Organizing Archives | Number Nerd Bookkeeping Solutions

November 28, 2017

Why my prospects fill out a long questionnaire–before we even talk

Chances are you have a list of questions you ask prospective or new clients, to help you get to know them and their business. But I’ve met very few people who handle their onboarding questionnaire in the same way I do.

I believe in saving time–for myself and for my clients. That’s why I have prospects fill out a lengthy onboarding questionnaire before we ever talk. Once they hit “submit,” they’re taken to my scheduler.

I hear from other bookkeepers and accountants all the time, “My clients would never fill out a questionnaire that long. Especially if we’ve never even met!”

That’s what I used to think too. A few years ago, I would spend hours every week talking to prospective clients, only to not get the job or to find out that the prospect needed other services. By having them fill out a questionnaire before we even talk, I am able to do several things:

Identify what kind of services they need (and if I offer those services).

Many times, I’ll find that a prospect doesn’t actually know what services he needs. But that completed questionnaire offers a lot of insight into his business, allowing me to ask the right follow-up questions when we do talk. I’m also able to tailor our conversation around what the prospect is looking for and even offer different options based on their needs. That means that my sales are often higher right out of the gate!

Asking prospects leading questions before we even meet saves us both time, money and frustration. Click To Tweet

Know immediately if we’re a good fit or not.

First of all, if a prospect isn’t willing to fill out my questionnaire, I know she’s not a good fit. A lot goes into bookkeeping services and I need my clients to be open and forthright. If the questionnaire isn’t complete, chances are gathering the information I need will be a headache–something that I don’t have the time or patience to do.

Have a (short) productive first call.

When I have someone’s background, it’s easier to have a productive first call. I don’t have to waste time asking a prospect about her business or what their needs are. I can dive right in and talk about how I can help them and recommend other services. And because I don’t have to ask background questions, the call is that much faster–sometimes as short as 10 minutes for prospects that become clients. Yes, my calls (at times) are that short! And I do get the client.

Shorten the time from signing on a new client to getting to work.

With all the background I collected during the initial questionnaire and during the first call, there’s very little I still need to gather when bringing on a new client. That makes the onboarding process much more smooth so I can get to work that much sooner.

I don’t waste a lot of time getting to know a prospect’s business--because I’ve already done my homework. Click To Tweet

The reality is that not every prospect is a quality lead. By asking questions up-front, before we talk, prospects are able to weed themselves out of my onboarding funnel–with no additional work on my part. This saves both of us time and frustration and allows me to focus on the clients who are a good fit for my services.

If you’re not gathering information from prospects before you meet, ask yourself how many of those jobs you land. And if you’re not happy with your ROI, try something new. Because insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, according to Albert Einstein. I tend to agree with him.

Need help getting started with a new way of doing things? Maybe you need a mentor to walk you through the process. Grab my business mentor checklist to help you find someone who can make a difference in your business. Or visit my template shop to grab ready-to-go templates and workflows that you can implement now!

August 25, 2016

Stop Wasting Time (and money!) Because You Don’t Have Workflows

Are you breaking your accounting business because your systems are all in your head?

Your workflows can make or break your business, and a lack of clear workflows will undoubtedly break it.

When you set up clear workflows, onboarding new clients (and new team members) is seamless. Every piece falls into place without having to babysit the next step in the process. Clients feel nurtured. You don’t have to follow a paper trail. And there’s no question about who’s responsibility it is to complete which tasks.

Accountants and bookkeepers are notorious for having systems they follow. We’re number nerds, and number nerds are notorious for lists and checksheets. But we’re also known for keeping many tasks in our heads, instead of putting them down on paper or automating them.

Sure, you have a workflow for taking care of your clients’ books. But do you have a system for working with your clients?

Too often, that step is left off our radar because, well, numbers. We want to work with numbers. Not necessarily with people.

But people and clients are a hazard of business, and one we have to pay attention to—no matter how much we’d rather bury our heads in spreadsheets.

So what kind of systems do you need in place?

Lead Management

If your business is going to grow, you need to know where new clients come from and how they make decisions about their accounting. If they’re currently coming from referrals or in-person networking, you can’t count on this working forever! And once you’ve hooked them, you need to nurture those leads into buying from you. Because, let’s face it, you can’t expect someone to buy simply because they loved your blog about budgeting (even if it’s kick-butt!).

Establishing a system to manage leads includes finding a tool that works with your business and your bottom line. Also known as customer relationship management (CRM), these tools capture prospects’ email addresses and other vital information so you can follow up via email or phone. They will also help keep you top-of-mind as you nurture the prospects through email marketing and providing value.

Client Onboarding

Once a prospect becomes a customer, you’ll need an onboarding system—one that gathers all the data, passwords and paperwork you need from a new client. This can be a cumbersome, time-consuming project if you don’t have a clear workflow in place.

Think about it: The last time you brought on a new client, how many emails did it take to gather all the information you needed to start working? Too many to count? You shouldn’t have to send customized emails to every new client. Your onboarding system and workflow management software should take care of it all for you, so you can keep your attention on your current clients.

Service Delivery

This is where most bookkeepers and CPAs excel—workflows for current clients. You know how to work through the books. You know when reminders need to go out for tax appointments. And you already have your monthly reconciliations on auto-pilot.

But what about when you bring a new team member on board? If you’re spending time meeting with new employees or writing out your workflow for them, you’re wasting your time. And probably overwhelming your new hire in the process. A written and automated service delivery system will save you time and ensure that each team member knows exactly what to do—consistently and across all clients.

Program Management

The number of accounting tools available to us is constantly growing. New products come out, old ones improve. It’s hard to keep on top of what’s out there to try and what just won’t work for our business or our clients.

Knowing what works is important, but sticking with what works for us and our business is vital. And so is knowing when to make a change for the betterment of our clients and our workflow. That means developing a system for trying out new products and migrating clients to these products if we think a change is necessary. Without this system, it’s easy to get sucked into overwhelm and to feel like there’s no end in sight to a task.

Think about the systems you have in place. Even better, pull up the document you have that outlines your systems and workflow. (Yep, I’ll wait while you do that.)

Are you coming up blank? Then it’s time to get it out of your head and onto paper (or in your online workflow tool). If you’re not sure where to start, let’s chat! And you can hear more about my take on workflow systems on the Growing Your Firm Podcast with Jetpack Workflow’s David Cristello.

May 27, 2016

Six Cloud-based Solutions that I Love for Organizational Purposes

Anyone who collaborates with other people to get a job done (and that’s the majority of you) can do so far more efficiently by working “in the cloud.” Your clients, vendors or employees can all be connected and important work documents and tasks can be easily accessed and shared, whenever and wherever you are. Keep in mind the ability to “integrate” each of these apps with one another makes you more efficient too!

No doubt I preach organization to my clients, so I try to practice what I preach. I’ve found these to be among the best for getting everyone on the same page, no matter how disorganized they may be otherwise.

Teamwork

In a nutshell: A hierarchy of Projects, Milestones, Tasklists, Tasks and Sub-tasks.

How it works: Members on a team are invited to join via email and (depending on what permissions you give them) can create a project, assign deadlines (Milestones) to Tasks and Sub-tasks to keep everyone clear on what their jobs are, when they’re due. There’s also the subtle peer pressure of having everyone invited on a project to see who’s behind (if the tasks are made public), and you don’t want that to be you.

What I like:

Projects that are similar in structure and often repeated don’t require you to recreate them overtime one comes up. You can create templates to keep the same tasks with minimal adjustments per project. I love saving time, and this is the ticket to do so!
It also allows participants to log time, and for project managers, it’s a great indication for future projects who may not need as much time to complete a task, and who might need more.
Along with templates, projects can be easily customized and the layout is intuitive and user-friendly to navigate.
For Number Nerd clients I create a tasklist for each client, and choose the “right” template based on the project type.
At Number Nerd we use the “free” account that has 2 projects. One project is used for all clients, each client has their own tasklist . Second project is for internal administrative task list(s).

Dropbox

In a nutshell: Document sharing for projects that a team is working on, as well as a great place for storing important files that you’d like to access anywhere, anytime.

How it works: You create a folder or file, and depending on its intended use, can share it with others to view or to edit. People who update can also add comments to help you track what changes were made.

What I like:

This is a great way to share larger documents like photos, pdfs and other graphics that may exceed email servers, or slow speeds.
Editing and updating files will alert others in your shared group to activity. This is a nice way to notify people when who’s been working in the file and what they have done to the file. Each time a client uploads a file I get a notification.
This is also great for mobile platforms to view or upload files when you’re ‘on the go’. Early this am I was able to send my client her payroll reports from my iphone!

Slack

In a nutshell: Integrated messaging for teams, similar to a text message, but organized for work groups to keep your communication separate from your personal correspondence. Oh, and most importantly this “de-clutters” your email and integrates with so many “other” programs you use and love!

How it works: Create a channel for people (or a client) to chat in based on work groups, locations, projects – whatever makes sense to create a group. Note: My Slack integrates with Teamwork by way of Zapier: each client channel has a “zap” that links to the tasklist.

What I like:

Easy and familiar to use – much like a post on Facebook group with commenting capability.
It’s also easy to upload and share files with your group – think DropBox, Google Drive, Word, Excel or Google docs. All the documents for your team in one place.
You can also communicate privately with another person or group, and while you can receive notifications from team members while you’re offline so you don’t miss anything.

Evernote

In a nutshell: Chat with associates on projects, save notes, share files in its easy to navigate app.

How it works: As you create, or are inspired, you can enter notes, take photos, make a list or if pen and paper aren’t handy, record audio to save your brilliant idea before it’s lost, and you can’t remember what epiphany you got while walking the dogs.

What I like:

When you have a brilliant mind, or one that just doesn’t quit coming up with ideas or searching for information (I have such a mind, and I’ll leave it to you to guess which one), dump the ideas here.
Evernote is a wonderful way to organize those insights, articles you read, lists you made, etc., for ongoing or future projects.
I generally use this for myself, but when a client is also on Evernote, it’s easy to share my ideas with them as well, and then we’re both smarter.

17 Hats

In a nutshell: 16 different features allows you to “automate” your business. Book clients and sync your calendar, create contracts and invoices, bookkeeping, take notes, track time and even sync your email. It can help you do-it-all!

How it works: Your dashboard is as useful as you’d like it to be. If you sync the programs you’re already using, like your email accounts and calendar, you don’t need to check those sources separately.

What I like:

There are more features on this platform that cover the full breadth of projects.
Setting up workflows with corresponding estimates, contracts and invoices. The key is to remember it “automates” these features.
From concepting and taking notes to billing and accepting payments, these features let you do it all from one app.
Website lead page is a game changer, and lead tracking.
Full disclosure, Number Nerd uses 17hats to track my website leads (by installing the lead capture plugin), and for contracts and initial invoices. Such a time saver!

Harvest

In a nutshell: Track your time for clients so you can see where your time is being spent, while also keeping you on schedule for deadlines, task by task. Then create and send your invoice to your client. Note: you can sync it with your accounting program too, if you use QBO or Xero.

How it works: You can create tasks to streamline your time-tracking experience. The program allows you to create estimates, track retainers and then invoice clients. Let alone the reporting and analysis Harvest can provide.

What I like:

As a bookkeeper, it’s great to know what time is being spent where so I can be more efficient or spot areas where I may be spending too much time.
For my clients, if they are using the app, it ensures they are tracking their time and seeing the real “time” spent on a particular project.
Similar jobs and projects can also be more accurately estimated as well.
Reports and analysis features – they speak for themselves.
Bonus: Harvest now has an add-on application called Forecast. This add-on helps you plan out your work and integrates with Harvest to reflect your schedule and profitability.

Now, there are other cloud-based programs that I love and use but, these 6 are an integral part of my business. If you are trying to get organized I implore you to check them out. However, if you are really stuck and not sure “where” to even begin head over to my site and let’s schedule a 10-minute consultation, and I’ll “point” you in the right direction.

Together, we can find a workflow that is just “right” for you. Let’s do it – sign-up here!

Also, stay tuned for additional posts on cloud-based programs (apps) that I love.