Welcome to the Six Figure Business Mastery podcast, where every week

Kirsten and Jeanne dive into the essential topics to fuel your business

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So get ready to unlock your business potential and take it to the next level.

So welcome everyone to our newest episode.

We are

thrilled to introduce to you our special guest.

Her name is Jen McAllister.

Her company is Rise CPA and Accountants.

She is the CPA and owner of Rise, and she says her attitude is the

real job is not an accounting, but rather helping others rise.

So I love that concept.

So Welcome Jen.

We're thrilled to have you here.

Thank you.

I'm really excited to be with you today.

It's exciting because I feel like you are so personable and I love your attitude

that it's not just like about doing the work that you do for your clients, but

it's really helping to educate them and helping them to rise up in their business.

And I'm looking forward to just learning more about how you go about

that and what you feel like is the most important thing for business owners.

Where do they start

when it comes to mastering their finances, getting confident with their numbers,

and that's the foundation of being able to grow their business, right?

Yes, absolutely.

So I'll first say, give you a little bit of background.

There, a question was posed not too long ago.

What did you want to be when you were younger?

And policemen, firemen, different things, a ballerina that people would say.

And I was kind of stumped and I was thinking, well, I never really thought

about anything other than being a mother.

And then I really sat in that and I was like, why was that?

Like my ultimate goal to be a mother and then I started thinking about the

attributes of a mother and that is to patience, you're teaching, you're loving,

you're caring for and then suddenly it hit me that really that motherly attitude is

what has been with me all of my career all of my life really even in the corporate

job that I was let go of which I will tell you that's how sorry about how I am where

I am now but really In that corporate position, what I love so much is, so I was

the first one, and I was able to identify, hire, train, and just really take pride

in developing someone in the position.

And the company I'm in now, I've got six women, and I also

love to, we'll say, be motherly.

And so I just thought that was kind of interesting that, Yeah, even

as a kid, that motherly instinct, it still shows itself today.

And like you said, it's about connections with people and it all just ties together.

That's where I find my greatest happiness and strength and fulfillment

is literally like helping other people.

So.

with that, I'll tell you, I was with a corporation for quite a few years, and

I felt like the mother of the company.

Other people would come to me, ask for advice, even outside of

the accounting department, and I really felt I was the glue.

And for some unfavorable circumstances, men kept their job that had no better

training than I, and I lost my job.

And this kind of rolls into my mindset and just figuring it out, which is at that

time I had a choice to make, which was.

I can pursue some legal action, which I did have a wrongful termination

case, but they said that's hard to do.

And so within 24 hours, I had made this decision to, instead of pursuing a

negative course, which in my opinion was, you'd be angry and thinking about all the

wrongs that had been done, or I could.

Focus on moving forward and that's the name rise and what it means to me

is a movement upward and it's helping myself, my clients and my team and

really all around me to rise and it was interesting because it was that by

morning I knew the name of my company was Rise there was no question could be

this or this, but it was definitely rise.

And with that day, so it's Friday morning and I decided, here we go,

we're going to start this company.

I registered with the state or registered with the IRS.

So Friday, I was official over the weekend.

I thought, well, I've got to have a website.

I've never ever even tried to build a website.

Because it's not what I do.

I'm an accountant, but I was faced with this.

I need to have a website.

I don't have the funds.

So just figure it out.

So,

How did you go from having a company of just you to having these

six other women working with you?

Because that's all happened in the past two years, right?

Yes.

Great question.

So when I was let go, and because I had created these great relationships with

those that I worked with, automatically three of the women said, please, as soon

as you Can take us, please bring us on.

And I thought that was so wonderful for so many reasons.

There's so much trust because when someone starts a new business, it's

hard and there are no guarantees that it's going to be successful.

So for these 3 ladies to just immediately believe that I was

going to be able to create something successful, that meant so much to me.

And so there was a lot of manifesting during this growth in my business,

meaning I couldn't take all three at once.

And I love the niche atmosphere that I've got, which is enabling

these professional women.

Some of them are young in college and some of them are older with children.

But I, what I love is that they are able to utilize their professional skills

in accounting at different levels.

And also balance with schoolwork or friends or family.

And it's just really a nice, sweet spot to be balanced.

I love that.

And it's so funny because Jeanne and I are marketing and outsourcing coaches.

That's what we focus on.

And it's really been interesting because I was on your podcast and what's really

come out of me being on other people's podcast was 1 of the things that I came

to realize is, yes, we love helping our clients with their marketing and we love

giving them everything that they need to bring on a virtual assistant that

takes all of those things off the table.

Their task, but what I also realize is the flip side of that.

We are so passionate about helping these people halfway around the world

to get really long term jobs and to have employers who treat them.

Well, and it really is.

When you think about it, you're so blessed to have those women who want to work in

your business and who contribute every day to the growth of your business.

And that's really the way we look at our team and that's what we really

encourage our clients to look at.

When you bring someone on, make them a part of your team because

you can go so much further with others and you can go by yourself.

But it wasn't.

I mean, I knew we always had a heart for helping people overseas

with jobs, but it's really starting to come out that it's really.

It's kind of an equal goal, I guess.

Is that how you would put it, Jeanne?

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So with balance, I speak about this on my podcast as well, which is some

of the lessons that I've learned with this prior company that I, this

corporation I'd worked for five years.

I had been putting in so much extra time, 10, 11, 12 hours.

Part of it was they were going public and they needed the extra, and I was

promised a I'm not going to be able to get a large sum of money at the time

that they went public, which by the way, of course, I didn't get because

just out of the blue, I was let go.

But what I learned from that experience is where I thought that I was appreciated

and that I was sacrificing really much.

Personal and family time.

And I believe that that would be rewarded and recognized.

And that lesson to me was you've got to create those boundaries.

No matter what, you've got to be able to say, I work until this time.

And even as a business owner, you've got to be able to do the same thing.

And trust me, I am constantly battling this.

I'm reminding myself every day, but in order to do that.

Gain respect really from your clients and those that you work with, you have

to be, you have to respect your own time.

And as an example, I have a general rule of thumb that if a client just

calls me out of the blue, whether I can answer or not, I won't.

Because it's important to really respect.

Other people's situations.

You don't know what someone's doing.

And so it's just, yeah, it's been a process to learn to respect my own time

and to teach others in a very professional way how to respect my time as well.

Right.

It's it's funny because back when I owned my mortgage company, I had this closing.

This is back in the day when loan packages had to be overnight it.

And so we were in Virginia, the weather was fine, but the lender

was somewhere Ohio or somewhere where the weather was really bad.

And so this closing was supposed to happen on a Friday and it didn't.

And we had already had a little bit of a warning Wednesday and Thursday that.

1, it hadn't had a clearing and then when it got the clear to close that

they were having this massive storm.

But I just remember going home, like, feeling so defeated.

Because even though you're telling people that this is

most likely not going to happen.

It's not going to happen.

Make another plan.

They have their expectations and they can really pile that on pretty heavily.

And I know I remember just getting home thinking I did everything in my power.

I could do.

I'm not God.

There's no way I can control the weather.

I did all that I could do.

And sometimes I think it's.

Especially with women, we want to try to do everything and please

everyone and get it all done.

And I think that's why so many women don't hire or delegate is because we have this

desire to be super women or something.

But I love the fact that when you talk about having the boundary to

not answer the phone, and I can imagine if you're working on someone's

account and someone calls, You don't want to stop what you're doing.

You want to stay in that account, get that done in a timely manner, and then move on

to follow up calls or emails or something.

So, is that something you help your staff with is how they manage their

time within the work structure?

Yeah, that's a great question, because I have a particular, um, teammate,

I, I call my gals teammates because we're not, I'm not their boss.

I don't take on that persona as the boss, but we're a team.

And yeah, she had talked about a client who talks and talks and talks and talks.

And there's a very professional way to, to stop that.

And you just, you schedule a certain time and say, I've got a hard stop at noon.

And then when noon.

And then when that comes, whether you have anything that you have scheduled

after noon or not, it doesn't matter.

I've got a hard stop at noon.

And then when that comes, you actually stop the call.

And hey, if there's any follow up, please send me an email.

Because if you allow a client to continue to talk, then that's on you.

You've got to be able to set some boundaries again.

I love it.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that's why my go to is I have a hard stop.

You can't say I've got another appointment, but really I've

got a hard stop doesn't even say you've got anything after that.

Just like I've got to stop and nobody can question that.

Right.

Yes.

Well, this is fantastic.

And so do you feel like these are concepts that you also teach to your clients?

Because obviously you and all of your teammates are using these,

because I do feel like there's so many things that get in the way

of business owners making money.

And you're in the fight, you're in their finances.

So maybe you see where they're spending too much money, maybe where

they're not spending enough money.

And I'm sure when you're talking with them, you can figure out really quickly

if they're not using their time wisely.

So do you actually talk to them about time management as well as finance management?

Yes, in a roundabout way, what I have, the way I describe accounting

is, and it's an investment.

And so I'll tell my clients that you need to do what you do best.

You've got a passion for whatever your business is when you have to focus on

accounting or we'll say anything else.

It's not your expert expertise.

It gives you a headache, whatever, then don't do it because you're If you can

just offload that to a professional, you would likely make twice as much

money per hour and the thing that you're best at and trying instead of trying

to save a few dollars by struggling through it and doing it incorrectly.

And so I'd love to take that off of owner's shoulders,

the whole accounting piece.

And the other thing that I love is, like you said, to teach

them how they can do better.

But what people generally don't realize is that your financial

statements, they're a story.

And who doesn't want to have a story about their business on a monthly

basis, not when the year is over and like, "Oh, that's your past story.

Sorry.

There's nothing you can do about it, but this is your story right now."

How can you pivot this month?

And really, yeah, I love to teach them how to pivot.

To read their financial story, and it really is eye opening.

I remember very specifically when I was in my early 20s, and I was

working for this sports uniform company, and they were getting really

big, but money was really tight, and they were never really able to get.

They're bills paid on time.

And so the mentality was, we've got to sell more.

We've got to get more high schools and colleges to put place more orders.

And then as this timid 20 something year old, I was like,

well, I could see it clearly.

And I mustered up the courage to say, look, you can sell.

2 million uniforms, and you're going to be worse off because look,

you're selling it at this price, but look at your cost of goods sold.

And there was a slight bulb like, oh, yeah, it doesn't matter how

much we sell if our expenses aren't less than what we're selling.

And it seems fairly obvious, but two things is a lot of times business

owners are literally just focus on the top dollar, just revenue.

The other thing was you've got to have good data.

So if you're just you've got maybe just a bookkeeper that is

your mom's next door neighbor.

And she's just putting in information, can't look at your financials and

make good decisions based on those.

But if you invest in an accounting professional, it doesn't have

to be a super expensive one, but just a fractional professional.

Then you really are able to make those decisions and change the trajectory

of your business before it's too late.

Yes, I still have some one on one clients and I was working with a client.

Last week, and she's been a client since 2016.

So for a long time, and when I first started working with

her, she was really under.

Charging and it took a really long time, little increments of going up and

every time she would raise her prices.

She just knew that no one was ever going to hire her.

That was just the end of the world.

And so we went through this whole thing.

And so it's evolved over the years.

And we were actually laughing that day about how far she's

come and over some of the fear.

She's overcome and accomplished.

But then she was talking about doing merchandise management

as an interior designer.

She's got a client who hasn't closed on the house yet.

So she's buying all these things, unloading them from her vehicle, putting

them in her house and storing them.

And then also she was talking about like, I'm not getting paid

for all the times that I'm doing this, this, and this with a client.

And I said, we need to put another line item on your contract that says project

management and merchandise management.

And decide what do you want your hourly rate for that to be?

And so we, we had this conversation and then I think she, like normal

people, she goes to, I'm so busy.

Like, how am I even keep track of it?

And I said, don't overthink it at the end of the night, just on your calendar

document really quickly what you did.

So, when you have time, it's whatever time you are, you're going to get

everything to your bookkeeper.

You can just look at the end of each day and say, okay, well, that was

project management or merchandise management for these 3 clients.

And this is the amount of time.

So it is interesting like how it's just little things that

we can do that change things.

But if you're not having a conversation with someone, and I think a lot of people

don't have a coach that's looking over their numbers or someone like you who's

looking over those numbers and having that conversation, you end up never charging

for project management or merchandise management, and you're leaving hundreds

of thousands of dollars on the table over the years and you become resentful.

Yes, and along with that, I love that you brought that up is oftentimes we

just feel like we need people pleasers and we have to please every single one

of our clients, whatever they need.

But as we learn and grow, and I hope that we all do, which is.

You've got to be able to let clients go just because they're your clients.

It's not mean you need to hang on to them.

It's going to help your business grow.

If you can let go of clients that aren't serving you well, let go of

the, "I have to make everybody happy."

And I've put that into practice.

I've learned some hard lessons and they're great.

I mean, hard lessons are lessons nonetheless.

And I was actually looking at my financial statements today, which.

Honestly, I haven't done in this particular way that I'm going to tell you.

And I was thinking, how have I grown?

Has my business exploded on the second year versus the first year?

And what I saw was in the first year I had a 24 percent profit and

a low that's like, well, great.

I don't even know what to compare that to.

So then I looked at this year so far year to date, And I have a 39

percent profit, which is fantastic.

But guess what?

My top level number and is less, I am making less revenue.

But I, my net income is better this year.

And, and it's like, what, how can that happen?

It is definitely 100 percent for reasons like letting clients

go that are costing me money.

And really just to be able to see that, recognize that, and not just

keep working your butt off for those that don't appreciate you.

And they don't see your value and they take your time.

And you really have to be strong enough to let those people go.

Yeah, that's a hard decision.

It's a hard decision and I've had to make that in my business before as well.

The business I have, aside from this 1, it was terrifying to let a client go

and she had been with me for years, but it got to the point where she wasn't

implementing what we had been discussing.

And she was not only taking up my time with extra things that I

wasn't billing her for, but also the amount of energy draining.

Whenever I had to meet with her, I was like, Oh, do it.

Let's pick up that energy and let's go.

And then when, with Kirsten's help, actually, I finally let her go.

It was like, Oh, I could breathe again.

It just felt so, Oh, such a relief.

That's such a great point is how do you feel?

And I'm going to implement this.

How do you feel when you're about to talk to your next client?

And that is such a big indicator that sometimes we just don't think about.

But if we're feeling that way, then sit in that and consider letting that client go.

Yeah.

And it's just something we always have to remind ourselves about and our clients.

So I feel like and Jeanne can probably, we both will probably attest to this.

I feel like most business owners.

Hate doing their bookkeeping, right?

They don't let they don't like doing bookkeeping.

And if they can hand that off early on to someone who will, like you

said, go over their financials, teach them how to read them.

They will make more money.

Exponentially in the long run, and I think that's a hard conversation to

have because, like, you again, they think, well, I'm just documenting what

I spent, but the reality is, like, you said, figuring out little ways to tweak

things can make all the difference and how much money you bring home.

So I do feel like that's.

Do you find that you're getting more business owners that are just

starting their businesses coming on?

Or do you feel like you're really getting businesses that wait three or four

years to come up with an accountant?

I've been thinking about my sweet spot.

I used to take brand new business owners and I really have a soft

spot for new business owners.

But one thing that I'm going to really be vetting any new clients and a lot better.

And one of those things is so if you're telling them to do, and they're not

communicating well, then you've got to quickly be able to let them go and

recognize those signs in the beginning.

I would say my sweet spot right now is established businesses that have a

full time accountant that don't need it and so I'm able to come in with my

fractional accounting and my team so I can put someone on payroll and someone

on accounts payable and really just kind of divide and conquer and I can save

so much money for this business owner and so it's really a win win situation.

I love it!

Well, speaking of that, how can people get in touch with you?

Oh, I'll tell you how they can.

These are the ways that you can get in touch with me.

Probably the best is

Send me an email, jen@riseaccountingLLC.

You can also visit my website, which is riseaccountingLLC.

com.

I love it.

And we'll put all of your information in the show notes below.

So this has been a fantastic conversation and we'll have to have you back.

Yeah, absolutely.

I would, I would love to.

This is a great podcast.

Thank you, Jen.

Thank you so much, Jen, for joining us today.

We so appreciate it.

And for sharing all of your experience and all your knowledge with our listeners.

So thank you for being here.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the Six Figure Business Mastery Podcast.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode and you are ready to leverage video

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