Quietly, behind the scenes, Lou (my web designer), my daughter (the 14yo), and I have been toiling away getting all past newsletters loaded up onto a website. And…

Here’s a recent win from an Aligned member (shared with permission):

My first real corporate internship was when I was 19 years old, at a place called Hewitt Associates. At the time, Hewitt was a privately held company, headquartered in Chicago’s northern suburbs. The particular building I sat in was surrounded by wooded acreage right off I-94.

With absolutely nothing to do with running an accounting firm (because it’s nice to remind ourselves that we’re more than our work), here’s what I’m reading, watching, and playing.

If you read last week’s email, you know that we’re in the middle of playing “Is it AI?”, where you guess if I used AI to write my refreshed website copy.

Have you ever watched “Is It Cake?” on Netflix? Pastry chefs attempt to make a cake that looks like something else (purse, shoe, bowl of fruit, etc) and then three judges have to determine, from a reasonable distance, which of the purses / shoes / fruit bowls are actually cake.

Last week was county fair week. For context, I spent my entire life in the suburbs of Chicago until our family moved to very rural, very small town Idaho 6 years ago.

Only 110 days until Christmas, but more importantly…Only 25 more days until the Fall Selling Season. Why is September thru early-December a selling season for small accounting firms?

I started my firm in 2018, slowly, quietly, and watching every penny. It wasn’t until a few years in that I decided to head to my first accounting conference. 2020 was going to be the year I attended my first conference! (cute, right?)

I’m still processing Bridging the Gap (more on that next week?), but the biggest stop-me-in-my-tracks moment happened even before breakfast on the first day.

Your kids are teaching more about selling than you realize. In our house, it sounds like this: “Do you want an apple or strawberries on your plate?”

If you want to weigh less, count your calories. If you want to work less, count your hours.

Exciting stuff…I’ve been working with Fathom (forecasting software) on a thing. This month, we’re teaming up to do a live webinar walking through how I use Fathom to forecast my clients through this confusing economic situation.

When we (we = The 15 Hour Accountant newsletter community) started brainstorming ideas for Aligned Accountants back in December 2024, there were two clear asks from the group. Accountants in this community agreed that they needed…

We’re talking about the “casual drop” today…

When I was about 1 year into my accounting firm ownership life, I was in a Girl Scout carpool headed to a weekend jamboree camp.  Me in the driver’s seat, my newish mom-friend Amy in the passenger seat, and lots of 8 year old girls in the back. (I later found out that my spiritual gift is not carpooling lots of small children, but I digress.)

It’s no secret that I do my best to run my firm with iron-clad boundaries. But I do this from a place of being part of a two-income household with my husband holding a W-2 accounting job that offers health insurance.

For most of the life of my firm (7 years and counting), I’ve held the belief that: the bigger the client, the higher level of service they need, the more I can charge (as long as I’m providing said services), and the more profit my firm makes.

Currently on vacation, but scheduled this so you didn’t feel like I forgot you, but I’m keeping it light today.

Sometimes, upgrading current clients is a much easier and faster way to increase revenue than pounding pavement for brand new clients.

“Nature does not hurry. Yet everything is accomplished.” -Lao Tzu