EOY is almost over, or perhaps it’s already finished for you. The last time I wrote my blog I mentioned that it is a good idea to take the opportunity when that’s completed (and definitely before the next BAS-ON) to look at your business in a new light, create a vision for where you want your business to be in the next 12 months and plan your strategies to achieve your goals. This is a gentle reminder to set aside a day to do that. And don’t forget to celebrate your achievements as well!
When you are growing your bookkeeping business you will wear lots of hats. You’ll be the Leader (responsible for creating the Vision for your business and inspiring and uniting your team), you are also the Manager (responsible for implementing strategies to help fulfil the Leader’s Vision) including creating the systems you need to guarantee the quality of the work and for the quality controls once the work is done. Then there’s Finance Manager (who reports to the Manager) and is responsible for all the bookkeeping for your business including producing KPI and budget reports. There’s also the Marketing Manager who is responsible for bringing work into the business (also to achieve the Leader’s Vision) and when you are ready to recruit other bookkeepers the HR Manager is responsible for recruiting, training and supporting a gun team of great bookkeepers. Finally there’s Admin & IT. Both roles are responsible for the myriad of tasks necessary to help run the “back-end” of your business. Everything relies on you.
While your business relies on you, you will be tied to it and it will be impossible for you to achieve Black Belt without sacrificing other important things in your life in the process. It also makes it less attractive for someone to buy. One of the things which ties you to your business is the day to day running of it. I’m completely unreliable when it comes to that! Of course it wasn’t always like that. Up until about Blue Belt (T/O between $300k - $400k) I was responsible for every domain of my business just as you are. Now I have Bernie, my invaluable, reliable 2IC who is responsible for Finance and Admin and supports me in Management & HR.
Be careful about how you let go of the responsibility of running your business though. Invite the best bookkeeper on your team who is excited about the opportunity to be your 2IC. Have them bill out half their time so they are cost neutral and when you have sufficient turnover, you have the right systems in place and you trust them, expand their role to take over more responsibilities. If you don’t have a team yet plan it now so that you are ready.
Now my husband and I travel quite a bit and are currently in Europe for 5 weeks. I know I can rely on Bernie, my invaluable 2IC, and the systems we’ve created keep it ticking over while I’m gone.
What are your plans for handing over the responsibility of managing your business?
