For today, I want to send a special thanks to our wonderful TSB Program member Bec, who – with an open heart – continues to share what she is challenged by, so that I can help her along with everybody. Because, again, the more I know about you, the more I can help you. So please do jump into the Facebook group and tell me exactly what you're struggling with because most of the time, it's a case of me too with the rest of the community. So going back.. what Bec shared, I absolutely struggled with early on, and I learned and I solved the problem. And so for this read, we're diving into simplifying in order to SCALE. When you simplify and scale, a few things happen. Number one, you are able to DELEGATE work to team members. Number two, it will contribute to you doubling your PROFIT. This is a linear system. You need to build your thriving practice, because what you'll find is all of this will delight your clients even more, and you'll end up with the income and lifestyle that you want and deserve. I know I harp on about this, but this is the end game and this is the stuff that connects you to that. Just a quick side note – if you did not join the program when the doors open on August 1, it doesn't mean that you can't join in. The program is evergreen. We have a way to bring you into the program seamlessly, so that you can absolutely start working with me to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. If you are keen to know how that works, just drop us an email or ask in the The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook Group. Because, three things: Number one, the program comes with a MONEY-BACK guarantee. Number two, I do not get you to spend extra time working with me – this is about ON THE JOB application and implementation. And number three, that money-back guarantee, it kicks in after a year but my expectation is to help you get the ROI really early, allowing you to pay for the program as we go along. So back to what the community has been telling me in the group – I had done a post relating to how to save time because one of our wonderful community members, Jen, said to me that she was struggling with TIME. She just was really busy and she couldn't find the time in her day to do the things she needed to do to work on her business. She was too busy working in her business, to work on her business. Bec has then made a comment to tell me how she's struggling with that too. She mentioned that she has got some clients and some staff on the team. So for her clients, she has access to their bank accounts and their email inbox. She is expected to and has agreed to check their email inbox and deal with what comes in, and pay the bills through the bank account. Problem is, she doesn't feel that she can DELEGATE this work to one of her team members, and that's probably for risk and privacy. Firstly, I've been there, absolutely. So I've been in practice almost 40 years now, and at the beginning of my journey, I kind of thought that being a bookkeeper in practice was about people coming to me and saying, I want you to do this and I want you to do that. And if I had the skills to do that, then I would say, "Okay, I'll do that for you. I can do that." And then, I would charge them an hourly rate, thinking that it was twice as much and that it is going to equal thriving practice, delighted clients, income and lifestyle. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. I learned something special from an amazing successful entrepreneur, but also it's something that I've learned over the years and I've had a bit of fun with actually. And this is, the Jack of all trades or the Jill of all trades effect – the way that it doesn't necessarily serve us. So, it's a real double-edged sword. As bookkeepers, we do tend to be intelligent, Jill of all trades and Jack of all trades people. And actually a lot of the time when people say, can you do this and can you do that? The answer is yes. This very successful entrepreneur once said to me that one of the reasons he believes he was able to build such an incredible empire is, "I'm not that skilled. I'm not that smart. I was just good at one thing. And so I did that one thing really, really well. Other people had to do all the other stuff. And I got to focus on that one thing." That dazzled and delighted me so much, that I went to do some forensics on success and failure, and a forensics on when people are thriving versus just surviving. And, I started to notice that this theme was happening elsewhere. These business owners that were not Jack or Jill of all trades – those that could only do a limited number of things really well – were also being really, really SUCCESSFUL. Now, it's not the one key to success, but what I learned and what I went on a journey to do was to SIMPLIFY. Simplify my services, simplify my productised services, and what I was going to say I could and would do. And, it was the beginning of a journey that has just continued to evolve into a point where in my practice, we now have such a limited range of beautiful services and we are able to serve clients in an amazing way. They're delighted raving fans. Our attention has gone from good to great. It really has contributed to the thriving practice, delighted clients, and me having the rewards of time really to prioritise into whatever I want. So way back when I would access the bank account, access the inbox, things like that.. it was a very long time ago. And something I love about this day and age, this economic-tech landscape, this global workforce, is that there really is not much need anymore for us to be accessing bank accounts and inboxes and all that kind of thing. And clients don't know what they don't know, all right? Prospective clients, when they first reach out to me, they're 10, 15 years behind what I know about administration, accounts, and bookkeeping. So the last thing I want to do is let them tell me what I'm going to do for them. And what I'm going to do at the very beginning is the NEEDS ANALYSIS, and this is part one of how you're going to tackle this problem. You absolutely need to slow down and do the needs analysis – which is something we give you on the program, and as a bonus at one of the two events that we'll be running (so be sure the stay on the loop for our web events!) So absolutely, do a thorough needs analysis where you are seeking to understand everything the client thinks they NEED. And I'm not sure if you've heard me say that before, but that's a game I play. What do you think you need? Because, they don't really know what they need. They might say, oh, well, I guess I need to give you the keys to the kingdom. I need to give you the keys to the bank account, and you would just take over checking the inbox and then you would pay my bills and then I guess you'd do that bookkeeping stuff or whatever, and they don't understand what we understand. So please, don't let them put the bookkeeper hat on. You need to be the skilled technician – the skilled trade technician, just like a plumber or an electrician. We don't tell them how to do their job. So, do the needs analysis, seek to understand, but please don't start saying, yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. Seek to understand, so you can... Step two, say "Thank you – I'm going to digest everything you've told me. I'm going to go away and come up with my personalised recommendation to get you the OUTCOME that you want. And I'll send that to you by close of business tomorrow in a proposal." You've got step one and two because you may be just engaging with that client saying yes, yes, yes. Giving them an hourly rate and off you go – that is definitely not what you want to do. So, separate those things. The next thing we do, we absolutely charge like bookkeepers, using our pricing calculator which you'll be given in The Strategic Bookkeeper Program (plus, we teach you how to use it). Ultimately, when you move from hourly to outcome billing or even fixed price billing, you have to do your calculations. We use our pricing calculator that we've developed over the years, and when we calculate our rates, we calculate BOOKKEEPER RATES, not accounts clerk rates, not admin rates – because bookkeeping, true bookkeeping, is much more highly skilled and high-end than admin or accounts. And I do see a lot of bookkeepers charging out. They're an admin clerk or an accounts clerk. So one of the things I do, sometimes during the needs analysis, I educate my clients because educating your market and your prospective clients is really, really important. So I educate my clients that there is a difference between admin accounts and bookkeeping. So let's say they say to me, oh, we really need someone to check the email and get the bills. And so I listen and listen and then I say, okay, so with accessing the email and obtaining the bills, that's an administration job. And then I'll go on to say there tends to be three parts, Administration, Accounts, and Bookkeeping. Now, my practice is ultimately there to serve that high end bookkeeping need, and there is quite a chasm between the accounts, the admin, and the bookkeeping. Then I say to them, we can absolutely help you with those administration needs. We can even help you with the accounts payable and receivable needs. I just want to make sure that you understand that there are three separate categories. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make sure I consider that in my personal recommendations for you. From there, I'm going to list out the things that are administration type duties, and the scope of what they are that you need done. Then, I'm going to think about the accounts functions, and then there's the bookkeeping. Because in terms of the bookkeeping, what we do for all of our clients clients is almost identical – it's the double entry accounting. Are we doing full service end-to-end bookkeeping, or are we doing what I call bookkeeper DIY, bookkeeper support? They're the two categories of bookkeeping that we do in my practice. And then beyond that, to rinse and repeat, if there's admin, that's scoped separately. Now, the next thing... Why would you need to access the client's bank accounts, and pay their bills for them? In my experience and in the past years, what I've found is that, if a client comes to you... and absolutely we've had them – I'm thinking of a really lovely client we work with right now, and I remember he was like, "I'm so busy, I don't even have time to pay the bills or check the email." So rather than doing that for him (because realistically, I didn't want to charge him out at higher rates for that, and he also needed help with a whole lot of other day-to-day duties), I recruited someone for him. So that's a service that you can offer that's in my system, and a what's next on the menu for a VIP client. In that case, we can offer to recruit and onboard and administration support, and we did that, and we've done that many times. Now, we still do the end-to-end bookkeeping and monthly numbers results meeting, which is again, an advisory piece that you find in the succession area of my methodology. Basically, that is one option that you can offer: to RECRUIT. But, we do have clients that we do the admin accounts for, but it's all got to be something that can be delegated to team. I don't see why you can't delegate checking an inbox to a team member, because there's very limited risk there. The risk around bank accounts is much higher. And I actually educate my clients that, in my opinion, they shouldn't really be giving the keys to their bank account to their bookkeeper or accountant. And if their business is big enough that they need somebody to pay the bills, then they do need to start thinking about getting someone to help them. But ultimately, we help our clients SYSTEMISE. I fix the source of their problem, not just the symptom. So if I want to treat the headache and the headache is like, I don't have enough time to pay the bills, then I'm going to jump in and pay the bills. If I want to treat the source of the problem, then I'm going to say to them, and this is exactly what I say, "If you follow the systems that I give you, that we give you, then just like my VIP clients who have walked through the velvet rope and are part of the Cloud 9 family, then life will be easy-breezy for you because we really know what we're doing. So let's take the bookkeeping off you. Let's get all that sorted. Let's get everything working so beautifully." And in terms of the bills, I don't see that any business should be paying bills more than once a fortnight. So we help them to quickly say to the staff, the subcontractors, that there will be payroll period changes – with a note that for period changes, always allow three months for. We give staff three months notice, and then we help them to get everything sorted so that every second Tuesday, they are going online and they are paying the bills that we are happy to prepare for them. So we can do AVA files, we can do administration work like that, but then they just sit down at their desk and they open their online banking and they spend the 10 minutes that is required to pay things. So, we're getting to the source of the problem, which was poor systems. And if we don't fix the root cause of the headache, the headache will remain and that client will not have a great chance of really thriving in business. So we take a really long-term approach with our clients, and we have not really had any need to access bank accounts anymore. And you know what? When we sit down and do a thorough needs analysis and then present our recommendations, and then we talk to them about wanting a LONG-TERM relationship and helping them to systemise for the long haul, they would much rather me fix the source of their headache than give them two Panadol knowing that tomorrow they'll have the same headache again. So couple of key takeaways: Stop saying yes. Slow down, do a needs analysis, and only offer up a simple range of productised services that are scalable. Which means, you can delegate them. When I helped a business grow from 10 to 100 million, I had to go to a department, fix it, systemise it, train somebody to take ove, and walk away. So to say that somebody can't do what you do is a limiting belief that is not serving you. You will never hear that come out of my mouth. I have learned over the years that I can train anyone to do what I do. And I mean anyone, to do what I do and do it better than me. And in The Strategic Bookkeeper program, that's what I want to do. I want to train you to do exactly what I've done, and then do it better. So everything that I've told you today works incredibly well for us. I find that clients love to be educated around the difference between admin accounts and bookkeeping. It works really well for us to have those two narrow bookkeeping services. We use Ignition software for our proposal, so that we have those productised services. We structure the bookkeeping part of the job, and then we scope out the admin, we scope out the accounts work, and we add that into the proposal as additional items, and we're able to calculate a fee for those. And, it's very important to be clear about the service level agreement and the scope of works that you are providing. All of that is contained in the program – we give you all the done for you messaging templates, productised services, and then exactly how you implement them, and we help you make it work better and better over time. Now, actions you are going to take – straight after this blog, the easiest thing for you to do is to commit to slowing down when you do the needs analysis. The action I want you to take is from now on, when you get on the phone with a client, you're going to say, "okay, I'm going to start by doing a needs analysis, and I've got my worksheet here in front of me. So let's begin, and begin with your powerful question, which is tell me about yourself." Notice I didn't say tell me about your business? Because the business is the what, the self is the why. They're going to tell you about their business, and they're going to tell you about themselves. Let them tell you anything and everything that they want to tell you, and then go into the technical stuff. Are you behind on the books? What software are you using? What's your business number? All those different things. The needs analysis is not the place to talk about price. You are going to make your final recommendations. You might even do a little thinking out loud! Sometimes I even say to my prospective clients, I'm just thinking out loud a little bit. However, I'm going to digest everything that you tell me before making my recommendations. You're going to slow down, make the analysis about seeking to understand and gathering needs. Then, you're going to give yourself that time to finish up that conversation. And then while you are alone, you're going to hang up the phone, and you are going to sit and think about those three categories. So bookkeeping, that should fairly be same for everyone. You should have DIY bookkeeper support and end-to-end bookkeeping. Then, you're going to think about the other admin and accounts that needs to be done, and scope those. And of course, you are going to come up with a beautiful outcome billing fee attached. And so if you enjoyed this blog post, we have Bec to thank. And, if you jump into the private Facebook group or you email me, you can tell me anything that you'd like to hear about on the podcast, and if you're in the Facebook group, I'll do a video for you. Tell me what's challenging you, and also celebrate with me. Share it with the community. Tell me about the wins you're getting from the content that I share. Tell me about the challenges that you're having, so that I can help you overcome them, and any questions that you have about the Transformation Program as well.

Today, I would love to talk to you about the fact that we are LIVE in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, and how you can still take advantage of what is currently the foundation member period. But, I'm also going to talk to you about other stuff that is absolutely going to help you to build the confidence to TAKE ACTION that actually moves the needle in your bookkeeping practice. Read on, and let's have some fun. So, The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program has opened and it is live! We are rocking and rolling. We have got foundation members in, and we are in there working together. What I want to tell you right now is that it is not too late to join. We're live, we're going, we're doing it. However, you can still sign up to the program. You can still come in and join, and it is also still the foundation member period. For a limited time, we're going to have this foundation member period where you can jump in and join, and you can get all the BONUSES. Bonuses include: A platinum level of certification where you'll become a Strategic Bookkeeper with a platinum level of certification (rather than gold or silver or bronze), which comes with... A platinum directory listing in our directory of Strategic Bookkeepers where we will be directing businesses globally, and where your ideal customers will go so they can find Strategic Bookkeepers, as we build demand and desire for your services in the background. All of that adds up to a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE, which is exclusive to anyone who comes through as a foundation member in these early days in the foundation member period. Another bonus is, A standalone course, which is the Hourly to Outcome Billing You're going to get that included, and you can choose your own adventure and use that first if you like. And if you decide to do that, I'm going to hold your hand and help you around why and more. Now, included within that bonus is An extra bonus module, Productize Your Services You are going to get access to a whole suite of my productized services so that as you go from hourly to outcome billing, I have given you all the templates to stack your value to be able to find, onboard and retain clients without price as a priority to increase your REVENUE, and your gross profit and your net PROFIT exponentially, like I did when I implemented all this, and to actually increase your CLIENT SATISFACTION exponentially at the same time. That dazzled me when I did that. When I went from hourly to outcome, and fairly quickly, I started to see the exponential change and increase in client satisfaction. I was like, "I'm thriving more and my clients are more delighted." And the next thing you knew, I had my dream on my terms. Now, a couple more things. I have done a series of podcasts which answer some questions about the program. For example, does the program help me build or renovate my website? Yes, it does. There's a whole podcast on that. If you are super busy and you have no time, I've also done a separate podcast on how to help you with that. But, I do want to let you know that the program has been delicately structured. I am a busy mum, and so I built this program for me – for bookkeepers just like me. I thought about being a multitasking mum of a special needs child. And so I give you ways to digest content fast and get quick, immediate results in order to pay for the program as you go. So I've also done a podcast on what does the program cost and in that, you'll hear me say that the program doesn't cost anything because it's an INVESTMENT that you'll get a return on higher than the fee. And actually, I guarantee that, and I absolutely want to make that clear now. The program comes with a MONEY BACK-GUARANTEE and therefore is one hundred percent risk-free. I hear from bookkeepers who tell me about the goals they kick. There can be things that I've given them that within minutes, they bring on a new client that brings them revenue in thousands, and they've half (or more) paid for the program right there. I mean, there are a million ways that you are going to get return on investment day by day, week by week, month by month. Now, in terms of the program fee structure, look, it is another great reason to jump in early during the foundation member period, and you can go to the podcast, What does the program cost? to answer that. But today, as of writing, I want to tell you that I have structured the program to be $99 a week for a 12-month period – and that is thinking back to myself at the beginning of journey as a bookkeeper, when I wasn't cashed up. I needed help. And I thought, "You know what would've been great? If I could have paid a low fee per week and got a return on investment week on week." So if I could have just put in the work, kicked goals and then be like, "Yeah, I'm kicking goals, it's increasing my revenue, my gross profit, my net profit, and therefore it's kind of helping me pay for the program as I go." Here's the thing... Can I guarantee that the program fee structure will always remain $99 a week? I can't guarantee that. My top two values are courage and honesty, and very closely behind that is authenticity and kindness. So I'm someone that likes to lay all my cards on the table and tell you everything, all right? Just really honest with you and allow you to work with me so that we can make the best decisions together. And so, I'm going to be totally honest about the fee structure and say that right now as I write this, it is $99 a week for a 12-month commitment. Now, that fee structure may change, all right? The program fee structure may increase. Over the years as I've built this, when I mention that fee structure, so many people said to me, "You are too cheap. You need to be charging out way more." But it was in my heart, it was in my gut, and I reflected on myself at the beginning of my journey as a bookkeeper, as a woman, as a mum that ended up a single mum, that realized FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE would give me choice. And I decided that is the structure that I want to use so that I can help as many bookkeepers as possible. However, I cannot guarantee that fee structure forever. So if you do come in through the foundation member period, you are going to lock that $99 a week in so that you get that best possible fee structure for you. That's something I've thought about for quite a while and I have never shared it before. I'm only sharing it on today, in part because I feel like you'll know that sounds logical, right? Fee structures can change, they do change. But I want to let you know that I absolutely will not make promises I can't keep. I have learned over my 13-year journey that in business it's really important to always under promise and over deliver. So, when you join the program, whether it's during the foundation member period or not, whatever the fee structure is when you join up for that 12 months, you've locked in that fee structure. So if it's $99 a week at the moment and you join up, then you've locked that in. You've locked that in for the entire Transformation Program. And I know that there will be a lot of people globally that will be kind of going, "Holy cow, this seems really affordable. It seems kind of cheap." Once again, part of my desire was to try and make this program available to everyone. A lot of people wanted me to charge a flat fee upfront, and I thought, "Well, way back when I was a bookkeeper, look, I scraped together money for something back then, but there are a lot of bookkeepers who will struggle to have the upfront money." And so I did it to help bookkeepers, just like me. So I guess I would like to share with you right now that if you come in during the foundation period, then you're going to lock that $99 a week in. I'll be totally upfront and honest with you and say that none of us can look ahead to the future and predict what the fee structure will be. Whether at any time in the future, when we look at our capacity and the amount of members that are interested in coming through, whether we need to pivot to raising our prices or doing more of an upfront pricing model, et cetera. All I tell you is that today, right now, it is structured at $99 a week, and once you sign up for that during the foundation member period that you're just going to lock it in. I don't have a crystal ball, I can't tell you what will happen later, but I can tell you that for the 12 months, I guarantee 100% hand on my heart, and you will see that in the terms and conditions, is that once you sign up for the program, which is a lap around the sun (12 months) you will lock in $99 a week for that 12 months. And you are guaranteed that, let's say six months in, we decide to change the program fee structure and it goes up, you will not have to pay the new fee structure. And again, I don't have a crystal ball. I can't tell you what I'm going to do. I always want to try and make it as affordable as possible to bookkeepers. But the world never stops spinning. Our business has never stopped changing. Our price rises are a normal part of inflation and life. And so yeah, this is the first time where I'm kind of sharing that. Look, I would love to see you in the program, and if you're coming into the program, reading the book or listening to the audiobook (which is less than six hours long), you simply must do that. Even if you come into the program, you're going to see that it says, please, please, please, the audiobook's only six hours. So that's an hour a day for six days, or you can put it on 1.2 speed and get through it quicker. You can do half an hour a day for 12 days. When you listen to the audiobook or you read the book, you're going to come to me as if you have gone through, I'm going to call it kindergarten or grade one, and you are going to have this foundation of knowledge which is going to help you get bigger, better RESULTS faster. And honestly, when I wrote the book and my team read the book, they were like, "Holy cow, this gives us the foundation genie. This is everything." And I'm like, "Yes, it is." Over the years, I've absolutely felt like a crazy scientist, kind of a little bit alone in what I was doing, and like I was the only one who understood. But once I did finish the book and my team read it, and we started getting it out there, everybody definitely did begin to understand. So I want to tell you that whether you're going to do the program or not, please, please, please, you must digest the book. And to completely finish this off, I'll share something with you around what I call mindset matters. So I know that our mindset and our thought patterns are just so important, and a few of the things there is, You need to know what you need to know to take the right ACTION. So bookkeepers come to me and they've got, say, the wrong information. Therefore, they're acting on the wrong information. And when they get the right information, they're like, "Holy cow." And then they take action and they start kicking goals. So that's an example of when we set our thinking straight. That one's quite easy. It's around just getting the right education and being redirected. But the other thing that I know is things like this... (Sometimes this one's hard to digest, even for me, when I'm having a hard day or a hard week or a hard month...) Life is 5% what happens to us, and 95% our attitude to it. I'm big on journaling. I'm big on mindset. I'm big on mental, spiritual and physical health and putting our health first. And it wasn't so long ago, I was just kind of sitting down and reflecting because I have worked my ass off on getting this program built for you. 13 years in practice and over three years actually building The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, the book, the podcast, everything. It has been a mammoth effort. And as you can imagine, I've had times where I've been like, "Oh my goodness." And as you come through and I ask you to read the book, I'm asking you to do something that takes a lot of effort on top of everything else you've got to deal with in your life. But, one thing I said to myself is, I did the long days and I did the work to bring this program to you, and I journaled, and I said, "I did it. I just did an 11-hour day or whatever on top of being a mum and everything else," and I realized that actually, I got through a challenge like that. I was like, "See, you can do it." And then I said to myself, "You know what? I'm not afraid of hard work." In the program and in what I teach you, it's about going from working hard and busy to building INCOME and LIFESTYLE. And five years into my practice, I did that. I chose to go back and build the program for purpose and legacy, because my top two human needs are growth and contribution. It has required me to dig in and work hard. And I'm going to ask you to make time to read my book. I'm going to ask you to make time to get in and slowly step by step, let me hold your hand if you come into the program, and go on a lap around the sun with me – of learning and implementation, and practice makes progress and celebrating your results. You can do this. This is a book, a podcast, and a program that has been built by a bookkeeper for bookkeepers. Don't be afraid of a little hard work. Don't be afraid of the pendulum swinging from one side to another in terms of balance. Don't be afraid of putting a little more effort into things like reading the book. Because I know the mummy guilt we get, if you're a mum, "Well, now I'm doing this and I'm not getting enough time with my child." There's no such thing as balance, and you'll hear that in my podcast around Free up Time and Get More Sh*t Done. So in terms of mindset matters, absolutely, put in the work. Put in the work to get the results. Read the book. If you come into the program, it doesn't matter how much time you have or you haven't got, because there's three things I want to help you with. That is PROFIT, CASH, and TIME. So over time, I will help you free up time. Don't be afraid of a little hard work or a little more work in the beginning. Don't be afraid to lean into what I give you and start to work less, but work smarter. Don't let the shame gremlins make you believe I'm no good at this. When you read my book, you'll begin to change all of that mindset.

I was recently chatting with a bookkeeper about various things when she said to me, "I hope I'm ready for the program." And so I said to her, "Would it be okay if I ask what you mean by whether I'm ready for it?" As it turns out, she's a really busy mama like me, and she's taken over an organization and she's got a lot on her plate. And it's really just one of the big factors for her is TIME. She's trying to prioritize her health, which I absolutely believe– your health is your wealth. She's trying to be a loving mom to her children. And then on top of it all, she is trying to take this bookkeeping business that she has purchased and to tidy it all up and make it all work. And she desperately wants into The Strategic Bookkeeper Program, but one of her problems is time. And so, right now I'm going to dive into how to help you with how to pull more time out of your business, and maybe even your life. Something I will say about the program is that it's for the long-term, it's not about working harder. In fact, I'm not going to ask you over the long-term to work harder. Maybe in the early days I will ask you to. I mean, there are times when we've all got to put in, okay? Even for me, after I've built a lifestyle business, there are times when building The Strategic Bookkeeper Program where I pull 11-hour days on top of being a mom and everything else. It's not because I have to, it's because I've chosen to for PURPOSE and LEGACY. So, what I will say is that rather than ask you to work harder over the long term, I'm going to ask you to make harder decisions. And I'm going to help you with it every step of the way. I am going to help you to build powerful HABITS and be accountable. Harder decisions more than harder work. Now, there are three things that we all need from our business. That is profit, cash, and time. And time is what will allow you to live your dream on your terms. The advice that I gave to this beautiful bookkeeper to help her with time is a little kind of process that I have... So step one is what I call, get sh*t done In terms of when you're just frazzled and you're busy and you're trying to do it all and you've got this big list, I want you to sit down at your desk, put your head down and your bum up, and just get sh*t done. Try and clear as much as you can, laser-focus relentlessly, and just get sh*t done. And with regards to that, if you're thinking work-life balance and the fact that you're a mom and all those kind of things, here's what I want to tell you about WORK-LIFE BALANCE: It doesn't exist. It kind of does exist, but it doesn't exist. I want you to imagine a pendulum, and in terms of the way that we live and the way that we work, it's not about so much striking a balance as it is accepting that our energy is always tipped into different areas in different ways. Sometimes we'll find that our energy is tipped into being a mom more or leaning into family, community – and your energy is tipped in there. And while your energy is in there and the pendulum swings that way, you put your energy into that. Now, when that happens, you'll have less energy going into, whether it's your work or whether it's whatever else is happening. The pendulum is simply swinging the other way. Now, there will be other times where the pendulum swings back to work. And I know personally as a mom, when that happens, I feel guilt and I feel like, "Oh my goodness, I'm not being a good mom. I'm not giving him enough time and attention." But the truth is, that pendulum swings. It's not about work-life balance. And it can be the same with our health. So let's say the pendulum swings back to work, and I'm aware that I'm not getting to do the things that I would normally say, make up a beautiful miracle day for me, which would be really getting outside and walking, and maybe Latin dancing and doing any gym work I want to do, and all of those things. So when the pendulum swings and I notice that I'm not putting the energy that I would like to into the various parts, the best thing that I can do is accept that. "Oh, okay. Right now my energy is at work." Because, for example, I'm working really hard on what I'll be delivering in the program, and that's okay because the pendulum's swinging that way. If I accept it, I'll know that in a few months I'll then be able to take a breath – the pendulum will swing into some more health and some more mommy stuff and other things. The pendulum is not intended to sit in the middle of the work-life balance. So step one, get sh*t done. Put your head down, get as much shit done as you can, and clear a whole lot of stuff off your plate. As you're doing step one, I want you to start having an awareness of something. Once, I heard this cool little thing and it goes, there's three A's to change, Awareness, Acceptance, and Action. So right now, when you're doing step one, I want you to sit in the awareness phase where, as you're doing all of the things, I want you to start thinking about something that leads into step two. And that is, of all the things that I am doing, are there any of these things that aren't particularly impactful? We're going to look for the 5% activities that get us 95% of the results, and we're going to look for the other 95% that get 5% of the results. Or, we could talk about the 80/20: the 20% that gets 80% of the results, that's science-based and proven, and the 20% that gets 80% of the results. So, we're just going to start to become aware of that and we're also going to start to become aware of what we could possibly DELEGATE. This is about really understanding what you could possibly just not be doing at all, where you go, "Yeah, it's on the list and I'm doing it, but is it really that impactful?" – because, you're probably better off going for a walk. But again, right now, head down, bum up, get sh*t done, and start to become aware of what I call the f*ck-it-off list. That is, I could just f*ck this task off and it wouldn't matter. The stop-doing and the delegate list. So step two – after you just clear a whole lot of sh*t up and you start feeling so much better, then step two is going to be to stop. It's great if you can take a day out. Because, we can get really busy with the busy work, but busy with the 95% that's doing 5% of the impact. We want to really work on the 5% that gives us 95% results, which is absolutely what I want to help you with as a member of The Strategic Bookkeeper as part of my tribe. So step two is what I call the "don't do it" list or the "to don't" list, the "fuck it off" list. And the other part of it is if it really, really needs to be done, can it be delegated to someone? (Just hot tip there: If you delegate something, be clear about the scope in terms of the task and the time expected. I once had team members spend in excess of 10 hours on a task that was done fortnightly, that I expected to take well under an hour. And that's on me for not briefing them properly. So just a hot tip there.) Basically, what I want to tell you here is every time you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else. Every time you say yes to a client, "Yes, I'll do a proposal, yes, I'll take you on as a client," yes, whatever, same in your personal life, "Yes, I'll answer that phone call, yes, I'll help that person." — you are actually saying no to something else without even knowing about it, because you're shrinking the time that you have in your life and your business to devote to other things. The things that you may have on the list, or you may not even have on the list that they need to get done, won't get done, because when you say yes to anything, you reduce the amount of time you have to say yes to other things. So that's what's really important about the to don't list. Once you've got the to don't list and the fuck it off list and you start to wrap your head around the power and how freeing it is just to literally not do a whole lot of stuff that you realize is busy work, not impactful work. And part of what I do is I test and measure this stuff so that in the program I can say to you, "Don't do that. Don't spend so much time on that, but do do this and do spend time on that." Once you free up time by doing all of this, one of the things that you get to do, if you want to do it, is The Strategic Bookkeeper Program. So if you feel like, "I don't have time," then that is one of the things you get to prioritize as you come up for air and realize, "Okay, I'm not as time poor as I was before because I've got shit done, I've thought about what I could just probably not do or do less of and what I could delegate to other people." If you stop doing the low value stuff or spending too much time on things that you should only be spending a little bit more time on, and you actually do join The Strategic Bookkeeper Program, then it is going to be one of those 5% things that make 95% of the difference. I know that because I've been there, done that. I continue to be there and do that. And I have worked my ass off to make sure that I can give you the upfront and ongoing support that you need to solve all the problems that you've got and to build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. That said, I do want to tell you that I definitely designed the program so that you can learn and implement on the fly. So I give you ways to take action no matter where you're at, and I give you content to digest even when you're folding the laundry. I want you to be able to take small things and get big IMPACTS out of them. But then as you progress to freeing up that time throughout the program, then I will help you work more strategically by reserving an hour or so a day to get bigger, more massive, better results. We go on our laps around the sun together. Step three, I would like you to listen to Podcast Episode 10, and it's called Harnessing the Power to Build Your Dream Business and Life. I need you to use the first step to form new habits to get sh*t done, and then stop and do the to don't list, and acknowledge that every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. This is a really great cycle to use, but you want to form the habits around that so that on a daily basis, you're constantly assessing whether something that you've been asked to do, or something that's on your agenda is worth doing or not, because there is a massive power in just not doing sh*t. Just a really simple example is, we have tested and measured putting in a lot of effort into organic social media. And at the end of it, we came up with a formula that gave us exactly how much time and effort you should put into social media, which is a fraction of what we tested, and the return on investment that you'll get. So we decided to stop doing something specifically because we analyzed the return on investment. The 5% activities, they get 95% of the results. Social media is still critically important, but you need to understand how much time to invest in it. In the program, you get all the done for you social media templates and strategy and help to implement it all, which saves you tons of time and money. So that is the third step. Take what you've learned in step one and two, embed into habits so that you actually stop doing so much, so that you form what I call the MASTER HABIT in business – To be proactive rather than reactive, and that is step four. So ultimately, to be able to free up the time, you need to do the high value activities that help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms, whatever that is. And for the bookkeeper who asked me this question and shared with me, her dream on her terms is so similar to mine. It's to be able to prioritize her health first, to get her health right. And then similar things to me, then to be the best mom she can and show up the best she can for her children. And then purpose, our businesses and our jobs give us purpose. So I call that our empire building. We want to build our beautiful empires and be wildly wealthy women and men who have a positive impact on the world. So, your dream on your terms, and the income and lifestyle that you want and deserve – it is for you to prioritize what that looks like. So back to step four. The first thing I'm going to direct you towards to help you with that is a book called "The Science of When" by Daniel Pink (and I recommend that you use the Blinkist app to read it because that way you'll be able to digest the highlights in 10 to 15 minutes). It is a science book. It's why they do surgeries in the morning. And I actually structure the work that I do around The Science of When, and it's been quite transformational for how I work and the results that I can get. So what is proactive versus reactive? Most people are in the habit of reacting to what's coming at them. And I work with amazing business owners who relate to this, because one of the things I say to them is, "What's the first thing you do in the morning when you go into work? Is it basically open your email?" And they say, "Yeah, it is open my email." And I say to them, because I want to help you understand why that is not the first thing that you should be doing, I help them understand that by directing them to The Science of When, and then helping them to understand that when you open your email, you start reading emails from people and the things they want from you, and that is their agenda. And you start reacting to what other people want, rather than proactively deciding on what your agenda should look like and sticking to your agenda. Now, I don't know how easy or hard this will be to comprehend, but it is transformational from reactive to proactive. Another example: when the phone rings, are you in the habit of simply answering it? Because I work in The Science of When and I work in a proactive way, I will put my phone on do not disturb in the morning, from, say, whatever time I'm working until whatever time I want to stop working on the most high value stuff that I want to work on. Let's call it 12 o'clock, one o'clock. Because, you'll learn in The Science of When that the middle of the day, I call it the multitasking middle of the day, is the best time to check your email – because your brain function actually changes. So, I've absolutely got to check my chat channels and my emails and my tasks, et cetera, but remember the three A's to change, so Awareness, Acceptance, Action. I'm very acutely aware of proactive versus reactive. So if I sit down and I know what I've got to get done or what is the 5% activities, and I've prioritized the various things that I need to do, and then I sit down, put my phone on do not disturb, do not open my email, and I get done what I need to get done, and then later on I tend to my email. I also accept that I'm not going to get everything done and I am going to have to just simply not do or delegate some things. The only way I'm really going to get what I want out of my business and my life is if I've set my own agenda, and if I proactively stick to that agenda. And one of my clients told me that when he adopted this, he actually won back the time to fly to Adelaide and win a massive job and expand his business down there. So that's outside of bookkeeping, but success leaves clues, my friends. In terms of being proactive, there is a brain model. And it goes primal brain, reactive brain, proactive brain. The primal brain is flight or fight, so very little children will have that. It's hit first, sink later. It's the saber tooth tiger chasing us and we just run. Then there's reactive brain or kind of monkey brain, which is where we just react to everything that's around us. So if our child cries, we react to them. And so, the reactive part of our brain has a very important feature and function. It's also the multitasking part of our brain, where we can be folding laundry and doing a million things at once as a mom, and we're reacting to really important things around us because we need to react. Then there's the proactive brain, also known as empire building brain. And I want you to think of it as a muscle that you need to work out over time, by forming habits. Because, to build a thriving practice, you need to strengthen the empire building part of your brain. So at work, you need to really exercise and develop the master habit of being proactive rather than reactive. So Daniel Pink, The Science of When on the Blinkist app is a great place to start. Now, just to rinse and repeat for a minute, I really took a moment to think about and ask myself, as a bookkeeper, even going back to my journey and when I am busy, what does it look like for a bookkeeper who's really busy to join my program? And I'm a trainer and assessor, so I need to know that I can deliver content to all different bookkeepers with all different time constraints, in a way that helps them. Let me tell you about how I've gone about doing that. So, I do imagine the busy bookkeeper, who might also be a mom and everything else. The way that I structure my content, and the way I will continue to show up and support you, is to be able to give you easily digestible content that you can begin to implement on the fly. So literally even in the free trainings, I get people say, "Oh my goodness, Jeannie told me that immediately after this training, I need to do this two-minute activity,"– and they win a new client! So, what I'm acutely aware of is that, if you are really time poor, then you are still going to get massive results from the program if you let me hold your hand and challenge you to start out time poor, implement on the fly (progress over perfection!), jump in, use everything we give you, and let me help you implement it all to get results. But over time, I am going to help you form habits in order to free up your time slowly. And there will be a beautiful magic that happens on the day that you start to realize that you can spend an hour or two or more, working on your business rather than just in it, in a proactive way that gets you the really big sustainable results and just gets you the lifestyle, similar to what I achieved five years in. So, the program is fine if you don't have any time – as long as you can get in and talk to me about what's challenging you most, so I can point you in the direction of the parts of the program that you can pick and choose that will solve the immediate problems for you. Whether you are super busy or you're not super busy, the program is absolutely going to help you. And I believe that you will be able to get a return on investment greater than the fee. And I believe that so much that I offer you a full money-back guarantee. So after we work together for 12 months, if you cannot get a return greater than the fee, I will give you your money back. That's how confident I am that no matter how busy you are, I can get you there. So, that is my four steps to winning your time back and your sanity back, and to get to prioritize the things that are important to you, and swing the pendulum back from all work and no play or all work and no mummy time. That was step one, get sh*t done. Step two, the don't do it list. Step three, form the habits from the first two, and step four, ultimately, become proactive. In The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, I want to inspire you around this and more. I have a passion for what I call mindset matters because your mindset really does matter. And so, if you do join us, you are going to get all the support around the businessy stuff, and all the stuff around the businessy stuff that makes it all work.

Discover the secret to transforming your practice through strategic pricing! This game-changing bookkeeping strategy will make your clients see and feel your value, and be more outcome focused rather than price focused. It will absolutely be a key to you building a thriving practice with delighted clients, so that you can live your dream on your terms. We've all heard a lot about pricing. I've been tuned in to the what, the why, the how of all things pricing for 13 years now. When I first transitioned from being an employee to working for myself, I started out by charging an hourly rate to my clients, which seemed significantly higher than I was being paid when I was an employee, which seemed great at the time. My mindset when pricing then, was that of an employee, and not as a business owner. Here's the bottom line: If you are charging by the hour, you are stuck in the EMPLOYEE MINDSET. And so the first thing you need to do is change your mindset from that of an employee to that of a BUSINESS OWNER. You may have done some research already around pricing. If you have, you have probably read you should stop charging hourly, and start VALUE BILLING, or VALUE BUNDLING, or FIXED PRICING. The evidence is clear. It's irrefutable that OUTCOME-BASED BILLING is a superior pricing system and it's a win for the client as well as a win for your business. So no doubt you've heard all this evidence, so then, why can't our industry get bookkeepers as a whole to abandon hourly billing? I say it's because we haven't named the problem, and you need to name it to tame it: employee mindset. If you have done your research, you've seen the evidence and you are still charging by the hour, then why? Most people are going to tell you it's probably because you lack the confidence to change, and you are scared to change. And I actually think that that is not the key driver here. I think the key driver is the mindset, the employee mindset. And I think if we can get to the root cause of why some of us think that charging by the hour is better for our clients and better for us, then we can change our mindset and realise that we are thinking the wrong way, which means we are acting the wrong way. Shifting Your Mindset Making a mindset shift is key to so many transformations. If you have read my book, I talk about bookkeepers being very uncomfortable on the whole with sales and marketing. The mindset around it tends to be they want to clam up and say, "I'm not comfortable with this” or “I'm not good at this.". Well, I am here to help you make your current ceiling your new floor. Outcome-based Billing in 48 Hours In 2015, which was about six years after I started in practice – that's when I finally, within a 48 hour period, went from billing by the hour to fixed pricing. I'd been told by a lot of people that I should move to value billing or fixed pricing, but I actually thought that it would be a disservice to my clients, and they always come first. Clients are always the first thing I think about. Even if it benefits me, I'm like, no, if it doesn't benefit my clients, I don't want to do it. So way back then, I didn't really know that. The reason that I finally shifted is I saw a really great speaker and he said, if you're still pricing by the hour, Jeannie, you're an idiot. Now, this could be seen as really offensive but I'm really, really black and white and I like to be hit in the head with things sometimes. When this speaker told me I was an idiot I thought, "wow, if I had known that I would've changed earlier". So back then I went back to my little home office and within 48 hours, I had all my clients moved from hourly billing to fixed priced billing. And realistically, I did it in a really rough and ready way, and there was nothing wrong with the way I did it, and it's still a great way to do it today. Outcome-based Billing Calculation So how did I come up with the price? I first looked at my clients' annual bill, and if their work was maybe about the same, I just divided it by 12, and that was their monthly bill. And then I talked to them and they were all fine with that. And what I discovered in the year that followed is not only did I double my net profits without really increasing turnover, I didn't have to double turnover to double net profits. In fact, I even took a bit of a break at that time. So certainly I was not rapidly increasing turnover. Not only did I double my net profits, but my clients saw the VALUE in what I did like never before. They became happier than they'd ever been. Win-Win for Everyone So it was definitely a really great win for my clients as well as a win for the practice. I remember at some point, one client actually said to us, "How are you guys doing everything that you do for the fee that you charge me?" I guess I started to realise that sometimes we need to speak to clients more, sometimes less. Sometimes we need to jump in and give them a bit more support, with a bit of software or whatever it is. The work week-to-week, day-to-day, month-to-month can go up and down a little bit, but there are times when we've got a lot less to do. There are times when we've got more. The clients actually remember when we are doing tons for them. It was so exciting to get this feedback from the clients that they were happier than ever before, which of course led to even greater RETENTION and REFFERALS. And so I had this belief initially that outcome-based fixed pricing would be a loss for the client, however it was a win for my client. Business Owner Versus an Employee One of the reasons that you really need to make the fundamental shift is because running a business is so vastly different to being an employee. And I suggest that this applies whether you are a bookkeeper that's just working a couple of days a week, or whether you're a bookkeeper working full time and employing staff. I've heard bookkeepers say, oh, well, I just work a couple of days a week and I just contract a couple of people. So again, I'm just going to sit in the employee mindset. And these same bookkeepers wonder why they don't feel like they're really getting rewarded with the kind of money that they would expect for the time that they're putting in. And that's because you are running a business, you are no longer an employee. Unless you are on the payroll and being treated exactly like an employee, and let's look at what that looks like now. So when you're an employee and you're on the payroll, you go into the office or you work from home and clock on, you get paid for the hours that you do, you get superannuation, you will often get holiday and sick leave, even if you don't get those things, there's work cover. If you need to educate yourself, you educate yourself on your employer's time. You don't have to get insurance, the expectations upon you as an employee are different. When you go home, you don't have to take your work home with you, so to speak, mindset wise. I would come back to expectations. The expectations placed upon you when you're an employee are quite different to what they are when you are working for yourself. Even if you are labeling yourself as a contractor, when you are a contractor or in practice for yourself, you are expected to be, as a bookkeeper, licensed, registered, and insured. You do not have the protections that an employee has. You are expected to work longer and be educated, stay educated, improve your education on your own time. Unlike an employee that clocks on and gets paid through the payroll, you'll need to prepare your hours and justify your invoice to your client, which is completely different as well. You won't get paid for the time that you do that, the time that you have to open your accounting file and raise your invoice. The expectations that your client will have – even if you are contracting to them and you don't have a lot of clients – will be much greater than if you were an employee. And you will have expenses. If you have really, really low expenses, I promise you, they will still be about a third of your income. If we really drilled into them, about a third of what you are getting paid will go back into your business to pay for all the different things that you need to pay for, and the time that it takes in order to even lodge your own compliance. As an employee, you don't have any of that. At the end of the year, it's all there for you and it's all taken care of. When you're running your own business, you need to get into the business owner mindset and stop acting like an employee. Name it to tame it So what I'd ask you to accept is that, if you are going to continue to charge by the hour, that you are stuck in the employee mindset – name it to tame it. If you are going to refuse to move to an outcome-based billing system, charging for outcomes rather than hours, then you are stuck firmly in the employee mindset. I would like you to consider the amount that you are charging hourly, so let's call it a hundred dollars an hour because that's a really easy calculation – then, $33 of that you are not getting paid. So you can reduce that rate by $33, okay? Because a third of that is going to be time and money spent on all the activities required to run a successful business. Not to mention that you are much more liable, which is why you need insurance. You are much more liable. And I have met a bookkeeper who did end up being sued by a client, and she wasn't ready, and she was firmly in the employee mindset, and she was under the illusion she had a lot more rights than she did. You are running a business, or you are an employee. There is no gray in between. And that's what I really want you to take away today when you are considering your PRICING STRATEGY. In terms of how to move to an outcome-based billing system Why would you sell hours when you can sell outcomes? Delight Your Clients The pathway to happier clients, to more delighted clients, is outcome-based billing. I further discuss this and everything else you need to build a thriving practice in my book, where you get to live your dream on your terms. It's linear, you need to build a thriving practice that allows you to delight your clients. And only then do you get the privilege of living your dream on your terms, just like I did. It was about 2015 after I had started value billing, and in 2016 when I had got to a point where I had a robust lifestyle practice. I had to build a thriving practice, I had to delight my clients. I never would've got to where I had got to without outcome-based billing. And then going on a journey year-on-year, and doing my laps around the sun to improve, and listening to my clients, and keep improving and improving and improving, and future-proofing. Where Do You Start In terms of how you are going to move from billing hourly to billing outcomes: first thing, make the mindset shift. Even if after reading this and you are thinking to yourself “I don't agree” just let it marinate, let it sink in as you bill your clients. Maybe try billing a new client on a fixed-price plan, but start the mindset shift. I mean, I'm really happy if you do what I did – more so if you do it in 48 hours, like I did! Suppliers There are so many great resources out there. A couple of suppliers to our bookkeeping industry that I would definitely point you towards is Dext. If you Google them and sign up or even just contact them, they will have tons of pre-recorded and live webinars on pricing that will help you. And in fact, they helped me out a lot in the early days with pricing. Practice Ignition Is another great platform we use, built to help you with pricing. I discuss both of these platforms in my book, and I want to tell you about the tools that we use, and there are other tools too. The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program In my program I give you a pricing calculator. It's included in our Systems module, and it really works. Not only do we give you a pricing calculator, we show you how to use it, and then we help you with how to implement and continue to use it and refine it year-on-year. It's all done for you, and we give you all the calculations and an actual calculator. The other thing about outcome-based billing is once you move to this, you are going to have a lot more options around your succession services. So, hourly billing is the employee mindset. Get rid of it altogether. You don't need to make exactly the same profit on every job. You can make more or less, but if you get an outcome for a client, if you meet or exceed a client's expectations with an outcome, that's where the magic happens, not when you bill them hourly. I could go on and on and on about pricing and mindset. I guess what I want to leave you with is encouragement that if you are pricing hourly, please move to outcome-based, and to grab a copy of my book for more help. Please continue to tune into my socials as I would love to continue the journey with you and keep on helping you.

As I write this blog in response to the question "How much time in a week do I need to dedicate to the program?", I feel a little vulnerable— because, the way that you get RESULTS through the time you spend in the program and the way I've structured it is deeply connected to why I created The Strategic Bookkeeper in the first place, why I wrote and published a book and a companion podcast, and why I launched the program. And so today, I'll share a little bit with you. As you know, I started the practice almost 14 years ago now. And there was a point in my life where it was... I got to a point where things were hard. I mean, the practice was coming along. So the first five years, you'll know if you've read my book, I call it the f*ck-up years. Five years into starting, my husband and I went our separate ways. We are great mates and great co-parents these days, but without going into it: I'm a woman who's experienced divorce, and definitely had to think about financially being able to support myself totally and being able to support my son (although his dad definitely holds up his part, he has him and does that). But, I also actually ended up taking my niece in and my stepdaughter. (My joke is that I kept her after the divorce.) I think my point here is that, as a woman and a mum of a special needs child, and like a lot of mums, I found myself juggling the normal demands that are at play there – being a mum, being self-employed, and life does get in the way. Putting a roof over my stepdaughter's head, putting a roof over my niece's head... They have spread their wings and flown since then, but it all kind of happened at once. (And I think, like me, if your stepdaughter or your niece turned up on your doorstep, you'd be welcoming them in with open arms.) And so, why am I sharing this? Because the amount of TIME that you need to spend in the program is actually connected to my why. When I was going through separation and getting back on my feet, like I've heard from other bookkeepers, my HEALTH had suffered terribly. I was really ill physically, mentally, and spiritually – I was really hanging on by a thread. So five years in when I SCALED into a lifestyle practice, I was then able to take a big sabbatical and take time out to get my physical, mental, and spiritual health right. I was able to have that six-figure income that took away the stress, and allowed me to take the break that I needed to get myself well. And so, I have structured the program and the time that you need to spend in it so that the busy, multitasking mum can get it done. So basically, imagining myself back then, or even now, and even other mums I know... I'm pretty sure we all listen to PODCASTS, and that's a very convenient way to learn. So what I've done – we've got an academy, and that has all the education and the learning in modules. So first, you listen to the audio, because that's going to do a few things. Number one, it's going to allow you to digest the content. And then, number two, because everyone's in a different place in their practice... (Some of you have told me, "I'm brand new. I don't have anything, Jeannie. I'm working in a job, and then two days a week I'm trying to build a practice." Some of you have told me other things like, you have got 20 clients, but you've realized that they're low value and there's other things at play, and you're like, "Okay, I get it. I need to make some changes here.") ...depending on where you're at, you listen to the content, and then, you're going to be able to choose your own adventure. Now, I've structured the content so that I want you to listen to everything in a linear fashion. For example, the first two things I'm going to get you to do is, first of all, do the INDUCTION. Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe. I'm going to get you to sharpen the axe. So that's induction done. You can do that on the audio. The next one's called The CUSTOMER JOURNEY, and this is at the heart of everything. I honestly think you'll be surprised and delighted by what I teach you and show you in the customer journey. I think you'll have so many aha moments. It connects to everything, because everything you do is from the journey that your customer is going through. I call it part one and part two. Part one is from when they're in your market to when they say yes (if they say no, they go circling back). Part two is after we onboard them. I'll ask you a question right now: if part one is before they become a client, and part two of the customer journey is after they become a client, What's the first thing that happens in the customer journey after they become a client? Ask yourself that question. Give yourself a moment and then hold that in your mind. What is the first thing that happens after a client presses go, the first thing? Now, I tell you: the first thing that happens in the customer journey after they press go... is called buyer's remorse. And we have SYSTEMS and processes and ways to completely eliminate it, but that is a normal part of the customer journey, and it can affect retention later. How they feel and what they experience in the customer journey at that first stage of part two affects everything moving forward. The reason I shared that with you is, I'd love you to consider that sometimes, we don't know what we don't know – and I can tell you right now, there's a lot of stuff in the program that you don't know, you don't know. So, you've got all the content digestible via audio – and then let's say you're listening to it and you're like, "Okay, I need to grab that resource. I need to watch that video," – so then, you will combine that with when you are already at your desk, at your own time, going into the academy, and grabbing the resources as you need them, watching any video you need to watch. Here's what I don't expect you to do: I don't expect you to have this magical extra amount of time to go to your desk and sit and learn the content, be at school, go to university, and be on top of everything that else that you've got. In whatever time you can give me... ideal would be an hour a day, but that's listening podcast-style to start with. The lessons that I give you, they are usually under 22 minutes. So it's a podcast, that is 22 minutes or less. So, if you can give me 22 minutes a day, then I can help you move the needle. One of the things that I will do with you as you progress through the program is I will help you get that beautiful thing called TIME – to build a thriving practice, delight your clients, live your dream on your term. Your dream on your term means being TIME-RICH as well, so you can prioritise what is important to you. As business owners, we need PROFIT and CASH, and we need an income. They are the needs. What we want at the end of the day is time. Otherwise, why wouldn't we be in a job? There are other things that we want and need, but if we boil it all down, it's income and time. It's income and lifestyle. So, as you progress in the program, the things that we do together will allow you to SCALE. And scaling is ultimately about freeing up time, increasing PROFITABILITY, while extracting yourself to some extent from the business. When I talk about my dream on my terms, once again in that kind of vulnerable space, that comes from me being a mum and realizing that my dream on my terms is as a single mum of a special needs child, who've always struggled a little with my health. So with the desire to prioritize my health, my dream on my terms was unique, but it also was similar to all the other mums. Never was I aiming to make the most amount of money that I could ever make. In fact, once I started living a lifestyle business, some of my friends said, "Why don't you work more and make more?" And I'm not sure I have to explain that to you. That is because I wanted to be time rich to prioritise the things that are and were important to me, being my health and my family, my son, my stepchildren, my nieces and nephews, my sisters, my parents. Do one lesson a day, bare ass minimum. And I think using it podcast-style to listen to a lesson a day would be great if you are multitasking, and also taking care of yourself. And so when you go for a walk, or you're going to the gym, or you do something else where, you can listen. I remember years ago when I was doing a program, I absolutely listened to the audio while I was at the gym. So if you have an hour a day, go and spend it on anything to do with the program – so that could be an activity I give you, for example, do a critical driver, or attend a networking event, or get your social media sorted – do your normal activities as you listen to the audio. The stuff I give you, it's like grab it and go. You've listened to the audio, you know what you're doing. It's progress over perfection. I mean, an hour a day will get you pretty massive results, but 20 minutes a day will also give you good results. So to rinse and repeat and kind of finish up with how much time do I need to dedicate each week to the program, an hour a day in a perfect world. And then, you pivot to using the academy on that job. So literally, when you are doing the things in your business, you are just grabbing what you need from the academy while you're at your desk. And then if you're not doing an hour a day, if you can only give me one lesson a day, five days a week, you're going to be doing five lessons a week – you're still going to be kicking goals! And from there, we'll work together on freeing up more time for you. If you think you can listen to one of my podcasts of under 25 minutes, then I think you've got enough time to kick some goals, and have some fun with me and the community in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program.

(Quick side note: Have I told you how grateful I am that you read these blogs? I'd really love to hear what you're getting out of it, so please feel free to post in the Facebook group or email me personally 😊) So! For today's read, I would love to share with you some of my favourite things from the program, because as the creator – and also as someone who has been in practice for 14 years, and has been at the beginning of the journey with a lot of hustle and less strategy, and then the end of the journey and having spent the last four years reflecting and refining my perspective in terms of the things that I feel are really impactful – I really think is going to be different. After all, I'm looking through a different lens to the participants as you all come through the transformation program. Now, when you come into the program, I want to have planted a seed in your mind. And I feel like I'll be fertilising and nurturing that seed. My hope is that as you go through the materials, you'll go, "Ah, I see what she means."– because I know that when you get in, at first, you're going to be looking at the What part of it, like, "Ah, I need to go from hourly to outcome billing. Yes, that is the bit that I need", and absolutely! But, I want to focus today on a few of my favourite things that I believe will have a massive IMPACT on your journey. I feel like I've come up with four key things. Maybe four and a half... But just a quick reminder: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program are now OPEN! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the Transformation Program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just hop on today, okay? You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. So, the first one on my list of favourite things... I've created the content so that it is friendly for the busy, multitasking mum. The academy is already set up audio-friendly and there's audio files in there, but, that's just not enough for me. I'm a busy, multitasking mama and I want the world's best AUDIO-FRIENDLY user experience. And so that's what I've given you. And the why behind that is, I'm imagining that busy multitasking mum wanting to get to the computer and do it in the academy, but just not getting to. So I'm imagining her being able to use the Kajabi app where you never lose your place. It's there all the time. You're at a place, you're wherever, you're folding some laundry, you're cooking a meal... you're getting some me time in. You're going for a walk, all of that, and you're actually digesting the content and going, "Yes, I'll do that tomorrow. I'll take action tomorrow. I'll move the needle tomorrow." It's about being able to get EDUCATED and get results, even if you feel like you have no time. And so that is my first favourite thing. The next favourite thing on the list is... The brochure. Oh my goodness – I'm so excited!! You might be thinking, "What? It's a brochure." The best way I can explain it is, I'm going to explain the what and the why. The brochure is basically the equivalent of a team of marketing professionals, which includes a veteran bookkeeper who's been there, done that, that specializes in sales and marketing for bookkeeping practices, marketing copywriters, graphic designers, marketing strategists that understand storytelling and story selling and strategy generally, and brand specialists. So it is that entire team, which includes my 14 years of experience creating something like this beautiful DIGITAL ASSET, which actually incorporates your menu. So, the brochure stacks your VALUE and creates DEMAND and DESIRE for what you have to offer without price as a priority, and calls your market to action with welcome lines. And the way that I've structured this brochure is so that we walk you through getting the brochure and the really easy updates that you do to make it your own. If I was to put like a price tag on this... what would that cost you to do that? Well, it's kind of impossible because of my involvement, but I would say 20, 30 grand to get that done. Now, in terms of the why behind that, this brochure – I feel like it's at the heart of a lot of the SALES and MARKETING things that you're going to do. It is at the heart of solving the sales and marketing problem. It is what you use to brief a web designer. It is what you use to find and onboard clients without price as a priority. It is what you use to convert more PCs to VIPs. And you actually are going to use it across every single marketing strategy that I give you, because the brochure is at the heart of what is pulled apart into everything else. It is even what you are going to use to put in a folder that you take with you to business networking! Honestly, I think of it as the OMG digital asset. It is what is going to be a big part of building a HIGHLY PROFITABLE practice with delighted clients, which is the pathway to your dream on your terms, the income and lifestyle you want and deserve. So that was number two on the list of some of my favourite things. Let's go on to number three. Drum roll please... The critical drivers. They're so simple but so impactful, and they link through to number four on my list of favourite things, which is— The detail, and things being checklist-driven. So how about we talk about those together? With the critical drivers, if you imagine that you have, say, a dozen strategies from the program. And just as a crude calculation, each strategy is able to win you two new clients a year. That's 24 clients over a year! That builds you a highly profitable practice with my SYSTEMS and PROCESSES, and you're going to be able to build a six-figure practice with 24 clients. And that's a real deal, like, you've heard me say: under promise, over deliver. You can generate more than that, but that's just a crude formula. So now, you've got the strategy. Again, for example, 12 strategies – but I'm telling you right now, it is the critical drivers that will get you there. What I've developed is a list of critical drivers that are across the different strategies and the things that you're going to do daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, that work with MARKETING LAYERING. It's the layering of all the strategies and the brand things. So, you get the marketing layering. Then, we have the critical drivers, and all of these contributes to creating an invisible and visible PIPELINE of inquiries – and so you're getting that drip, drip, drip, from people that are going through the CUSTOMER JOURNEY. So with the critical drivers, it is: so simple, but holy cow, impactful, as I guide you through structured checklists, and then challenge you and hold you accountable to what you are doing, what you are not doing, and forming habits, all right? Because what you're not doing is often linked to more of, I'm not in the habit of that, so I'm going to nudge you as you jump in. And I say, "Right, what results are we getting? What results aren't we getting?" And then based on anything that we are not getting, we look at those checklists and those critical drivers and we look for the things that you might not be doing. And then we're Aha! There it is. Let's talk about getting you to do that one. And that takes me to the last one of my favourite things, and maybe we'll do this as last one and a half. So, it's actually the detail. I've seen one of the big surveys that surveys bookkeepers are all over Australia, and the top two problems that bookkeepers note that they have (it's graphed and chartered by one of our amazing bookkeeper associations), is getting paperwork out of clients, and then the sales and marketing problems. That is, finding NEW CLIENTS. Now, what you really want to do is create a pipeline, like I talked about before, we don't want to be hustling all the time. We want to be strategic and create a pipeline. So in terms of detail and finding new clients and that survey... it then went on to say, when surveyed, bookkeepers are saying that their best source of sales and marketing or new clients is referrals – and referrals can be broken up into referral PARTNERSHIPS, and referrals that come from NETWORKING. So networking, partnerships, accountants, referrals. And then it breaks my heart because I know so many bookkeepers just sigh and go, "Why isn't it working for me?", which leads them to thinking that something's wrong with them. But, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you – you simply don't have the DETAIL. So that's why that is one of my favorite things, because I give you checklist-driven detail, and I show you how to use it. And that's why it was four and a half things. I hold your hand as you're using it, and challenge you to form the habits and do the things. I know that the fine detail is really what makes things work, and I know that we can use that as a diagnostics as well. It's like, if we've got the detail and it's checklist-driven and we tick off what we are doing, it's what we are not doing that we can use as a diagnostic for why we're not getting a result. So absolutely, the detail is one of my favorite things. And like I say, the and a half was that I hold your hand and support you every step of the way. So years ago, I actually opted into a really great program and it was about $17,000. So the fee structure was a lot more than The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, but I opted into that. And before I did, I read the creator's books (he's got quite a few books and amazing books, Daniel Priestley), and I read about three of his books twice. And, it was really a lot of sales and marketing stuff, but overall amazing business stuff. And then, I opted in to the program. And once I was in the program, I had this amazing foundation to get started with – because, I had read all his books. And as you know, reading my book is one of the things you must do for the program, which is why it's digestible in audio form for just six hours, broken to an hour a day. And going back to that program – that was a year as well, 12 whole months in order to learn and implement. And what I discovered, once I was in the program, was the detail, and they had people showing up to help us with the detail based on their expertise and experience. That formed a part of the fact that they were helping us with the detail, and the step by step IMPLEMENTATION. I learned a lot about what worked with their structure, and I've definitely taken the best of it and applied it to the transformation program. So there you have it, my friends, a few of my favourite things. And, I really do hope that when you come into the program and you start doing all the things, that you have those aha moments that connect to what I've shared with you today.

Psst! I've been meaning to tell you this — I've thrown in a surprise launch bonus for August 1, when the doors open to the Transformation Program! Woo hoo! I'm very excited!! And, you know what? As I wrote this, I have not even told my team about this surprise... It is a fairly early morning where I live on the Gold Coast in Australia, and I live and die by The Science of When, by Daniel Pink, so I know my brain functions best in the morning. So, this morning, I have decided to include this launch BONUS, and that is, for the first 12 weeks, you are going to have the opportunity to catch up with me more than fortnightly. The way the program works is, the doors open August 1, so you have got 14 days to jump in before I am there for your first live IMPLEMENTATION SESSION. And, there'll be other members of the team that are jumping in as well to help you with various things. Because as you may know, I tend to separate ingredients 1 to 5, from ingredients 7 and 8. So, ingredients 7 and 8 is SYSTEMS and TEAM – and I've got someone on my team who's going to work with you around that (kind of concurrently), while I work with you around the ingredients 1 to 5, which is Brand, Menu, Attraction, Conversion, and Succession. Now, a quick rinse and repeat: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program will open AUGUST 1! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the Transformation Program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just join the waitlist, and you'll get all the details. You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. So August 1, that's actually a Tuesday. Now, best case scenario: you jump in and you purchase the program that day, and you get cracking! Because then, you've got 14 days to access the content and you're going to be able to do the induction and be like, "Okay, yep, I know what to do here." And then you're going to get started, because then as you're absorbing the content that I need you to absorb. I need you to get a foundation in certain aspects of what you need to learn – remembering that there are five parts to the way I deliver in the program, and that is Education, Assets, Implementation, Team, and Support. You're going to be able to get in and have two weeks, where you can just start digesting the content. Remember, I'm structuring the content for the busy multi-tasking mum. We have an academy and all the content and the resources and everything is in there, but, I'm using a beautiful little piece of tech that makes it all audio-friendly in your podcast app on your phone. It's a private podcast, but no matter how busy you are, the busy multi-tasking mum is going to be able to actually listen to all of the content, podcast-style, and then rinse and repeat and use the academy as needed as well. So, let's say you do go in and you opt in to the program August 1 – you've got those two weeks of content where you can be absorbing as much as you can! When I show up two weeks later, August 14th, live and recorded, you're going to already know a whole lot of stuff that's going to help you get more VALUE out of the implementation session that I do. Now, at this stage, I think I'm going to allow about 90 minutes for each implementation session. Let's say you opt in on August 13, that's fine too! The implementation sessions are live and recorded. So what I would suggest is when you turn up, it might be something that you decide that you want to watch again, or you're just going to be in a different place to someone who opted in on August 1, so you'll simply want to re-digest all the content. But, the surprise launch bonus is basically that. You are going to get more COACHING and MENTORING from me in the first 12 weeks. In terms of what day and time I show up, I want to wait until I talk to you all, literally until I survey you all when you come into the program, so I can find out what days and times suit you. I will guarantee for the foundation members that join in that period of two weeks after August 1, you are going to get access to much more coaching and mentoring with me, live and recorded. Now, the other thing that may be at play... I like to under promise and over deliver, so I'm not going to guarantee this, but, I guess what is part of this surprise launch bonus is that for that 12 weeks, there is going to be more of me, and that more of me might be more than weekly. This is all about getting you RESULTS and helping you more. I want to turn up more often based on what you tell me. I also want to turn up more often in that first 12 weeks in order to tailor the SUPPORT to the key problems that you're trying to solve and the key things that you need in your practice. (And, they're just going to be a little bit different for each bookkeeper.) So, I've spoken to bookkeepers who are at the beginning of their journey and they've said, "Jeannie, I'm right at the beginning." They might have a job, or they might be a new mama wanting to go back into the workforce... They've got no clients right now and they've got nothing. And then, I've got other bookkeepers who are quite busy, but they're the busy bookkeeper more than the thriving bookkeeper, and they need something different. So as a community, here's what you've told me you NEED so far: "Jeannie, I need to find new clients." "I need help Jeannie, and my focus at the moment is brand." "I need to help with how to build a website quickly, effectively, strategically and affordably." "I need pricing strategy and productised services." "Jeannie, I need standard operating procedures." And also, I was pleased to hear from at least one bookkeeper "I'm really keen on succession", which is the advisory built by a bookkeeper for a bookkeeper. Now, I'd love for you to ask yourself if one of those spoke to you, all right? And also, if there are other things that you need, because the Facebook group is a place to post them. If you are not comfortable with that, then please email me because when I know what you need, I can make sure that I keep that front of mind, so that I know how to help you. So that surprise launch bonus, to rinse and repeat – more of me, more coaching and mentoring included, me working my bum off for the first three months. And then after that 12 weeks, what I plan to do is migrate into that normal fortnightly show up. And that's for a few reasons. I want you to spend the smallest amount of time with me, for the biggest IMPACT. I don't want to take your time, I don't want to overwhelm you, and I teach you this in terms of working with clients. It's not the time that creates the impact. We could spend 30 minutes with a client investigating their numbers and get a massive impact. Or, we could have a client where we think, okay, we need you to show up every week for a few weeks for an hour because we just want to get some goals kicked here. The more time that we take with our clients, the less time they have. And what do we know about time? Two things that we really want and need in our businesses is TIME and MONEY. So the more time and money that I can give you and that you can give your clients, the better, all right? My idea is not to take up your time in order to give you value, absolutely not. And so as we work together over the course of the program, I absolutely have front of mind, BANG FOR BUCK. Biggest impact for the littlest investment. And literally, I hop in the program going, let's talk the 5% activities that give you 95% of the result so that we're not spending the wrong amount of time and money on activities that don't give you the ROI, the result, and more. The launch special, that surprise launch bonus, however, is actually so I can tailor it to each person. It's literally so I can look at the community and go, right, these people need help with this, but they're okay with that. And therefore, let's see what time of day suits them. I'm going to show up and do a live implementation session and coaching and mentoring and support, to help the people that have this problem sooner than the implementation session that would be at X date. So, that first 12 weeks is me working harder – it's me showing up more often to serve everyone with where they are at right now, and the problems that they face. And so if you like the idea of more coaching, support, mentoring, and live sessions to help you to get results and SOLVE problems where you are at, and then this is a great one for you. This is on top of all the other celebration items – your platinum level CERTIFICATION, massive COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE, and also the access to the hourly-to-outcome billing that is sold standalone at $1,000. You will get all these, and so much more.

So I got question is from a lovely bookkeeper, and she says, "Currently I do not have a website. Does your program offer any training or provide any information on having a website that stands out?" Now, regardless whether you're planning to join the program or not, and whether you currently have a website or not, this blog is going to give you the strategies you need about WEBSITES and CLIENT ATTRACTION – because that's primarily why we have a website in the first place. And I'm going to give you some insights into so much more, so as to help you build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. A quick & very special reminder: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program will open AUGUST 1! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the Transformation Program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just join the waitlist, and you'll get all the details. You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. So, as I've created the Transformation Program, I have absolutely imagined me as a bookkeeper, at the very beginning of my journey. I was starting my practice with a baby in my belly, never knowing where this journey would take me, but just wanting to get started and have a crack and have a go and figure it out as I went along. In terms of when I did decide to get a website, that was fairly early on because I'm very future focused around the tech and economic landscape. I like to recognise what is happening, what is coming, and be an early adopter. I started out with a free website from way back then – Yellow Pages. But then, I started to realise that my little business was growing and I got that spark and that itch for wanting to do something more. And so I tried a web developer, but it didn't do anything. If we think about the purpose of your website, it's really client attraction. A website is where people should be able to get to KNOW and TRUST you, so that they can see if your vibe is their vibe, and if they think you can solve their problems. So ultimately, this is about having a website that can GET FOUND on Google and that your prospective clients are able to start with in order to get to KNOW YOU, 24/7 digitally online. This was not such a big thing way back then. If somebody was referred to you, they would ring you. These days, that is not the case. Post-pandemic, if somebody is referred to you, they're going to want to check you out online and they're going to want to buy when they are ready. So back then, I did try to put myself in the hands of people that were telling me they knew what they were doing. I remember my first couple of iterations of websites. I was raised by a really successful entrepreneur who got advertising right, and a website definitely is a form of your advertising. And I thought, this isn't working. So one day I met someone and he was part of an organisation that had a reputation for being the biggest and the best, and they were pretty expensive in website development. It seemed like this guy knows what he's doing. So I threw a heap of money at him, and he made me something that looked really, really nice. He made me something that looked really, really good – but got me zero results. And while that was frustrating to me, it was also fascinating. And so long story short, I sat down and thought about the things that influenced his success, and I then proceeded to design and develop my website myself. Now, I didn't do the technical aspect. That is actually the easier part. At the time, I got connected to a lovely guy that lives in Pakistan that used to do a lot of work for a business buddy of mine, so there was good reputation. And so I gave him the full brief. I designed the website and everything that was going to go in it, and he put it into the WordPress template. In terms of being found on Google, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION sounds technical, and look, these days it is much more technical. We've actually recruited an SEO person for The Strategic Bookkeeper team. (I'll kind of pause and just remind you that with The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, you'll get my team behind the scenes that conceivably you couldn't recruit yourself, in order to help you with all these technicalities along with my little black book.) And so what happened back then, and still to this day, there is a truth in search engine optimization – the first thing that you need to do is show off online with GOOD CONTENT, and to make sure that you're visible. So that's kind of like step one. Once again, these days a little more complex, but I did those things. I built a strategic website based on everything I knew in business, contra to what these alleged professionals were telling me. I built it the way that I knew sales worked, and it worked for me. But, I'm going to tell you something else. It was some years ago when I really nailed my website by building it myself (about eight or so years) – and then we asked ourselves, what's changed in eight years? As you may know, I work strategically with many of my clients. And one client I was working with, he is in the electrician trade kind of space, he was getting a website built, and he asked me to have a look at the website build. So I got on and had a look, and I spoke to his developer. And I said to his developer, "This website is absolutely beautiful. Visually, it is absolutely gorgeous." And he said to me, "Thank you so much. I think it is too." I said, "It is. Honestly, it is gorgeous. But I do not see it generating any SALES." And look, the basis of that was, while the graphics were beautiful and everything about it was pretty, it didn't have the strategic moving parts – those that called the website visitor to action, that offered up a COMPETITIVE EDGE, unique SELLING PROPOSITIONS, back to call to actions, profile, results-based MARKETING, and everything else that you need to have in a website. Now, here's the really shocking part about that story. That web developer said to me, "I agree." He said, "I agree that this website has not been built to generate sales whatsoever." And so of course, I inquired why he had done that then, and he told me that he was unable to get from the client the images and the various things that he needed in order to make it a website that converted the visitors into actual customers. And so he just did his best and built a pretty website rather than a powerful part of a SALES MACHINE, which to be honest is what a website is designed to be. The moral of that story is, many web developers are graphic designers, and graphic designers are often built to make visually beautiful stuff, but not necessarily understand the SALES PROCESS and all the other parts of how to build a strategic website. A year ago, another client of mine got really excited as well because she was building a new website, and from the get go I thought, oh crap, I've got a crystal ball, I can see the problem she's going to have. Because, she got cracking with a web developer and started to make all the cool stuff and the cool assets, without having a mapped out PLAN that would make it far more PROCESS-DRIVEN than creative. And really, I do believe that's how you build a strategic, smart website that does what it's meant to do. If we think about that, when somebody visits your website, they're able to get the information they need, they're able to get to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you. They're able to see your profile, your REPUTATION... They're able to build your competitive advantage based on what they're seeing. And so if you have a process for building a website that is going to work, then it's simply about that step-by-step process and just implementing that over a very tight timeline. So this client of mine, they think at the beginning, yay, build the website, and they've engaged a professional, "we'll be done with this in no time". And a year later they're telling me, "We haven't actually finished that website. I just don't know how to do this bit and that bit." Problem is, only they can do it. The web developer can make stuff look pretty and they can maybe do some other stuff, but a marketing copywriter is actually probably a really important piece of the puzzle as well. And just to pause again, in terms of the Transformation Program, guess what, you get two marketing copywriters at the moment. You get my amazing head strategist, lead strategist, and I personally am a passionate marketing copywriter myself. Now, in my book, I give you a playbook and I give you some suggested website pages and I give you some help in there and talk about a lot around that. But, let's talk about program and how it helps you, as that's what the question is also about. So back to the beginning of my journey, I held myself in my mind and I said, if I had known this, if I had have had this kind of help, if somebody had of stepped in and did this for me and with me, what would the impact of those things have been? And here's what I came up with – I thought, it would've been helpful for someone to tell me everything I NEED to know. That's the EDUCATION piece. And then, if I already know all of those things, it would've been helpful if they just gave me a whole lot of stuff that I needed done for me, like the digital ASSETS and collateral. Then once I got told what I needed to know and got even all that great digital collateral, I know from experience that I would've needed that person to help me IMPLEMENT it all. To just hold my hand every step of the way, definitely for the first year, so that I could practice and fall over, ask questions, try again, and get it all right. And then I thought, who were the other kinds of experts and professionals that I need to help me with this stuff ongoing? And that was the TEAM. So it'd be great if, rather than having to figure all that out myself and go and try and find these professionals, and then make all the mistakes that I've made along the way and just being clueless around who I need to do what... It would've been great if someone said, "Oh, don't worry. You just need this, this, this, and actually we've got those people in the little black book." And then the very last thing was, throughout my journey, I was constantly meeting suppliers and other bookkeepers (and definitely I've told the story of how helpful Dext was in my bookkeeping practice), but ultimately, I never met anyone that knew more than I did. And so, I actually felt alone. That there is the last piece of the puzzle – the SUPPORT. I thought, imagine if I had have had somebody that was there to support me with a team behind them, and then imagine if they put me in a community of people came together and we lifted each other up to do all this... That's how I came up with Education, Assets, Implementation, Team, and Support. So in terms of developing your website, we give you all that in the program. Just to rinse and repeat, The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program is not static. It's not like I build it once and then, "Off you go, best of luck." – It is a program that will EVOLVE over time. As I always say, the world never stops spinning, the tech and economic landscape never stops changing. And so, you can expect me and team HQ to be in the program with you, listening and asking questions, and changing with you and changing with the industry and providing you with the things that you tell us that you need and want. And right now, as a bookkeeper, you've either got a website, haven't got a website, or you're in the middle of trying to build one. (If you are, I feel the pain.) Well, the Transformation Program's going to actually help anyone in any of those situations because I have absolutely held all of you in my mind as I've developed the program. So if you don't have a website, or if you do or if you're developing one, I designed a solution that kind of helps all of you. My team and I have developed and refined a beautiful and killer BROCHURE – and it has all the moving parts of what you would put in a WEBSITE, along with a place for your BRAND. Within that brochure, you're going to have all The Strategic Bookkeeper unique selling propositions and SELLING POINTS, which is made visual with MODELS, your CERTIFICATIONS, and more. These all contributes to your competitive advantage and helps you make clients outcome and value focused, not cost focused. And, all that contributes also to your PROFILE. Basically, that brochure has a marketing copy included which is meant to tell a STORY. It's designed to CAPTURE your prospective clients and clients in a way that CONNECTS them as to why they're going to use you. If you listen to any of my other podcasts or you've read the book, you'll know that I rattle on a lot about helping bookkeepers to be able to talk in why language. Because, people don't buy what you do, which is the bookkeeping. They certainly don't want to pay a premium for it – they buy WHY you do it. For example, bookkeeping is globally recognised as pillar one for the success of any business. And, we know that successful business owners know and use their numbers – how well do you know and use yours? You can see how I'm transforming what language into why, and there's a whole lot more in terms of the psychology which I'm not going to break down here. So in that brochure, we showcase results-based MARKETING. Whether you have no clients right now or you have clients, I will show you exactly how you can put your results-based marketing in there. And just a tip, anything that comes out of someone's mouth that they say about you, whether they're currently paying you a fee or not, is something you can use in your results-based marketing – because it's what someone's saying about you. So in the program, we make sure that we're showcasing those results, what others are saying about you, which then stacks your REPUTATION. Circling back to the profile, there's other things that we insert in there, but the key to understand here is that the brochure has some of the moving parts that make it work and make it stand out, because this brochure becomes a brief for a web developer – a really big part of the process in developing your website. So, from your profile and your reputation, we move on to your MENU, which there's a whole chapter in my book. In the brochure, we dissect the menu and we kind of turn it into a story. So that includes your VISION for your client, your MISSION on how you're going to achieve that vision, the key problems that your clients face, the customer journey, the key benefits and outcome you're going to achieve for them, your guarantees, and we definitely make sure that we've got clear ways to allow them to take action, which are Calls To Action. The other thing to note there is, your PRODUCT LADDER is a part of this beautiful brochure. And actually, your brochure is a part of your product ladder as well. There's a whole podcast on that – you've got content, welcome lines, core products, and succession products. And your welcome lines are actually Calls To Action. So for you to go out and develop that brochure by yourself... you would need a really great graphic designer, an exceptional copywriter, and you would actually need someone to do what is normally called a full brand strategy where they understand your industry and they dive into the problems, the solutions, they develop your vision, your mission, everything else. You would need all of these things, and that would easily cost you in excess of $10,000 for the brochure alone. If you're going to go out and create that yourself and develop a website and all of those things, you're going to spend 2, 3, 4 times what you're going to spend in the Transformation Program. And let me tell you right now, none of those people are going to give you a money-back guarantee. Let me tell you right now, if you have got someone that has developed that entire process for you – so I am a bookkeeper who has spent 13 years in practice, and I had to build my own website because nobody was able to get me a result. I've tested iterations and I've worked out what doesn't work and what works. I have had well-meaning experts over the years tell me, "No, no, no, Jeanie, you are wrong and we know what works and you change yours up." I've tried everything, and I've been able to try, and fail, and work it out – you're going to get all of that experience from me. So to rinse and repeat, that brochure is going to be the most incredible brief for your web developer. That is going to save you so much MONEY and so much TIME, and that alone can easily give you the return on investment on the program. Another thing about that brochure and something I'm really passionate about, is I'm developing it so that you can have it printed really, really beautifully. Imagine that you speak Italian and you are trying to speak to someone who speaks English, but they don't speak Italian and you don't speak English – that is what it is often as a bookkeeper trying to convey your VALUE to a prospective client, or your market. And what I want to do is give you a translation device, and that brochure acts like a translation device. And guess why I know? Because even I do it. Recently my right hand said to me, "Oh, Jeannie, you know what, I always find myself reverting back to the what language and not the why." And I said to her, Me too. It's okay, me too. I'm a bookkeeper too. That's why I have a menu that I pick up and I use as a translator, and I point to it and I read from it, and it helps me to take that bookkeeper hat off and put the PR hat on and talk client. The brochure is a SALES and MARKETING collateral that you give to yourself when you're in the role of the person who is looking for more people to help and solve problems for, so rather than have them look at you confused and scratching their head, they nod, and they shoulders drop and they relax and they say, "Oh my goodness, how did you know?". And sometimes, the outcome there is just for you to be able to relax and just think, "Gosh, I don't even really know how this works. I feel like I'm saying the same thing." And guess what? You are saying the same thing, but you are now speaking the same language. So, that brochure serves as a brief for a web developer, but it also serves as collateral you can take to any NETWORKING event that you go to. It serves as the basis for your video sales letters, which I will hold your hand and walk you through developing and give you all the support you need to create amazing video collaterals. (If that scares you, don't worry, because I will move heaven and earth to get you there.) We can do some done-for-you collaterals as well, but I'm going to work with you and the tribe to make sure that we do what's right for you and what works for you. To sum it up, that beautiful brochure is an asset that works in Brand, Menu, Attraction, Conversion, and it actually works in Systems and Team – because it is a part of what you are giving to the team to convey your vision and mission, which the team is living every day to achieve your vision for your client. This is something that threads throughout every ingredient in my seven-step method in order create an impact. But, for this blog, it was mainly around how I help you with your website – how I help you build from scratch, or renovate your existing, or get through the pain of being stuck right now in a process where you thought the website would be done ages ago and it's not done. If you've got a website now, I DON'T want you to get into the program and go, "Oh, okay. Well then the first thing I need to do is renovate my entire brand." NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. What I want to do is give you done-for-you assets and collateral that will allow you to start kicking goals, while we go about renovating your brand. I want to be able to give you things to hit the ground running, so that we don't have to stop and do work that doesn't immediately generate RESULTS. So hopefully, that's given you some insights into how The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program solves that problem. Now, I would encourage you to join the waitlist NOW as we don't have never ending capacity, and doing so is going to reserve your spot for the August 1 launch, together with bonus specials x

In continuation to my previous post, I am going to answer some more questions about the program that have been asked by our wonderful community members. I'm so so grateful for these questions because one person's questions are usually the questions on the lips of the many – and so if you have anything you'd like to know more about, just ask away 👋 So, first question, "Will you be offering ONE-TO-ONE SUPPORT to participants in the program tailored to their specific needs?" And then the second and third question which relates to that is, "Will there be a weekly, or fortnightly, or monthly GROUP CATCH UP? If there is, what times would it be – is it going to suit me?" To rinse and repeat, the Transformation Program is structured into five parts: Education, Assets, Implementation, Team, and Support. I'm going to give you the EDUCATION – you're going to get online coursework, along with the assets that you need – and then I'll be getting together with you and SUPPORT you (think about it like a classroom!). So in terms of one-on-one support, the catch-ups, and the times that suit, these primarily fall under implementation, team, and support. I won't simply be giving you the education, I need to make sure that I help you with what you're learning and the assets I've given you, and then help you IMPLEMENT it all. So just a quick & very special reminder: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program will open AUGUST 1! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the Transformation Program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just join the waitlist, and you'll get all the details. You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. Going back to the one-to-one coaching support – as it stands right now, the Transformation Program is a one-to-many coaching and support model, but I'll consider one-to-one support if it's needed, case by case. You'll hear me talk about the 80/20 principle a bit throughout my coursework amongst other things, and, I do believe that the one-many model will suit most for many reasons. You've heard me talk about when I was developing all of this, I thought back to the beginning of my journey as a bookkeeper. I was pregnant at the time, the global financial crisis hit, we had two mortgages, and I simply had to go back to work earlier than anticipated in order to manage the day-to-day expenses. And so, I thought back to what I would've needed then in that situation, and I thought about the PRICING equation, so I've priced the program as a one-to-many model. In terms of will there be weekly or fortnightly sessions, the answer is yes, I will be turning up live. At this stage, I have made provisions to turn up live and work with everyone in the Transformation Program in a way that basically gives you that coaching and support, to make sure that you can implement everything you are learning and being given. So once a FORTNIGHT, there's going to be a session that is live and recorded – and that is the answer to how do I make these sessions time-friendly for everyone. Sadly, I can't actually really make it time-friendly for everyone. At this stage, my intention is to have one session that I make as time-friendly as possible, and it will both be live and recorded. And then, I'd make sure that you've got ways to reach out for support. If you couldn't get to the live session, then you are going to be able to use different SUPPORT CHANNELS like the private Facebook group in order to let me know what you need. Now, over the last few years as I built the program, I've had a lot of people say to me, "you're too cheap" because, well, for many reasons, but one is that with everything inside the program, it has been described as a DONE-FOR-YOU bookkeeping practice. There is a mountain of VALUE. And in fact, if you compare what I give you to, say, if you were going to go out and buy a franchise which will cost you 40, 50, $60,000 – my program is merely 10% of that kind of fee structure, and yet I give you probably 10 times more than the franchise model is going to give you. Why did I do that? Because I've built this Transformation Program for bookkeepers, and I want to make it accessible to as many bookkeepers as possible. So when I was structuring everything and thinking about the FEE STRUCTURE attached, how I could offer MONEY-BACK guarantee, and how I could help you get a RETURN ON INVESTMENT week on week, month on month, I did consider one-on-one coaching. But as it stands right now, that is not included in the program. If I get demand for one-on-one coaching, I will consider offering it as an additional service and an upgrade to the bookkeepers who request it, however, I do believe the way I've structured it and everything I know about how I can deliver as a trainer and assessor, there is a high likelihood that it may not be required for the very high majority. But, you absolutely do get coaching on a fortnightly basis. And just a little side note, the program is a living, breathing, organic, evolving machine. I'm big on review and improve, so I'll be listening to everyone and listening to what everyone needs and tweaking things to ensure that I do what I need to do, in order to help you GET RESULTS. I've structured the program in a way that I think is going to give everyone enough, but also NOT steal your time away from you. When I built out all the education, I thought, "I need to condense everything as much as I possibly can, so that the bookkeepers can invest enough time, so that I'm not giving you simply overwhelm, or forcing you to spend more time than you have to get results." So with my trainer and assessor hat on, I'll be turning up once a fortnight, and I'll be talking directly to everyone in the program – literally talking directly to you. You'll ask me questions, I will answer, and I will direct you and redirect you to continue that first lap around the sun, where you are taking what you learn, taking the assets that I've given you, adapting them to your practice, going out and using the strategies, telling me how you are going with them, changing, and getting bigger and better results so that practice makes progress (because I get there's no such thing as perfect). I'm going to be listening to you, and giving you direction and redirection. You're going to be telling me about the results you're getting, any results you're not getting, any problems you're having, and I'm going to be helping you with all that by making sure that I educate you, reeducate you, direct you, and redirect you and support you. Again, the sessions will be live and recorded, and I've absolutely tested that model. I invest in professional education for myself as well, and I have been in programs where sessions are live and recorded. I'm going to encourage you to always, as much as possible, turn up LIVE. But when you can't, you need to observe time in your diary to watch that recording, and that's a part of the support that I give you. I'm literally going to be helping you with how you get it all done. So as I write this, I've started about 6:45 AM on a beautiful Tuesday morning. It's winter here in Australia, and I got up really early when it's dark, in order to do some work that I really needed to do. My son's not in school at the moment. He's neurodiverse and year seven hasn't worked out for him, so he's still sound asleep in bed, but I'm up doing what I need to do because I need to make sure that I deliver this beautiful program to you. And the reason I'm telling you this story is that, in the early days of the program, I'm going to ask you to work a bit harder, and then in the later days, in the longer term, rather than ask you to work harder, I'm going to ask you to make maybe a few harder and smarter decisions. That said, I am a mom, and I'm a mom of a neurodiverse child. And so if anyone tried to tell me what I had time for and what I didn't have time for, what I could turn up to and what I couldn't turn up to, when I take things day by day... I mean, I'm still very structured, organised, but there are times when my day goes out the window because as a mom, with everything going on, sometimes something's got to give, and so I don't get to a live session if I'm in a certain course or program. And so I do need to watch the recorded session. I guess I just wanted to give you my experience there and let you know that, yes, the sessions will be fortnightly live and recorded, and if you can't make the live, you're going to watch the recorded and then we are just going to see if you need any extra support. I know from experience that most of the time, the questions posed from the community are the questions that you will have anyway. So when you watch the recording, coffee in your hand at your own leisure, you're probably going to find that you get everything you need. But if you don't, you can jump into the Facebook group and you can ask me either by putting a post in or just jumping on the video, and Team HQ and I are going to make sure that you get the support you need. Another question I got is, "Will your program have any lock-in contract terms?" Now, this question should be answered by what you get when you join the program waitlist. The Transformation Program is a lap around the sun, and yes, it's a 12-month commitment. And the reason for that is how I talked about thinking about myself at the beginning of my journey, during the global financial crisis. I could absolutely have structured the fee structure so that you are paying for the program upfront, but I decided to structure it so you're paying a weekly fee over 12 months, because I wanted to make it as accessible as possible to every bookkeeper. I thought about if a bookkeeper didn't have the cashflow upfront, like, if a bookkeeper was on their early days, how could I make it accessible so that they could jump in, work hard and get a return in investment over time? And so I decided to do a fee structure with a weekly fee – every week, over 52 weeks. There will be an option to pay upfront with a small saving, but again, it is a 12-month commitment. And what I need you to do is give me that lap around the sun, so that I can give you the big, big results. So the very last question posed was around BRAND, and I love, love, love the question. So in my own words, "With the brand part of the Transformation Program, do you have to change your brand and BRAND ASSETS drastically, or does it lend itself to allow participants to use the Strategic Bookkeeping brand/logo on their websites?" The answer is yes, it lends itself to that. I wanted to structure brand and the brand assets and the program, so that I could help bookkeepers that were in any place with their brand. And the thing I love about this question is that this particular community member comes with a brand background. She has got brand assets in place that she really likes, and if you're a bookkeeper and you're going at it alone, you're using my book to build, you absolutely have to do it and test and measure and do the DIY figuring out as you go. Whereas, when you come into the program, what's really important to me is that we actually don't mess with your brand a lot at the beginning. The way that I've structured it is going to fit in with a lot of different bookkeepers on where they're at with brand. Here's an example: So for this particular bookkeeper, she's going to be able to take the strategic bookkeeper CERTIFICATION that she gets, which gives her a great unique selling proposition, selling points, and COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE, and she's going to be able to use that in her marketing collateral along with the directory listing that she gets in the directory of strategic bookkeepers that we give you, where the Better in Business podcast funnels through to. So that for the long term, we're working really hard on done-for-you LEAD GENERATION. Now, this bookkeeper's also going to get this phenomenal brochure that we're putting the final brush strokes on. Let's imagine you're a bookkeeper out there with no brand, or you've looked at your brand and gone, oh my goodness, I really need to renovate it, or, I'm confused, I have no idea what I need to do around brand – and I totally get that. So for this bookkeeper that actually has a background in brand, and this is going to be the exception, but no matter where you're at, I want to explain beyond what I've just told you how this brochure is meant to fit in. Mistakes around brand cost a lot of TIME, and therefore, they cost a lot of money. And building the right brand is obviously very important. So I want you to be able to take this incredible, multi-purpose BROCHURE that I give you when you come into the Transformation Program. In my methodology, we have brand, menu, and then CLIENT ATTRACTION (and then the other steps) – the brochure that we'll be providing takes into account our beautiful MENU, which I've tested in my practice, and which is one of the most powerful DIGITAL ASSETS that we have. And, the brochure is also a little bit of a story! So, we're going to help you take this brochure and bring your OWN brand into it, and tell a story about you and your practice that gives you the competitive advantage, the unique selling proposition that demonstrates your profile, your results-based marketing, all these various moving parts, and that's going to give you something that we're able to help you use in the conversion process immediately, like hit the ground running. It's going to give you something that is a BRIEF for a web developer. You are going to be able to print it and take it to business networking with you. You're going to be able to have it in front of you as a translator, to go from what language to why language (because people buy why you do, not what you do). It's going to help you find, onboard, and retain clients, without price as a priority. No matter where you are at in your branding journey, you're going to be able to look through that brochure and use it either end-to-end as it is to solve those problems, or if you're the bookkeeper with a background in brand, then you're still going to find elements of what I've built in that brochure, because this is brand for bookkeepers – it will give you those AHA moments that allow you to improve what you're doing so that you can find, onboard, and retain clients without price as a priority. It's kind of impossible for me to convey everything here, but I think one of the important things is that, I'm a bookkeeper who's built this for bookkeepers – considering the beginning of my journey, everything that I would've needed back then that would've been impactful based on what I know now, based on what I've achieved now. If you're a bookkeeper to stop and simply work only on your brand, you will go down a rabbit hole, and I don't want you going down a rabbit hole, okay? One of the things that I've considered very carefully is how I help you hit the ground running in terms of getting results from brand assets and brand, regardless of where you are at. So again, for this bookkeeper, absolutely, you're going to get the pieces of The Strategic Bookkeeper brand to plug into your brand and do not mess with it if it's working for you. But then over that lap around the sun, the HQ and I are going to be really working with you and looking at what you're doing and giving you comments, questions, and suggestions to further enhance that brand, directing and redirecting you on what to do next no matter where you are at. So my friends, that is all those questions answered. If you have any more questions about the Transformation Program, you can either post in The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook group, or you can just drop me an email anytime.

"What does the program cost?" – This is a question being posed by a few of our lovely community members for obvious reasons: we all need to make sure that we can budget for it. So first off, what I will say is, The program is NOT a cost. It is an investment. The reason for that is that the definition of investment is when we put money into something, expecting a return greater than the money we put in. Okay? And the program comes with a MONEY-BACK guarantee. If you can't get a return that is equal to or greater than the program fee, then you can simply ask for a refund, because getting a return on investment is a cakewalk. Now, let's jump into answering that question, and the way that I frame it up is, "what is the program FEE STRUCTURE?" Just a quick & very special announcement: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program will open AUGUST 1! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the Transformation Program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just join the waitlist, and you'll get all the details. You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. So, over the years as I've developed the program... I thought about myself over 13 years ago when I started this journey: "Jeannie, what would you have needed? What would you have needed at the beginning of your journey?" I absolutely thought about where I was at in terms of my CASH FLOW. Do you know that the GFC hit when I began my bookkeeping practice? I had two mortgages and I had a new baby! I wasn't planning on working anytime soon and then interest rates skyrocketed, and I just had to pay the second mortgage with my overdraft. We couldn't sell the second home because it would've been a fire sale. It was the GFC! It was so stressful. So thinking back to that, I thought, "I want to make this Transformation Program ACCESSIBLE to every bookkeeper. I want it to be an every-bookkeeper program." Well, how can I do that in terms of the fee structure? What could I have feasibly managed myself? What is the return on investment I can get for bookkeepers, and how is that going to look week on week, month on month? Looking back, if I was going to invest in a program... well, I actually did. I invested a lot of money in a course before, and I did get a return out of some information around pricing. Way back then, that program was a lot more than what I intend to charge out for The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program. I think I paid about $7,000 or $8,000, and I did get value in terms of learning how to raise my prices and the standard operating procedures, but, it was still really, really stressful to have to fork out $8,000 out of the overdraft in order to try and learn what I needed to learn. (There's even no real handholding and implementation support!) And so I thought, "You know what would've been LESS STRESS and MORE HELPFUL, and would allow me to get a RETURN ON INVESTMENT that paid for it as I went, is if it was something like $99 a week over a period of time." Personally, I would be happy to pay a fee for something really high VALUE that gave me a return greater than what I paid, but I thought, if I attach a fee of $5,000 or $6,000 or $10,000 to the program, it's going to exclude so many bookkeepers that will have the money eventually, but don't have the money right now, but they NEED the Program right now. So here's what I decided: I decided that I would create a fee structure that was $99 a week for 52 weeks, which is a lap around the sun. If you've read my book, I did mention that any transformation really truly does begin with a lap around the sun. Even when you think of a school year or a university year, it's always a year and you learn and you graduate, and then you move on to the next year where you learn more and you graduate more. So, yeah, the program is $99 a week for 52 weeks, a lap around the sun. Now, that is ALL-INCLUSIVE. Once you opt into the program and you commit to that year, then you are going to get everything. You are going to get all the education, the ASSETS, the implementation, help, the TEAM, and the SUPPORT – absolutely everything will be delivered to you. All the online coursework will come to you, but, I'm also going to guide you through as I turn up every fortnight and do IMPLEMENTATION SESSIONS with you and the other team members. Now, even though I do turn up on those sessions with you, what I really want is to guide you through which parts that I'd rather you start on. What I want to do is work with you. For example, with SUCCESSION, I'm going to help you to really quickly and easily become a certified strategic bookkeeper. Then, we're going to move on to other things, but we're going to circle back and keep working on succession while we work on other things. But, I want you to know now – there is a BONUS that comes with the program, and we can thank one of our lovely bookkeepers in the community for asking a question that inspired me for this bonus content. So the bonus – when you join the program, you'll be getting a bonus hourly to outcome BILLING COURSE. That is a standalone course conservatively valued at $1,000, and you're going to get that full hourly to outcome billing. Let's say you just wanted to start by moving your clients from hourly billing to outcome billing – you can choose your own adventure and start right there. When you join the program, you're going to get access to that immediately, and then you'll be able to jump in and implement that right away. In the program, I'm going to give you all my productised services and guide you through productising your own services. You literally get all my templates and how to implement them into Ignition software! If you're not using Ignition, then you'll just do it manually or however you're doing it, but we do recommend Ignition, of course. You'll also have the private Facebook group which is for members of the program exclusively, and where I and the whole of HQ will support you with everything you need to do. We are all going to be learning from each other, in order to IMPLEMENT the education and all the assets that you are getting there. One of the other reasons I structured it at $99 a week is, I thought, if I structure it at $99 a week... let's say you implement hourly to outcome billing immediately, then, you're going to be able to increase your revenue, gross profit, and net PROFIT right away! Suddenly, that's going to give you the ADDITIONAL INCOME to be paying the fee for the program, and that is return on investment. I want you to be able to get an incremental return on investment week on week, month on month, so that it funded the program. So hopefully, you can see this is all driven by me as a bookkeeper really reflecting on what I would have NEEDED, and then delivering you the same thing – because you are a bookkeeper just like me. There will be an option to pay for the year in advance, but I feel like I don't even need to go into that. Now, in terms of how you get a return on investment – I've already explained an example through the hourly to outcome billing. There is just a million ways that you can get a return on investment from the program greater than the fee, but I'm going to explain to you what I think is the simplest way to explain return on investment: If you find just one new client through the help I give you, that could conceivably pay for the whole program. Because, it is easy to concede that a new client would be spending that amount per year with you to cover the program fee. However, let's say it's a real low value client. If you also upgrade one existing client into succession services, so that's advisory built by a bookkeeper for a bookkeeper, then one upgrade and one new client would pay for the entire program. I could go into more math, like, if you upgrade two clients, if you find two clients... but, I'm talking about the return on investment, which is why I offer you a full MONEY-BACK guarantee. If you can't get a return on the program fee after 12 months of working with me greater than your investment, you can absolutely ask me for a REFUND. Like I say, getting a return on investment is so easy. It can happen in the very early stages – just from getting your PRICING right, from PRODUCTISING your services, when you bring on new clients... I have this thing in my head about that, like, when you find a new client, you really know what to do with them. But when I give you all the productised services and everything else, all the businessy stuff, and you understand how to SIMPLIFY your bookkeeping practice and how to serve your prospective clients as you bring them on as clients, and how to offer them up productised services... what you're going to find is that you are charging out for packages that are much MORE than you can ever have imagined that you would've charged out before. Here's the other amazing thing – it's not all about that, right? You'll always hear me say it's quite linear, a lot like put your oxygen mask on first before putting baby's on. That is, you need to focus on building your thriving, profitable, cashed up business before you can actually help and delight any clients. So, the fact that your charge out rates will technically (behind the scenes, in your calculator) go up, you will be really surprised at how more DELIGHTED your clients are. There is a magic that will happen in that. I'm going to teach you how to run a platinum practice with delighted clients that stay on board, retained long-term, without price as a priority. In that way, I'm going to ask you to actually look at where you are when you first joined The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, and then look at the progress you make – because it's so easy to focus on what we're not doing and what we're not getting, rather than celebrating the results. Now, the next thing I want to talk about is FOUNDATION MEMBER BONUSES. I've packed so much into the program that bonuses are something that's really important to me, because it's giving you even more value than everything I've packed in. The minute you sign up, you're going to get access to – as I mentioned earlier – the hourly to outcome billing bonus. The next bonus is the PLATINUM level of membership. To discuss that a bit more, let's first talk about another member question which is, "what is Better in Business?" I have a platform called Better in Business, and there's actually two parts to that. When you go to the website, you'll probably primarily see the podcast, which is a WELCOME LINE in a product ladder. A welcome line is truly about welcoming our market and our prospective clients to get value from something we serve up, in order to self-assess their need to use us. And if you listen to any of the podcast episodes, you're going to hear me pitching Strategic Bookkeeping to build DEMAND and DESIRE for that. I built Better in Business in 2022 with a long-term goal of having a DIRECTORY once I roll out The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program – so that when people worldwide are listening to the podcast, they can go to that directory and they can find a list of certified strategic bookkeepers who can help them with what they recognise and realise is pillar one for the success of any business, which is up-to-date, accurate bookkeeping, and then all the other stuff that surrounds that. The other part to it is an academy, one which I'll discuss a bit more by the end. So going back to the platinum level of membership – it is going to be a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE for you, okay? Because long term, there's going to be four levels of membership that you can have as a strategic bookkeeper. That is bronze, silver, gold, and foundation members. If you come into the program during the foundation member period, you are going to get a platinum level of directory listing and certification, because I'm going to certify you as a certified strategic bookkeeper – a SELLING PROPOSITION that members of the tribe are going to be able to display in all of their marketing collateral, which we do all with you and for you, and help you implement it all. As a foundation member, you are going to have the opportunity to maintain a platinum level of certification and a platinum listing in our directory – our Strategic Bookkeeper Directory. Literally, at the moment, I am working on a partnership with an amazing global software company (whose name I can't announce yet) in order to collaborate with them to put our podcast in front of their massive global audience. That would be across all the countries, like Australia, America, the UK, Canada, all over the place, so that we funnel their audience into our Better in Business Podcast, which creates demand and desire for your services. Again, competitive advantage and LEAD GENERATION. As I always say, the world never stops spinning, and so we never stop evolving and changing with the economic and tech landscape. The way that I evolve the Better in Business Podcast to serve you over time will continue. And then, there's the Better in Business Academy. Years and years and years ago, I was taught to run workshops around things, so you have the beautiful up-to-date accurate numbers, and then I was taught to run some really cool workshops around basic plan on a page, and lots of stuff for business and that thing. But, what I realised is that this one-to-one stuff could be delivered much smarter, much more strategically in a one-to-many model, which is when you put it into COURSEWORK. So, I went about taking those workshops that I was learning to deliver one-on-one, and putting them into online coursework. This meant that where I might only be able to reserve an hour and a half to spend with someone on a one-to-one workshop, I could give them much more value in the online course because there was no restraint around time. Let's say the online course was three hours – they were getting a lot more time with me for potentially even a smaller fee because that online course becomes INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, and one that doesn't actually have any cost of sales attached to it! So basically, that is the Better in Business Academy – and you become an AFFILIATE that's just given to you outright as part of the program. Say for example, you are creating your productised services and I'm able to give you the Business Fundamentals Course, which is just five 20-minute audio clips that you can BUNDLE IN to your bookkeeping packages. From there, you are able to say to your clients, "Here is your Strategic Bookkeeping package, and included in here is going to be a business fundamentals course that's going to help you do better in business immediately. I've structured it such that it's only 20-minute audios over five audios, and the feedback from our clients is they literally start making money and saving time as soon as they've done the series." Suddenly, you've stacked the VALUE of your bookkeeping package. You've connected to why the client is doing business with you in the first place, which is not really for the bookkeeping. (That's a grudge purchase and a necessity). Now, all of this is explained in the book, so please make sure that you have read it, or that you have listened to the audiobook. Through the Better in Business platform, I am going to give you lots of stuff at no cost to bundle in with your productised services, and to use simply as value add, competitive advantage, welcome lines and more. Then, we're going to have other courses that you can actually sell, and we're going to give you super high commissions (like 50%), as I have this deep desire to help bookkeepers globally, and especially women like me, to actually make more money and attain financial independence. I absolutely created the academy to serve my clients, and I was thinking, "Gosh, this would be something really great for other bookkeepers to do." Then I realised, it's not that easy but I've already done it, so I could just give it to other bookkeepers to benefit from. So, that's what I've done there – I can help you increase your PROFITS and your IMPACT, which helps you to build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. Now, there are other bits and pieces that will come along as surprises for foundation members, but those are the main ones that I want to tell you today. So going back to the to the program fee – it is absolutely an investment, and a risk-free investment at that, okay? Because it comes with a money-back guarantee. To rinse and repeat, I've structured it at $99 a week with a 12-month commitment that will allow you, as a bookkeeper, to be much more likely to budget for it and be able to get a return on investment week on week, month on month, that pays for the program as you go. The program is absolutely going to work for you whether you don't have much time or whether you have lots of time, because as a busy mama, I am structuring the content and the support in order to help you kick goals, and get massive impact from little things along the way. And that's about it. Feedback is warmly welcome! Feel free to email me and ask me any questions you have about the program, or just drop some comments, questions, suggestions. I would love nothing more than to help you become a strategic bookkeeper by becoming a member of my tribe.

We just got another member question about the program! And that question is: "Is the program suitable for newbies, or is it suitable for more advanced bookkeepers?" – this question relates to being a bookkeeper STARTING OUT IN PRACTICE with no clients yet. So, I'm going to answer that question today, along with the exploration of the CUSTOMER JOURNEY. This is to help you understand all the different things you need to have in place to find, onboard, and retain our clients without price as a priority. Just a quick & very special announcement: the doors to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program will open AUGUST 1! So I want to ask you: Are you ready to move from being busy to thriving? Are you ready to come into a community that will support you and lift you up, to build the business and life of your dreams? Because, I am ready to hold your hand every step of the way and help you go from strength to strength. And I tell you, there is no better time than right NOW. To celebrate the launch of the transformation program, there are foundation member bonuses. And, I have even priced the program to suit every bookkeeper, topped off with a money-back guarantee! Just join the waitlist, and you'll get all the details. You can also check out the podcast dedicated to this. I want to help you build a thriving practice, delight your clients, and, ultimately, live your dream on your terms. This is exactly what I've done in my practice, and now it's my heart's desire to help you do exactly the same things. So, back to the member question: will your program be good for those just starting out without clients, or is it more advanced? – The short answer to that question is yes, the program is suitable for you, but let me elaborate a little bit more. So thinking back to the beginning of my journey, I was pregnant, and I was making the decision on where I would send my career because I had decided that I did not want to go back into the workforce, and I felt like I had a couple of options. So I was actually considering at the time, to go into recruitment and buy a recruitment franchise. (And actually, that's a service that I now offer up to my VIP clients in my bookkeeping practice, which is a succession service.) But then I thought, that's going to be really hard around baby. I'm simply going to be on the phone all the time. But the other skill that I really had was around accounts, and admin, and bookkeeping. So long story short, I decided to do bookkeeping way back, well over 14 years ago. I knew that as a mom, it would be flexible in terms of working around my child, and that I wouldn't be at the mercy of having people in front of me if my child was crying and all those wonderful things for a mom. But, boy, do I wish I had The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program when I started out. Because, if you've read my book, I had to get cracking and muddle my way through and make all the MISTAKES in my first five years, which I call the f*ck-up years. So if you're a bookkeeper at the beginning of your journey, just like I once was, let me talk to you about why the program is suitable, what the primary benefits are, and, most importantly, how to get a return on investment out of it. Because that's important, right? I give you a MONEY-BACK guarantee that you are going to be able to make more than the program fee structure. When I talk about the benefits of the program and the features... I like to think about everything that happens in our business – from generating some DEMAND for what we do, right through to the delivery of the SERVICES and all the other backend things that have got to happen. So, let's think about the customer journey and the BENEFITS to the new bookkeeper – because that's what this question is. If I'm at the beginning of my journey, no clients at all, is this the right course for me? It. absolutely. is. And, it is also ideal for a bookkeeper in practice! Allow me explain and all these will be more apparent. So the customer journey... we've got a market out there. Let's say they're business owners and they're running their businesses, and therefore, they need to do their bookkeeping and compliance. Bookkeeping is a profession driven by an actual compliance need, and those business owners, they have a couple of options to go about it. They can either try and do it themselves, or they're going to have to get someone to do it for them. And if they're a small business, which is generally what bookkeepers serve, they're not going to hire in-house help because they only need an hour or two, sometimes even half an hour a week. Or, they're not sure what they need, but they don't need enough that they could go and get an employee. Therefore, their options are to DIY, or get it done for me. So when a business owner is ready to make a decision to look for help for bookkeeping, how does that happen? Well, one of the ways is they are doing their own bookkeeping and they hate it, or they're just leaving it and they're not doing it, and things pile up. Thinking about the problems they're going through, they finally decide, "Oh, my goodness. I'm never going to get this bookkeeping up to date. I'm just going to reach out and try and find someone who can do it for me." Or, somebody is doing it, but they're missing deadlines, they're breaking promises. One way or another, the business owner is not happy with their current solution – whether that's the fact that they're DIY-ing it badly, or their current bookkeeper is dropping the ball and breaking promises, or they took their bookkeeping to their accountant who said, "Goodness gracious, this is a dog's breakfast. You need to seek some help." So in the customer journey, the DESIRE and the NEED comes up. Now, what does that person do? What does that prospective client, that person in the market, do when that happens? Well, they either go onto Google, they Google bookkeeper, or more often than not, seek a REFERRAL. They can then ask the accountant, or their friends, family, and business buddies. Or, more often than not, they go on social media and ask all their social media friends, "Does anyone know a good bookkeeper?" There are so many ways that when they have a need, they can find you. An example of a really cool one we've been using lately is our Better in Business podcast. I was speaking to a prospective client the other day and I asked, "How did you hear about us?" And I already knew from my assistant that they'd come through the podcast, but this prospective client said, "Do you know what, Jeannie? I'm not quite sure. I know that you came up in my feed, and I've been listening to your podcast." That is just another example of how we're always investing for the tribe, and Better In Business is actually being built for the long-term purpose of driving business to our strategic bookkeepers. So basically, when somebody in the market has a need, you need them to be able to FIND you. And if you're a bookkeeper at the beginning of your journey, you need a way to ATTRACT new clients – you are going to need to create an online ecosystem which conveys your BRAND. Let's say that the accountant says to the business owner, "Well, Sally Smith is a bookkeeper we know and we find her work very good. We would recommend that you consider Sally Smith." I can tell you right now that the customer journey in this current tech and economic landscape is they don't tend to ring Sally directly. They go ONLINE to check Sally out. Before the pandemic, there was a lot more direct action, but the pandemic changed everything. The customer journey is such that no matter how they find you, even if it's through personal referral, they're going to want to go online and check you out. In terms of The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, how does it help with that? When I built this program, I imagined this bookkeeper at the beginning of their journey with no website, no social media, and no clients – and I thought, "What could I do that would give them something immediately to make all of this easier?" So what I've done is I've developed a brochure that is a really powerful digital ASSET that you can use immediately for CLIENT ATTRACTION. But if you are thinking, "Jeannie, you were just talking about online – what's the brochure going to do there?" Well, if I give you a really good brochure and explain how you just pop your BRANDING into it, update a few things, and run with it, that brochure – along with a whole lot of other collateral and assets I give you – will help you TAKE ACTION quickly. So that brochure is a brief for a website designer. So if you do or don't have a website, it will work for you. So if you have a website, you might need to renovate it a bit, right? The brochure serves to help you with that. If you don't have a website, the brochure is going to serve as a brief for the web developer. I have tested this in the market. I have gone and developed our social media before renovating our website, and it worked brilliantly. Bottom-line, The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program is going to save you a lot of money, and save you a lot of time in terms of making sure that you've got the ONLINE PRESENCE. And, we give you a library of social media templates and then show you how to build and manage your social media presence in a way that doesn't take you... hardly no time at all. Because social media is a part of the know, like, and trust. It's not a part of direct sales, okay? So as a new bookkeeper, we're going to help you make sure that you've got that part of the customer journey nailed, because that's what will help to create a pipeline of LEADS. And then the next part of the customer journey is that, once they check you out online and verify you and your CREDIBILITY and get to know, like, and TRUST you, they're going to reach out to you and say, "I'd like some help," and, they'll need you to do the needs analysis. We've got that absolutely all done for you in the program, and we train you. Then, you're going to need to do a proposal for services. Now, if you're a new bookkeeper without the right support, then you're going to need to make sure that you've got all the productised services and a killer PRICING STRATEGY. That means, when you onboard that new client, and it means you actually do onboard that new client with price being secondary, there is the potential that you would make two, three, four times the profit or more, by using the Strategic Bookkeeper's Way that we give you in the Transformation Program. So way back when I was a brand new bookkeeper, I didn't understand all this. And if I had all of this collateral and the ability to find onboard and retain a client without price as a priority, then the way I went about it and the PROFITABILITY would've been just completely different. It would've been like not having to do those first five f*ck-up years. So, pivoting to return on investment for a minute: let's say you've used the Transformation Program for those parts of the customer journey, then now, I want you to assess what the VALUE of that would be as you onboard that client. I would suggest that if you were onboarding a new client, you're going to be able to onboard them as a regular monthly client, and you're going to be able to charge out somewhere between $4,000 and $15,000 for your services, depending on what they need – and using all the strategic systems and processes that I give and teach you in order to make sure that you are giving them a productised service, and, once again, onboarding and retaining them without price as a priority. So if you are a bookkeeper at the beginning of your journey, just like I once was, I know that the mistakes that you can make without the right support, processes, and collateral are so COSTLY. And yet, if you've got the support... I imagined myself at the beginning of my journey when I was creating the program, and I thought, "What would you have needed?" And that's actually where I came up with education, assets, implementation, team, and support. Because I remember once getting some collateral, but there was no handholding. And I thought, "Yeah, I got some value. But, really, what would've been helpful is somebody holding my hand for the first 12 months to help me implement and practice." I thought to myself, "Yeah, some of it was good, but why weren't we able to leverage group marketing collateral?" And that's exactly what I've done – I reflected on what would've been impactful for me at the beginning of my journey. I truly believe that you are far better subscribing to The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program right at the beginning, right now, because then you are not going to have to try and undo any mistakes you do. The doors open August 1, and if you are a foundation member, you're going to get a STANDALONE COURSE included in the program called Hourly to Outcome Billing. Now, there are going to be a lot of bookkeepers come into the program, and they have told me this that they're going to grab that course and they're going to use that first with all the clients that they've had for a year or two, or three, or four years that is still on hourly billing. The opportunity over time to do what I did... in the span of a year, I doubled my net profits through moving from hourly to outcome billing, and that's without increases in revenue. I just focused on profitability, and I doubled my net profits. And so, bookkeepers who have been in the game a long time – I absolutely built this program for them. But if you are a bookkeeper at the beginning of your journey, you don't have to make any of the mistakes we did. I can show you how to build a Ferrari. Continuing on the customer journey... So assuming that that client onboards. Let's say it's a fairly small client that doesn't need a lot and they're signing up to pay you about... let's say $5,000 annually, and you're just doing a little bit of bookkeeping. So that part of the customer journey is taught to you and done for you in the program. And I can tell you from my years of experience, we know how to onboard a client in a five star way. Over the years, we've got feedback from clients about what they liked and what they didn't like about the onboarding. Early on, there were lots of mistakes that I just didn't even conceive of until I really understood what a prospective client needs to KNOW as they onboard with us, in order to really understand what's going on with their job and more. Even though that might sound simple, onboarding for bookkeepers is a process that requires lots of steps, and we have all those steps sewn up for you. So then, they become a client and you have to deliver the work. You also have to manage your CAPACITY. We have all the education, assets, implementation, team, and support there for you to be able to make sure that you take that client, and treat them like a seed that needs to be watered and nurtured into an oak tree. We want to make sure that you retain them for the FOREVER CLIENT. We've got some clients that have been with us almost our whole journey, and so we really want to help – because we see lots of bookkeepers with high churn rate and they don't understand why. So absolutely, we've got done-for-you standard operating procedures end-to-end systems that is going to give you everything you need to deliver a platinum level of service (and more!) in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program. I'm only giving you a snippet, but I think it's really cool to understand the customer journey, including what's next on the menu, and making sure that we are continuing to offer up succession services and more. PS. Looove the questions coming through the Facebook group and the email, so full of gratitude!! I just love hearing from my community. The more I understand about you, the more I can help you.

I have said it before and I will say it again: everything has the meaning we give it. So put simply, FUTURE PROOFING means taking action to ensure you're still around in the future. As I like to say, the world never stops spinning, and so your business needs to keep evolving. Nothing is static. So when things change in our industry (and the easiest example is automation or AI), we need to CHANGE. We actually need to change just a tiny, tiny little bit every day. Business is actually no different to life. There's a great saying that applies to both business and nature, and that is, adapt or die. Simple, clear, and direct – and it is a law we must all abide by. In business or in life, when we are faced with change (which might be scary or uncomfortable), then we kind of hit a fork in the road, right? Victim or victor, accept or deny, adapt or die, the CHOICE is entirely yours. The most business iconic story that illustrates this is the Kodak story, which you may have heard of before. Kodak was founded in the late 1880s. They became a giant in the photography industry in the 1970s, and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. So for almost 100 years, Kodak owned film and photo space. However, in the late 1980s, analog started its decline and digital started its incline, which, of course, continued like most things (like automation and AI). Despite the fact that it had been an Eastman Kodak engineer who built the very first ever digital camera in 1975, Kodak actually refused to adapt. They believed that it wasn't necessary. Come 1991, they finally released a digital camera, but it was too late, and they filed for bankruptcy in 2012. And sadly, there are many Kodak stories. Border Books is another, right? Around for 100 years. I remember going to Border Books and they refused to adapt. They refused to start gathering a database of their loyal customers and eventually, they died. They just kept saying, no, we are just going to do it the way we always have. Well, nothing is static. The world is always turning. We need to continually adapt. And if you've heard of agile management style, a lot of corporates have been taking it up in order to future proof. Because corporates tend to move really slow and just not agile enough, they realised that it was a real threat. These smaller enterprises were more agile and were able to make decisions faster, and it was leaving the corporates open to really losing market share. So in order to adapt, to future proof, they all started to adopt this agile management style. But that aside, let's look at what future proofing looks like for a bookkeeper – it's adopting and adapting to stay relevant and to thrive. Over the last decade or so, we've seen the rise of cloud computing. First came automation, and then AI, and now robotics are here. The other thing that changed was also the globalisation of our workforce. I started working in that space a long time ago, and if you are willing to accept the law of adapt or die, then you can actually enjoy this changing landscape. You can help more clients. You can thrive like never before, and actually have more fun. The key to adapting to automation, AI, robotics, and workforce globalisation is MOVING AWAY from traditional bookkeeping services. Not stopping them all together, just moving, adapting away from them, and more and more into strategic bookkeeping, which is covered off in the succession chapter of my book. I am so, so passionate about the power of SUCCESSION services for bookkeepers. Keep in mind that basic bookkeeping is the ideal start – in fact, up-to-date, accurate accounting records are globally recognised as pillar one for the success of any business. They're a great start, but that alone doesn't really move the needle. It's what we do next. Now, we also need to adapt in terms of our MARKETING. I'm an adopter rather than adapter – meaning I live by the law of adapt or die, and I adopt what's new early by doing my research and taking things up slowly, in a way that suits me and in a way that doesn't mean I have to leave my values at the door. Adopting early rather than trying to adapt late, like Kodak did, means that we have that beautiful thing called time, and it means that when we are earlier to market, we have the COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. In terms of this marketing landscape, which could be summarised as how you ATTRACT and ENGAGE prospective clients in a way that they are going to make a decision to get in touch and maybe do business with you... we've all seen the massive change since the pandemic, right? Prior to the pandemic, lots of people were resisting how connected the world is, which meant the pace of change was kind of steady. So I was like, ah, I love how connected everyone is. I just wish people all over Australia would work with me without feeling like they needed me to be in the same suburb. And so while all of that was happening steadily, the pandemic propelled people into a place where they actually had to adapt to working REMOTELY and DIGITALLY. So it's like, whether you like it or not, suddenly you're doing it. Human behaviour changed rapidly. Everything changed faster. Humans quickly got used to working 100% online – using tools to book appointments and communicate online, work with suppliers and make purchases nationally and globally rather than locally. Nothing was open. People were literally locked down. In Australia, it was nowhere near as bad as it was overseas. But, I know that all over the world, people were just locked in their homes and suddenly they had to go online, right? Now, what that means for us as bookkeepers is that prospective clients are far less likely to call us or even send us a contact form than they were before, okay? A prospective client wants to get to know, like, and trust you now online 24/7 in their own time, more than ever. Prospective clients are still actually asking exactly the same questions, but they are not asking them directly. Your prospective clients, your market, they're still scratching their heads and they're asking the same questions, but they're asking themselves and they expect to be able to get their answers online in your BRAND SPHERE – a topic which I elaborate more in my book. Now, these prospective clients, they expect to be able to book appointment with you online. And even though this has been happening slowly over time, as I said before, the pandemic meant that all these behaviors changed more rapidly. And in the bookkeeping industry, it wasn't that common to go and book online. People want to be able to book in with you online, even if that's just a consultation, right? So now this is great, but it's also challenging, because our industry as a whole wasn't ready for this shift to fast-forward like it did. I certainly wasn't ready and I'm still adapting, and I'm usually at the front of the pack here, but behaviour has changed really fast. So I am adopting and I am adapting, and I'm researching so much, and I have learnt and I've continued to go down that rabbit hole researching, and I have come up with a plan, and it does make sense to me now. And actually, I'm excited! And to me, that's what future proofing can be. It can be exciting. And so to wrap up the two things that we covered today: the first thing is that you really do need to consider whether you're going to accept that you do always need to future proof. Every business needs to. As I said, in nature, it is the same in business and life – we're just always constantly needing to adapt to survive and to thrive. So that is the first thing – to accept that principle. And secondly, what does future proofing look like for bookkeepers? Well, very similar to any other business – we need to be tuned in to what's happening in our industry, all those changes. And the things that are happening, we need to ADAPT to them. Just for example, accountants are doing a lot more bookkeeping now. They never used to, but there's always new things, right? But they're kind of for that. If you haven't completely accepted adapting to them and you're still resisting, I really want you to just think that through. We have covered that off, and the way to future proof and to adapt is to move into strategic bookkeeping. You're already doing bookkeeping, which I also call numbers 101, where you prepare the numbers. Strategic bookkeeping is more around what you do with those prepared numbers, okay? So that'd be investigating the numbers, solving more problems, and just making sure that you don't become redundant. And, ultimately, you really need to look at the marketing landscape now more than ever. The key takeaway here is that people want to do everything online, so much more now than ever before. Your market is still asking the same questions, but they're not asking them directly, yeah? They're looking to get their questions answered online in your brand sphere. Now, I want to talk action. So first of all, if you haven't already read my book or you're not using it as a how-to guide, I would really, really highly recommend that. As mentioned, the succession chapter is around those strategic bookkeeping services, but the whole book's going to be really helpful with this. And continue to tune into my podcast, because I'm all about future proofing, and I'll continue to help you with every episode. Most importantly, do hop on to the waitlist of The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program. In there, hand on my heart, I will fast track your transformation from bookkeeper to strategic bookkeeper. Just make a commitment to accept that future proofing is necessary, not to be frightened of, and not to think that you have to leave your values and your ethics at the door when you future proof.