S01 E22: How this Firm Owner Gets Work Done in a 15-hour Workweek

Roman Villard: Welcome to the Accounting Flow podcast! Today, we have Erica Goode on the show. Erica, how are you?

Erica Goode: Good, thanks for having me.

Roman Villard: Absolutely. I’m super interested to go into how you manage a 15-hour workweek, the processes you’ve established, and your ability to dedicate time to other significant areas of your life. But first, tell us about your background, the firm you’re currently running, how you started on this path, and your clientele.

Erica Goode: Sure. My background is fairly traditional in accounting. Post-college, I joined KPMG, spent a few years there, then transitioned to corporate finance and accounting at Walgreens, where I spent the remainder of my corporate career. Approximately seven years ago, I reached a moment both in my life and our family’s life, realizing it was time to prioritize home and family. Our children were five and one at that time, with our eldest about to start kindergarten. During my corporate tenure, I experienced burnout, which was a significant eye-opener, compelling me to reassess my career and life ambitions. I was confident in my ability to return to a high-level finance role in the future but recognized that my children’s current ages were fleeting. Thus, I chose to focus on the irreplaceable aspect of our lives at that moment. Departing Walgreens, I embraced full-time parenthood—a role as demanding as any corporate job. This decision led me to a hiatus from accounting, only to find myself missing the profession deeply after two years.

Roman Villard: Interesting. So you found yourself missing accounting and began your own practice. How did that transition occur?

Erica Goode: Our eldest’s involvement in a Taekwondo class introduced me to the instructor, who also owned the business. After expressing my willingness to assist with her accounting needs, she immediately sought my services. This marked the inception of my practice, even though I approached this new venture with caution, eager to avoid the pitfalls of my previous work-life imbalance. I established strict boundaries, limiting my work to my children’s school hours.

Roman Villard: That’s a great approach. How did you ensure you didn’t revert to a hectic work schedule?

Erica Goode: Initially, my work was confined to a mere two hours weekly, gradually increasing as my children spent more time in school. Now, with both children attending school full-time, I’ve allotted 15 hours weekly to my practice.

Roman Villard: With your current 15-hour workweek, how do you manage client relations, and are you engaging in any form of marketing?

Erica Goode: My focus is on maximizing the efficiency of those 15 hours. I don’t operate with a large team; it’s primarily me and a contractor who shares a similar lifestyle ethos. This approach has necessitated a selective process in client acquisition and management.

Roman Villard: Do you colour code your calendar?

Erica Goode:  Only personal versus business. Okay, so I have personal stuff on there too. Like, tomorrow, I have to go volunteer at school. So I have a different colour for things that are personal.

Roman Villard: Within that 15 hours, you have different initiatives beyond just client work. Within the context of a 15 hour week, are you allocating an hour to research tech or to have white space to be able to do some of the creative thinking?

Erica Goode: Yeah, so I track my hours, I do not bill hourly. But because time is so important to me. I actually track how I spend all of my time so that I can see when I need to find an efficiency. Where do I need? Where can I find that efficiency? And so about 50% of all of my time is spent on client work, and the other 50% is maybe taking discovery calls or podcast creation or podcasts guesting anything that would fall outside of strictly client work.

Roman Villard: What strategies do you employ for onboarding new clients while adhering to your limited availability?

Erica Goode: I prioritize clients who prefer communication via email or Zoom, avoiding traditional phone calls. This preference is clarified early in our interactions, setting the stage for a smooth working relationship.

Roman Villard: Have you had to fire clients that didn’t fit the way in which you wanted to serve them? And how did you navigate that conversation?

Erica Goode: I fired my biggest client last year and that was empowering. It was good. It was a long standing client, probably one of my top paying clients. And it was a huge chunk of my revenue. It was just one of those situations where the client consistently enough talk to me in a devaluing way. It got too much, so I hit the button on my 30 Day cancellation notice on our contract and I said, I’ll be signing off at 30 days” And that felt really good, that felt really good to have the power to do that and make that choice for myself.

Roman Villard: Good for you. That is hard to do, particularly when there’s one material client that makes up a significant amount of revenue. If there is a material impact to your mental health or mental well being, you know, what kind of what you set out to do from beginning, it is so hard to tell people No, but to have the ability to do that, like that’s a testament to how you’ve intentionally structured what you want to do and how you want to do it.

Erica Goode: It’s really hard to walk away from money. I don’t know if it’s that’s like that for everybody. But that’s not easy for me. And so I’ve had that experience, leaving corporate and leaving a big salary. And making the decision to go from a lot to zero was really like an emotional mental process that took me a year to make that decision. And to do that, because sometimes we find ourselves putting our worth and our value and our title and our salary, and our corner office and all of the things. And so I think once I was able to work through that mentally and emotionally at one point in my life, it became this now empowerment as opposed to a fear at other parts in my life.

Roman Villard: Looking forward, do you anticipate expanding your work hours as your personal circumstances evolve?

Erica Goode: The prospect of returning to a 40-hour workweek doesn’t appeal to me. I’m exploring ways to enhance revenue without increasing my workload, treating it as an intriguing challenge.

Roman Villard: How are you preparing for potential growth or operational changes in your business?

Erica Goode: I’ve begun documenting processes and am exploring tools like Tango for SOP development. This is part of a gradual process aimed at streamlining operations within the confines of my 15-hour workweek.

Roman Villard: Lastly, your active presence on LinkedIn and your podcast are commendable. Could you share more about your personal interests and the podcast’s focus?

Erica Goode: My family and I cherish our time outdoors, leveraging our unique location and the four-day workweek our town observes. My podcast, “Coaches, Consultants & Money,” merges my professional expertise with personal finance interests, targeting small businesses and entrepreneurs. I’ve been budgeting since I was eight years old to get that first American Girl doll. And I just I love helping people figure out what they need to save to make their financial goals happen. And so I do the podcast focused on my niche, which is coaches and consultants. And people running anywhere from $20,000 to $2 million consulting firms. So they might be an agency at that point. Or they might be a soloist. But I love to sprinkle in personal finance, like how much does it cost to send your kid to college? Or what are the cheapest states for college? What is retirement planning look like? And I recruit my husband sometimes. We do happy hour episodes where we we crack a beer and and talk about personal finance.

Roman Villard: That’s fascinating. Erica, thank you for sharing your journey and insights with us today.

Erica Goode: Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.