Category Archives: Success

• Putting On The Shareholder Hat

  Posted on 09/27/2017 in Business, Finance, Success

  As the owner of a business, it is inevitable that you will wear many different hats.  You will be the company decision maker, shareholder, HR manager, manager, technician, bookkeeper, business strategist, etc.  Too often the role of shareholder gets too little attention.  I am going to make the argument that is is one of the most important roles for you to give attention. Why does the role of shareholder get left behind?  Because the owner of the business is too busy wearing the other hats in their business.  In the day to day operations there are always more urgent items that are calling for your attention.  There is a breakdown in the workflow processes.  Payroll needs to be made.  An important customer needs something to be corrected.  Employees need training on how to improve their work.  There are always urgent items on the table.   Because the items are urgent they tend to be like a squeaky wheel shouting at us.  I need you to take care of me now. Urgent does not mean it is important.   There will always be more things to do each day than there is time to complete them.  The key to growth and success is…

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• What’s Keeping You From Succeeding?

  Posted on 09/07/2017 in Business, Goals, Success

  In my business, I have business growth goals.  I have a number of services that I perform as follows: Strategic Planning and Execution Strategic Tax Planning Tax Preparation Accounting Payroll This summer I made the decision that I would only work on growing the Strategic Planning and Execution and Strategic Tax Planning service lines.  These are the two areas of service that I excel at and that are the most valuable to my clients. Once I decided that I would focus on Strategic Planning and Execution and Strategic Tax Planning, I also made the decision that I was going to limit the growth of  Tax Preparation, Accounting and Payroll.  The reason why I decided to limit the growth on Tax Preparation, Accounting and Payroll is because I want to focus my energies and resources on the service lines that I deem to be the best growth areas of my business. One of the fundamental principles of economics is that we have limited resources.  We have limited finances.  We have limited time.  I still have yet to meet one person who has more than 168 hours a week.  Because I have limited resources, I have to prioritize the use of those…

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• What Do I Do When I Fail at My Goals? – Part Two

  Posted on 08/31/2017 in Goals, Success

  In my previous post I discussed the reasons why I believe people fail at New’s Years Resolutions.  The biggest reason they fail is because they are using a broken process.  Here is the process I use. Start with a 3-5 year vision.  The 3-5 year vision is where I determine what I want my life to be like in the future.  This is the most important step in the goal setting process.  Remember where I stated earlier that most people underestimate what they can accomplish in five years.  The 3-5 year vision establishes where I want to go and what I want to become. Now that I have my 3-5 year vision I break my 3-5 year vision into yearly goals.  I determine what must occur each year in order for me to achieve my 3-5 year vision. Annually, I look at the next twelve months.   I know what my goals are for this year.  I develop a strategy to accomplish this years goals.  The strategy enables me develop a plan of action that will lead to me successfully achieving my yearly goals. Quarterly, I develop my quarterly priorities.  The quarterly priorities detail what I must do over the next…

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• What Do I Do When I Fail at My Goals? – Part One

  Posted on 08/30/2017 in Goals, Success

  Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five years. Every year we get a fresh start. In America we have this phenomenon known as the New Year’s Resolutions.  Business Insider posted an article this year on the failure rate of New’s Years Resolutions.   They claim that 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by February.  Assuming this is correct why do people keep setting New Year’s Resolutions? It’s natural to look at a new year as a clean slate.  We’ve had a chance in December to review our life over the last year.  We tally our successes and our failures.  We get a chance to spend time with family and friends on a more concentrated basis during the holidays.  For some of us spending time with family and friends is a wonderful time and for some of this it can be a painful time where old wounds are reopened. As we go through this introspective time in December it’s natural to gain motivation and declare next year is going to be better.   I’m going to be a better person.  I’m going to accomplish more.  I’m going to improve my relationships.  I’m…

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• The Benefits of Gratitude

  Posted on 08/24/2017 in Success

  It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life.  There’s a never ending list of items on the to do list.  I’ve got all these commitments and responsibilities.  There is never enough time in the day.  It’s easy to get caught up in this spiral. Over the past year I’ve made a concerted effort to stop and think about my life.  If I were to draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and make two lists it would be quite eye opening.  On the left hand side of the paper I list the good things that happened to me today.  On the right hand side of the paper I would write down the bad things that happened to me.  Most days the good list far outnumbers the bad list. It is quite amazing to think about for a minute.  All the good things that happened.  First I woke up and am alive.  I have good health.  I have a career I love that makes a difference in people’s lives.  I have a wonderful family and loving wife.  I have a roof over my head.  I have clean water to drink everyday. …

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• The Goal Formula

  Posted on 08/16/2017 in Planning, Success

  Goals are an important facet of making progress in life.  I’ve talked with a lot of times and I find that sometimes people talk about their goals, but they are not really talking about their goals.  They are talking about wishes.  When I hear someone make a wish it sounds something like this.  I want to grow my business.  I want to make more money.  I want to take more time off.  I want to improve the relationship with my son or daughter.  I want to have a better marriage.  The problem with these “goals” is they are not goals. Let’s deconstruct one of these wishes and see where the problems are.  I want to grow my business.  Here are the problems I see with this wish: There is no measurable criteria in this wish.  How is one to know when the the business is grown?  Am I looking to grow sales?  Am I looking to grow profit?  Am I looking to increase my market share?  What exactly is my objective? There is no deadline in this wish.  It does not give one a timetable to work on.  Without a deadline, once could wait 30 years to reach the wish….

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• How to Pass the CPA Exam Part Two

  Posted on 08/10/2017 in Planning, Success

  This is part two of my post on how to pass the CPA Exam.  This first post dealt with the planning portion of my CPA exam preparation.  This post deals with the work I did to pass the CPA exam. I had two priorities at this point in my life.  One priority was to build my accounting business and the other priority was to pass the CPA exam.  About two weeks into my CPA exam study I realized that I was getting behind on my study schedule.  The reason I was getting behind was I was spending too much time networking to build my accounting business.  I had to make a difficult decision.  My decision was to spend more time studying so I didn’t fall behind on my CPA exam study.  This would mean it would take me longer to build my client base in the short term.  However I knew that passing the CPA exam would be the best career enhancement. On average I spent 4 – 6 hours a day studying for the CPA exam.  I spent four and a half months on this endeavor.  The most important aspect of the study was the practice questions.  The practice…

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• How to Pass the CPA Exam Part One

  Posted on 08/09/2017 in Planning, Success

  At first glance this post may seem like it may not apply to you.  Stay with me for a minute.  The purpose of this post is to explain a process.  How do you accomplish something difficult?  Because of the length of this post, I’m going to break this post into two posts. For those unfamiliar with the CPA exam.  The CPA exam when I took it was composed of 4 half day testing sessions.  One is tested on information ranging from business law, auditing, tax law, accounting standards and securities laws.  It was described to me that the knowledge  you need to know is a mile wide and an inch deep. I had just finished graduate school in the summer of 2008.  I was currently unemployed and little did I know that I was about to enter one of the scariest points of my life.  When I had started graduate school I had a good job.  When I started graduate school in 2005 the economy was robust.  Little did I know that when I finished graduate school the country would be in the midst of the Great Recession. I was unemployed when I finished graduate school.  I had two children…

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