13. The Growth Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship

• Transcript

  Welcome back to The Accounting Edit Podcast.

  My name is Leah with Orca Accounting.

  And I'm Aminder Mann with Sequoia CPA.

  Thank you for joining us again for another episode.

  This is one of our more entrepreneurial reflection sort of episodes.

  And so this is called our Growth Rollercoaster or The Growth Rollercoaster.

  This is where we're just going to cover the growth of our firms from the beginning.

  So for Aminder, this was from January 2025 onward.

  And we're currently today at the time that we're recording, this is October 10th of 2025.

  And so by the time this gets out, it'll still be October.

  But we are just going to cover.

  So for her, Jenny, it was 10 months of this year so far.

  I started Orca Accounting in April of 2024.

  So we're coming up on 19 months this month.

  And we're just going to dive in a little bit and share about how our journeys have gone, the highs, the lows, and just how we stay grounded throughout.

  And Leah, I'm really looking forward to kind of hearing your journey because you've been doing this a little bit longer than I have.

  So I'm really curious on how your highs have gone, your lows have gone.

  Do you want to kind of kick off and give a preview of where you started and where you've come so far and what have been the some biggest takeaways?

  Yeah, absolutely.

  So just for anyone who is new here and hasn't listened to how Aminder and I met, we were just talking about it.

  We met on LinkedIn.

  She reached out to me because she started her firm earlier this year in January and was just curious about how it's gone, just kind of my experience with it.

  Immediately we connected and really just from that point forward, that's how we started this podcast.

  And so it's always fun to just revisit that story, because that's part of it.

  But back when I started my firm, it was, and I covered this in another episode as well, but it was right after I had quit my corporate startup job.

  I was a senior accountant and it was officially in April of 2024.

  That whole entire year was pretty busy.

  I got married, I moved, and so it was just a big crazy thing in addition to starting a business.

  And so between April of 2024 and July, that was just kind of a breath period where I was brainstorming, thinking of, okay, I'm ready to start this business, but also I have so many questions and just discovering, what do I want my brand to be, asking all those questions.

  But really the highs started in July when I got my first client, my first big client, too.

  And looking back, it's such a funny situation because I definitely did not ease into this new career of, okay, maybe taking on a small client here and there.

  It was a big client.

  It was a big cleanup.

  And to be honest, to be completely transparent, it saved my financial situation.

  I was really just betting on myself and wanted to make this work so badly, but I had no idea what to expect.

  So I was just putting really a lot of faith in my ability to find clients and find them fast.

  Not necessarily what I'd suggest for everybody, but for me, it ended up working out.

  But it was totally random.

  It was a right place, right time sort of connection and moment.

  I found this client on Upwork or rather they found me.

  I was still trying to figure out how to even use Upwork.

  I really didn't know what I was doing at all.

  I had been sending proposals and not getting any real attraction with them.

  Then randomly, this company found me on Upwork and big company, big retail storefront and they had years that needed cleaning up.

  And they just, it was, they have inventory, they had, it was, there was aspects of accrual accounting because they wanted that visibility.

  And it was just a very big change into jumping right back into, okay, here's a big company that needs help, really big learning opportunity for pricing, and just figuring out how I'm going to even price the service.

  I had no idea what I was doing.

  And just with ongoing services and like I said, just with accrual accounting for inventory based company, it was a big, big jump for sure.

  That sounds amazing.

  I think Leah, getting your first client, I think as a new business owner is one of those.

  It's like your first that you remember.

  So it's always that nervous feeling of when am I going to land a client?

  But the fact that you got one and it was so big, I think giving that exposure early on, I think that's amazing.

  And just going back a little bit, did you know that you wanted to start your business even when you were in corporate?

  How did you come about starting your business?

  Was this a dream that you always had or how did that come about?

  It had been something that for the last probably four months of my corporate days, I had been thinking and dreaming of the type of business that I wanted to start, but I just didn't know what.

  It definitely did.

  I started learning about people that were doing what we do and making it work from coming from years of corporate or whatever.

  It was definitely something that had been on my mind for a really long time.

  To be honest, I just needed to start because until you start, then you don't know what you are capable of and you don't know how things just work out.

  And you figure stuff out and things like this.

  Like with my getting my first client, I had no idea what was going to happen, but I truly felt like the energy that I was putting out into the world was that of attracting a client to come to me.

  And so it ended up working out.

  And I think it started with just, yeah, like I was saying, I always knew that I wanted to do this.

  And so that only helped my journey.

  That's amazing.

  I think that's really important for someone like me to hear when I was early on in my journey.

  And one of the reasons I connected with you is to be able to hear our shared experiences.

  So I'm glad that you're able to share this now, kind of like your biggest win with getting that first client.

  I know it's nerve-racking, but it's one of those monumental steps in feeling like, okay, yes, this is a real business.

  I'm moving forward.

  I'm going to learn things from it and continue to grow.

  So that's incredible.

  And kind of from there, then heading into the next part of the year, what did that look like for you?

  Yeah.

  So really since starting that first client, it was then moving into that point Q3 and Q4.

  So this would be in 2024.

  This was my largest periods of growth of my business in the last year.

  And I would say it was nice because the clients that I was then getting interest from were smaller.

  And so at least in terms of getting my processes down, it was a great experience of learning, okay, here's my onboarding process.

  Here's any software that I'm adding into that.

  And really just understanding here's where clients that are smaller find you.

  It was a great learning opportunity for exactly what my minimum pricing was if they are smaller clients and just kind of seeing what that ranges from smaller to bigger and how I would price certain things.

  And I would say that this was a very important area where I was gathering information of where can I put my energy next to get more clients of a similar or larger size and gathering the data based on who had contacted me.

  It was fantastic insight into, okay, here's where I'm going to go next to try to find more of the same people who I really like working with.

  Gathering that data that Intel is so key and it's so interesting that all your clients that come in is new information that you're learning to refine your business, your pricing, your tiers.

  So it's so insightful that you were doing the exact same thing during your high period growth and being able to use those learnings to the next following year.

  Yeah, it's definitely nice, especially now where I have been doing this for over a year, about a year and a number of months, but it's definitely still helpful to realize, okay, this is where I found these types of clients and I really like them and being able to use that forever.

  And so definitely something where I always, I always, I love that data.

  We love data.

  So moving then into the first quarter of 2025 in the new year, this was actually another high was my old startup, who I was very close with the CFO or VP of Finance with.

  There were, for anyone that has worked in corporate and that whether you were a startup or whatever and had to send 1099s to contractors, that was a task where, to be honest, in the corporate world is just kind of like, oh, I don't want to do this.

  And so, or at least that's not how I felt, but that's how the company I was working for felt.

  And so I always loved that sort of organizational project based task.

  So I contract every single year with this startup that I was at.

  And it's just a really, it's a really nice project based work that I do every first quarter.

  And so it's just nice to count on that revenue, or at least most likely, I know that that's coming in and I just know based on my relationship with them, what it's going to be.

  And it just kind of gets that process, it forced me to get that process streamlined for when I do it for my own clients.

  And so that was just another high of every year.

  I know that that's coming around.

  And really just kind of getting in that first quarter of the new year, just getting all the new clients that I just signed in the last part of 2024, just getting them cozy and making sure that they feel comfortable with the transition of, okay, now I'm doing this for you and I'm working with you, really just seeing how we can just kind of make that process easier for them.

  And then also just making new connections.

  That's when I met you.

  And it was so fun because we just started talking.

  And I think we had started talking about the podcast within the first quarter, maybe the earliest part of the second quarter.

  And it was just such a fun opportunity to make new connections and just kind of recap, okay, like, here's what we're doing, here's what I've done.

  And it was such a learning curve, but then just seeing you step into it has been just so lovely.

  And so it was nice to recap all of that.

  Yeah.

  And I think the connections is a huge part that we don't really talk about enough in business.

  I think kind of being vulnerable and putting yourself out there and saying, hey, I don't know everything, but I'd love to hear how you did it has been really important part of my journey.

  And I feel like we were talking about this earlier, that making this connection has been like one of the biggest support systems that I've had throughout the year.

  These moments when we can connect and just catch up on, okay, this is what's working for me.

  This is what I'm struggling with.

  How are you doing it?

  And just being able to be vulnerable and open and share with one another that this is what's going on.

  So building those true deep connections, I feel like it's rare, but it's so important as an entrepreneur because it can feel like such a lonely journey.

  And so I think finding you in the early part of my journey has been so rewarding.

  And I'm really, really appreciative that we have this connection and we can kind of share these moments with our listeners and through our podcast as well.

  And so I think it's monumental.

  I know.

  It's so lovely.

  And me and Aminder were just talking like we were meant to be as business besties in this space.

  Because it really has been kind of like just, it's been such a support system, especially during the moments where we have doubts or just questions.

  And because entrepreneurship can be really isolating and lonely.

  And this is definitely part of that support system where we know that we genuinely just care and support of each other in our businesses.

  And so it's been so both creative and inspiring, but then also just so uplifting.

  And so we find your Aminder, everybody.

  That would be my advice.

  You have to find your Leah.

  You need someone like that.

  Yeah.

  And just moving into the rest of 2025, Q2 and Q3, it was a huge deal because we launched our podcast officially in May of this year.

  And I've spoke about this on a prior episode, but it was my opportunity to really just take a summer, not completely off because I had my current clients, but it was an area where I was not trying to grow and I was just trying to enjoy time that I had.

  And unfortunately, it was a little bit of a slower period too, just terms of growth, because I think just naturally, a lot of entrepreneurs go on vacation and just don't want to deal with their books, and I completely get that.

  But it was so lovely having this podcast to just meet once a month and just catch up like we did, like we do, because it kept me so encouraged and engaged throughout the slow period, which I think is so important to have those voices to remind you, like, just keep going, just, you know, just it's okay, like this is happening for me too.

  And so that's been, that was lovely.

  And really just kind of the end of catching up to now, the end of Q3 and just getting into Q4, I would say, the end of September, when my husband was going back to school, it really just pushed me into my creative flow again.

  I felt so much energy coming off of the summer and really have just been on a huge marketing push, referrals that I've gotten and just clients that I've signed over the last year, all those networking referrals have started to pay off and I really started to feel a lot of traction.

  So just seeing also my experience with networking and having, okay, this is how I show up to a group of people just in the wild and introduce myself and what I do, I've really started to see that year and several months of doing this, I've started to have that confidence of, okay, yeah, this is, I know what to do, I know what to say, which is huge because networking can be hard.

  For networking, Leah, do you tend to put a goal out for yourself, I guess, on a monthly basis?

  Do you want to attend X amount of networking events, or are you doing it more ad hoc?

  Do you have a strategy around your networking?

  Because I know as an introvert, sometimes it's hard getting out there and getting yourself in front of folks, so how do you navigate it?

  I unintentionally baked it into just commitments that I had made.

  I just listened to another podcast actually mentioned this, that one of the most effective ways to get yourself to show up for something is to have it so that you are accountable in a way where there's other people involved and if you don't show up, then you're letting them down.

  So that was something that I unintentionally did, but I'm part of several different groups where one of them, it's just a group of young professionals and I helped put on a conference that occurred in the end of September and I also just have it on my schedule through them that there's a lot of networking events.

  Then there's just a couple, there's a paid marketing group that I'm a part of and there's that guilt of, okay, if I don't show up, then I am paying for something that I'm not doing anything with it.

  So it really is definitely something where I don't have a set number of events that I want to go to, but I do want to show up to the commitments that I've made.

  So it all works out to around about four total events where I'm going and meeting new people and that sort of thing.

  Oh my goodness.

  I love that.

  I love the intentionality.

  And again, you lay those seeds, right?

  When you're networking and down the road, folks will remember and show up.

  So I think it's important to kind of remember.

  It's not just an instant gratification type thing always.

  There may be a lot of groundwork that's happening behind the scenes that you're laying down and then maybe months down the road, they'll remember you when they're like, I need a cleanup of my books.

  Let me call Leah.

  Yeah, exactly.

  Just planting those seeds and just getting ahead of that is definitely something that I still continue to thank myself for today, because if I hadn't planted those seeds, then it's always something where they are so important down the road, even if you aren't seeing immediate results, which I think has been, as someone who is impatient, a big learning curve of how to just adjust to that expectation.

  Just finishing up the year, I just, like I said, having good systems in place just with my proposals, onboarding and recurring tasks has been so great.

  Really just seeing how many ideas I have in motion for just digital products and membership ideas and courses.

  I have so many ideas and I just need to make time.

  It's just been great getting all that organized, restarting my CPA studying because I took a very large hiatus from that.

  Just seeing, okay, what do I want to do in the next year?

  What do I want to do now so that I set myself up for success?

  It's just been a great, there's been many highs and we'll get to the lows for me in a little bit.

  Now that we've covered my journey, let me know a little bit because we started talking in January.

  Let's start with the same thing.

  Had you had this idea?

  How did it go transitioning into actually starting your business officially and announcing it?

  So yeah, just give me all of your background.

  Yeah.

  First of all, I love your journey because it really highlights the trajectory of each business.

  My journey is similar, but I think a lot of it I'm learning from how you're doing things.

  Again, we brainstorm a lot in these sessions.

  But really for my business, I was working in a startup as well and I left at the end of October.

  It was Halloween and it's interesting.

  I talked to someone recently at a networking event and she said, you know what you have to do?

  You have to celebrate your last day in corporate.

  It has to be a celebration.

  So I never had thought about this and now that October 31st is coming around, I'm thinking, okay, how do I want to commemorate this moment that I stepped away from corporate?

  Because I was working in corporate for almost 10 years before I stepped away.

  Again, I had goals down corporate line and all of a sudden, the shift happened.

  So when I left, I didn't really know I wanted to start my own business.

  I was just really burnt out and I needed a break from the accounting world in terms of corporate.

  So I just said, okay, I'm going to hit pause.

  I'm taking the holidays off.

  And so I left in October 2024.

  And so that last quarter of 2024, I didn't do anything other than spend time with my family, enjoy the holidays.

  And near the end of the year, I started thinking, okay, what do I want to do?

  Do I want to find another job, go back into corporate, or do I want to start a new business?

  I think I started seeing posts around a lot of accountants starting their own businesses.

  And so I was kind of curious.

  I didn't know what it really meant and what kind of services would I offer.

  And so it took a little brainstorming.

  And so January 2025, I'm like, okay, I'm going to register a business.

  I'm going to offer bookkeeping and fractional CFO services.

  And we're going to go from there.

  We're going to figure it out.

  And so really, I didn't do anything from a business until January.

  I went through all the registrations.

  And then come February, I was working on setting up the software, my website, getting a name for my company.

  So all that was kind of happening on the back end.

  We connected and I wanted to hear your experience, because again, when you're going into something brand new, it's so helpful to have someone to connect with, learn from their experience, ask questions.

  How'd you do this?

  How are you finding it?

  And so I was so grateful that you were able to connect with me.

  And since then, it's just been such a rewarding relationship, I find, Leah, that we can kind of support one another and grow our businesses together.

  So I am so appreciative of the relationship that we've built, and our support system that we have.

  So that was the start of the year, really.

  It's fantastic that, I mean, obviously, I think that just connecting was so fun.

  And I just am so grateful that I get to be a part of your journey from almost the very beginning.

  And but really, before I met you, I love the idea of, I think I'm a very sentimental person.

  And so I think that just dates have meaning.

  And I just think that I love the idea of you celebrating on Halloween this year or whenever you said Halloween.

  And so I love the idea of having that be a celebratory moment.

  Because I think that that's something that, especially now that we are doing our own business and it is somewhat isolating sometimes, I think celebrating those monumental changes of something that is definitely not a common celebration type of moment for the majority of people that work for somebody else or whatever.

  But it's almost like the thing that I compare it to is having a gotcha day for a dog or, it really is kind of like just a celebration of an evolution of what you are doing in life.

  And I think that that is such an exciting thing to celebrate.

  So I very much encourage you to do something.

  And again, it's an, oh my God, please post about it, because I feel like I always, for anyone who hasn't really been listening too long, but I, Aminder has been so good on social media.

  And so I'm always just thinking of ideas for her and neglecting my own social media.

  We're going to start posting more.

  So that's our goal for this next coming quarterly.

  I'm looking forward to all your new posts and reels that are going to come out.

  So I'm definitely looking forward to it.

  So, okay.

  So in March, you really, that's when you really started, you had already gotten your name picked out, you had set up the website and all of your different software.

  So how did it go announcing your firm publicly?

  And how did that lead into, okay, March, April, May getting into the second quarter of the year?

  So there was this huge apprehension about making the announcement.

  I think it's that moment of, okay, now this is gonna be real, can't undo it, like the floodgates are gonna open, everyone's gonna know I'm doing this.

  And there's just this apprehension, there's excitement too that, oh, I'm finally doing this.

  But again, when you're posting on LinkedIn, I feel there's like this vulnerability of, well, what are other folks, how are they gonna take it?

  And thinking kind of about your network.

  And I had a really good response from my post and it kind of gave me the courage to keep going.

  And so I had lots of great feedback.

  Folks I hadn't even heard from in years reached out and they were just like, wow, this is amazing.

  And kind of that validation to, okay, I'm on to something.

  There's folks out there that believe that I can do this, right?

  So using that energy and going into March, I actually got my first clean up client at the end of March.

  And that was just getting them set up so they could file their taxes.

  That was really encouraging because it felt like, okay, yes, I made the announcement, I got someone that's willing to pay for my services.

  So this is working.

  So that was really encouraging.

  And then moving into April and May, it was more showing up consistently.

  I started doing social media.

  I wasn't putting my face out there yet.

  It was more educational posts.

  I started attending networking events and putting myself out there.

  Launching our podcast was a huge moment in May.

  I think May 1st was our first podcast that we released.

  And that was exciting, the build up to it.

  And just thinking of all the ideas we want to share.

  So that was really exciting.

  And then in terms of client work, I was getting lots of one-off small client work.

  And then not until June did I hit that big momentum of I signed three reoccurring clients in that month.

  And so then that moment is when it started now feeling like, okay, this is real, I can take a breath.

  And so that was that big moment of like, okay, I think I can do this.

  And just feeling like I can take this momentum and keep moving forward now.

  And so I think June was, May was really great because we'd started our podcast and June was this really great period of reoccurring clients and then kind of moving into summer.

  Yeah, it's so nice finishing off a quarter and realizing this is the progress that I have made in not only kind of working in my business, but also working on my business.

  And I think definitely having the in-your-business results of getting clients, it's such a gratifying thing.

  And so I'm so glad that you got your clients in June to kick off the rest of the summer because it definitely is a period, like we said, that can sometimes be slower in terms of growth.

  But it really is just such a lovely time where you got to iron out your processes with those three clients, because there's always an adjustment period.

  So that sounds so lovely.

  Yeah.

  And then really the summer was slower, typically like you've seen as well.

  And so I kind of leaned into refining my processes.

  You recommended Client Portal that I ended up implementing.

  And so I used that.

  Assembly is what I use.

  I think that's their name now, Assembly.

  It was Co-Pilot.

  I used that for my clients.

  So I started thinking about my processes, more streamlining them now that I had reoccurring clients.

  How can I make my processes more efficient?

  I started thinking about my pricing model, the types of services, refreshing my website, prioritizing my proposal process.

  And then I started attending a lot of educational networking events.

  So I attended, I know AIs are a really big topic in accounting right now.

  So I attended an event with Meta here in Bellevue.

  And then I also attended one by Microsoft here in the last month, but really just leaning into learning and catching up on my CPE that I need for my CPA.

  So took advantage of that a little bit of slower time and just showing up on social media, getting more visibility and launching my blog was a huge thing.

  So I post educational posts on my website related to that.

  And I started developing free resources that I have right now.

  I think it's a month-end checklist is what I have available.

  So if you're a business owner and you want to kind of keep track of what am I supposed to even do at the end of the month with my finances, I kind of put together a checklist, started thinking more beyond just client work to what else do I want to offer.

  And so that was a really nice time during the summer because it was slower to be able to kind of focus on these other marketing areas of my business.

  So that's been really rewarding as well.

  And it's so lovely.

  I think that like many things that I get inspired by with your marketing, it's definitely seeing the free resources that you've created has been such a good inspiring motivator for me to think, okay, this is an area where there is traction to be had.

  And there's so many ideas that we think of all the time, just I'm sure with our own individual businesses and just things that we could offer as I think the term is lead magnets, because really what I think your intention is, and what my intention is, is to create content that is educational as well as behind the scenes of who we actually are as people.

  And so I love that you already have such a good starting point with what you have been doing and you've laid a foundation for all the future content that you are creating like we talked about.

  So it's exciting.

  And kind of moving into the end of just Q3 and moving into October this month, what are your final highs and what are you excited about going into the end of the year?

  Yeah, so I think I'm definitely starting to notice more traction now that we're moving into the last quarter of the year.

  And again, putting myself out there on social media, Leah, you encouraged me to put my face on social media, Leah.

  So I've taken that advice and I've started posting my face.

  And so that's kind of helped build more trust on social media.

  And so using that momentum and just being able to consistently show up with social media through the next quarter into the new year.

  I also have a Women's Expo event coming up next Saturday, October 18th, depending on when we release this episode, I'll be a vendor there.

  It's a B2B event, so business to business.

  And so I'll be there at my booth.

  And if anyone's dropping by, come say hi.

  I'd love to chat.

  That sounds so fun.

  I love the idea of having a booth.

  That sounds scary, but that sounds fun.

  Just I love connecting with business owners in person, kind of hearing their stories I think is the most fun bit for me.

  And so I'll share how that event went in our next episode.

  Once I've hosted, so we'll catch up on another one then.

  But really just focusing on my marketing is going to be a key piece into the end of the year and figuring out which clients I say yes to and which clients I say no to.

  So I think that will be important to, again, find the right fit of clients.

  I definitely am noticing work picking up and it'll definitely pick up as we move into the end of the year and as taxes come into play into the new year.

  So I'm excited for the new growth and the energy that comes with, and this is going to be my first Q4.

  So I'm excited, but I'm nervous because all this is like a learning curve for me.

  But I'm so glad I have you, Leah, so I can tap your shoulder and be like, hey, what did you do for this last year?

  So I'm so grateful for that.

  Yeah, it's so fun just reviewing the highs that we have both experienced because truly since the beginning, right now, Aminder has over 500 followers on Instagram, which I am continuously just so inspired by because it really has just starting, like you said, from a period of your life where you wanted a break from the corporate world and you didn't know what was going to come next, but you just wanted some headspace to now thinking in October, this is where you are and you are making decisions of, okay, do I want to say yes to this big client?

  Do I want to say no?

  It's definitely something where I am just so excited for you and your journey because it has really gone so fast, so I am so excited for you.

  Yeah, and I'm looking forward to everything else we're going to put out into the next quarter.

  So I know you have your pod that you're going to be sharing a lot of more educational stuff on, so I'm really looking forward to that.

  So everyone stay tuned.

  We're going to have more stuff for everyone.

  That's more content all the time, and now that we have our processes down, it's definitely fun that we have so many things coming up.

  So just shifting gears here, Leah.

  So we've talked about all our highs in our business.

  How has your business been and what have been some of the lows?

  What have been the things that have been troubling you that you want to share?

  Yeah, and this is really, I'm so excited to talk about these because this is something where it's so easy to see on social media, what all the highs are, what the highlights, like literally the highlight reel of what is happening.

  And just seeing kind of just behind the scenes, it's, I think when we go to networking events or anything like that, we focus on the highs, which is, you know, fantastic and motivating.

  But I love transparency.

  And I think that when I hear of other people's struggles, I am like, OK, thank God, it's not just me because everybody has self-doubt and imposter syndrome to an extent.

  And so it's just I'm happy that we get to share this aspect as well.

  For me, there are four big ones and I'll just cover them in order.

  I think earlier this year, I got I got two big inquiries from big clients.

  Like we're talking they needed a lot of help.

  And it was probably the biggest clients that I would have had in terms of the recurring revenue that was available.

  And I think that naturally when you get these inquiries, you get excited about, okay, what is this going to look like?

  You inevitably plan for what this is going to do to your business and life and how much change this is going to bring for the good.

  And I must be honest, I got too big from those two inquiries, I got rejected.

  And it's definitely something that I looking back, it was not a good fit, but it was definitely something where in the moment, it makes you think about what am I doing wrong?

  Why didn't they want to work with me?

  And I think it's natural, you're not going to be for everybody.

  And it's definitely something that I think you going through it, it helps you put into perspective, there's going to be more opportunities.

  But at the time, it feels like this is the only thing that matters.

  And it just is very, you get absorbed in it.

  And so it's just a reminder to everybody as a silver lining.

  When those happen, the only thing that helps is just moving forward and seeing what else is out there for you.

  Because it's not, you know, it's just maybe not meant to be.

  But really just experiencing those rejections and having those fall through.

  The slow summer, it was lovely in retrospect because I think that it served as a time for me to just take a brain break and to prevent burnout and realize, okay, here's what I want from my business through this slow period.

  And it gave me time that was unplanned, but it gave me time to really be intentional with what do I want to come next, what type of content and energy do I want to bring into the end of the summer and going into the end of the year.

  And so that was lovely because I don't think I would have built that in otherwise.

  And now I can kind of almost plan for that sort of seasonality shift going forward.

  So there's a silver lining there too.

  And thirdly, networking is hard.

  And it is lonely and isolating sometimes.

  Just yesterday, I went to a networking event and I could have not felt like a bigger blob out of place.

  Like I just felt like everybody here knows each other and I am new and who am I to come in here and just think like I can come introduce myself to people.

  And so just a reminder, it is a really hard thing to do.

  As much competence that I have built, it is different.

  There's moments where you go into a networking event and you leave thinking, wow, that was just like so disheartening to see how intimidating and just disappointing it can be to just meet people who maybe are just not as inviting.

  And I think we are so lucky because we serve as such a resource of just such confidence and just promotion within our own little bubble of this Accounting Edit podcast.

  But it's not always like that.

  So it's hard to kind of come to terms with that.

  And then I think just other lows, pressure of just doing it all myself and through this figuring out how to become more efficient.

  Definitely, it's not as much of a sad blow, but it's definitely something where you just learn from processes that can become more efficient.

  And you learn from opportunities that if you're doing all this to yourself, then here's how you can improve this area of your business so that it's just more efficient.

  And seeing, okay, what will this look like until I do hire somebody, which I keep on pushing back because I just am...

  There's so many reasons why I'll probably evaluate in a different episode, why it's taking me a while.

  But those are really kind of what I've come across so far.

  So yeah, so how, in terms of your lows in the 10 months, explain to me kind of things that you've moved through and have realized in retrospect?

  And I definitely resonate with everything that you've said, Leah, because it's so true.

  I think as introverts, the networking is really difficult.

  I have anxiety around that, that I set goals for myself or parameters or boundaries around.

  I'm gonna go in for this amount of time, and then I don't have to do anything beyond that to be able to kind of push through that.

  And then also even on rejections, I think that's one of the hardest things as a business owner, is not to take it personally when you do have a rejection.

  And I've had my fair share of rejections also, bigger clients, and a lot of it is related to pricing, right?

  And just feeling like offering what you feel like is fair in terms of your services, and a lot of them going for options that they think are better for them.

  And not to take that personally, and just if it doesn't align, the fit wasn't there, it's okay, right?

  There'll be other clients that will align better.

  So again, not taking that personally.

  And I think for me, a lot of it was just like you mentioned, loneliness on launching, on if I'm doing the right thing, the weight of having your own business, the mental load you carry.

  And so I think the real big thing has been being able to connect with you and finding community and being able to share like vulnerably my struggles and say, hey, I don't know what I'm doing here.

  And we can kind of brainstorm together because there's not always going to be a perfect answer.

  It's just as an entrepreneur, you learn from each decision you do make, each instance you come across.

  You take it as an opportunity of, okay, it didn't work out like how I wanted here, but what am I going to learn and pick myself up and move forward?

  So it's been really difficult in that sense, but finding that community has been really special, I feel like.

  And then I know you mentioned my social media posts and marketing a lot, but on the back end, for me, it has been a huge struggle of, I'm posting stuff and feeling like, okay, is this even resonating with anyone?

  I'm spending hours on this.

  Does it feel like is it a good investment?

  Having challenges around even putting my face out in the world and saying, okay, this is who I am and being vulnerable and feeling like, okay, are people going to judge me for this?

  And so I think a lot of the marketing frustrations for me have been on the back end also, like you see this polished finish, you see all these posts all the time, but there's so many posts where I'm just like, I don't know.

  I don't know if I like how I look in this photo, should I post it, right?

  So there's a lot of that on the back end and just constantly questioning myself, not just with social media marketing, but also the decisions I make.

  You don't have someone to double check with as if you're in corporate where you can just go to, okay, what would you do?

  A lot of these decisions you're taking and you're going to learn from them and it's going to work or you're going to have to pivot, right?

  And kind of getting comfortable with not always knowing what's the right answer and just going with it and knowing that at some point it'll work or you're going to have to pivot.

  And so there's been a lot of pivoting, just even the types of software I'm using, the type of marketing I'm doing, how my website looks.

  I change it frequently, probably every quarter I go in and change it because I'm learning things and as I'm gathering data, I'm changing my approach.

  And then again, like you said, just self-doubt, just constantly that imposter syndrome kicks in and you're questioning, am I doing this right?

  Or if someone's not signing on, was it something I said?

  Was it my pricing?

  Could I have done something differently?

  And that constant self-doubt kind of creeps up.

  And so trying to keep it at bay is a struggle some days versus others.

  But I feel like that will always be there when you're a business owner, you're always questioning, was this the right decision?

  But I think it's important that again, you find community and you can kind of relate and kind of share these vulnerabilities and be like, okay, it's not just me.

  This is a normal part of being a business owner.

  And then the constant push between my vision of what I want my firm to be, where I want to get to, goals that I set in terms of revenue, in terms of what the size of my business I want, and then where I am in reality.

  Sometimes I have this constant push and pull within me of, I'm not there yet and I'm trying all these things.

  And there's this reality check that happens of, okay, I'm not where I want to be, but I'll get there.

  And I just have to keep moving forward, even when you're those days where it just feels like a slug, you're just picking yourself up and just keep moving forward.

  We'll eventually get there and I'm sure in a year from now, two years from now, we'll both look back and think, okay, remember all those things we talked about and how it's changed since then?

  So just putting one foot in front of the other and just trying to make it through day by day.

  Yeah.

  It really is, I resonate kind of like we said, just all of this just feels like you're speaking right to that part of my brain where I'm like, I relate to that and it really is, I think the last point that you had about just the push and pull between the vision and reality.

  I think this speaks also to not just having those self-doubts and saying, okay, comparing yourself with maybe where you want it to be versus where you are.

  I think there's that aspect, but then there's also the aspect of you feel so confident about your ability to get it to where your vision is.

  But it's just the time.

  It's the time of balancing, like we said, doing it all ourself.

  I think in the beginning, it's such a balance that we are continuously figuring out of, these are our ideas and how to work slowly at these and chip them away so that we're on the road to completing these huge ideas.

  But then also making sure that we are not neglecting our client work and making sure that we have everything else in terms of our processes just really locked in so that we can take on those additional responsibilities and not have anything slip in the meantime.

  So it's hard, but it's fun.

  So Leah, these are all the things we struggle with.

  How do you stay grounded through all this?

  What are some things you do?

  So like many things in my life, I force myself to just have things be a part of my day where it's, it just ends up being such a lovely break from just being in my office all day.

  So I have two dogs and I have one of them is a puppy and so he's crazy.

  And so just making sure that I'm spending time with them and my cat that I have, making sure that I'm giving them the attention that they need just from me and my husband and it forces me to get outside and just having those walks built into my day where I need to get outside and make sure that they're getting enrichment.

  It also serves to make sure that I'm getting a break and getting out in nature.

  I also love going to the gym and it's just kind of my therapy of getting away and kind of meditating on everything that's going on and just kind of working on myself.

  And it's really a form of self-care.

  And then also calling my dad and mom.

  My dad started a business, so I love bouncing ideas off of him as well.

  And just being like, give me advice.

  And I think also my husband has just been such a wonderful support system because he believes in me so much.

  And just having that constant reminder of having someone that just is so in your court and just wants nothing but the best for you.

  It's just such a lovely thing to have.

  So definitely, it's some lovely ways to stay grounded.

  And it's not anything crazy, but definitely, definitely just those things that happen every day are so important.

  So how about you?

  Love that.

  I think it's all those small things that really add up because they provide that consistency in your life.

  For me, it's kind of similar.

  It's really spending time with my husband, gives me perspective away from my business.

  He's not in the accounting world.

  So he can kind of speak to me and tell me, okay, this kind of sounds crazy or yes, you got this.

  But that constant encouragement of support is so important.

  And so even on days where I have such self-doubt, he'll be like, no, look at everything you've done.

  Look at how far you've come and just hear someone else say that, gives you that like, okay, I can do this.

  He believes in me, I can do this.

  External validation is so valid.

  It is, it is, not to be underestimated.

  So, so important.

  And then walks every day.

  It's like a good boundary between just turning my computer off and then going out in nature for a walk, just kind of cleanses my mind.

  So I'm not thinking about the same problems into the evening.

  So I try to be diligent about that.

  And then also spending weekend, not doing work things is my other thing.

  I will not work on weekends.

  I have strong boundaries around that.

  And that's just to give myself enough space to kind of recover from work.

  And so then I can pick up all the things I need to after.

  Another one for me has been therapy.

  So for me, it's important to show up in therapy and be vulnerable and kind of share my struggles.

  And so all those struggles that I mentioned, a lot of them, I do bring them into therapy and talk about it openly of this is where my brain's going.

  My social anxiety is running wild when I'm trying to go to these networking events.

  How do I approach it?

  And so finding those tools really help me to stay grounded when I have events coming up and I'm not feeling 100%, but being able to kind of tap in.

  So that's been really important.

  And then also learning to lean into my network and ask for help when I'm unsure.

  So really just a lot of times, Leah, I send questions your way via Slack and be like, hey, what about this?

  Have you thought about this?

  So that's been really great.

  And just any other folks in my networking group, I will try to bounce ideas off of them and just try to have that as a resource.

  I always wanted to do everything my way and not ask for help.

  And so I'm learning to be open and vulnerable and say, okay, I don't know the answer.

  I don't have to spend hours researching it because I will find it if I research it.

  But if it's sometimes easier just to ask for help and say, hey, I don't know.

  So that's been, I feel, really grounding exercise for me.

  100%.

  And I think that what you touched on, just with everything with boundaries, that's something that I have been implementing with work and not working all weekends or trying not to.

  It's hard, but it is definitely so rewarding.

  And I think just you touching on therapy.

  I love therapy and I love that you mentioned that because it is such a lovely part of life to be able to have someone that is just so, as lovely as it is to be able to talk to our partners and be able to discuss all of our feelings with them.

  It is so lovely to have someone that is completely not in your circle of who is in your personal life and just to have a professional talk to you about everything that you're going through is so important.

  And in this day and age, we just love talks about mental health.

  And it's definitely something where, like everyone, we don't want anyone to feel like they're going through anything alone.

  And I think you touching on that.

  I love that.

  I love, I love therapy.

  It's been really important for me as well.

  And so I think it's really great to kind of, like you said, show up as yourself in these instances and focus on your mental health.

  It's a huge part of your overall health.

  So you can be there for your clients, to be there for your business.

  And we are human at the end of the day, so we all have struggles.

  And so to have that extra support, I feel like so important.

  100%.

  I love that.

  And just kind of wrapping this up, like we said before, just from the growth, from the beginning, the highs, the lows, and how we've seen grounded, truly each season of just business, but then also of the year, there's so many learning opportunities for us to observe and just take measured action of how do we want to do this differently next time?

  How do we want to learn from this?

  What do we want to take away?

  What do we not want to do?

  And I think that that has been such a lovely thing that we have both been able to take away from our journey so far.

  So, yeah.

  Thank you all for listening to just how we grew, what we grew.

  And we are so excited to just continue learning and talking about how we have built what we've done.

  So, thank you all so much for listening to our journey.

  You've been listening to The Accounting Edit, a podcast by Aminder Mann of Sequoia CPA and Leah McCool of Orca Accounting.

  And if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to follow us so you don't miss an episode.

  And if you have any feedback or thoughts, we'd love it if you left us a review.

  It really helps us out and we'd love to hear what you think.

  Does your business need help on the accounting side of things?

  We would love to help you.

  You can find Aminder at sequoia.cpa.com or on Instagram at sequoiacpa.

  You can find me, Leah, at orcaaccounting.com or on Instagram at orca-accounting.

  We'll be posting new episodes every other week, so be sure to follow so you don't miss out.

Summary

In this episode, Aminder and Leah share their entrepreneurial journeys, discussing the highs and lows of starting their accounting firms. They reflect on their initial challenges, the importance of community and networking, and the strategies they've implemented to grow their businesses. The conversation also touches on the emotional aspects of entrepreneurship, including self-doubt and the significance of mental health support. Through their experiences, they emphasize the value of celebrating milestones and learning from both successes and setbacks.

Takeaways

• Getting your first client is a significant milestone.

• Networking can be intimidating but is essential for growth.

• Community support is crucial for entrepreneurs.

• Self-doubt and imposter syndrome are common challenges.

• Rejections can lead to valuable learning experiences.

• Celebrating milestones helps maintain motivation.

• Marketing can be frustrating and requires constant adjustment.

• Therapy provides valuable support for mental health.

• Building connections with other entrepreneurs is rewarding.

• Every entrepreneur faces ups and downs in their journey.

Thanks for listening!

— Leah & Aminder

Contact

Website: TheAccountingEdit.com

Leah’s Links:

• Website: orca-accounting.com

• Instagram: @orcaaccounting

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leahmccool

Aminder's Links:

• Website: sequoia-cpa.com

• Instagram: @sequoiacpa

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/sequoia-cpa