing me like we know clients are constantly pinging questions and when they ping that, they know that my response is going to be like, great, we'll talk about that at the meeting. And I put that question, if it's not urgent, obviously, if it's urgent, we take care of it. But if it's something like, oh, I had a question about this thing, I'm like, cool, I'll add it to the agenda for the meeting. And so our meeting starts with any open items that have come up in the past month, or if there's something specific that I know about that they don't know about, like, hey, have you done your boy reporting yet? Let's make sure you don't forget about that. It's those open items that will come up. And from there we close out those. We talk about what happened last month. Make sure that you know the accounting is right on my side. Did I get it right in their eyes? Like it's an opportunity to say like, okay, well, you brought in $20,000 of revenue. They're like, really? Because I, because I saw, you know, I was supposed to see 40. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:33:29] I'm like, okay, then we have an issue. Did did an invoice not go out? Did a payment go to a wrong bank account like something happened. And that's an opportunity for like, yes, the accounting is right, but I can only see what hits QuickBooks. If they know about something and we're missing something, then it's an opportunity for us to, uh, correct and and see if there's any changes that need to be made. So it's probably, you know, 5% the open items, the next ten, 20% of the meeting is past. Here's what happened. And then the rest of the meeting is all what's on your mind, what's going forward? What's, um, what's happening that that we this changed from last month that we need to forecast. So we make sure that, um, that your cash doesn't drain, that you still have a good cash reserve, that we're planning for taxes, like all these things that sometimes business owners get this, you know, I'm going to hire two people and I'm like, fantastic. You're going to run out of cash by October, you know? Right. And so like and like it's not that I'm coming in to be like the naysayer, but like, okay, that's great. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:34:35] Let's build that in. And I'm like, wow, if you hire these two people, here's what's going to happen. And they're like, oh. And I'm like, Will those two people drive more revenue? Well, they're like, yeah. And I'm like, great. How much revenue will those two people drive? And it starts these really valuable conversations of decisions the business owner is making. How does that translate into cash flow and what do we what does that mean once we see cash go up or down. Because sometimes, right, there's always a cash problem. You either have too much or too little. And we love it's a problem either way. Right. You have so much cash. What are we going to do with it? Let's make sure we pay enough taxes. Can we fund your retirement more? Um. Did you did you need something in your personal life that we want to take a distribution for? Or is your cash dwindling? And we need to pull back on expenses, and we need to delay that hire instead of hiring them now. So it just causes all these decisions that the business owners can walk away with more confident decisions. Blake Oliver: [00:35:33] It's been a while since I used fathom, but I recall there being a really beautiful is it called a cash flow waterfall? It's like this diagram that shows the cash inflows and outflows over time. And you can you can see six months down the road if you're going to have a cash flow issue. Is that what you're looking at? Am I describing it correctly? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:35:55] I mean fathom is meant to look pretty like that's it really is meant to just make pretty graphs based on ugly accounting. Right? And that is what, at least for my business owners, they they want a picture book, not a novel. Nobody wants to look through a P and L except for us. Like, I want to look through the P and L, but like, they're. They don't. They really don't. Bless their hearts. Nobody wants to look through a P and L except the accountants. And so if I can translate that into something that looks pretty like a cash flow waterfall with different colors, that just is actually appealing to look at, it actually makes your clients want to look at their numbers. Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:36:34] Yeah. Just, just that one thing that you do every month, there is probably 80% of the value in the client's mind. And obviously there's a lot of work that goes into building that and keeping it up to date. Yeah, but you've automated so much of it with the cloud based accounting and then the reporting, all you have to do is make sure you're in touch with the client to find out what are you planning to do? You're going to hire people. Yeah. And then update that with them. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:37:03] Yeah. To your point, I had a client who was having some temporary cash flow. Blake Oliver: [00:37:07] Issues. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:37:08] And they wanted to downgrade services. They were at the mini CFO. They wanted to downgrade to to bookkeeping. And I was like, that's totally fine. Like, my clients are never locked into a tier or anything. And I said, that's totally fine, let's do that. Um, I'll send you, you know, an updated contract, yada yada. I'll update your billing. And just so you know, here's what you're getting with that new tier. Here's what you're losing. You're going to lose that monthly meeting. And they went, oh, never mind, I'll stay. Yeah. And I was like, well I just found out literally what the value of that meeting is in a dollar value. Blake Oliver: [00:37:38] Right. It's way more than just the bookkeeping. Blake Oliver: [00:37:41] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:37:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's why when I, when I meet accountants who don't meet as frequently with their clients, you know, I feel like they're missing a big opportunity that. But you're in sort of a catch 22 if you're already maxed out doing the, say the bookkeeping or the tax prep. And that's your, you know, 80% of your revenue or whatever, it's really hard to make room for the client meetings on a monthly basis. Yeah. Yeah. But you started from the perspective of this is what I'm going to do, and I'm not going to I'm not going to fill up my schedule with the other stuff. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:38:18] Right. And I don't do tax prep. Like that's a huge that's a huge piece of the puzzle. I think that causes a, a wrench in the gears of a lot of firms. And for better or worse, like I don't I don't do tax work. Sometimes I wish I did. I think it would make the holistic picture better, but that also saves me a lot of time so that I can have those meetings. Blake Oliver: [00:38:39] How do you help clients with the taxes? Like do you refer them to somebody? Do they just go get their own preparer and you coordinate with that person? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:38:51] Good question. Sometimes they come with their own preparer. Sometimes they come ready to fire their preparer. And they think I can do their taxes. And so it's either in both cases I'm I'm the liaison. I always say I'm the translator because Sometimes we mean well, but sometimes CPAs ask questions to their clients and say things and they have no idea what they're asking, and then they're embarrassed, and then they give an answer that's wrong because they didn't understand the question. And then the taxes are wrong. And so I always say, I come in and I'll be the translator. I'll listen to your your tax preparers questions. I'll answer for you based on what your accounting is. I'll cc you. You're always in the loop. But I'm going to act as your CFO and I'm going to answer the tax the tax team's questions. And so I get to come in and just really be the liaison. Sometimes I help them find a new tax person if they if they want a new one or I just work with their their current provider. Blake Oliver: [00:39:47] Are most of your clients in your region local or are they all over the place? Blake Oliver: [00:39:53] No, they're. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:39:54] All over the place. I actually don't have anybody local to me. Blake Oliver: [00:39:57] Wow. Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:39:58] Like when you say all over the place. What are we talking about? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:40:01] Oh, let's see, I have Oregon, Illinois, a lot on the East Coast, like Boston, Washington. Um, Colorado. Yeah, it's really it really spans the US. Blake Oliver: [00:40:16] And so since you're not local, a follow up question might be what is the you know, what is the way that you market yourself? How do you for the first few years you weren't you were just taking word of mouth referrals, but you were being choosy about, you know, who you take on. Now that you have an online presence, how do you how do you put yourself out there? What do you what do you do? And and I guess my other question is, how much time do you spend on marketing? Is that in the 15 hours or is that outside of that? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:40:46] Yeah, that is in the 15 hours. My biggest time spent for marketing probably is my podcast. And I also have an I started with a newsletter, moved to the podcast. I do both now, and I would say that that is not actually a driver of what brings me clients. What brings me clients is referrals. But people refer me and then they, like, start following me or start consuming content I've put out and they know whether they might be a good fit with me, just based on how I'm talking, right? Like somebody listening might be really annoyed at the sound of my voice right now. And they can't stand me. That person is never going to like, come be a client of mine. And that's great because that saved both of us time to know that we weren't a good fit. But if somebody starts listening and I'm either educating on something that they need or they just enjoy the style that I talk like, we've created a connection that I don't even know about yet. And so they found me somehow. And as they consume that content, they start to get to know me a little better and eventually make it into a discovery call. And we see if we're a good fit for the work they need and the work I do. Blake Oliver: [00:42:00] Yeah. It's so important to emphasize that it's it's not about creating what we in marketing call top of funnel leads from a podcast or from your newsletter, because in accounting, most of our clients come to us as referrals. That's just the way it's always been. And it makes sense. That's how business owners find out about professionals, is they ask other business owners who do you use? But the that doesn't mean that those marketing activities don't have value. They do. It's just about helping you skip those get to know you calls, right? And that way the people who get referred to you can can sort of decide if they are a good fit without. And then you can skip to the let's learn about your business and scope out this engagement. Blake Oliver: [00:42:48] Yeah, it's. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:42:49] A self-selection, right? Like if you don't like somebody, you're not going to pursue working with them. And so I don't ever see those people. They never schedule a zoom, which is great because it saved us both time and I get clients. I get prospects in discovery calls who will start the call by saying, I feel like I already know you. That's huge. That's like half of a meeting right there. Blake Oliver: [00:43:12] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:43:13] And the way you are on your podcast is really the same way you talk to clients. Yeah. It's not like there's. Blake Oliver: [00:43:19] There's only one. Blake Oliver: [00:43:19] Me. There's only one Erica. Blake Oliver: [00:43:21] Yes. Blake Oliver: [00:43:22] Yeah. So you mentioned your podcast, Consultants and Money. What kind of stuff do you talk about on that on that show? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:43:28] I try to educate tax things and business things that people could easily Google. And you're never quite sure if the answer on Google is right or nowadays, if you're going to ask ChatGPT, is that right that they gave me that answer? I thought we shouldn't rely on ChatGPT for finance advice, which maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't. But what I try to do is give free advice that's accurate, that you don't have to wonder if this is generated, if this is accurate, if this is updated, I just try to educate on, you know, topics like we talked about, boy reporting, we've talked about we're going to have an episode on health insurance. How should small business owners buy health insurance? That's, you know, that's it's things that business owners don't know who to ask. And oftentimes accountants get asked these things. And we're like, I don't know about health insurance, but you're kind of the main person to talk about money with for your clients. And so you get all these random questions. So I just try to come in and ask, ask, answer those questions that are coming up in the minds of the business owners as they're coming up. Blake Oliver: [00:44:38] And then when you do the prep for your show, you're educating yourself. So exactly. Now you now you have the answer and you can always point somebody to an episode you did and say, here's here's the answer. I don't have to tell this to you again. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:44:50] And that was kind of the origin of the podcast, is I was getting the same questions, and in my opinion, they were easy questions and they should exist for free. Like, where do I sign up for an LLC? You know, like, I don't need to charge somebody to tell them that I can just have a podcast episode that says, go to your social, your, you know, secretary of state website, set it up here, talk to a lawyer, whatever you want to do. But like, here's the podcast episode you should listen to. And they they get the answer. And it didn't cost them anything. And it got my voice out there. So it's kind of a win win win. Blake Oliver: [00:45:22] And now they're a subscriber. Blake Oliver: [00:45:24] Exactly. Blake Oliver: [00:45:26] If you could invent one piece of accounting technology what would it do? Oh. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:45:34] I feel like I have an answer for this. Actually, I feel like I have three answers for this. Blake Oliver: [00:45:39] Go for it. Blake Oliver: [00:45:40] I mean, no. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:45:40] I don't know if I'm like. I feel like every day I'm like, why doesn't this exist? Do you do you know what I realized didn't exist? And I really had to go find a bolt on for it. Um, there was nothing that could send a recurring email, a recurring custom email to a client every month. I know this exists in workflow softwares. I'm sure it does. I don't use a workflow software I because I have such few clients, but there was nothing like if I go into my email provider, I can send a mass email all the same to somebody or I can in Gmail set up a scheduled email, but I can't send an email every single month on the first day of the month to one person that says the same exact thing with the same links in it. Blake Oliver: [00:46:33] Mhm. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:46:33] And I was shocked that that didn't exist. I eventually found it in an add on uh, with, with Google Workspace. But that was one of the things. Blake Oliver: [00:46:42] What is it. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:46:45] I think it's called recurring recurring email for Gmail. Blake Oliver: [00:46:49] It's like a plugin. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:46:50] It's a plugin. Yeah. But the fact that like this didn't exist And again, I'm sure in a workflow software, this is what people are selling you on workflow softwares. But I don't use a workflow software and I don't want to. It just doesn't fit my needs. Of all the other things. But that was something that feels like it should be way more obvious and easy for us to access. Blake Oliver: [00:47:12] That's a good point. What, uh, what were your what were your other two? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:47:16] I feel like I walk around and I like these things where I'm like, ooh. And now I'm. Now I'm blanking. I'm. Blake Oliver: [00:47:23] Well, if it comes back. Blake Oliver: [00:47:23] To you, go ahead and shout it out. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:47:25] Yes I will. Blake Oliver: [00:47:27] Are you ever tempted to scale beyond just your solo practice, or is this this? This it? Blake Oliver: [00:47:35] Yeah, all the time. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:47:36] Like, I really like what I do, and I really like working. Um, and there's other things in my life that I have to prioritize, too. And so I'm constantly I do feel like I'm constantly holding myself back. And I know if somebody's listening to this, like, how many people on LinkedIn would tell me, but you can scale Erica. Here's how to ten x your business and you can keep your 15 hour workweek. And I, I get it like I understand the formula. I know how to hire. And I know that this is scalable. Um, but that comes with complexities that I'm not interested in adding to my mental capacity at this time. Blake Oliver: [00:48:13] Like, yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:48:15] I have. Blake Oliver: [00:48:16] To. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:48:16] Yeah, I have to feed my own children. I don't need to worry about feeding my employees children's, too. Right. Right. Blake Oliver: [00:48:22] And I'm always skeptical about keeping the 15 hours as you scale up. Like, let's say you wanted to go to, like, 1 million or $2 million firm. There's a lot that has to happen, and a lot of people depending on you and a lot of people you have to talk to every day in order to make that happen. So it's like, I don't think I really I'd love to meet the person who manages to do that, but I don't think there's anyone who's done that yet. Blake Oliver: [00:48:44] Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:48:45] So I'm I'm always tempted to work more because I enjoy like I always want to help more people like, oh, this this client came into my intake form and this, you know, prospect and like, oh, they seem like a good fit, but I'm at capacity. Like, it's really hard to say no in those situations. Um, and you just have to remember that there are going to the kids are going to be sick and there's going to be days off of school and there's going to be vacations I want to take, and those things take priority. And that means that I can't take on, um, clients that I might feel like I have time for. But really, in the grand scheme of things, I don't, I. Blake Oliver: [00:49:22] Think that is so important to emphasize. And it's something that I struggle with myself, which is trying to calculate my own capacity for projects and work. We have this tendency in accounting, I think, to assume we have 2000 hours a year, because that's what we were billing when we were at a firm. But that was when you were just doing the job. And and sometimes it's way more than that, right? Yeah. It's because you're just doing the job and you're not having to manage anything else. So in that environment, sure that's possible. But when you own the firm, you really have to just like chop that in half, you know, like how many, how many actual hours of work am I going to do every year? Like I say, don't budget for more than a thousand because you never know. Like it's going to the other half of your time is going to be taken up with stuff that is not billable client work for sure. Yeah, yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:50:14] I think you're totally spot on there. Blake Oliver: [00:50:15] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:50:16] So you're a CPA, married to another CPA who does the household accounting? Blake Oliver: [00:50:22] Me. Blake Oliver: [00:50:23] That's you. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:50:23] And that was, uh, more so probably when I left work. When I left corporate, I really missed it. And I was like, can can we turn this into a PowerPoint deck? And he was like, please don't. Blake Oliver: [00:50:36] Here's your quarterly business review for the household, right? Blake Oliver: [00:50:39] Yeah, no. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:50:39] I do, and I've always enjoyed it. I've enjoyed budgeting and forecasting literally since I was eight years old. And this this is just like I love it and so I'm happy to do it at home. And he's nice enough to let me. Blake Oliver: [00:50:52] What do you do for the household finances? Are you in a QuickBooks file for that? Blake Oliver: [00:50:56] No, I tried. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:50:57] I tested that for a little bit and I actually just have it all in Excel. It's all this, like, massive spreadsheet that's just served me well, pulling. Blake Oliver: [00:51:06] The transactions into, like, a transactions list and then summarize it. Blake Oliver: [00:51:10] Yeah a little. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:51:11] Yeah. There's like a hodgepodge of things, but there's a massive file of a forecast for, you know, like my clients. What's going to happen, what's the cash flow going to be in the next 12 months minus what's the household cash going to be in the next three years? Blake Oliver: [00:51:23] We use uh I was using Xero. I still use it for the household finances because I, I've been doing it for like ten years now, and, like, it's so fun to see the trend analysis over that amount of time. So I can't give that up. But the one that I actually use with my wife to budget is you need a budget. Blake Oliver: [00:51:40] Yeah. That's huge. Blake Oliver: [00:51:41] Yeah, I love that one. It's great because it's just so easy. Blake Oliver: [00:51:45] Yeah. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:51:46] When I started, none of that existed. Or if it did, it was just in its infancy. And so I just always stuck with Excel. Back when, you know, we started doing this many, many, many years ago. Blake Oliver: [00:51:58] It was great. When mint came out, that was my first like. Blake Oliver: [00:52:00] Personal, I had mint, I had meant they killed. It died. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:52:04] It died, and it didn't go anywhere. That's what I was shocked that they couldn't sell it. Not that they couldn't. They chose not. Blake Oliver: [00:52:10] To. Well, they. Blake Oliver: [00:52:11] They did Credit Karma and then they created, like the Credit Karma version of it, which mines all your personal data to sell you more credit cards and get you further into debt. And I said, I said to myself, I'd rather pay for Ynab. I think it's like it's like 100 and something bucks a year, then have my all of my transactions mined by a giant company. Blake Oliver: [00:52:30] Yeah, exactly. Blake Oliver: [00:52:32] Exactly. So there's your recommendation from me. And fathom is the one that Erica loves for the the forecasting and the reporting. Um, if anyone on our live stream has any more questions, please get those in. We've got a few more minutes. Hk geek has a comment. Says I'm actually checking out Rocket Money more recently. Oh, I haven't tried that one yet, but I've heard about it. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:52:54] I also heard of, uh, monarch. Monarch was a new one that somebody mentioned. It's all these, like, great apps that pull in your transactions. You can categorize them so nicely. Blake Oliver: [00:53:05] So, Erica, let's broaden our discussion in the time we have left. If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about the accounting profession, what would it be? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:53:20] Mm. I don't know the answer to this, but I think we are trying to fit professionals into a culture that worked 30 to 50 years ago, you know, 30 to 100 years ago. We have this, um, we have this business culture that's built on This. I don't mean to sound angry. How am I going to say this without sounding angry? It's built on the back of men with stay at home wives and and that's that's not a bad thing. That's just how it was. This is just like a factual thing, right? Like. Blake Oliver: [00:53:56] Yeah. And that was my dad and. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:53:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same. And like it was great. Look how great business developed. And it was a thing and that was our culture. And then, you know, we moved through history and we told women that they can do anything. And uh, and they should go, you know, do the work because they can do it, which is phenomenal. But we tried to put them into a situation that was based on a stay at home parent, and now there are no stay at home parents. When we say that we've got two working parents and nobody stays home, but there's still work to be done there. And I think my magic wand for all of business corporate culture would be you need to create a new culture, not invite Women into the same culture. And I think there's a lot of dads. I get a lot of emails, people on my accountant email list, a lot of dads who just want to spend more time with their kids. Yeah. And there are moms who want to not have to do everything. And I think if we could magically change corporate culture to recognize all types of parenting situations and flexible work arrangements, I think it would it would just benefit literally everybody in in the situation. Blake Oliver: [00:55:18] It would be better for kids, parents, society. I, I didn't anticipate this like when, you know, pandemic times hit and my wife got to work fully remote. She has a corporate job and it really, really helped us split the parenting. And I'm not going to tell you I do 50% because like the studies show, the guys almost never do their, you know, their 50% if that's the deal. But like, I have been able to increase the amount that I parent. Yeah. And it's been fantastic for me. Like as a dad, you know, my my dad was gone, you know, 12 hours every day, right? We saw him. He'd come home for dinner and then, you know, he'd go work on his laptop after that. Yeah. So that's kind of what I had envisioned for myself. And I'm so glad that I don't have to do that. Blake Oliver: [00:56:14] Yeah. Blake Oliver: [00:56:16] Um, one more question from the chat. Uh, we talked about this, but I guess we didn't really talk about how quickly it happened or how many years it took. Richard is curious how long it took to get to that 200 K revenue mark for you. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:56:33] Yeah. 5 to 6 years. And that was intentional. It wasn't because I couldn't get the clients. It was because I was limiting myself so much in in how many hours I would allow to work that that is just the natural speed of how fast that grows when you're being that strict on your time. Blake Oliver: [00:56:51] So maybe you could have done it, like if you had really wanted to grow it quickly to say, the ten client mark and you started off doing the marketing and all that, how long do you think it might take somebody? Because I think that's what's behind this question. Right? Is. Blake Oliver: [00:57:07] Well, so. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:57:07] I play that game in my head and I'm like, how, how fast could I have? And I think, could I have built 200,000 in 2 to 3 years? Yes. And I think I would have made different choices. I would have taken on clients that I wouldn't have normally taken on for the sake of growth. I think I wouldn't have forced myself to make my processes more efficient. I think I would have chosen to hire to solve the problem as opposed to fix the processes. And so I think it's hard for me to go back and say like, oh, I could have done it differently and done it faster because I think I would have gotten a different result. I think the result I've gotten is the result of intentionality and, um, constantly like judging my own processes and refining them so that, you know, I was at 15 hours at eight clients. Well, I want to take on a new client. I can't work more hours in my mind. I can't work more hours. So I guess I gotta find what's taking so much time. And what do I reduce or fix? Okay, now I'm only working ten hours. I can take on those two more clients. Blake Oliver: [00:58:17] Yes, and that's a great answer to Richard's follow up question, which is, could you have achieved the same results if you worked with clients nights and weekends instead of during the normal working day? But I think the answer to that is not not really, because you needed to have the time to focus on finding those improvements and if you're trying to work a full time job and build this on the side. That would be difficult. Erica Goode, CPA: [00:58:43] Maybe, but I was just working two hours a week, so I have. I have, um, people on my email list, accountants who are trying to do this. On the side. And I think about what I did and what they're doing and I don't. Like accounting was my side gig to being a mom. Like I was working two. Hours a week because that's all I had. And whether you have only two hours a week. Because you're parenting or you're working a full time job, what does it matter? You can still slowly grow something and still be forced by the same limitations. And. I think you can get to the same result and not have to leave the comfort of your corporate job and salary while you're building something that allows you to. Only work 15 hours a week. I think it's a really it's a really, you know. Inspiring prospect in that regard. Blake Oliver: [00:59:35] Erica, let's point people to the book and where to follow you online. Where should they go if they want to read the the 15 hour accountant? Erica Goode, CPA: [00:59:43] Yeah, I think you're going to link to it. I have a link on my website, but it's, uh, there's a landing page for it. I won't read it to you because it's a long landing page, but it's called the the 15 Hour Accountant, and it's literally a pull back the curtain of everything in my business. There's a P and L in there. There's my tech stack is in there. I really don't hold back or hide anything in there. It's only 25 pages. Don't get your hopes up. This is a tiny, uh, book that you can read in 15 minutes, because I don't want you to take time to do that, but you just put your email in there. It'll get you a copy in your inbox. I this is not a web email building tool. I will not keep your email. If you sign up for this, you will not get on a newsletter. There is a newsletter you can get on but this will not get you on it. Um, I really just want to put this format in people's hands and if it helps them, please steal something out of there to help yourself. If you think it's dumb, go do what you think is amazing. You won't hurt my feelings. Blake Oliver: [01:00:49] I have put the link to this landing page in the chat, and I don't think it goes to LinkedIn. So um, let's see what that URL is. It's like a it's a MailChimp URL, like MailChimp. Blake Oliver: [01:01:05] Uh, I like it. Erica Goode, CPA: [01:01:06] I like it just fine. I don't I'm not a I'm not a tech stack junkie. I'll use what's what. Blake Oliver: [01:01:13] Uh. Erica Goode, CPA: [01:01:14] I get a discount in and it's easy to use. Blake Oliver: [01:01:16] So, uh, if you're on LinkedIn, take a look at this URL here. Mailchimp with a period between the I and the M slash Erica goodie slash. And then, well, you got the URL. Blake Oliver: [01:01:28] You can read it. And if you're. Erica Goode, CPA: [01:01:29] On LinkedIn, just go to my, uh, go to my profile. There's a link that says free stuff and it's in there. Blake Oliver: [01:01:34] Erica Goody, CPA with an E for goody. Blake Oliver: [01:01:38] Yep. Blake Oliver: [01:01:39] Erica, so great to talk to you today. Thank you everyone who has joined us live. And stay tuned for a quick message about how you can earn CPE with the earmark app for joining us today. Thanks, Erica. Erica Goode, CPA: [01:01:52] Thanks so much for having me.