Gearing Up: Recent Episodes
Relay
Gearing Up asks practicing accountants and bookkeepers to share one challenge they faced in their firm and how they solved it. Hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA and brought to you by Relay.
To niche or not to niche—that is a hotly debated topic in the accounting world. While many firms serve all industries, sometimes it makes sense to niche down in order to stand out from the crowd. Why? Because the old expression holds true: a jack of all trades is a master of none. Positioning yourself as a specialist who serves a dedicated accounting niche can make your firm stand out among competitors.
This week, we speak toMorgaine Trine, Owner ofHonestly Bookkeeping, an accounting firm specialized in helping small businesses stabilize, strengthen, and sustain their finances.
"It was a very slow process for me to find my current niche, and that niche is both process and quality based," says Morgaine. "The first thing I did is I said, 'Okay, I'm done with QBO, not doing it, I'm going all in on Xero', and that was a really, really good first step for me."
Watch the full episode to learn more about:
⚙️ Morgaine’s accounting tech stack
🤔 How to determine your accounting niche
🤝 The process Morgaine uses to qualify if a client is a good fit for her firm
💡 The benefits of niching by process and technology
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
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Kurt Grantham has fond memories of his childhood days stapling W-2s to 1040s as an honorary member of his father’s CPA firm. As he grew up, his passion for building relationships with small business owners led him to take over his father’s business and build an accounting firm of his own.
"We really wanted to find great talent. And we felt like great accounting talent, anywhere in the world, could help us serve our clients really well,” Kurt says in this episode of Gearing Up — our series that asks a real, practicing accountant or bookkeeper to share one challenge in their firm and how they solved it.
Kurt is the owner of Grosser & Company, LLC, a firm providing business consulting, tax planning, bookkeeping and accounting solutions to small professional services businesses. In this episode, Kurt tells us the story of how he built a people-first accounting firm by leveraging overseas talent.
Watch the full episode to learn more about:
🚀 How Kurt scaled his team by 30% within a year
⚙️ Kurt’s accounting tech stack
🖥️ Hiring and retaining top talent with TOA Global
🫶 The impact of providing fulfilling work for overseas talent
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LGJw0
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LG_20
If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper who works with healthcare clients, then HIPAA is likely already on your radar.
On this episode of Gearing Up, we welcome Cindy Moore of CMoore LLC. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Cindy runs a one-women accounting firm that offers bookkeeping, accounting and consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses in a variety of industries.
Listen to learn more about:
⚙️ Cindy’s accounting tech stack
🔑 HIPAA compliance
🔢 How to do accounting if you can't have client names in your system
🖥️ A step-by-step walkthrough of Saasant
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Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack. Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LGJw0
Gearing Up is published monthly! Subscribe to get the next episode. ➡️ https://hubs.li/Q014LG_20
When creating proposals and pricing strategies for your accounting firm, should you take a value-based approach or charge an hourly rate?
Episode #10 of 🎙️ Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay. Hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA.
This week, we speak to Jeremy Wells, PhD, CPA, EA and Owner of JWellsCFO, an accounting firm specialized in helping small business owners maximize their tax savings and build better businesses.
With over a decade of experience working in higher education, Jeremy is a former college educator turned accountant. His experience working in two vastly different industries has taught him how to educate clients on the value of his services.
Listen to learn about:
🗺 Jeremy’s unique journey from academia to accounting
🤝 How to create proposals in Ignition that attract new clients
🥊 The age-old accounting debate: Value-pricing vs. hourly rates
To learn more about Jeremy and his firm, visit ➡️ www.jwellscfo.com/
Gearing Up is published every two weeks! Subscribe to get the next episode.
Garrett Alexander, CPA, is the owner and Co-Founder of Orsini & Associates, a traditional accounting firm, and he also runs Game On Financial, a tax, finance, and business firm for gamers and content creators.
Garrett’s experience serving two vastly different types of business owners has taught him how to get clients to buy into his preferred tools no matter their background.
As a result, he’s not only improved his own workflow and efficiency, but he’s also saved his clients a lot of money. In fact, thanks to Garrett’s in-depth client conversations, he saved one logistics and shipping client over $12,000 just by changing banking over to Relay.
In this episode of Gearing Up, Garret presents a clear vision to his clients through in-depth conversations, and demonstrates how much time and money they can save with a modern, integrated technology stack.
Watch the full episode now to learn:
💰 How Relay helped save one client over $12K
🤝 Garrett’s approach to working with clients from various backgrounds
🤔 His “hub and spoke” model for accounting tech
🛠 How to convince your clients to switch their tech
Learn more about Garrett at orsiniandassociates.com or connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Before Megan Justice started Crayon Advisory, LLC, she worked in-house at accounting firms that wanted her to pay close attention to managing client expectations.
Setting up client expectations was something she was told to do in her career for years, but was never really given the tools or permissions to effectively do so, she says in the episode of Gearing Up — our series that asks a real, practicing accountant or bookkeeper to share one challenge in their firm and how they solved it.
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LG_20 Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LGJw0.
At Crayon Advisory, she’s developed a unique way to keep clients on track while ensuring they know exactly what to expect from her services. In this episode she shows our host Blake Oliver, how she uses Canva to create infographics that communicate the steps and timelines involved in her services.
Watch the full episode now to learn:
🤝 Why Megan started her own firm and who she serves
🛠 Her robust tech stack
💕 Why Megan loves Relay
👩🎨 How she created the visuals she sends to clients
Learn more about Megan at CrayonAdvisory.com
When Nancy McClelland parted ways with a full-time employee, she took a moment to re-think the structure of her firm.
“It really started the gears turning in my head about how to hire an accounting and bookkeeping staff so you love working with your team,” she says in this episode of Gearing Up — our series that asks a real, practicing accountant or bookkeeper to share one challenge in their firm and how they solved it.
Nancy is the owner of The Dancing Accountant, a 100% remote firm that offers outsourced CFO services, financial planning, tax prep and more. In the episode, she explains the a-ha moment that transformed the structure of her firm and why other firm owners need to get really clear about how their work is meaningful for employees. 💡
Watch the full episode now to learn:
💃 Why Nancy is known as The Dancing Accountant
❤️ Nancy’s favorite tool in her tech stack
🧑💻 Three things employees want from work
🧩 The non-traditional structure of Nancy’s team
Be sure to check out Nancy’s award winning blog on TheDancingAccountant.com.
When a firm is rapidly growing, staying on top of monthly bookkeeping tasks, reporting and communicating with clients can add up to endless hours of work. This lost time can slow growth and put client relationships at risk. 😟
For this week’s episode of Gearing Up — an interview series with Relay that asks a real, practicing accountant or bookkeeper how they solved a challenge in their firm — host Blake Oliver, CPA, spoke to a firm owner who is using one powerful tool to make monthly bookkeeping more streamlined and efficient.
Dave Kersting, CEO of Capovario, does a deep dive on Keeper.App, a bookkeeping app that makes month-end more efficient by syncing directly with QuickBooks Online, increasing communication and collaboration with staff, creating robust, custom reports, tracking key KPIs and more.
The full episode covers:
💡 Why Dave named his firm Capovario
💻 The tech stack he uses to streamline his business
⏰ How Dave uses Keeper to save hours doing bookkeeping tasks
📈 How he delivers custom insights with the reporting feature
Watch the episode on YouTube ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmecuyyMBm4
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_1z0
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_gP0
In this episode of Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay that's hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA — we talked to Cindy Schroeder, owner of Bright Bookkeeping and founder of the community Bookkeeping Buds.
Cindy runs a cloud-based bookkeeping firm primarily focused on residential painters across the country. She knows exactly who her ideal clients are — and who they are not. This laser focus allowed her to create an automated way to filter out potential clients that were not a fit without losing those she can excel at helping. Cindy created a system of “tests” for potential clients to navigate through that would ensure each call was worthwhile. The first step? Using the appointment scheduling tool Acuity Scheduling.
It allows her to ask each potential client a series of questions that let her qualify them before she even gets on the phone. 📲 Watch the full episode to learn:
🏰 How Cindy fulfilled one of her lifelong Mouseketeer dreams
🗓 How — and why — she uses Acuity Scheduling to qualify her clients
🙋♂️ The qualifying questions Cindy asks when they schedule an intro call with her
🤝 What she does when a potential client isn’t the right fit
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuVNdA97AxQ
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_1z0
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_gP0
Phil Gaudiano is the co-founder of a cryptocurrency and blockchain accounting firm. It's no surprise his firm has been growing rapidly since it launched in 2020.
In E4 of Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay that's hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA — he discusses why fast growing firms need standard operating procedures (SOPs) to both support scale and ensure every single client gets the same high quality experience.
This episode covers:
⛓ The tech stack Phil uses for his crypto clients
🖥 How standard operating procedures — or SOPs — support firm growth
🔦 A look at how Phil uses Karbon to ensure clients get the same experience from his firm
💡 How SOPs can make you better at capacity planning for your firm.
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL5png5bw6M
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_1z0
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_gP0
In EP#3 of Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay that's hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA — we talk to Andrea Rotondo, Owner, Liquid Cents Bookkeeping.
Andrea shares how she uses Loom to build personal connections with clients, speed up communication and save time writing out instructions for clients.
Topics covered:
✍️ How to stop writing emails full of step-by-step instructions for clients
✨ Why video communication can improve your client communication and service
🎥 How she uses Loom to save time while making things easier for clients
💁🏻♀️ Tips for getting started with Loom — especially if you’re nervous about being on video
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvPyrkAvRfI
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_1z0
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_gP0
Our second episode of Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay that's hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA — features Clay Sandoz, Owner, Wellstead Solutions.
Clay shares the custom, interactive financial dashboard he built for his nonprofit clients using data from Kindful to surface actionable insights faster — and help him scale his business.
Topics covered:
🛠 The tech stack Clay uses for his nonprofit clients
🖥 Clay’s custom financial dashboard with pivot tables and nested formulas
🔦 The different ways to interact with the dashboard to uncover actionable insights
💡 How to import .csv files to replace data at a specific cell
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiSyiIG_8mU
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_1z0
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q01b2_gP0
Our first episode of Gearing Up — an interview series by Relay that's hosted by Blake Oliver, CPA — features Safietou D. Russell, CPA, EA, MST, Founder & CEO of SDR Consulting Inc.
Safie shares how her firm manages client intake (and eliminates a ton of administrative work) with Cognito Forms.
Topics covered:
📝 How to create a standardized and consistent client intake process
↔️ How to break up one big intake form into smaller ones for a better client experience
✅ How Safie makes sure client information is up-to-date each tax season
🔃 How to connect intake forms with document storage to avoid data entry
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsYdFcpQxjo
Subscribe to Gearing Up 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LG_20
Relay is business banking that completes your accounting tech stack.
Learn more about Relay 👉 https://hubs.li/Q014LGJw0