The Wize Way

Episode 4: How to make your clients deal with your client managers and not you

In this episode of The Wize Guys, Brenton Ward and Ed Chan in the participation of Wize Tribe members tackle about the things to know in transitioning clients to deal with client managers in every accounting and bookkeeping firm.

You might be seeing a pattern now - creating efficient operations for your firm. You’ll hear the lessons that Ed, Jamie, and Brenton have learned about managing teams and how to structure them to handle probably the most time-consuming part of running a firm - communicating with clients.

Find out how you can start to implement this strategy in your firm today!

Timestamps:

1:10 - How to manage clients
3:34 - Ed’s journey from being a prisoner of his business to freeing up his time
7:20 - The importance of implementation
10:46 - Existing clients VS new clients
16:06 - Reasons why clients managers should have strong interpersonal skills
20:34 - Tips for transitioning clients to your client's managers
23:03 - Client manager roles: working part-time VS full-time
27:04 - How to cross-check clients’ feedback
30:49 - Best strategy to allocate your people to training
33:31 - The difference between hiring offshore to part-time and full-time team members
40:54 - Hiring junior staff VS senior staff
47:40 - Why you should start creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
48:43 - How to allocate work and capacity with your team

Quotations:

“... the worst feeling in the world is to lose clients. So you gotta put systems in place so that, it allows you to have control without being controlling.” - Ed Chan

USEFUL LINKS:

• WizeVault - Step #11: Net Promoter Score

GET IN TOUCH!

Website: www.wizementoring.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wizementoring/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wizementoring
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizementoring/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wize.guys/?hl=en
Email: [email protected]

Download the full transcript here.

________________  

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 4 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:  

 1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Map for FREE - Find out the 101 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here 

2. Need to hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here 

3. Work with Jamie and our mentors for 8 weeks - Build a custom business plan for your firm - Apply here

Episode 3: How to stop drowning in all the communication traffic flowing through your firm right now

“You've gotta take ownership, you've gotta take leadership. ‘Cause if you don't take leadership of that conversation, the client will just think that you are happy to just giving your time away for free.” 

In this episode of The Wize Guys, Brenton Ward, Jamie Johns, and Ed Chan talk about the importance of having a flow in terms of communication traffic for your firm.

This follows nicely from last week - removing yourself from your firm's everyday operations and developing relationships with your team leaders. Communication traffic takes up a huge amount of time in a firm, whether that's talking to clients, or passing information around internally. With first-hand experience building systems that reduce this, we hope to give you some useful information to put into practice at your own firm.  

Timestamps:

1:17 - Defining communication traffic in today’s situation of CoVid-19

5:57 - How to manage the traffic flow

6:13 - 2 different types of traffic ~ communication VS production

11:43 - The importance of leadership skills in communicating with your clients

15:30 - Tips for transitioning to a deep and narrow team structure

23:20 - Getting the fundamentals right

27:28 - Why you should have communication policies in your firm

31:34 - Finding the balance in handling client’s queries

34:18 - The massive impact of technology in the current work setup

39:01 - The catalyst of improving systems and flow

42:45 - How to implement an assistant client manager

Quotations:

“It's all about managing your client's expectations rather than letting your clients manage you.” - Ed Chan 

USEFUL LINKS:

• WizeVault Video 5.3: How to implement an assistant client manager

GET IN TOUCH!

Website: www.wizementoring.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wizementoring/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wizementoring

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizementoring/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wize.guys/?hl=en

Email: [email protected]

Download the full transcript here.

________________  

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 4 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:  

 1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Map for FREE - Find out the 101 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here 

2. Need to hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here 

3. Work with Jamie and our mentors for 8 weeks - Build a custom business plan for your firm - Apply here

Download a FREE copy of our book - The Accountants 20-Hour Workweek

In this free book, we highlight the No.1 strategy that’s had the biggest impact on building our own practice to run without the owners 👉https://wizementoring.mykajabi.com/20hourworkweek

Episode 2: Are you on the right track to building a business that runs without you?

“You've gotta find the right people, you put the right training in and you can tell that they're the right people because you can see them progressing. You teach them once, you teach 'em twice, and they get it.”

Today I'm joined once again by Ed Chan and  Jamie Johns. Ed and Jamie, along with me, your host, Brenton Ward, founded Wize Mentoring to help Accounting and Bookkeeping firm owners scale their businesses.

In this episode, we talk about removing yourself from your firm's everyday operations and developing relationships with your team leaders. Another big topic we discuss is the importance of hiring the right people! Delegating is very important and we give practical advice about how to do that smoothly. 

Timestamps:

1:07 - The concept of 80-20 rule

4:14 - The importance of developing relationships

8:10 - Reasons why you need to create a blueprint for recruitment

11:34 - How capacity planning helps in measuring performance

18:34 - Being in control VS being controlling

23:35 - Benefits of conducting regular team meetings

29:10 - How to start your withdrawal journey from the business

32:58 - Tips for training people effectively

36:30 - How to put parameters in delegating work

Quotations:

“The 80-20 rule basically says that 20% of activities give you 80% of your problems. So for me, it's about planning. If you spend more time planning then you spend less time reacting.” - Ed Chan 

“Time is still one of the biggest constraints in growing our business.” - Brenton Ward

GET IN TOUCH!

Website: www.wizementoring.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wizementoring/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wizementoring

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizementoring/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wize.guys/?hl=en

Email: [email protected]

Download the full transcript here.

________________  

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 4 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:  

 1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Map for FREE - Find out the 101 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here 

2. Need to hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here 

3. Work with Jamie and our mentors for 8 weeks - Build a custom business plan for your firm - Apply here

Episode 1: The Ideal Team Structure

“The first thing you've gotta master is you've gotta master leading yourself. So that's about self-discipline, that's about the experience, that's about controlling your feelings, and so you've gotta lead yourself and then to lead others, that's another level again.”

Welcome to The Wize Guys podcast! In this, our very first episode, I chat with Ed Chan, founder of Chan & Naylor, an accounting firm with offices in major cities around Australia that services thousands of clients. Jamie Johns also joins us. He is the founder of Sky Accountants, recognized as one of the top 57 accounting firms worldwide.

Ed and Jamie, along with me, your host, Brenton Ward, founded Wize Mentoring to help Accounting and Bookkeeping firm owners scale their businesses.

Find out to become a better leader, team structures, and productivity. Also, learn useful tips on how accounting firms can foster healthy team structures today!

Timestamps:

0:35 - The concept of an ideal team structure

6:00 - Analogy of water getting through the pipe

7:05 - The importance of pushing the work down

8:48 - Reasons why you should have the people in the right seat

9:23 - Getting the resource mix right

10:42 - How to implement a ‘no-blame culture’

14:42 - How to manage teams

16:54 - Becoming a better leader for your firm

20:09 - 3 common areas to focus on

23:52 - Top-down VS bottom-up management

28:24 - How timesheet creates a system-dependent firm

Quotations:

“Focus on the problem, focus on fixing the problem, and focus on finding solutions to the problem…” - Ed Chan

“People don't lead companies, they lead their managers.” - Brenton Ward

GET IN TOUCH!

Website: www.wizementoring.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wizementoring/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wizementoring

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizementoring/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wize.guys/?hl=en

Email: [email protected]

Download the full transcript here.

________________  

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 4 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:  

 1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Map for FREE - Find out the 101 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here 

2. Need to hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here 

3. Work with Jamie and our mentors for 8 weeks - Build a custom business plan for your firm - Apply here