Conquering Workflows & Systems For Bookkeepers & Accountants | with Alyssa Lang (Workflow Queen)

Spotting & Solving Your Business’s Core Issues for Bookkeepers & Accountants

• Alyssa Lang • Season 1 • Episode 79

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In this solo episode, Alyssa Lang covers … the unexpected challenges and responsibilities that come with being a bookkeeper and accountant, common mistakes she sees in the industry and how to solve your biggest problem in the business.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How to identify core system issues and where to begin when improving systems
  • Why focusing on one core process for significant progress is more effective than tackling everything at once
  • Common mistakes bookkeepers and accountants make with their system and how to avoid this
  • What steps to take to identify and fix your biggest issues

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen

For more information about the Conquering Workflows & Systems for Bookkeepers & Accountants Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

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Hey everyone. And welcome back to our five-part series, where I'm covering things like mindset offers, systems, team, and removing yourself from the day-to-day of your business. If you haven't already, then you need to go catch the prior two episodes, which are all about the mindset and the offers. And so I highly recommend that you go through this whole entire resource in order all five different ones, because. It is all going to come full circle and really support you and becoming that removable CEO that you desire to be. So in today's episode, I'm highly focusing on what I like to call world-class systems. And in this episode, I'm really going to be deep diving into how to identify what your biggest problem in your businesses right now, how to fix it, how to tackle it and make sure that you amplify it and perfect. It. To a T so that way you can move on and fix the next thing in your business. So if you've been struggling and you've been feeling like you're trying to work on 10 million things at one time, and this is the episode for you. I'm actually going to share the exact process that I share inside of our free boot camp, which is being hosted from August 19th to August 23rd. So make sure that you have signed up for that because we're going to deep dive into this with some resources and assets. That you can use to help you make this happen faster. So without further ado, enjoy today's episode. Welcome back to yet another episode I'm so excited because today I'm going to be talking all about what I like to call world-class systems. Which are all the beautiful things, all the moving parts in the business. throughout your whole entire journey, whether you are a newbie or you are someone well-advanced, we all have systems that we have to deal with. Maybe you might not notice that you have systems, but you do already have systems that do exist. Because I think a lot of the times, people at the end of the day always think that systems equals tech when that's not true, systems can be a people thing. It could be your onboarding system and not necessarily the tech involved, but it can also include the tech involved. So I really just want to lay the foundation and today's episode all about what world-class systems are. And also really redefining how to identify what your biggest core system issues are within the business. So that way you can actually focus on those. Over a certain period of time until you perfected or get to a point where it's working really well. So you can move on to the next thing. So that's really what we're going to be diving into today's episode. And I do want to just do a shameless plug that we do have actually, as this episode is airing this week, we are hosting our Power to Break Through Bootcamp, which is absolutely free. The bootcamp is from August 19 to August 23rd. And if you haven't already signed up, then you're going to want to make sure to do so. And you can click the link in the description where we're actually going to be covering the same topic, but in way more depth, in what more resources it comes with, the workbook, all the fun things. And don't worry if you're listening to this episode and you're a little bit late to the party you have at least until the 23rd to just make sure that you signed up by then. And we are going to be covering a live Q and a session at 5:00 PM EST every single day, which where you can ask questions to myself and all of our coaches. And we also have a live teaching session that will be going on from

12:

00 PM EST every single day. And don't worry if you can't catch it live, you can always catch the replays, but you do have until August 23rd to sign up, which we're going to go way into depth over this. Past couple of weeks, we've been doing this special series of covering each of the core topics that we're going to cover in the bootcamp, but with just giving you a tiny taste of what we're actually going to go through. So I hope to see you at the bootcamp. You can go to workflow queen.com backslash bootcamp, but without further ado, let's just go ahead and dive in today's episode. So really the whole goal that I want from you guys, as you walk away from today's episode is to really understand where exactly you need to begin when it comes to ramping up the systems in your business. Like I said, systems, a lot of people always think are just the tech side of things that really, that's not the case. Systems can show up in so many different formats and so many different ways within your business. The whole purpose of today is you might be really wanting to grow and really take things to the next level. Or maybe you've been doing this for quite some time. And you're just like, I'm so tired of writing everything down or I'm so tired of having to stay on top of everything or whatever that looks like for you. But a couple of reasons, maybe why you're listening to this episode and maybe why you were attracted to actually tuning in, because you might be feeling frustrated by the lack of organization, or maybe you're just feeling like you're not efficient enough or just struggling to manage the client work and the systems effectively, maybe you're overwhelmed by scattered information like the processes and documents you've been doing. The things that everyone keeps telling you, you're writing the SOPs are doing the things, but where do I store all this information? And how do I delegate it effectively? You might also be feeling like you're constantly putting out fires and unable to focus on scaling due to lack of systems. You might not be happy with the inconsistent client experience because of disorganized systems. Maybe you're feeling like, oh my gosh, my clients are going to fire me because I'm so all over the place and every single month, there's no consistency. And you might be feeling anxious about the idea of you actually scaling your firm or even onboarding new team members, hiring people in fear that like your systems aren't ready. I hear that more often than not like A-list I can't hire because my systems aren't ready. It's like your team and the person that you bring on, we actually helped you to build out your systems because they'll ask you real quick things that they need in order to get the job done. And then you'll realize, oh my gosh, we don't have a resource for that. Then what you'll do is you'll simply create it. So don't let that stall you. People like system do not have to be perfect. I'm not even perfect guys. I am like literally known as the workflow queen. And like a lot of people ask me all the time. Like I bet your business and your firm is running so smoothly and same with workflow queen. It runs really well, but there are still a lot of hiccups that we go through ourselves. There's still so many things that I would like to refine, but we have everything going just well enough to serve the company, to help me be able to take the vacations that I want to become the removable CEO that I want still pay my team and take care of our clients. But there's always room for improvement. Right? My whole goal for you is to become what I like to call removable CEO, which is where you become like work optional in your business. And that really comes from having the right team, the right mom's mindset, the right offers. And also the right systems in place. So I've been kind of teasing over the past couple of weeks. We did an episode on mindset. We did an episode on offers. This episode is about systems, the next episode, that airs is going to be all about the team and the one following that is going to be all about removing yourself from the day-to-day of the business. So you're gonna want to make sure that you catch the prior episodes. And then also the ones that are coming over the next couple of weeks as well. So I really want to transform the way that your firm is super efficient and really helping you to create a better client experience. But really what we need to do is identify what tools and things and plans that we need to roll out in order to fix your systems. Right. So I would love to know, and you can share this with me. You can either do it on our Instagram at workflow queen, or you could shoot me an email that's, to support@workflowqueen.com. And I want to know from you, what is one system in your business that you wish you had more time to focus on getting automated, getting documented, or even just putting into place inside of your business. So share that with me. What is the one system in your business you had more time to focus on? Let me know you can either email us or you could put it in our chat over in, at Instagram, at workflow queen. So. I'm just going to kind of deep dive into some of the concepts that have really helped me over time with really focusing on my different systems. I think, like I said, a lot of people put this pressure on themselves or say that they have a lot of different problems and. not knowing what to work on first. So they get overwhelmed and it's like decision fatigue, right. I get this all the time. Like I still suffer from this myself where I look at a lot of different things, because as business owners, we're always more likely to see the problems rather than see the good in things, because there's always a problem to fix. Right. And so I just want you to take a step back and reflect on. How to really know if your systems aren't working for you right now. the three reasons I know that my business systems are not working for us is if I'm still working constantly. If we're not making enough money and we cannot deliver to our clients, it's literally as simple as that. And I know that's probably like Alyssa, it's not really that simple. It truly is. If my end goal in my business is to not always be working and I get this all the time. Well, Alyssa, I love to work. I love what I do. I don't want to step away. Like I actually really enjoy like being a bookkeeper or being an accountant and doing this and doing that. Typically. It's okay. If you like being in the business, but when shit hits the fan and life hits the fan. And someone ends up in the hospital or you want to go on a unplugged vacation and not have to bring your computer. You're sure. You're sure as hell going to wish that you had put in all the work that you needed to in the business in order to get yourself to that place. So I always know when my systems aren't working is when I'm constantly pulled back in the business. I'm not making money and we cannot deliver for the clients. If those three things are happening simultaneously, then we're in big trouble. But sometimes it's usually one of those things. So I'll give you an example. Like right now, I'm in this weird phase in my business where for the past, like three, maybe four months. I have just not been working a lot and it's not because like, I don't want to it's genuinely because I just can't find the motivation. To really push and like push this company forward. Push my firm forward. But at the same time, I will tell you that I know our systems are working because I'm not working constantly. I don't feel like I have to. I've just got back from Europe and I was like, took a break for 30 days. Just got back from another couple of trips. Like I've just been taking a lot of time off. So I know the systems are working because of that. I'm also still making money while not really working. So the team's getting paid and I'm getting paid. That's how I know our systems are working. And right now we are delivering on our client work, whether it's our clients over at my firm, or also here, our students, like we are still delivering, supporting them. Whether it's not me showing up, maybe it's our coaches that are supporting more than, more than me at this point right now. It's okay. So that's how I know my systems are working. So I want you to reflect back and say, are your systems truly working for you are delivering on your clients. Are you making the money that you want to? And are you feeling like you're, you're having the break that you actually really deserve? So I want to talk about a couple of common mistakes. I see a lot of bookkeepers and accountants making in relation to their systems and how it's really maybe, you know, faulting you from really moving things forward. Or you're feeling like you're back in the weeds. Every single day is number one. They're constantly switching software when the software isn't the issue. So. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen this in the industry, especially when a new software comes out and everyone's like, oh my God, I'm hyped up like this new software that everyone keeps talking about. So I'm just going to switch because everyone's talking about it. I'll give you really great examples of this. And this is no shame at all, to any of these softwares. I just happen to be using them as reference points. Is number one is anchor. So anchor is a new proposal software, and a lot of people have kind of jumped ship from things like DUP Sato or the ignition or other platforms that they were using in order to send out proposals. Another option was keeper. So at the time, like I think keeper released, like, I want to say what three to four years ago. I think they've been around for a while, but they really started to take like traction and people really started to notice them like back in 2021. So anchor and keeper, I'm just going to go use those two as an example, and this can go into so many different formats. It could be notion. I know that like in our space and not a lot of people were using notion. And then I really got a lot of people like obsessed with it because we started using it. And then I would tell the whole entire accounting space, like, oh my God, we all have to use notion. So now there's a hype around notion too, which is great. So I'll use these three software companies as an example. What happens is once people start to talk a lot about all these different softwares, everybody just immediately starts to get hyped and think that this is going to solve all their problems. When that is actually not the truth. So just, I don't know how many times, if you're like me, like when I first, try to figure out a project management system for myself, for my firm. I went through like almost every single one of them. I tried Jetpack workflow. I tried Trello. I tried Asana. I tried. I tried everything, everything you could possibly think of for all the project management systems out there. And I ended up going back to Asana three different times because there was something about the software that really kind of clicked for me. But I realized at the end of the day that it wasn't the software. That was the problem. It was actually a me problem. I just didn't know what my system, my process was for doing what I was trying to do, that the software was going to offer the solution for. So I want you to kind of knock it yourself, sucked into this place where I see a lot of people making this issue that as soon as people start talking about new software, they're like, well, I'm gonna jump ship and I'm gonna go to this software. Because everyone else is using it. So now I'm just going to switch. What are you using the software for? What's the intention? What process is it going to end solution? Is it going to solve for you? That's what I would love for you to like know, and then a lot of people will be like, well, listen, I don't even know what process I want it to solve. Then why are you switching software? Like, it's not going to do you any favors the software isn't going to magically have some sort of a solution it's you first have to get to the core of it. What is the process that you're trying to create a solution around and make sure it's running efficiently? So for example, if one of your biggest focal points is to have better quality control on your business, then maybe switching to something like keeper or XenX or adding that into your tech stack actually might be beneficial because they do a really great job. Of doing quality control points within their software of things that like a lot of bookkeepers and accountants will miss when they're manually reviewing the books. And so you always want to say what's my core problem and what software can help. Aid that and support me in it. Not the other way around, not saying I, this software is going to solve my problem. No. At the end of the day, it's like, what's the big core problem. The software is just going to be a helpful piece of that. I always joke and say that if Asana crashed today, I can literally switch to click up in a heartbeat. That's because I've got my project management process down to a tee. That it doesn't matter the software. Yes. Will I miss out on some of the bells and whistles? Absolutely people, but also same thing. If a Sonic crash and cleanup crash, I can go to another project management system. I can make any system work in any software work because of the fact that I know and understand how our project management process works. And so I really encourage you to stop looking at the software to solve the problem. But instead look at the core process that needs to be lined out and the system that needs to be put into place. And then look at the software. Another common mistake that I see is that a lot of bookkeepers and accountants don't have a lot of knowledge behind a lot of the process creation or the tools that they need in order to really build up the business and systematize it. And that's nobody's fault. You literally got into this space, thinking that you were just going to do bookkeeping or you're just going to do a county. You were just going to be a CPA, whatever that route was for you. You didn't realize that it also came with a ton of other things that you had to learn, like documenting SOPs hiring people. You don't have that knowledge. And that's okay if you don't have that knowledge, but recognize that maybe looking for the support or someone who can help fill that gap for you is really helpful. And that can look like a community support group. It can look like a paid program. It can look like mentorship. It's gonna look like so many different things. And so many different ways. So it's all going back to stop thinking that this program or something, or this person is going to solve all your problems first, identify what your core system process or problem is. So that way you can then look for the resources that can help you, whether that's a YouTube video or whether that's a book or whether that's a course, like first identify what the core problem is, then find the solution that's going to help you get there. Another thing I see is a lot of you guys are over-complicating everything. I am the queen of that. So I am not here to shame anybody on this because I do this every single day. I overcomplicate my life in so many different ways. But I feel like I have gotten really well at not complicating my businesses because I've recognized the more complicated I made things. the harder it was for my team to get stuff or get answers to things that everything would come back to me. So stop over complicating things as much as you can. It business is really that simple. But there's a lot of moving parts and pieces. So I recognize that it's also very hard. The last thing too, is a lot of bookkeepers and accounts that I see in the space is we are too reliant on the tech, the specific tech that we're currently using. So let me explain that. I am obsessed with Asana. Everybody knows that everyone also knows I'm obsessed with notion. Like I have so many softwares that I absolutely love and I'm obsessed with, but at the end of the day, like I'm not relying on those things. Yes. They helped me get the job faster and it makes us more efficient. But at the end of the day, like, If I had to go back to an old school way of doing things I will, but at the same time, I'm not going to be obsessive where I'll never let go of Asana. I'll never let go of notion. If something new comes out that actually will better serve and solve a problem, I will jump ship if I need to. But I, you sure as hell know that I will be doing three months of research. I will be testing it for another three months to make sure that, that technology and that software is actually doing what it needs to do for me. And so I really encourage you as well to like test things. And see if like, if the system's no longer working for you, the tech is no longer working. It's okay to leave, but you have to understand what your problem is to be able to point to that next offer. That's going to help you solve that problem. So let's dive into talking about what systems are. So systems can be like a who, so that could be like your team. So a lot of people think, like I said, at the end of the day, that it's always systems equal tech when that's really not the truth. So. It could be the team. It could be a person system. There can be also the tool side of things. So like a system could be like the decision trees, which decision trees allow for you to communicate to your team, how you would come to a specific decision. There's things like process maps, SOPs. You know, all of those things are the tools. So that's part of a system there's also like, what are we building from this like internal operation systems? Like that can actually be a system as well. And a lot of the times, like the systems typically will have like some sort of like an end result. So like the client experience system is like the end result of a client experience system is to make sure that the clients have. The ability to have a good experience working with you from start to finish. There's a lot of different system. There's onboarding systems. There's so many different things in so many different ways that systems can play inside of your business. And it's not just software. It could be people, software strategies. Resources communication information like execution, monitor and management of things. There's so many different parts of a system that really just help you hone in on getting your business to a point where you're not constantly having to work. So let's talk about the types of systems within your business. So I like to kind of like segregate the different types of systems within your business. And I do them through four different quadrants, the sales and marketing systems. The client systems, operation systems, and then also your team systems. So out of these different parts of the comp, the moving parts of the company, which are the system. So let's just say, for example, the client systems. Within those systems are going to live processes. So processes are really a series of steps or actions that need to be taken to produce a specific outcome. So I'll give you a great example within your client's systems area of the business, you would probably have different processes. Maybe one of those processes are onboarding your clients. Offboarding your clients. Monthly, maintenance of your clients. Those are all the different processes that all make up the client system because the client's systems. It's all about taking the client from like the start of working with you in your cycle all the way, till the very end and letting them go They're involved from the start of it all the way to the end of it. So with what lives within the system are the different processes like onboarding, offboarding, all the different things I had mentioned a second ago. So let's talk about a couple of core processes that live within each of these four systems. As a reminder, the four systems are sales and marketing systems, client systems, operation systems, and team systems. So in the sales and marketing systems, we typically only have like two processes. That are pretty large. You can always have more processes than I'm about to say, because you might have a different layer in your business or a different component that not everybody else does, but standardly, I'm going to be talking about the different processes that we'd have in place within each system. So the sales and marketing system you'd have two different processes, your sales process and your marketing process. So your sales process is really like, how are you taking someone from. Seeing you and getting on a call with you all the way to actually signing on, to work with you while the marketing process is what type of marketing do you guys have in place to attract your clients at the end of the day? And your client systems, you might have processes like your onboarding process, cleanup process. Bookkeeping maintenance process, your quality control process, 10 99 process you're in process within your operation systems, you might have project management processes, client experience, process, team experience, process. Documentation management. vacation and emergency processes, finance processes. And then last quadrant is the team systems. And that's where you might have things like your hiring process, your onboarding process, team maintenance process, and also your education process as well. And so after hearing that, you're probably like, oh my God, Alice, I'm really overwhelmed. I didn't realize I had to work on all these processes. Now here's the problem. Everybody out there is always telling you always have to work on everything at once. And I don't believe in that. I think if you really hone in on one core process, that's your biggest issue in the business, it will help you to quantum leap faster than you can even imagine. And I know as someone who gets really bored of working on the same thing all the time, I know what it's like to be like. Well, Alyssa I just, I can't fathom the idea of like, for a period of time only working on my onboarding process, because like, what happens if I'm hiring in that same, working on the onboarding. And now I've got to fix a couple of things. You have full grace to do whatever the hell you want, and also full grace. To work simultaneously on other things. But what I mean by this, what we're going to create an action plan around is focused on one core problem and one core process. That's going to help you really move the needle forward doesn't mean that you can't still hire people. It doesn't mean that you can't also maybe build out your meeting process or whatever that looks like. Right. So let's talk about that action plan, because if you're anything like me, you've gotten to a point in your business where you're like, I've got too many problems. I don't know where to start. I'm overwhelmed. I'm not going to work on any of them. So number one, we need to make sure to identify the core system that is in need of fixing. And so a lot of you don't even know how to actually identify that, but let's go back to just this number one. Identifying the core system needing to be fixed. Remember when I shared with you guys that there's four core types of systems in your business, four different quadrants. The sales and marketing systems, client systems, operations, and team. What I mean by step one is to just identify from those four things. What area are you having? The most problems? Is it your sales and marketing? Is it, your clients, is your operations or is it your team? That's as simple as that, like, if you are a newbie, most likely your sales and marketing systems are going to be the one that hurts the most. Right now that's , the system that you're going to need to focus the most on. Let's just say that you've been in business for quite some time. A lot of people that we work with. At our bootcamp and also in our program breakthrough. They typically don't have a problem landing clients. They're at a point where now they can even give their clients a good client experience system, or they just are having a really hard time delivering on the actual services that they. contracted out to do then maybe your issue is client systems. Let's just say that your client systems are down. And so is your team and so is your sales and marketing. And so is your clients then maybe it's a team problem. Maybe you just don't have the right team members. They're not trained correctly. They're having a lot of problems. You feel like you're being pulled back in every single day. So first identify your system out of the four sales and marketing client operations or team. What is your biggest problem right now? Number two. I want you to identify the core process that requires the most attention within that system that you just identified. So let's just go back and say that my biggest problem right now is my client systems. And let's just say that within my client's system, one of those processes is the onboarding process. And let's just say that like, Oh, man, every time I onboard a client, it's just freaking chaos. Like we're just so messy. We don't know where to get information. We're just kind of having to go by, you know, my, my thought process and my memory. And at the end of the day, I can't ever outsource this stuff because it's all on my plate and all these things. Then, if that's your biggest process within that system, then that's going to be the one that you need to focus on. Number three plan to work on it for at least one quarter. And this is where I lose a lot of people who are like Alyssa. I don't want to work on something for one quarter. I promise you guys. We did this in, um, I think it was December, January and February. We worked on our onboarding process at my firm. And it was so helpful because like, even though we did a bulk of the onboarding, building everything out in the first month, we took a couple of the months to really refine, like, okay, let's add in this new layer of this tech. That can help us do this faster and let's reevaluate this. How can we automate that? So I want you to plan to work on that one process within that one system for one full quarter. And that's three months. If you get it done sooner, that's totally cool. But I always say I recommend at least for one full quarter working on one process. Step four is I want you to process map using tools like either my row or Canva or good old sticky notes on a wall. So if you don't know what a process map is, essentially a process map is a really great way for you guys to. Be able to like visually see the different steps in your process. So we'll use the onboarding process as an example. Well, you could do is take sticky notes guys, and we're going to cover this on our boot camps. I highly recommend that you join because I'm actually going to show you guys visuals of the actual process maps and what that actually looks like. And actually talk through that. We've had people come up to the Q and A's and ask about, Me building out a process on my row. Like I'm more than happy to chat through that kind of stuff, but we are going to cover that inside the bootcamp. And sorry, if you heard that noise, I dropped my pen. Because I was trying to write down. One of the softwares that is recommending to you guys. process mapping, what I used to do and like the old school ways, I used to have this big whiteboard in my office and I would just sit down with sticky notes and I would like put a sticky note of each step at night process. For onboarding. So it'd be like step one would be like the person signs a contract step two means like downloading the contract. You know, step three is setting them the onboarding form, you know, whatever that looks like. And so you could do that on your wall, in your office. When we ever, we do our in-person retreats. We have people do this exercise on poster boards and they love it because they get to like collaborate with other people. So the process mapping is not you actually going through and documenting the whole process. It's really you just visually seeing the different processes, the different steps, like I said, come join our boot camp and I'll show you what that looks like. It's hard for me to visually show you something. When we're here on a podcast episode. So step five is create tasks and document processes. So once you have identified, what are the steps in that core process for like that example of onboarding you're, then going to go back and look at your process map and say, okay, for this step here that says that I need to download these contracts and the proposal that the client agreed to and save it to their folder. I'm going to document how someone on my team can take that over for me. So this is where we're like putting things into our project management system, Asana and putting the step-by-steps that say, log into Dubsado from Dubsado. click this button here to download the contracts and upload it into this Google drive folder with these naming conventions. That's what we're talking about for step five. And you could probably see why this really could take like three months. Total is because at the end of the day, like it's your first process mapping, then you're moving into actually documenting everything. Then you're putting it into your system. There's so much you have to do so over a three month period, it's less daunting. If you try to just do it in a week, it's just really hard to do. And step six is going to be manual execution of the work. So I think a lot of people have a lot of questions for me. Like, what do you mean manual execution of the work? I thought we were like documenting the processes and the tasks and things. Yes you are. But like a lot of people like in this space, I've see this a lot where everybody is just like, I just want to automate everything. I just want everything to be done on its own with, I don't have to touch it. The thing is if you just go directly to automation, you'll never understand how to execute something manually. If automation doesn't serve you. So it happens often guys, if you're using something like, I think it's called make or Zapier. And if you're trying to automate stuff, I can say, I can tell you how many times I've seen this, where API, which means like the open integration between one tech and another tech with the automating system decides oh yeah. We're no longer going to offer that open API or that open automation option for you. Then you have to revert back to manual execution of the work. So my recommendation is before you try to automate things first, make sure that you guys are capable of doing it with the documentation and the things that you have in place. That you've built in to this process. So you'll manually do the actual process. And so what this looked like for me, when we were working on our onboarding process for three months, Every time that we onboarded a new client. We would manually execute it. So we would manually set up the Google drive folders. We would manually download the contracts. We would manually set up, send a slack message to the team. We would manually do all the different things. Then step seven is to identify the areas. Of automation and improvement. So what I mean by this is now that you're in manually executing everything for us, it looked like, okay, we're manually onboarding these clients after two or three of them, we were like, you know what? Now we're going to start automating things because we knew how to manually execute everything. So we would look at our onboarding process and say, well, this Google drive folder here. Why are we trying to like do this by hand? Why not just have the automation. That when someone signs a contract and up Sato. It automatically sets up the client's Google drive folder. Perfect. So we identified an area to automate. So then we went and automated that piece. And then what you're going to do is essentially test it. So every single time they have a new client. Now you have all these new automations, these new tasks, these new processes, these new, project management projects in place, you have all these different things that you've built. You're just going to test it. And that's why I say do this for at least three months, because then you have three months to test these things. So what we did was we started everything just like the same way, where we identified the issue in the business, which was the onboarding. We then decided to work on it for a quarter. So we process map these things out and then we actually started to create the tasks and documented the process. We set up a project inside of Asana for ourselves. then we started to manually execute the work for like, you know, any new client that came on. We would onboard them manually by manually doing the work. And also referring to the tasks and the documentation. Then that's when we took a step back, looked at The ways that we can actually automate. And a lot of you might be sitting here like Alyssa, I don't even know how to like tackle automation. I've tried to set up a zap. It's really overwhelming. This is why I recommend that you come to our bootcamp because if you've been in business for a while and you're trying to figure all these things out, like, like I said, at the very beginning, the common mistake I see is that everyone tries to do it on their own rather than get support. Literally, we have a free bootcamp for a reason. People it's a, you can ask questions that you could come in with some new ideas and some ways to tackle these things. Because the automation and all these different things, aren't as confusing or as hard as everyone makes it out to be. It's actually pretty straightforward when you have the right knowledge and education around it, which is where I'm here to support you with. And so what we did after that, after we identified the areas of automation and improvements, we then went and kept testing it, testing it, testing it. So every single time we onboard a new client, we'd find a problem within our process. So we'd fix it. Then we would to onboard another person and be like, wow, this is running so smooth. But this little part right here, we actually don't like it let's fix it. Or, Hey, I don't think that. That step actually should go at this part in the process. Instead it should move to the backend of it. So things like that. So that's why you give yourself a full quarter to work on something. And like I said, you have full reign to be able to still work on other parts of the business, focus on other processes as well. But this is going to be your number one focal point. So everything you're doing and what really helps me as I create like a Google doc. And we could talk about that at the bootcamp, as well as I create a Google doc that I bookmark and I name it, the name of the process. So for example, when we were going through the onboarding. Process and trying to redefine it and make it more smooth. I created a Google doc labeled onboarding process. And all I did was I bookmarked it onto my bookmarks bar on my Chrome extension. And essentially any time that I'd be doing work, because if you're like me guys, if you're sitting at your computer and you're like, okay, I'm going to work on my onboarding process. Everything that you remember about how to onboard is going to go right out your brain. And the reason why is because when you're on the spot and you're like, okay, I'm going to work on it right now. You're going to forget everything. So I do find that sometimes I'll be like doing the dishes or I'll be doing, you know, I'll be working on something random and all of a sudden like, oh, we like recording a podcast episode and I'll be like, wow, I actually need to do that thing that I just told you guys to implement. So I'll pause. And then I'll go into my little document and I will write down some of my ideas because there's a lot of things that kind of come up for me. So whenever we would onboard a new client, we would refer. To this document and say like, what was going good? What went bad? And are there any new ideas that we can implement? So then every time we like went to go work on the onboarding process, we pull up that Google doc that would say. this step here, we don't like in this area. Cause sometimes like, as things come up for you and you recognize, oh, it's not working for us in that capacity. You don't have time to fix it. So that's what the Google doc helps us is like during the three months, we are just referring to this document all the time to help us document ideas. There also might be some things that come up for you. And this is why I have an idea section.'cause sometimes I'll see someone else doing something I'm like, well, that's a great idea, but I'm going to implement that when we're working on that process. So I'll document out the idea. And then when we start to tackle that process and build it out, I then refer back to that Google doc and it's really, really, really helpful. And so my whole plan for you guys is to help you to identify what is your core problem, and you need to work on next. And this is something that is one of my favorite topics. And something that I love to do, because I feel like. I struggle with this for myself guys, but I do such a great job helping other people with this, but I know that it's hard to take your own advice. Sometimes I'm being very transparent with you guys. Sometimes it's hard for me to identify my own processes and like what I need to work on next. But this same exercise right here really helps me because it helped me in the most simplistic way. It's step one is identify the core systems needing to be fixed, like the big part of the business. Then identify the one process within that system that needs your attention plan to work on it for at least one quarter process, map it out, then start to document the tasks and document the process manually execute the work. Then I dare. Identify areas of opportunities and automation and improvements, and then also implement any of those changes and test it over the three month period and make some adjustments. So I hope this helped you. If you have any questions about this, like I said, come join us in the bootcamp you have until August 23rd. To sign up for the bootcamp after that it will be closed. And we don't know when the next one will be. We will have one. I probably most likely will be in 2025. If you missed it, don't worry. Just get on the wait list. So that way you'll be notified when the next bootcamp rolls along. Or you could sign up for any of our programs that do cover a lot of this stuff, which one of our big Core programs is breakthrough for bookkeepers and accountants. Where we actually cover this, but in depth and give you all the resources you need, rather than you having to write and document it yourself. So without further, do I hope to see y'all at the bootcamp? We are technically two days into the bootcamp. So if you're listening to this now, that means that you just got a little hint of what we're going to be covering on day three of the bootcamp, but that's only one piece of what we're covering, because we're going to go into a lot more on the systems day. So I can't wait guys, and I hope you got a lot of wins from today's episode and I can't wait to see y'all in the bootcamp.