50: 2025 Goals Update

In this episode, I celebrate reaching episode 50 and share the journey of building a business I love. I revisit the goals set for 2025, including implementing a comprehensive marketing plan and standardizing processes within the firm. I discuss the challenges and progress made towards these goals, reflecting on the importance of delegation and consistency. Additionally, I provide updates on personal life, such as racing events and quilt projects, emphasizing the significance of maintaining a work-life balance. Join me as I outline future plans and encourage listeners to stay connected and engaged.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Milestone Celebration
• 1:11 Reflecting on 2025 Goals
• 4:24 Marketing Plan Update
• 13:40 Standardizing Processes
• 25:20 Personal Updates and Future Plans
• 28:17 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

 I am 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.

I am welcome to Accounting With Confidence. I'm your host, Beth Whitworth, and I am so excited today because I have reached episode. 50. Now for some people you may think that's not a big milestone, but for me it has been a long time coming and is a testament to me sticking with this and doing something that really brings me joy and passion and I just, I love it.

To say that okay, the majority maybe, maybe not quite the majority of the episodes, but so much has happened in 2025. So for episode number 50, I am going to kind of revisit what I set as goals for 2025 and kind of where we are on that and kind of let you know what's been going on in a little bit of an update with the firm and myself and, and where we are.

So welcome and thank you for listening or watching on YouTube that this is episode 50. So along those lines, I would love it if wherever you're watching, you would subscribe. You would follow, you would leave me a, a note or a voicemail. Anything, anything. I would like you to interact with me. I am one of those people who does not check her analytics Very often don't care if only one person listened to an episode, but.

If you share it and you like and you subscribe, one, you won't miss anything. And two, it will help my message get out to other people. So that's my ask for you today. And otherwise, just sit back and listen to my update. So I did something that I don't ever do, which is I went back to an episode and listened to myself, and I don't typically do that.

I record, I send this off to my editor. He makes me sound fabulous. And then I publish it and I rarely listen. But to prepare for this episode, I thought it was important to really tell you what it was that I. I shared with you, so back in episode 28, which was late December of last year, I did an episode on what our strategic goals were for 2025, and I said there a couple reasons for doing that.

One was to let you know what our goals were and what our growth, you know, kind of what kind of goals we set for growth-minded goals. And the other was for you to hold me accountable. So here I am. I'm gonna revisit with you what I discussed in episode 28 and where we are eight months later. I mean this as I'm recording this, we're getting near the end of August, so I'm down to about four months left in the year to accomplish these goals, and I thought it was a good time to let you know where I am.

So. Back then, back then, eight months ago, I let you know about two goals that we set, only two things that we wanted to focus on this year. One was a comprehensive marketing plan defined and implemented, and two was standardization of processes to allow us to be expand capacity with our existing team and move everybody up a little bit as far as being able to provide more advisory service and relationship type services to our clients and not just transaction level.

Stuff and both of those, I refer to them as big, hairy, audacious goals, BHAS, and they still are, they, nothing has changed as far as how big those goals were and are, and how many moving parts and components needed to be there. So I'm gonna start with giving you the update on the marketing. Now the goal was that we would have the marketing plan somewhat defined as far as where we were going with it in first quarter of 2025.

But as you recall, we are a tax preparation firm, and while we don't have a ton of overtime, we do have a lot of work. And it was more important at that point to be focusing on keeping everybody moving and the workload flowing. And I took those standing meetings with myself, uh, regarding marketing. I dropped the ball, I canceled them.

I did not have time to spend that one hour a week, or at least that's what I told myself. And part of that I know is a mindset issue with me not being confident enough to know that I could do this on my own, that I could define something of what I wanted, how to move forward with it on my own. And I defaulted back to what I normally do, which is I know how to do tax returns, I know how to do the workflow to get returns out the door to do tax planning for people to, and so that's what I gravitated towards and kind of let the marketing slide.

And while that's happening, we were busy, we had plenty of leads. It became kind of secondary. Okay. What is the purpose of the marketing? Well, it's to grow revenues, but right now we are, we have plenty in the pipeline. It's, it's all good. And it was somewhat tabled, but not completely. One of the big pieces that I didn't really talk about in that episode, that was an underlying piece of the marketing, I guess, but more important, it was something that is a goal of mine personally and professionally, was to get consistent with my podcast.

My goal has always been to publish an episode once a week and. I have not been able to consistently get all the steps done, and I would always get into tax season and. Really, it would dry up. I just did not have the time or the energy or the mental capacity, the man hours to be creative. Even if being creative gave me a boost in energy, I didn't have the follow through to do it consistently.

That is why it has taken, I started this podcast, it was late 2022, so December of 2022 when it launched. So say we've been doing this 23, 24, and now eight months into 25, and it's taken me more than two and a half years to get to 50 episodes. But there was always a hiatus during the tax season. Well, a huge goal that we have hit this year is, I believe this should be the 18th.

Consecutive episode that has come out starting sometime in May, and that is a testament to a couple things. One, you know, my second thing was to standardize processes. The first step in that was to get some of this administrative stuff off my plate. I utilized my VA to offload everything relating to the podcast that wasn't creative, meaning the topic, the outline, the recording, when I write up my emails with those types of things that I consider creative processes, but the stuff that wasn't updating the graphic, uploading the episodes, putting the shorts in the right place, and posting on social media, all of those things.

I let go of, and that has allowed me to get to these, to this consistency. And I am, I am thrilled to be getting there, but it, it, it wasn't easy and it was not something that I just said, Hey, here, go do this, and you, you know, you have free reign. And it was, it was a process. But in doing that, it kind of made me realize I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

But the marketing plan itself, when we were talking about we needed to define it, we needed to kind of rebrand. We needed to do all these things that I talked about last December. They just really fell by the wayside and then we went. To scaling new heights in June and I presented, and that was the first time I had presented there and it was just a, a brief 20 minute presentation and I loved it.

And I connected with some people prior to that that remembered me and told me they'd been listening to my podcast and told me that, you know, oh, I, I heard, you know, when you talked about this or that, or. Followed up after the, the talk I gave and we're asking lots of questions. And so that pushed Sarah and I to look at that strategic plan a little bit and say, okay, we need to double down on what we're doing with the branding and the website.

And because it's resonating somewhere, uh, it's resonating within the community of other business owners, other accounting and bookkeeping providers. I know I get, I get feedback from my clients that listen. And so we needed to really stop, and this was, so this was June. We needed to say, okay, we need to come up with these solutions.

And we had talked about how are we going to merge the websites? What type of tech tools do we need to use? And we put some major steps out there. And then we started to move forward on the marketing plan. So currently we have. Found a third party to help us work with the website and they also do additional marketing type stuff and we should be releasing some new branding before the end of the year.

And that's, that's pretty exciting. And what we're really doing is just kind of taking what I love to do over here with the podcasting, the coaching, the teaching, the training, the speaking, and what I'm doing over here with. A not your typical accounting firm. You know, we don't bill by the hours we are, we are looking to, you know, increase the value and the wealth of all the clients that we work with.

We're, we're not transactional. We want to be involved. All of those things, that message of, we're not your typical firm and get that all combined into one place. So we're getting clear on our messaging, on what we do, how we do things, why we do things the way we do. So I'm happy to say that I, I believe that this marketing.

Plan. And so a lot of the pieces revolving around it will be in place before the end of the year. So I'm, I'm excited and that means that it will be in place before next tax season. And I think it will bring a, just a, an enormous amount of consistency, which is one of the things that I said we needed to be able to be consistent with our marketing.

That is the key to a good marketing plan. Once we have these things in place and we can start, you know, tweaking and being able to streamline how we're processing, we're not posting this on this website and this on with this website and then a separate email list here. Once we get all that going, that will be something that is more streamlined.

Then there'll be more time to focus on some of the other things. So I am happy to say that while. I really feel like I dropped the ball during first quarter. I did manage to go to scaling and say, okay, this is still important, but not from the standpoint of necessarily getting all these leads in will get to that revenue goal.

Which it, it will, it will help, but. Because it is something that just one is important to me to get that message out, that public accounting does not have to be old school and you know, your typical type of things, you know, where you just are feeling like you don't wanna call your accountant because they're gonna charge you for every six minutes.

Those types of things and, and also keeping that work family balance that is so important to me and to the people in our firm that is critical and it can happen in public accounting. And I just wanna keep making sure that our clients know, and other owners know that you can build this the way you want to.

So marketing is two thumbs up. I'd say right now because there's so much work as for me as far as, okay, I need to edit the copy on the website. I need to send photos and logos and you know, kind of dive into that, which I. I'm okay with when I have kind of a, a list, I can work with that. So those are the next steps and that's what I will be working towards so that we have a new website launch.

We've really streamlined some things on discovery processes and, and just really rebranded and come out the other side where we start 2026 with it done and we just have to maintain it. So I'm excited about that. Now the second item was that standardizing processes, which I said was huge, daunting task with lots of moving parts, and the whole goal would be to really get our tech.

Kind of standardized and we've done a great job with that. We've made more, moved more people from desktop into zero. We have implemented DExT more frequently and consistently among our clients and MEO for bill pay. We've investigated some alternatives. We for receipt capture and bill pay as well. We, with the, the announcement at scaling that while we were there.

Xero bought Malio. We think that that's actually going to be something that integrated there will actually increase our capacity that as, as they move into those implementations, that can only help us. So we're not walking away from Malio, but in some instances we are looking for other options, but trying to get things more consistent.

So we've moved to the majority of our desktop. Clients that aren't on Enter Enterprise, either up to Enterprise so that they can keep their subscription because they need to do job cost of payroll, or we've moved them to QBO if it was a good fit, or we moved them to zero if it was a good fit. And now we're starting to look at some of our existing Enterprise desktop clients who have already outsourced a big outsource, meaning they're, they're using a third party for.

Field services and job costing and project management and all this stuff that they don't need enterprise to house what's left. And so we can look for a cloud-based solution for them and that frees up a lot of their IT budget that is managing an internal server. So we've got some projects still going relating to getting.

Tech more consistent with who we work with. Um, we still offer option. You can go with QBO or you can go with zero, and we find the best fit based on the client's needs. So the tech is getting smoother, which means that consistently we're getting more people, like everybody on the team is. Dealing with both softwares, they're understanding everybody's got Dexter Emilio account, so everybody is really kind of in that, the same vein.

And so we've also put in place some certifications. We would expect everybody to get on all these apps and that up levels the training. We also. Came out of scaling new heights with, instead of like rolling out some big learning platform, we decided to roll out a big, like a bonus plan that is based on our core values.

And by achieving the goals inside of this bonus plan individually, it elevates the entire team. So that takes, I think I talked about in episode 28, I talked about essentially. Bringing our processors up from transactional to more advisor. And I think by putting this bonus plan in place it one, it kind of allows everybody to move at their own pace with that, but with a minimum level that I think everybody can reach.

Now we've had some, some things that have kind of kept the whole process of standardizing and really getting me out of some of the production. There's, there's been some things that have just slowed it down, whether it's a member of the team with, you know, illness or illness in their family. Or this summer is a weird time.

It's hard to, sometimes you, you're taking vacation, but you're also working around clients that are taking vacation and then it feels like it's short and then suddenly kids are back at school. And so getting ready for school to start moving into our September 15th and our October 15th deadline, there's just a lot of moving parts there.

But everybody on the team I think is just, is. Where they need to be. And we just put the bonus plan in place starting August 1st. So we're gonna kind of tweak it and see how it does for this first three months, and then go back and revisit it and see if it's working. So I'm super excited about that. And I think that from the standpoint of standardizing processes, everybody's got the same.

Goals inside the bonus plan. And so that means that everybody's kind of working on the same thing, and that's gonna help standardize how everybody works as a team as well. Now, other setbacks have been mostly relating to my somewhat type A personality. Combined with some A DHD, which means that I kind of have some control issues and delegation issues, um, where I, I'm not delegating the process and the responsibility for something, or I am, feel like I still have to be in control of some things.

So getting some things off my plate has been difficult, but I will say that I'm further along with delegating to my va Becky. Than I have been with anybody in the last three or four years. So I think things are moving in the right direction. I do sometimes have to be, I don't wanna say I need to be managed, but I kind of do need to be managed.

I do have, you know, kind of that. Shiny object jump squirrel things. I also, I've always had, and I know this about me, I have a tough time with follow through. So when I'm delegating, I'm trying to work very hard at giving all of the pieces, but I know it is still a work in process. So until I can really do that, I feel like getting everything moved off my plate is.

Is difficult. However, on the good side of this is our processes and our deadlines are set in canopy, and Sarah manages all of those workflows so well, and we are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were. So as far as having. Process is documented and they're detailed, they're deadlines, they are assigned to the property team member.

They are managed. We are way, way ahead of the game, and Canopy has been really instrumental in making that happen for us to feel like we've got a good handle on deadlines and engagements and where the workload is. And so I think that is, that's pretty amazing. The other thing I know that I need to work on in this whole process of getting myself out of production, and what I mean by that is getting me up to analyzing client work and not doing so as I talked about moving the processors from transaction level stuff up to advisory, for me, it's getting me to that next level where I am working.

On just, I don't wanna say just high level stuff, but doing only what I can do. So anything that someone else can do, when you're a business owner, you really should have someone else doing that, but you have to make sure that you have the right people on the team to make that happen. So I, we have a great team and it's just a matter of delegating responsibly, you know, setting boundaries, setting expectations, and just really being on top of the end goal.

And for me, the end goal is that I am not doing bank reconciliations. I am not doing inputting of tax returns and eventually having a system in place where I am not the one who is doing a whole lot of. Tax return review. We have another level there, and that's part of our growth plan is to have those layers, but it's a work in progress.

Will this goal be completed in 2025? No, no, I know that already. But we are managing towards this, like I said, with this bonus plan in getting me more time to do those things that really light me up. I've never been a processor. I've been an accountant, and I've been trained as an accountant and I can do it all.

But for mentally, that is not where I like to live. I like bigger things like, you know, analyzing creative. I know you can't say creative and accounting, but, and I like working with people and seeing when I'm coaching someone, seeing the light bulb go off, or having worked with someone and say, Hey, this is what we're gonna do, and then see it happen.

By putting these steps in place, I'm able to help the client reach their goals. That lights me up as well as teaching, training, speaking. So we're really kind of needing to build in both to the marketing plan and what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis. Things that are important to me. While still maintaining the quality of work that we've always been able to put out by maintaining that good work life balance, that work family balance.

And being there for each other and then circling back to, you know, always doing things that are in line with our core values, which is we serve, we solve, we do, we learn and we care. And all of those we have definition behind. And as long as we are still in alignment with that, as we are working towards.

Lifting everybody to that next level, whether it's somebody you know at the newest rung of the firm, to me, who's up at the top? Everybody needs to rise and all. I really think that all businesses should work like that. You want everybody on your team to always be striving to be, I don't wanna say a better version of themselves, but to be the best version of themselves and how you can help them do that, you know, by whether it's training, why, whether it's listening to them, whether it's giving them time off to spend with a family member who is.

Is ill or a child that needs extra time or Hey, I gotta, I gotta go get my kids to their doctor's appointments. That is a way to support someone in a way that allows them to be their best. And so that is still the underlying goal for us. Now they have the two big goals. You know, I had the marketing plan and I had the standardization of processes, which is a big overarching capacity type of goal, and.

I am okay with the, the progress that we are at. I think there's still a lot of work to do on both sides, but it's also something that we are constantly working on. Sarah and I just had our quarterly meeting and went through, you know, strategic planning. What do we need to work on, where, where are we going?

What needs to happen, and. Setting the priorities and right now, that website conversion type thing, that is a priority and continuing to build this bonus plan that's a priority. And then also continuing to work with clients to solve their pain points is a priority. Whether it's a tech issue, whether it's a, a cashflow management issue, whether it's a tax planning issue since there's so much tax stuff this year.

That is still the goal is to work with those clients and get them what they need when they need it, and we're doing it. So the rest of my update, you know, personally, things are good. I'm still in my home office, you know, since December. I think I've rearranged my office. I'm still working on, you know, doing some quilt projects and finding some time for that.

Racing season is very busy during the summer, so I have been able to attend a lot more. Races this year and have opted to get some more seat time and, and go to these events with Dave and sometimes Sam can help. We can be there too. And that's great to have some quality weekend time with Sam. 'cause I don't see her as much anymore and that's been good.

I mean, it's been really good. So I still have my morning ritual of coffee and a fiction book. I'm working through the Sarah J. Moss Crescent City books right now, about halfway through and still using, you know, my full focus planner to kind of keep me on track. But it's a, it's a little bit more laid back during the summer for me on that.

Because we are out of town quite a bit, and as I'm recording this, we're actually leaving very soon for what will be my 27th solo nationals, which is where everybody comes and we run about 1400 people across four days. Racing and it's kind of the mecca for autocross. It's, and, and I've been going for 27 years straight this year.

Sam gets to join us and I get to compete against her again this, this year, which will be so much fun and I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm blessed to be able to have this team in place and have the structure in place that allows me to step back and that is how we know. I have moved way out of production.

The clients are not waiting on me to get a report to them. They're not waiting for me to get their bank reconciled. They're not waiting for me to pay their bills or run their payroll, and that means I have the flexibility to be out of town. To go on these, these trips that when we go to nationals, it's not a vacation.

There is moments of adrenaline rush while you're racing, but you would be amazed at how little amount that is. For the 12 days we are gone. So we do have, my husband has a business that is a. Related to the racing. And so we really work hard while we're there, but we also get to see our race family and people that maybe we only see at nationals or only we have extended time to hang out with them instead of just over a a weekend.

We are there for about a week and a half. So I'm looking forward to that. And I, like I said, I am blessed that I have a team and that we have built something that allows me to be able to continue to do this year after year. So that is really all I have for you today. So the, the update being the goals are still work in progress and I'm guessing if you have goals, your goals are, may still be work in progress too, or they have may have morphed where, you know, some of mine have as well.

Some have, you know, it was a big priority and then, oh, life happened and now they're back to being a big priority. So things can ebb and flow and that's okay. Okay. The goal with the strategic planning is to keep it in mind and be doing things to work towards it. If it was easy and you could get it done in the first month of the year, then it probably wasn't a big enough goal.

Just saying, I'm gonna work really hard this year to not just slide through October and not have time to do some planning. And like I, I think on my episode that I did in December, I said I, before I knew it, the year was over and. I really felt like I was behind. And so I'm going to be very mindful this year that I do set aside some time to do some 2026 planning for myself and the firm prior to going to Woodard Summit, which I will go to in early November and just be more prepared for 2026 and, and all that it's gonna bring, and I look forward to whatever it brings.

Hope that I have accomplished at least parts of these big objectives for 2025, but I'm not gonna beat myself up if I don't because they are, they're big. Okay, so last thing is just a reminder, like follow, subscribe. Wherever you're watching or listening to this, I would love it if you have anything that you would like to share with me on what your goals are or how you've been doing.

Wherever you're listening to this, there is a link that says, send Beth a text. Send me a text. I would love to hear from you. And it's some fan mail. And if I get, you know, you to sort of. Give me some, some feedback or even, Hey, this is what I do. I, I will share it on the podcast. So that is all I know.

Remember that. I want to empower you to build a business that you love and that I will see you next week 'cause I am consistent now. Thanks everybody. Talk to you next week.

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.