I work from home which makes the mileage rating on my truck unimportant, it does feel like I work in a vacuum at times. Knowing that many of the members of our audience also work on their own and that most want to hear what others are doing in their business, I decided to start our "From The Trenches" column. It will basically serve as a way for ProAdvisors to share their ups and downs and things that are making a difference in their practices with one another.
So what better way to start the series than with feedback and insight from some of our 2014 Top 10 ProAdvisors. I asked each 4 questions: 1. What was your biggest challenge of 2014? 2. How did you overcome your biggest challenge? 3. What was your greatest success of 2014? 4. What is your BIG goal for 2015?
Their answers follow, in the order in which they were received:
Caren Schwartz - Niche Practice Award Recipient
Challenge: Managing my time and not stressing.
Solution: Still working on it! Although the fact that i don't intend to move again helped. I also have figured out more of my areas of weakness and how to pull others in to help with projects in those areas.
Success: Receiving the Intuitive Accountant Top 10 ProAdvisor Award
2015 Goal: Continuing to grow my business and learn
Stacy Kildal - "QBO Evangelist Award Recipient"
Challenge: Trying to Determine the direction to take Kildal Services.
Solution: Evaluated all of our current clients and internal processes to nail down what works, what doesn't and what we ENJOY doing. Then, hiring a marketing/PR company to work with us in 2015 to help us move in the direction we want
Success: Partnering with Shannon Pares!
2015 Goal: To focus on reaching the 3 types of bookkeeping clients we WANT to work with: small businesses in the trades and service industries & women owned businesses. Working on coaching/consulting with more accounting professionals/ProAdvisors
Charlie Russell - "Friend of Intuit" Award Recipient"
Challenge: Finding a way to cut back from 50 to 60 hour work weeks and enjoy life outside of work.
Charlie
Solution: I fired all of the clients that were causing headaches, simplified my business plan to focus on fewer tasks, took time to go off on adventures that were either planned in advance or just spur of the moment.
Success: I succeeded with the plan and found that I was able to focus on the business processes that were fun. I also found that if I took off on a recreational activity, my business didn’t fall apart, and I was a happier person.
2015 Goal: To continue towards that goal of eliminating the stressful parts of my life.
Congratulations for taking on the challenges you faced in 2014 and thank you for sharing your insight. It's always good to share the success of others. Best of luck to you both in 2015.
What about you? Would you like to share your challenges, solution, success and BIG goal for 2015? If so, email me at info@intuitiveaccountant.com