Accounting Apps Podcast

Templetizing for Quality and Growth 🌱 | Jacqui Jones

Today on episode 44 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jacqui Jones the founder of Way We Do, a cloud based standard operating procedures platform. Although Jacqui’s career started in film and TV, she accidently fell into the Internet industry right at the beginning of the Web with Netscape Navigator 1.2. She moved from Brisbane to Auckland for a 6 month contract, which turned into 14 years.   Her career has spanned a range of Internet specific roles including digital product management at APN, Head of Digital Product at Yellow NZ, Marketing Manager and SEO Consultant at Netconcepts (NZ & US), Communications Manager at The Electronic Commerce Network (ECN), owner of web development agency Webenz, and Product Manager at MessageMedia, a subsidiary of NZ Post.   Way We Do is a cloud based standard operating procedures software, enabling businesses to create electronic work instructions, such as policies, procedures and checklists, so teams won’t forget simple or complex tasks when they do their day to day work. Business owners implement Way We Do primarily for productivity and compliance purposes. Subscribers currently come from 9 countries, ranging from small businesses with a handful number of team members to large enterprises with thousands of employees.  Way We Do is used by a variety of industries including accounting firms, bookkeepers, professional services, retail, trade, medical, manufacturing, technology and many more.    Subscribe to Episode 44 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807   In this episode I talk to Jacqui about: Dan and Jacqui started ‘Way We Do’ after starting a business called Key Word Intent – a software and internet marketing business. They participated in the Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business in 2012. Discovered they and other businesses were struggling with the tools they were using to document their business. So they decided to create a solution to solve this problem. Jacqui discusses how customers affected their brand evolution which currently includes old planes and emblems. Jacqui likes inventors, curious people and problem solvers. Jacqui uses Xero, ZenDesk and CapsuleCRM though may replace Capsule with Hubspot, in their own business. Discussion about online note taking solutions – I use iAWriter. Jacqui trialled Evernote. Why should businesses systemise and document their policies and procedures? To scale up you need to document policies and procedures so your staff know what to do and you deliver quality and consistently. Procedures can free up a business, so you can run the business without being in there. Plus they have a business they can sell, license or franchise. Keep refining and improving processes Coaches recommend running a business like a franchise. You should start systemising business from day one, especially if you hope to employ people, and scale up. Implementing procedures can cut out a layer of waste in the business. Anyone in the organisation can document policies and procedures: subject matter expert, business owner, or pair people with writers to extract. Hire specialist technical writers. Start on one part of the business first – Jacqui suggests tackling the biggest problem area first – so you get a few wins on the board. To create a positive feel about the process of implementing processes! WayWeDo prompts the team back to the solution to keep using the operations manual. This minimises inconsistency with brand experience. WayWeDo is built on an API so can connect with other solutions. Pitching to Venture Capitalist and raising capital for the right reasons. RiverPitch and lessons learnt. The WayWeDo incorporates images, video and audio and different learning styles – important for people who struggle with reading or learning difficulties. Aids with outsourcing and with non-English speakers. WayWeDo has a partner programme.   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.   Resources mentioned in this interview   Xero https://www.xero.com/au/ Evernote https://evernote.com/ iaWriter https://ia.net/writer/ios/ Capsule CRM https://capsulecrm.com/ ZenDesk https://www.zendesk.com/ Hubspot http://www.hubspot.com/ Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business   Connect with Jacqui   https://www.xero.com/au/ Website: www.waywedo.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/way-we-do/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/waywedo Twitter: https://twitter.com/waywedo Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Waywedo/   Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Brazilians, Beauty and Bookkeeping: a Journey of Self Love💗 | Danetha Doe

Ep.43 Danetha Doe - Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love Today on episode 43 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Danetha Doe. She is a celebrity financial strategist and sought after speaker on the “Future of Accounting”. She was selected to be a millennial brand ambassador for Xero in 2014 and named one of the Top 40 under 40 accounting professionals by CPA Practice Advisor in 2015. She is the creator of Financial Foundations, a 6-week bookkeeping training program for small business owners. Danetha Doe Consulting, LLC is a financial education company. They provide training programs for small business. And work with large FinTech companies to engage millennial and women entrepreneurs. Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 In the intro I mention the Timely 30 Day #SelfCare challenge. You can find out more about it here: - http://www.gettimely.com/self-care-challenge/signup/ Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. In this episode I talk to Danetha about: From her days as an NFL cheerleader Danetha learnt that you can do accomplish anything that you set your mind too. Dancing involves a combination of physical, emotional and mental discipline. In business our mindset is so important to get things accomplished and become a great entrepreneur we have to believe that we can become an entrepreneur and that we deserve to have a successful business. Danetha grew up running track and approaches business like a full bodied sport. Having mental discipline is important to get things done and push through when times can be challenging. In track you can only get so far running track participating as an individual. You also need to be a good team player. In business Danetha sees herself as both an individual and a team player: it’s important to be laser focused on own business goals and take care of herself first and foremost. In addition if I find a way to help other people both of us can rise to a level that’s mutually beneficial. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Can’t Lose – Danetha mantra is Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love: It’s about being in complete control of your life and your destiny. Danetha Doe Consulting is a financial education company – empowering others to make financial decisions that make the most sense for them. Maybe this is splurging on the spa or travel. When we completely ignore the finances, or hand it over to someone and expect them to make all the decisions – that is when things in their business can go sour. Danetha works with a lot of personal trainers – you cannot outsource your burpees! Danetha started her first business at twenty, after finishing university, selling active wear. This resulted in her becoming completely broke and very depressed in 2008. She felt she had failed as an entrepreneur. How could I make such a big financial mess of myself with my knowledge and drive? Danetha got some part time jobs. Initially at the Grand Canyon as a waitress…Then worked at a ski resort as an accountant. Ski Resort did really well with revenue – but still had cash flow issues. Danetha role was to figure out why they were doing so well at sales but were cash poor. She realised from this experience that cash flow challenges are across the board – they are a skill you have to learn. I hope through my own experiences my own clients will not have to go through hard times with cash flow and can learn from my experiences. That is where the idea for Danetha Doe Consulting came from. As a small business owner you are already crazy smart because you’ve launched a business – so you are smart enough to manage your finances as well. Discovered the disconnect between university education and the real world – you can only get so far with formal education - as a small business owner you have to get out there and do the work, and make mistakes and figure out what works for you. Danetha loves when her clients develop a sense of confidence and self-worth around what they do. Own the service and price you provide to the world. Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked: “In your coaching and mentoring role how has Xero and other cloud apps helped her & her clients?” Xero is one of the things that re-inspired Danetha to do accounting. Xero brings a sense of beauty to our work as accountants. It is the only platform that makes it approachable to do their books. Because of the beautiful design and layout they feel it is intuitive and it instils a sense of confidence that they can navigate around the system. Danetha is a big fan of Tsheets a time tracking tool. One of the first things Danetha does with clients is to increase their prices. She combs through their prices and they are normally undervaluing themselves so they will increase it. A part of being able to ‘own’ the new rate is to be able to see how much time they take to do a task – so they understand how much they need to charge. Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked “What cloud apps does she use to deliver her work?” I use Xero and Tsheet and a platform called thinkific to house training modules for my clients. Danetha has a blog at Money and Mimosas http://www.moneyandmimosas.com/ … It is a bookkeeping blog that includes a detail photo expose of someone enjoying a sugar Brazilian wax! She mixes up topics about skin care and mimosa’s with bookkeeping because she wanted one place where she could read about bookkeeping and skincare topics. The underlying why behind the blog is giving woman permission to feel OK about wanting to be pretty and getting paid. Danetha believes the future of accounting looks a lot like accountants moving into the role of a consulting or trusted advisor or outsourced CFO – though she is not sure how well this is being embodied yet. It will be less data and manual entry, and as we get into AI it will be less tax filing. As we move into a global world the tax barriers between countries will begin to start to melt. It will not be about servicing clients in the states if you live in the states. It will really be about ‘How can you help your clients grow their business using the financials in their company?’ With technology completely commoditising our work - we are now competing globally and we have to convince a client that we understand their deepest desires and deepest needs when it comes to their business. It’s about how can they grow their business. Marketing and branding helps you spread awareness about your company to these global clients as well as demonstrate your expertise within your specific niche. Danetha shares some examples of branding she has used in her own business to connect with clients on a human level and transition it to business. Danetha talks about her various partnerships. Danetha loves conversations and connecting with people who are passionate about their business. Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview moneyandmimosas.com/ thinkific Tsheets Xero Connect with Danetha Doe danethadoe.com twitter.com/danethadoe Instagram.com/danethadoe

The Importance of Processes and Collaboration⚙️ in Building a Modern Practice | Greg Tuckwell

Today on episode 42 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Greg Tuckwell who’s been the Director of Poole Group since 1993 and CEO of Zerobooks since 2013. Greg joined Poole Group after 6 years with C&L (PWC) doing insolvency and came to Poole Group to set up a Business management division. Three years as an engineering draftsman before that. Greg had never done tax and always focussed on systems, processes, feedback/reporting and business improvement. His passion is to challenge and improve how a business operates and he has done a number of successful business turnarounds. That passion/focus has now moved to cloud based systems Poole Group is an accounting practice with around 60 staff across a range of specialised fields from standard compliance to SMSF and have our own AFSL licence to offer wealth planning and insurances without being tied to one brand. Poole Group also have two coders on staff to automate as many processes as possible. ZeroBooks is an offshoot of Poole Group and is designed to provide back office and white label bookkeeping to other accounting firms and was born with a global focus. Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. In this episode I talk to Greg about: #ItsAllAboutTheView Greg’s version of Stop and Smell the Roses. You’ve got to enjoy what you do and life. If you’re coming to Brisbane Xerocon 2016 add a few days on and travel up to the Sunshine Coast where Greg Tuckwell is based. Most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth. Greg’s background is in insolvency and has never done a tax return! The top three reasons for business failure Greg saw while working in insolvency were: Their processes weren’t good Their information wasn’t good. They made the wrong management decisions. Focus was on processes, information, management reporting, and kpi’s. When they saw Xero come through realised they could build a whole business platform using the eco-system. Benefits of working in insolvency as a young accounting graduate. Staff initially suggested Greg should look at Xero. Attended Xerocon Melbourne 2012 and it left a big impact. Xero gave their vision, they said this is where we are, these are our deficiencies, this is our future, and this is our vision. What really got me was when Stuart McLeod said Xero would have payroll by March 2013. Once payroll came out we moved forward with Xero. 5 steps to developing systems and processes: Understand what is required and what the outcomes are. Understand what the client needs. A process for one client may be different to another. There may be several options – need to build that in and identify what is best for the client. Processes are documented as detailed as possible. The practice gives a procedures manual to the clients so they have a process they are meant to follow. [For other business this could range from creating unique procedure manual, through to Xero for Dummies, through to printing off notes from official Xero Training notes] The team may identify rework and refinement. They will help define it and improve the process. When recruiting staff look at experience, gut feel, culture, outgoing, good references. When recruiting need a mixture of Finder Minder Grinder in the team. Finder: People who are good at going out and finding work, getting work, bringing it in. Minder: Manage relationships. Talk to people. Good at communication. Can manage a team Grinder: Good at what they do. Typically introverted. Focused on being process driven and getting the job down. Need to identify the gaps and fill them. Work out what you want to do and collaborate with people who want to do the other work. Offer a scholarship for local students to go to the local university and study accounting for the last 12 years. Manage a team in the Philippines. Two coders are on staff – they have developed all the automation in the business. The website, the on-boarding, the proposal. Relationships are the most important part of any business. Always personal phone call at the start of the relationship. Suggest small businesses move to the clouds through a staged implementation. Once clients were used to Xero, we would suggest another solution. Don’t sell products, sell benefits and solutions. So the next conversation could be let’s move you to Receipt Bank. Don’t try and take it all on at one. Initially were trying to understand as many add-on solutions as we could. We recognised that we did not have the resources or expertise to become experts in them all. We focused on understanding Xero and the horizontals. A horizontal solution is one that can be applied to many different industries. When it comes to the verticals we talk to the integrators who specialise. So the big learning was collaboration.   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview Receipt Bank www.crunchboards.com/ www.chaser.com.au/ www.tradiepad.com.au/ Connect with Greg Tuckwell zerobooks.com/ poolegroup.com.au/ @poole_group @Zerobooks @greg_tuckwell zerobooks.com/blog facebook.com/poolegroup Poole Group Zerobooks.com Greg Tuckwell Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.  

Building a ☁️ Cloud Banking Solution From the Ground | Jessica Ellerm

Today on episode 41 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jessica Ellerm who is the Partner Development Manager for Tyro, Australia’s nextgen bank. She is responsible for the rollout of Tyro’s deposit account with Xero and Tyro’s first growth funding solution, launching mid-year. Jessica is also an active commentator in the Fintech space, writing regularly for her own blog jessicaellerm.com and international blog Daily Fintech. She also guest reports for global Fintech podcast Breaking Banks and is an online broadcast journalist for the Finance News Network, where she presents the Monday and Friday Market Outlook. Tyro Payments, Australia’s first independent EFTPOS provider, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. This is the first time a challenger has been authorised to compete head-on with the banking establishment. Today Tyro has close to 16,000 EFTPOS customers and processes nearly $8 billion dollars annually. Subscribe to Episode 41 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In this episode I talk to Jessica about: Jessica maintain’s her own blog at jessicaellerm.com. It’s focused on growth hacking, fintech, banking and payments – topics that are of interest to her. It contains medium to long form articles. Jess shares the benefits of publishing her own blog. This included connecting with people all over the world, and recognising topics people engaged with. Jessica has worked in FinTech before they even used the terminology FinTech! A good way to explain what you do – when no-one really understand what you do - is turn it into a story and relate it back to a person’s life and how it affects them. Breaking Banks is a global podcast run by Brett King a futurist who is focused on disruption in Financial Services and the emerging FinTech sector. Jessica shared what’s happening across the world, in terms of peer to peer and peer to consumer, Challenger and Tandem banks. The next areas of disruption will be around regulation and insurance. #RegTech #InsurTech. UK and US leading the way in this area. UK is embracing Fintech. Blythe Masters CEO of Digital Asset Holdings(ex JP Morgan) has just made a significant investment in partnership with the ASX around blockchain technology. She has pointed out that FinTech has been able to flourish because the banks are so focused on cleaning up the mess after 2008. Innovation is happening outside of the banks essentially. Malcolm Turnball our Australian Prime Minister has a strong banking background and has established the FinTech Advisory panel – one of the goals is to make finance more accessible to small business. Malcolm Turnball and Scott Morrison have come out and openly stated that they want Australia to lead FinTech in Asia Pacific region. They will probably be pretty aggressive about making that agenda happen. Jessica is also broadcast journalist with the Finance News Network an online TV show. We talk about different publishing platforms and how people are monetising it. People hardly watch real TV shows. Working in blogs, podcasting and visual mediums Jessica thinks blogging has the most impact – because you can read it on the train! Jessica thinks we need to re-look at old school marketing – such as direct mail outs and simply having a chat on the phone. If someone wants to seed a story with Jessica email her directly or approach her by twitter. Tyro built a new payments infrastructure they built a bank solution from ground up – on the cloud. It integrates with POS – which is a big differentiator. Tyro Payments, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. The bank account offers two-way integration with Xero. The money goes in and can be pushed out. This concept is focused on batch payments. The whole batch is sent through to Tyro bank account, and the Tyro user taps an app on their phone to approve the payment. With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities. The administrator person can do all of the admin and back end processing. The small business owner has full control over payments out of the business bank account. He or she is sitting on his yacht in the Bahamas and see the notification come through. He can think I know a payment is coming out today, and click to approve the payment. For this model to suit your business - you have to have enough supplier invoices to benefit from batch payments. Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone. It takes about 7 – 10 days to set up Tyro. Xero Advisors can train and educate clients around batching, integrating with other add-ons in the eco-space like Receipt Bank. Climb a few hills rather than climb Mt Everest slowly roll out solution improvements for clients. Jessica thinks more Challenger banks like Tyro will emerge. Overcoming trusting people and business online. Initiatives around technology and transparency to help address the culture problem in banking. In Netherlands bankers take a Hippocratic oath. Gender balance in FinTech. FemtechLeaders is a global meetup group for female in this space. Jessica loves small business, technology and finance – it’s all about helping people at the end of the day.   Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone. With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities. From publishing her own #Fintech blog @JessicaEllerm has connected with people across the world. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. Resources mentioned in this interview include Tyro Receipt Bank Connect with Jessica Ellerm @JessicaEllerm http://jessicaellerm.com/ Tyro  Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.  

Online Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers 🖥️ | Matt Wilkinson

Today on episode 40 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Matt Wilkinson who is the founder and CEO of Bizink. Bizink helps accountants and bookkeepers grow their practices through their websites and online marketing. Matt has worked with accountants since 2010. He has over 15 years’ experience of digital marketing for his own businesses and other companies as a consultant. Bizink’s mission is to make accountants incredible online. With our websites, content and online marketing, we help accounting firms across the globe win more business, engage their clients and save time. Subscribe to Episode 40 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Visit CloudStories.com to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In this episode I talk to Matt about: How exchange rate affects cloud based businesses selling globally [pricing and costing]. Developing ideas for products and bringing them to market. Accountants and bookkeepers need to define and communicate their unique selling point (USP). If this is sorted – it makes developing an online presence much easier. Content marketing is similar to inbound marketing. Smart marketers want to get involved with the conversations that people are having online and pull people towards the business. Engaging content pulls business owners towards accountants and bookkeepers. This could be in the form of an e-book or an real event. Great example of content marketing ‘Ultimate Guide to Business Process Automation with Zapier‘ produced by Process.St the simple process and workflow management tool. Matt states ‘We are all in business and need to pay bills. Content marketing needs to convert business owners to buyers. For example include a relevant offer, amongst useful content’. It is great to create cool content – but don’t be shy of making appropriate commercial offers. If your content is targeted you are speaking to the right audience. Hopefully you offer the right services for that audience. They should be interested in that and they won’t be offended if you make a proposal to them. Potential clients want to see actionable things that help them grow manage and run their business. Talk to their pain points. Typical evergreen themes for accountants and bookkeepers include cashflow, business planning. It is good to focus on an industry or niche, better to appear strong to a small audience. The more specific you can make it — the more effective it’s going to be. Using fiverr.com for content writing — nuances and technical commentary was completely inaccurate, but beautifully written. Social Media channels for accountants and bookkeeper:LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Linkedin is a must for networking and publishing posts. Twitter is a research channel, to join in on conversations of what is happening in the industry. You can connect with CEO’s of listed companies via twitter. Also you can distribute content via twitter. Facebook: Matt thinks a lot of firms wasting time on FaceBook, and are not getting leads from it. Content marketing is difficult to track, but it is certainly effective. Google adwords and PayPerClick appears above search engine results such as blog posts. Email marketing if you do it right is one of the most effective forms of marketing and you can track the click throughs. Thanks to Receipt Bank for sharing these stats with me prior to the interview! Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020) forecasts 5.4 B people will have mobile phones by 2020. With that in mind we discussed whether potential accounting clients really go to a mobile device to search for an accountant or bookkeeper? All accountants and bookkeepers need mobile friendly websites. 23% of traffic to BizInk accountant and bookkeepers sites is from mobile devices. Some firms had as high as 51% traffic from mobile device. Test your website is mobile friendly here: https://www.google.com.au/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly If your site is not mobile friendly – then you don’t exist on a mobile device. 5 Common mistakes accountants and bookkeepers make on their website Websites need to be mobile friendly Websites should not simply be a bland and vanilla online brochure – they need to display a USP a unique selling proposition. Websites need to contain content, typically in the form of a blog. The websites need a call to action. The business needs to continue a relationship with site visitors. This can be done by giving away useful content in exchange for an email address. Going forward BizInk is working on lead generation and lead nurturing, and developing content to achieve this. This helps accountants and bookkeepers convert prospects to clients. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.  Resources mentioned in this interview Receipt Bank fiverr.com Process.St Linkedin Twitter Facebook Connect with Matt Wilkinson Bizinkonline.com twitter.com/mattwilkinsonNZ nz.linkedin.com/in/mattbizink Bizinkonline.com/blog/ Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

🥇 The Perfect Advisory Relationship | Richard Francis

Today on episode 39 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Richard Francis who’s the founder of Spotlight Reporting. His company have recently released a whitepaper called The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In today’s show I talk with him about this paper and how advisors and business owners can benefit from monthly advisory meetings. Spotlight Reporting provides award-winning reporting, forecasting, consolidation and dashboard reporting tools to progressive accountants, franchises, NFP's and business owners. Our cloud tools allow for integrated data-sets (Xero, QBO, Vend, Google Analytics etc) and exceptional, customisable reports for better decision-making and governance. For people listening overseas they have offices in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia. So you should definitely be able to find someone to help on board you with this solution. In this episode I talk to Richard about: What Spotlight Reporting does for advisors and business owners Delivering services and attitudes to help transform accounting firms The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper How to run an Advisory / Spotlight Reporting session with clients Blake Oliver gives away Spotlight Reporting dashboard free to all clients – and this in turn generates work for him. Overview of a monthly advisory meeting Establishing understanding and centre yourself on client goals Setting a monthly agenda Ask lots of questions at the start of the meeting Advice over a coffee Richard works through a typical small business example Use a whiteboard to deconstruct and visualise the business model Review pricing and charging for value vs hourly rate Systems and technology reviews Trend and margin analysis, benchmarking Agree on outcome and follow up with action points, including a system that follows up the action points Keep timesheets to monitor budgets   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper Spotlight Reporting Receipt Bank Deputy Xero Trello MinuteDock Connect with Richard Francis Richard@SpotlightReporting.com http://www.spotlightreporting.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotlight-reporting-limited http://www.facebook.com/SpotlightReporting https://twitter.com/spotlightrep Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review. Some of the listeners might know Jason Forbes who’s the Spotlight Reporting Director of Sales here in Australia. I know Jason from my days as a MYOB Trainer back in early 2000. Then Jason became my first Xero account manager. And now he is at Spotlight Reporting – helping advisors and business owners understand their numbers and use them to meet their business goals. P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing from David New who is now the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Spotlight Reporting. In episode 25 David talks about building teams and growing businesses in superfast time.

📍 The Ultimate Guide to Delivering Quality Xero Training | Lisa Martin

Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Lisa Martin owner and manager at GoFi8ure. The business offers one-on-one or one-to-many training at your doorstep or in-house. The tagline is ‘get training and become a Xero Hero’. You'll recall I interviewed Lisa in episode 20 of Cloud Stories. In that episode we explored her Xero journey. I asked her to come back on the show - so we could discuss how a business could offer Xero training. Lisa and I both have a gazillion years of Xero training experience between us. We are passionate about delivering high quality training and helping people who want to DIY Bookkeeping. We have a candid discussion about all aspects of offering Xero training. You'll hear about what works and what doesn't work for us, and how we can bring real world experience into Xero training. I personally think what’s great about the interview – is we do things differently – so you get to hear different options – and perhaps decide what’s best for you in your business. If you've ever thought of offering Xero training as an additional service in your business - then you must listen to this episode.  Please note - we're independent of Xero - and all opinions (and we have a lot of them) are our own. In this episode I talk to Lisa about: Why we offer Xero training Qualities of a good trainer – what to look for in a good trainer Importance of communication, plain English and common sense skills Difficulties of introductory training Find out where students are at prior to training Icebreakers to use before running a training session Understanding what the student hopes to get out of training Asking open ended questions The importance of monitoring other people presenting – and understanding how people learn How to improve your training skills How to structure training classes How to use Xero as a training platform What contents covered in a Xero training class Online vs In person vs Classroom Training How to make a room conducive to training Business tools used to help run training classes How to promote Xero training classes Always ask students for a testimonial and ask them to tell their own colleagues about the training they had with you Thoughts around what Xero’s stipulations should be around Xero trainers. Please note - we're independent of Xero Surveys and feedback following training courses Education empowers Don’t be afraid that you’ll train you out of a client for you – Lisa Martin Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. One of the tools that you can use within Spotlight Reporting is Spotlight Forecasting. Spotlight Forecasting enables you to look ahead with clarity. You can find out more information by visiting http://www.spotlightreporting.com/future. It includes a budget creator, a three-way forecasting tool and a scenario builder. It seamlessly integrates with Xero so you can have it up and running very fast.  Please visit the show sponsors. At the end of the show I call-out to Phil Burnell who left a 5 star review for Spotlight Reporting at the Xero community. He says about Spotlight Reporting “Great reporting tool that provides a high quality range of additional reporting that really will make a difference to any business that uses it!”   Resources mentioned in this interview Xero Spotlight Reporting Connect with Lisa Martin   https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamartingofi8ure https://twitter.com/GoFi8ure http://www.gofi8ure.co.nz/xero-training-centre http://www.sayitlikeitis.co.nz/ xero@gofi8ure.co.nz   Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.   Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.   P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing about Lisa’s Xero journey on episode 20.

Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia’s Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses 😎 | Bernadette Schwerdt

Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Bernadette Schwerdt. Bernadette is the author of Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too. Bernadette and I are both authors with Wiley Publishing. We publish books with real pages! Every month Wiley sends authors a newsletter about what other authors are doing and I when I read Bernadette had written a book on the topic of successful entrepreneurs – I thought it would be of interest to listeners of this podcast. So I approached her and she kindly agreed. We then played calendar games for a few months and finally I’m excited to share with you that she’s on the show! What I learnt from my conversation with Bernadette is that you don’t need a team of expert in what your business does e.g. if you sell wine you don’t need a sommelier, what you need is a hacker and a hustler.  I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot. In episode 11 of Cloud Stories I spoke with Tejaswi Raghurama at Pipemonk and his job title was Growth Hacker. I need to speak with someone and explore the growth hacker phenomena. Bernadette also shared that she learnt through her interviews that businesses needed to operate quickly and on a bootstring. If they were to fail they needed to fail forward.  Failing forward essentially means you turn your mistakes into stepping stones that move you forward. I hope that hearing about how other successful entrepreneurs have succeeded may help you in your own business. Bernadette is the director of The Australian School of Copywriting, an online training company specialising in the science and art of content marketing. She is the author of the best-selling manual “Writing for Profit” and of the new book “Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs” by Wiley Publishing. She is a columnist with the magazine Inside Small Business, an Ambassador Blogger for Australia Post, a lecturer in marketing and communications at leading universities around Australia and is in demand as a speaker on leadership, entrepreneurship and marketing. When she’s not working in marketing, she moonlights as an actor and appears regularly on TV in iconic shows such as Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Jack Irish and others. In fact I was watching Jack Irish the other night and a lawyer appeared who sounded exactly like Bernadette and I checked the credits and it was her! Jack Irish is a great Australian drama on the ABC at the moment – if you have the chance to watch it. Bernadette’s business The Australian School of Copywriting was formed in 2001, and has trained thousands of students in the art of copywriting. Specialising in providing real-world, practical techniques, students learn how copywriting can not only benefit their small business, but how it can become a main source of income. Here’s an extract from Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs – that I read during the podcast: Morris’s top 10 trends to watch: Lawyers/accountants/service industry Statutory paperwork and routine regulatory forms will all be completed digitally by 2025, leaving service providers to earn their fees, by selling their wisdom, intuition and feelings. As the sea of data rises and possibilities exponentially grow, we will be crying out for wise people to make sense and purpose out of all of it for us. We’ll be searching for experts who can let us know – in advance of use even knowing we need to know it – what to do about it or with it. That’s tomorrow’s service industry’s goldmine. That’s all about understanding and accessing accurate timely big data interpret it, analyse it and communicate it. That’s one of the reasons I invited Geni Whitehouse to be a guest on the show – episode 36 of Cloud Stories – to speak about the importance of communicating in everyday language that small business people understand. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. I wanted to share with you a conversation I had during the week. I was speaking with a bookkeeper who had many freelance professionals from the same industry all on Xero. I explained to her that she could use the Spotlight Multi product and she could suck in all of the Xero organisations, and doing that she could rank them, visualise them, benchmark and consolidate them. Breaking that down, she could see the comparisons between revenue earned against cost of sales whether they were in line with the other business and potentially whether there were exceptions that needed further investigation. Using a tool like Spotlight Multi can help you sell your wisdom, your intuition and your feelings. You can graphically look at something and quickly see exceptions that can lead you to understand and react to trends in the business. This in turns improves your ability to manage the business.   Laugh like a drain   In this episode I talk to Bernadette about: Mad Men television series What is copywriting E-books vs books with real pages Importance of all employees to have an online presence which incorporates what they want to be known for How to develop high quality content and re-purpose it across platforms When an online business needs a copywriter How should a business engage a copywriter 7 steps to create a successful online business: purpose, people, planning, profit, positioning, profile, promotion Critical to understand the actual business you are in How Malcolm Turnbull made his millions – it may surprise you! The two people every online business needs is a hacker and a hustler Don’t be obsessed with perfection Fast and quick, think fast and fail forward  Resources mentioned in this interview https://www.shoesofprey.com/ http://au.whogivesacrap.org/  Connect with Bernadette Schwerdt Info@copyschool.com copyschool.com bernadetteschwerdt.com.au     Connect with Heather Smith Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/  Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com  Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book   Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU  Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts       

Straightforward Communication 💬 Can Improve the Everyone’s Bottom Line 📄 | Geni Whitehouse

Geni divides her time between working as a winery consultant at Brotemarkle, Davis & Co in the Napa Valley and writing, speaking, and tweeting about what some might consider nerdy subjects. As a former partner in a CPA firm, two-time software company executive, and recent CMO of a tech startup, she has a passion for applying technology to solving business problems. She has been named a Top 100 Influencer by Accounting Today, one of 25 Thought Leaders in Accounting, and one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting by CPA Practice Advisor. She is a member of the TEDxNapaValley organizing committee and was the first speaker at their first TEDx event in 2011. In this episode Geni Whitehouse and I discuss: *The importance of communicating in straightforward language that small business people understand *How bookkeepers and accountants can improve their communications skills and in turn increase their bottom line *The accounting and bookkeeping complexities found in the wine industry *Using LinkedIn as a platform to share knowledge with your community. Contact Geni Whitehouse at: https://www.facebook.com/evenanerd https://twitter.com/evenanerd https://www.linkedin.com/in/evenanerd http://www.evenanerd.com/nerd-talk

🎯 Cloud Accounting Podcast Host Shares Recommended Accounting Apps 🚨| Blake Oliver

In this episode Blake Oliver and I discuss his recommended apps for accountants and bookkeepers. I loved this episode!  Connect with @BlakeTOliver & @HeatherSmithAU on twitter and let us know if you agree. Or visit http://www.blakeoliver.com/ and http://cloud-stories.com/ sign up to our newsletters. This episode was kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.  Spotlight Reporting has a suite of four solutions: Spotlight Reporting creates useful, attractive performance reports quickly and efficiently. Ideal for organisations that need deeper insight and analysis Spotlight Dashboard is the one page reporting dashboard that focuses on what really matters. With drag-and-drop functionality, Dashboard is super-fast and easy to use. Spotlight Forecasting is an 'all-in-one' forecasting tool which brings together budget creation, full 3-way forecasting and scenario building capability. Forecast the future with confidence. Spotlight Multi is an online tool designed specifically for multi-entity organisations. Better, faster and more useful reporting should also encourage improved decision making and governance. Please support our sponsor and visit http://www.spotlightreporting.com/ to find out more about Spotlight Reporting Or if you are a Xero advisor join the https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind/ group and continue the discussion. Blake Oliver is the Director of Technology & Marketing at HPC Accounting & Tax   "I love technology, accounting, and productivity. I guess that's why nothing makes me happier than helping a client realize a big boost in efficiency after setting up a new cloud accounting integration." ~ Blake Oliver Heather Smith can help your Xerocentric business deliver powerful, engaging and educational content, through guest blog posts, educational instructions, video creation, podcasts, and social media blasts. She hosts the #1 independent XeroCentric podcast Cloud Stories, authored Xero for Dummies, produces easy to follow videos on her YouTube channel and hosts the Xero Mastermind Meetup and Xero Mastermind Facebook group. As a chartered certified accountant, certified practising accountant and Xero certified advisor she has the knowledge, expertise and credibility to talk about your business solution to the Xero community.