Taking Your Firm Virtual Summit
The Taking Your Firm Virtual Summit began on August 4. Hosted by Nayo Carter-Gray, founder of 1st Step Accounting, this event has been designed to teach attendees how to take their firm to a totally virtual place or improve the processes they already had in place. “I created this summit to help you confidently and securely take your firm to the cloud. The goal is for your practice to become more profitable, automated, and stress-free,” event host Carter-Gray said.
To view the recordings from the summit, you will need to purchase the All Access Pass, and the cart closes at midnight on Friday, August 7th. With this purchase, you will get lifetime access to the sessions & recordings. You also get access to pre-written notes, four bonus sessions, a five-day live video challenge, discounts from our presenters, and there will be a prize drawing (for pass holders only), for two Blue Yetti mics, one SideTrak monitor, one ScanSnap iX100 Wireless Mobile Scanner for Mac and PC with case, and one Epson WorkForce ES-400 Color Duplex Document Scanner for PC and Mac.
The sessions on the first day emphasized the importance of training your client into understanding your expectations and why that’s important. Whether it’s the importance of using a secure file upload tool to pass sensitive documents or using a calendar scheduling tool to make communication convenient, or even using video to add that face-to-face interaction. When your clients understand your expectations of them, and they have realistic expectations for you, it builds a mutually beneficial relationship and implementation of the virtual practice becomes much more manageable.
These sessions gave you a fundamental understanding of the necessary steps in getting your virtual firm off the ground and how to get your clients on board to take the ride with you. Working virtually only works if you’re consistent and hold yourself, your team and your clients accountable. Day one of the summit demonstrated why that is so crucial for success and how to get started picking the tools you need to implement.
Speakers from the first day included (in order of presentation):
- "The Must Have Technology Tools to Run a Cloud-Based Firm" from Andrew Wall, Managing Partner of CPA4IT Professional Corporation
- "Protecting the Data in Your Firm: The 6 Security Protections Every Practice Should Have" from Nayo Carter-Gray, Founder of 1st Step of Accounting
- "Data Security for a Virtual Firm" from Jeff Wilson, Principal of The W2 Group, LLC
- "Why Are You Not Being Found? A Beginner's Guide to SEO" from Kelly Gonsalves and Richard Roppa-Roberts, Co-Founders of Totally SEO
- "Using Live Video to Get New Clients" from LuSundra Everett, The Home Biz Tax Lady of Everett Tax Solutions
- "From Quote to Contract: How to Land the Perfect Client at the Right Price" from James Ashford of GoProposal
- "Creating Processes and Workflow to Onboard New Clients" from Danielle Palmer, Integrator at Fusion CPA
- "Do You Want Fries With That? A Panel on Offering Add-on Services in Your Practice" from event host Nayo Carter-Gray, Amber Gray-Fenner, Owner of Tax Therapy, LLC; Sherrell Martin, Owner of Nitram Financial Solutions; and Kevin Smoot, CEO of AccountAbility Tax Services, LLC
Read more details about the sessions of day one here on Tax Practice News.
Day two of the summit was another information-filled day full of speakers with a wide range of expertise, skills and types of firms.
What I found the most helpful from day two was the immense amount of action items the presenters gave to attendees. Day one spoke a lot about the client expectations of you, as well as your expectations of the client; setting the groundwork for the transition into a virtual environment. While day two really focused in on the actionable things you can start implementing today to get this process going. None of the speakers said it would be easy, in fact, many said it can be a massive project. However, they all gave real-life advice, processes and guidelines to help manage the transition easier.
Speakers from the second day included (in order of presentation):
- "Putting Paperless into Practice" from Kesha JonTae, Income Tax Coach at the Millennial Taxpert
- "Enhancing Your Client Experience Thru Automated Workflows" from Jackie Meyer, CEO of Meyer Tax Consulting and The Concierge CPA
- "A Panel in Handling an IRS Audit Virtually" from event host Nayo Carter-Gray; Kesha Harris, Tax Resolution Manager at Anthem Tax Services; Ellie Nava-Jones, Tax Fellow at BQ Tax & Accounting; and Ericka Williams, Founder + CEO of Trinity Global Financial Group PLLC.
- "Managing Due Diligence Virtually" from Desmond Hudson, Owner of Hudson Tax Services
- "CFO'ing in the Cloud" from Kenji Kuramoto, Founder + CEO at Acuity
- "Finding and Hiring the Best Remote Talent" from Liz Mason, Founder + CEO of High Rock Accounting and Editor of Tax Practice News
- "Building Company Culture Virtually" from Michael Ly, CEO of Reconciled
- "Panel: To Niche or Not to Niche?" from Nicole Butler-Davis, Founder + CEO of Butler-Davis Tax + Accounting; Dan Luthi, COO of Ignite Spot Accountin; Madeline Pratt, Founder + CEO of Fearless in Training; and Jacob Schroeder, Founder + CEO of Ascend Consulting, LLC
Read more details about the sessions of day two here on Tax Practice News.
I would also be amiss to not acknowledge the diversity and inclusivity of the Taking Your Firm Virtual Summit. Event host Nayo Carter-Gray did an outstanding job creating an environment that fosters growth and education in a way that spoke volumes to her dedication to making accounting and bookkeeping a space for everyone to flourish.
Here is what some other attendees had to say:
“I really LOVED this summit today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. SO many great speakers with amazing talent and entrepreneurship. I feel inspired and I won’t lie – a little overwhelmed!! The biggest key is to think through what is necessary and like Nayo and the panel talked about in the last session, being careful your choices provide a great ROI! I am thankful I invested in the all access pass to review these sessions again.”
“I am LOVING how you scheduled out your conference. THANK YOU for the breathing room between sessions. Other virtual conf’s have been so exhausting bc we’re trying to pack it in and qualify for CPE. I’m a work-from-home dad with a wife, a 1-month-old, and a 2-year-old. This pace is letting me stay sane and somewhat plugged in to family today when they really need Dad’s help from time to time. Tears in my eyes as I’m typing this. Thanks friend, this has been an awesome conference so far.”
“This summit was amazing! Completely changed how I do several things in my firm.”
“I will be rewatching several. So glad I bought the all-access pass because some sessions will be beneficial to listen to again a few months down the road too. I can’t decide which was my favorite. There were so many really great ones!”