Editor’s Note: As the nominations for the "2022 Top ProAdvisors of the Year" roll in, we wanted to shine the spotlight on last year's winners. This is another installment in a series of profiles of our esteemed candidates.
Mariko Hayashi-Hall knows what it takes to build a successful business. For the past 30 years, she has worked diligently in both the public and private sectors—the past 20 years as the founder of Brilliant Solutions Group.
A Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisor since 2000, Mariko holds Advanced Certifications in QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Point of Sale and QuickBooks Enterprise. She specializes in product setup, implementation, training, and support to Quickbooks end users, accountants, CPAs and consulting services.
As the 2021 “ProAdvisor of the Year,” Mariko not only brings a strong foundation of business acumen to her clients’ side, but also a serious know-how to their accounting and finance teams. We sat down with her to get her thoughts on the year ahead.
Give us a snapshot of your business.
We are a team of professional accountants and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors who are ready to help business owners implement the right accounting solutions for their business. We offer tailored solutions that combine accounting, bookkeeping, and tax services with technology to aid clients in identifying risks and opportunities while reaching their strategic goals. We empower clients with training, tools, and supporting services centered around efficient, process-oriented solutions that save them time and money.
How did being named “ProAdvisor of the Year” fit into your business' overall mission statement?
This award recognizes our daily effort to meet our clients’ needs as we strive to achieve the values expressed in our company mission, which is: “To earn client trust every day by providing smart, innovative accounting solutions and services that save business owners time and money.”
How have you been leveraging the award in your firm’s success?
We continue to display and promote our awards on our digital and printed media as part of our regular marketing campaigns and rapport-building efforts with prospective and established clients and stakeholders.
What are some of your strategies and initiatives for 2022? Business? Personal?
We will focus our efforts on content development, social media engagement and process improvements to increase our visibility, engagement and customer service experience. Externally, we seek to improve lead generation online through our website and social media, while internally, we look to streamline our client onboarding and account servicing processes.
Ultimately, we seek to drive leads to our website by continuing to increase our presence as thought leaders through content marketing (blogging and social media); customer testimonials; and client, partner and peer recommendations.
This award recognizes our daily effort to meet our clients’ needs as we strive to achieve the values expressed in our company mission.
What are your expectations for 2022?
This year we expect to continue developing our digital infrastructure; review, revise, and document improved processes for prospects and existing client procedures; measure, evaluate and analyze the impact of these changes against defined goals, making revisions as needed.
What’s the best piece of advice you can offer your clients for 2022?
Maintaining your books and following correct and consistent accounting routines provides a much clearer sense of your business’s financial health. It is much easier and cost-effective to establish correct accounting/bookkeeping practices from the start of a business than to go back and fix problems later. If you find you are in over your head, hire a professional accountant to help you.