Today, we are speaking to Tony King, the Senior Vice President of Pricing, Packaging, and Commercialization Strategy at Xero. Prior to joining Xero, Tony led the pricing and packaging strategies at several other organizations including OneTrust, Nextiva, and ServiceNow.

Some of the topics we cover include:

• Pricing strategy - considering how you charge & what you charge
• Quantitative research
• Pricing for smaller businesses
• The psychology and perception of pricing software
• Understanding customer value
• Real-world applications of strategy

Tony's book recommendation: Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price by Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke

In this episode, Laurika Steenekamp, Syft's Head of Product Support, is joined by Muhammed Ismail Bulbulia, a Chartered Accountant and the Founder/Editor of myCAhub.

They discuss what led him to launch myCAhub, some of the pain points in the CPD-compliance process, how he moved from concept to product, the transition from an initial MVP to a more robust platform, and more.

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, then this is the episode for you!

Muhammed's recommendations:

• The Conference of the Birds by  Attar of Nishapur
• The Road to CA podcast
• The Truth Be Told podcast

What do you know about the FTX Scandal? Perhaps you've heard bits and pieces about the recent court case, the eccentric founder, Sam Bankman Fried. Did you know that around the same time everything came crashing down, FTX was hacked?

In this episode, we speak to Byron Cowie, Head of Finance at the blockchain analytics and crypto compliance solution Elliptic, about what went wrong with FTX and what businesses can learn from this bizarre and catastrophic story.

As promised, here are some resources for further reading and deep dives:

Bybit related

https://www.elliptic.co/blog/bybit-hack-largest-in-history

https://www.elliptic.co/bybit-exploit-blocklist

https://unchainedcrypto.com/podcast/how-the-1-5-billion-bybit-hack-could-have-been-prevented/

FTX related

https://unchainedcrypto.com/ftxs-ryan-salame-is-going-to-prison-heres-what-he-has-to-say/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Infinite-Rise-Fall-Tycoon-ebook/dp/B0C5DNW987

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet

https://www.elliptic.co/blog/the-477-million-ftx-hack-following-the-blockchain-trail

In this episode, Syft's Head of Product Support, Laurika Steenekamp, discusses the role of philanthropy in accounting with our guest, Caleb Jenkins, a business and accounting leader at RLJ Financial Services, in Modesto, California.

The episode covers why and how accountants can become more involved in philanthropy, the intersection of accounting and philanthropy, and several misconceptions about philanthropy. It also considers how philanthropy can strengthen business relationships and, conversely, some of the dangers of getting involved in philanthropic work.

In this episode, we speak to Amba Lanning, a Senior AI Business Consultant at Mindible Ltd, about how entrepreneurs can actually use AI. Here are a few of the topics we cover:

• Using AI as a strategic advantage
• The changing role of the CEO and entrepreneur
• The future of AI in business

You can find out more about Mindible at: https://mindible.co.uk/

We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about the importance of moving into new service offerings, trying new technologies, AI, and other innovations, but today we wanted to take a step back and consider the basics. After all, if you don’t get the basics right, should you really be thinking about more advanced or complex strategies?

As we reach the end of the tax year in South Africa, we wanted to revisit some of the most important basic things businesses should have in place to help their clients. 

We are joined by Damian Baker, Head of Cloud Accounting at Outsourced CFO - OCFO for short. OCFO provides integrity and professional excellence in financial consulting for ambitious SMEs. Their aim is to help clients rethink, automate and scale their companies in the pursuit of business eminence.

Today we are joined by the Founder and CEO of RTA, Fanie Meades. Fanie has helped countless business owners navigate their numbers through difficult times. We discuss the following:

• A bit about Fanie's journey and how he maintains a positive attitude
• Understanding client needs
• Maintaining client relationships
• Key observations or advice Fanie can provide to clients
• The role of technology in assisting clients
• The skills future accountants will need to build to facilitate strong client relationships

You can find out more about RTA here:https://rta.co.za/

Today, we are speaking to Chris Giannopoulos, a Product Engineer at Syft Analytics, about his experience of moving from data science to working in the product team at an accounting software company.

Some of the topics we cover include:

As mentioned, Syft Campus has a free Excel course here: campus.syftanalytics.com/p/excel-and-google-sheets-basics-course-outline

In this episode, we discuss the importance of

Some of the topics we cover include:

You can find out more about Celeste and her firm at https://thebusinessboutique.co.za/

In this episode, we speak to Graham Shapiro, Founder of Myccountant, about New Year's resolutions for small businesses ranging from finding the right tech to solve common problems to implementing attainable goals. Some of the topics discussed include:

- Goal-setting for business success

The book Graham mentioned is The Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance by Rasmus Ankerson