S01 E11: How this firm owner grew from being a solo to a team of 8

Show Notes:

Host:
Welcome back to another episode of The Accounting Firm podcast where we bring you valuable discussions and insights from accounting firm owners. I’m your host, Shahram Zarshenas, and in today’s episode, we have a special guest joining us to share their journey of how they grew their solo accounting firm into a team of 8. Our guest today is Susan Pruskin, the founder of Susan Pruskin Consulting. Angela, welcome to the show!

Guest:
Thank you, Shahram. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Host:
So, Susan, to start off, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your firm, what you do, and what you’re all about? 

Guest:
We consider ourselves the go-to for all things QuickBooks. We work only with QuickBooks online. We not only do bookkeeping, but we can also advise clients on tech stack and what kinds of things that would make their work more efficient or help them to get a better picture of their finances. We are transitioning into the subscription model business where we offer, we call it concierge service, where for one monthly fee, it covers absolutely anything that we are capable of doing that you need relating to bookkeeping, accounting, or advisory services. 

Host:
I’d love to ask you, when did you realize that you needed to make that transition? 

Guest:
I had maybe 20 clients, and some of them were small, easy. But one of them kept wanting me more and more, and they wanted me to come to their office space and either with them most of the day, starting out one day a week all day long. Then it was two days a week, then it was three days a week. and so that took up so much of my time that I couldn’t even take care. I hadn’t spent Saturdays and Sundays taking care of the others. And I finally realized, you know, this is, I can’t do this. I need a life. So that’s when I hired my first co my first employee, which was terrifying. 

Host:
What did you struggle with and what were the challenges with hiring your first employee? 

Guest:
One reason was I have spent the time to build this practice. Small as it was. I, it’s been all me. I’ve built it. Everyone knows me. They trust me, they rely on me. And now I’m gonna tell them, now this person who I just met last week is now gonna take care of your stuff. And that’s a little bit scary. 

Host:
So I think this leads into another interesting topic. Do you hire off of mindset and work ethic and personality, or do you hire off of experience?

Guest:
Would be the one with the right personality. And I think any savvy business owner today would say to you, experience is great, but personality and characteristics are better because you need the right mindset. You need the right attitude and you can teach what they need to know.

Host:
Now that you’re a team of 8, did you experience different obstacles as your business grew and your team got bigger and maybe your overall processes got a little bit more complex? 

Guest:
There are eight of us now, including myself, and I can’t be involved with every single person all day long and see what they’re doing and, and, and how they’re doing it. So you have to have more trust. The bigger you get, you have to have more trust that they’re gonna be able to do what you need.

I also think it kind of gets harder the more you go, because when you build a team and you’re really happy with that team, then you have a higher, um, bar for what you want for the next person because you got this great team. You don’t wanna see somebody who’s lower than that you want. 

Host:
So lastly, I want to end on this question because I think right now, especially in today’s environment, it’s really hard to find talent. So, you know, you’ve grown to a team of eight, and how did you find this talent?

Guest:
We have a fabulous community college here that does a two-year accounting program. And two of the best people I’ve had of my entire time have come from there, even though they’re both retired now, and one of ’em went on to become a cpa. That was the two best I’ve ever, not the two best I’ve ever had, but two of the best I’ve ever had came from, from that environment. We have several CPA referral partners who will sometimes tell us if they know somebody.

Host:
Those are excellent pieces of advice, Susan. Thank you for sharing your valuable insights and experiences with us today.

Guest:
Thank you for having me.