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

How to Become a Removable CEO & Build a Work-Optional Business

• Alyssa Lang • Season 1 • Episode 82

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In this solo episode, Alyssa Lang covers the four key components you need to have in place in order to become a removable CEO within your business which include the right mindset, offers, systems and team.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How to reflect on how you got to where you are and how you will get to your next goal by shifting your mindset
  • How to optimize your offers to align with more profit and ability to afford your dream team
  • What systems you need to have in place in order to easily delegate and let go of the work
  • What the employee/contractor lifecycle looks like and how to hire the right people in your firm

Resources mentioned in this episode:

⚙️ Asana

⚙️ Notion

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:

Visit our website: workflowqueen.com

Check out our courses: workflowqueen.com/courses

Follow the Blog: workflowqueen.com/blog

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-lang-wq

Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/workflowqueen

Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/workflowqueen

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Have you been feeling like you're just so over having to put out constant fires within your firm and that you feel like you're always being pulled back in and never really being able to take the break that you actually truly deserve and desire. Then this episode is for you and today's episode, I'm deep diving into what I like to call removable CEO, which means that you have a business that helps you to become work optional. The whole point of the business, why we started this guys was to have that freedom and flexibility to be able to do and make what we please. And so in today's episode, I'm going to deep dive to four parts of things that you need. In order to become that removable CEO, each of those things include your mindset shifts that you need to, to leverage, to get to the new identity of yourself that will grow and Excel in scale in the business. Number two is optimizing your offers at saying, looking at the pricing that you put in place that you may be has not reevaluated since the beginning of your business, but really looking at it to see how can I make more profit plus be able to afford more overhead and the team to better serve my clients. Number three, we're going to talk about world-class systems. So what that looks like to identify specific bottlenecks. And there'll be to continuously improve your system so you can delegate the work easily. And then number four, we're gonna talk about the team who you have to have in place in order to truly help you scale. So without further ado, enjoy today's episode. So what does removable CEO actually mean? Not just to me, but also to you. So whoever's listening. I want you to just pause this episode and ask yourself what does removable CEO mean or what we like to call work optional. What does that look like for you? What kind of freedom or ability or choice does it give you to actually be able to operate your business? Without really needing you. So I'd love to, for you to just kind of start off this episode by really reflecting on what that means. I'll share what that means for me and kind of why I've chosen the term removable CEO is something that's really my driver for my day to day of the work and operation of the business. So as a removable CEO, someone who actually can step away from the company as needed and necessary, it has taken a long time. It's not just something guys that happens overnight. It's not something that happens in five days, two weeks. Like it really does take time. It doesn't need to take like years and years to happen, but guys, it does get easier over and over again. When you start to take more vacations or emergencies in life happen, and you have to step away, you start to build that right team and so on and so forth. So for me, it all started with the fact that I lost my brother really young. So I was 15. And my brother was 16. We lost him to cancer, so we lost him to leukemia. And at that time, It really hit me so hard how short life actually is. And I think we all know someone in our family or some sort of scenario or instance that has taught us that life is really short. Right. And so the reason I start in like, lead with that is because he really was such a pivotal moment for me as far as like the way that I wanted to live. And it wasn't even just in my business guys, this was also like the way I wanted to be a bartender. And it was because it was more flexibility in my schedule, even though sometimes I had to work nights. Like I was totally cool with that. I liked that I could switch. Shifts with coworkers. I didn't really get appealed by working in an office because I knew I'd have to be there the same days, same times every single week. And I just, that didn't appeal to me. Right. So I wanted to be able to have that freedom and flexibility to be able to move my schedule around with other. They're bartenders or servers to be able to like have the day off that I wanted. So the reason I kind of really lead with that piece is because it's also translated in my business as well. I will say when I've first started my very first business. So now I've had three businesses, my very first business. So back in 2015, I really thought it was just a side hustle guys. I literally did not know my businesses were going to become what they did. And they started off as a side hustle and I legit just wanted to just make extra cash because I wanted more freedom to do what I wanted to. So I wanted to travel more. I wanted to be able to give myself something beyond. W the people who walked through the door at the bar that I worked at. Right. And so that's really what drove and motivated me to start my business. Then all of a sudden the business really started to grow and really started to take footing. And the next thing you know, I'm quitting my job so I can go full force in the business. But even when I did that, guys, I still struggled with like, The right people on the team and the right systems and the right processes, but the whole idea, and the reason why I decided to bring on a team. Was because I really desired not be the one to do everything and not to be the one that my clients. Wanted to lean on or all that stuff. And so that's what really drove me to start having the team to become more, more removed. As the businesses have grown and as I've grown into different businesses and just a different type of leader, I've recognized that the more I've done this, the more I realized that, like I like building my businesses. Eh, to a point where I don't have to be there if I don't need to be, do I sometimes get pulled in? Absolutely. Do things sometimes hit the fan. Absolutely. Sometimes the business will need you guys and that's, what's where you have to decide. Okay. I need to be able to step in and be able to guide the ship right now, but that's really what you should be doing as a removable CEO is more of guiding the ship rather than like, oh my God, I got to put out all these fires and make sure all that's categorized and oh my God, the client didn't get their reports on time. However, if your team is not obviously working up to your standards and not making deadlines, you might have to be pulled in, but that's also with going back to finding the right people. And so for a removable CEO for me is just really the choice and the freedom to be able to work. Whenever I please. Plus also be able to make whatever I want without having to stress, but also be able to pay the team and also be able to make the impact that I want. So that's what removable CEO means for me. So I'd love to know if you want to share that with me. You can email me@supportatworkflowqueen.com or come on Instagram at workflow queen and share with me. What is your, what is. Removable CEO, what is work optional? Maybe you have kids. And you want to make sure that you can like, you know, take vacations or drop them off at school without having to worry about all the other things that you need to do. So in today's podcast episode, I want to be covering four major components, four parts. That are really going to help you to become what I like to call removable CEO or work optional. And we're going to deep dive into what each of those pieces are, what you need to do to implement them in order to get one step closer. Like I said, it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen. Right after you listened to this episode, guys, this does take work, but it is possible as someone who has helped. A lot of our students inside of our breakthrough program to really get to a point where they took off maternity leave, they took off three months. We've had someone who just recently was able to step away from the business for the very first vacation. I know what it's like to help other people do this, and I've done it for myself, tons and tons of time. And I promise you if you just kind of follow along and that you put in the work and you implement it is truly going to change the game with you. And if at any point, if any of this resonates with you and you're like, wow, I really want this. Or I really would love to learn more about this or how to execute this, implement this. What are the assets look like? And feel free to check out my group coaching program. It's called breakthrough for bookkeepers and accountants. And it's truly designed for those of you where the scaling part in your business, who are trying to remove yourself from the day-to-day. Those who are so tired of putting out fires every single day for the team. Maybe you don't have a team and you know, you need one in your team. Doesn't need to be 10 people. Guys. It could be one person. If you need that kind of support and you want to take everything you learned today and really implement it and get yourself to become that removable CEO, then please feel free to. click the link in the description of the episode of wherever you're listening to this ad and come check out our program. We are doing a summer special discount. On breakthrough for bookkeepers and accountants, we're offering a thousand dollars off from August 23rd until August 30th at 11:59 PM EST. So I hope that you join us there. And without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into the four parts that help you to become a removable CEO. So first things first is number one, powerful mindset. Number two is having optimized offers. Number three is building the right systems. And number four is creating a team, an empowered team to be able to make decisions without you. So we're going to deep dive into what each of those things mean and how they can actually make an impact and move things forward. One step at a time towards a removable CEO, because I always say that in order to become a work optional business owner, a removable CEO, you have to have the right mindset to let go. You have to have the right pricing and packages. So you could still take home profit and still be able to support your team. You have to have the right systems to make sure that nothing gets bottlenecked. And then your team is taken care of to execute the work and you have to have the right team and the right people behind you in order to move this business forward, you logistically can not be a removable CEO without a team. Like without someone else there. We can, if we wanted to, you could totally tell your clients, Hey, I'm going to take off for a whole month. I'm not going to do anything for you guys for a whole entire month. And I would love to see how that actually goes over with your clients. And the reality is if you really want to move away, you can even just have one person. Like I said, it doesn't need to be full-time. They can literally be 10 hours a week. You just have to have someone there to support you. If you do plan to step away at any point in the business. So the first part of becoming a removable CEO is having a powerful mindset. And in order to do that, we need to learn how to let go of things. There are some things that we have kind of built up within ourselves where like we tell ourselves or convince ourselves of certain things. And so it's what we call a mental block. It's something that's gotten in your way or stopped you from moving forward. And I know some of you guys are going to be like, wait, that doesn't make sense. I know I want to make X dollar amount, or I know I want my business to be at this place, or I know I want to have this number of clients. So what are you talking about Alyssa? Like, I don't have mindset. At blocks. You probably do. You probably just, haven't been honest with yourself to say that these are actually real fears that I have. So I'll give you a couple of really great examples that I hear a lot. the ones that I typically hear is like, I'm scared that the persons, the people that I hire. Are not going to be able to execute. Like I would, or there's no one out there who's going to care. Like for my clients, like I do, or what happens if they make a mistake and then I look stupid or another thing too is I don't have enough systems ready to go. So therefore I can not hire someone. There's so many things that we tell ourselves this, or like, maybe I don't deserve this. There's so many things that come up for us. And so I really encourage you to sit down and say, what has stopped me from getting the growth that I want. Truly, let's just say, for example, that you are a making $50,000 in your firm right now, and you want to be at 250 K's or next new jump. And then from 250 K, you want to do half a million from half a million, one hit seven figures. So you've got a plan, right? You're like, I'm getting there. It's happening. So my question for you is what has stopped you from already hitting your first new goal, which is 250 K what has stopped you? So if you're currently making 50 K or even a hundred K, but you want to hit your next new goal was 250 K. Why haven't you reached that already. Some of you guys might say like, well, I don't have the number of clients. But why don't you have the number of clients? So the seven layers of why. Why don't you have that number of clients? why hasn't that already happened for you yet? What has stopped you from getting those clients? Oh, well, Alyssa, I don't have the right systems in place to be able to handle that many clients that could bring in that much revenue or Alyssa. Like I don't have the team because I don't, I don't think I can let go and trust people when you start to ask yourself why over and over again, you'll start to realize that you have some bigger issues. That you have to deal with and you have to face in order to truly shift into the next step of this next version of yourself. How many of you have had. So many friends, so many family that will say, yeah, I want to start a business. I'm going to make it happen, blah, blah, blah. Right. They tell you all these things while I'm happy for them. And I really hope that they do it. A lot of the times they don't. And the reason why they don't is because everybody says they want to do things, but it's the work, it's the stuff. It's the things that we believe that hinder us from actually getting into and committing to something. So I'll give you a great example of this that happens in, my life right now. That has nothing to do with business. My like exercise, my diet guys, the way I take care of myself, I've been doing a really, a lot, a better job of taking care of myself as far as self care. But the one part of my life that I'm really lacking is movement and exercise. And that is something that I recognize about myself, but I have to sit back and say, what are the reasons why I'm not at the goal weight that I want to be, or that I'm not at the goal body that I want to be right. What is truly stopping me. One, I do know a part of that is action that I have not taken the action, but what has stopped me from taking action? what is the reason why is, because I think I don't deserve to feel like that, or I don't feel like I, you know, whatever that looks like. Right. So like just take a step back and say part of it is action. When it comes to your mindset, it's getting past that barrier and saying, I'm going to do it anyways. And then the other part of that is really uncovering what has hindered you? What has stopped you? So facing your fears guys is the best thing that you could do for yourself. From the very beginning of my business, I'd never wanted a team. Like I genuinely did not want a team. I wanted to wear the badge. I could do it all myself. And that you want to know why? I always thought it was because I wanted to wear this badge. I can always do it myself. It was the fact that I've never had people in my life prove to me that they can help me. And that I never had people surrounding me that would actually go through with the things that they said they would. So therefore I would put up this like block in this wall to say, oh no, it's because I could do everything myself. So like, I don't want to hire a team. So the reason I share that with you guys is because there's something deeper there that the reason why I didn't want to bring on a team is because no one had proved to me. Usually everything in life guys is, is facts. So like what, who is proving? What to you, or what kind of facts have been laid out in front of you to say, this is the reality of what has happened. These are the common trends. So my common trend was that people weren't showing up for me, that weren't actually delivering on what they say and promised in my life like personally, And so that showed up in my business as well saying, I don't want to hire a team because people in my life have not proved to me that they can support me. So therefore, I can also not hire a team because I fear the same thing. And so everything is really this just deep. We just live in this ****** up world, like in this beautiful world at the same time, like. It is so messed up all the things that we have to feel all the time guys, and like these deeper meanings, like it's a lot of work that I've done a lot of work recently on like really uncovering and unpacking the deep things in my life that have stalled me who have that have not helped me move forward. Right. So I really encourage you to do the same and think through, because you have to the identity that got you here at the stage that you're on business. Let's just say that you are at that 250 K mark, and you want to get your next jump to half a million. Then you need to take a step back and say, what identity, what person did I have to be? What type of traits did I have to have in order to get me to 250 K now, what traits, identity and version of myself do I need to be, to get to half a million that version of yourself to get to half a million is a lot different than the version of yourself. Now we need to shed. It's like a snake. We need to shed that skin and move on and give ourselves the opportunity to breathe in new skin and to be a different version of ourselves. But first we need to identify what we need to shed to get there. So that's stepping up as a leader. That's trusting and knowing that it's going to be okay. And like, I know that maybe in other reasons in your life. You have been proven why something doesn't work, but try it in the business and you are going to get, let down, you are going to hire the wrong team members. You are going to mess up on some of your systems. Guys, this is normal, but this is all part of the journey of being an entrepreneur. So the first biggest piece, as much as everyone thinks is part is cheesy to becoming a removable CEO guys is letting go of the old version of yourself. So you can step into the new version. This is something that we actually go through and cover inside of our breakthrough program. We actually deep dive into identifying the big things that have stalled you and stopped you the solutions to actually like implementing it and taking action without getting stalled. How to look, think through and listen to the vision of what you want your business to be, because you may not have sat down and really thought through what the vision of the company is. So that's creating the new identity. So we really deep dive into helping you unpack this. Throughout our program. If that's something that's your biggest issue right now, then that's a great starting point when joining breakthrough. So number two is optimize offers, guys, and this is all about creating the right pricings. That way you can still take home more profit, be able to afford the team and get yourself the resources that you need to better serve your clients. And so this component here, when we teach it inside of breakthrough is not from the newbie standpoint. Like we only attract people who are at scaling parts in their firm who need to reevaluate the way that you've been doing things, because what got you here is not, what's going to get you there, guys. The pricing you started off with in your firm when you first started your business. As a side, hustle is not the same pricing you need to have in place for someone who is scaling, who has more software, more resources, more overhead. More team member, more costs, more everything. Right. And so this is where you're going to sit back and reevaluate your current pricing and packaging. So my recommendation is to just sit down and say like, and you guys might not have like consistent pricing packages. So like for example, You know, maybe you're like, oh, I don't, I don't know that, like my basic bookkeeping is like 650 starting. Every single month, like that's okay. If you don't know that, what I recommend that you do is pull all of your clients list. I want you to look at all the pricing that you currently have in place and what that actually entails. So what's the scope of work. That way you could see, like how much are you guys charging, like holistically across the board. That way you can sit down and reevaluate. Oh my gosh. Like we actually are losing money. My other recommendation too, is to take a spreadsheet list out all of your clients. I want you to rate your clients by how you feel working with them. I want you to list out all the software that you guys, spend to maintain that client. So like, that'd be things like keeper Zenex or Hubdocs stuff like that. Or QuickBooks online. If you cover their subscription fees. I want you to list out the direct cost, then also the direct labor. So if you do currently have a team, I want you guys to list out the labor costs. People ask me all the time. Do I include my own salary? In the labor and that's an absolute no, because I could fire everyone today and they would all go to me. And so I never include myself into any of our profit costs. And any of our labor costs because I'm technically free, even though I put myself on salary and I'm an S-corp, I'm still technically free in my mind. If you do not have a team, then what I would recommend is looking at how much time that you spend on a specific client. So let's just say that you spend five hours on a specific client. Take that five hours and times it by like the average bookkeeper fee. So that way you could see like, okay, if I hired a bookkeeper, this is what it would cost me. that way you could see, like, would we still be profitable if I brought someone on, because this is the biggest mistake I see. As a lot of people were like, I can't afford to hire. and then they hire them like stressed out and like, they're just overwhelmed. It's because you need to adjust your pricing as soon as possible. It's a lot easier to adjust your pricing, moving forward to new clients rather than to old clients. You could still go back and increase rates. You have every right to, especially with inflation and everything kind of. You know, changing and the way that spending is happening and. salaries are getting more expensive and stuff like that. So my recommendation is to really analyze your current pricing. really look at who do you like working with in the firm? Realigning your offers. Like maybe you have services or offers that you've had for so long. Cause you're just like, I've just always done a Melissa. So like, I just keep them, cause I've just always done them. Well, I beg to say like, is there a way that you can go back? And look at what services do you actually offer and do you actually even freaking like them? If you don't like them, why are you doing them? I know that in the back of our mind, we're like, well, you just said that you can hire people to do things you don't like to do. Yes on that coin. You absolutely can. However, remember, at the end of the day, you are the one who's carrying the weight of alignment within your business. And so what that means for you is that that must mean that you must be aligned with your offers, your systems, your team members, the mindset that you have in place. And the whole point of this conversation right now. It's to get you to real line. And to really take a hard look and reevaluate everything you've been doing up until this point. So, what does that look like for you? What does it look like to look at your services? What if you offer payroll? And you're like, man, every freaking week. I hate payroll. I hate running it. I hate having my team on top of it, or I hate doing it, whatever that looks like, then why are you doing it? Why are you offering payroll? You don't have to. I think there's people out there who are like, well, my clients always ask all the time for us to do taxes. So now all of a sudden we're doing taxes. Just because your client to ask for it doesn't mean you have to say yes, no is one of the strongest words I've ever used within my business. And that's because the more you say no, the more you're defining what you don't want. And the more you're saying yes to the things you do. And so my recommendation is just take a step back, guys. Just reevaluate what you're offering for us. Like I don't have any desire to ever offer taxes, but what we've done is we've pivoted to say during our sales meetings, Hey guys, we absolutely love that you came to us and that you trust us so much that you not just want us to do your bookkeeping, but you also want us to do your taxes. However, it's actually not in your interest to have one from doing both. So I'm going to highly recommend that you work with one of our three preferred firms that can actually handle the taxes that we will become the liaison between you and your tax repair. That way you don't really have. Have to communicate with them as in regards to the business stuff and we can help get paperwork and information that we have easily available in that you've answered for us, we will help to alleviate that strain on that relationship. You have to build with them. And we will take over as much as we possibly can to support you. How does that sound? nine out of 10 times, guys, I'm not kidding you. When I say this. all they needed was to know that they would still be supported. The reason why clients get confused and they just want to work with one firm that does everything. Is because they just don't want to have to go through trying to figure out and research 10 different people to work with. And so if you alleviate that stress of what's that pain point for them is having to reach out, having to find another taxpreparer, having to talk to someone, interview them, not knowing and just blindly walking into it. Not confident that they're actually going to take care of them. You've eliminated that for them. You've said, I trust these three partners. They work with a lot of our clients in the same type of business that you work in. We are going to be the liaison between them. So you don't have to worry about the big words that they use. We're actually going to take that conversation over for you, as long as it's in regards to the business, your personal stuff. Unfortunately, we can't do that for you, but we are happy to be a part of that. You have a CFO that you work with. Cool. Introduce them to us that way we can be the liaison between you and your CFO and whatever that looks like. Guys. Same thing with payroll, we don't offer sales tax. We do some e-commerce clients. And I refuse to offer sales tax now. And everybody always asked me when they first come to work with us. Do you guys also offer sales tax? No, we don't. However, we work at this one company over here. We absolutely love them. And what they'll do is they'll prepare everything for you. They'll communicate with us and give us the information and you never really have to be involved. You do have to work with them separately, but here's our contact information. I'll do the introduction for you and that's all they want. And so like, I really want you to take a step back and say, why do I offer this? Do I need to offer this. Right. Maybe sometimes guys, it's, there's an opportunity for upgrades in your offers while you're doing this evaluation as well. I hear a lot of people in this space always telling me unless I really want to offer advisory, but I can't because I can't even deliver on the basic bookkeeping services. And so usually that's true a lot of the times, because. it's a different level tier of services. but my recommendation is just to kind of take a step back and say, what type of systems and people do need to have in place. To take over the bookkeeping. So that way I could focus on the advisory that I truly want to do. So your offers. It's just all about re-evaluating what you're currently doing, restructuring your pricing to actually fit your long-term profit goals and your long term team growth and overhead expense growth. And so my recommendation guys, if you want, if this is something that sounds appealing to you and you just don't know where to start, we actually covered this in my group coaching program, breakthrough, we deep dive into restructuring your pricing, your packaging. Really reevaluating the profit, the offers that you have in place, looking at your current client list, we provide you guys all the resources to actually go and do the price increases. The cadence at which we do at the trackers that we use, the information, how we actually get people. over into our new offers that we restructure and that we help you guys with throughout the program. so if you're interested, feel free to draw, click the link below this episode. We are doing a special deal right now from August 23rd, until

August 30th at 11:

59 PM EST. And you can join it for a thousand dollars off. You can join any time at any time of the year. It just happens to be that we're doing a sale right now. So I highly recommend that this is something that's a big pain point for you, that you come join us over and break through, and we can help you with this. We can help you with the mindset and also the offers as well. So the next component that you want to have in place, as you're trying to become a removable CEO, is I want you to build out world-class systems. And so this is really just all, not just like going in and creating SLPs and like setting up your project management system guys. It goes way beyond that. And I think a lot of people think that that's going to be the end all be all solution. But let me ask you this. If the SOP is that you have currently created in the project management system, that you've currently set up, why is it that you're still at the 250 K mark, but you still haven't hit the half million that's because most of the time, the biggest gap that I see within the systems is that a lot of people don't, aren't recording information, rather. They are just saying, here's the step-by-steps of how to do X here's the step by step of how to do Y and here's where you go to do your tasks. Those are great. And those are also key components that you need to have within your systems. But there's also a missing link guys of where there's. Missing information to get things done. This is why your team cannot make decisions without you. So, what I mean by this is that you need to take a step back and say, what information does someone on my team need in order to execute the task or the SOP that's at hand SOP means standard operating procedure. So I'll give you a great example of this. Maybe one of your SLPs literally show someone how to like categorize a transaction inside of QuickBooks online. That's great. You can give this to someone all day, every day, but each client is going to be unique and different there's information that they need about each client to know and understand how to categorize things. So, for example, I was just at dinner last night with a friend of mine, we went to sushi. And she's like, how can we deduct you're joking around. She's like, how can we deduct a boat? Like all the business, because she also has a business as well. And we were joking about it. And we were talking about different scenarios that in different types of businesses that would eventually get you to a point where you can buy a boat and deduct it. And so the reason why I bring that up, but I lead with that is because every single type of business that we presented. had certain information about it as to whether or not it could be deductible or not. So for example, if I had an ice cream company that like literally sold ice cream on a boat, At a lake where I live. Right? So like, if that was the case, that information is so pertinent for me to know and understand is like an IRS person. If I was like doing the taxes or doing anything for the books, I would need to know that this client specifically sells ice cream on boats, on the freaking late in order to know that this asset in this purchase of the boat is actually deductible. But then like, let's just say, for example, you lacked giving that information. And let's just say that the team member was working on the client's books for. I don't know a hairstylist and then they all of a sudden buy a boat. Like I'm giggling because like, you could see that, like, this information is so important in order for them to actually execute the work. And so it's like, where are you storing that information for us? We're actually a build out profiles. Per client of ours. That means like their preferred vendors, the information about the client, their future goals, their income habits, their expense habits, their asset habits. Pretty much everything that we need. So we build these profiles. I always joke and say that like build profiles on your clients, like as if you were going to assassinate them. So like, if you worked for the CIA, they would probably give you a folder that has all the information, you know, their eating habits, where do they usually hang out? what do they usually do? What's their background, like whatever that looks like. So build a profile on these clients because those pieces of information are really important for a team member and they can accompany any of the SOP, any of the systems that you have in place. So it's a reference point for us. We do this within notion. Notion is our like information system. Our project management system is a sauna. So I do teach a sauna and we have a program it's called kickoff with a sauna and inside of kickoff Assad, I give you all the like, projects and templates that you need in the project management side of things. And so my recommendation is to pick somewhere that you can provide information. You can give some of this information in a sauna. But over time, I found out that it's not as beautiful as what notion can lay out for us. Notion is actually something that I not only teach, but also provide inside of my group coaching program, breakthrough. It's just one tiny sliver of what we give inside a breakthrough. It's my whole entire notion set up. It shows you everything of how we capture that information. And it covers every single department of the business, which is super cool. And so my recommendation is to pick somewhere, to put this information. You can use a Google doc guys. Per client has one Google doc. That's like all the information pervert vendors. so that's a key part that I see missing for a lot of you guys is that you're not giving information because usually a lot of the times, these things that people have to do will have to accompany something, a piece of information, right. The whole other point, two of the systems is knowing what to fix next, because I think a lot of the times we all try to fix everything at one time, rather than fixing one thing and doing it really well. And so this is can actually hinder your growth. So this might be why you're stalled and not hitting the half million dollar goal, or the larger goal that you have in mind is because you're so busy trying to fix everything rather than fixing one thing right now. And so what we teach and what we do inside the program is we really help you guys to identify your biggest bottlenecks. And the way that we've actually built out breakthrough, which is really, honestly, one of my favorite things that we changed about breakthrough. Is that you no longer have to go into the program in order it's now actually based off your bottlenecks. So let's just say that your bottleneck is, oh man, I'm just not pricing correctly. I need to make more profit to be able to afford the team. Then boom, go straight to optimize offers. Fix that problem. Fix that bottleneck, increase your rates. Do the things that you need to know and understand and identify what is your next biggest area? Move on to the next thing. So we've built the program to not waste your time and not teach you things you don't need to know right now when instead it's like, okay, you need to hire, go straight to the hiring module. Watch this lesson here, build a job description that we've already provided for you. Here's the interview questions that you need. Like we've already done a lot of that work for you guys. And so you need to. Know and understand what is the biggest issue that you need to fix first? and a lot of times that's through reflection and a lot of time that's looking at what is the biggest issue. Right now. So like, usually when I ask this question to people, most people will say like, immediately, like, oh, I just don't have enough SLPs or I just don't have systems. Well, you can't tackle all systems people at one time, you have to identify what part of the system. So for example, some people are like, my onboarding is just like chaos. Like every time a client is onboarded, I can't let it go. I don't have a documented. I'm freaking out every time I'm doing it, it's overwhelming and so on and so forth. And so the reason I bring that up is because we teach you how to identify those bottlenecks so that you can fix them systems are all about continuously improving guys. And so if this is something that really appeals to you, we really heavily focus on world-class systems inside a breakthrough for bookkeepers and accountants. And so in the program, we cover your sales and marketing systems, your operation systems, your team systems, pretty much every system within the business to make sure that you are easily translating information and building the business. So that way it doesn't rely on you. That's how our students are able to take. Vacations take long-term leaves. Take maternity leaves. As, because we've helped them with the systems. And they've key. They've pointed out the specific part of their system that they need to fix. So the last component, guys of creating a removable CEO lifestyle is what we like to call the empowered team and employee. So like, this is where you need to take a step back. Like I said, it truly is not really possible to become a removable CEO where the business still runs and operates and makes money without you. If you don't have someone to at least help you with the execution of work, especially in our industry. We are very much service-based. Can you, like I said, walk away and say, Hey client, I'm going to be gone for a week. I'm just not going to respond to anything, but I'll be back a week later. Absolutely. But I'm talking like if **** hits the fan on emergency happens, life happens. And you might have to step away to two to three weeks. What's going to happen. Are you going to ask your clients for that grace? At one point, your client is going to hit a certain wall to say, I can give grace, but I can't give grace for that long. Right. And so a team is really important. And like I said, at the very beginning, Team does not need to equal like 10, 20 employees, guys. I think there's like this common misconception that it needs to be full-time and employee, and also like a bunch of people. A team can literally be like a VA 10 hours a week, five hours a week. It really doesn't matter. Give you someone as a contractor or an employee, regardless. You just need someone to be able to support you with the information you're providing to them, to make sure that they could still execute on the service that you have promised to your clients. That is what you need from your team members. So how this works. There's a lot of different parts that happen throughout the team part. There's not just the, okay. I have a current team. Let's make sure they execute on the work, but this means like actually hiring the right people. So where to start? This is the big question I get Alyssa, where do I start? Do I hire a VA to hire a bookkeeper account manager? I don't know where to start. We actually teach this insight a breakthrough. We talk about. How to identify who, who you need to hire next. That is with your biggest problem in the business, who to hire next, what that process looks like. We help you build out your org chart, everything that you need. So my recommendation to you is to take a step back and say, what do I need to do? And have in place in order to have the right people? That's where systems come into place. So while you're actually hiring and you're going through the hiring process. You're going to want to really take a step back guys and think about what are your interview questions? what kind of assessment are you going to have in place to test her knowledge base? what's that interview process going to look like? Do you have anything, an idea in mind, an offer letters? I know this is a very overwhelming subject. This is something that we cover, like all parts of the life cycle of an employee, all from ideation. So like the idea of wanting to hire all the way to the actual hiring process, including the interview questions. Assessments job descriptions, everything that you possibly need. Than to next, actually bringing on that team member. Cause this is where a lot of people are. Like if I just hire someone to solve my problem. It doesn't stop there. Unfortunately, I wish it did. When you hire someone, you still have to be able to train them. Like up to your process. I know a lot of you guys will be like, Alyssa. I just want someone who could just step in take over and I never have to train them. That's not the reality of it. Guys. You can literally hire me. Someone who's been in the industry for a very long time, who knows everything like the back of my hands and actually knows systems and processes in every way that I can support you. However, I don't know how you operate your company. And so yes, there are skillsets that people can have, but they still need to know and understand how you operate in the business. And so there's the onboarding and training process. We actually provide a training agenda. That when we actually teach you how to, like flesh out your own agenda for your team as well. Inside of breakthrough. And we also cover the onboarding process for your team members. What that actually looks like. And as you're building these things out and training these people, we can bring them to coaching calls where you can ask questions, live with one of our coaches or also with other people in the program and come bring your questions to the Facebook community as you're deciding on who to hire so on and so forth. So there's the onboarding process as well. And during this time, you want to make sure you have a strict agenda, whether that means that you just have a piece of paper written to keep you on track, to say. I'm going to start off with covering X, Y, and Z. that's really important. You don't have to have a prerecorded onboarding. Program like we do. We actually teach you how to do that inside a breakthrough, but you can start with a training agenda then once someone's onboard and they're starting to work for you, you have to maintain that team member, which is through key things like KPIs or key performance indicators. This is truly guys, all of these things. I know it's overwhelming. It's because this is what makes you a removable CEO. Hence why I said it is not easy and it is not something that is for the faint of heart to really get yourself to this point. There's a lot of things that you have to implement. However, I know a lot of you guys are probably like, I don't know, the time Alyssa to like implement all these things. When people come to us and join breakthrough, I tell him you really only need around two to three hours max, a week of implementation, showing up to calls or interacting in the group to actually implement and change your life over the next six months. And so my recommendation for you guys is to just take a step back and say, what am I willing to do or sacrifice right now in order to get me to a point where I don't have to be here, that I don't have to be in the day-to-day putting out these constant fires. So in the employee area and the team part that we cover, we also deep dive into like the leadership side. So like moving team members into a leadership role. And then we go through the one part. That's not the fun conversation guys, but letting your team members go. We also talk about performance reviews. We actually give you guys on my exact performance review system that I use with my own team as well, but also letting go of your team members that are no longer in alignment. These are hard conversations and not fun, but that's what the support in the program comes with. If you're interested or you want to check out more about what breakthrough. Through is feel free to click the link below this episode of wherever you're listening to this, or go to breakthrough with systems.com backslash join. There is a link on the page as well. Towards the middle where you go to actually pay for the program, it'll say book a call with our team members. So if you need to like chat with us and see if it's the right fit for you and just kind of explain your scenario. Feel free to reach out to us. And we're more than happy to answer that question. So to kind of recap this episode here, the biggest key points about becoming a removable CEO is to help you get the right mindset in place, the right offers to give you more profitability and be able to afford more overhead and team members. Give you the right systems that were near no longer bottlenecking the company. You've got everything working like a smooth system, and that you also have the right people in place, in the right seats to be able to help you. If this is something that intrigues you and that this is something that you want to strive for and work through. I highly recommend that you come join us over at breakthrough for bookkeepers and accountants. We have helped hundreds of other bookkeepers and accountants from all around the world. Actually, this is not just US-based. This is also not software specific. So a lot of people know me from my kickoff with Asana program, where it was very much, you have to use Asana in this program. You actually don't need to use a specific software. We have students using all different things from all different parts. Of the business. We teach you the theories and the concepts that you need to apply to the system that you use. And remember guys, what got you here? Won't get you there. Can't wait to see there.