I'm Beth Whitworth, race car driving, quilt making, CPA firm owning, wife, mom, and boss. I'm here to help you build a business you love by sharing all of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the excellent sides of working in this industry. It's not always easy, but after many years, I can finally say it's worth it.

Let me guide you on your journey to accounting with confidence. 

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. I'm your host, Beth Whitworth. And today I'm here to continue talking about planning. A couple of episodes ago, I talked about why planning is important, and that was in preparation for me getting ready to go to an event in Texas that was for business owners, specifically accounting firm owners, to work on strategic planning.

I am here to report back on what happened while I was in Texas and to share with you my progression through the planning process over the years. I'm hoping that there is something in this where you can see yourself somewhere on my timeline or as I tell you what happened at this event and what I got out of the event.

You can start to seek out some opportunities for you to be a part of an event that will get you into that frame of mind for planning for your business, for setting some goals, and for working on how to stay on track. First of all, let me talk about my progression through planning. I've been in business many, many years, so I would say this is starting our 16th year of business in this particular format of my company. But I've been a partner in a firm since at least 2000. It's been a good 24, going on 25 years that I've been in a position where in order to reach goals, in order to kind of move your business forward and grow your business, there needed to be some planning that was happening. 

I can admit to you that for many, many years, I was really just hoping to survive. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants. I knew what budgets were. I knew what plans were. I knew all the things. I just didn't have a good methodology for putting things into place and for staying on track. So early on in my career, I ended up being in a couple of partnerships that didn't really work out and part of that I can see was due to a couple of things. One partnership had no formal plan. It was some talk, nothing ever in writing. There was no consistency from year to year on what we were trying to accomplish. Some years we felt we needed to add staff. Some years we didn't. Some years my partners wanted to be doing less and some years they're like, “Oh no, I want to do more. I'm never retiring.” There was just no formal plan, and that really left us in that survival mode. So when things happened that maybe weren't exactly what we were hoping to have happen, we didn't have a “go-to” plan to get back on track. 

The second partnership I was in involved some extensive planning, lots of meetings ahead of time, lots of meetings while we were partners, but no action. There was not a lot of action. There was that need to plan like this is how much we want to grow. This is what we want to do. But there was no steps for making it happen. And so neither one of those partnerships survived and it was followed by me being on my own. I had no partners. And so everything that involved planning was on my shoulders. And that was something that I'm like, yes, I can do this. But how I did it was pretty much by throwing some numbers into a plan. I really didn't have anything to back them up. I would quickly get sidetracked and kind of stray away from any of those goals that I might have set.

And that happened as soon as life or business or tax season got in the way. And I probably worked through this part of the planning process for years. I would spend a lot of time just putting plans in place, typically this time of year, beginning of the year, winding up a year, starting a new year, what, what are your goals?

And I've been a tax preparer for many, many years. So the seasonality of the business would essentially take over. And I worked through those types of plans where, yep, I took some time. I didn't take a lot of time or maybe enough time or the right kind of time, but I would put some plans together, but they just, it didn't stick.

So I would say about five years ago now I started using a planner that actually has some quarterly checkpoints. And at that point I was able to at least set the goals and then quarterly go back and look where are you on those goals. And this planner was really good about putting what is your goal, what is your next logical step that you need to work on in order to reach that goal.

And so at least quarterly, as I was working through my planner, I would be able to have a checkpoint. And I would be able to go back and say, okay, let's review for this quarter, what is the next logical step to make this goal happen? And I've been a little inconsistent with that, but it has been better. It has given me a chance to work through some of those goals and carry them forward quarter to quarter.

And then at the end of the year, kind of do a review and say, Hey, where'd you get on those? And again, I have been doing the planning part for years. You know, so right now I've been in a planner, a certain type of planner, for about five years and I use the full focus planner that is put out by Michael Hyatt and follow his full focus kind of teachings and having a big three that you're trying to work on every week and every day and and that has really helped me. But again, I was still on me to be accountable to myself. And since I wrote it down, at least I had a better chance of going back and seeing how things were going as opposed to throw some numbers, kind of have it in my head, you know, let things get sidetracked.

At least I had something that I can go back and say, Oh, I really didn't get that done. And kind of regroup and say, what do I need to work on instead? So last year, no, it was probably maybe two or three years ago, I joined a formal training program through Woodard. And this is Joe Woodard, who runs a company that essentially provides training for other firm owners to essentially grow a business that they love. Kind of what I want to teach my clients and people who listen to me. I want you to grow a business that you love. Well, I signed on for some formal training. It was group training and there were lots of system changes for me. There were lots of pieces of the firm that really needed to be addressed.

There were pricing, there was technology, there was team issues, There were, there was a lot of things that needed to be worked on. So I spent a lot of time those first couple of years working on my systems. and trying to find ways to move me out of the production part of the farm and more into that planning role.

And so really that allowed me to really get to that point where I recognized That I needed to hire my first level of management. So up until this point, it had been me and a team of doers, producers, accountants who reported to me. They did the work. I reviewed the work. I did a lot of the work. I was still the primary person doing tax return, was doing all those things.

And so as I worked through this group coaching, I finally recognized that, okay, in order for me to really grow, I need to put that next layer into my business that included a layer of management where the team reported to someone who that person then reported to me. And that would free up my time to work on the business instead of in the business.

And that happened in 2021. So here we are, three years later, and I am still working under that, we have one person in management. So she and I are kind of the leadership team, and then we have a team of people pretty much report to her. And that has worked out. And that came from having some formal coaching through Woodard's programs.

Now, part of the Woodard program was they offered an annual event that was included with your membership to go to a planning event called Summit. And so in 2023, I said, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to go to Summit. And I nervous. I will tell you I was like, okay, this is going to be a lot. I'm not sure what it's going to be going to be with people.

And sometimes I'm not very people y. So I went to Summit. It was in Denver last year in 2023. It was in about October. And while I was there, there was four days worth of working on your business. And What I did there was to set some goals for 2024. They call them OKRs, which is Objectives with Key Results.

And so OKRs is something that I've been, in the Woodard space has been something that I've been working with them on. So you set your objective and the key results that'll help you reach your objectives, and then you set some action items. So I worked through that. It was pretty overwhelming. I then signed up to go ahead and get a coach that was a one on one coach and moved me out of the group coaching and more to a one on one.

And what that allowed me to do is to have set these goals. And then since I signed up for the one on one coaching, I had biweekly check ins with my coach. My coach's name is Kim and she would say, you know, where are we on these? What action items? Where are you on the key results? Are you going to reach these objectives and are you going to reach your goals?

The other thing it did was it gave me someone to hold me accountable and provide some pushback to my resistance or my procrastination in a really good way. I was able to just be really open and honest and vulnerable with her to be able to say, yeah, this isn't working, you know, or I'm having a really hard time.

Getting these things done on prioritizing and it was very helpful for someone who had been in partnerships before where we either had no planning or over planning and no action. This was exactly what a single firm owner in me needed, and that was to have somebody who focused on what my goals were and kind of gave me feedback on helping me reach those goals.

So she's also been able to encourage me to set bigger goals. goals that I would have balked at alone. She really has been able to encourage me to set some bigger goals that will help drive the growth of my firm and the decisions that I make for the firm in a bigger way. And that has been really invaluable to me this year.

So I don't think when I look at my planning timeline of where I came from, which was No planning, too planning, no action, eh, some  kind of pseudo planning where I'm thinking about it, not really writing it down and definitely not tracking it, usually giving up pretty early on to keeping track of some things quarterly, to going to an annual event that kind of forced me into a situation where I was setting some goals.

And that was the whole, the whole reason for the event was to get ready for your next year and set some reasonable goals. Maybe they stretch you, but they, you know, you can't go into goal planning and say, I'm going to do these 25 things. You really need to limit it because as much as you feel like you should be able to get all of that done, 25, 10, sometimes 5 is too many.

So you need to circle back, have some people that can say, Hey, let's get real. You still have a firm to run. You can't focus 100 percent of your time on just trying to obtain these goals. You have to put some perspective in there. So had I started out here where I'm going to these events, this is summit event, I don't think I would have been ready.

I would have gotten there and been completely overwhelmed, probably would have, you know, shut down and said, Yeah, this is too much for me. I sort of had to learn from my own past that this is how I learn, this is how I need to be held accountable, and that I can't really hold myself accountable. Now there is an investment.

I mean, I signed up for one on one coaching. So I am spending money with Woodard to have this coach on my team and as well as a whole bunch of educational opportunities and. You know, the big Scaling New Heights event that happens in June every year. So all of these are part of that, but it is an investment.

And I recognize now, as I see myself reaching more and more of my goals because of the program, that it is an investment that is well worth it. So let's circle back to what happened in November. In November, this was the 2024 Summit event. And it was held in Frisco, Texas. And it was four days. We went in a day early.

My husband and I drove down. We did some kind of sightseeing and hanging out on Wednesday. And then the event really started Wednesday night and went until Saturday night. And it's really four days of planning. And it was really very structured. So there was a kickoff dinner on Wednesday night. And then on Thursday and Friday.

There were, you meet for breakfast pretty early, and then you start into some learning sessions. And then there was also some group sessions, where you could pick, you know, what you wanted to focus on for that year. It was divided into some topics, so if you wanted to talk about anything team or you want to talk about marketing or you want to talk about systems or technology, there were different tables set up and everybody who was there was either a firm owner or team members of a firm owner or coaches, as in coaches who were coaching these firm owners who worked for Woodard, or they were vendors.

So people who we would work with in the industry, but it was not set up as a formal. vendor floor. It was more of a one on one where the vendors had an opportunity to talk with people individually quite a bit, and so that was nice. But you had to be a member of the Woodard membership in order to be invited to this event.

You didn't have to be at the top level, you know, you could be at the most basic of levels to be allowed to go to the summit, but You had to be a member. So that way, at least we're all starting from the same standpoint of philosophy. You know, if you're working with Woodard, you kind of are subscribing to what their teachings are.

And so that kind of starts everybody else out on the same page. So all these people were there. And as we broke up into smaller groups, it was nice to be able to get perspectives from other firm owners. As they're talking about their team growth or talking about what they're trying to do from a marketing standpoint, or how they set up their standard operating processes, or there's so many, so many things, you know, pricing, there were, there was lots of topics that could be addressed.

And we were given the opportunity to sit in groups and do that. Now, group activities, even as grown ups, not just in, you know, high school and college, where group activities, group, group projects tend to go off the rails, it can still happen as adults. And there were some tables that were probably more productive than others.

But I did get a lot out of being able to share those experiences. And then on Saturday morning, there was a little bit more teaching and then there was also an opportunity for them to set up panels relating to these topics. So if you had gone through and scored yourself well on technology, okay, they wanted you to get up on stage with, you know, two or three of your peers and tell us how you did it.

What did you do? What are you using? And we did that with lots of the various topics. And that was, again, very helpful to hear how other people are doing things.  So we talked about, you know, what, what summit is. It's four days of planning. It was in Texas. It was in November and the firm owners were there.

So we did the who, what, where, when, well, let's talk about the why. Why would you go? So I said that the first year that I went was 2023 and I was super nervous. And I was pretty overwhelmed by the event, but I came back with some goals and I, while I was there, I signed up for coaching. So in preparation for summit this year, there was some homework and we had to work on identifying what areas we thought we were going to need to be working on in 2025 in order to reach some of our bigger goals.

And that the homework was a piece that some people just stop right there. That's it. That's, that's, that's all I did. I identified what I want to do. But why go to Summit was the in depth, dedicated time to complete. the plan. So just setting the goal does not actually help you get through all the steps for the plan.

And that is usually my downfall. If I don't go back and essentially re engineer, reverse engineer the plan, okay, so this is what I want to get to. How do I get there? Well, I have to backtrack through all these things and find out what is the first thing that's going to move the needle. And when I'm here and I'm alone, I'm, you know, only work with myself and can bounce ideas off of my team.

I can bounce ideas off of my husband. It's not the same as having that dedicated time to really think about what you want and how you're going to get there and how much time you can dedicate to it. Now, the other reason to go is for the connections. So the first summit I went to in 2023, that's where I connected with my now coach.

But I also talked with other firm owners and sat at tables with them and realized that I'm not alone. These are my people. We all struggle with the same things or have struggled with those things. And so being together is a little bit like, you know, misery loves company. But it also makes you feel like as a sole business owner, you are not alone. 

And that is something that when you are like me and you have decided that you are not going to have partners again in your career, then you know that you have to go it alone and that you are solely responsible for what happens in your business. It can be really, really lonely. So going to this event and spending time with these other firm owners and some people that, you know, you can connect with and they know what you're doing and you know what they're doing even if you do it a little differently.

You are still in there with a group of your peers, and you're all trying to do the same thing, which is set some goals and achieve some goals. The other big part for me about going is having that change of scenery. So it's sometimes really hard for me to just sit right here in my home office,  set aside time to do the planning.

Now, there's one, there's a lot of things that sidetrack you. Right now, I'm having to make sure that I am planning and blocking time to do podcast recordings. So that means I've got to shut off all the distractions. My phone, my email, my team's chat, all of those things have to be silenced. So when I go away for some planning time, it kind of triggers that, okay, everything that's back home is staying at home.

In this case, except my husband, I brought my husband with me so he could take some time off and we would hang out when I had free time, but that was nice, you know?  But that change of scenery can actually get your mind going because you are sort of kick starting into something new and different, and you're not pulled back by what's already going on.

So for me, that change of scenery was extremely important for planning, and I have learned that over time. This past year, before we went to Scaling New Heights in Florida, my manager, Sarah and I, we went early so that we had some time plan before the Scaling New Heights event, the conference itself started.

And we do planning, you know, all year long, but it was vastly different. One, we're a completely remote team, so we were together in person, and we got through so much just by being in a different environment, being together, and it was energizing.  That's what I would say about finding those events so that you can take the time away a little bit and Focus.

You have to focus. This event was, it was, it was really good this year. This was my second year. My key takeaways is, you know, first and foremost, It gives me an opportunity to do planning with purpose. So there's purpose, there's intentionality. When you put time, which, you know, going away for four or five days, that's, that's time that you're taking away from other things.

You also put money. For me, I'm in a level of a membership that I could go to summit without having to pay the fee for the summit. I still paying the travel costs. You know, I'm paying for the hotel, I'm paying for the gas to get down there, the meals while we're down there. So there is a money, a monetary investment that kind of forces you to kind of put this into some intention.

If I'm going to spend the money, I need to get something out of it. And the other thing it gives you, you know, you're investing time, you're investing money, you're investing a whole lot of mental energy that I think we tend to when we're in the midst of the work and the production and the day to day, that mental energy is absorbed with other things.

And so by the time it's time to sit down and work on a plan and hold some space for your vision, you are drained already. So by Going to this event and saying, Okay, for these five days in November, I'm working on the future. I am going to see what what happened, what worked, what didn't work, what goals do we get to?

What aren't we getting to for 2024? But then I'm going to focus my energy for these four or five days. on what's going to happen. What do I want to happen? What do I need to happen? All of those things so that  I can continue to see my vision grow. And that was a huge takeaway. I mean, if you set aside time, money, and mental energy for this, You have to think that you're going to succeed.

Now, on the end of that is I need somebody to hold me accountable. So the key takeaway on that is that you have to recognize what type of help you need in implementing these things. You don't have to do it alone. And the connections that I made while I was at Summit this year, there were groups of people that were saying, Hey, let's be accountability buddies.

Let's, you know, get on a Zoom call once a week and, you know, even if we're not necessarily talking with each other, but we're on this work session together where we're going to take this hour every week and work on these goals that we just set together during this time in Texas. And doing that, you know, that allows them to have some accountability, but it doesn't just have to be, you know, a buddy system, your team can help hold you accountable.

You know, you can do what I did and hire a coach, you know, that can help hold you accountable. Could be your spouse, it could be a friend. You know, you could outsource it, you could do whatever you need to do to find someone to hold you accountable if you know that you are not the type of person that can hold yourself accountable.

And I'm, I'm that. I am the person that I have to have somebody help me hold myself true to those things, those promises I made to myself. And it's not easy. So when I look back at this event and say, okay, you know, I really took some, some time to plan with purpose. I have a kind of a strategy for having somebody hold me accountable.

The other key takeaway for me, the third one is that I was, I went to the event and was open to connecting with others. Now I often say I am the anti social butterfly. I am. I'm not a very people person, but when you get into an environment where it feels safe and it's other people who are going through similar things and you find people who are being authentic in where they are, they're not sugarcoating what they're going through.

They're not hiding their weaknesses. They're willing to share those things. You actually can connect. And I connected with so many people and was able to just kind of. Have that feeling of you're not, you're not alone. The obstacles that we as business owners go through are pretty universal. Hiring, firing, losing clients, getting clients, finding clients, charging clients enough, all of that stuff.

It's universal. And anybody who says that they are a hundred percent successful and all the things. you know, is not being authentic. You know, we've all had our failures and our struggles and our obstacles. And when you find a group of people that you can share those things with and kind of have that connection of being vulnerable with, then it's, It can help you see that there's a way to move through it, because we've all been through stuff.

We've all been through it. It might be different stuff, but it's also the same stuff. So, I made some great connections this year with some people that I will continue to reach out to, and we will connect because it was just the ability to, to just have true, meaningful conversation. Not just about our firms, we talked about our families and our kids and our health and our all the things, you know, and it is what friendships are built on.

And for someone who comes from a, I'm very introverted, I am not someone who is going to walk up and say, Hey, I'm Beth, you know, who are you? I'm not that person to make those connections is sometimes very difficult. And when I do make those connections, it is extremely gratifying. I mean, I, because it's very hard to do that and feel like you've made the connection that is, is meaningful.

So my takeaways there are. Be open to connecting with others if you have this type of an event to go to. Go in with the mindset that you're going to plan with purpose and intentionality and figure out who's going to hold you accountable. How are you going to make this work for you? And be successful, because as it is, You know, in investment of time, money and mental energy, you want to have some recognizable, some tangible outcomes.

And those outcomes are in really achieving your goals. And so I will say that for my goals in 2024,  I feel like I've done pretty well. So we are going to hit our revenue target this year. It might be by just a few dollars, but we are going to hit it. And that was with a very major setback in the middle of the year.

And so we have more than overcome that setback and move forward. We're going to hit our revenue target. My second goal was to reduce my anxiety and overwhelm, and I did that. It's still a work in progress, but I had fewer episodes that I had to overcome during the year than I had in the previous year, and that was the goal.

And then my third was to get a podcast episode out at least every two weeks. Well, I didn't quite make that goal, but I have put in place Some systems and strategies for making sure that I'm getting weekly content out. And so I still consider that a win. Now, side goals I had, you know, some personal goals.

I wanted to get some quilt projects finished. I didn't get a whole lot of quilt projects finished. I wanted to lose weight and get healthier. I've managed to really make strong headway on that. and have lost some weight and have put my exercise routine in place. If I'm not Zumba ing, I'm probably having a bad day.

So Zumba is my jam. But those goals would not have happened had I not set them for one and not had somebody to hold me accountable for them as number two. So those, that, putting that coach in place was important. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you are looking for a place to find someone to be accountable to, reach out to me.

Let me help you find someone to help you identify someone. Or maybe that someone is me, you know, maybe there's something I can do to help you stay accountable to your goals. Because what I want is for everyone to set goals, set targets. Get those objectives out there, figure out what key results you need to have happen in order to reach them, and be successful.

And it's okay if you don't hit every one, but if you don't set them, you're never going to hit them. And for those of us who are soul practitioners, I have a team, but I am the sole one responsible for the organization. It's sometimes really hard to focus on the forest, you know, the big picture because all the trees are in the way.

You know, you are having to put out each little fire. You're having to make every single decision. So let me help you reach out to me if you are looking for some accountability or you're looking for a way to, you know, start this process of. getting into a structured planning process, and I'd be happy to help you.

Shoot me an email, send me a text. You can use the text button on wherever you are listening to this. It'll say, send me a message, I believe. So, I would love to help you. Okay, that's all I have for now. If you need me, you know where to find me. 

Thanks for listening to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. My hope is that my experiences can help you navigate the realities of owning and operating your business. Please subscribe or follow the podcast on your favorite podcast listening platform so that you never miss an episode. Feel free to leave me a text by using the send us a text message link in the show description and let me know how I'm doing.