Choosing Tech Based on Objective: Scale or Sell
In a session I presented at AccountingWEB Live Summit in San Diego earlier this month, I spoke about preparing your firm for acquisition or succession. One of the key points I elaborated on was automation and tech, which are everything when you’re in a service-based business. The more you automate, the more efficient you are and the more billable time you have available for your clients. When looking to scale your company, I always advise to scale with as little overhead as possible. The whole goal is to be able to grow your revenue without adding another person to your team.
This is completely possible if you use the right technology. When the time comes to sell your firm, you are going to be dealing with the same overhead/people issue. They want to buy your product, they want to buy your contracts and they want to buy your intellectual property. They don’t want to buy your people because your people are not for sale. The number one thing that you need to look for when selling your company is how much of your product/service is actually for sale and how much of what you do can be sold without a person attached to it.
One thing that you’ll hear me say often is when attacking the issue at hand, always go for the low-hanging fruit first. Ask yourself, “What is the easiest thing for me to automate/add tech to in my firm right now in order to add efficiency?” If it was my accounting firm, I would automate my bookkeeping immediately. The next thing I would automate is my payroll journal entries. Did you know that almost every payroll software out there will link to your accounting software and will enter your payroll journal entry automatically? That is a huge amount of time saved with something that you don’t have to spend any money on; you just need to get it set up properly. There are no new software costs added, and this automation is likely already available to you right now. An entire role in your firm could be eliminated just by automating your day-to-day bookkeeping and your payroll journal entries.
I am a huge list maker/task organizer. My favorite tech is my project management tool; it runs my business and my life. A great project management tool will have all of the features you need embedded inside of it so you don’t have to add plug-ins. One of my favorite features of my tool is the templates. I template everything: client onboarding, process/procedure, team onboarding and so on. It’s so easy to update your templates as you grow and tasks become obsolete or new tasks are added, but the beauty of checklist templates is that balls are never dropped. The back office of your firm will really make or break the success of your business scaling and also the due diligence process of an acquisition. No company wants to buy an unorganized mess.
As a firm owner, I really enjoy automating my nagging emails to my team when tasks aren’t completed on time. In my project management tool I can actually set up automations and reminders to send out an email saying, “Hey, don’t forget about this…..” The one thing I love about that is I don’t have to put any thought into it daily, and those emails are so terribly annoying that the team makes sure they stay on top of their tasks in order to avoid receiving the reminders. It’s the little things in life, and if you ask me, automation is worth its weight in gold.
When it comes to automation/tech, everything is going to be dependent on your setup and how you want the process to flow before you even go to add in technology. You need to know what you are solving for, and you need to have the time to learn the piece of technology and then set it up properly so it can scale with your firm. A lot of time will be wasted adding new technology or software platforms that really don’t make sense for your company or weren’t needed. Do your homework, sit through demos or phone a friend.
No matter what your need is, there is likely a solution out there that can automate or make your firm more efficient. You just have to know where to look for it and what exactly you are looking for.