My four words. We scale together.

I have decided to use this platform to document the things that we are learning while scaling our Client Accounting Practice AND apply it to other service-based businesses when possible.

 If you haven’t caught on to it yet, I am in the middle of combining two accounting practices. We are at the beginning of year three.

My first go-around at scaling was different. It turns out at least for scaling accounting practices; size does matter. Imagine that.

When you have twice as many people working for you, you have twice as many opportunities to do the work now twenty different ways. It’s been fun figuring this out. It’s like a family that has more than two kids. The third one puts you over your limit; you learn to juggle and keep everyone alive with a few scrapes and bruises along the way. I just described the last two years of my life, but maybe I’ll add a concussion too. 

Scaling a company is like managing a big family. You have crazy Aunt May who gives you weird nutrition advice, and Uncle Jerry wants to argue about using mayonnaise in the potato salad instead of mustard. Your cousins are cute. They have lots of dating advice and some crazy stories. You learn what not to do, and you do your best not to invite wrath by giving your own opinion on the matter. To keep the peace, you do a ton of listening. 

As a 20-something size firm, how do you get everyone in the same boat and row effectively in the right direction? It turns out that you have to repeat yourself 21 times. Yes, I am not kidding. Your message has to be short. Mine is four words. Now repeat it 20 times, not at once. You have to spread it out. That works better too. 

Besides your mission, vision, and values, you need a sentence to help people feel heard, understood, and affect a human’s most profound need. 

Now consider the world we live in and how almost everyone has been affected by Covid-19. The shutdowns, the sudden moves to virtual and grief. We must accept that something has changed. Priorities have shifted. Time with loved-ones has become more meaningful. Due to the political turmoil, many folks have lost friends and family, and the future feels uncertain.

Geez. I know I am not the only one navigating this new “normal.” I hate saying that. I liked the old more certain days where Cousin Johnny just stubbed his toe. A missed journal entry was way easier to fix, but a cyber-attack scares me. Maybe it’s a new reality instead of new normal. We have different things to handle just because times have changed. Not only are we scaling a new company, but we are also hitting up against new obstacles and barriers we have not experienced. If you are a pioneer in your area of expertise, no one else has likely figured it out either YET.

Think about SpaceX. They are rocket scientists figuring out how to handle all these same issues and sending rockets into space. My job feels way easier. I like my feet on the ground. Thank you very much.

So back to my message. My four words. It’s super simple. “You are not alone.”

“You are not alone” works for everything. Let me show you.

When someone says:

I couldn’t complete my work cause I didn’t have enough time.

I didn’t know how to XYZ (there are a million things we don’t know).

My reviewer didn’t have time to finish the work with me.

My dog/cat/bird/child/parent/husband is sick. 

I am sick. 

I need a day off.

I am melting down.

My brain hurts.

I am frustrated with a client.

When my team presented me with these statements above, we answered with, “You are not alone.” Of course, we follow that up by finding team members that can help, but the first step has to be communication. I have discovered that my team had been alone and didn’t want to say anything. They wanted to belong, not show any scrapes or scars, no silly imperfections or share their profound grief and fear they had been experiencing.

My Dad was a boss. He was deeply affected by his team. When they won, he won. When someone failed, he failed. I learned much from just watching my Dad. He deeply invested in people and their potential, and it killed him if a situation was not fixable. He never gave up on them. They usually gave up on themselves. 

If you’re that type of leader, you will have more than your share of experiences to work through. It is worth it to me. 

Now, this seems super simple advice, but it’s more complicated than it looks. If you are working virtually, you don’t see many faces. You miss the inflection in their voices. You just see performance issues. We have learned that we can not judge a situation until we know the whole story. 

So that’s the lesson this week. 

Realize that you are scaling through a Pandemic.

Scaling a business is challenging even in the best of times.

You are likely a pioneer cause the world has changed.

People are hurting, including you.

Find something simple to communicate how much you care. Hint: Four Words

Be slow to judge and quick to encourage.

We had a BIG WIN this week in our Monday morning staff meeting. It’s the first time someone has repeated back to me our four words. “You are not alone”. I shed a tiny tear and answered. 

“Indeed. You are not alone.”