The Wize Way

Episode 96: Mapping Out Your Withdrawal Journey (How Life-Changing is the Current System for Business Firms)

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 1 • Episode 96

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In this week's episode of The WizeGuys Podcast, we explore how the current system can transform firms. But amidst the promise of innovation and growth, there's a lurking challenge: what happens when these firms, initially enthusiastic about embracing change, find themselves entangled once again in the web of old, inefficient practices?

Join our insightful hosts, Brenton Ward and Ed Chan, as they are joined by Wize Mentors, Tim Causbrooks and Thomas Sphabmixay, to navigate this precarious terrain. Together, they delve into the vital importance of reconnecting with the core principles that underpin success in the accounting industry. It's all about withdrawing oneself from the gravitational pull of outdated methodologies and rediscovering the essence of what drives progress.

Throughout the episode, they share invaluable insights gleaned from their own experiences, offering a roadmap for firms looking to chart a course toward sustainable growth and prosperity.

From the initial spark of inspiration to the nitty-gritty details of implementation, every aspect of the journey is explored with depth and clarity. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the world of accounting, there's something here for everyone.

So, if you're ready to break free from the shackles of the past and embrace a future defined by innovation and possibility, join us on this illuminating episode of The Wize Guys Podcast. Your firm's success story starts here!

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PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 3 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:

1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Strategy Map for FREE - Find out the 96 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here

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3. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here

Brenton Ward:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys Podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time-poor practice to a business that runs without them. I hope you enjoy and subscribe! One of the fundamental accelerators in terms of building a business that runs without you is mapping the withdrawal journey. That's typically where we start with most of the firms we work with. It's where we start in our WizeV ault journey, as part of the 18 steps that everyone has access to in the Wise Vault, it's one of the most important pillars in building your business.

Brenton Ward:

I was hoping you might start us off with just a little bit of reflection and insight for the benefit of everyone listening in today. I worked with a lot of practice owners in the last 12 months across the world. I just wanted to get a glimpse into what's been happening on the inside four walls of those meetings. What are the trend or the things you can see, and anything you'd like to share with the group for the benefit of their own journey?

Ed Chan:

Sure. Thanks, Brenton. For me personally, the thing that's most rewarding is obviously seeing the firms improve and get better. There's a lot of pain out there where people are working very long hours and putting in a lot of hard work and they're not getting a return on the hard work they're putting in or it's taking them away from their family and other things have been hurt by the hours they're putting in. The greatest thing for me is just seeing how they're improving and changing lives and the systems they're putting in. Jamie went from the first work period working 60, 70, to 80 hours a week, couldn't take holidays, and couldn't even spend time with the family. When he was on holiday, he was answering emails and emailing. Today his business is three times bigger than what it was and he no longer works in it. That brings me a lot of satisfaction. When I see firm owners who follow the wise way and they're getting the same results and outcomes. It's life- changing For me. That's the greatest reward that I get out of it. What I see in firms when we work, it's always the same as it's around people. I've often said that people are our greatest challenge, but they're also our greatest asset.

Ed Chan:

Most of us grew up if you like in the grinding role, and as an owner of a business, we have to know how to manage. But we're never taught to manage. Part of the reason why it's so difficult is because of structure, and you need to have structure. I use this analogy when have you ever seen little five-year-old kids play soccer? They're all chasing the ball. There's 20 of them, or 22 of them, on the field and they're all chasing the ball. There's no structure in place. As they get older, they have teams like you've got a goalie, you've got the fullback, you've got the wingers, you've got the forwards, and then they start playing their positions. The next stage is you find people who are suitable for those positions, so you don't put a winger in a goalie position, a goalie in the winger position. So you've got to build structure for staff to work within and then you've got to place them in the right role so that they're working in their flow. And if they're working in their flow, then they're really happy and they're really productive. And accounting firms run flat teams where they're just focusing on productivity and they just want to throw more bodies at the workload, and it doesn't work. It's a lot more sophisticated than that. So, yes, working with the firms. It's around people, but people are around structure, because when people work for you, they can do the work, but they need you to lead them and you've got to put these structures in place so they know what they're supposed to do. And then you've got to fit them in their flow so they're working within, in their flow, not working against their flow.

Ed Chan:

So a grinder often can't be a minder and if you promote a grinder to a minder, then you're going to have problems and sometimes even with training, you just can't change the leopard spots. So you've got to understand all the HR issues. You've got to understand all the structure issues. And you're the coach and you can't jump on the field and play the game, then take out a, do the job of the player and jump in there because they're not doing it properly. You've got to either train them to play their position properly or you find a new player and you don't jump in there and take their position, and I see people do that all the time. It's quick if I just do it myself, so they do it themselves. So, yeah, it's around people mainly, and systems and processes and you've got to develop those systems and that's what WISE does. It's already all developed, it's tested, it works. It's been tested for many, many years and it works, you just have to implement it. That's all the challenges ahead for most practices.

Brenton Ward:

Tim, I would like to give you some insights if you don't mind sharing, both as a mentor working with firms as well over the last 12 months and internally at Causbrooks with your own practice. Any particular highlights or insights that stand out from your mentoring meetings throughout the year?

Tim Causbrook:

Just the importance of knowing what you want to get out of the business. We begin with the end of mind and everyone wants different things out of it, so it's really important to step back. This is probably a good time for you to do it, to step back another year down the drain and just think about whether is this getting me closer to my goal, or what is my goal. And yeah, just take stock, it's very, very crazy and hectic in this industry. So it's really good every now and then, and we do that. Monthly board meetings I do as well, and it's a really good example of why they're really good because it forces you to take some time out each month to think about those quad-B and those bigger, bigger- picture things. That would be key.

Tim Causbrook:

Also, just document everything you do. It's impossible to delegate and withdraw unless you document how to do things in the first place. Don't wait until you get the process perfect. It's never perfect. Often I don't realize where the problems are in a process until we start documenting the process. So, yes, that's another one that sounds really simple. Jamie bangs on about that one a lot, but we've seen huge benefits from doing that this year and we're going to do a lot more of it than we need to come Great.

Brenton Ward:

Thomas, anything from your sub-links at TMS or again from the mentoring you've been doing firms throughout the year?

Thomas Sphabmixay:

Yeah, I actually have my own board meeting with Ed this afternoon so I have to report in the same way other people report to us. The greatest thing was being able to hone all the structures so that reporting it through the Fab5 KPI allows you to just tell so much from these KPIs. When the structure is in place, it's easier to captain the ship through the Fab5 than if it was like this chaotic marketplace that's going on because people are just honed in around that. That's what I found this year with FernsWords. It's all, like Ed said, it's about the people a lot of recruiting, a lot of team designing, restructuring, evaluating people whether they belong in the right role or not, so that they can start honing themselves around targets. That's been a highlight of that year.

Brenton Ward:

Yeah, it's a really good point you touch on there, because if we look at the Fab5 and within the Wise Hub but the Fab5 dashboard, which is driving KPIs in the practice it does take time to implement. It's another one of these things. It's a quad-two activity that does take investment, not only from the practice owner but getting the right people in place in order to fill the data points and things like that. But once it is in place, it's just such a fantastic tool to be able to have an oversight and manage from bottom up, as you would say, Ed, and keep your finger on the pulse of the health of the practice. So encourage everyone, if you don't have your Wize Hub and your Fab5 set up, to put that on your project list, because it's just a brilliant tool, Ed. Anything to comment on there?

Ed Chan:

Yeah, when we ran our business without the Fab5, it was always a challenge getting the client managers to take ownership, but as soon as we put the Fab5 in, it just changed. It just changed. It changed from being an employee to being an employer. Focus on the bottom line. They'll focus on growing the business, though, because we pay a bonus based on the Fab5 and we track their numbers. And, all of a sudden, a client manager if you used to say, no, I don't want any more new clients, I've got enough, I've got too much work. No, I don't want to outsource it, I'll just train someone locally. And to now give me more clients and to let me find someone an outsourced person, because it allows their teams to be more profitable and then, therefore, they get a bigger bonus. It changes their attitude and then, all of a sudden, they're running the business which is what I call management from the bottom up, rather than you doing it by brute force. From the top down, they're taking you forward. So, instead of dragging a horse to water, you're not only leading the horse to water now, but the horse is taking you to the water without any effort on your side. So that's what the Fab5 did for me, for my team.

Ed Chan:

So I encourage everyone to get the Fab5 going and utilize the Fab5 as it should be used as a tool to ensure that the five parts of your business are nice and healthy. So it's all on one page. I just look at it on one page and I know my turnover is going up, and my profits are good per team. I know the cash flows there. I know the clients are happy because we've got an NPS and their promoted score that measures the client's happiness and PS that measures the staff's happiness. So the staff is happy, clients are happy, and money is in the bank. Now, profits are there, turnover going up, all on one page and so you feel in control without needing to be controlling, because you don't want to be controlling, you just want to be in control.