All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
Scaling Heights: Tech to take your firm from $500k to $1m
Join the dynamic duo, Amy and AJack, as they navigate the thrilling road from moving a $500K firm to the dazzling heights of $1 million. This is your backstage pass to the secrets of exponential growth through savvy tech use and a dash of moxie (look it up, it's a thing, haha)!
Of course they talk tech (it is a tech podcast after all) and because, let’s face it, that’s where the magic happens! We’re diving deep into the tech toolkit that turns chaos into harmony. No more disjointed apps or workflow woes; we’re celebrating the symphony of streamlined systems where efficiency meets integrity.
If you’re all about scaling up without screwing up, this is the episode for you. Tune in as Amy and AJack spill the beans on keeping client data pristine and making the most of top-tier tools like document management solutions, e-signature dazzlers, and more.
So, slap on your visionary goggles and join us for a rollercoaster ride to $1 million and join them on their next tech accounting adventure.
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David Easton (@davidjeasty) | Insta...
Hey Jack.
Speaker 2:Hey Amy, how are you doing? I'm really well. I'm really well. How are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty good, I'm very excited actually to be unpacking this topic today. It's a topic that's quite dear to my heart. It's something that I obviously speak about quite a bit, but today we're talking about leveraging tech to take your firm from, say, 500k to a mil. Take your firm from, say, 500k to a mil, and the reason why I like this topic is because in today's you know world of technology and going into firms, it's so much easier to start your own firm these days oh, so, much and there's loads of tech to make it easy.
Speaker 1:So there are quite a number of firms out there that are currently sitting in that space. So so we thought this is a, this is an episode. Um, whether you're sort of reaching that target or whether you just be on that target, I hope that there are going to be some tips and tricks that you know we're going to be able to give you to yeah, as I say, leverage your tech on how to take your firm from 500 K to about a mil, or give or take that ballpark figure mean it was nice.
Speaker 2:It's a nice place to get. I think it's a nice milestone for anyone who's running their own business. Starting out and and I think to this point, we're starting at 500k and going to a mill. Uh, we, we did an episode in season one way back when, uh, which kind of covers setting up your initial tech stack. So if you're just getting started, feel free to check that out first.
Speaker 2:And this is kind of I guess it's dealing with. You know, once you get to 500k, you, depending on how you've done that, often it's a little bit messy, it's a little bit bootstrappy, it's like, hey, I've, I've just kind of made it up as I went diy that things aren't talking to each other properly. Uh, you know I use this app because a friend recommended it on day one, but I haven't really looked back to consider whether or not I need it or something else. So it's just, it's just dealing with that. I suppose it's almost like second phase of growth, where you're going from being it's just you to hey, maybe it's you plus a team member or two, plus a system or two. That's a little bit more refined. So, uh, yeah, I think it's. There's more to it than tech, for sure, but we'll try to navigate both yeah.
Speaker 1:I think so as well. I think some of the considerations I guess that you need to have made it like to your point. It is more than tech. There's definitely a people element to this which we could talk about until the cows come home. We can touch on it briefly.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to the tech side of things, I think a few call outs. To begin with is typically speaking, firms have, as you say, have usually self-implemented. They've spent a lot of time DIYing, because that's what you do when you first start out. Some, some lucky businesses have a bit of capital to inject and they might you know help. They might get it, they might get some help along the way.
Speaker 1:But, typically speaking, a lot of firms that are in this position have essentially started out on their own. They've attended webinars, seminars, tried to do their own investigations, tried to do their own self-implementations of some of the bigger components of apps, and usually the tipping point when we start speaking to them at clarity street, for example, is there's usually things just aren't cohesive anymore. It's the best way I can describe it like things that were working are no longer working. Um, workflow is a bit of a pain point. You've got um tech that is, you know you want to use these pieces of tech that you really like, but they're just not necessarily connecting or talking to other things and sometimes it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's also just about like maybe things weren't ever really working, but they were manageable because you didn't have that much going on, and so it's like, oh, I should really fix that process, but whatever, I'll just do it now, and then you just never get around to actually doing something better than you've done. So it's kind of that. Yeah, absolutely, there's an element of you know to go from 500K to a mil. There is an element of you know to go from 500k to a mil. There is an element of finding new work, but I think there's a lot of that. That upgrade that just comes from getting more out of what you've got, doing things a little bit better, streamlining things for the first time. Uh, and yeah, I mean, where where should we start? Where's the where's step one?
Speaker 1:um, I think let's start with a bit of a mindset shift a a mindset shift.
Speaker 1:So, typically speaking, you have been an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:You decided that you wanted to go out on your own.
Speaker 1:You've been probably running this business for a couple of years now.
Speaker 1:You're probably still doing a lot of the work yourself, but for the most part you're probably still in entrepreneur business mind wise, like you're still in that real kind of startup mind phase, and there does need to be a transition from being an entrepreneur in your brain a little bit to kind of doing things my way because I like them, and what I mean by that is I really like using this piece of tech versus I probably need to choose a different piece of tech because that's going to be for the greater good of the business and where I want to take the business and there needs to be a mindset shift around that. So, going from like an entrepreneurial my way or the highway to a bit more of a scaled version or a scaled process, so being comfortable using tech that you might not want to use. The best analogy that I can give in this and I've probably if you've been listening for a few seasons now like you hear me bang on about this but the old Microsoft versus Google.
Speaker 2:It's a classic.
Speaker 1:It's a classic.
Speaker 2:And we did have this discussion as well, because obviously we you know if you were there building your firm when we released that first season episode, we covered it then because it is something that's worth thinking about when you're getting started. But we also appreciate that a lot of people, when they do start, just kind of go with what feels comfortable whatever they had at their last job or, you know, whatever's on their phone on the day or whatever feels nicest.
Speaker 1:And then there is a serious you rethink around what you've chosen, about what you had chosen, to where you need to change that mindset and thinking and therefore adopt different apps, possibly in terms of where you want to take the business to support that growth, and it's something we hadn't even discussed as part of planning this.
Speaker 2:But that's coming to mind now is when you think about 500 to a mil, you've also got to be thinking in the back of your mind is that it?
Speaker 2:Or am I planning to go further? Because if you're saying right now it'd be a really frustrating process to go through to change from Google to Microsoft, right now I'd rather not do it. And if a mil was your upper limit, you didn't really have any ambitions beyond that. Maybe it's something that you could say like look, okay, you can keep it, you'll survive, you'll be able to get through this. Uh, you got to make some adjustments and you know work around here and there and there, but that's okay for meals, kind of. You're like that's all I want to do. It's a lifestyle business, I'm going to have one or two staff, it's going to be okay. But if you're like, no, no, this is just a step on the way to a much larger journey that I'm going on, then I think it's one of those things where you're just like well, then you know you're going to have these problems further down the line, so just get that in place and the challenge at the moment as well is that you probably have got work coming out of your ears.
Speaker 1:You probably don't necessarily have enough capacity to complete all that work due to whether it's, you know, your team, whether you've got enough team, whether you've got the right mix of team members to possibly, you know, help out and scale. So it can be quite a daunting thing, like it's one of those. It's a growing pain stage, in my opinion, that you know that 500k-ish mark to try and leap to the next stage. There's a fair amount of growth that your business needs to go through.
Speaker 2:But I think it's's, there's a lot of it. A lot of that growth is your own personal growth as a business owner. Yeah, absolutely. And on the on the numbers side of it, on that, like you it will there will be some element of struggle that you go through. I think that is really important to understand, because I can't remember the name of it, but there is kind of a chart or a diagram and I'm moving my hand around, like you can see me that that kind of explains that over the course of the life cycle of a business, as you grow, there will be periods of revenue going up and things are looking great.
Speaker 2:And then there's these moments where you have to actually say, no, I need to take a reset this moment. I can't go further on my current setup, so I'm going to have to go backwards slightly. I'm going to have to hire an employee, which is more cost. So we're talking it's going to impact bottom line profit. Yeah, to get you back up, because you're going to have to find some capacity to then invest in your systems and processes to then, you know, implement some new tech and to find some new clients. And then it starts to go back up. But the peak of that second mountain is higher than the peak of the first. So you could have just kept trying with what you had and you never would have got there.
Speaker 2:But by swallowing a little bit and kind of saying, I'll wear this for a few months or a year or something like that, because I know that it's going to help me long term.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think that's just it's kind of like watching the housing market, the growth of the housing market it goes up and then it plateaus. And it goes up and then it plateaus, yeah, exactly, uh, so all right. So, tech wise though, um, I think you, I think you need to be a little bit more comfortable with a bit less like, as in some of the apps that you're used to using. So, some of the apps that we see frequently in this kind of ballpark figure, like when they come to us when they're at about the 500k mark is you've been using a disconnected workflow and practice management system, because you know you might have been using Google or Microsoft. That's one thing, yes, we know that but you might have been using a separate workflow piece, because the practice management piece of software ie, let's pretend that you implemented zero practice manager yourself might not be quite cutting it in the way that you thought that it would, because you've either self-implemented and or aren't using it to the best of its abilities, or you thought that it would, because you've either self-implemented and or aren't using it to the best of its abilities, or you're using it in a way that you thought would work fine.
Speaker 1:You've now had a couple of team members possibly come through, tried to fix it, tried to break it not tried to, but did and you're at that point where you're like, oh, I can't see the wood through the trees, bugger it, I'll just go back to Excel, for example, or I'll get something like mondaycom or something Trello, trello yes, trello is another. That kind of thing and I think this is the decision that you need to make is, whilst those tools might be nice to use as a standalone product, and you might feel like you've got visibility, what you have, though, is a very disconnected app stack, and that's the challenge that you're going to face. Moving forward is, if you continue down that path, you will forever have to employ good, logical human beings to manage those disconnected applications, because that's the only way that you're going to get visibility, and you will also have to be forever hands-on, because you will have to know where to go and find that information, as opposed to having apps and tech that are connected. So the workflow versus practice management conversation is a big one that's usually had at this point, and just how that all talks and works together and this is to your, to your earlier point about being able to kind of swallow your pride or not your pride, but no, no, what you what you really like in an app you might be like oh, but Trello is so nice and easy you can
Speaker 2:drag and drop these boxes and it's really easy and you know it takes me five minutes to set up and it's free for now. You know, I think a lot of the things as well that you probably realize in a tech stack of someone running a business under 500K is they're on all these free plans or these super cheap plans because they don't have. You know, a lot of apps are free for one user. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, they know. What is going to happen is you're going to grow and then you're going to grow your team, so your app stack spend goes up too. But yeah, just keeping in mind that, yes, you might lose something that you like about an app, but if it improves everything else, it's a fallacy, a bias. It's something in us that makes it hard for us to like sometimes I, because I obviously work in software and you have these demos and you're showing what you can do and how you can save so much time. And there it's a reality. There's a huge amount of time saving to be there from a new tool or from whatever, but the person on the other end might focus on the one thing that you don't do yep but what about the 99?
Speaker 2:no don't worry about the 99 things that are going to be better until you've got that thing that I currently do, which you know it's, it's just a it's, it's a human element of this, uh, that you've. You know, I think, as you say, being mindful of being present with and being aware of is the first step yeah.
Speaker 1:Another one is um that you need to consider around. This is obviously your processes and procedures, just generally speaking. So your processes at the moment are probably heavily reliant on you and you knowing them, and you need to be able to start delineating what those processes and procedures actually are. How you do that. There are a number of different ways that you can obviously categorize or collate those processes and procedures. Where do you store them? How do you do them? That kind of thing? Do you need a big manual? Do you need an online intranet style? Do you just have them written down as processes and procedures?
Speaker 2:I mean question for you. Yes, at this size of firm, do you think it's necessary to have all of that you know fully documented?
Speaker 1:yes.
Speaker 2:You do.
Speaker 1:I think that do. I think that it should be. I think you should be working towards having it documented. I think that's the point is you've now hit that kind of 500K-ish mark. It's now time to actually start doing that. But that will change based on what tech you decide to choose, which is obviously what we're talking about here. But it is really relevant to the conversation, because you can't scale if everything's in your head.
Speaker 1:That's one of the challenges is, if everything's in your head and maybe one or two key team members, part of this growth process is probably going to be that you need to hire some additional team members. The only way that this is going to be a smooth transition is if you have the correct training tools in place, the correct resources, the correct platforms to go to, so that new team members and yourself can, you know, learn and grow and actually adopt these things. So do I expect that they would all be written down and a hundred percent fine tune? Nah, no way, cause you never will have had time. But do I expect that you know? This is one of those things that you should start be thinking about doing in order to get your firm to a mil, a hundred percent?
Speaker 2:And I think this this is really relevant to where you know startups are at, as where you know startups are at as well, you know, as a software business and a startup. This is what we're all going through the same challenges which is, we're growing a team and we've been doing things a certain way, but have we documented it? But at the same time, once something's like written in a formal document, it feels like oh, how do I innovate and improve? Because all of my documents I now have to update and it becomes this. How do I innovate and improve? Because all of my documents I now have to update and it becomes this Arduous task.
Speaker 2:It slows down your innovation. So there's a tipping point right and I sense it's after this part of the journey. You've got to start documenting things. You've got to start trying to have like a system and a process, but knowing that, hey, it's going to change, we're going to get better, we're going to improve this constantly at this period. You know that much bigger firms where it's like you know so much red tape to get something changed. But there's a reason for that, because it's like once you're at certain scale, there's just so much risk attached to not doing the thing that should be done the right way. For a smaller business, you know 500K to a mil, mil. I think you're right. It's it's an intention to start documenting it. It's an effort to actually start. Maybe. Maybe it's like brief high level overviews of how things work.
Speaker 1:it's not like step-by-step instructions of every single process loom videos yeah do a loom video or a screen shared like record your screen, that's yeah and you know doing that that's. That's a process. That's a procedure. It doesn't have to be like written out and documented in that and a hack has to be I love.
Speaker 2:A hack for this is if you because I, I'm sure, so many of you if you're doing this yourself at the moment, you don't have this documented, but if you're hiring your first person, you're going to be sitting down with them and going through the onboarding, you're going to be teaching them with them and going through the onboarding, you're going to be teaching them how things work, either as part of their first month. It's everything that we do. I want you to, kind of after we've had a session on it, I want you to go and document it, like not to bore their brains out.
Speaker 1:I love this hack.
Speaker 2:But like, don't spend a month documenting a whole bunch of stuff and then go through all the stuff, just knock it out it all the stuff, just knock it out.
Speaker 1:It's two birds, one stone, yeah, you know. So, yeah, feel free to use that. Thank you, I totally will be. So some of the other stuff that you're going to be coming across at the moment is, um, probably cleaning up this stuff that has been self-implemented should we get to this after the sponsor? Oh yeah, I feel like we should hear from our sponsors. All right.
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Speaker 4:If I told you, Ali, that I was a massive fan of incorrect information.
Speaker 5:You're a liar. That is exactly the response that I think.
Speaker 4:It frustrates me, end to end when things are done and you find just really silly little mistakes. That just shouldn't happen.
Speaker 5:It just shouldn't happen. It craps me to tears, I have to tell you.
Speaker 4:Well, there's bloody good news for you, Ellie. There is a tool out there that helps to solve all of those problems, and it is known as Xbert. That is X-B-E-R-T. It is an AI tool built for accountants and for bookkeepers.
Speaker 5:And I also know, Andrew, it scans all of your client files multiple times per day. It can even fix for 76 common bookkeeping, accounting and tax errors 76? I know?
Speaker 4:I only thought there was like three or four errors. I don't think we make that many mistakes in a day, but clearly we do Not at Illuminate. No Well, I mean, it's like having another member of your team, really, isn't it? If it's looking for those things. It's kind of dealing with a whole bunch of the time you'd spend on the crappy stuff and allowing you to have more time to spend on better quality accounting, advisory and management work when you're dealing with your clients right, 100%.
Speaker 5:It can also manage prevention of fraud. Like that's a biggie. Oh, that is huge. Yeah, it gives you the real big picture on every client file before you've even started the work, right?
Speaker 4:even started the work right and I've heard of some very savvy accountants that are using it to help price their fixed fee arrangements, because they're effectively scanning their file, checking data quality, so they can scope it before they price it, so they're not finding themselves in a shit ton of trouble because they've got the wrong data.
Speaker 5:Oh, for sure, for sure. So sign up for a free trial of Expert today and let their AI do the heavy lifting on all your client files. Are you spending days engaging clients, chasing late payments, dealing with scope creep, all at the expense of running a more efficient and profitable firm? I completely get it, but I know firsthand that it doesn't have to be this way. Get it, but I know firsthand that it doesn't have to be this way.
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Speaker 1:wow, that was amazing I like our sponsors, I love them. Thank you so much it is.
Speaker 2:It is very uh humbling that they sponsor us yes, but as you're saying sorry I interrupted. No, no, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Clean up yourself, implement clean up yourself, implemented tech basically, and this is looking at, as we just sort of mentioned before, so looking at the things that are disconnected, so the outliers in the tech. So, if you're using something like a trello, a monday and asanaana, which doesn't you know, talk to your practice management software. Probably. Stop using it and start using the free version of the workflow tool within the practice management platform that you've got, whether that's Carbon, whether that's XPM, whether that's FYI, depending on what version you're using, for example and there are obviously many others, I've just named a couple there Start using those workflow tools. No, they won't be as pretty necessarily. Yes, they will do everything that you need them to do. Get over it.
Speaker 2:They're also going to be more expensive. So if you're ever looking at an accounting-specific tool and a generic tool, guess what? The accounting-specific tool will always be more expensive. This is because, like no, but we're talking about trello, which might be free, let alone five dollars per user per month sure carbon, 75 dollars per user per month. Yeah, I can see where people are like well, hang on a minute. Why is this so much more?
Speaker 1:it's like because it's built exactly for what you need it to do true, but the vast majority of users out there these days, unless you are one, are still using one of the incumbents in terms of the server-based applications. The vast majority of firms out there are using or a lot of them are using zero tax and therefore qualify for zero practice manager, which is free.
Speaker 2:That's true. I mean I think that's to another point in this like self-implementation phase is get more out of what you've already got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:So the reality is, you know we don't want you to come to listen to this and then think we're going to give you 10 apps to implement tomorrow. It's like there's different app stacks for different situations, but we can almost guarantee there's underutilized products that you're paying for or not paying for if they're free, that you can get more from.
Speaker 1:Some of the things that we often say as well is not having the apps connected. Well, so, for example, you might be using Trello for workflow, practice management for time cost billing to a degree, but actually more just capturing timesheets and lodging tax returns, for example, but then you might be raising your invoices through, call it zero blue, and you don't have those three systems actually talking together and or connected. That's something else. So, even if you parked the idea of using Trello for workflow and you went into using zero practice manager, actually making sure that you've got your XPM and your zero actually talking to each other and connected so that you've got that integration of where invoices are raised, they either flow back from one platform to the other, and there's a lot to be said as well for actually cleaning up the data and the integrity of your data.
Speaker 1:That's another major one that we also see from at this point in the 500K mark, when they're wanting to actually skip to the next step, is their data's a pile of crap. I'm just going to point it out there like it's just you know it hasn't been maintained, it hasn't been, you know up, kept up to date, there's missing fields, there's lots of missing email addresses and things like that. So the cost of data integrity or not having good, clean data is actually quite high on your business because as you decide to start connecting other apps, like your Ignitions, like your FYIs, like your, you know, cas 360 or now Infinity, whatever apps that you're essentially like Few Signs, all those, whatever you're actually connecting in, if the database, as in your client and contact information, is not clean and tidy, that will have a huge knock-on effect to all of your apps.
Speaker 2:It's data is one, and it's I feel it myself where I'm like, oh, I've got to input this. You know, I just had a really great call with someone and now I have to like go into a system and enter in all this information. Or well, maybe I was doing it while I was on the call, or whatever it just feels like. Oh, you know I've got to manually enter this. But the alternative is that you don't enter it.
Speaker 2:And then you come back to that client in a month he's scratching your head and you're like, oh, what was it? What was it that we we agreed on them? Who the hell was that? And that's part of the 500k to a meal. Yeah is not losing those opportunities, maximizing every, everything from the clients you have. It's not dropping the ball. And part of that is just getting your data into the system, getting it it right and then, yeah, turning on the next stage of that, as you were kind of alluding to, yeah.
Speaker 1:So most of this next stage basically that growth of 500K to a mil, in my opinion, is making sure that, like really looking at getting your apps connected you don't necessarily have to adopt all the apps that are out there, like at this stage. I would start considering it. Things like, if you don't have a document management solution and you've been using a document storage solution, I would start really considering, okay, I think it's possibly time to actually look at getting that. If it's not now, maybe in six to 12 months time, but that's something that you definitely need to start considering. Using as well Other apps that are out there, like a good signing solution.
Speaker 1:An additional signing solution, also embedded with that is a corporate secretarial solution. So, depending on where you're at and what the mixture of your clients is, you may not have got to the point where you have needed a corporate secretarial system, like you know, cas or now Infinity, for example. So that also plays into it. Do I need that right now as I grow and I get more business entities and companies on board um, or do I? Do I not need that right now because there might be a lot of firms still using, you know, the ASIC portal, for example, um, which is awful, but uh, if you therefore get one of the apps because they're actually much better, but you know that's and also ATO correspondence management you may not need that right now, but consider, consider that, you know, in the next couple of hundred thousand you're probably going to need something to manage your HO correspondence, so you can be a proactive accountant in that regard.
Speaker 2:And, as you're kind of saying, like there's a lot of elements to this, there's a lot of different pieces of tech that you can implement. There's lots of stuff out there specifically built for accounting firms, so what you will need is out there. I understand that if you're listening to this, you're like well, where, what, what are the apps? You know there are people like I obviously plug for you, amy shameless plug, clarity straight, call us like that.
Speaker 2:There's yourself, there's others like there's people who have, you know, figured out that this is a. This is a challenge. Yeah, it's hard to do. Not everyone is the most tech savvy person who wants to go and play with every tool and implement and integrate them all. So you don't have to if you're good at being an accountant and you just want to do that and do the best for your clients.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, going from 500k to a mil is a big jump in top line revenue. A small investment in getting some assistance, getting some help, is totally reasonable, just like you would expect that as an account. If your client is trying to grow from 500K to a mil, would you not be thinking I can help you? And there's. You know there's some fees in this, but hey, it's going to be worth your while. Let's do some advisory sessions. Let me coach you each month, like this is available on the other side as well, for yourself, so don't feel like you're going through this alone by yourself. But also even free stuff, free webinars everywhere, like if you do have some of the core tech in the accounting industry. Even zero um, fyi, ignition these kinds of big players. They run webinars, they show you how their apps connect to other apps. You do the same, and we're like there's conferences.
Speaker 2:So get out there, get around. Obviously, you're listening to podcasts, but you know there's plenty of plenty of free content, um, and that that's one level free content will get you so far.
Speaker 1:You will then have to do the job, but you can also pay for help if you need it the only thing I'm going to uh call out there is the whole pain for help at this point is that you've probably already done all the free stuff to this point. So maybe the getting you from 500k to a mil is actually time to start investing in your business. But, as I said, you don't need to. Like you know integrators, like clarity street, for example, and all the others that are out there, we can baby step this process for you. We don't need to do everything. We can do the most basic things. Like you know, we could start by cleaning up your practice management platform and making that hum. Then give you the plan to go well, the next step that we will probably focus on for you is, you know, say, document management. After that, it might be engagement software and onboarding software for clients, because you're probably wanting to grow and get new clients there. You know signing solutions and things like that.
Speaker 1:I think the point is here is that you don't need to do everything all at once. There is a journey that is still going on. I would be recommending that you actually now probably invest in getting some help and assistance to do this, because, ultimately, if you do want to grow your business, your time is better spent educating and training a team so that they can, you know, do the work that you're going to be off schmoozing clients and bringing in through the door, because that's the only way you're going to get the revenue in is go out there and smooth your wares. Basically, get new clients in the door, get current clients to engaging new services with you. Make sure your team is obviously able to deliver on that, and providers like ourselves. You've got this far on yourself by yourself, which is great, but now it's time to probably get some help, as I say, with us, with somebody else, whoever it is, that suits that. Is you the best fit for your business? That'd be my advice.
Speaker 2:So, with the time that's remaining, one of the questions that's in my head so I'm sure it's in the head of some others is what if I'm at 500k but I am using?
Speaker 2:all the apps the relevant accounting tools and they're like well, hang on a minute. I just listened to this for half an hour and I've already got all those apps and they're talking together. So am I just like going to walk into a million bucks, like what do we see? Is that that kind of you know the transition from 500 to a mil if you are using a relatively strong tech stack today?
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm really happy if there are firms out there that are doing that, but I don't see a lot of them that are in a really strong position, so that's not everyone. So if there are, please get in contact with me and tell me how well you're doing. I'd love to hear from you. But, more to the point, I think there are other things that you can start doing around marketing internal marketing, external marketing. There's lots of avenues that you can go down the path of, as you know. There's lots of avenues that you can go down the path of Asking current clients for referrals. That's another one. That's a huge one. If you like our work, tell a friend, no-transcript.
Speaker 2:They kind of have work, yeah, so it kind of forces you to do that. So you know, some people are doing this from the beginning. If they, if they've, if they've lucked out and gone the right way. But if you're, if you're maxing out at 500K now with good systems and good processes, maybe you've got an offshore team member as well joining you. It could actually be. It sounds like it's not a tech problem now. It sounds like it's something to do with the client base, the pricing. Yeah, because at a certain you know, if you're operating like a super streamlined process but you're only making 500k from yourself and one other or another team, I mean, yes, you can add another team maybe you've got to make sure that they're, you know, delivering profit and that they're able to. Yeah, um, but you know, either you don't have enough clients, so you've got a great process but not enough people. So then it could be.
Speaker 2:A marketing challenge could be like what is your niche? Have you figured out what your unique value offering is, and are you marketing yourself well, which isn't our topic of conversation? Obviously, ali and Andrew cover a lot more of that stuff, but that's what I'd be thinking If you're listening to this thing. I was hoping there'd be a silver bullet new app that I could implement. It's like well, maybe no, if you're not quite reaching what you think is your capability revenue-wise. Well, it sounds like it's a non-tech related problem.
Speaker 1:I love that you have that much faith in our listeners out there and, as I said, I would love to be proven wrong. If you are in that position, please contact me. Please contact me and I will buy you a beverage, but I'm still yet to find a firm at this point that they've. You know that they are just killing it without being able to organically grow. So if you've got your tech sorted and you're struggling to grow, there are some great business coaches out there that will actually help you. But, typically speaking, exactly what Jack said. I think that there's some opportunity there, but I'm yet to find one. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, jack but, it's too late, Sorry.
Speaker 2:On that note, I think we wrap it up. Thanks, Jack. Thanks Amy.
Speaker 5:Hey team. It's Ellie and Andrew from All Aussie Accounting Adventures here. I hope you really enjoyed this episode with Amy and Jack. What did you think, andrew?
Speaker 4:Oh, stunning as always, the two of them are brilliant minds and are brilliant communicators. So we hope that you have got some incredible learnings out of this episode and if you'd like to continue to follow us, make sure you check out our website. Find us on the socials you'll see Accounting Adventures, or look for All Aussie Accounting Adventures, wherever good stuff can be found, whether that's conferences, whether that's websites, whether that's podcasts or social media.
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