I responded, “Honestly it took me a minute to notice the hair because I got lost in your eyes. I thought I had pretty blue eyes.”

Cute, right?

Then...

Nothing.

Twenty-four hours later, I was staring at my phone wondering if I’d said too much.

Was the compliment too forward? Did I make him uncomfortable? Did I imagine the connection? The funny thing is, none of those questions are actually answerable after twenty-four hours of silence.

But my brain wasn’t looking for answers. It was looking for certainty.

And that’s when I realized something.

This isn’t just how I date.

This is how I run my business.

I’ve always been proud of being responsive.

Clients know they can reach me. Friends know I’ll text back.

If I have thirty seconds in the grocery store, I’ll answer an email. If I’m waiting in line, I’ll return a message. If my phone lights up during lunch, I’ll check it.

For years, I told myself that made me attentive. Professional. Reliable.

Now I’m starting to wonder if it just means I’ve trained myself to be perpetually available.

Those aren’t the same thing.

As business owners, we wear responsiveness like a badge of honor.

“I answered that email at 10:30 p.m.”

“I never leave a client waiting.”

“I pride myself on getting back to people immediately.”

We celebrate accessibility.

But we rarely stop to ask what it’s costing us.

Because every time we interrupt dinner to answer a message...

Every time we pause a workout to reply to an email...

Every time we break our concentration because our phone buzzed...

We’re reinforcing a belief that someone else’s urgency automatically becomes our priority.

Eventually, we don’t even notice we’re doing it.

The irony?

When someone else doesn’t operate that way, it feels personal.

If I answer within minutes and someone else takes a day, my brain immediately notices the difference.

Not because they’ve necessarily done anything wrong.

But because I’ve unintentionally made immediate responsiveness my normal.

My expectation.

Maybe even my identity.

As I sat with all of this, another realization surfaced.

I don’t actually crave constant communication. I crave connection.

There’s a difference.

One of my favorite things in the world is attending accounting conferences.

People assume it’s because I love learning. And I do. But if I’m honest?

It’s the conversations in the hallway. The dinners after the sessions. The hugs from friends I only see a few times a year. The mentor conversations that were supposed to last fifteen minutes but somehow become an hour. Those moments fill me up in a way that CPE credits never could.

Connection has always been what energizes me.

It explains why I built Women in Accounting Leadership Network. It explains why mentoring lights me up. It explains why I love speaking. And yes...

It explains why I get excited when I meet someone new.

Because I’m not just looking for romance. I’m looking for connection.

The problem is that connection and availability aren’t the same thing.

Somewhere along the way, I started treating them as if they were.

If I was available, I felt connected.

If someone else wasn’t available, I assumed the connection was fading.

That’s a dangerous equation.

Because healthy relationships - whether they’re with clients, colleagues, friends, or someone you’re dating - aren’t built on immediate responses.

They’re built on consistent presence.

Those are very different things.

So I’m trying something new.

Not as a game. Not to make anyone chase me. Not to appear busy or mysterious.

I’m experimenting with protecting my own attention.

Maybe that means checking messages at designated times instead of every notification. Maybe it means finishing dinner before replying. Maybe it means allowing someone else to wait an hour - or even a day - without feeling guilty.

Not because they aren’t important.

But because my life deserves my full attention too.

I’ve spent the last year rebuilding so many parts of my life.

My business. My health. My home. My confidence.

This week I realized there’s one more thing to rebuild.

My relationship with availability.

Because being anchored doesn’t mean ignoring people. It means deciding when you’ll engage instead of letting every notification decide for you.

And maybe the greatest lesson wasn’t about the man who didn’t text me back.

Maybe it was about the woman who has spent years believing she had to answer everyone immediately.

I’m learning that immediate access isn’t the same as genuine connection.

And that’s a lesson I’ll carry into every relationship I build - from my clients to my colleagues to the person who eventually earns a permanent seat across the dinner table.

Stay anchored,

Jaime

Not because I forgot. Not because I didn’t care. But because, like a lot of firm owners this time of year, I hit a slump.

Not burnout. Not exhaustion. More like this quiet, heavy ‘blah’ that settles in sometime between extensions and Q3 estimates.

The emails slow down. Clients vanish on vacation. The projects you should be tackling just feel… annoying.

It’s not just you. The mid-year slump is real. But I’ve learned to work with it instead of pretending I’m above it.

Emotionally I’m a bit of a mess right now.

Not in the “can’t get out of bed” way - more like a low-level hum of noise in the background. The kind that makes it hard to think clearly or focus on anything for long.

Remember when I said that being a business owner requires either being alone or having someone who truly supports you? Well… I’m trying to untangle myself from someone who doesn’t. And that kind of emotional baggage weighs heavier than any inbox backlog. It clouds my decisions. It slows my output. And it chips away at the confidence I’ve worked hard to rebuild.

Financially, these next few months are always the leanest of the year. July to September are my lowest revenue months though it’s a little tighter than usual. Two of our biggest clients left during tax season (one business sold, one business closed), and the financial hit didn’t fully land until now. I make enough to cover expenses, but that’s about it.

Every summer, I watch the credit card balance creep up just a little higher than I’d like, knowing I won’t be able to pay it off fully until Q4 picks up again. It’s predictable, but still uncomfortable.

Operationally, I’ve been in “vision mode.” Which sounds exciting (and sometimes it really is) but mostly it feels like information overload. I’ve had some software meetings, watched product demos, and tried to picture what a better, more streamlined version of next year could look like… all while feeling less than emotionally clear.

And I’m still waiting. Waiting to hear back from the proposals I sent to prospects in May. Waiting for certain opportunities to play out. Waiting to feel momentum again.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to soak up the final month I have with my daughter before she heads off for her last year of college. It’s a weird kind of grief - joyful and heavy all at once. Some mornings I’m fine. Other times, I’ll hear her laugh or catch a glimpse of her across the room and think: thirty days from now, this will be over.

The only silver lining right now?

OBBBA. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the gift of distraction I didn’t know I needed. I’ve already sat through six different CE webinars, created a whole bunch of content around the law, and started prepping strategies for clients who’ll be most impacted. I’m genuinely excited to dive into it and thankful to have something energizing in this otherwise slow season.

And yes, I did clean out my Google Drive last week just to feel productive. I moved all our former 1040 clients into an “X Tax Clients” folder and that was, no joke, the highlight of my Thursday.

This year, I’m trying not to push through the slump just for the sake of productivity. I’m working with it. Giving it shape. Making space for structure, connection, and a little more kindness toward myself.

Here’s what’s actually helping:

🐾 Micro-structure: Anchoring my days with small routines

I walk the dogs every morning before I sit down to work. I’m usually at my desk by 9 a.m., but before that, I need movement and a little fresh air. It helps get me in the right headspace. I also walk them again at 4pm, which I’ve made my hard stop for the workday during summer.

Lunch happens between 11:30 and 1, depending on what calls I have that day, but it always happens away from my desk. I eat downstairs. I leave my cell phone behind. Sometimes I watch a show on TV. But I don’t scroll or check emails. It’s just… lunch. Which feels weird to say, but we don’t give ourselves that kind of separation enough.

This one may sound weird, but I go and check the mailbox every day at 2pm. Every day. I tell myself it’s because the IRS has sent me something important, but really it’s just a reason to walk away from the desk and I don’t have a watercooler here…

After dinner, I leave evenings flexible. I might swim, shop, clean, or yes, even get back to work, but usually it's the creative kind. Writing. Content. Dreaming up the future. It’s work-adjacent, not deadline-driven.

None of this is fancy. But it keeps me from drifting too far into the fog.

⏳ Auditing time, not tasks

Instead of obsessing over unchecked to-do lists, I’ve started looking at how I spend my hours. It’s not just about billable vs. non-billable - it’s about noticing when I’m avoiding certain work, or when I’m most focused, or when I hit a wall.

I’ve also started looking more at what’s quietly zapping my capacity:

• That email I keep avoiding.

• That call I should’ve canceled.

• That project I’m halfway into that doesn’t even align with what I want anymore.

Instead of just pushing tasks forward on the calendar, I pause to ask:

• Does this still matter?

• Does this still serve me?

• Is this just noise?

It’s not about being lazy. It’s about being honest.

💬 Talking to MY people

This one’s new for me. Until recently, I didn’t feel like I had “my people” in this industry. But after attending Scaling New Heights last month, everything changed.

I met firm owners, vendors, app partners, and industry leaders - people who understand this world, who ask better questions, who make me feel seen in a way I hadn’t experienced before. I’ve stayed in touch with many of them, and honestly, those conversations are sometimes the only thing that get me unstuck.

Don’t underestimate how much just talking to someone who gets it can do for your energy.

🧘‍♀️ I’m (sort of) letting go of the guilt

This is a work in progress. I still catch myself feeling bad for not doing more - not launching the thing, not following up fast enough, not keeping up with content or planning or insert-responsibility-here.

But I’m learning to pause before piling shame on top of the slump.

Sometimes what you need isn’t a productivity hack. It’s rest. Or a walk. Or time with your kid before she leaves for college.

But this year, I’m doing something different.

Instead of just riding it out and hoping September saves me, I built a simple Mid-Year Reset Kit to refocus.

👇 And I’m sharing it with paying subscribers below. 👇

📥 What’s Included:

• A 10-minute Mid-Year Firm Self-Audit

• 5 Journaling prompts to help realign goals, energy, and offers

🔒 Paid Section: The Mid-Year Reset Kit 👇

Read more

And until this summer, I had never been to a single conference.

No tax forums, no expos, no vendor-sponsored trainings - just online CPE, my desk, and a lot of late nights building my business from the ground up.

I used to think conferences were for people with teams, big firms, or extra time. I’m a solo practitioner. Who would I even talk to at a conference?

But last week, I took the leap and attended Scaling New Heights in Orlando.

I thought I’d come home with a few new tax insights and some software tips.

Instead, I came home feeling like a part of my soul had returned to my body.

The Fear of Showing Up Alone

The night I arrived at the hotel, I felt awkward and unsure of myself. I didn’t know what to do. I really just wanted to hide in my room.

But I forced myself to go downstairs and grab dinner. I sat at the bar, alone, and soon struck up a conversation with another attendee who was also there alone. We talked about our businesses and backgrounds, and before she even finished her meal, I already felt a little less alone.

Then a new person sat beside me. She wasn’t even an accountant. She’d been hired to live-draw illustrations of the main stage sessions. Not only was she incredibly talented, but she was warm, welcoming, and unexpectedly easy to talk to. We hit it off and promised to stay in touch.

That one dinner turned into two deep connections. And that was just the beginning.

A Conference Full of Strangers… Who Made Room for Me

What surprised me the most wasn’t the classes (which were great) or the vendor floor (which was packed). What surprised me was how kind everyone was.

I walked into rooms alone. And over and over again, I was met with:

“Oh, you don’t have anyone to sit with? Come sit with us.”
“There’s no seat here? We’ll make room.”

Special shoutout to Sam who literally gave up his seat for me one evening so I didn’t have to stand.

And these weren’t one-off encounters. They happened constantly. In the lobby bar, around vendor booths, even in the hotel bathroom (yes, I struck up a conversation there too).

One night I wandered down to the lobby for just one drink. It turned into hours of meaningful conversation with firm owners, advisors, and tech folks from all over.

Another night, a vendor invited me to a speakeasy hidden in the hotel - an old stockroom transformed into a tiny bar with a secret entrance. That speakeasy ended up being the setting for multiple events I went to during the week.

Each one introduced me to new people, more connections, and more of that feeling I didn’t realize I was craving: belonging.

Unexpected Invitations and Disney Fireworks

I’m fairly active on LinkedIn, and before the event, I saw that Jason Staats - one of the most recognizable names in accounting tech - posted about an off-site get-together. Anyone could attend, he said. Just raise your hand.

So I did.

And I ended up at a rooftop bar, surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds in the accounting world, watching Disney fireworks explode in the distance. It was surreal. It was also one of the most energizing, welcoming, and joyful evenings I’ve had in years.

The Power of Recognition

I was honored at Scaling New Heights with two awards:

🏆 Top 100 ProAdvisor
🏆 Top 50 CAS Practice

Both came with invites to special evening receptions where I met even more people doing incredible things in this industry.

I connected with a female firm owner who casually mentioned she’s planning a move to Italy and I might have half-jokingly (but not really) invited myself to join her.

The conversations at those events were about more than just business - they were about dreams, decisions, and freedom.

The Session That Made Me Cry

While the after-hours connections filled my emotional cup, the main stage sessions filled me with purpose.

One speaker in particular - Brittany Brown, founder of LedgerGurus - left me in tears. Her story was so close to my own. She was 26, recently divorced, raising three kids. I was 25, with one child, navigating life after my own broken relationship and subsequent divorce. We both finished our degrees in accounting, both worked in traditional accounting firms, both transitioned into private industry as accountants/CFOs, and both eventually started our own businesses.

Today, her company brings in over $5M in revenue annually. But what stuck with me wasn’t the number - it was her grit, her generosity, and her heart.

She reminded me what it looks like to lead with purpose and push forward, even when the odds aren’t in your favor.

The Loneliness That No One Talks About

This profession can be isolating.

In fact, a CABA study from 2021 found:

• 41% of accountants say they're too emotionally drained to work effectively

• 30% have recently felt isolated

• 56% report being emotionally challenged

And 99% of them admit to experiencing burnout at some point - much of it stemming from chronic stress and working in isolation.

This is especially true if you’re a solo practitioner like me. I talk to people all day - clients, mostly - but I don’t actually talk to people who understand what I do. What it feels like. How heavy it can be.

But this conference? It was like a therapy session stretched across five days. I laughed. I cried. I stayed up until 2am talking to other accountants who were also playing LCR in the lobby bar, living their best #LobbyCon2025 lives.

For the first time in a very long time (probably over a decade) I felt like myself again.

Unfiltered. Unencumbered. Seen.

What Changed

I’ve come home brimming with ideas. My confidence is back. I feel clear-headed and energized about my business, yes, but also about my life.

The truth is, I’ve been struggling through a deeply painful personal relationship. One that has eroded my sense of worth, and for a long while, clouded my ability to lead my business with clarity. But for five days, surrounded by people who accepted me exactly as I am, I remembered who I was before all that.

And I have made a promise to myself: I won’t lose her again.

This conference may have very well saved my life.

Thinking About Going to a Conference?

If you’ve never been to one - especially if you’ve been doing this work alone - let me encourage you with everything I have:

Go.

Bring your spouse, your best friend, or just bring your brave self.

Sit at the bar. Say hello in the elevator. Ask the vendor about their product and then ask about their story. You never know who you’ll meet.

You don’t have to be extroverted. You just have to be willing.

And yes, it might be awkward at first. I didn’t know where to sit on that first morning either.

But the moment I said, “Hi, I’m Jaime, what’s your name?” everything started to shift.

Want to Join In?

Here are a few accounting conferences happening between now and next summer:

• Bridging the Gap – July 22–24, 2025 | Denver, CO

• Taxposium (NATP) – July 21–23, 2025 | Las Vegas, NV

• NAEA Tax Summit – July 28–30, 2025 | Salt Lake City, UT

• American Accounting Assoc. Annual Meeting – August 2-6, 2025 | Chicago, IL

• Women Who Count – October 21–25, 2025 | Mesa, AZ

• Thriveal Deeper Weekend - October 22–24, 2025 | Greenville, SC

• NASBA Annual Meeting - October 26–29, 2025 | Chicago, IL

• AFP 2025 - October 26-29, 2025 | Boston, MA

• Intuit Connect – October 27–29, 2025 | Las Vegas, NV

• REFRAME - November 2-5, 2025 | Coral Gables, FL

• IOFM Fall Conference - November 4-6, 2025 | Las Vegas, NV

• Thomson Reuters Synergy – November 9–12, 2025 | Orlando, FL

• Accounting & Financial Management Conference - November 19–21, 2025 | Phoenix, AZ

• Digital CPA Conference – December 7–10, 2025 | Washington, DC

• Sage FUTURE - April 28-30, 2026 | San Francisco, CA

• GrowCON - May 4-6, 2026 | Salt Lake City, UT

• RightNOW26 - May 18-20, 2026 | San Antonio, TX

• WAVE - TBD, 2026 | Seattle, WA

• AICPA & CIMA ENGAGE - June 8-11, 2026 | Las Vegas, NV

• Scaling New Heights 2026 – June 14-17, 2026 | Orlando, FL

Pick one. Circle the date. You don’t have to wait 13 years like I did.

And if you want to meet me, I’ll be an Intuit Connect next. I’ll save a seat for you!

Final Thought

When you’re in business for yourself, it’s easy to believe you have to do everything alone.

But community is out there. And sometimes, it’s hidden behind a speakeasy door, a rooftop bar, or a “seat saved just for you.”

You just have to show up.

And when you do?

You might just find your spark again.

Until next time,

Sometimes.

Other times, they’re just the opening act to being ghosted.

A few months ago, I met a new prospect at one of those networking events. We had mutual connections and when this person mentioned they needed help with their financials, those connections vouched for me on the spot.

So they booked an Introductory Call. We talked. I explained my process and quoted a range. They said the pricing seemed fair and they’d like to see a formal proposal. I told them I’d need access to their QuickBooks first and they gave it to me right away. They sounded relieved that I could help.

We got off the phone, and in less time than it takes me to walk my weiner dog, I had already reviewed their QuickBooks file.

It didn’t take long to confirm what they already suspected: their books were a mess.

Turns out they’d spent nearly $30,000 last year with a tax influencer they found on Instagram. In fairness (if you can call it that), that fee covered tax prep and planning only - no bookkeeping.

So I put together a clear, well-documented proposal with a cleanup plan and ongoing bookkeeping services priced at the lower end of the range we discussed.

They opened it once.
And then? Nothing.

I followed up twice.
Still nothing.

No “we’re not a fit.”
No “we went with someone else.”
Not even a “thanks but no thanks.”

That kind of silence hits harder than you’d expect - especially when it’s from a warm, qualified lead.

You start to wonder:
Did they get cold feet?
Did they feel embarrassed?
Are they worried I’ll say something to our mutual contacts?
Did they just decide it’s not worth the effort?

I found that I’m not alone in this.

One fellow bookkeeper posted on Reddit:

Even communications pro Gini Dietrich has felt it:

What I’ve learned from these stories (and from my own experience) is that ghosting doesn’t always reflect our value or effort.

Sometimes, as Gini points out, priorities shift. Budgets change. Or clients simply don’t want to have that awkward “no.”

The Gap Between Yes and Signed

This experience has made me realize something I hadn’t quite put into words until now.

I’ve built a strong onboarding process for once a client says yes - everything from welcome emails to document requests to kickoff meetings. I even broke it all down in this post, where I walk through exactly how we start strong once the engagement letter is signed.

But what I haven’t built is a process for what happens after the Introductory Call and before the client actually signs.

That murky in-between space - the part where the client says they’re interested, I send a proposal, and then… silence.

So I’ve started calling it what it is:

The Proposal Holding Pattern

AKA: “Are they going to sign, or was that call just a corporate first date?”

Maybe what I need is a bridge - something to get me from “we’d love to work with you” to “we’re officially onboarding you.”

Some ideas I’m considering:

• A scheduled Proposal Review virtual meeting where we walk through the quote live and address questions in real time

• A follow-up email series (automated) that highlights value, shares success stories, or answers common objections

• A scheduled “decision deadline” with a calendar invite and polite reminders

I don’t have a perfect answer yet. But I’m thinking through it. I’d also love to hear what you do.

Learning (and Relearning) the Value of the Middle

One suggestion I’ve seen gaining traction - and honestly, I’m leaning toward it - is charging for a diagnostic review that would include a proposal.

It’s not a huge lift: a 30 to 60-minute deep dive into the books, priced anywhere from $375 to $1,000, depending on scope.

The idea is simple:

✅ You get paid for the evaluation
✅ You build trust and deliver insight
✅ You filter out people who aren’t serious

And if they do move forward? You apply the diagnostic review fee toward their cleanup.

If they don’t? At least you were paid for your time and expertise.

Honestly, I’m not sure why I haven’t done this sooner.

It’s tempting to default to generosity, especially when someone came to you. When they say “I’ve heard good things,” or “I’m looking for someone just like you,” it feels different than a cold LinkedIn pitch.

So I try to be helpful. I review the books and put together a thoughtful proposal. I try to meet them halfway.

But maybe halfway isn’t enough. Maybe I need clearer checkpoints for them and for me.

During that first call, I could be asking:

• How serious are you about making a change?

• Are you meeting with other firms?

• What’s your timeline for making a decision?

• Would you be open to a paid diagnostic so we can properly assess your situation?

And maybe we build in a boundary:
Proposals are only valid for two weeks. After that, fees may be subject to change based on availability or urgency.

Because as one fellow professional put it:

“Not every proposal will result in winning a new client. Accept that and move on, but follow up professionally. It may take time, but staying gracious always works in your favor.”

I agree. No one owes me an explanation.

But I do owe it to myself to build systems that respect my time, and support better-fit partnerships.

Until next time,

There were no Facebook groups filled with other accountants sharing best practices. No pricing templates circulating. No business coaches offering frameworks for profitability and sustainability. If there were, I hadn’t found them.

Even Mark Wickersham’s Value Pricing teachings were in their infancy then.

So when my very first client told me they were willing to pay $40 an hour, I said yes without hesitation. At the time, it felt like a huge win. I was making less than $30 an hour at my day job so $40 felt like progress. It felt like freedom.

But I didn’t realize I was building a business on sand.

Letting a client tell you what your work is worth might feel harmless at first. But it’s a little like letting a client design their own chart of accounts - you’ll spend years fixing the damage. Because as it turns out, when you don’t set the frame for your own value, someone else will.

And they’ll undervalue you every time.

What followed was a pricing strategy that worked against me in every way.

At first, I felt productive. Clients were happy enough, and I was doing good work. But as I got faster and better - something that should have been a good thing - I was actually making less money. My efficiency was punishing me.

And on the client side, the unpredictable billing became a growing frustration. They didn’t know if their invoice would be $300 or $900 from one month to the next.

It finally hit me: hourly billing was broken. For them. And for me.

I wasn’t just undercharging - I was operating from a completely unsustainable model. One where value was reduced to a line on a timesheet. Where the better I got, the more I struggled to hit my income goals. And where my expertise, my insight, and the emotional labor I brought to the work was invisible in the pricing.

It was time for a complete shift.

Not a raise. A reframe.

I’m excited to be providing a unique guide solely for those who are paid subscribers (all the way at the bottom). If you’re still on the free version, there’s still a lot of great content here, but for my paid subscribers, get ready for the really amazing stuff.

Subscribe now

From Time to Transformation

The turning point came when I started thinking less about pricing and more about outcomes.

What was I really selling?

It wasn’t a reconciliation. It wasn’t a transaction list review. It wasn’t “X hours per month” in a spreadsheet.

I was giving clients clarity. Confidence. Peace of mind. The ability to make informed decisions about their money and their future.

That’s not a commodity. That’s a transformation. And once I saw it that way, I couldn’t unsee it.

Hector Garcia, one of the founders of REFRAME, recently said, “Price is a number. Value is a feeling.”

So I’ve stopped asking, “How long will this take me?” and started asking, “What is this worth to the person receiving it?”

I stopped selling hours and started selling results. And I began building a firm that didn’t just pay the bills but honored the work I was doing.

Anchoring in Value: What I Did Differently

Shifting to value-based pricing didn’t mean slapping higher rates on my services and hoping for the best. It meant rebuilding my business intentionally with clarity, consistency, and client experience at the center.

The first step was getting clear on my internal hourly benchmark. Even though I don’t charge hourly for most things, I need to know what an hour of my time is worth to me. For me, that number is $450. That’s my anchor.

If I’m spending an hour doing something - reviewing a tax return, building a forecast, or consulting on strategy - that’s the minimum threshold I need to hit for it to make sense.

That doesn’t mean I invoice $450/hour for everything I do. But it gives me a filter for how I price projects and packages. If I’m putting 45 minutes into something and charging $90, I either need to automate it, delegate it, or raise the price. Otherwise, I’m just creating more work and less margin.

That benchmark became the foundation for my services. It helped me restructure my offerings into clear, flat-rate packages that reflect the outcomes clients care about (which is not the hours it takes me to get there, in case you were wondering).

Take my LLC setup service, for example. I charge $650 to set up an LLC in Maryland (my home state). That includes the $150 Maryland state filing fee. The rest of the fee covers my time - the templated emails, the EIN filing, the paperwork - and, more importantly, the relief that comes with handing it all over and knowing it’s done right.

I’m not selling a form. I’m selling clarity and confidence, delivered efficiently.

Trust Is the Real Differentiator

Pricing is just one piece of the puzzle. The bigger shift came when I realized that clients aren’t just buying bookkeeping or tax services. They’re buying you.

Your judgment. Your calm. Your ability to translate financial chaos into a clear next step.

And that means trust isn’t optional - it’s everything.

I used to think trust was something you earned slowly over time. And sometimes, it is. But more often, it’s something you build on purpose. You build it by showing up with clarity. By making small promises and keeping them. By being willing to go first and to be human, not just helpful. And as someone who is a recovering people pleaser, I am always trying to be helpful.

I’ve learned that people don’t want perfect. They want presence.

As Brené Brown puts it, vulnerability isn’t weakness - it’s leadership. When I share something I’ve learned the hard way, or admit when I’m still figuring something out, clients lean in. Because they know I’m not posturing. I’m in it with them.

That’s what makes you irreplaceable.

Not your ability to check off tasks faster than the next bookkeeper. Not the number of certifications you’ve collected.

But your willingness to connect. To be real. To lead with curiosity instead of control.

And to make every interaction feel simple, honest, and clear.

The Systems That Support It

Of course, you can’t build a high-trust, high-impact firm if everything relies on you manually doing every single thing. Systems aren’t a luxury - they’re a necessity.

I leaned heavily into templates, workflows, and automation to support the shift.

• Email scripts.

• Onboarding flows.

• Monthly close checklists.

• Tax season trackers.

Not because I wanted to feel robotic but because I wanted to free up my time to focus on the work that only I can do.

As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, systems beat willpower every time. If your firm depends on you trying harder every day, you're building on burnout.

But if your systems reflect your values, you’ll show up with more clarity, more consistency, and a whole lot more peace of mind.

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

We’re at an inflection point in this industry.

AI and automation are reshaping the technical side of accounting. Some people see that and panic. Others - like the ones I most want to work with - see it as a challenge to get better at being human.

Machines can categorize transactions. But they can’t build trust.

They can’t sit across from a client and say, “Here’s what this means, and here’s what to do next.” That’s our job. And it’s one of the most meaningful jobs in the world, if we let it be.

The more ‘you’ you are, the more you are. The things that make you different - your personality, your perspective, your experience - those aren’t liabilities. They’re your competitive edge. Lean into them and embrace them.

You don’t need to sound like every other accountant. You don’t need to be polished and perfect.

You just need to be honest, helpful, and committed to building something that actually works for you and the people you serve.

Anchor Point

I don’t charge $40 an hour anymore. Not because I think I’m too good for that, but because I know what my work is worth. I know the transformation it creates. And I know the kind of business I want to run.

If you’re still stuck in the hourly trap, or you’re struggling to articulate your value, I hope this gives you permission to pause and rethink it. Pricing isn’t just about money. It’s about alignment, clarity, and confidence - for you and your clients.

You’re not just a technician; you’re a guide. And guides don’t get paid for how fast they walk - they get paid for helping people reach the summit.

For Paid Subscribers: The Anchored Pricing Framework

If you're a paid subscriber, you're about to receive access to the Anchored Pricing Framework - a step-by-step guide designed to help you:

• Assess your baseline: Calculate your minimum viable revenue based on personal and business expenses.

• Define your value: Identify the unique outcomes you deliver that differentiate your services.

• Package your services: Create service offerings that align with client needs and your expertise.

• Set your pricing: Determine prices that reflect the value you provide and support your financial goals.

• Communicate with confidence: Learn how to discuss pricing with clients in a way that emphasizes value over cost.

This framework is built from real-world experience and tailored for accountants and bookkeepers aiming to transition from hourly billing to value-based pricing. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution but a customizable approach that considers your unique circumstances, including location, experience, and client base.

Not a paid subscriber yet? Upgrade your subscription to gain access to the Anchored Pricing Framework and other exclusive resources.

Until next time,

The Anchored Pricing Framework: A Practical Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers

Overview

This framework is designed for accountants, bookkeepers, and tax professionals who want to confidently transition away from hourly billing and build a profitable, sustainable business grounded in clarity, trust, and transformation.

Use this as a customizable guide to define, package, and communicate your value.

Step 1: Assess Your Baseline Revenue Needs

Before you can confidently price your services, you need to understand what your business must generate to sustain you - financially and operationally. This isn’t about picking a number that "sounds fair." It’s about grounding your pricing in the actual economic realities of running a firm.

Take time to build out a detailed revenue baseline. This will become your foundation for sustainable pricing, smart service packaging, and long-term business health.

Start with these four core components:

1. Personal Salary Requirement
   Determine the amount you need to take home monthly to support your household. This includes:

   • Rent or mortgage

   • Groceries and utilities

   • Health insurance and personal savings

   • Debt payments, family expenses, and emergency funds

2. Business Overhead
   List out your monthly business expenses:

   • Accounting software, payroll subscriptions, e-signature tools

   • Business insurance, licensing, continuing education

   • Virtual assistant or contractor support (if applicable)

   • Website, CRM, marketing platforms, memberships

3. Taxes and Retirement Savings
   Estimate your quarterly tax liability and retirement contributions.

   • Set aside at least 25–30% of net income for federal, state, and self-employment taxes

   • Include retirement goals: SEP IRA, Solo 401(k), etc.

4. Profit and Reinvestment Buffer
   You need breathing room. Aim to build in a 15–30% buffer above your breakeven point to allow for reinvestment, technology upgrades, and capacity planning.

💡 Baseline revenue = (Personal salary + Overhead + Taxes/Savings) x 1.2 (for margin)

This number is your firm’s financial “floor” - the minimum monthly revenue required to pay yourself fairly and operate with stability.

If your pricing doesn’t support that number, the model breaks.

And remember: your number won’t look like everyone else’s. If you live in a high cost-of-living area or bring 15+ years of experience to your client work, your needs and value will be higher. That’s not a flaw - it’s context.

Pricing is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal. So let your baseline reflect your life, your goals, and your value.

Step 2: Define Your Value (Not Just Your Tasks)

Clients don’t pay for reconciliations or categorization. They pay for the outcomes those services produce.

Ask yourself:

• What pain points do my services solve?

• What benefits do clients experience when they work with me?

• What emotional outcomes do they value most? (Peace of mind? Simplicity? Insight?)

Translate your service features into client-centric outcomes. For example:

• “Monthly categorization and reconciliation” becomes “Accurate financials you can trust to make business decisions.”

Step 3: Package Your Services

Design 2-3 service tiers based on complexity, frequency, and level of insight provided. This reduces the need to custom-quote and helps clients self-select.

Example Tiers:

• Essentials: Bookkeeping + monthly reports

• Growth: Essentials + monthly call + KPI tracking

• Advisory: Growth + forecasting, planning, and tax strategy

Define deliverables, boundaries, and exclusions clearly.

Build buffer time into each package. If you have no idea how much buffer time you’ll need, start with a few clients and track your time for the tasks you’re completing for them. This will give you an idea/estimate for what you should be aiming for in the future.

I know that literally goes against everything else I’ve said, but if you don’t know how long (at least an estimate of how long) a task will take, then you’re not in a position to offer value to the client. Develop a standard and then develop the times when those standards will differ (ie, a normal reconciliation takes 30 minutes, but a client with complicated accounts with lots of transfers back and forth can take up to two hours).

Step 4: Set and Anchor Your Pricing

Start with your internal hourly benchmark (e.g., $300 or $450/hour). Estimate time to complete services at your pace, then calculate minimum pricing thresholds.

And before you try to convince yourself you can’t charge that much, let me be clear: you absolutely can if you clearly communicate your value.

I charge $450/hour. I don’t have a CPA license. But I do have nearly 20 years of experience, a deep understanding of what clients truly need, and a strong track record of delivering clarity and insight. I’m also not doing any work that requires a CPA license - I’ve simply priced my time according to the transformation I provide. And my clients pay it - not because I’ve tricked them into thinking I’m someone I’m not, but because I’ve shown them what I’m worth.

Your number might not be $450. It might be $150. Or $600. Pricing is personal. It depends on your skillset, your overhead, your goals, and yes, your confidence in articulating the outcome you provide.

Don’t copy someone else’s price tag. Build yours from a place of self-awareness and self-respect.

Oh, and once you determine that amount, add 20% to cover admin time, communication, review, and unexpected complexity. This is your baseline.

Then adjust for perceived value:

• More experienced? Higher trust factor? Raise accordingly.

• Serving high-stakes clients (e.g., law firms, physicians)? Reflect that in your pricing.

Reminder: Pricing is subjective, not standardized. Geographic region, niche, personality, and experience all affect what you can charge and who you attract.

Step 5: Communicate Your Pricing with Confidence

Setting your price is only half the equation - communicating it with confidence and clarity is what turns a quote into a client relationship.

Start by positioning your services as outcome-driven, not task-based. Clients don’t want to pay for reconciliations or reports - they want confidence, simplicity, and a trusted financial partner who helps them sleep better at night.

Your pricing conversation should reinforce that story.

When you present your offer, lead with the value they’ll experience:

• "This package is built to give you financial clarity each month so you can make decisions with confidence."

• "We take a proactive approach to cash flow and tax strategy so you’re not caught off guard and you can plan ahead."

• "Our pricing is fixed and transparent, so you’ll always know what to expect with no surprises."

If a client pushes back on pricing, remember: your job is not to match their budget - it’s to find the right fit. Instead of discounting, offer an alternate package that still delivers value, but with reduced scope.

"If this isn’t the right fit for where you are now, we can look at a scaled-down option that still meets your most urgent needs."

Also remember: how you say it matters. Speak calmly and clearly.

Avoid apologizing or over-explaining. A confident tone communicates that you believe in the value of your work.

Finally, be ready to restate the outcome when closing the conversation. Anchor the price back to what they’re getting:

"This isn't just bookkeeping - it's peace of mind, delivered monthly."

Clients don’t just want numbers. They want clarity, partnership, and reliability. When you show up with a message that speaks to that, pricing becomes a conversation, not a confrontation.

Final Thoughts

This framework is not a formula to copy - it’s a blueprint to adapt.

The firm you build should reflect your values, your goals, and the way you want to serve.

Start simple. Be consistent. And remember: clarity builds confidence.

You don’t need to be the cheapest. You just need to be the clearest and most trustworthy.

Need help implementing this in your own firm? Stay tuned for upcoming templates, service menu builders, and email scripts for communicating new pricing to clients.

Sharing is caring. Know of a friend or colleague who would benefit? Send them this email and tell them to subscribe!

And worse, they might blame you on their way out.

That happened to me this week.

A client emailed to terminate our agreement, citing “missed items” in their tax return - things they believe should have been caught, planned for, accounted for.

Only… they weren’t things I missed. They were things I was never told.

One of the issues they cited was pension income for last year - something I didn’t even know existed in their situation until I went to prepare their tax returns in March. It wasn’t mentioned during onboarding, in tax planning meetings, or even in passing conversation.

And since this was the first year they began receiving the pension, it didn’t appear on their prior year tax return either. There was no way for me to account for it because I simply didn’t know it existed. But that pension ended up being the very thing that triggered the additional taxes they were upset about owing.

The second issue they mentioned wasn’t even something I missed - it was about self-employment tax, which doesn’t even apply to them. Their business is structured as an S Corporation, meaning they don’t pay self-employment tax on their business income.

They were referencing a blog post I had written earlier this year - intended for sole proprietors and LLCs taxed as disregarded entities - explaining how self-employment tax works. They misunderstood it as applying to their S Corp and after explaining the concept, they became concerned about how much FICA tax they were paying on the wife’s salary from the business.

But the salary had been set up before I began working with them, and we had never agreed to perform a reasonable compensation analysis. That type of work is something I do when we’re setting up the S Corp and payroll from the beginning. It wasn’t in scope here. They had already determined her pay and, at the time, they seemed satisfied with the figure.

For additional context - I do an annual reasonable compensation review in the summer when clients are signed up for our tax planning service, but the client had just started the business and set the salary amount last summer (using someone else) so doing the review wasn’t going to come up on my end until later this summer.

But none of that mattered in the moment. Not to them.

They were already gone by the time I read the email.

And for a split second, I considered chasing after them.

I considered explaining every detail in a defensive reply. I thought about offering a discount, a refund, a second chance. I even drafted the email in my head trying to decide how much to say, how far to bend to keep the peace, to restore the relationship.

But I stopped myself.

Because if I had to buy back trust… was it really trust at all?

If I had convinced them to stay, what would the foundation of our future relationship be? Quiet resentment? A lingering feeling that they were settling or that I was just trying to save face?

I’m a service provider, yes, but I’m also human. And this hurt.

Not because they left. Clients come and go. But because of the accusation. Because it implied negligence, when what really happened was a breakdown in communication on their side.

I always acknowledge when I make a mistake. I own it, and I do what I can to make it right. But this wasn’t one of those times.

This wasn’t my mistake.

Sometimes people hand you half a puzzle and expect a masterpiece.

Sometimes they walk away because they’re looking for someone to blame.

And sometimes… you have to let them.

In the end, I sent them a simple, professional reply. I acknowledged the cancellation of service, clarified the facts - explaining the pension wasn’t disclosed on their end and that self-employment tax didn’t apply - and wished them the best. That’s it.

No defending. No discount. No drama.

Just the truth, delivered calmly.

I won’t say this completely derailed my day, but it definitely rearranged it.

Processing the initial emotions, carefully writing a response to the client, and then coming back to relive those emotions again while writing this article… it’s taken up most of my morning. And now I need a break. Not because I’m weak or can’t handle tough feedback, but because I felt this. Because I care.

So I’m stepping away from the screen for a bit. Maybe I’ll clean the kitchen. Maybe I’ll take the dogs for a walk. Maybe I’ll just breathe.

Anything to get this out of my head long enough to come back to my work with a clear mind.

And however you need to deal with moments like this - learn to deal with them. Don’t bury them and keep pushing forward like nothing happened. And don’t wallow in them either. Acknowledge what happened, give yourself space to process it, and then when you’re ready, move on.

To anyone else who's had to take a deep breath and let a client go: I see you. I know how much energy you pour into your work. I know how disorienting it is to be accused of something that wasn’t yours to own.

You are not alone. And you are not less worthy because someone misunderstood your value.

Let them go.

And let yourself be enough.

Until next time,

Subscribe now

One article. One story. One moment of truth.

And honestly, it felt terrifying to put it out there.

By the next morning, I had 150 new subscribers to my LinkedIn newsletter. And by day six, that number had grown to 275.

I should have been over the moon. And a part of me was.

But another part - the quieter, darker part - kicked in almost immediately:

• They’re probably judging me.

• This was a fluke.

• This feels too braggy.

• I shouldn’t have said that out loud.

Even as message after message came in telling me how my words had resonated, inspired, or encouraged, I couldn’t fully let myself enjoy it.

That voice in my head tried to turn something beautiful into something questionable.

Sound familiar?

This is what success really feels like sometimes.

It’s not champagne and confetti.
It’s vulnerability. It’s self-doubt.
It’s imposter syndrome knocking at the door of a moment you should be proud of.

That Pause Is Not a Flaw

People often confuse that moment of hesitation that comes before we hit “publish,” before we make an announcement, or before we share something honest as a sign that we don’t believe in ourselves.

But for me that pause is everything.

It’s not insecurity. It’s intention.

I’ve spent years reviewing client-facing work before the client ever sees it - engagement letters, tax returns, final reports - and I know firsthand that how we show up in writing matters.

Typos, errors, sloppy communication? Those will erode trust before we ever have a chance to speak.

I’ve built my reputation on trust. On accuracy. On clarity.

So yes, I pause. I review. I reflect. Not because I think I’m an imposter, but because I care deeply about what I put into the world. About how it represents me. And about whether it’s something I’ll still be proud of a week, a month, or a year from now.

That pause isn’t a weakness. It’s part of what has made me successful.

But I'd be lying if I said it was always just intention. Sometimes, the pause feels like fear dressed up in carefulness. Sometimes, it’s imposter syndrome whispering that maybe I shouldn’t say anything at all.

And learning to tell the difference between the two has been part of the work.

You’re Doing Better Than You Think

There’s a lot of noise out there right now. Economic uncertainty. Job instability. Layoffs. AI shifts. People losing jobs they thought were untouchable.

For business owners that uncertainty is nothing new.

We know what it’s like to operate without guarantees. We’ve always lived in the world of risk and unpredictability. We know job security is a myth and so we’ve built something for ourselves. We’ve taken risks that most people avoid. We’ve traded comfort for creativity. We’ve sacrificed stability in exchange for freedom, flexibility, or fulfillment - whatever success means for us.

This path isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s brutally hard. And it’s not for everyone.

But entrepreneurship is also the only path that lets us define success on our own terms.

Success looks different for everyone. Maybe for you it’s:

• Consistent revenue

• A flexible schedule

• Time with your kids

• Building a legacy

• Replacing a toxic job with something meaningful

Success is not one-size-fits-all. And it’s not always more money.
Sometimes it’s peace. Sometimes it’s pride.
Sometimes it’s just the quiet knowledge that you made it through another week.

And even if you’re still working toward that version of success?

You’re doing it. You’re in it. And that deserves recognition.

You Don’t Have to Be Loud to Be Powerful

One of the biggest myths we’ve been sold is that confidence always looks bold. Loud. Public. Untouchable.

But real confidence? It often shows up quietly.

It shows up in the business owner who keeps going even when they’re not sure they’re doing it right.
In the entrepreneur who rewrites the email five times because she wants to get it right.
In the person who pauses not because they’re scared, but because they care.

So if you’ve ever celebrated a big win and immediately questioned if you deserved it, you’re not broken.

You’re not an imposter.

You’re a business owner.

And you’re doing a damn good job.

In Closing

To everyone out there juggling dreams, doubts, and deadlines, especially the ones who pause before they speak, before they share, before they take the leap:

You’re not failing.

You’re thinking.

You’re refining.

You’re building something that’s not just loud, but lasting.

And in a world that moves fast and breaks things, that pause? That thoughtful pause?

It might just be your superpower.

Until next time,

I love it.

Not because I think it’s something to brag about, but because we need more truth in this profession. More context.

More clarity around what building a business really looks like when you’re a solo or small firm owner juggling client work, real life, and the kind of dreams a regular 9–5 would never have made possible.

My business officially started back in 2013. But I’m only sharing data from 2021 through today because that’s when I finally started tracking more than just the revenue figures.

It’s also when I was fully on my own. Up until March 2020, I still worked a day job. 2021 was the first full year I ran this firm as my sole source of income.

Since January 2021, I’ve made $1,171,941.34 running my firm.

But what I’ve earned is only part of the story.

Because what I built is something far more valuable.

Total Revenue (Jan 2021 – Apr 16, 2025):

$1,171,941.34

And so you can see I’m not bullshitting you … here’s my P&L:

2021: Growth, ‘Expert’ Work and Getting on My Own Feet

💰 Revenue: $208,607.87
👥 Accounting Clients (recurring revenue): 12 (dropped 4 during the year)
📄 Tax Returns: 68 returns prepared for 52 clients (most of these were simple personal returns or Schedule C business returns)
🚨 COVID Relief Consulting: PPP, ERC, and more
✍🏼 New Client Tax Prep Fees: 27* (see explanation below)

2021 was about stepping into a new chapter.

My first full year self-employed. My first full year without a safety net.

I was doing a little of everything - COVID relief consulting, QuickBooks cleanups, tax prep, bookkeeping, expert consulting on a legal case.

The expert work was good money but incredibly draining. It required travel, late nights, and strict deadlines that often collided with tax season. And the case itself spanned three years.

Although, thanks to that case, I can officially say I’m now a QuickBooks Online and Bookkeeping expert witness in court. So… that’s a fun party fact.

In May 2021, I was presented with the Woman of Influence in Small Business award by WE (Women Empowered)Lead, recognizing my efforts and the resources I shared to help small businesses access pandemic relief.

Because I wasn’t buried in tax work like most other preparers that year, I was able to devote time to learning the ever-changing rules behind the alphabet soup of programs - PPP, ERC, EIDL, RRF. I made it my job to understand them. And to make them understandable for others.

But while I was helping others navigate the complexities of their business, I was quietly trying to figure out how to navigate mine.

I was slowly learning how to not just be an accountant anymore. I was learning how to be a business owner, and that was an entirely different skill set. I’d never been taught how to run a business, market services, or set boundaries around my time.

Doing it all myself was overwhelming. The to-do list never ended.

Every win felt like a question mark: Am I doing this right?

So I joined a business women’s networking and social group. That decision ended up being a turning point. It helped me gain new clients, yes, but more importantly, it helped me start to see myself as a real business owner.

I was no longer just “doing taxes” or “cleaning up QuickBooks.”

I was building something.

*I charge a new client tax fee for each new tax return in the first year I prepare them. So if one individual client has both an S Corp business and a personal tax return, they’ll pay two separate new client fees - one for their personal returns and one for the business return. That’s why this number seems high compared to the number of “clients” I have.

2022: Two Homes, Too Much Hustle, and a Heavy Season

💰 Revenue: $259,734.85
👥 Accounting Clients: 15 (dropped 5 during the year)
📄 Tax Returns: 68 returns for 52 clients (same number of returns as in 2021, but look at the number of NEW clients this year)
✍🏼 New Client Tax Prep Fees: 22
💼 Court Case and Expert Work: Still going
🏠 Personal Life: Maintaining two homes to be with my daughter, Felicity, while she finished high school

This year was… hard.

I moved two hours away so Felicity could finish high school, but still had to carry my other home’s mortgage.

Two homes. Two sets of bills. And a house I should never have rented.

Felicity wanted to bring her birds with her, which meant we couldn’t rent an apartment. I told myself it was fine. I told myself we’d make it work.

But the house was old and everything was always breaking. We went a whole week without hot water when the hot water heater broke. I paid for a gym membership the entire time we lived there and the only time we went to the gym was when the hot water heater was broken.

Living at that house, I was overwhelmed, overweight, and depressed. I was also behind on everything.

I didn’t feel like myself. And I definitely didn’t feel like the confident business owner I had hoped I would be.

I held it together for my clients, but at the same time, I wasn't - not really.

It wasn’t long before everything came crashing down.

2023: Burnout, Boundaries, and the Bright Spots That Saved Me

💰 Revenue: $350,634.10 (Highest year yet)
👥 Accounting Clients: 10
📄 Tax Returns: 87 returns for 71 clients
💼 Court Case: Ended in April
✍🏼 New Client Tax Prep Fees: 28
💔 Lost a CFO client due to capacity issues in April
👩‍👧 The year I worked with Felicity every day

By the numbers, this was my best year yet.

Highest revenue, most returns, solid consulting work. And on the surface, it looked like everything was working.

I had to drop clients just to keep my head above water. I lost a CFO client in April - one I truly cared about - because I couldn’t keep up with the workload. The court case finally wrapped up in April, but it took me months to catch up from the toll it had taken.

I had no buffer, no extra bandwidth, and no real systems in place to support the growth.

But here’s the complicated part about 2023: it was also one of the most meaningful years of my life.

Because during that same season, I got to work with Felicity every day (until she left for college in August).

She was my admin assistant, my accountability partner, and honestly, the reason everything didn’t completely fall apart. Yes, things slipped through the cracks. Of course they did. But without her, it would have been so much worse. She helped keep the chaos from tipping all the way over.

And more than that - we spent quality time together. Something I’d lost hope would ever be possible after a 10-year custody battle with her father.

If you’re interested in reading more about my personal journey of how I became an accountant and how this custody battle affected the choices I made and led me to where I am today, you can check out that article here.

We visited colleges. We talked about her future. We had dinner together most nights.

For the first time in years, I got to just be with my daughter - not as a weekend parent or a FaceTime check-in, but fully there.

That was always the reason I built this business. Not for the revenue, not for the independence, but to be present for the person who matters most to me.

So even though 2023 broke me in a few ways, I’ll always be grateful for what it gave me.

2024: Raising My Rates, Drawing the Line, and Coming Back to Myself

💰 Revenue: $251,361.82
👥 Accounting Clients: 12 (dropped 3) - the significant decline in revenue is from 1 of the “dropped” clients selling their business in October, this was also a HUGE $$$ client that I still haven’t replaced
📄 Tax Returns: 65 returns for 54 clients
✍🏼 New Client Tax Prep Fees: 27
📈 Doubled the price of business returns
🛑 Ended tax-only client relationships

At the end of 2023, I sent a message to all of our tax clients that if they weren’t engaging with us for services beyond tax prep - like bookkeeping, consulting, or tax planning - we wouldn’t continue working together in 2025.

It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my business.

And it changed everything.

Even though I filed about 1/3 less returns than in 2023, I made nearly $40,000 more because I finally charged (closer to) what I should’ve been charging all along.

Business returns doubled in price from the year before. And they’ll go up again next year, because they’re still not where they need to be.

But this wasn’t just about pricing. It was about peace. About drawing a line in the sand and deciding that I didn’t need to serve everyone.

Speaking of serving everyone … After Felicity left for college, I had space to really think about what kind of life I wanted for myself. I realized the life I was living wasn’t it - it wasn’t serving me.

So I made a big personal change: I moved to South Carolina in August.

I still have the house in Maryland, and I still travel back there at least once a month. Sometimes it’s to see clients and sometimes it’s because I was trying to work on things with my partner.

But every visit has been a reminder: as much as we care for each other, we aren't on the same path anymore. We thought we wanted the same life. And in some ways, we do. But in the ways that mattered most - we don't.

Trying to rebuild a relationship while rebuilding a business? It just doesn’t work unless you have someone who’s all in, fully supportive, and walking alongside you. I’ve learned that the hard way.

You either need to be alone or have the kind of partner who holds your vision with you. There is no in-between.

2025 (So Far): Strategy, Stability, and What Comes Next

💰 Revenue through April 16: $101,602.70
📈 Projected Revenue for 2025: ~$250,000 (and potentially more)
👥 Accounting Clients: 10 (1 leaving in June after selling their business)
📄 Tax Returns So Far: 60 completed, 17 on extension (≈$25K more to come)
✍🏼 New Client Tax Prep Fees: Only 13!
🛠 Big projects + a new financial course in the works

This year feels different.

Not because everything is perfect, but because everything finally has purpose.

I’m building offers I’m excited about. I’m leaning into the work I actually want to do - QuickBooks cleanups, high-level CFO strategy, and long-term support for clients who trust my insight, not just my ability to check a box.

I’ve already got a few major projects booked, and I’m creating a brand new financial course for small business owners, which is something I’ve wanted to do for years. (More on that soon.)

My projected revenue is around $250K, and for the first time, that number doesn’t scare me. It doesn’t feel like something I have to hustle or sacrifice myself to reach.

It feels earned. Steady. Possible.

And maybe more importantly, it feels like just the beginning.

I’m no longer trying to prove I can do it all.

I’ve done the hard years. I’ve made the mistakes. I’ve pushed past burnout.

This season isn’t about survival.

It’s about alignment.

What I’d Tell Past Me

Get the apartment. Tell Felicity to leave the birds with her dad.

You don’t need a yard. You don’t need to live in an old house that’s constantly breaking while juggling client calls and tax returns.

When Felicity graduates, go straight to South Carolina. Don’t try to make it work with someone who never truly showed up for the version of life you were building.

And raise your rates sooner.

Say no sooner.

You weren’t supposed to build a business that burned you out. You were supposed to build a business that let you show your daughter what was possible.

And you did.

You still are.

To Every Accountant, Bookkeeper, and Solo Firm Owner Reading This

If you’re in a season of mess - of burnout, rebuilding, or wondering whether this is still worth it - I hope you see yourself in this story.

Not just in the numbers.

But in the why.

This business has given me the freedom to provide for my daughter in ways working for someone else never could. To be there when she needed me. To cheer her on as she searched for colleges, studied for exams, and made plans for her own future.

It gave me time with her that I’ll never regret.

And if you're building something that feels slow, hard, or inconsistent... I promise you, that doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It might just mean you’re building something real.

Until next time,

P.S. Tax Season Update: The Plan Worked (Mostly)

Back in February, I wrote a post called How I (Mostly) Mastered Tax Season about how I restructured my entire tax prep workflow using a scheduling system.

Guess what? It worked better than I planned.

I was able to manage my workload without pulling constant all-nighters, panicked extensions, or completely disappearing from my life.

Was it perfect? No.

But it was the calmest, most manageable tax season I’ve had in years and I’m not going back to the old way.

If you missed that post and want to know how I structured the scheduling system (and how I’ll be doing it again next year), you can read it here.

I’ve been told by some that it’s required reading for their firm now that tax season has ended. 😆 And with over 600 views, maybe I’m on to something…

That’s what bad client onboarding feels like.

And in an industry where trust and clarity matter, we’re not here for awkward energy or misaligned expectations.

At Nicholynn Advisors, we believe in making the process simple and straightforward. Our onboarding process is designed to make clients feel supported, seen, and excited to get started.

And we’ve found that doing it right from day one saves everyone time, stress, and about 43 frantic email chains.

While I’m sharing our onboarding process from the perspective of an accounting firm, the concepts I talk about - like setting boundaries, using smart intake forms, and building a client experience that actually feels good - can apply to just about any service-based business. Whether you're a coach, consultant, designer, lawyer, or anyone else who works directly with clients, you’ll find ideas here you can steal (with love) and make your own. I don’t pretend to know it all - if you do something different or have a suggestion for us to improve our process, I’m all ears!

The Introductory Questionnaire (aka: “Tell us what’s really going on”)

Before a prospective client ever books a call with us, they have to fill out an Introductory Questionnaire. This is what helps us to start understanding their world.

We use Acuity Scheduling, which conveniently embeds the form into the scheduling process. When a prospect goes to our website to schedule an Introductory Call appointment1 (a free 20 minute call where we decide whether we are going to work with them), they have to complete the questionnaire before they can actually book the appointment.

The questionnaire covers the basics (business name, industry, entity type) but also dives deeper:

• What are your least favorite parts of being a business owner?

• What keeps you up at night?

• What are you looking for in an accounting firm?

You can see the form in action for yourself here, just don’t book it unless you want to become a client. 😉

Also - don’t copy our form word for word, but feel free to use it as a guide to create your own.

We learn whether the prospect is overwhelmed, unsure, or just sick of DIY-ing their books with a glass of wine and ChatGPT.

And sometimes, their responses are more about knowing “how much to charge for my services/products”, or “how much to pay myself”, or “whether I should hire someone as an employee or a contractor”, which helps me to know they’re looking more for guidance than they are necessarily bookkeeping and tax work.

If they don’t take the time to fill out the questionnaire properly or thoughtfully, that’s a red flag for us taking them on as a client.

I’m not saying they have to knock my socks off with their prose, but they have to at least write more than “N/A” or my personal favorite - copy and paste the same answer in every field. 🙄

Our goal is quality partnerships, not a revolving door of mismatched expectations.

And don’t be afraid to send the prospect an email after they complete the questionnaire before the call and say “Sorry, you’re not a good fit based on your responsess”. If you know they’re not going to be a good fit, it’s better they know as soon as possible and you don’t have to stress over it.

Before we get to the onboarding process itself, you need to know about the Tetris of Life, otherwise known as scheduling.

Why My Calendar Is the Secret Weapon in Our Onboarding Process

My Google Calendar knows me better than most people do. It’s seen some things.

All joking aside - I live and breathe by my Google Calendars. Plural.

Because I have the “squirrel!” syndrome, I have the different parts of my life on different calendars so that I can turn things on and off when I need to focus. Everything goes on them and they’re color-coded -

• client meetings (goes on my main work calendar and are dark blue)

• travel plans (goes on the Family calendar and are green)

• lunch dates (personal goes on the Family calendar, business goes on the work calendar)

• recurring client work (goes on my Daily Tasks calendar for the Sunday of the week they need to be completed and are yellow until they get scheduled out for that week, then they turn pink - if that was confusing, I explain more below)

• the time I spend walking my dogs (goes on my Daily Tasks calendar and are pink)

Here’s an image of my calendar the beginning of May so you can see the recurring client work I’m talking about.

I already know I’m going to be out of the office on Monday, May 5th moving my daughter out of her dorm. The move won’t take all day, but as you can see, it’s also Cinco de Mayo so I’m not returning to the office afterwards!

Those three recurring tasks will get scheduled for Tuesday or later that week. Not only are they already on the calendar so I can just move them to the day I want to work on them, but …

• each one is already set for the amount of time I think it will take me to complete

• inside, there is a link to the SOP for that task and information on the deliverables, if any

The recurring tasks are scheduled for the whole year and they stay yellow until I actually place them into that week’s schedule and then I change them to pink.

Side note…

Erica Goode, CPA recently posted this question on LinkedIn and the responses were overwhelmingly “I have multiple Google Calendars but view them together on one screen” so clearly, I’m not the only one.

The calendars aren’t just about staying organized.

They’re how I actually get more done by doing less.

I wrote more about that topic here, if you haven’t read it:

These calendars are also about building a firm that runs efficiently and supports my LIFE, not just my business.

A little morbid, perhaps, but absolutely accurate.

Living by the Calendar

The truth is, most of us are drowning in task “to-do” lists that never end. Blocking time on my calendar gives me a visual reality check.

• How busy is my week, really?

• Can I take on this new client project right now, or should I wait until next month?

• Do I need to delegate more?

• Can I squeeze in a mid-week pedicure without the whole firm collapsing?

Two important things happen with this approach.

1. I know exactly how much client work I can take on at any given time. If a new prospect wants to sign with us, I don’t guess at when I can onboard them - I look. That clarity helps us avoid over-promising and under-delivering.

2. I can commit to a timeline for new clients with confidence. Once they’re in, I add the actual onboarding and kickoff steps directly into my schedule, down to the review and prep time.

You probably want to know how do I know how long something will take?

The answer is, I don’t know.

Not exactly. But I’ve been doing this for a while, and I’ve got a solid sense of what’s realistic. And if you have no idea how long it will take you, start tracking your time.

Estimate generously and build in “white space.”

What’s white space, you ask?

It’s literally white spaces - blocks of unscheduled time on my calendar (ranging from 30 minutes to 3 hours) - that I intentionally leave open every week (even during tax season).

If a task runs over, I have time to shift things around.

If a client project needs more attention than expected, I’ve got breathing room.

And if everything runs smoothly? I can move other work up, knock out long-term projects early, or take myself out to lunch. (Yes, solo lunches count as self-care.)

Bonus Tip: All my long-term strategic projects have time blocked too. That way they’re not “someday-maybe” tasks. They’re scheduled. They happen.

If you’re wondering how to actually make space for those strategic projects, I wrote and recorded about how cutting clients made my firm better here:

A caveat on the calendar: this works well for me because it’s just me and one part-time assistant. If you’ve got a larger team, your calendar should look different. You should have less client work and more CEO time. But the principle still applies - you need a system that lets you see your firm’s capacity, block out work appropriately, and manage your team's bandwidth. If Google Calendar doesn’t cut it for a team setup, invest in a platform that tracks capacity, allows flexible scheduling, and supports a birds-eye view of everyone’s workload.

A well-run onboarding process isn’t just about your systems. It starts with your schedule.

The Official Welcome and Onboarding Questionnaire

Once we agree to work together, clients receive a welcome email and a link to our SuiteDash* onboarding form.

This is the part where we start getting down to business. We ask for:

• Prior-year tax returns (even if we’re not doing tax work because context matters!)

• Financial statements prepared by other bookkeepers or accountants

• Access to their accounting software or Excel spreadsheet

• Any lease, loan, or owner/partner agreements

We only give them two weeks to submit everything.

If there’s an issue meeting that deadline, they can absolutely let us know and we’ll adjust. We’re not robots.

But if two weeks pass and we haven’t heard a peep? We kindly withdraw.

It’s not you, it’s me.
Just kidding, it’s totally you.
We cleared our schedule, opened our hearts and our SuiteDash portal. We believed in us.
But now? We’ll send your onboarding file into the abyss and light a candle for what could’ve been. 🔥🕯️
Wishing you the best… from a safe emotional distance.

… is what I would say. Fortunately, we haven’t had to do this yet, but the boundary is there for a reason. If the new clients ghosts US, we don’t want to work with them.

The Kick-Off Meeting

Before we sit down for our 90-minute kickoff call, we schedule time (usually an hour) to internally review every document the client sends.

During the meeting, we address:

• Any gaps, inconsistencies, or mysteries from the documents

• How we’ll be working together moving forward

• What success looks like for them and for us

If the client starts asking very specific tax or accounting questions, we let them know we’ll tackle those in a follow-up call.

This meeting is about getting the relationship off to a strong, structured start, not diving into a tax deduction rabbit hole.

Speaking of taxes, if you’re curious about how we tackle tax season without losing our minds, I shared all the juicy details here:

BTWs, this article was featured by both Ryan Lazanis’s FutureFirm Weekly Top 5 newsletter and in Karbon Magazine’s Practice Excellence Weekly Edition #192.

It has over 525 views and counting and it earned us the #75 Rising in Business spot on SubStack.

The Kick-Off Meeting Agenda

Because we like order, not chaos, every kickoff meeting loosely follows this outline:

1. Welcome and Expectations: We thank them for completing the onboarding steps (and low-key celebrate them for being organized adults).

2. Review of Submitted Documents: We walk through anything that stood out to us.

3. Overview of Our Processes: From communication to timelines to deliverables - this is how we work.

4. What to Expect Next: We outline what’s coming in the first 30 days of service.

5. Q&A: We give them space to share anything else they need to feel supported.

Yes, it’s structured, but we keep it conversational.

Think of it more as an efficient happy hour.

The Follow-Up Game (Because Ghosting Is for Tinder, Not Accounting Firms)

After the kick-off meeting, we send a summary email within 48 hours that outlines:

• Any action items for the client (with due dates)

• Our immediate next steps

• Contact info and preferred communication channels

Cue my assistant. It’s her job to take the meeting transcription from the Kick Off meeting and draft the summary email for me to review before sending.

We follow up regularly - usually via email - to check in, offer support, and make sure they’re not silently spiraling over a payroll issue.

If we sense they’re stuck or overwhelmed, I don’t hesitate to pick up the phone. We're helpful, not hover-y.

And the best part is that most of our clients actually love our onboarding process.

The forms are clear. The upload tools are easy. They feel heard, helped, and set up for success.

Isn’t that the dream?

Final Thoughts: Onboarding Is a Trust-Building Ritual

Too many accounting firms treat onboarding like a formality. But done right, it becomes a cornerstone of client success.

Onboarding sets expectations, builds connection, and shows clients - before a single journal entry is made - that they’re in good hands.

Could we keep improving? Always.

But what we’ve built works. It filters out the misfits, invites the right people in, and gives everyone a solid foundation to grow from.

Your onboarding process doesn’t need to be flashy.

But it does need to make your clients feel like they’re your only client, even if you’ve got 40 more or 400 more just like them.

Want to build your own onboarding flow that doesn’t make you want to scream into the void? I’ve got templates and walkthroughs coming soon - stay tuned.

Until next time,

P.S. If you read this far, you’re officially my favorite kind of person.
P.P.S. The onboarding candlelight vigil joke still makes me laugh. 😂

* Links with an asterisk are affiliate links. I only share links for products that I use myself and where I might receive compensation if you make a purchase at no cost to you, but they do support my writing habit so I’d really appreciate you clicking them.

I’m Jaime Thompson, and I’m here to confess something:

Not productive, mind you, just busy.

Packed calendars, endless meetings, all the networking events, and even civic organizations that promised I’d "make connections" (Guess what? I didn’t).

My days were always full, but somehow, my business wasn’t actually going anywhere. “Busyness by laziness” my husband calls it.

Does that sound familiar?

The good news is you're not alone. The bad news is you might have the same productivity problem I did.

While I write from the perspective of an accounting firm owner, the productivity strategies and tools I share - especially the ones I’ll be discussing here - are broadly applicable to nearly any type of business. Whether you're a consultant, creative professional, or entrepreneur in another industry, these ideas can still help transform your business (and your sanity).

The Great Productivity Illusion (And Why Accountants Fall For It)

Here's the problem with being an accountant (okay, there are several, but humor me for a sec): our entire profession is built on checklists. Workflow lists, to-do lists, audit checklists (God, I hated those) - you name it, we add it to our list just to check it off.

We accountants are literally wired to love checking boxes, because every little check gives us a tiny dopamine rush. But there’s a difference between feeling productive and actually being productive.

I used to fill my calendar with networking meetings, webinars, and demos, thinking they'd magically translate (directly or indirectly) to more clients.

I even joined a women's civic organization - partly because I genuinely cared about my community, but mostly because I secretly hoped it would grow my business. Instead, it only grew my list of responsibilities and, ironically, shrunk my actual productive hours.

I became "too busy" to read for pleasure. For almost a decade, the girl who once always had her nose in a book barely touched one. That wasn't productivity; it was self-sacrifice.

And for what?

Connections that never materialized? People who wouldn’t even recognize me at the grocery store today?

Being busy doesn’t make you successful - it just makes you tired.

Why We’re Addicted to Being Busy (Blame Society)

We fall for the busyness illusion for three reasons:

1. Cultural Conditioning
   Society tells us busy = successful. More meetings, more emails, more clients - clearly that must equal more success, right? (Wrong.)

2. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
   “But what if that one webinar on ‘How to 10X your revenue while working less than 15 hours a week!’ changes my life?” It won’t. But our brains love to pretend otherwise.

3. False Urgency
   Everything feels critical. The client crisis at 4:55 PM, the email from that prospect who's never going to hire us - everything gets equal priority, and we burn ourselves out pretending we can do it all.

Breaking Free from the Productivity Trap (My Real-Life Wake-Up Call)

I had to hit burnout to learn my lesson. It wasn't pretty.

Overweight, overwhelmed, and exhausted I had become the poster child for “productive but miserable.”

And then I stumbled upon an article and discovered Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix and something clicked.

After reading it I felt like someone handed me glasses after years of blurry vision.

If you've never seen the Time Management Matrix, it breaks your tasks into four quadrants:

• Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important

• Quadrant 2: Important, Not Urgent

• Quadrant 3: Urgent, Not Important

• Quadrant 4: Neither Urgent Nor Important

Using the Covey Time Management Matrix (Without Overthinking It)

Productivity techniques sound great until you actually have to do them.

But this one is worth it. Here’s the easiest way I’ve found to use Covey’s Time Management Matrix, even if you're allergic to complicated productivity systems.

Step 1: Make a Brain Dump
Grab a notebook (or open your Notes app if you're digital). Write down every single thing you have to do. Yes, every task, from “file quarterly taxes” to “remember to buy dog treats for Spartacus, the weiner dog.” Don’t judge, just write.

Step 2: Add Deadlines (No Cheating)
Next to each task, jot down when it's due. This may seem like an obvious step, but seeing deadlines clearly helps identify which fires need to be put out first and which ones can smolder a bit longer. Don’t let them burn your house down though.

Step 3: Figure Out What’s Actually Urgent
Highlight or circle the deadlines coming up soonest. These are your Quadrant 1 tasks, also known as your true emergencies. Note that getting your nails done is rarely a Quadrant 1 activity, even if it feels like it.

Step 4: Sort by Importance (Be Ruthless)
Now, honestly assess each task’s real importance. Importance means it aligns with your goals, moves your business forward, or contributes significantly to your personal life. LinkedIn scrolling, no matter how informative, isn't making this cut.

Step 5: Place Tasks into the Quadrants
Finally, assign every task to a quadrant. Again, those quadrants are:

• Quadrant 1 (Urgent & Important): Immediate deadlines, crises, and things you’ve procrastinated on (admit it, we all do it).

• Quadrant 2 (Important, Not Urgent): Strategic planning, relationship-building, personal and business growth. Basically, the fun stuff we never actually do and the stuff you should be doing more of.

• Quadrant 3 (Urgent, Not Important): Interruptions, many emails, meetings you regret agreeing to. Busywork central.

• Quadrant 4 (Neither Urgent Nor Important): Time-wasters and distractions (Instagram and Netflix bingeing, anyone?).

Step 6: Assess Your Progress Regularly (And Adjust)
Do this exercise weekly for a month. After that, stop and review.

• Is your productivity better?

• Are you getting more important things done?

• Is your stress lower? (Or at least slightly less catastrophic?)

If tasks regularly shift quadrants, pay attention. That's your cue something’s off. Re-prioritize based on what you’re learning about yourself. Maybe that “urgent” task you dread every week isn’t so important after all.

Don’t overcomplicate this. Productivity methods are meant to reduce stress, not add to it.

Once I actually started applying Covey’s matrix, I got clarity about where my time was disappearing, and more importantly, where I needed to refocus. Suddenly, making changes wasn't overwhelming - it was obvious.

Real Productivity Changes (That Actually Worked for Me)

So, how did I finally get productive for real this time?

Here’s what worked:

1. Time Blocking (AKA: Protecting My Sanity)

Initially, the thought of restricting client calls terrified me. Wouldn't prospects think I was inaccessible or, worse, lazy?

The truth is that [most] clients don’t want you 24/7. They want you at your best.

I realized I work better at the computer in the mornings. After lunch, I crave connection and time away from the screen. So, mornings became heads-down work time; afternoons were for meetings.

My productivity skyrocketed and it turns out, clients didn’t seem to mind that they could only speak to me in the afternoons. Or at least if they do mind, they haven’t said anything yet.

Find what works for you. Are you an early bird? A night owl? Work better before or after lunch? Whatever your focus time is, that time where you are the most productive, protect that block of time at all costs.

2. Ruthlessly Firing Clients (And Not Feeling Bad About It)

Not all clients deserve your time. I said what I said.

I used to work with a client who genuinely believed the word "urgent" was synonymous with "I want this right now." Her definition of urgent included late-night “emergencies” that were anything but actual emergencies.

Finally, after too many lost weekends to this client's faux-emergencies, I woke up.

Why was I allowing someone else's lack of planning to hijack my life?

I kindly, clearly, and firmly explained I wasn’t available outside our agreed-upon hours unless there was an actual emergency (like the IRS knocking down her door). Instead of respecting that, she doubled down, sending me passive-aggressive emails about my "lack of responsiveness."

That was it for me. I sent her packing.

What happened afterward? Not only did my stress levels plummet, but the space she left behind quickly filled with clients who valued my expertise and my boundaries.

Your time isn't up for negotiation. If a client doesn't respect your boundaries, they're probably not your ideal client anyway.

3. Leveraging CRM & Workflow Automations

Using Word docs and Excel sheets to track your tasks and workflows are great until you have more than five clients. At that point, they're not tools; they're chaos factories.

When I finally started using a real CRM, it felt like I'd hired an assistant - just cheaper, quieter, and without any awkward small talk. Just kidding, I love my assistant.

Tasks stopped slipping through the cracks, my stress levels dropped dramatically, and my efficiency shot through the roof. Automation didn't just streamline my workflows; it saved me from myself.

The CRM we use now is called SuiteDash*, and it's basically an accountant's secret weapon. It’s genuinely an all-in-one platform, meaning it combines secure client portals, automated onboarding, project management, invoicing, and even secure document storage all under one digital roof.

Suddenly, I wasn't juggling multiple standalone software subscriptions. Instead, everything was centralized, organized, and wonderfully simplified. And unlike TaxDome, it’s super secure. … Too soon?

Finding the right CRM for you might take a while. For me, SuiteDash was try number 5 and it was not easy to set up. I don’t want to discourage you, I just want to be transparent. What I really like about SuiteDash is that after working with the other 4 CRMs, I knew what I wanted, and more importantly, I knew HOW I wanted it all to work together. If you don’t already have your processes documented, setting up any CRM is going to be difficult.

You have to know your process inside and out before you leverage technology to work for you.

4. Delegating Even If You're Solo (Hint: Tech Is Your Friend)

If hiring isn’t feasible yet, make technology your best friend.

One of my favorite productivity practices is conducting a Weekly Business Strategy Session using ChatGPT as my virtual advisor.

Each week, I set aside structured time to intentionally step back from daily operations and prioritize working ON my business. I usually do this on Sunday mornings, but you should pick whatever day/time work best for your schedule. ChatGPT and I dive deep into strategy, clarify priorities, identify action steps, and set a clear, achievable plan for the upcoming week. It’s been really nice knowing exactly how to plan out my schedule for the week.

Want the exact prompt I use? Scroll all the way to the bottom of this article and it’s yours.

I realize this might sound futuristic or unfamiliar, especially if you're used to doing everything manually. But trust me, once you embrace these productivity tools, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.

Want to Do This Too? Start Here.

Ready for your productivity transformation?

Here’s your action plan:

1. Audit Your Week: Categorize tasks for the next week into Covey’s quadrants.

2. Drop One Thing: Delegate, automate, or eliminate at least one time-wasting activity immediately.

3. Book Your Quadrant 2 Time: Schedule at least one hour this week for something impactful whether that’s strategic planning, training, or relationship-building.

4. Hold a Weekly Business Strategy Session: Block regular, weekly time on your calendar to intentionally work ON your business, not just in it.

5. Set Break Reminders: Hydrate, stretch, breathe. Yes, seriously.

6. Reflect Weekly: Regularly evaluate your productivity strategies, ensuring your tasks align with your true priorities and goals.

Final Thoughts (Because Your Sanity Matters)

If your day ends with exhaustion instead of accomplishment, it’s time for a shift.

Productivity isn’t about fitting in more. It’s about focusing on what truly moves the needle.

Take it from me, someone who’s been there and burned out spectacularly: busy isn’t impressive; productive is.

Your turn - I’d love to hear from you.

What's one productivity change you'll commit to this week?

Letters To The Author

Sometimes a little note from readers completely makes my day and reminds me exactly why I keep writing.

I love this and I hope to be like you someday. I'm just getting started in my accounting career. Best of luck to you! - Kayla

Until next time,

* Links with an asterisk are affiliate links. I only share links for products that I use myself and where I might receive compensation if you make a purchase at no cost to you, but they do support my writing habit so I’d really appreciate you clicking them.

Prompt for Weekly Business Strategy Meeting with ChatGPT

Purpose:
To set up a recurring, weekly strategy and planning meeting with yourself (and ChatGPT as your virtual advisor) to intentionally work ON your business, rather than just in it.

Version of GPT:
If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for free at chatgpt.com. I pay $600/year for a Team subscription and use Model 4.5, though you could probably get similar results in Model 4o (which as of writing this article, is included in the Free tier). Note that while you can (and should) opt out of your content being used to train ChatGPT at the Free, Plus ($20/mo) and Pro ($200/mo) versions, your information is not used at all in the Team version ($25/mo per user, at least two users and billed annually). If this is all Greek to you, check out Hector Garcia’s AI webinars on CPAacademy, all of which are free to watch. The “ChatGPT Basics” webinar from 3/11/2025 is a great place to start.

Instructions:
Use the prompt below exactly as written (personalized where indicated) to initiate and structure your weekly meetings with ChatGPT.

Prompt (copy and paste):

Context:
I’m an entrepreneur/business owner operating primarily by myself, and I'd like to schedule a weekly, structured "strategy meeting" with myself, using you (ChatGPT) as my advisor and sounding board.

Each week, we’ll meet at the same time to review my business at a strategic level. The goal is to intentionally step back from daily operations and prioritize working ON my business (strategy, planning, improvement, growth), rather than just working IN it (daily tasks, client work, operational details).

Your Role as ChatGPT:

• Facilitate the meeting, guiding me through structured discussion points.

• Help me clarify my goals, priorities, and next steps.

• Provide advice, thoughtful questions, feedback, and accountability.

• Keep the discussion practical, strategic, and actionable.

Meeting Structure:
Our meetings should generally follow this outline, unless I specifically request otherwise:

1. Weekly Check-In (approx. 5-10 mins):

• I'll share a quick status update on my business.

• What went well this past week?

• What challenges did I face?

2. Brain Dump & Prioritization (approx. 10-15 mins):

• I'll share any urgent concerns, ideas, or projects I'm currently thinking about.

• You help me identify and prioritize the most critical areas to focus on for this session.

3. Strategic Deep Dive (approx. 20-30 mins):

• We'll choose 1-2 strategic topics to explore deeply (e.g., growth opportunities, new products/services, financial review, marketing strategy, client issues, operational improvements, etc.).

• You'll ask thoughtful questions and provide recommendations and actionable steps.

4. Weekly Schedule and Action Plan (approx. 5-10 mins):

• Together, we'll build or update my weekly calendar or action plan to incorporate the strategic tasks we've identified, making sure my next steps are realistic, clear, and achievable.

5. Recap & Accountability (approx. 2-5 mins):

• Summarize key takeaways and clear, actionable next steps for the week ahead.

• Identify any quick wins or easy next steps to ensure immediate momentum.

To begin:
Please confirm your understanding of this structure. Then, guide me through the first session right now.

About me: (user should insert brief context about themselves and their business here)
My biggest current priority or challenge is: (user inserts their own current biggest priority or challenge here)
Today's goal for our first meeting: (user inserts a goal here—such as clarity on immediate priorities, financial check-in, or making a specific plan)

Disclaimer:
The views and strategies shared in this article represent my personal experiences and opinions. None of the information provided should be construed as professional financial, accounting, or tax advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for guidance tailored specifically to your situation.

I didn’t start my firm for freedom.

I didn’t even start it because I had some grand vision of being my own boss.

I started it because I was broke.

At 26, I was a single mom, going through a divorce, with a full-time job that didn’t pay enough. I needed money. I couldn’t leave my day job because I needed health insurance for my daughter and me. But I also couldn’t keep surviving on what I was making from just my W-2 job. And with my ex-husband taking me to court every five minutes, I had never ending legal bills on top of everything else.

So, I started a bookkeeping side hustle.

What started as a way to just make ends meet, turned into a business that would change my entire life.

The Hustle: Surviving, Not Thriving

For seven years, I did both - a 40-hour full time job and (what felt like a 24/7) side hustle.

• Full-time job? ✅

• Commuting two hours each way to work and back on a bus? ✅ (where I also worked on client books, because why waste that time?)

• Taking off work when I could for my daughter’s activities? ✅

• Burning the midnight oil to finish client work? ✅

• Sometimes not finishing the work and losing a client? Also ✅

I was exhausted. But I kept going because I had to.

Then, I got lucky.

By the start of 2020, I had built a solid client base. So when I got laid off by my employer when COVID happened, I didn’t panic. I just walked straight into an established business.

My revenue tripled in less than a year. I even won an award (Woman of Influence in Small Business) for helping small business owners navigate the alphabet soup of pandemic relief programs because other accountants were too busy with tax season to keep up with the ever changing rules.

Sounds like a success story, right? Keep reading.

The Breaking Point: When "Success" Feels Like a Trap

Most accountants start their firm for freedom (whatever that word means to you), but they only end up overworked and underpaid. They think they’re building a business, but really, they’ve created a job for themselves.

I know, because I did the same thing.

I thought more clients meant more success, but all it really meant was less time, more stress, and a business that consumed my life instead of supporting it.

With the influx of work, I did what any logical person would do: I kept saying yes.

To everything. Every client. Every project. Every "quick" question.

By 2023, I was drowning.

Then I lost a major CFO client because they wanted to take the work in-house. At least, that was the official reason. But I know the truth - I wasn’t giving them the service they deserved because I was stretched too thin. I was scrambling to keep up. And on top of that, my health had completely tanked.

I was the heaviest I’d ever been in my life. My body hurt literally all the time. I was so exhausted I barely recognized myself. And yet, here I was telling my clients that their business should work for them, not the other way around.

Oh, the irony.

The Wake-Up Call: Taking My Own Damn Advice

Scaling a firm isn’t about working more - it’s about working smarter. I had to challenge the traditional mindset that success meant constantly grinding, constantly saying yes, constantly chasing higher revenue numbers at any cost.

What if success wasn’t about more? What if it was about better? What if it was about building a business that actually worked for me, not the other way around?

In November 2023, I made a change.

• I prioritized my health. I gave up beer (not all alcohol, let’s not get crazy - just beer because my body doesn’t process it well. Oh IPAs… how I miss you).

• I stopped eating out. (Turns out, cooking isn’t that bad.)

• I started going to the gym. And suddenly, my back didn’t feel like it belonged to an 80-year-old.

• I set actual boundaries. Like, real ones. And I stuck to them.

• I made a list of clients I no longer wanted to work with and let them go. And let me tell you, that was the best breakup of my life.

And guess what? I became happier. Lighter. My work got better. My life got better.

Who knew that not working yourself into the ground could feel so damn good?

Seriously we all know that, but knowing it is not the same as living it.

The Restructure: Cutting the Dead Weight (Clients Included)

I built workflows in my CRM to make my life easier. I finally admitted that if I wanted to grow, I’d eventually need a team, but I wasn’t rushing into that yet.

Instead, I made strategic cuts.

In 2023, I completed almost 150 tax returns. In 2024, I have just under 100. This may not sound like a lot to you, but remember, I’m a one-woman show with a very part-time admin assistant.

Most of the clients I let go were the ones who only wanted tax prep - no advisory, no tax planning, no real relationship. And they were always the ones questioning my pricing, needing constant hand-holding, and taking up way too much of my time.

So I let them go.

And guess what happened between 2023 and 2024? My tax service revenue increased 73%.

I went from $55K in tax revenue in 2023 to $95K in tax revenue in 2024 with 1/3 less clients.

What’s Changed?

Everything. That revenue increase wasn’t just about making more money. It was about making better decisions. By working with fewer, higher-value clients who actually valued my expertise, I not only increased my income but also regained control over my time and energy.

• My daughter is in college now, eight hours away, and I have the freedom to go visit her. Last fall, I attended every single home football game with her.

• I still work on weekends during tax season, but not because I have to but because I want to.

• And when I’m not working on taxes, I’m writing. Because it turns out, I actually love writing, and for the first time in my life, I have time for it.

How You Can Do This Too

If you feel like your business is running you, here’s what helped me turn it around.

But first, I need to say that this works for MY life because of where I am in my life.

I’m in my late 30s with one adult child. I don’t have little kids at home, I don’t have other family responsibilities, and I can give more of my time and focus to the business. I also don’t have a partner with a job so if I don’t work, I don’t make money.

So while this works for me, your version might look different. And that’s okay.

1. Audit Your Business: Yes, I hate tracking my time too. But it was the only way I figured out where my hours were actually going. Turns out, way too much time was getting lost on admin work that I could automate.

2. Raise Your Prices: If you’re overworked, you’re undercharging. Trust me on this one.

   1. Make sure you check out my piece - The Price of Value - for more on this.

3. Fire Bad Clients: If they make you miserable, they need to go. They will always be the first to complain about pricing and the last to pay their invoice.

4. Set Non-Negotiable Boundaries: Want to take a vacation? Block it off right now. No calls, no emails, no appointments. And if you absolutely must work while on vacation, keep it to a minimum.

5. Systematize & Automate: Build workflows. Reduce decision fatigue. Make your business work for you so you’re not stuck working for it.

Final Thoughts

So many accountants preach hustle, grind, and revenue goals, but that’s not the path I’ve chosen. My firm isn’t built around squeezing every possible dollar out of every possible hour. It’s built around living a sustainable, fulfilling life. And that’s what I want to encourage others to do.

If your firm feels like it’s running you, it’s time to change that.

You don’t need permission.

You don’t need someone else’s framework.

You just need to decide what kind of business you want and start building it for you.

So, what’s one thing you can change today to make your business work for you? I honestly would love to know.

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In 2018, I attended a leadership event for women in business - a workshop called Leading Lady Self-Leadership Series; 3 Questions That Will Change Your Life!, hosted by AliceAnne Loftus, a local-to-me business owner and professional business coach.

Honestly, I don't remember the exact details of the presentation or the "three life-changing questions" that AliceAnne taught us that night, but something else happened that evening that genuinely changed how I view myself and my business.

Near the end of the evening, AliceAnne announced we’d be doing an exercise - a kind of game, a competition. Being competitive by nature and pretty confident in my problem-solving skills, I was completely on board and ready to win.

The rules were simple. We were blindfolded and instructed to find our way out of a maze. Once we escaped, we could remove our blindfold.

Easy enough. I’ve always been great at puzzles and mazes, so I jumped right in, confident I was going to win.

Instead, the minutes ticked by.

I could hear others finishing, removing their blindfolds and celebrating their victories. I grew increasingly frustrated, trying to figure out what I was missing.

Each time AliceAnne passed by, she'd gently ask, “What do you need?”

In my head, I shouted back each time, “I need the way out!”

But I stubbornly refused to say it out loud.

My instinct was “I need to figure this out myself”.

My frustration mounted until I was literally on the verge of tears. Finally, feeling utterly defeated, embarrassed, and desperate, I asked for help.

And that was the whole point.

There was no actual way out of the maze - at least not alone. The only way to "win" was to ask for help.

That simple exercise revealed something powerful and painful about myself: that I struggle deeply with asking for help.

It wasn’t just about stubbornness or pride; it was something that was rooted in my childhood. Asking for help wasn’t an option in the world I grew up in.

Even though both of my parents were physically present (my mother stayed home and my father was a retired police officer turned farmer) they were never emotionally or practically available. Perhaps it was because my younger sister had developmental challenges, or maybe they were dealing with their own struggles.

Either way, I learned early on in life that I was on my own.

Perfection was expected in our home. Good grades weren’t celebrated; they were simply the baseline expectation.

Straight A's were demanded, not praised.

When I graduated high school, I ranked 20th in a class of 350+ students, with a GPA over 4.0 and enough college credits to shave a whole year off my bachelors degree, but my parents didn't praise me. They just told me that was what they expected.

I busted my ass, and yet it never felt like enough.

Most people don’t know this about me, but I played tennis all four years in high school. It was the only sport I could participate in that didn’t interfere too much with my farm work. My father attended exactly zero of my matches.

Actually, that's not true - he attended one, but he arrived after I'd already finished playing so technically I don’t think that counts.

My mother occasionally attended, but mostly just to drive me home afterward. It wasn’t that my father couldn’t leave the farm - it was simply that he chose not to. This indifference left a wound that I’ve carried into adulthood.

From age seven to seventeen, I attended every single one of her softball games, even if she wasn’t playing. I was there because it mattered. Because she mattered.

Because I knew what it felt like when no one showed up for you.

I’ve spent my adult life feeling isolated.

I have never fit neatly into any social circles.

Not with college students when I was in college - I was 18 with a newborn.

Not with the mom groups - either I was too young compared to the other moms when my daughter was the same age as their children, or my child was too old when I was with other moms my age.

Not even with other business owners - I wasn’t experienced enough, I didn’t have the proper credentials/qualifications, I was a woman, the list is endless.

Part of what initially drew me to accounting was its solitude and independence. Many accountants work alone or in small teams, focused quietly on numbers, spreadsheets, and reports.

For someone like me - someone who never quite felt accepted or understood - this seemed ideal. No office politics, minimal reliance on others, and clarity in numbers that I rarely found elsewhere.

Yet, as comforting as this isolation has sometimes been, I wonder if it has also reinforced my struggles with connection. Perhaps working in a field where collaboration was required would have forced me to confront this issue earlier.

Being an accountant has often provided clarity and a sense of control in an otherwise unpredictable world. Numbers are reliable; people, unfortunately, less so.

The relationships I did have often felt transactional rather than meaningful. People liked me for what I could do for them, not for who I was.

That workshop in 2018 forced me to face this truth. Even now, approaching 40 years old, I still battle the fear of being let down. Trusting others has rarely paid off, and each disappointment only reinforces my walls.

But that night in the maze began my slow, ongoing journey toward understanding why I feel the way I do and what it means to truly rely on others.

I'm not perfect at it yet. I still struggle deeply to ask for help, but I am learning to see it as a choice - a step toward genuine connection and vulnerability, and maybe eventually, real community.

I haven’t found my tribe yet, but I still have hope that I will.

Perhaps that’s the real exit from my maze: accepting that it's not only okay but necessary to ask for help, and believing that one day, when I do, someone will finally be there.

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The Unexpected Beginning

I knew I wanted to be an accountant from the 11th grade. Not because I had some grand vision of running a firm or revolutionizing the industry, but because I had a scheduling conflict.

Third period was empty, and my choices were library aide or Accounting I. If I’d had that same choice today, I’d probably pick library aide and watch shows on my phone for 45 minutes. But this was 2002.

Eminem’s Lose Yourself and JLo’s Jenny from the Block were on the radio and The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies were battling it out on the bigscreen. We still had Blockbusters back then.

It was a time before streaming. Before social media. Before you could pretend to be busy while actually scrolling through memes. No one came to the library during third period and I was already good at math. So I took Accounting I.

That one decision changed everything.

I loved it. The logic. The balance. The T accounts.

The satisfaction of everything clicking into place.

But what truly sold me on it was my teacher, Mrs. Wyland - an absolute legend of a woman whose enthusiasm rivaled even Ms. Frizzle’s. She made debits and credits fun. By the end of my junior year, I knew: This is what I’m going to do with my life.

I took Accounting II as a self-study course my senior year (because not enough other students were nerdy enough to sign up to make it a whole class - their loss). I was planning to head straight to college to study accounting.

I was going to be an accountant.

But life doesn’t always follow the plan.

There is no way to tell the story of my career path without telling you about my daughter because most of the last two decades have revolved around her.

One month after turning 18, I found out I was pregnant.

I’ve never understood by people always say they “found out” they were pregnant like they don’t know how babies are made.

Anyway, I had just turned 18, and suddenly, my carefully laid-out plans didn’t seem so simple anymore. My parents weren’t thrilled, to put it mildly. But they were determined to support me in finishing my education, which now felt even more critical. I wasn’t just getting a degree for me anymore.

I had someone else depending on me.

So, I hustled. I had taken college credits and AP courses in high school, which enabled me to earn my associate’s degree in business administration in only one year, just one month before my daughter was born. Then I transferred to the University of Maryland University College (UMUC, now UMGC) and completed my bachelor’s in accounting in two years, taking a mix of online and night classes while figuring out how to be a mom.

By 2007, at 21 years old, I had a four-year degree, a toddler, a new house, and a husband.

And absolutely zero job prospects.

Because as it turns out, “entry-level” accounting positions still wanted two years of experience. I sent out resume after resume, only to hear crickets. Finally, a small firm - over an hour away from where I lived - gave me a shot. They actually liked that I didn’t have prior experience because it meant I wouldn’t come in saying, “Well, that’s not how we did it at my last firm”, which was apparently an ongoing issue.

That job became my proving ground. I had a female partner mentor me, telling me she saw my potential and that someday, I’d be a CPA and a partner, too. Inspired by her confidence in me, I started chipping away at my CPA requirements, determined to make it happen.

Until my life imploded.

In my fifth year at the firm, my husband decided he no longer wanted to be married.

Just like that, my marriage was over. Suddenly I was a single mom with a five-year-old daughter, an hour-long commute, and a paycheck that wasn’t cutting it anymore.

I needed something closer to home, something stable, and something that paid more. So I took a government contractor position with NAVSEA.

What they didn’t tell me is that my job was temporary. I was hired to clean up the accounting system before they transitioned to a new one in just six short months. Meaning, after I’d been working there for four months and found out the position was only six months long, I was going to be unemployed again in less than 60 days.

Scrambling for stability yet again, I found a job as a staff auditor at a local accounting firm. No offense to auditors, but it was not for me.

The real gut-punch came when my then soon-to-be-ex-husband took me to court for full custody of our daughter. While he didn’t get it, all of the court nonsense drained my time, my energy, and my finances. I had to put my master’s degree on hold. I was constantly fighting just to stay afloat.

I lasted eight months in that staff auditor role before moving into an accounting role at a law firm. That was a great job, and it even came with a 25% raise, better benefits and the chance to build a new life.

But there was a catch. The two hour commute each way was brutal. So I made arrangements for my daughter and I to pack up and leave my small town behind. My soon-to-be-ex-husband, however, had other plans.

The Legal Battle That Changed Everything

Despite my offer for 50/50 custody and generous visitation, my soon-to-be-ex-husband sued me, again, for sole custody.

I should’ve just taken it - the opportunity to leave with my daughter. I already had everything picked out - the new daycare, the great school, the great apartment, the family support. All of it.

Instead, I listened to my lawyer, who told me to wait for the court’s blessing. So I waited in limbo for about three months. And then judge ruled against me moving two hours away with my daughter. He then gave me a choice about retaining primary custody of her.

His words were “Your job or your daughter. I’ll give you two minutes to choose.”

The hardest decision I ever made in my life was leaving her behind with her father.

But at 27 years old, I couldn’t quit my job and move back in with my parents to raise my daughter. At least, that’s what I told myself at the time. I had to work in order to provide for her.

I spent the next decade stuck in a cycle of legal battles, financial stress, and personal exhaustion. It took three long years just to get divorced. Every time I tried to move forward, there was another hurdle.

The master’s degree? One class short before they told me I’d have to start over due to expiring credits. If I wanted to complete my degree, I’d have to retake Accounting I in addition to my capstone, at $1,500 per class. I had enough credits for the 150-hour requirement, but I had to give up on the Master’s degree because I couldn’t afford it.

The CPA? Couldn’t study for the exams. I was drowning in legal fees and barely surviving emotionally. Even with the increase in pay at my new job, it wasn’t enough.

But then the path shifted.

After one year with the law firm, I was recruited by a lobbying firm to be their Director of Finance. Slightly better pay, way better benefits, including quite a bit of downtime in between my responsibilities.

I wish I had spent the free time studying for the CPA, but instead, I was focused on paying my attorney. So I started doing bookkeeping on the side. At first, it was just extra cash to cover legal bills. And before I even realized what was happening, it turned into a full blown side hustle.

For seven years, I ran that side hustle alongside my full-time job.

I took on any client who would pay me - even advertised on Craigslist (0/10, do not recommend). I underpriced myself. I gave away free advice. I dealt with clients who ghosted me after I’d already done the work.

I even had one woman take an hour-long free consultation, only to find her on social media later, bragging about how you could get accountants and lawyers to answer all your questions without ever paying them. Real winner, that one.

I learned so much about business, albeit mostly the hard way.

And then, 2020 happened.

I lost my day job. Just like that, my so-called “job security” was gone.

But something else happened that year - I made more money in my business than I had at my day job. In fact, I doubled it. And for the first time, I realized that real job security wasn’t about working for someone else. It was in building something for myself. It only took me until 34 to realize it.

In 2021, my daughter turned 16, and after years of court battles, she finally told her father she wanted to live with me. For most of her last two years of high school, she was with me and I will always cherish that time.

Just a few years before, I had been so broke I couldn’t even afford to go out to eat. But for two years, I paid for two homes so my daughter and I could live together and she could finish at her current high school, two hours away from where I owned my home.

This journey hasn’t been easy.

I’m now 38 and there have been plenty of days where I’ve thought, Should I just shut this down and go back to a regular 9-to-5 job?

But just the other day I overheard my daughter, who is now 19, in college, and studying entrepreneurial management, tell someone that she wants to open her own bakery.

When they asked what made her think she could do that, she didn’t even hesitate.

And that’s when I knew: every struggle, every late night, every setback - it had all been worth it.

Because I didn’t just build a business.

I built a legacy.

Takeaways for Business Owners:

• Your path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.

• Obstacles don’t mean you’re off track—sometimes, the obstacles are the track.

• The best business lessons often come from the hardest experiences.

This isn’t just about becoming an accountant. It’s about taking risks, making tough choices, and proving that success isn’t a straight line but rather a series of pivots, setbacks, and comebacks.

And trust me, I’ve had plenty of all three.

Before we get to that though, I want to give you some context about who we are so you can better understand how this process fits within our firm.

At Nicholynn Advisors, we focus on serving small business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals who value structure and proactive financial planning. We provide traditional bookkeeping and tax prep services, but we also provide tax planning and strategic CFO services. We’re a boutique firm, which means we don’t take on hundreds of tax clients and we prioritize quality over volume. Because of this, we’ve developed a tax prep system that works for us - one that might not fit every firm, but can certainly be adapted. (And yes, if you have multiple tax preparers, our appointment booking software, Acuity Scheduling, allows for multiple staff calendars!)

I’ve been having our clients schedule their tax prep for the past four years, and I have learned a lot. Mostly about all the things that didn’t work.

But after years of fine-tuning, I’ve finally built a system that keeps things running (mostly) smoothly. If you’re a tax preparer, an entrepreneur, or just someone who appreciates a well-oiled process, buckle up.

I’m taking you behind the scenes of how we do things at Nicholynn Advisors and why we’ve made certain rules non-negotiable.

Opening the Tax Season Gates

Every January (usually by the 5th), we send out an email to all our clients letting them know that our tax schedule is officially open. We also let them know when we will actually start processing returns, which is typically February 5th.

Why the wait? Because January is already chaos. Between year-end financials, 1099 filings, and the general madness of business accounting, February 5th is the earliest I can start without losing my mind.

In that initial email, we provide details for the entire tax prep process and any updates we've made for the current year. Clients also get a link to schedule their Tax Designation Date™ (TDD), which is my fancy name for “the day I actually sit down and work on your return.”

And yes, I took the time to trademark that term.

While these are appointments, I don’t meet with the client during these TDDs. You’ll see why…

There are two separate links - one for business tax returns (S Corps, Partnerships, and C Corps) and one for individual tax returns (with or without a Schedule C business).

As I mentioned, we use Acuity Scheduling, which gives us the ability to take a payment and require certain questions to be answered before someone can book an appointment.

So in order to schedule a TDD, clients must pay the following deposit amount based on the type of return they’re scheduling and answer a short questionnaire. For exactly what we ask on the questionnaire, read to the bottom.

• $100 for personal returns

• $200 for business returns

This deposit is nonrefundable.

Why? Because a few years ago, I had a client book their appointment, fill out all the tax organizers, and then, on the day of their appointment, tell me, “Never mind, my wife says she can do the taxes herself.” I was not amused. Lesson learned.

Now if a client doesn’t follow through, we keep the deposit. Simple as that.

Getting the Paperwork in Order

By mid-January, we send out electronic tax organizers and engagement letters to everyone who has scheduled their TDD. If someone books after mid-January, we send their materials within two business days.

And by “we,” I mostly mean my part-time admin assistant, who is a lifesaver. Get yourself one.

Once clients complete their organizers and sign their engagement letters, my assistant:

• Downloads and organizes all their documents into our secure storage

• Renames all the files (because most clients upload things like “Scan123456.pdf”)

• Checks that all documents are legible and complete

If something is missing or unreadable, she follows up with the client. And trust me, this is necessary because some people really will upload a W-2 that looks like it was crumpled, stomped on, and left in the rain. Or is not from the year we’re working on.

We also tell clients - multiple times - that everything must be uploaded at least two days before their TDD. If they miss the deadline, we reschedule their appointment to our next available timeslot. No exceptions.

After two reschedules, they’ll get an email cancelling their appointment altogether until they contact us. This hasn’t happened yet, but it’s in the fine print.

Balancing Tax Prep with Ongoing Client Work

Tax season doesn’t mean my other client work stops.

While TDDs are a huge part of my schedule, I’ve structured my calendar to ensure I still have time for other commitments. And life.

I also heavily rely on the settings in Acuity Scheduling to help me set up the parameters of how I’ve structured the TDDs so I don’t have to manually adjust much.

Before I share all the parameters I have on my schedule, you need to know something very important. Don’t open your calendar to allow clients to pick any time they please.

Set specific times that you will allow the appointments to happen at.

My clients choose from appointment times of 8:30am, 1:00pm and 4:30pm (when I offer a 3rd appointment). And that’s it.

Since I don’t actually meet with the client during this appointment, the timing of it doesn’t matter to them - it only matters to ME. The first year I let clients schedule whenever, and then my calendar was shit. I almost gave up on the whole process and went back to the FIFO method.

• TDD appointments are 3 hours long and I allow scheduling a max of 3 per day. Most days, though, I only do 2. This constraint is a feature that Acuity allows.

• No TDDs are scheduled during the week leading up to either the March 15th deadline or the April 15th deadline. This gives me the ability to follow up with anyone who was already in process to get done before the deadline, while setting the expectation that if you didn't schedule your TDD for at least the week before the deadline, I'm not rushing to get it done on time.

• I have the option to open up additional appointments. So for example, on days where I only have 2 appointments, if I know the 2 I have will be super easy, I open up a third slot to allow another client to schedule then.

• Tuesdays are reserved for ongoing client work. No TDDs are scheduled on Tuesdays, giving me a dedicated day to focus on advisory services, financial reviews, and ongoing engagements.

• I schedule client calls (including tax review appointments) before, between, and after TDDs. This allows me to maintain relationships and ensure my other clients don’t feel neglected during tax season.

• Boundaries prevent burnout. My TDD schedule is strict, but that’s what allows me to stay on top of everything without running myself into the ground.

• I am also completely off on Sundays and only have a maximum of two TDDs (and no other work) on Saturdays. This way I know I can go out Saturday night and enjoy myself without stressing and also have one full day of rest. Also, I don’t work every Saturday - just the ones when I have nothing else going on.

• For anyone who goes on extension, we won’t work on their returns until June 1st. I’m taking my daughter to Europe in May for a couple of weeks and I’ve set the expectation now that I’m not available in May so don’t ask.

• Likewise, all extended returns must be completed by September 1st. My birthday is September 12th and I have never been able to celebrate my birthday until after October 15th. Not this year! If the returns don’t get done by 9/1, clients still have time to find someone else to do them, but it won’t be me.

It’s a balancing act and it may seem like a lot, but having this structure in place makes tax season manageable without sacrificing the quality of my ongoing work.

Also, most tax returns do not take me 3 hours to complete. But having that time blocked allows me to have a large enough window to still get the taxes done if something crazy pops up.

Conceptually, what does all of this look like? Here’s a snapshot of this week’s calendar so you can see it in action:

Thursday looks a little messy, but that S Corp reasonable comp call that’s overlapping was supposed to be in that open space on Wednesday. The client needed to reschedule, but I knew that first appointment would be an easy one so I happily rescheduled the client.

Reminders, Reminders, Reminders

I like to think that my clients read every single word on every single email and post. But I’m not naive.

So that is why Acuity also sends reminders that say the same thing that I’ve already told the clients in my pre-tax season email, my intial confirmation email when they choose their TDD, and their engagement letter.

Clients get two reminder emails - 7 days and 3 days before their appointment. Both of these reminder emails say the following:

You do NOT need to be present or available during this time slot and we will NOT be calling you. If we have questions or need additional information, we will email you at the end of your appointment day.

If you have not completed your tax questionnaires and submitted your documents to us, you still have plenty of time to finish.

If you have 90% of your information ready but are waiting on a form that may not come in time, keep your TDD slot anyway. Just be sure to submit your questionnaires and all of the documents you do have before the TDD. We will prepare your returns with the information we have and will wait to complete your drafts once you provide the final information.

If you need to change your appointment, you can do so by clicking the button below. Once we are within 48 hours of your scheduled time, you will not be able to change/cancel your appointment yourself and will need to email/call us for assistance.

Business Owners, Please Have Your Books Done

This one was new for 2024 because, again, a hard lesson was learned.

If a client owns a business, their bookkeeping MUST be done before their TDD.

For our bookkeeping clients, this isn’t an issue since we close their books at the end of January. But for everyone else, we give them two choices:

1. They need to get their books done before their TDD.

2. They pay us to do a bookkeeping review/clean-up before their TDD (booked separately).

This one change alone has saved me so much frustration this year.

I was surprised by how many clients actually opted to get their books in order themselves, even some who hadn’t done so in past years!

If they ignore both options, we *may* use their TDD appointment to do the bookkeeping review, and their tax prep gets rescheduled for a later date.

I actually did this today with a client. We switched today’s previously scheduled TDD appointment to a bookkeeping review appointment (at a whopping $397/hour for 3 hours) and I added a third TDD appointment to next Wednesday because the other two tax appointments that day are relatively simple. The client was happy and I’m not behind.

Handling Last-Minute Requests

I handle last-minute client requests with a firm but fair approach that prioritizes both my sanity and client expectations:

1. Reinforce Boundaries Early & Often – My process is structured for a reason. Clients are informed multiple times about deadlines, expectations, and the need to schedule their TDD in advance. This significantly reduces last-minute surprises.

2. Late Requests? Here’s the Deal.

   • If I have capacity, they pay a Last-Minute Rush Fee to secure an emergency spot. This fee is steep enough to discourage procrastination but fair for my time.

   • If I’m fully booked, they go on extension and I handle their return after June 1st. No exceptions.

The One-Star Review from the Perpetual Last-Minute Client

The only negative review I’ve ever received is from someone who, for three years in a row, waited until the last minute. The final year, they reached out two days before April 15th, and when I didn’t immediately respond, they left me a bad review.

And let me tell you, it felt good.

The Bottom Line

This system is working well for me, now that I’ve completely overhauled it from the process I started with four years ago. But I’m also at a different place in my life than you may be. My daughter is 19 and in college now. I’m not chasing after little ones, or involved in a bunch of other things that require my time.

Will this exact process work for you? Probably not.

But you can absolutely adapt it to work around your schedule and the clients you work with. Do whatever you can to protect your time, stick to your system, and offer clear, structured alternatives for last-minute requests.

By maintaining structure, setting firm boundaries, and ensuring expectations are met in advance, I’ve been able to run an efficient and predictable tax season without burning out.

This keeps me sane and helps my clients plan better. (Well, most of them.)

Here are the exact questions we ask during TDD scheduling.

And when I say exact, I literally copy and pasted. You’re welcome.

Individual Tax Return TDD Questions

The following is a Form in Acuity Scheduling that the client must read and complete before they can schedule their TDD for their individual tax returns.

This is the header of the Form:

If you have a Schedule C business (sole proprietorship, single-member LLC), your business books must be up to date before your Tax Designation Date™ (TDD) since your business and personal returns are prepared at the same time.

As part of booking this appointment, you will pay a $100 nonrefundable deposit to hold your TDD. This will be applied to your final invoice once your drafts have been completed. Within 2 business days (or as early as January 15th), you will receive a follow-up email with your engagement letter and tax questionnaires.

If you aren't ready by the date you've chosen, simply reschedule and pick a different date. However, be aware that this means it may be a while before you can pick a new date if other slots have started filling up.

Here are the questions on that Form:

1. Which type of return is this for?

   • Individual Returns (Personal only - no business)

   • Individual Returns (with Schedule C business OR rental property)

2. Enter the NAME and EMAIL ADDRESS of the person responsible for completing the tax questionnaires.

3. If you are making this appointment for someone else (like a child or parent), enter their name here.

4. Do you expect to have any of the following items? (Check all that apply)

   • Education expenses and credits

   • Investment Property (long-term rental; short-term rental; etc.)

   • Filing as Head of Household (requires a Due Diligence form)

   • None of the above

5. If you have a Schedule C business, what is the name of your business? (List all applicable businesses)

6. Are your business books reconciled through the end of the year? Yes or No.

7. If you answered No above, do you need assistance from Nicholynn?

   • Yes - Bookkeeping Review Session ($397/hr)

   • Yes - VIP Accounting Overhaul ($1250 for a half day)

   • No - I will have the bookkeeping done before my TDD

   • Maybe - I will let you know

Business Tax Return TDD Questions

Again, this Form is specifically for Partnership, S Corp, or C Corp returns.

This is the header of the Form:

If you have a Partnership, S Corp, or C Corp return prepared ahead of your personal return, you will need TWO separate Tax Designation Dates™ (TDD)—one for business and one for personal. If you only need a business return, no personal TDD is required. Multiple businesses require separate TDDs for each entity.

As part of booking this appointment, you will pay a $200 nonrefundable deposit to hold your TDD. This will be applied to your final invoice once your drafts have been completed. Within 2 business days (or as early as January 15th), you will receive a follow-up email with your engagement letter and tax questionnaires.

If you aren't ready by the date you've chosen, simply reschedule and pick a different date. However, be aware that this means it may be a while before you can pick a new date if other slots have started filling up.

Here are the questions on that Form:

1. What is the name of your business?

2. Are your business books currently reconciled through the end of the year? Yes or No.

3. If you answered No above, do you need assistance from Nicholynn?

   • Yes - Bookkeeping Review Session ($397/hr)

   • Yes - VIP Accounting Overhaul ($1250 for a half day)

   • No - I will have the bookkeeping done before my TDD

   • Maybe - I will let you know

4. What is your 2024 business return type?

   • S Corporation

   • Partnership

   • C Corporation

We’ve all read this being discussed lately on LinkedIn, but something that no one is talking about (anywhere) is how to change this.

What if I told you that having higher fees and fewer clients could actually grow your business?

Wild concept, right? Like discovering that guacamole is extra, but paying for it is so worth it.

It took me years to fully embrace this idea, but once I did, my business transformed. My revenue has increased by over $50,000 every year since 2021, even though I serve fewer clients than ever before.

When I first started my business over 11 years ago, I thought the only way to build a successful firm was to charge lower rates and stack up clients like a game of accounting Jenga. More clients meant more money, right?

Wrong.

Instead, I found myself drowning in work, forgetting to reply to client emails, an insane amount of scope creep just to keep clients “happy”, constantly justifying my fees to clients who didn’t see the value, and slowly resenting the business I had built. The business that was supposed to give me more time with my family was sucking the life out of me. I was stuck in the grind of high-volume, low-value work, and something had to change before it all came toppling down.

One day, after a particularly exhausting week filled with client demands that far exceeded what they were paying for, I sat down with my books and a bottle of wine and did what accountants do best - math. I realized that if I just increased my fees and focused on working with the right clients, I could actually make more while doing less. I mean isn’t that what everybody wants?

The shift didn’t happen overnight. I had to rework my pricing structure at least three times, communicate changes to my clients, and stand firm in the belief that my expertise was worth it when I got push back.

But the results? They spoke for themselves.

Instead of pulling prices out of thin air or matching what I thought competitors were charging, I built my pricing model around the actual transformation that I provide.

And I’m going to tell you how.

I started by breaking down our three main categories of services into clear, high-value offerings.

• Bookkeeping: This became a fixed-fee pricing based on a combination of revenue, transaction volume and complexity, ensuring that clients have clean financials year-round.

• Tax Preparation & Strategy: Is bundled into an advisory-based model that eliminates the “once-a-year” tax scramble and shifts focus to proactive planning.

• CFO & Advisory Services: These are high-touch, value-driven services tailored to business owners who need financial clarity, forecasting, and strategic guidance.

By restructuring my fees and focusing on value-based pricing, I stopped chasing low-dollar clients and started working with business owners who respect my expertise. (And best of all, my caffeine consumption has returned to semi-normal levels.)

You’re probably thinking - “I know this already, Jaime, I’ve read everywhere that I should switch to value-based pricing. How are you helping me figure it out for myself?”

Well… read on, my friend.

The key to pricing based on value starts with understanding what you actually offer. Not just in terms of deliverables, but in terms of transformation.

Now I’ve said this word twice, but what exactly is transformation?

How does that relate to accounting? It’s about fundamentally changing how a business owner understands and interacts with their finances. For many business owners, accounting is a necessary evil - something they do begrudgingly, often poorly, and usually at the last minute. But when done right, accounting transforms from a compliance task into a powerful decision-making tool.

And the best accountants don’t just record history; they help shape the future.

So I want you to consider a few questions: What pain points do you solve for your clients? What problems are you eliminating for them? How are you elevating your clients’ business and ultimately their life?

You may be saying, “Jaime, I’m not a therapist or a coach or a problem solver. I’m an accountant/tax preparer/bookkeeper/[insert your title here]”.

Ah, my friend - but you are all those things because for most people, finances are emotional. A study performed by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman showed that we make financial decisions based 90% on emotion and only 10% on logic. If you want to command higher prices, your services need to be designed for impact, not just completion.

So it’s time to sit down to redefine your offerings and ask yourself a few tough questions:

1. What do I love doing?

2. What am I actually great at (and also credentialed in - sometimes that helps)?

3. And more importantly—what will clients happily pay top dollar for?

It’s not about doing more; it is about doing the right things for the right people.

Since I’m all about sharing, here’s what that process looked like for me:

Bookkeeping – I stopped treating bookkeeping like a low-margin service and started packaging it as a business intelligence tool. Clean financials mean clients can make better decisions, so I positioned bookkeeping as the foundation for smart strategy, not just number-crunching.

I tell clients and prospects that their financials tell the story of their business’s financial health. Without a proper diagnosis (aka clean financials), their business will likely bleed out (ie. hemorrhage cash flow) in the next 1-3 years.

Harsh? Maybe.

But it’s also highly effective at getting the point across and sometimes, a little tough love is exactly what business owners need. When they feel that something they’d rather not do is necessary, they’re more likely to do it. Remember that emotional pull when it comes to finances.

Tax Strategy & Preparation – We’ve never been a Block-esk firm that takes in individual tax prep off the street, but we have almost always prepared taxes for businesses and their business owners. What I was finding is that these clients, who signed up for no other services during the year, were some of the ones I was spending the most time on during tax season.

• Their DIY books were a mess, but they didn’t want to pay me to fix them. Or sometimes they did, but then they’d balk at the “doing this during tax season” pricing.

• They waited until just before the deadline to book their tax appointment and refused to go on extension.

The only negative review I have is from a client who did BOTH of these things to me two years in a row and then on year three, she literally emailed me on the night of April 13th to tell me she was ready to have me do her taxes, but none of her accounts were reconciled and only half of her transactions had been recorded in her accounting software. Then she left me a bad review saying I was the unprofessional one.

My other “favorite” thing about these kinds of clients is that even though we only spoke once a year, they expected me to remember every single detail of everything they’d ever shared with me. I don’t even remember what I ate for breakfast today.

I’m probably one of the few accountants *ahem* nerds *ahem* that enjoys preparing tax returns. But I have realized that I only like preparing tax returns when I have clean financials to prepare them with and I wasn’t getting that from 95% of those one-off tax prep clients.

So instead of offering one-off tax prep, even for clients with businesses, last year I created tax advisory plans that helped clients reduce their tax burden year-round. And that’s also how I sold it.

Here’s what that service looks like for our business clients:

• I meet with them 6 times a year (these are 45-60 minute meetings) -

  • 4 quarterly estimated tax meetings with calculations

  • 2 strategy planning meetings - one in the summer and one in November

• They also get 3 “free” 20 minute calls to use with me during the year. I say “free” because really an extra hour of my time is built into the pricing whether they use those three calls or not.

This new service turned tax season from a panic-filled nightmare into a seamless, strategic process. And my clients were practically knocking down my “door” to sign up when I told them I was only taking 10 clients for this new service for last year.

I actually signed up 13 people, but that’s just between us.

CFO & Advisory Services – I started focusing on growth-minded business owners who needed more than reports - they needed a financial roadmap. But I didn’t just assume what I thought they needed; I listened. I paid attention to what my business clients were actually saying - what frustrated them, what held them back, and what kind of financial guidance they wished they had.

I realized that my role as an accountant was evolving. I wasn’t just preparing financial statements; I was helping business owners understand how to use their numbers to make better decisions. I took that insight and developed a comprehensive fractional CFO program that didn’t just hand clients reports, but gave them the strategic insights to grow their businesses confidently.

While we now focus on being small business advisors (our name is Nicholynn Advisors, after all), I still offer one-off consulting calls because some clients don’t need ongoing help. But I made one big change when it comes to these calls: I dramatically increased my prices. Practically overnight, I went from charging $150/hour to $450/hour for consulting calls.

Why? Because I realized people weren’t just calling to chat. They were calling because they needed my expertise. And you can give someone a lot of valuable information in 20 minutes or less.

For years, I was essentially giving away my knowledge. A 30-minute call at $150 meant I was only making $75 for high-level guidance - advice that had taken me years of education, experience, and continued learning to develop. And sometimes, clients would call for less than 10 minutes. How do you even bill for that? Charge them for 15 minutes at $37.50? It felt ridiculous. I was delivering serious value and getting shortchanged in the process.

So, I shifted gears. Instead of nickel-and-diming for short calls - or worse having to keep track of them for billing, I created structured, ongoing financial guidance through what we now call Unlimited Support Packages (USP).

Here’s how they work:

• Remember, a one-hour consulting call with me is now $450.

• An unlimited support package is $397 per month.

Wait—how can I charge less for unlimited access than I do for a single hour?

Simple. I changed the model.

How We Sell Unlimited Support Packages (Without Giving Away Unlimited Time)

1. Minimum Commitment: Clients must commit to at least three months. I tell them that most business owners have the most questions in the first 90 days of signing up. After that, the package converts to a month-to-month service, cancelable with 30 days’ notice. If they want out after the first three months, all they have to do is email us before the end of month two.

2. Framing the Value: Clients see a clear choice - pay $450 for a single hour or get unlimited 20-minute calls and emails for $397 per month. If they even think they’ll need more than one hour a month, they’re getting a deal. What they don’t realize is that I can provide significant value in far less than an hour, so for them, it feels like they’re getting a steal. What they're actually getting is very valuable. They're getting my undivided attention, a solution to their problem and I'm happy to give it to them because I know they're paying for the advice without that awkward conversation of "how much should I bill for this 10 minute phone call?"

Maybe you’re thinking, “But Jaime, won’t people abuse this if it’s truly unlimited?”

Great question. The short answer? No. Because I don’t sell it to the people who I suspect would abuse it. And even if I did, they wouldn’t really be able to.

See, "unlimited" doesn’t mean “call me every hour on the hour.” It’s structured in a way that ensures clients get the support they need without monopolizing my time.

1. Priority Access, But With Boundaries – My regular consulting calls (both 20-minute and one-hour sessions) require at least 7 days' notice to book. Even if I have open time, non-USP members have to wait. But USP clients? They can schedule a call as soon as 6 hours from now (within the working day, of course). I even extend my availability for them, taking calls earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon than I do for standard consulting sessions. And it’s still built around my regular schedule. If I have another meeting or need to block off time to focus on client work, no one can get to me then.

2. A Built-In Limit (That No One Has Hit Yet) – While USP clients can book whenever they need help, they can only schedule one 20-minute call per day, with a max of three per week. All thanks to the help of my scheduling app, Acuity.

You’re probably like - “But Jaime, that’s not actually unlimited!”

You caught me. But here’s the thing: Not a single USP client has ever maxed out their allowed calls. Not one has tried to book three calls a week. And not one has complained about access. Because at the end of the day, people don’t want to abuse my time. They just want to know someone is there when they need help. That’s it.

I didn’t reinvent the wheel here. I just gave people what they wanted in a way that also works for me.

Building the Right Skillset & Targeting the Right Clients

Of course, with high-value services comes the need for high-level expertise. If you’re looking to elevate your offerings, you have to ask yourself: Do I need to sharpen my skills? Do I need to niche down? Do I need to let go of outdated services that no longer serve me or my clients?

When I raised my prices, I also raised my standards. I no longer worked with clients who just wanted the cheapest option. Instead, I sought out business owners who valued expert guidance and people who wanted to invest in their financial success and their business’ success. These weren’t clients looking for a bargain; they were looking for results. It’s not easy and there’s no magic button to press to show you where to find these clients - you just have to keep looking.

To attract them, I refined my messaging. I stopped talking about what I do and started talking about what I deliver. I positioned myself as a strategic partner, not just another service provider. I even changed our company’s name from Bayside Accounting and Consulting to Nicholynn Advisors. (I’ll tell you later what a Nicholynn is.) And most importantly, I made sure my pricing reflected the value of what I was offering.

And that, my friend, is how you start transitioning into high-value pricing.

For years, I assumed price increases would drive clients away.

The reality? The right clients stayed.

The ones who constantly questioned my fees or pushed boundaries left - and I let them go. Because running a business isn’t just about making money; it’s about working with people who appreciate your expertise and respect the value you bring. Okay - that’s not entirely true - it’s also about making money.

How to Communicate Price Increases Without the Awkwardness
If you’re thinking about raising your prices but dread the conversation, you’re not alone. I used to feel the same way until I realized that pricing adjustments are necessary for sustainability and growth. I tell my clients the same thing all the time, so why was I not listening to my own advice?

Here’s how to make the process smooth and drama-free:

1. Plan Ahead – Don’t wait until you’re drowning in work to raise your prices. Evaluate pricing annually and determine the right type of increase, whether it’s a blanket increase across all services or a service-specific increase.

2. Know Your Numbers – Understanding your service profitability helps justify price adjustments. If your costs have increased, your pricing should, too. I know for a fact that accounting and tax software costs have increased significantly in the last three years so if you’re prices haven’t gone up, get on it ASAP.

3. Give Clients Notice – Ideally, notify clients 60-90 days before implementing a price increase. No one likes a last-minute surprise. I review all my pricing on April 16th and our increases start June 1.

4. Personalize Your Communication – A one-size-fits-all email is not going to cut it. You need to tailor your messaging to emphasize the value your client is receiving.

5. Offer Options – If a client pushes back, provide alternative service levels at different price points. This reinforces that pricing is based on deliverables, not just arbitrary numbers.

6. Be Confident in Your Value – If you’re nervous about explaining a price increase, remind yourself why it’s necessary. You’re not just raising rates - you’re ensuring the sustainability of your business and the quality of service your clients receive. Trust me - they will thank you for this, even if they’re not entirely happy about your new fee.

I remember the first time I sent out a price increase email, fully expecting half my client base to walk away. Instead, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Some clients even thanked me for clearly outlining what they were getting for their investment. One client even tipped me $800 on his tax prep that year! Crazy, right? That’s when I knew I had been underpricing myself all along.

If you’re struggling with pricing, ask yourself these three questions:

• Are you pricing based on value, or just covering costs?

• Do you have clients who don’t respect your expertise?

• What would your business look like if you worked with fewer, higher-value clients*?

It’s time to stop fearing price increases and start using pricing as a growth strategy. The right clients will recognize your worth.

The wrong ones? Let them go.

Your business should be working for you - not the other way around. (And if all else fails, at least charge enough to fund your coffee habit.)

Until next time,

If you're over all the fluffy financial advice that feels like just another sales pitch, you're in the right place.

I'm Jaime Thompson, an accountant and business owner who knows firsthand that running a business isn't just about numbers; it’s late nights, tough decisions, and figuring things out as you go. But what if there was another way that you could learn how to be a better business owner?

That’s exactly why I started The Anchored Ledger.

Twice a month, I’ll share practical financial insights, lessons I’ve learned from my own journey, and straight-up, no-BS advice on running a business. We’ll talk taxes, bookkeeping, and money strategies, but also the real-life mindset shifts and struggles that come with being your own boss.

What you can expect:

✅ Straightforward accounting and tax tips you can actually use

✅ Real talk about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship

✅ Encouragement to help you build a business that works for you (not the other way around)

✅ Zero fluff, zero sales gimmicks—just valuable insights

And maybe a little of my homegrown humor.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, hit the subscribe button below and let’s navigate this business journey together. Looking forward to having you here!

Until next time,

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