GMAP PODCAST WITH Diane Gardner

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Show Summary

This week, Diane Gardner teaches us how to implement systems in your business to become more efficient and profitable. Welcome to Episode 9 of the Grow My Accounting Practice Podcast!

Our Guest

Diane Gardner is an expert tax coach, best-selling author and creator of the “Get Off The Wheel” virtual masterminding and coaching program. Having once felt like a rat on a wheel — working hard and getting nowhere — Diane took control of her business and created the life she wanted. “Get Off The Wheel” allows Diane to share her template for success with like-minded accounting professionals. Participants in the virtual mastermind program can access done-for-you systems and procedures, receive one-on-one coaching and become part of a virtual masterminding community. As leader of the Business Breakthrough Mastermind Group in her hometown of Rathdrum, Idaho, Diane experienced firsthand the benefits of being part of a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. Members pool their accumulated experience and differing perspectives to inspire spectacular solutions to the challenges facing business owners. Diane is a Certified Profit First Professional, QuickBooks Pro advisor, an Accredited Tax Preparer and has elite certification as a Tax Coach. She is the Quilly Award-winning author of the best-selling Stand Apart and Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That? and three other books including her newest, Stop Overpaying Your Taxes! 11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop it Now! Diane enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter and grandson in her spare time. She serves on the board of the Twin Lakes Friends Camp, which offers summer camp programs for kids, and is active in her church, community organizations and several local Chambers of Commerce.

Show Quotes

To get started on building systems and freeing up your schedule, the first thing you need to do is change your mindset; stop thinking that you’re just a rat on a wheel and trading dollars for hours. This is a tough step to take, however you want to get to the point where you can take all the information in your head on what it takes to run your company, and put it into some other source.

Take it one step at a time!

It may be easier to start with the tasks that your employees are doing. Identify what they do and write down each detailed step of how they do it. Work your way through each employee and all the way up to you. Create forms and checklists!

Once all the information is documented, have someone else test it out. If they have a hard time following the steps, you know you have to go back and enter more information.

You do not need to address every “what if” scenario, you just want to have these systems in place as a guideline. Systems give you something to rely on and it allows you to have standardization in your office. If there are multiple people working on the same project, everyone is doing something the same way which makes it easier to help each other and get the job done correctly. It allows you to do a higher quality job for your clients.

Once you have systems in place to free up some of your time, consider making the switch to flat fee billing rather than hourly.

Systems = efficiency which increases your profitability.

If someone deviates from the system you are able to look at what happened and determine whether it was human error or the procedure that needs to be fixed.