00:00:05:00 - 00:00:23:03
Unknown
Welcome to the Real Growth podcast. I'm here today with someone that I got to know through commercial real estate, and then our passive crossed throughout life through different boards that we're involved with. And I'm excited to just learn more about your journey into business. Go ahead and introduce yourself and share about the business that you own and operate here in Rochester.

00:00:23:12 - 00:00:43:23
Unknown
Sure. Hello, I am Kayla Shearson. I own Shearson Group, which is a tax and accounting firm here in Rochester. And I feel like Shearson Group is something that has been evolving into a really large company in my mind. As far as the amount of staff members you have and just the amount of clients that you're handling. But it did not start there.

00:00:43:23 - 00:01:12:05
Unknown
So let's go to the very beginning of what got you interested into business. Did you go to school here? In Rochester or what led you to Rochester? Yeah. So born in Rochester, lived here for a few years, moved to Cass in Mandeville, area. That's where I grew up and graduated high school and then moved to Wenonah, went to an owner state university for four years, got my accounting degree and yeah, I mean, I really I didn't know what I wanted to do in life.

00:01:12:10 - 00:01:35:20
Unknown
I knew I liked business and I knew I liked the numbers. And that just kind of led me down the path of accounting and so from there, I started my classes through college. I worked at a bank as a float teller. It was like the perfect summer job, perfect college job did that for a few years. And then after I graduated, I interned in their accounting department.

00:01:36:25 - 00:02:11:18
Unknown
And in the meantime, so at that point, I had moved back to Rochester, and I learned that the bank was going to be sold. So it was eastward. It's now Bremer. So I worked there for like three and a half years. But in the meantime, I had already met with who would be my future boss, this Diane Lund, who owned Lund Tax and Accounting here in Rochester that she always had kind of done on the side, but officially started back in 2006 and had just very slowly grown that herself and so she was looking to bring someone on full time.

00:02:11:18 - 00:02:31:21
Unknown
And so that opportunity arose and, you know, where I was was going to be going away in the future. So it just kind of seemed like the right fit. And so I went and worked for her. And that was kind of my first real in my, you know, in my mind real like accounting job because you're working with a small business owner at that time.

00:02:31:21 - 00:02:50:00
Unknown
And this was this small business owners first hire, first full time hire, first full time hire She had like two part time people. One was primarily just seasonal. One was kind of year round. But yeah, I was her first full time hire, which as a business owner, that first full time hire is like jumping off a cliff. Yeah.

00:02:50:06 - 00:03:08:14
Unknown
Okay. So I got to keep this person busy and you had to pay them to pay them the whole year. Right. When you were at Winona State, I actually did school through Central High School, and then I did the two plus two. And I remember the accounting classes which I attempted to try to figure out, but it was not my strength.

00:03:08:22 - 00:03:31:07
Unknown
Was that program a strictly like accounting focused type of program, or did it involve business or kind of what was that college journey for you that got you through? Yeah, I mean, you know, there's always different sorts of kind of like business general classes that you take. Like you take a marketing class and you take a business development class and stats and all those things, which were interesting.

00:03:31:07 - 00:03:57:18
Unknown
But yeah, it was, you know, pretty obviously accounting focus for my major and yeah, my junior year I was really starting to question, but I got myself into it because it did not come easy to me. You know, some of the things. So I really had to work towards it, but ultimately got through those courses and yeah, I just kind of knew like that is what I wanted to do.

00:03:57:18 - 00:04:20:03
Unknown
So I just kept persevering through and, and made it. And when you came out of college, did you find your job through like an online website or what led you to your first initial job in the accounting banking field? You know, it's not what you know. It's who you know. Awesome. Yeah. So, like, even when I got my job at the bank, it was because I knew someone.

00:04:20:11 - 00:04:40:27
Unknown
And, you know, at that point, I literally was a freshman in college originally and I was like, hey, you work at a bank? Like, you got any jobs openings? Like, I had no idea what she even did there anything. And, you know, lo and behold, she was like, VP of Wealth Management. And so she she got me in there, got an interview, and I really I loved that.

00:04:40:28 - 00:05:01:00
Unknown
And then the. So Diane Lund, her husband and my dad worked together forever at IBM. So that's, you know, it's always connections. Yeah. And when you then decided to go work for Diane in what is one day counting, did she have an actual location or were you working from home? And what was the time period of that? Yeah.

00:05:01:00 - 00:05:31:02
Unknown
So I started working for her in October of 20, 14. She was like so long ago to say that. But yeah, she had a physical office. She'd had an office setting for quite a few years. She had moved around a little bit, but always kind of been in the northwest pocket of Rochester. And so we were up in the Highlands on 19th Street to start but even so, like when she first started, I think there was five physical offices and then like a front lobby space and kind of a back open area.

00:05:31:12 - 00:05:57:03
Unknown
And so when she first was there, she had her office and then she had the front desk area and everything else was rented out. And basically year by year by year, we like kicked a tenant out and took over that office and the next year, same thing. So eventually we had all the offices like at one point, even when I first started, I was literally like in a desk in the back corner with a lamp, like not a real office.

00:05:57:12 - 00:06:20:18
Unknown
I think rent over here and like I have to pay. So we're going to kind of finally just make it work. And then we got to the point, yeah, where I was at that let's see, because we still stayed there in 20, 20 when I bought the business, we were still there for one more year and it wasn't till like towards the end of 20, 20, all of a sudden I was like, I think we got to move.

00:06:20:18 - 00:06:40:15
Unknown
Like we were just bursting at the seams. But obviously that was COVID year and you know, what was, what was open. It was kind of a good thing because I mean unfortunately some businesses were vacating their spaces and that's when we connected and found our space and that's when we moved in in the first part of 21, right.

00:06:40:15 - 00:06:57:05
Unknown
I remember it was Jan Ryan over at well had brought you to a building we had listed and it was did you look at several buildings or was. We looked at a few, okay. And we'll go down that path. But I think this is interesting of like, you know, your path and the growth story of working for a bank coming from college.

00:06:57:05 - 00:07:25:25
Unknown
You get to Diam runs business loans was a tax and accounting and you're her first hire and then you grow and you have to watch this evolution of people being hired within your team. Talk a little bit about just that of, you know, working with someone and what that growth was like, you being there, being an employee. And then also talk a little bit about I imagine this is a time when you start meeting and seeing business owners, which did you see a lot of that earlier on in your career?

00:07:26:12 - 00:07:44:28
Unknown
Yeah. So when I first started working for Diane, which I still can't believe, you know, like I had one tax course in college and I learned nothing. I did not like it. I was like, I would never do something in tax. Diane did my taxes at that point, she had done them forever. I was like, You do my taxes like and she's like, I will teach you.

00:07:45:29 - 00:08:06:29
Unknown
So I started I took an online course with her, learn from her. But honestly, I've always primarily been on the kind of more small business accounting side of things. So I mean, from the get go, it was like dealing with business owners, QuickBooks and getting that stuff figured out, running their payroll, those sorts of like nitty gritty day to day things that have to get done.

00:08:06:29 - 00:08:30:10
Unknown
When you own a business, you have to pay your people. You got to pay your rent, like all those things, right? So tracking all that and just over time, I just found it so fascinating because I got to literally see how people make money, how people lose money, who is successful. And I mean, I just like learned so much by doing by doing my job.

00:08:30:10 - 00:08:56:29
Unknown
Right? And so it was so fascinating to me. And I really like I've always loved small business and I think it just continued to grow like I you I don't want to say I mean, you just like you feel like that's your in your business in some way. Like you really want to honor the business owner and, you know, their time and what is valuable to them and to really try and make their lives easier.

00:08:57:21 - 00:09:14:18
Unknown
And I think we play in similar roles of being an advisor. Right. And so we advise a lot on the space side of things. And it can help a business grow. It can help the maintain, it can help them get out of whatever situation they're in. And you're you're like, we might be working on the top part of the engine of the car.

00:09:14:18 - 00:09:41:10
Unknown
You're like in the engine working on the needing help and seeing all things, all the moving parts of that. So when Diane kept building business, what led you to then, I guess, scale the team around you? Was it just more customers kept coming because of the services you're providing? Yeah. I mean, it is honestly a little comical to look back because I remember when I first started, I mean, she was basically hiring me for like her own PTO, right?

00:09:41:10 - 00:10:07:08
Unknown
Like she knew the office to be open at that point. She had grown enough where she needed consistent hours, but there certainly like not, you know, enough people calling or walking in or whatnot. And so, like, I truly did have a lot of downtime at that point. And it just like gradual Lee grew and grew and grew over, you know, probably a good probably the first three years was like a, you know, a more drastic amount of change.

00:10:07:08 - 00:10:25:20
Unknown
And then yeah, you just I think a lot of it has been referral word of mouth. We just continue to grow, grow, grow. And at one point, I remember her even being like you know, I kind of lost touch with like what you all have going on. And so at whatever point, it's too much like you need to tell me.

00:10:25:28 - 00:10:44:18
Unknown
And I, oh, no, I got this you know, like, I just I really love the work. And then I realized, like, as soon as you get done with one project thinking things are going to go back to normal, and something else comes up. And so after I felt like I was, like, drowning for so long, I was like, okay, I think I need some help.

00:10:44:18 - 00:11:25:18
Unknown
We need to hire. And so that's, you know, we just kind of we're. Yeah, growing pains, right? Slowly but surely, you know, right now, at what point in this growth did the idea did the concept of the conversation start of Akeelah? Are you interested in running this business that were growing? Hmm. Yeah. You know, and even I mean, pretty early on of when I started for Diane, I knew she kind of slowly wanted to start phasing into retirement and just simply also working less like I mean, she would work seven days a week nonstop during busy season and then the rest of the year, I mean, she did work quite, you know, seasonal seasonally as things

00:11:25:18 - 00:11:46:25
Unknown
came up, that's when she would come and get her thing done. And then, you know, she's out the door, which is what she wanted. Right. And like build the life you want to have, you know, and so she did that. And then so I knew she wanted to scale back, but pretty quickly, things just escalated. And so at one point, I remember having a conversation with me.

00:11:47:21 - 00:12:05:10
Unknown
She basically I mean, she had gone basically put the business for sale and look to see if there was, you know, in different firms in town that would want to buy her business. And ultimately, she just did not find the right fit. She's like, you know, some of them, they want the top 20% of your clients or they want just you as an employee.

00:12:05:10 - 00:12:35:02
Unknown
Or they want, you know, she but none of it seemed like a good fit. So she's like, I'm just don't want to move forward with any of them. And then that's when she was like, Would you ever consider buying this business? And I was probably like 24 at the time. Like, I mean, it really was not that many years into me working for her when she like first brought up the idea and I was just like, Oh, I don't know, like, I truly just never pictured myself as a business owner.

00:12:35:02 - 00:12:51:18
Unknown
I knew I loved business and working in it, and I saw that forever. But yeah, being a business owner, I didn't think about. So she's like, obviously, just think about that. So she just kind of planted that seed and I don't even know if we really talked about it for another six months or a year, to be honest.

00:12:51:28 - 00:13:12:07
Unknown
And then we kind of got more serious of like, Okay, are you interested? Because if you are, then let's keep talking. But if you're not like, I'm going to go and see what other opportunities I can find So that's when I was like, Okay, I think like let's just talk through this more. Obviously, I, you know, I don't know what I don't know.

00:13:12:13 - 00:13:43:02
Unknown
And so we just but you just figure it out, right? So we just slowly but surely kind of put things in place. And it was really great because then we even had almost like a full year of kind of a trial run of what sort of things do we still have questions on that we deferred to her to and what are all the things that, you know, we keep coming back to her for, but we kind of got the team in a place to say, like, if she wasn't here, like, what are those pockets that we need to fill and how do we do that?

00:13:44:08 - 00:14:06:20
Unknown
So we had kind of done this trip to this, you know, test run to see how things went and felt like we were at a good point. So then and I'm trying to even think if we had like signed an initial purchase agreement at that time, but we had to because I imagine like you're you're like your questions when someone presents that and then you try to navigate it.

00:14:06:20 - 00:14:27:17
Unknown
It's so many like a real estate transaction. Yeah. So price is one thing, but price is on the one portion of that, like how do I pay back whatever prices that we determine and how do I take responsibility of multiple people besides you then taking responsibility of me, right? Yeah. And so I mean, to some degree, I think I was just like so young and naive.

00:14:27:17 - 00:14:53:29
Unknown
I was like because again, she wasn't there majority of the time. So all the questions that staff had or a lot of things, they fell to me because again, I was still the only full time person who was working there. Everyone else was part time or seasonal and so like when you're the one who's there all the time, you know, most likely what's going on with certain things and all the clients and everything, you know, when I first started I worked at the front desk, like I greeted every single customer that came in.

00:14:54:00 - 00:15:16:17
Unknown
I answer the phone like I did all that. So I still like to this day someone says a name and I like have it in my brain. Or they're like, Who's that one person they describe? And I'm like, this name. They're like, How do you do that? I'm like, because like, I started from the very beginning, right? You know, those initials steps of when they came in and said, I'm thinking of getting an accountant and can you tell me about what you do?

00:15:17:12 - 00:15:37:04
Unknown
Right? Or even back to the email if you could. Someone sent the email, you're like, Okay, yep. I remember that. Yes. You know, so what led what led you to mentally be able to get into the mindset of, I can do this, I can buy a business, I can operate this business? It sounds like the test trial was very important.

00:15:37:04 - 00:16:02:27
Unknown
That was important. Yeah. Yeah. And then from there, we had told the team and kind of saw, you know, what any reactions we got from there. But ultimately, like, for my own sanity, it was like talking to an attorney, talking to my financial advisors, getting the business valuation, like making sure that all of those things seemed in line and when all are in, you know, talking to bankers, like, what do I need?

00:16:02:27 - 00:16:33:29
Unknown
All these different things. And because we were able to do seller financing with her for the actual purchase price. But yeah, like just negotiating the original terms of the agreement and things like that, because initially I was like, oh, gosh, I you what's you're asking me right now. And so, you know, then again, talking to those professionals and getting their advice to say like, okay, this does, you know, I would recommend you do this or maybe offer this.

00:16:34:22 - 00:16:53:25
Unknown
So those were super, super validating to me to and ultimately they were like, no, we definitely think like this is a good opportunity for you. Like there's no red flags or anything like that, obviously. And so once they were like, yeah, it looks, you know, from their perspective, everything is good. And we had done our own kind of internal trial run.

00:16:54:08 - 00:17:19:23
Unknown
I was just like, okay, like, no problem. Let's business as normal. Yeah. So you take that leap, you buy a business. First off, what did people around you think when it comes to you getting into your own business? Owning your own business? What was some of your close friends or family advising you? Mhm. Well, I think some people at first, like they didn't understand.

00:17:19:23 - 00:17:41:24
Unknown
I think they just thought like I was going to become a partner with Diane or I don't know, I was just going to like more so manage it and I was like, no, like I'm truly buying the business. Like I will be the sole owner, I will be the person running it. I think a lot of people were just like pretty awestruck to be honest, and they were just like, wow, like, good for you.

00:17:41:29 - 00:18:07:11
Unknown
I can't believe you're doing that. Like, you're so young. They think they were a little like nervous for me to be completely honest. And I'm just like, it's no problem. I'll figure out. Yeah, I'll figure it out. That's so cool. And as you get into the rhythm of things and so now you own the business, what were some of the things that changed for you that maybe weren't in your, you know, sights prior now?

00:18:07:11 - 00:18:33:16
Unknown
You mean a business? Yeah, I didn't realize that. Like, running the business and managing the team and all the things take so much time, right? I feel like I was, you know, prior I was 100% client work, right? Like, everything I did was for a client and all of a sudden I still have all of that workload. I now have a team coming to me with questions.

00:18:33:23 - 00:18:57:13
Unknown
I have, you know, clients that I have to work with and address concerns or anything like that. I have to try and make, you know, just be making sure that things are going okay from a business perspective and just literally wearing all of the hats and you just feel like every day is a dumpster fire so I was on top of it.

00:18:57:13 - 00:19:16:12
Unknown
Two months in, we have COVID and then all these and then the world. And then all these business owners are asking you all these questions, oh, you're supposed to be an expert in and I'm learning just as fast as you, right? And you're trying to learn faster than them so you can respond to it, but. Oh, yeah, my gosh, I can't imagine.

00:19:16:12 - 00:19:35:03
Unknown
I think I blacked out the first six months, to be honest. I'm just like, how did we get through that? I don't know. So. So what are those days like? So your business owner, you now have the responsibility, like how did you stay levelheaded through that process and now COVID occurs? Like what? What would you say help keep you grounded?

00:19:35:03 - 00:20:03:24
Unknown
Because that that is like a challenge in itself. Yeah. When you have all these dumpster fires to put out and it's not only your dumpster fires per se, it's all these other businesses that are living it themself and you're trying to support them and advise them through that. Yeah. Well, you know, and actually one other thing that gave me like complete peace of mind before I bought the business was I told Diane, I said, okay, worst case scenario, like everyone leaves.

00:20:04:00 - 00:20:28:18
Unknown
It's just me what am I going to do? She's like, I will come back and I will help you and we will figure it out. And I was just like, Okay, that's all I needed, like that last little reassurance. And so you know, this happened. And at that point, she had already moved. She lives in Wisconsin now, so she did commute back like that first busy season up until like literally we last to Saint Patrick's day was of 20, 20 was her last day physically in Rochester ever.

00:20:28:18 - 00:20:53:25
Unknown
So, you know, then she just worked from home like, you know, all the rest of us did, which now is so normal. But you know, it just yeah, thinking I was going to have kind of this little security blanket of like she's in the office next door to me and everything's going to be okay. Yeah. You just kind of keep pressing forward but honestly, like another one of the major things that I did in June of 2020 was I got a business coach and I was just like, I need help.

00:20:54:08 - 00:21:14:15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And I feel like a lot of business owners don't even consider that because, you see, we'll call them coaches or gurus online. And then you maybe you go down the sales funnel that they have online and you look at the prices and then you're like, How the heck am I going to do that? And then how am I going to dedicate time towards that?

00:21:14:15 - 00:21:34:02
Unknown
So. So what led you in that direction and why was it a good investment to do something like that? Yeah, well, fortunately, I knew someone who was going into it, and I had known her for years at that point. And so I she's like, she I think it was even her who kind of reached out to me to be like, Hey, I know you're in business.

00:21:34:02 - 00:22:07:09
Unknown
Like, I'm starting this. Would you be interested in, you know, of course, like, she's just starting, like, free console, all the things. And but honestly, my biggest concern, like one. Yeah, the price it was like quite shocking. But two was just the time I was like, I don't have an hour because we at that point we're meeting an hour every single week and I'm like, I don't even like it doesn't seem like that much time, but an hour a week to carve out consistently because when I signed up with her, we did it for six months so like that was a very long term commitment at the time.

00:22:07:09 - 00:22:26:23
Unknown
And I that was the biggest hurdle for me was even just the time investment because I'm like, I have literally piles on my floor of work and how it's like, you know, I don't have time for this. That was always like my thought of like, I don't have time for anything else. I just have to work, work where I can get all these things done.

00:22:27:28 - 00:22:49:05
Unknown
But realistically, that helps me like prioritize and time manage and all sorts of things. Delegate. Oh yeah. Because I feel like that has to be especially living through COVID and you're dealing with all these businesses coming at you is like if you don't delegate to your team, there's no you can't outwork the problems personally. Yeah. Like, right. Yeah.

00:22:49:07 - 00:23:03:19
Unknown
So I can see where that value would come. It would come from just being able to take that hour at a time and really say, Okay, what am I doing here? Other than getting all the tasks done that the piles of work I have to do, how do I best do this? And that's probably where the value came.

00:23:03:21 - 00:23:21:02
Unknown
Oh yeah. Yep. And that was really hard for me to delegates like to give up that client work. I was just so tied to those business owners. I you know, if anyone else is going to take them on, no one could do as good a job as me, right? All these things we tell ourselves, but ultimately, slowly but surely.

00:23:21:02 - 00:23:37:01
Unknown
So I mean, that's a huge part of what I worked on with her was she's like, Okay, what is your current workload? And we literally, like, listed it all out and she's like, Okay, what can you pass off in the next week? What can you get off your plate in the next month? And we just started to break it down piece by piece.

00:23:37:11 - 00:23:58:22
Unknown
And finally, I got to the point when you realize like, Oh my gosh, I have more time because I don't have to be physically doing these things and I have time for other things. And eventually I was like, Oh, God, just take it all, you know, it's so much better. So yeah. And now we get through COVID, you must your, your way through your work.

00:23:58:22 - 00:24:18:29
Unknown
You like you said, you blacked out six months later. Okay see light so you get through COVID. Now, how has things shifted for your business? You moved into a building that we had a listing on and I saw your your firm. That was a big leap, right? I mean, getting into a space that was more expensive, that was larger.

00:24:18:29 - 00:24:43:16
Unknown
So talk through that. Like what what what has changed? Yeah. I mean, I think I just saw quite consistent growth for a while and then all of a sudden at one point, probably like a year ago, like the year prior to that was just like, well, we've grown a lot in the last year and you kind of don't realize it until all of a sudden, like things start to, you know, pile on top of each other.

00:24:44:00 - 00:25:03:15
Unknown
And so one, like, we were physically out of space. And so I was like, either we're buddy and up in offices or like, we've got to move. And so I found the space to move. And ultimately, again, like, I knew where I was renting was cheap. And so to go anywhere else, like felt like such a leap of obviously like more money.

00:25:03:25 - 00:25:29:09
Unknown
And so how do you offset those things? So that's more so like where my mind goes is sure this is going to be cost more, but what can I do? Okay, now I have more space. I can hire more people. We can, you know, bring in more revenue sort of thing to offset those things. So that's just where like the business mind perspective kicks in and you think through those things because yeah, you and what you're doing is you're working on your business, not in it.

00:25:29:14 - 00:25:47:06
Unknown
Yeah. And it's like you are getting into this mindset of how do I make this an efficient business and not just a small business that isn't necessarily as efficient as it could be. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's huge for me. When you look at the way you've grown and where you sit today, let's, let's share about just your size today.

00:25:47:06 - 00:26:25:23
Unknown
I think that's interesting and sharing of it was just you as the first hire and today how large is your team and what does that look like? Yeah, so we've gotten up to 14, including myself but yeah, it's just, it's been, I mean like I said, it's been very gradual growth like I started in 20, 14, 20, 20 is when I bought the business at 21 is when we moved and then 22 is when I did a business rebrand and yeah it's just it's and honestly in the last year we've run in a lot more admin support which I've realized is of such a blessing.

00:26:25:23 - 00:26:53:17
Unknown
We need that so, so much and so again like taking on more admin stuff like, okay, that's just straight overhead, how do we offset these things? And so it's, those are sometimes the hardest business decisions to make because there's not like this easy answer. You just kind of have to start taking leaps of faith and trusting that more, you know, will come in because I'm like, if you look at the data like we've never plateaued.

00:26:53:17 - 00:27:13:15
Unknown
We, we're literally consistently growing year over year. What led you to want to change the name from one to now shares in group? Yeah. I did not know if I wanted to change the name and do a rebrand for a very long time. Which is why I did it for two years, but about, about a year and a half in I don't even know.

00:27:13:15 - 00:27:30:13
Unknown
I think I was kicking it around in my mind and I just I was more so like nervous of, Okay, we're going to make this name change, and now people aren't going to know who we are. It's going to be like so confusing for our clients. All the things and because on top, like we had just moved that year to.

00:27:30:13 - 00:27:50:28
Unknown
So I was like new business owner and then we move, now we're going to throw this on them. I was like, you know, I always think of there are going to be yes. It's like, you know, so terrifying. And so I talked to my buddy Cody Walker, who has had agency in town and I was like, I just need to, like, talk this through, you know, what are your thoughts, obviously?

00:27:51:09 - 00:28:12:00
Unknown
And we just got, you know, got to talking and ultimately decided like, yes, I do want to do this. And then the biggest question was for sure the name, because I did not want my name in it for a long time. And some days, I mean, it's still like, oh, why did we put my name in it but put it in the tax and accounting world?

00:28:12:00 - 00:28:37:08
Unknown
Like, that's just kind of how it is. It's names. It's all names. Abbreviations. Yeah, like, exactly. Right. So, you know, to and there's no like funds music tax, an accounting name, you know, nothing really. I said time once movie tax and accounting company. And so it was just kind of like, all right, we're sure it's in group and the tagline is tax and accounting and that's that'll be it with your continued growth.

00:28:37:08 - 00:28:53:05
Unknown
What do you see as some of the challenges just in being in now a large team some large small businesses I'll call it like what we're as a small business owner. What are those challenges that you're living through that are continually every day something you have to get up and like I have to figure out how to do this better.

00:28:53:22 - 00:29:17:02
Unknown
You know, more people with more problems. Not always, but there's always more things that are going to happen, right? More whether that's more clients or more staff. Like I have wonderful staff I truly feel very fortunate for them. But things are always shifting or I mean, we have had multiple like random personal leaves or medical leaves, and it's effective today.

00:29:17:02 - 00:29:37:06
Unknown
And, you know, like you got to pick up the pieces of what's going on. And when you're your small business, like that hurts. But at the same point, you got to dove in and you got to get it done. So just going through some of those like literally two years ago, my admin, she had to take medical leave in the middle of tax season.

00:29:37:06 - 00:29:53:10
Unknown
We had four weeks left and I was like, this is when we die. It's the last four weeks and you're gonna leave us. But of course, like, she had to and we again, you just think, how am I going to do this? And you just figure it out. Like, that was always my biggest thing is give me a problem.

00:29:53:10 - 00:30:11:26
Unknown
And I will come up with a solution. So yeah, you just, you just do it. And that's again back to the theme of the podcast. Real growth is like thank you for sharing your story and through that journey. And there's obviously a still long journey ahead of how sure some group continually grows in how you grow in your own career.

00:30:12:02 - 00:30:33:08
Unknown
But I love sharing these stories to the Internet and to the podcast such as this, because there's people that can learn so much. And and I think what's interesting about this, too, if I ask you this question of what your response might be, have you figured it out? You know, I've learned a lot, but definitely there's who I who is the expert, Becky, I would like to know.

00:30:33:12 - 00:31:00:07
Unknown
Right. And that's one thing I've learned, too, is like we have made leaps and bounds as far as like working on the business and putting structures in place. And I mean, everything from sops and job descriptions and all all of those kind of nitty gritty things. And, you know, what are the processes for everything? Literally standardizing things. And ultimately, like, we've all got garbage behind the scenes, right?

00:31:00:15 - 00:31:19:00
Unknown
And that's what I've seen like time and time again because again, like, I will go to my clients, I will go to their offices. I'll like you see, none of us have this figured out, right? Some of us are very good at working through the problems. Some of us are very good at standardizing processes that makes it more efficient.

00:31:19:10 - 00:31:35:28
Unknown
Some of us have different strengths and different team members that help make it all come together, but by no means is it ever figured it out. I think it's continually a work in progress. And that's where, you know, sharing this story and then being able to talk to other business owners just helps you understand, like it's all good.

00:31:36:04 - 00:31:56:06
Unknown
Yeah, we are going to get through this journey of life and business and how we blend them together. I know. I think that was like also so reassuring is I'm in another group with a bunch of female business owners and like ones that you look up to and are so successful and they have all these same sorts of issues.

00:31:56:15 - 00:32:15:00
Unknown
And I'm just like, Okay, that's a relief. I'm not the only one right like some of these things, it's just life. It's just how it's going to how it's going to roll. Yeah, I want to ask these questions because no one ever asks it. What are some of the accountant's pet peeves that you have from clients? Ooh, pet peeves.

00:32:15:01 - 00:32:37:03
Unknown
So I will give you one quick story. I remember early on in my career and I, I think a lot of small businesses, accounting is not their strength. And I like brought my whole iMac to the accountants office and was like, all right, so I've been entering everything in this computer this year. Can we just sit down and go through my computer because like, I don't even want to send you a file because I feel like my file won't jive with your system.

00:32:37:09 - 00:32:57:18
Unknown
So it was, I'm sure my accountant at that time was like, Oh, my gosh, you brought your whole computer, and that's great. Oh, gosh. Okay. Little things. Like, you know, some people they love to just piecemeal things to us, like, okay. And, you know, they upload one thing at a time, one thing at a time. And finally it's like the end of March.

00:32:57:18 - 00:33:13:20
Unknown
And I'm like, Hey, you're going to send the rest of your stuff because we need it. Or the people who, you know, they bring all their stuff in and they hand it to you. And here's my W-2 and like, oh, wow, I haven't seen one of these before. Thank you so much. Here's my 1099, because you don't need it all.

00:33:13:27 - 00:33:34:06
Unknown
Yeah, well, no, we need it, but it's like they like to explain to us, oh, my God, it yes, I love it. It's like, Oh, I've seen this before. Yeah, thanks. What else? The ones who like, they like to be a little too handsy explain more. You know, they don't want to give you all the control. Interesting. They like to.

00:33:34:06 - 00:34:02:18
Unknown
They like to keep things in their hands of, you know, doing the books themselves, let's say. But then they want to ask you all the questions of, like, how do I do this? Interesting. And that. And that leads to a little bit of the micromanagement aspect of like, if you're if you want to make that jump. And I can see that where it's like, gosh, if I completely hand over my accounting to a group will I not be in tune with my business?

00:34:02:18 - 00:34:24:10
Unknown
Maybe as in-tune as I am now, as weird as it may be, how I mean, tune how in tune I am now. So. Right. Interesting. Yeah. Because at the same point, like what a lot of business owners. Most business owners, what are they doing? Sterling at their bank account is their money there? Great. We live another day. But what we are looking at is like, are you actually making money or are you losing money?

00:34:24:15 - 00:34:44:00
Unknown
Has this, you know, expense line changed month to month, a year to year? And is that concerning? Can we explain that or you know, we're seeing a trend of revenue increasing or now it's dipping those sorts of things are what we look at and analyze in. But we can't do that if you don't you know, if you're not ready to, like, fully commit.

00:34:44:07 - 00:35:07:03
Unknown
I think that's one of my biggest pet peeves. Any whether it's like an established business owner or a lot of times people who are new to business, that's how I can always kind of tell, like if someone is serious or not is if they want to invest in professional services, like are you ready to actually like pay for an accountants, you know, consult to tell it, like tell you if you're on the right track or not?

00:35:07:13 - 00:35:29:14
Unknown
Are you willing to go to an attorney to make sure you're covered? Are you willing to hire a coach? Yeah, right. I mean, somewhat. Right. You're related. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's cool. What would what would be some of the things that you feel like some of your customers have seen value in the way that you do business? What would what would that look like?

00:35:29:19 - 00:35:47:13
Unknown
Yeah. So I mean, I guess just to stay on the theme of like books, for example. Yeah. Because some of them, they want to they don't necessarily want to do it anymore, but they want to make sure that they're in the know. So like, let's say you have your business is QuickBooks File online and you just share it with us while we do all the work.

00:35:47:13 - 00:36:01:12
Unknown
We can do everything that we need to from our end. But you still at any point it's 10 p.m. on Tuesday and you want to pull your panel like you have access to do that you don't have to wait for us to do it. So you can see at any point in time like are we keeping up on this?

00:36:01:20 - 00:36:24:17
Unknown
Are there a bunch of things like sitting on categorize you know, are things actually reconciled and up to date? What are those financial statements look like? So at any point, like it helps keep us both accountable, right? Yeah. And it's that value of being able to go in and get a true measurement of where their business is as long as they understand that they know what they're reading.

00:36:24:21 - 00:36:42:05
Unknown
Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And do you help people understand that? Well, yeah. Yeah. Because then we have other ones who, like, they want their financials sent to them every month. They want, you know, comparative things to see like, okay, this is changing, this is trending. What do we need to, you know, look at which that for me is the fun part.

00:36:43:03 - 00:37:01:09
Unknown
Kayla, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your real growth story. Yeah. I think if people want to learn more about your firm, about the services you have, where can they reach out, how do they find the online? Yeah, honestly, the best part is just our website chasing group dot com. Right. Be sure to go check it out.

00:37:01:09 - 00:37:09:15
Unknown
Thank you, everybody, for joining. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, please do go check out Shearson Group dot com for all the services Kayla and her team provides