Episode Transcript

Please note this transcript was generated by AI and contains errors including missing and misspelled words.

[00:00:00] Intro Meryl: Hi there, and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Meryl Johnston. The lifestyle accountant show exists to help today's accounting firm owners build successful firms, while also living a healthy, happy life without sacrificing sleep your weekends, or time with loved ones. Today I'm chatting with Heather Smith.

We're talking all about solo entrepreneurship, micro firms, being a sole practitioner, there's a lot of terms for it, but it all comes back to wanting to run a small firm without a team. Now, BE'S is obviously not a sole practitioner firm, but it's still a topic I'm interested in. My mum was a chartered accountant and she never went back to public practice after having me and my brother.

Instead, my parents started a small business together using my dad's engineering skills and my mum's accounting skills. My parents ran it as a lifestyle business with no employees and the occasional subcontractor, and we'd have interesting conversations about business around the dinner table. My dad always had the opinion that he never wanted employees and he'd prefer to do things himself rather than having to manage someone else to do it.

It turns out that I enjoy building teams, so I followed a different path and I didn't end up taking my dad's advice. But having seen both options, I think you can build a great lifestyle business either way by building a team or by doing things as a solopreneur. Now I'd like to introduce Heather Smith.

She's an accountant and a strategic thought partner for SAS apps named in USA's accounting, today's influential list. Heather Smith is a leading figure in the accounting industry, renowned for enhancing business efficiency through technology with a, with a dedication to educating her peers. She creates helpful resources, including writing 10 informative books.

She's got a globally recognized podcast called Cloud Stories. And an accounting apps newsletter, as well as a mastermind community of more than 6,000 people. Heather's also heavily involved in the bookkeeping and accounting community, and many of us, myself included, are grateful for her ability to bring people together within the accounting community and also to advocate for change on our behalf.

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[00:02:15] Heather: So my goal back 19 years ago when I set this up was, To be a very present parent and to raise my children. My clients always knew that. Many of them were actually very supportive of that and happy for me to do it that way.

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[00:02:35] Meryl: So today we're covering a range of topics related to running a practice. As a sole practitioner, we talk about work quality and how to keep standards high.

As a solo operator, we cover annual leave and putting structures in place so you can still take time off even if you don't have a team. Managing burnout and creating appropriate boundaries for clients and also between work. And family and we have a, a little conversation about the risks associated with being a solo practitioner.

And for some people, would it be worth taking a job instead? All that and more coming right up on the Lifestyle Accountant Show.

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[00:06:01] Heather: My goal back 19 years ago when I set this up was, To be a very present parent and to raise my children and to create something where I could use my brain, um, support people and work around my children and raise them.

So I was five years on the Tuck shop Treasury. I was in doing little reading, um, at school. I was at every sporting event. Both my husband and I were, uh, latchkey kids and we both. Didn't want that for our children. So my focus was my children. And so 19 years, we've only about three years out of, uh, me not having that kid's responsibility.

Um, um, around, so some of those comments are valid, but for me, I've come out of it with healthy, happy, thriving children, which was our, our focus. My clients always knew that they were really, really important to me, and perhaps they got a cheaper version of, um, um, Heather. Because the kids were the priority there.

Many of them were, um, actually very supportive of that and happy for me to do it that way. I am a management accountant, which again, I. I created a business from what I needed and what I could do. I liked training. I'm a a certified trainer. I liked setting people up and I liked fixing things up. So I'm obsessed about, and I think you are too, Meryl, about timely clean.

Data and accessing that quickly. Back when I started, like 19 years ago, we were in desktop and the data was always 18 months old. And so for me to, cuz you perhaps, I don't even know if Sure if you, you, you came around in that era where the data was just always incorrect and always old. And just to see this amazing digital revolution where, I can get data that's almost 12 hours old and accurate and timely that they can make sort of courageous, informed, data-driven decisions from is very exciting and, and to have that journey and still.

Over that time just came across hundreds of businesses. That data was inaccurate. Um, and I was able to work as a management accountant, so very much I took on projects and I just juggled projects. And so when you know school holidays are coming up, you can just pull back from projects and just put them on hold.

When you can see school holidays are ending, you put yourself out there again. Does anyone need me to come in? Everyone could put everyone. There's no deadline when you're doing that sort of work. They might need something fixed up for some particular reason, and if that fit in with what I was doing, then that's fine.

I could jump in. Just awesome and amazing to be able to use your brain to be able to help people, but also to be able to be super present for your kids.

[00:09:03] Meryl: Yeah, I love that those that listen to the podcast or that are regular listeners will know some of my story at with Be Ninjas about trying to build a lifestyle first firm.

And in fact, that's the name of this podcast. So, so did you ever consider hiring staff and what did you think about, think about it, or how were you weighing up the pros and the cons?

[00:09:22] Heather: I love robots. They're very, they're very easy to set up and tell what you want to do, and if they, they unconnect themselves, you get an email and you just set them up again, I navigated staff.

I'm not particularly good at telling someone one-on-one what to do. Interestingly, I can stand in front of a room of 500 people and tell them what to do. I can tell a mass number of people where to go, what to do, but I find that one-on-one quite, quite challenging. It's not my skillset. And it's quite exhausting for me to do that.

You know, like I moderate a group with 6,000 people in it that just is swimming. It's fun, it's interesting. And, and that's the Xero Mastermind Group, and that's completely not a problem. Yeah. So, I think I'm always so focused on, I'm, I'm super focused and I think you are too, Meryl on productivity, but I'm also focused on my energy, my cup.

Is it full or is it empty? And is this thing, um, draining my cup? We were talking, I was talking with some people the other day, and your cup is full of decision juice and um, um, is it full? Or are they training it from you?

[00:10:36] Meryl: It seems like there's a, there's a range of interest, there's interest in this topic around running a firm as a sole practitioner, and I think there's a few different categories of areas that people are concerned about or where they think there might be problems or where there might be benefits.

So one that's been raised is around quality, and I'll share a couple of opinions about this for different people. So, One person said, whenever I've acquired a sole practitioner's business, a review of the files indicates the person has suffered from a lack of peer review. So, so they're saying that the quality standard have dropped, but then someone else had a, a contrary opinion that's saying, don't be fooled that having a team automatically deals with quality risks.

I've seen plenty of accounts come. Through from reputable firms that would meet my own standards. Uh, and so that's saying that having a team doesn't necessarily solve the quality problem. I'm interested in your thoughts on how sole practitioners can maintain quality. A a couple of ideas and, and things I've seen, uh, things like having a peer group.

Mastermind group. You mentioned that your zero mastermind group, but interested to get your thoughts, how, whether it's a bookkeeper, a tax accountant, what kind, what kind of things are out there to maintain quality?  

[00:11:48] Heather: Uh, our friend Chris Wheatley, always says that I've got a person for everything, so, I'm a sole practitioner, but I'm a sole operator.

I'm a sole business owner, but I've got people all over the place who are experts in various things that I will handball things to. Though we have the S B A A T A Facebook group that has. This immense group of network of advisors in there who, who share knowledge. And, uh, I also have my mastermind group.

And look, one of the reasons I started the mastermind group, which is a free Facebook group, was I needed to have advanced conversations with people. And I need to, to check off, is this the way we do something? Is this the way we do something? And, and the great thing about the S B A A T a group, you can ask any questions in, but the advanced group, we try and hold it.

Let's have a place for hard questions. So when I do have those particular hard questions, that's where I would go for now, I'm not doing tax, I'm not doing financial sort of financial reports that have tax implications. So, I'm sitting in a role that's working with the tax agent, that's working with the BA agent, that's working with the small business owner, and I am trying to design a system that surfaces accurate, useful data that they can use in decisions that will somehow be, um, reliant on what they want and what they're agreeing with.

Um, so, so everything kind of gets checked off by them.

[00:13:24] Meryl: I like the point that you raised around mastermind groups and there's definitely Facebook groups for accountants and I've also been involved in small mastermind groups, so groups of four to six people. I, I was in one that started about four or five years ago and I was matched up Zero actually organized this and I was matched up with four to six other bookkeeping firm owners at the time who lived in different parts of Australia and we.

Used to talk fortnightly for years, and we met for a couple of in-person retreats as well. And that was invaluable in learning from each other, best practice and comparing what we were doing in the running of our firms, but sometimes technical things. But I wondered whether there is something out there for the sole practitioners if they want someone to do a peer review of, of their work.

I imagine that you can hire somebody as an external reviewer.

[00:14:13] Heather: I'm pretty sure that the, um, ABA, the Australian Bookkeeping Association, Does reviews for BA agent work? I'm not sure about at the tax agent level, whether that's something that other organizations offer, but I do see, again, people questioning, um, raising the questions in the peer groups.

I would be, if you are out there thinking about this, I would look who is putting good answers? Someone's asking a question, who's putting a comprehensive answer? Citing legislation that would be perhaps the person I would ask and say, look, are you available to do this? And I know I've reached out to, uh, people within the group and said, could you talk me through this?

Because I can see that they know their stuff, they know inside out, upside down, but I dunno of any. Organizations at other level. Maybe that's some business opportunity. I think

[00:15:03] Meryl: So we're doing, we're doing some business idea generation that if I was running a tax practice as a solo operator, that's what I would want.

If I was concerned about quality or just wanting that extra reassurance would be to pay someone to review it. So next topic is annual leave. So it's again, I'll, I'll go back to some of the comments we've had. Uh, someone made a comment that it was only when they hired a team member that they could take real annual leave.

Uh, and I think by, by that they mean prior to that as a solo operator, they always needed to check in with their clients when they were on holidays. But once they had a team member, they could actually take holidays and then someone else said, well, when it's time to have holidays, I give all my clients a head up, a heads up, and they're supportive of that.

So interested, uh, you mentioned this a little bit at the beginning of how with project based work, you could just be clever with your scheduling. Uh, do you have any tips for micro practices about annual leave?

[00:15:52] Heather: All of my work. Primarily was project work. So it, it, yeah, it, it wasn't a big deal. And if there were specific things.

Okay, so, so thinking back there, there were times that I, uh, would be away unavailable and, and I would tap into a locum, which is someone who can support you. And I got some very competent people in. I introduced them to clients and said, look, can you support me during this period? If there's any issues?

They went in. They invoiced, it all went swimmingly well, and there wasn't a problem there. I selected Locums who I knew and had absolute confidence in. We both see a lot of burnout happening in the industry, and a lot of people have this volume of work that just. We used to get busy in periods and then have slow periods and then get busy and then have slow periods.

We don't have any slow periods anymore. Every week there's another compliance, um, um, requirement and, and deadline too. So, you know, something that I talk to people about is maybe look at taking on some projects. So you can get read of some of those regular, regular, regular compliance things so that when you do want some quieter time, you just drop off the projects to give you that quieter time, reduce that commitment down because every it, it's really hard at the moment.

There is a lot of burnout. Um, inflation is killing us. Um, the, the prices of everything are going up and, and accountants are in absolute demand and there's no accountants and bookkeepers out there. Um, um, seek if you need to seek. So that's, I think one of the opportunities is look at project work. Be it management accounting, be it advisory, be it tech integration, which is something that I really enjoy doing, and you could even do that back into a client that you have and thus reduce the workload that you potentially have with them.

I know that introducing. Released, which is a, like a commercial property. Le letting solution saved about 120 hours of admin, um, a year for a client. Well, the number of hours I need to, to, to work with them has massively reduced now as well.

[00:18:07] Meryl: Yeah, that's a, a great example, and I think that's a really nice segue into another topic, which is around burnout in the industry.

And some of the comments about specifically related to running a micro practice are that there's not only the client work, there's the admin, there's the ongoing education with all of the, the tax laws just seeming to consistently change. There's networking. There's marketing, and one person was saying, um, the hour, the hour rate they're charging just doesn't seem to compensate for all of that extra time needed in running the business.

So I wanted to hear your insights on managing burnout and also how to keep the work and the family boundaries clear.

[00:18:52] Heather: Okay. So, um, again, um, the, the requirements, the CPD requirements on us are in. Like, they're just unbelievably incredible. When I look alongside other professionals I know who've got no ccpd requirements whatsoever, and I'm like, goodness, you know, I'm doing all of this and you are not doing that.

But anyhow, I will, I will. If,  one of the things that I do for, for CPD, um, is, is, uh, listened to earmark podcasts, which means that. You can earn c p e credit if you put the podcast through the, through Earmark. Um, so if you're listening to a podcast, then you get one hour c p e. So if, if you are not doing that with this podcast, I'll, I'll offer to put this one through for you so you can get, you can get the c p e credit for listening to us talking here.

In terms of burnout, I am extraordinarily strict with my boundaries. Okay. Very, very strict with my boundaries. Uh, nothing. No beepy noises will happen in my office or around me. I will. Talk to people kindly and get them to turn their beepy noises off. If you hear a beep, it stops you working for 15 minutes.

You, it takes you 15 minutes to get back into work and nothing is, is worth that. I am very strict with, um, calendar. I block Monday out and I block Friday out so you don't get me access to me on Monday and Friday. My energy is high in the morning, so meetings happen. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday morning. Um, as other things come in, I can fill them in accordingly.

I use Calendly, um, and have that up as a booking link. Um, there are lots of other options out there, but it means that the person has to one book time with me, but also answer questions. What is the agenda for this meeting? Um, before we take this meeting and I, if someone books a meeting with me but doesn't give me the agenda, I will push back and say, I need an agenda before we can take this meeting.

I need an agenda. Are you booking too much time? I will reduce the time of the meeting if necessary. Um, like you, I like, um, asynchronous communication, which I know you've probably, your audience has probably heard you talk about. Um, so, so that is a good one as well. I never give out my mobile phone number.

Um, and interestingly, I've not given out for. Probably five or six years now, and I'm still here and my clients are still here. My bank balance still has money in it. Um, everything, all messages have to channel through my personal preferences. Email that gives you a few things about putting boundaries in place.

Um, that's really important. And if my, cuz my children are now outta home, but if they turn up, bam. Present, I'm present with them, spending time with them. But, and this is parenting advice rather than business advice. They are the youngest is now 24, and I unfortunately have to let them grow up. Damn, damn that requirement.

And so sit here every day going, don't message them, don't find out what they're doing. They need to lead their own life. Um, so that's probably where I spend a lot of my energy. Don't message them. But in the past it was very much, where are they? What are we doing? We, we always had dinner together. We always sit around the table and have dinner together.

[00:22:29] Meryl: This is one of my favorite topics and I think we've got a lot of similarities there with how we are managing things. I also, I have no meetings Monday. But also generally try not to take the calls on Friday either. So I love that time and also the no notifications, and I just don't answer any calls on my phone from an unknown number if there's a message and they'll call back.

I actually generally just don't answer my phone at all. And this is a. Family member, and then I'll answer in case it's important or the kids are sick or, or something like that. And I love your point about dinner too. So I, even though my kids are tiny, a four year old and a one-year-old, we all sit down, we, it's a very early dinner.

It's about five 30, but we sit down every night and have dinner together. A lot of it ends up on the floor with the one-year-old. But we, we have that time together and we actually ask now that the four year olds. Can have a conversation. We go go around and ask what she liked. We all say what we liked and what we didn't like for the day.

And, and it gives us some insight because when I just say, how was your day at kindy? Even at four, I get good. Uh, but, but asking questions like that, I can get a little bit more insight into what she likes and what's going well or with her friends.

[00:23:35] Heather: As an old lady, I have dinner at five two. That's why I was laughing.

If you see me at a conference late at night, I have. I've had a nan nap somewhere. I've either found a beanbag and hid in a corner and slept for two hours. There is no way you see me after 7:00 PM unless I've Nan nap, but I get up at four every morning because again, Old Nana wakes up at four every morning.

It's just, just the way life is.

[00:24:05] Meryl: So related to this topic of, it's related to burnout, but also just how there's so many requirements for, for micro practices. Do you think for some sole practitioners, they're actually better off getting a job, factoring in the risk and the headache, but also being aware that.

It's an employee's market at the moment. There's a lot of flexible, remote, well-paid jobs out there. What, what do you think about that trade off and, and do you think some would be happier? Yeah.

[00:24:33] Heather: At the moment, yes. When I was going through, not so much because I don't, I don't think. Uh, businesses would have been open to me.

It's Swim Day, Ghana Swim Day. I don't think they would've been open to me doing that, but I think now it seems like a lot more businesses are open to that and they're open to, um, talent is in such, so rare at the moment that Yeah, I think and, and there's businesses clearly saying, you know, come and work, come and do that.

Come and merge your business with us. So, absolutely, yes, that is, is an option that I would consider, uh, businesses. Run a bit differently now and they're more appreciative of life requirements. Yeah. And, and, and there is a lot of admin and so I do get involved in a lot of the, um, now that I'm older and I have a bit more time, I try and volunteer on every organization that I can get on that's relevant to the accounting industry.

And, and we have those difficult conversations around, um, Requirements and red tape, and is this really necessary? And, uh, like as an example, I'm a, um, I'm a member of another, as an overseas association. And it actually had in you when you signed up for, um, um, some particular thing it said, If you see a therapist, you need to report it to us.

And I was like, what would I need to report it to you? And, and it's just that sort of, um, um, red tape that's completely unnecessary and so old school, um, that just, they just need people to ask about it and say, that's not good. And I just see myself as, um, I'm an older person now and I kind of need to try and make.

Life, the road easier for under o other people coming through and make it where, where things needs to change, try and push for them. So I was on the, um, a t o, uh, BAS advisory board. So, so I was on the board that worked to get the BAS agent and the tax practitioner board into place. So, Kind of, it's, uh, been an advocacy route that I've always kind of tried to juggle.

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[00:27:50] Meryl: While we're on the topic of the industry bodies, I know you are in, you are involved with a number of different organizations and they have different roles. I think organizations like I C B, Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, or C P A, cha Chartered Accountants, A and Z, do you feel like there's one professional body that makes more sense?

If you are going the sole practitioner route, or that's specifically designed for people running micro firms?

[00:28:19] Heather: Well, the one that I think that's, that is, um, best for the sole practitioner and I want 'em to send me an award for saying this is probably the I C B and the reason why they're, they're. They're on the ground.

Their staff are really connected with what's happening. They're super smart about what is the requirements on on us, and they can deal with if you have legislative issues. You can access them and they can tell you what to do. Plus they have deep, deep resources available that are really practical and really helpful.

Yeah, I, ICB, and you may have noticed during. The onslaught of the pandemic here in Australia. ICB is the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. Um, during the onslaught of, of the pandemic in Australia, a lot of the tax agents and the accountants who were with other bodies, they joined the I C B to get that support that I had benefited from.

Um, and, and, The other weird thing about the ICB, which others may have, but I've not heard of them having, is they have this, um, benefits program that you sign up to for free, and then like every time you buy a Virgin flight, you get like 2% back. There's lots of discounts, 5% discounts here, 7% discounts here.

So I easily make thousand dollars back from the benefits program, which pays for my fee. So, so it's a, it's, it's a complete no-brainer to, to be a member of the I C B if you're accessing that. Um, and they also have a sweet suite deal on insurance, so, Probably has surprised a lot of people that I say that, but they're great people and, uh, and that's, that's nothing against the other bookkeeping associations or the accounting associations, but just in terms of that nailed for the sole practitioner, I think it's a really, the really good to have, um, um, a, a, a tool in your kit for running a business.

[00:30:26] Meryl: All right, let's move on to tech for sole practitioners. And I know you are very familiar with apps in the ecosystem, and I think it's pretty important, particularly for the micro practices, if they, if they don't wanna have employees, then leveraging technology to help them automate things and get through that work volume so they're not.

They're not working all of the time. So do you have any suggestions or favorite apps for sole practitioners?

[00:30:54] Heather: So for the sole practitioner, very much whatever you are using, make sure you know how to use it, make sure you've trained in it, make sure you've read training books in it. Make sure you've undertaken training unit it.

Make sure you optimized it completely. Um, so you could be sitting on sort of any of the platforms. The, the solution that I, um, would, would sort of typically connect in would be, um, um, a receipt scanning solution. So there's a number of options out there, but a receipt scanning solution. Is going to save you so much time.

And I think that most people listening to your, uh, podcast are already there. They've probably already got that receipt scanning solution happening. So then the next thing I would, um, um, plug in, so I'm talking simple, simple business. Um, I use. Minute Doc, which is a business, um, based out of Wellington, one of the first, first five apps, um, when Xero emerged was one of the first five apps to connect in with Xero.

And it does time tracking, but you can categorize the time tracking through to projects, through to clients. Um, and, and you kind of reference it like social media. So it's really simple, sweet, easy to set up and start using immediately. And I found, I kind of went from post-it notes all over the place to invoicing and getting real money through the door because I'd have a 10 minute conversation with someone and then I'm like, do I bill them for it?

Do I not bill them for it? But the, the minute doc tracks all of your time, so you are billing them for everything. And even if you send out. What I found was when I would send out a 20 minute invoice at the end, end of the month, the clients would say, thank you. Now we don't feel so bad about contacting you and asking for more help.

Just that incidental help because you did bill me for it and I wasn't abusing your time, so, so I was actually, I find that quite interesting. That, that psyche, that mindset. They were like happy that I was invoicing for them and people didn't mind that maybe all of those little bits added up and were invoiced on a six monthly basis, but it immediately made me money back.

If you're doing data checks of, of, of. Data using a solution like Expert to come in and do that. Um, it takes a few hours to run the first time, but it does a data verification check of, of what is sitting in the file. So that can sort out a lot of the messes surface them and you can just work your way through and sort that and, and try and clean up the data that way.

So that's a really easy one to use. And then you've got a number of management reporting solutions depending on which way people wanna go learn how to design. Within the software, Xero or Xero QuickBooks, MYB, they all put on free classes on how to design within the software. So learn how to do that and, and, um, play with that as much as possible.

There's a number of solutions that you can connect to, to get, um, your data into Google Sheets or um, um, Excel. So, Excel Clouds will take it into Microsoft Excel and GA Con will take it into Google Sheets and it'll take a lot more data than you can actually get without doing it that way. You have a lot of your plug and play solutions, so you, you, you will be familiar.

There's a lot out there. From the very early days, fathom your spotlight reporting. Um, Brisbane based fathom has gone, undergone a major rebuild, um, and now is offering three-way forecasting, micro forecasting. Um, so that has changed quite a lot, but there are. Other solutions out there dependent on what you're working with, et cetera, that you can connect with.

And then if you really want to go big and go interesting, you've got your Microsoft Power bi, which, uh, people, people have to be experts to play with it. But that can be a really big one to, to, to play with. If you not getting what you need from the plug and play. Or the inbuilt solutions. Then Microsoft Power BI is a way to go.

And there's um, a guy called Cameron Lynch based in Adelaide, who runs a business called a tiny e t a N I, who can potentially help you with that. But that's me focusing on management accounting. Now, I have probably 240 robots running in my business at the moment because I will automate. Anything I can automate, I will connect anything, I can automate a, anything that can be connected, I will connect.

Um, and even if I'm only send saving a few minutes here and there, I'll do it. So, Probably the latest thing is, um, set myself up for e-invoicing, activated that, and now the ein invoices come through and maybe saving a minute per invoice. That's another minute for me. So I'm, the thing about being small is you're the wind surfer and you can test, you can play, you can dump.

It's no big deal. Cause it really astonishes me that I'd end up with everyone interviewing me about what I was using. And I was like, well why aren't the bigger firms using it? But they have to go through such a bigger decision process. Mm-hmm. So I have a really enjoyable life that I just get to sit here and test and bounce off things.

And that's one of the things of the mastermind prayer cuz we sit there and go, oh, what about this? What about this, what about this? And, and, um, I know some people have built. Focused on adopting innovation, have like built four hours into their week that they just test things out and, uh, and that's what pushes them ahead and refines and, and, and keeps them, um, ahead of the game on the apps.

But maybe then the smarter people are the ones who wait and see what we've tested and, and, and liking and using.

[00:36:42] Meryl: Well, let's come into the last topic for sole practitioners is around exit strategies for sole practitioners. I know that, that it's a topic that's on the mind of, of some people who are looking to get out of the industry or retire.

And interested in, in your thoughts or, or what you might have seen in the space.

[00:37:02] Heather: So I wrote the book Learn Small Business Startup in seven Days. And in that book I say you should start with the end in mind. You should start, set the business up knowing exactly how you want to, uh, finish it. And, and that will make your life a much, much easier.

As I said, I set the business up so I could. Be a present parent and the outcome was thriving children. So I acknowledge that what I have is, um, probably not something that, something that's not necessarily saleable, mergeable possibly, but. My husband says, I'm never gonna stop doing what I do because I've really, um, evolved it to be very lifestyle.

I can travel, I can travel and I can record podcasts, I can create content, I can, um, I can jump on and deal with client issues. Um, and, and so sort of my goal now is to, to do as much travel as possible. I really, really enjoy what I do. I jump out of bed at 4:00 AM in the morning. I love what I do. I love the people in our industry.

I love the, the impact. That accountants have and, and, and being able to help that. So, so I don't see kind of a, a need to end it for myself. Um, I do have ongoing income streams through book writing, YouTube channels, et cetera, which will all help in the long run. But, uh, yeah, I don't think for myself there's something saleable, but there might be something mergeable.

[00:38:46] Meryl: And it is interesting to, I'm interested in the topic around mergers and acquisitions, selling businesses in bookkeeping and accounting, and that's actually, uh, I'll, I'll be able to share more insights on this after we publish season two of this podcast, which is all about that topic. And I'm will be interviewing.

Accountants who have acquired firms, those that have sold, and it, it'll be interesting to hear what's around and what the options are for sole practitioners.

[00:39:11] Heather: I think it's definitely important for people to listen to, for their own business, but also to talk to their clients about.

[00:39:18] Meryl: Yeah, a absolutely. So last question, and this is out of left field and it's to do with creating content and well, it's actually to do with speaking because I know that you host a number of panels and I was interested in your thoughts.

How, how do you prepare for and then deliver. A great panel. So by panel, I mean at a, at a speaking, at a conference, you are up there, you are the host, and then you would have two or three panelists where you are creating an engaging conversation. What are your tips?

[00:39:46] Heather: So, um, I'm, I'm very fortunate, very grateful to have, um, found a niche in, in working as a moderator and, and a panel host.

And has something I've done now for about three or four years. Um, and I take the role extremely seriously. The thing with me is I've probably spent 10,000 hours speaking from the stage, um, and training to speak. So when I'm on the stage, I don't need to be heard and I am very focused on. What does that panelist need surfaced?

And, and this actually probably comes back to an incident that, that you and I had together where you went on to speak on the stage with someone at the Gold Coast and he asked you all these questions that were not on the topic that you wanted to talk about. Do you remember that?

[00:40:38] Meryl: I do remember that.

[00:40:39] Heather: So that was probably three or four years ago and, and I remember you came off and going, I thought I was on the stage for this.

And, and that panel host, let's hope he's not listening in, just talked the whole time about himself and, and, and it was actually, oh, that's not what I do. I get on there and I don't, people have actually complained that I don't talk enough about myself. So I try to be really, really quick and just share a little bit about myself.

Then I try to get, um, all the panelists to speak about themselves and I will have points that I need to hit with them, but I want them to. I want it to be a discussion. So I want them to interact with one another, and I am happy if they need to take a question and ask another question for them to do that.

So I give them space to ask questions. I give them space to interact with each other. And someone's kind of said that, um, I go on stage sort of very made up, very activated hair looking very colorful, which means that all of them are actually safe now. Because I'm so far, so far out there that they've got this big place that they can play in.

I will cyber stalk them for weeks before the session to see if there's anything that I can bring in that will be intriguing and interesting into the conversation. And I will try and make sure that when we get on that stage, they're warmed up. It's not cold. They are warm. We've had some bounce. We've had some interactions.

We are teasing one another and they can go with that. If my role is sitting on that stage, introducing them and then watching the clock and then wrapping up at the final stage, sort of with one second to go, and they've just bounced off each other. Then I, I, I've won. Typically I'm guiding the conversation and monitoring that conversation, being guided.

Also very mindful of being, I am the protector or barrier for them from the audience. So, um, occasionally we've had some inappropriate behavior from the audience. Bam, I will be out there that comes to me and that has to deflect off me. I won't let that go to my panelists. And, and I've been in this game for such a long time that doesn't face.

Phase me in the least, then it will be dealt with. But yeah, so, so, so they're always safe. If they start going off on a tangent and they clearly didn't mean to, I'll, I'll pull them back in active listening and, uh, make it clear that this is, To be fun. This is to be entertaining and this is to be educational though.

Amazing.

[00:43:19] Meryl: Amazing. I think there's some fantastic insights there and, and particularly about Draw, it's not about you as the host, it's about trying to draw that, those insights out from, from the panels and did make me laugh, remembering the panel that I was on, on the Gold Coast, where the host talked about himself most of the time.

[00:43:37] Heather: So yeah, he did. He did. It was like, And sometimes when someone does something really badly, you are like, okay, well to do it, well, you just do the absolute opposite and hopefully I. People have come up and said, we didn't even hear you on that panel. I was like, that's great, because that means they did a great, great job. That's, I, I'm happy with that because I, I, I'm a very confident speaker, very confident speaker, so I actually just get up and talk for seven hours and. Anything, but I know other people are, but we want, what we want is competent people who are competent in their area to get on stage and share that they shouldn't have to spend hundreds of hours learning how to speak.

They should be able to just sit there and have a good host draw out of them. And, and, and it's the power of the conversation. The power of the story, the power of the yarn. I'm not sure if international people listening know that, but uh, in indigenous people refer to it as a yarn, as the story, so the power of the yarn.

That's so, um, um, important for us to just be able to draw out of them and, and impactful. And they're so happy when that's happened and they're like, I survived. Like, what did you think was gonna happen? Of course you survived. Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:44:54] Meryl: Amazing. Had that. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Did you have any final.

Parting words before we wrap up?

[00:45:01] Heather: Mm. I, I remembered a piece of technology that I really love and I've loved it for quite some time and it just keeps getting better. So many thanks to Melanie Perkins and Canva. If you've not used Canva, jump in there. It just, new features just keep coming out and it's so easy and beautiful to use and it does stunning presentations.

Um, And you can even import your, um, financial data into it and develop visuals that way. But that's one way. But a lot of what we're doing is accountants and bookkeepers, is communication. And, and if communicating through a, a, a really quick can for presentation helps you do that, then, then that's something to explain.

Explore. But uh, yeah, so, um, if anyone um, wants to get in contact with me, please connect with me on, on LinkedIn. That's the best way and I've mentioned a few other places that you can find me, et cetera, but that's the best way to connect with me.

[00:46:00] Meryl: We'll drop a link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes.

[00:46:04] Heather: Thank you so much for having me on the show, Meryl.

[00:46:07] Meryl: Thanks, Heather.

[00:46:07] Heather: Great to chat.

[00:46:15] Outro Meryl: What a great chat with Heather Smith about being a sole practitioner. I love how Heather was so clear about her, why when she started her business 19 years ago, her focus was her children and she wanted to be a very present parent. This resonated with me and was similar to how I was parented at the start of this episode.

I talked about my parents running their small business as a lifestyle business, which meant that both my mum and my dad could be there for school assemblies, sports carnivals, and tennis tournaments in their school holidays. Now I'm striving to run a business that allows me to be present as a parent too.

A few of Heather's comments stood out to me. The first was about taking on project work as that can give you more flexibility when you're trying to take leave, as the deadlines could be more flexible than something like a weekly payroll deadline. That was interesting because typically we all hear about the holy Grail of recurring revenue and monthly retainers, and so it's interesting to hear about the benefits of project-based work.

I also liked how Heather talked about reflecting on your own work styles and understanding what type of work gives you energy and what drained you. So if managing people drains you, then maybe you're better off not building a team, or as Ryan Lani would say, hiring an operations manager to handle the people management.

I also liked how Heather structures her calendar with no meetings on Mondays or Fridays, which is very similar to me, and won't answer her phone, and instead will ask people to schedule a meeting and then suggest that there's an agenda for that meeting. This is the last of the bonus episodes, and next up we'll be moving into season two.

Which is all about mergers and acquisitions and partnership challenges and successes from within the accounting industry.