Episode 1: What to Expect When Your Priorities Change From When You First Started Your Business with Serena Shoup
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Alyssa Lang interviews Serena Shoup, a full time educator and CPA who’s the owner and founder of both Ambitious Bookkeeper and Of Course Bookkeeping. She shares what business is like when your priorities shift throughout the years, exercises you can do to align yourself with your priorities and what her word of the year is.
In this episode you’ll hear:
The difference in priorities at the start of your business vs when you’ve been doing this a while
An easy exercise to put your priorities into perspective
How we shifted the Breakthrough retreats to help so many bookkeepers
What discipline looks like in business
Resources mentioned in this episode:
🎙 Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast
💻 Bookkeeping Business Accelerator by Serena Shoup
💻 Kickoff with Asana for Bookkeepers & Accountants
Listen to the Full Episode here 👇🏼
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When you start a bookkeeping firm, your priorities for your business are probably very clear in the beginning. If you’re anything like me, you know EXACTLY what you want and how you’re going to get there. You have a clear direction of what you want to achieve, what the business should look like, and how success will feel.
But after a month, a year, two years, or a decade into your business — you might realize your values and/or goals may have shifted. How do you navigate that, and is that normal?
In this podcast, I’m joined by a VIP in business and in my personal life! Serena Shoup is a corporate CPA turned bookkeeping business CEO, mentor for other bookkeepers and accountants, mom of 3, and a closet musician! If you don’t know my business bestie – she’s here to talk with me about some SUPER important ways to navigate your firm’s priorities.
The First Priority Shift in Your Business
You can’t expect your priorities to stay the same through all seasons of your business. As you grow, you may notice your priorities change.
When you first start out in business, it’s ALLLLL about the money. But sometimes, like with Serena, there’s other factors too.
In Serena’s case, she was a stay at home mom looking for a way to use her accounting background while being present with her kids. But she also had to set up a business that was going to make money without taking up all her time.
It took a little while to get there, but she was able to build a client base, hire a team member, and figure out how to balance everything. She realized that signing tons of clients wasn’t the top priority anymore — and that she might have to reassess how she spent time inside her firm.
Remember onboarding your first client? The joy of getting that first invoice paid and diving into the work is unforgettable!
The money comes, and that’s when your first shift happens. You start reassessing how you are making that money. How are you spending your time? Are there ways you can optimize your systems to be more efficient? Can you delegate more tasks to a team? Where can you conserve your energy to give you back your time?
Maybe then you can start raising your rates, bring on a partner, or sign some bigger clients. But what Serena and I’ve realized lately is that we’d rather prioritize saving our time so we can spend it on what matters more than money.
How To Recognize When It’s Time To Realign
Realigning priorities is never easy and is very personal to each of us. Serena brings up a great point that in the beginning, you focus on making money and finding clients.
Eventually, as you grow, you are able to be more choosy about the clients you sign. Which means there are certain clients that might no longer be in alignment.
This can cause an internal shift — do you keep your clients out of loyalty, or is this a chance to let go of those who may not be a good fit (anymore)?
The loyalty you’re feeling can be a HUGE asset in your business, but not if it’s really people-pleasing in disguise. It’s totally fine to fire clients that no longer serve your priorities or align with your values. Doing this doesn’t make you disloyal, you’re just protecting your energy!
For me, the biggest and most recognizable shift was also tied to money. But unlike what I expected to happen, I didn’t want to reach for more. I started shifting my thinking and reevaluating how important my time is.
When I first started Workflow Queen, I had Bezos-style goals. I wanted to make a TON of money and be able to hire anyone I wanted.
But now, I’m SO aware of the value of my time. I’m happy with the people I’ve hired and content with my salary. Now I have the privilege of asking myself if I really WANT to devote time to certain things, where at the beginning, I didn’t really have a choice.
How To Keep Your Values Top Of Mind
One thing that’s SUPER important to be clear on from the start is your values.
Will you strive for financial freedom, kindness, or loyalty? Don’t forget as your firm grows, your values will stay the same.
You may think your values chain you to a former client.
“I have to be loyal to them, they’ve been with me since the beginning!”
But in reality, these values are what’ll allow you to stay true to yourself. Reframe your thinking to “I want to be loyal to myself, and remember what’s important to me. And this client no longer serves that.”
Remember that it’s okay if your values shift with your priorities too. Don’t allow guilt to seep in when you’re able to put yourself first.
The entire goal of starting a business is to be successful. But what does that look like in your current season of life? What does success mean for where you are RIGHT now?
Serena and I talk about how we prioritize certain words and place a lot of value on them. For me, I am focusing on discipline. I wanted to create some discipline with health, fitness, and in my life.
But I also want to be able to honor myself and take care of the things that are important to me. My values have stayed the same, but now I know to focus on my priorities to help me create the life I want.
Using Your Priorities To Make Decisions In Your Firm
When you’re faced with a tough decision in business, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do. That’s where having your values and priorities straight will really come in handy!
Serena has such a great idea for evaluating what her goals are NOW, by actually focusing on the future. She asks herself what she wants the next five years to look like, and then moves from there.
She has young children, and knowing that they will be 10 and 11 in five short years, she really asks: Do I want to put the energy and the time in now to meet this goal, or will this goal still be there in five years? Because kids don’t keep, and she knows that.
If you take on ten unaligned clients now, how will that affect you in the future? Listen to your intuition, and know that it’s okay to say no to clients that don’t feel like a good fit.
Prioritizing Community Over Competition
Sometimes running a bookkeeping or accounting firm can feel isolating and lonely. My biggest advice? Find community instead of worrying about your competition.
And if you’re looking for one of the BEST communities in this industry to connect with incredible firm owners, streamline your firm, and eliminate overwhelm… join my signature program, Kickoff with Asana for Bookkeepers & Accountants, and get instant access to our student community!
When you reach out to other firm owners to connect, if your intentions are self-serving, everyone can pick up on that. But surrounding yourself with other like-minded people in this industry is sooo valuable.
Connect with them, regardless of their audience, so you’re not so isolated in this business. Find your community so you can share resources and collaborate. You can even ask each other, “Who are you learning from? What podcasts do you listen to?” And also potentially gain your business bestie!!!
About our guest:
Serena Shoup is a corporate CPA turned bookkeeping business CEO, mentor for other bookkeepers + accountants, mom of 3, and a closet musician! She built her business as a Sidehustle to motherhood when she left corporate to have her second daughter. She’s passionate about helping business owners become CEOs and take control of their money.
Serena is the owner and founder of Ambitious Bookkeeper and Of Course Bookkeeping and she’s on a mission to change the way the industry operates!
Connect with Serena Shoup:
Visit her website: ambitiousbookkeeper.com
Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/ambitiousbookkeeper
Connect on LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/SerenaShoup
Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/serenashoupcpa
Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen For more information about the Conquering Workflows & Systems for Bookkeepers & Accountants Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:
Visit our website: workflowqueen.com
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