Episode 15: The Art of Delegation: Allowing Others To Shine with Jeremy Van Groll
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Alyssa Lang interviews Jeremy Van Groll, Founder and President of Nonprofit Bookkeeping and his Operations Manager, Megan Reif. Jeremey shares his point of view of bringing on someone in his team to implement new tech, systems and automation while Megan shares her experience in implementation and presenting changes to Jeremy. There’s a lot of amazing tips and tricks on how to communicate with your team to move systems forward.
In this episode you’ll hear:
How to hire, mentor, and find the right people to implement on your behalf
How to guide team members to offer changes and implement to make them feel empowered
What creating new tech, systems, and processes can do to transform your business
What to expect when your firm hits $1mil
Tips on cultivating a positive work environment that people would kill to work in
How Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants transformed Jeremey’s firm and allowed him to have his team implement the program
Resources mentioned in this episode:
⚙️ Miro
⚙️ Notion
💻 Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants
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This podcast episode is packed with MULTIPLE people — almost like a BOGO deal. Jeremy and Megan are here with us in this podcast to share some amazingness. Jeremy is the owner and operator of Non-Profit Bookkeeping. (I legit consider Jeremy a non-profit king). At the time of this recording, they offer bookkeeping to over 60 clients, with 17 employees!
Jeremey sent one of his team members (Megan Reif) to implement our program, Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants, and is now the Operation Manager for Non-Profit Bookkeeping! She thrives on the team culture from working there and plans to head out west to travel while she and her husband work remotely to support Jeremys company vision.
And you know I love every opportunity to take my travel trailer out and work on the road, so I fully support that mission!
So today, we’re looking into company culture and how to grow your team with confidence so you can start letting go of control and gain back some freedom.
Why Building Company Culture is Vital
All of us have a goal to make money. That’s what drives a business forward, but that’s only part of the equation. To create a culture that focuses on making your employees feel valued, that’s crucial. Jeremy says one of the core values of Non-Profit Bookkeeping is to be family centered, and to remember that their employees are people first.
Those 17 people who work within Jeremys firm are all employees, not contracted. Jeremy said that he has done the contracted employee thing before, and now he has moved to only hiring employees.
Why? Not just because he loathes doing 1099s…
It’s also because he feels like there’s more of a vested interest from employees to put into the company, rather than a contracted employee. His goal’s the same as many of ours — finding a way to connect with people who share our same values WHILE we make money.
Because Non-Profit Bookkeeping is all virtual, they look for ways to connect without that physical water cooler. They have in-person conferences (you know how much I LOVE a chance to build culture in person.) But they also have a company culture that everyone has bought into. They have a Slack channel that’s focused JUST on shenanigans! People post pictures of their kids, where they’re traveling— and even the project they’re working on that makes them ready to light things on fire.
(I always recommend having a channel dedicated to fun on Slack, and we go into detail on how to best communicate with your team in Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants and provide our exact Slack channel set up that even Jeremy uses. And will everyone contribute? No. Because some people aren’t comfortable in that area! But it’s so nice to have the opportunity to connect.)
How to Find Someone You Trust to Take Over Tasks
Culture is important whether you have a team of 2 or a team of 20, but also you HAVE to have a good relationship when there are people who work closely with each other like Megan and Jeremy do.
Megan organizes ALL the things, and is the person who Jeremy turns to for those things to happen. But how did he know to ask those questions to find out that organization was Megan’s strength?
Luckily, Jeremy fosters that conversation piece in work (which goes back to culture!!) so he facilitates open communication all the time with employees. He asks straight up, “Where do you want to be?”. And through that two way street, barriers are broken and honest answers are given.
His biggest tip to working cohesively? Network for employees, not clients. Find people who will be a great fit for your company culture. You’re more likely to find employees who are aligned with your culture when you ask for referrals from people who you already trust.
So if you’re a team member to someone who owns a firm, Megan suggests keeping your goals in the forefront of your mind. She knew she liked bookkeeping, but she likes a challenge! So knowing that, she knew she’d be challenged and fulfilled as Operation Manager. So it’s okay to look at what your strengths are, what your goals are and be vocal about where you see yourself in the company!
Find a Communication System That Works For Your Team
Jeremy and Megan seem to be a solid team because Megan isn’t afraid to throw new ideas at the wall, and Jeremy is a healthy skeptic. He asks the hard questions when something new is offered up. So their current streamlined system looks like Megan finding systems and organization ideas (because that’s her zone of genius), and brings them to Jeremy via Slack.
Megan’s goal is to eventually be the COO, and that might mean that Jeremy steps back in the decision making process, and be more involved in troubleshooting.
As a business owner, how scary is that? To take the decision making off your plate and offer it up to someone else? But that’s a big part of the hiring process, you hire and train smart people that you trust to make decisions.
Right now Jeremy is making connections, helping with marketing and is the face of the business. The rest of the time, he’s able to fill in the gaps wherever needed.
Jeremy’s able to step up and get into the weeds and be who the company needs. But eventually he wants that marketing and connection building to be the bulk of his time. Which means he will need to continue to train smart people to take on leadership roles.
So yes, in the beginning of his firm’s existence he was the go-to man. And when you have 1,2,3 clients— that’s not so bad. But as your company grows (the goal) it becomes so much harder to cover all areas of your business as a whole.
Because while you may be an incredible business owner, not everything will fall under your zone of genius. So when Megan got in her role, she found Workflow Queen, started implementing our program Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants and now has a firm that’s generating $1Million in annual revenue… all from implementing the right systems, hiring the right team and trusting them to execute!
About our guest:
Jeremy Van Groll is an incorrigible financial nerd and is the founder and President of Nonprofit Bookkeeping. Jeremy has a Masters in Financial Management and has twenty years of experience in leadership roles including corporate accounting, banking, data analysis, and compliance reporting. Nonprofit Bookkeeping partners with domestic and international organizations to implement efficient financial and data management processes that allow nonprofit leaders to focus their efforts on their Mission and building relationships with Donors.
Jeremy has been featured speaker on optimizing both personal and organizational financial management and was nominated for the Foundations Ethics in Business award. When not geeking out on spreadsheets, Jeremy enjoys attending concerts, singing karaoke, and following sports, especially the soccer and gymnastics teams of his two sons.
Connect with Jeremy Van Groll:
Connect on Instagram: @nonprofit_bookkeeping
Follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nonprofitbookkeeping
Connect with him on LinedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/nonprofit-bookkeeping
Email: clientcare@nonprofitbookkeeping.com
Check out their website: www.nonprofitbookkeeping.com
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