Rogue Startups

RS287: Stepping Back As CEO with Meryl Johnston


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Today Craig chats with Meryl Johnston, founder of BeanNinjas and host of a new podcast The Lifestyle Accountant Show, the podcast that helps today’s accounting firm leaders build successful businesses while living healthy, happy lives. 

Being able to work less but still watch your company thrive and grow is the goal for many entrepreneurs out there. But in order to do that, you need to ask yourself a couple of important questions. Can your business continue operating (and grow) without you? Are you willing to step aside and let other people make decisions for your business?

It has been a couple of years since Meryl stepped back as CEO. In this episode of the Rogue Startups Podcast, Meryl talks about what the process has been like, why she made the decision, and the challenges of stepping back

She and Craig also talk about what it is like to run a flexible productized service startup, the tools they use in order to streamline their processes, and Meryl’s journey from accounting to working only one day a week with the team at BeanNinjas.

Do you have any comments, questions, or topic ideas for future episodes? Send Craig an email at [email protected]. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give Rogue Startups a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week!

Highlights:
  • Meryl’s journey into entrepreneurship 
  • The evolution of productized services
  • Efficiencies with the team with an a la carte menu
  • The benefits of talking to customers
  • Tools for streamlining systems and processes
  • How and why Meryl stepped back as CEO of BeanNinjas
  • Letting go of making every decision in the business, and being okay with the consequences
  • How to get everyone to think like owners
  • To profit-share or not to profit-share: it’s not really a question
  • Branding and social media: people follow people
  • Resources: 

    Follow Meryl on LinkedIn

    The Lifestyle Accountant Show

    BeanNinjas

    Castos

    Founder Insights

    ...more
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