Episode Transcript
Julie Smith:
So good. And one more question. Oh wait, I was wool gathering. What were you
Glenn Harper:
going to say? One more question that I have for you is, and it’s
Julie Smith:
the pain point, right? It’s the pain of change. And we all know
Julie Smith:
change is painful in the middle part, right? But
Julie Smith:
so say I was with a bookkeeper and I’m
Julie Smith:
having this aha moment right now that like, oof, my numbers
Julie Smith:
don’t seem right, or maybe they’re not in the right place, or I’m not getting
Julie Smith:
things timely. Whatever that pain point is that you’re feeling right now, in
Julie Smith:
order to make a change may seem like an even bigger pain point.
Julie Smith:
But what does that transition look if I’m having that thought right now and I’m
Julie Smith:
like, hmm, I need to give Glenn Harper a call? Well,
Glenn Harper:
great question. And thankfully I’ve had this question asked
Glenn Harper:
a gajillion times. So it comes down to 2 things. All
Glenn Harper:
right. The first thing is, as a business
Glenn Harper:
owner, When you finally realize this, you’re
Glenn Harper:
probably embarrassed and you shouldn’t be
Glenn Harper:
because it happens. But when you have knowledge,
Glenn Harper:
you have power. So now that you’re aware, now you kind of have a responsibility
Glenn Harper:
to yourself, your team, your clients, your organization
Glenn Harper:
to kind of fix it and do it right. So don’t be embarrassed. I’ve seen
Glenn Harper:
a lot worse. So the question is, it doesn’t matter where you’re at.
Glenn Harper:
We’ll take you and we’ll help you. So don’t be embarrassed about it first, ’cause
Glenn Harper:
it’s just the way things are, okay? Way it is. The second
Glenn Harper:
step is, what we do is we then evaluate
Glenn Harper:
what you have. Like, is it any good? Is your
Glenn Harper:
accounting set up right in QuickBooks? Is the
Glenn Harper:
logic behind it and how it’s set up, does it have account numbers and things
Glenn Harper:
alphabetical? Is it easy to read? Are things in the right category?
Glenn Harper:
There’s a— there’s— if it’s on this side of the equation, hey, that looks pretty
Glenn Harper:
good. We just got to tweak some things. Then we’ll probably keep the system you
Glenn Harper:
have and just tweak it to make it pretty. If you’re over on
Glenn Harper:
this side, we’re like, whew, I’m not sure what was going on
Glenn Harper:
here, but this looks like this has had 30 different people playing with it. And
Glenn Harper:
there’s all kinds of things. We might just say, look, we got to kill this
Glenn Harper:
and just start another one. All right. We’ll evaluate that and tell
Glenn Harper:
you what that looks like, what you’re expecting. But the cool thing about
Glenn Harper:
this is you don’t have to do anything as a client. We do it all.
Julie Smith:
I was going to say, I was in charge of onboarding at one point and
Julie Smith:
it’s a very structured thing inside of Harper. So you’re going to get a checklist,
Julie Smith:
you’re going to know exactly what you’re responsible for, but what you’re responsible for
Julie Smith:
is really just access and making sure we have the access to be
Julie Smith:
able to do exactly what we need to do. We do every single heavy lifting.
Julie Smith:
If Glenn says we’re going to restart, redo, our whole
Julie Smith:
internal team getting together to figure out what does that look like based on your
Julie Smith:
data, based on what you do. And so it’s really, I think from a
Julie Smith:
Harper perspective, very organized so that change, we
Julie Smith:
understand change, right? We understand it doesn’t feel good. No, it doesn’t feel good anywhere.
Julie Smith:
We want to alleviate that. So no surprises, here’s exactly your expectations,
Julie Smith:
here’s the expectations from Harper. And then it’s kind of up to our whole internal
Julie Smith:
team to kind of make sure we get you onboarding and get you onboarded in
Julie Smith:
a very timely fashion so you start receiving those numbers for the health of your
Julie Smith:
company timely. And we’re also able to get you
Julie Smith:
in with Glen to be able to do some of that advising. So I think
Julie Smith:
really it’s from Glen’s standpoint, that embarrassment, that
Julie Smith:
knowledge, that awareness to get you in, to get you evaluated. That’s the
Julie Smith:
biggest step that a prospective client has to take in our
Julie Smith:
situation because it’s really, it’s kind of, what do you say? Like Jesus, take the
Julie Smith:
wheel. Once you’ve been able to kind of do that, We’re kind of able to
Julie Smith:
take it from there and just, we’ve built, you know, a phenomenal internal
Julie Smith:
team that everybody has all their strengths to be able to really take that and
Julie Smith:
run with it. I can, what usually ends up happening is
Glenn Harper:
there’s a reason at those CPA
Glenn Harper:
letters at the end of my name is there’s this standard that
Glenn Harper:
says, when I work with a client, I am responsible.
Glenn Harper:
I take full responsibility of ensuring that your
Glenn Harper:
things are in order, your books are in order, your taxes in order. When
Glenn Harper:
you are doing it on yourself or you have maybe just a part-time bookkeeper,
Glenn Harper:
there’s really no responsibility. There’s no accountability because people are like, ah, well, I
Glenn Harper:
didn’t know. You’re not paying for that, right? So they’re not going to take
Glenn Harper:
ownership of it. So the second you then work with a
Glenn Harper:
professional like ourselves, we take ownership of that. Now,
Glenn Harper:
You got to give us the data. You got to say, yes, go do what
Glenn Harper:
we do, and you got to be available for us to get what we need
Glenn Harper:
from you, but we’ll do it the right way and we’ll take ownership. So that
Glenn Harper:
means when there is a problem, we got you. We got you. The
Glenn Harper:
ownership of the work product is the hard part.
Glenn Harper:
It’s really hard. We’ve worked with some fantastic bookkeepers that
Glenn Harper:
they’re awesome and they take ownership. They do a great job. We’ve worked with some
Glenn Harper:
that are not so good. There’s some CPAs that are awesome, some are not so
Glenn Harper:
awesome, whatever. The spectrum’s all over. But our job is to take
Glenn Harper:
responsibility. So once you realize as the owner that when you
Glenn Harper:
can get through the, whatever, the pain, the embarrassment of calling us
Glenn Harper:
and we come in and evaluate you, we take that emotion off the table. Then
Glenn Harper:
you know we’re going to be accountable for, and we’re going to do what we
Glenn Harper:
say we’re going to do. And you don’t have to do anything other than just
Glenn Harper:
be available for questions. Our team, like Julie says, takes care of those things.
Glenn Harper:
And now we have the new process, the new system, the new
Glenn Harper:
training that’s gonna happen. So if we keep your internal person, great, we’ll work with
Glenn Harper:
them. We’ll tell ’em what to do. If it happens to be only our team,
Glenn Harper:
great, we’ll do what we need to do. Your job as the owner is just
Glenn Harper:
to get us access and do what we ask you to do and answer questions,
Glenn Harper:
and we’ll do all the rest. You continue to do your job. I just had
Julie Smith:
a, you know, aha moment as you’re saying that. Another one? You’ve had a lot
Glenn Harper:
of ’em today. I mean, I know I’m actually listening to what you’re saying today,
Julie Smith:
so maybe I’ll do my books better or get my information to you better. I
Julie Smith:
don’t know, one of those things. I think the whole thing is
Julie Smith:
whatever entrepreneur is walking through the door, whatever they are good at is what
Julie Smith:
they are good at. And you kind of alluded to this at one point too
Julie Smith:
about a dentist doing whatever. But I think the goal
Julie Smith:
for Harper, for you, for our team is to say, hey, listen, you’re
Julie Smith:
good at what you do. Go do what you do. Let us take this off
Julie Smith:
because we, at the end of the day, we want you to go use your
Julie Smith:
time and energy to do what you’re good at. and allow us to do what
Julie Smith:
we’re good at and then know that we’re working together for you. We’re a
Julie Smith:
partner with you for the best possible outcome. And I think sometimes as an
Julie Smith:
entrepreneur, you know, we get bogged down in like, well, we could do it ourself.
Julie Smith:
Why don’t we just do it ourself, right? And so sometimes we forget like our
Julie Smith:
best use of time is maybe not doing debits and
Julie Smith:
credits or thinking how, where can this be plugged in in a tax return?
Julie Smith:
It’s actually doing what you’re passionate about and good at and allowing
Julie Smith:
our team to do that. other part for you? I have
Glenn Harper:
never, never had a
Glenn Harper:
situation where when we take over
Glenn Harper:
somebody’s bookkeeping, their accounting, their tax work, their
Glenn Harper:
advising, I’ve yet to have somebody that go, man,
Glenn Harper:
that was the worst money I ever invested. It always works out.
Glenn Harper:
And it just alays does because you are now an
Glenn Harper:
empowered owner ‘Cause you know exactly
Glenn Harper:
how much money you make, what your expenses are, what your tax liabilities are, the
Glenn Harper:
strategies involved. You now, instead of just doing your job, you’ve
Glenn Harper:
become empowered. Isn’t that the name of this thing right there? You now have
Glenn Harper:
become empowered where you understand how your business runs and works, where
Glenn Harper:
before you had no clue. And it’s okay if you didn’t know
Glenn Harper:
before. Today you know, so make the decision.
Julie Smith:
I think you just closed the loop, so we should just drop and stop here.
Glenn Harper:
There it is.
