5. A Week in the Life: What We’re Really Doing

• Transcript

  Welcome back to The Accounting Edit podcast.

  I'm Leah McCool with Orca Accounting.

  And I'm Aminder Man from Sequoia CPA.

  You just got back from Hawaii, which must have been really hot, but so beautiful.

  How was that?

  It was really nice.

  It was actually, the weather was perfect.

  So it's like warm, but there's like a cool breeze all the time.

  So it felt perfect, because you're on the island.

  And so we did a lot of hiking, and it never felt too hot.

  It actually felt too hot when we got back here.

  It felt like, okay, what happened to the temperature?

  Like, it's hotter here than it was in Hawaii.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Oh my god.

  Okay.

  So you guys stayed on Kauai, right?

  Yeah.

  So we were on Kauai.

  We haven't been there.

  We normally go to Maui.

  And then last year, we went to Oahu, went to Honolulu.

  And then this time we went to Kauai.

  We wanted to do a little bit more hiking.

  So we stayed on the south side first, checked out the canyons and all that.

  And then we went the second half, we went to the north, and we did the coastline trail.

  And it was really nice, just to kind of change things up.

  Yeah, did you see Honolulu Bay?

  Is that the name of the town?

  Okay, did you guys see that at all?

  Yeah, yeah, we were there.

  We went in a couple times.

  And we were staying in the north, near Princeville.

  It's right by Honolulu Bay.

  And so it was so, so pretty.

  The huge, awesome beach and the sunset and the mountain views.

  So it was so beautiful.

  We ended up hiking a part of it.

  It's a really long trail.

  We'd end up doing the whole thing, but just to kind of get that perspective of being on the coast edge, high up.

  It was like, it was intense.

  Oh, my God.

  No, that is so cool that you guys both love hiking.

  And that, I mean, it seems like Pacific Northwest is such a good place for that also.

  But then like, it's so cool that when you go on vacations, you get out and do that stuff too.

  It's so fun that you guys go also when you're like out of town too, because that's something that I always, it always is like a struggle to just like find the motivation when you have such a relaxing environment, but it is so fun to just get out and see everything.

  Yeah, it's a totally different perspective, right?

  And you're amongst nature, so it feels really good.

  But did you end up traveling as well?

  I know you were saying you were gonna be out of town.

  Yeah, where did, oh my god, I was, I feel like that was so long ago, but it really wasn't.

  I went to, I went, actually I went to Washington.

  I had some friends, yeah, I had some friends.

  One of my friends lives in Bremerton, and she's in the Navy, and is usually underwater most of the time.

  Wow.

  Yeah, it's so funny, because I grew up with her across the street, and so my mom came up, and her mom flew out from the East Coast, and we all did a little meetup.

  And so we went to, it was so fun.

  And we went to Long Beach, Washington.

  Oh, yeah, yep.

  I had never been there before, but it was like, it was cool.

  The driving on the beach was so interesting.

  I could just, I'm not used to that in Oregon.

  You're like, what's going on here?

  I was like, why is everyone just like racing down the beach?

  But it was really, it's just, no, yeah.

  And in Oregon, you just don't see that.

  And so it was just funny.

  But so yes, that was fine.

  I took most of the week off for that.

  And then what else was I doing?

  I don't know if I, I don't know.

  I can't keep track of time anymore.

  This summer has been so chaotic, which honestly is kind of a good thing if you think about it.

  It's like not just, like I said, I remember when I was at my old job, I was counting down the days in between vacations, and now it's just like, yeah, I don't, you know, it was like the other week, and it was like that week, and it's so, it blends so much more nicely.

  Yeah.

  And the flexibility you have to take a half-day Friday and like go out and do something versus in corporate, it's so structured.

  Gotta submit your time off request, and then it's like a thing, you have to keep letting people know, I'm gonna be out Friday afternoon, and it kind of takes the joy out of things instead of being spontaneous of, oh, I'm not as busy this Friday afternoon, finished up, let's just go, right?

  It is, it's so wonderful.

  I mean, and we'll talk about this, I know a little today, but it's just having, not having to ask, and for your vacation, for example, you probably didn't have to say to anyone, I mean, I always, whenever I go out of town, I usually put like a vacation reminder, if I'm like gone, like completely offline.

  But other than that, it's nope, nothing else is going out to anybody.

  Not needed, right?

  It's just like a weekend trip, and you're still somewhat online, you can totally just be out of town, and you're accountable to yourself and your clients, but that's about it, right?

  It's so nice.

  I know, just the idea of like asking another adult, hey, can I have this hour off so I can go to an doctor's appointment or something like that, it's just so foreign.

  I don't even remember what that's like, to be honest.

  It's so foreign now.

  Yeah.

  And I've had some traumatic experiences from like requesting time off that it's so liberating now.

  Hundred percent.

  Oh my God.

  Yes.

  I feel like I have, literally same with the trauma, and maybe I should say this for like the actual episode, but it's like, I feel like everyone has to have just like that one traumatic experience that it's just, it's just so nice to not have to worry about that.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  You have a nice boss now.

  I know, right?

  Yeah.

  We're so nice.

  Our bosses are so lovely and accommodating now.

  Thank you all for joining us back again with an episode.

  We're taking a brief hiatus from our mini series, just because we wanted to break it up just a little bit and touch on just some topics that we get excited about and are really relevant to what our days look like just day by day in the life of someone that owns their own business, running an accounting firm, and just a little bit about really just what we're doing in terms of productivity, efficiency, just entrepreneurship in general.

  So we are happy to have you here for this episode.

  So thank you for joining.

  So really, this is just going to be somewhat of an interview style episode.

  And so I'm going to interview Aminder just about what her starting off just like with what her week looks like.

  So Aminder, in a week in your life, what how do you structure your week?

  Like, do you have a plan?

  Do you have a structure?

  Do you have a planner?

  Like, give me all the details on like, are you like a write stuff down sort of like, yeah, tell me everything.

  Yeah, yeah.

  So where to start?

  Let's see.

  So I generally plan out my weeks.

  So I'll start out on the Friday, the week before, and I'll look at my calendar and to see how many client meetings or any lead meetings I have, any sort of networking events I have.

  Anything that really has been there for a while, I'll look at it and use it kind of as anchoring of like, okay, my Monday looks pretty available or like Wednesday's pretty booked.

  I like to keep Thursdays for my CPE.

  So as a CPE, I need to continue to get my continuing professional education.

  So I always have a block on my Thursdays and then sometimes Fridays, depending on what days certain CPE is available.

  So I'll take those blocks in.

  But I like to just kind of structure Mondays as like easing into the week, right?

  I like to make sure that I'm not going in like a meeting first thing Monday morning at 8 a.m., right?

  So relatable.

  I, oh my god, so relatable.

  Oh, yeah.

  That's like the worst thing of 8 a.m.

  on Monday morning, just meeting in your face.

  It's horrible.

  Oh, yeah.

  And now that we own our own businesses, you have that flexibility, right?

  You can say, okay, I want my Mondays to be slow ease-ins, catch up on my emails, and then my meetings start later in the day or in the afternoon.

  Emergency cases, right?

  You can always make an exception.

  But I like to also reserve one day.

  Usually it's Mondays on batch creating content for marketing.

  So I like to create a lot of content and have it as like when I want to drop it.

  So I'll schedule it out throughout the week.

  So that way I don't have to plan the day of, oh, shoot, I got to do like an Instagram post.

  I just like to create as much content as I can.

  And then it's always available if I'm not able to get to something, I can kind of go into my stash and be like, okay, what's there?

  What can I post?

  That is so, oh my god, I'm so in awe right now because I do not, I don't have a content day.

  And we've talked about this before where you literally are so good at being consistent on social media, on Instagram.

  And I am just always just impressed because you are so consistent and you're just so accountable with being able to do that.

  And I just, I do not do that.

  I think it's just part of scheduling my week out, then I try to do it now.

  Some weeks it's better than others.

  Like some weeks I'll get one or two posts in, some weeks I get like five posts in.

  It just varies, right?

  Again, on the workload, but I like to balance working on my business.

  So things like marketing, figuring out my brand strategy versus working in my business, which is really working with my clients, working on their books, working on financial strategies.

  So I like to separate those two out and think of, okay, how much time am I going to spend this week on working on my business versus in?

  Because you kind of need both, right?

  You need to think long-term vision of where you want to take your brand and strategy and how do you want to grow.

  And then the other part of it is actually delivering a memorable experience to your clients.

  You can't just be focused so much on one that you're so caught up in the day-to-day or you're so focused on future growth that you forget about your clients, right?

  So you need a really good balance.

  And so I kind of like to structure my weeks that way so that I'm working on client books as much as I can during the week, but I'm also working on strategy for growth.

  So that's kind of roughly how my week goes.

  I love to end my day like a walk outside with my husband.

  That's the one thing, like the conclusion to my day.

  Got to get out, got to get away from my computer and get a walk in, especially with summer now.

  It's like perfect time to like put that end to the day.

  And then I feel good that, okay, now tomorrow I can start again.

  Yeah, it's no, I do the same thing.

  I always, I was going to say, I force myself to take an afternoon walk, but I really don't because I'm dying to get outside by the end of the day.

  It's just, yeah, it's such a beautiful thing to step outside at the end of your workday and just think, okay, I am, I am done.

  And I don't have anything else on my computer that I need to do for work today.

  So it's so amazing.

  It's amazing, yeah.

  What about your work week?

  How do you structure?

  So yes, I would like to say that I have a really set schedule and I'm getting back into that, but it is, I think that to be quite honest, having a consistent schedule and just a schedule in general, just balancing both the business side of, like the working on your business side, was started off being, I had allocated time to that and it just came so naturally.

  And because I haven't been as consistent with planning for that, it has gotten much harder just because I'm just filling in where I can.

  And so that is something.

  So with how my week goes, I always take Mondays for myself as well.

  Because it's so, and so what I mean by that is I still am working during the day, but I don't schedule any meetings for Mondays.

  I actually have that blocked off on my client calendar, my networking calendar and everything else.

  I use Calendly, and so if any one of my clients wants to schedule their monthly check-in or if there's networking and I just send people my calendar to book out time if they want to grab coffee or something.

  Yeah, it's so lovely just not having that even be an option on your calendar, because then I can just get caught up with whatever I need to, and it really is just easing back into the week after the weekend, and I just find that that makes the start of the work week just so much more enjoyable.

  It was one of the worst parts of corporate, because it just, these Sunday scaries are so real, and just feeling that sense of dread of, okay, I'm getting on Monday, but then I have literally like a client facing meeting at sometimes 7 a.m.

  or 8 a.m.

  It's just so not part of the lifestyle that I was wanting, and because now I have the ability to just ease into the week instead of having it start off on someone else's schedule, it's been so lovely to just not have to deal with that.

  The flexibility you get as an entrepreneur is amazing.

  Absolutely.

  And so that's my Monday.

  And so typically what I do, because I'm studying for my CPA exams right now, I'm trying to study between three to four hours a day.

  And so because I am someone that takes notes, I need a lot of time and I need to write things down.

  And so I will block it off and just take those four hours to study in the morning.

  So I usually get up at six, then I'll study between like six and nine a.m.

  Then I'll take my dog out for a walk, because I always want to get my dog out for at least a 30 minute walk.

  But then I get back.

  That's when I really just get back into computer mode, the focus mode, and that's when I do the majority of my client work, is from around 10 a.m.

  until around two to three.

  I also include, I always just try and give people, if I'm networking, I always try and just do that in the morning so that my afternoons can be more focused and more just locked in if I need to do something that afternoon in terms of client work.

  But then really, I try and be done because I get up at six and I start my workday.

  I try and be done by like three at the latest.

  And so it really is, I try and just take the afternoons to just reset back into the other parts of my life.

  So that's usually when I will take my dog for a walk and just get everything organized with just household stuff and just making food and doing all those things outside of work that are more life related and not so much work.

  And it kind of gives you that time to get grounded again before you launch into the next day.

  You're not just on stress mode running from day to day.

  You kind of give yourself that room and that mental space as well.

  I think which is really important to having a well-being lifestyle.

  So it's amazing you're doing that.

  Yeah, it's been nice because I think that really this is somewhat of a recent development where I've been somewhat structured because maybe you'll relate to this, or maybe you won't because you're very structured and you're very good at holding yourself accountable.

  But because we work from home and because we have our computers all the time, it's hard for me sometimes to not just work at night or if I'm behind on something, to not just do it in the evening after work.

  And so that has been a hard balance to strike of, okay, could I be more efficient with my time in the earlier part of the day so that I can actually take space to enjoy my life after work?

  Or then sometimes it's more chaotic.

  But I feel like not having kids, it's so much easier to be flexible with that.

  Whereas I do know that a lot of people in our industry, especially business owners in our industry have kids, and so they have to work around their kids' schedule.

  And so sometimes working at night is the most effective use of their time, and that's how they get their business done.

  Yeah.

  Yeah, it's interesting for me.

  I think one of the reasons that I stepped away from corporate was the time schedule.

  I was working really long hours, so I made that a point of not wanting to go back to that once I started my own business.

  So now I make a conscious choice not to work outside of my work hours.

  I know I'm always tempted like, oh, I could just send that email or I could just do that thing.

  It's only gonna take me five minutes, but I have to be really diligent and like push myself to not go outside those boundaries.

  Otherwise, I'll end up in a place where I'll hit burnout again, and it just doesn't work, right?

  Because you can work all hours.

  You can just like five minutes here, five minutes there, and then before you know it, you've been working the whole day and you don't have that period to decompress, and you're going into another day and you're kind of frazzled versus like finding that time and space, putting distance between work and finding your identity outside of work and giving yourself that space.

  I find I do way better work the next day because I feel so much more refreshed, and that email still waiting for me the next day so I can respond to it first thing.

  So I think it's really important and really nice that you're finding that structure in your own day and your own week.

  Something that you said that I loved was with the email specifically, that email will still be waiting for you.

  And I was told one time that an email, if you feel like you have to respond right that minute, then that's when you should really just take a breath and think about, is this something that really demands my time right this minute?

  Or am I just anxious and wanting to just take advantage of trying to just get it out of sight, out of mind, because oftentimes I feel like what's most effective in creating that space and not feeling like you're pouring everything in all of your time and just having boundaries with the time that you spend on your business, it is so important to just realize, okay, what's urgent and what really needs your attention versus, okay, what maybe actually can wait, and we can get back to it at a time where our boundaries allow, you know?

  And that's so huge.

  And I think there's going to be more of a thoughtful answer behind that email at that point too, instead of one of those reactive ones, right, like you said, where you're just trying to get that email out of your inbox, so you just want to respond, so the response might not be the most thoughtful.

  So taking that extra time, giving yourself that space where you can take a pause, reflect and react to it in a more grounded way, I feel like you're going to have a way better response, and your client or whoever you're sending the email to will see that as well instead of a place of reactivity.

  Yes, it's, I mean, my work week, my schedule has definitely evolved since I started my business, and so, yeah, so I'm curious, too, because you started your business back in January, so like, how has your planning journey, how is your, you know, a week in your life, a day in your life, has that schedule evolved from when you first started your business, or has it been really consistent since that first week that you started?

  Let's see, I'm trying to think back now.

  I know it's only like six months, but I'm like, ooh.

  Yeah, so I think it's been pretty similar.

  I think what I've been trying to do is keep structure to my day, but the type of work I'm doing now has shifted.

  So in the beginning, it was a lot of the administrative of getting the business going, getting those business licenses, getting, picking out a name, all that stuff that goes on behind the scenes, building out the website.

  And now that's in the background.

  Now the focus is really figuring out my brand, the strategy, and then focusing on my client's work.

  And so my days are getting a little bit longer as I'm taking on more clients.

  And the type of work, I'm balancing it a little bit more as I get more clients.

  I'm spending more time on client work and a lot of what I'm working on on the business side is, it's like reducing, because I don't want to work extra hours, but it's becoming more in balance, I would say.

  In the beginning, I was working a lot more on the business rather than within the business.

  And I love both aspects of it, which is really fascinating.

  When I started, I didn't think that there was gonna be so much marketing involved, so much networking, but those are the kind of things that now bring balance to the whole business side.

  I get to work on these other areas outside of accounting and learn and grow from them.

  And there's the areas where I'm working in accounting, which I really enjoy, and taking that deep dive and applying my own processes to my clients and digging in on that end.

  So it gives that in-depth view to both sides.

  And I think now I'm kind of seeing both sides of it in equal portions.

  Maybe in the beginning, a lot more of it was just the admin side.

  No, it's so fun though, because a lot of times people say when they're talking about starting a business, they'll say that they don't realize that you're having to wear so many hats in the business.

  And usually, one of those hats is like the accounting work.

  And so because the operations of our business is literally doing accounting and financial reporting, and typically that's just something that is just another job that people have to do.

  So it's really funny that the operations are this one thing, and then the whole rest of it is this creative process, or even maybe not creative when it comes to just filing your annual report, or just doing the more mundane tasks.

  But then some of it, like creating content, for example, that is so, it's so much fun whenever I do take time to do it.

  And so it is, it's so fun to just really invest time on that side of things also.

  I mean, not just, not just in the beginning, but even as I'm ongoing, it's, it's been fun.

  So that's interesting that just in six months, it has evolved so much as you've just been getting busier and everything too.

  Yeah.

  And what about for yourself?

  Because I know it's like a year since you've launched.

  How has it come along?

  Because it's your six months ahead of me.

  So how's it like?

  What do I look forward to?

  I feel like, okay.

  And so this is kind of what I was alluding to earlier.

  I feel like I have, so in the beginning, right?

  You're starting out, you have, don't have any clients yet because you've just started your business.

  And so you can put so much time into the creative aspects of running the business and the more like businessy sides, not accounting.

  And then slowly you start to take on more clients, the client work starts to take up more of your day and more of your week.

  And so then you actually start to have to balance the decrease of the amount of time spent on marketing.

  And so, and I think that in the beginning, it was very manageable because when I had, you know, five, ten clients, it was manageable because I was learning how to do the clients faster and it was just my cleanups that I was doing less time for that.

  And now I have around 15, I think I have about 17 clients now.

  And so once I passed that, once I passed that 10 client mark, that's when it started to get a little crazy where I, to be quite honest, I have let the marketing side slip because I just feel like I, if I do have time, I want to be spending it on client work and just getting ahead.

  And so, so yeah, so I think that it, it gets to the point and it will stay like this until you make that first hire.

  And whether that's a contractor or an employee, I've heard, and I just hear from other business owners in my area, even if they're not in the accounting space, you start to reach, there's a threshold.

  And until you reach that threshold, it's all on you still, and so it can feel a little crazy.

  But so yeah, I'm starting to think about, okay, who is my first hire going to be?

  Do I want them to work on the accounting side and like the internal doing the client work, helping support me?

  I can just go back in and kind of have more of like an overview or role and just do higher level journal entries.

  So it's definitely something where I am wondering if I should do that or if I would rather keep that to myself because I'm kind of a control freak and let someone else handle some of the marketing side and take that off my plate.

  So I'm not at that point quite yet, but I can feel myself getting there because I am just feeling a little bit stretched.

  Yeah, yeah.

  And it's interesting because we support small business owners and being a business owner ourselves, we're seeing the importance of delegating eventually.

  Once you hit that threshold, delegating a lot of these tasks, either like you said, it's marketing, you could contract out to a marketing team or you could have a virtual assistant.

  There's so many areas of running a business that you could delegate tasks out before.

  You feel like you even need to grow a whole team.

  So it's so awesome to see that there are so many businesses that you can individually support yourself.

  Like if you need to bring on some sort of support, you can just hire and they could take that huge piece off of your plate and that opens up capacity for you to grow and scale your business.

  So it's so fascinating being a small business owner, supporting small business owners and going through that same journey.

  Yeah, it is so cool because until I think that we see it from the lens of, here's me as a service provider, I can help support you.

  And so we see it through that end of our being the business owner that's trying to help support others.

  And now realizing that there is an opportunity of, okay, how can I actually outsource my own?

  Like how can I have someone help me?

  It's just such an interesting concept of growth just because in the beginning, you're doing it all yourself.

  I mean, I'm doing it all myself still.

  And just thinking that this really is how it goes.

  And that's exciting and scary to think about hiring someone else.

  And it's just a further, it really is just like a further, and I say this all the time, but I think that so much of business is just evaluating opportunity costs and where you want your time, where it matters most.

  And there's never a right answer for that in my opinion.

  And I think that sometimes it's so subjective to the person, their lifestyle, the type of oversight that they want to have on a specific aspect because I know people who are like us and have their own firms that still do all the marketing themselves.

  And I just, it's just so fascinating how there's just no right way to do it.

  So yeah, it's, it's exciting.

  They're just your way to do it.

  So do it your way.

  Yes, exactly.

  Oh man.

  And so, yeah, so as you, when you are structuring your day, you mentioned that you usually start off your week with Mondays as CP or no, Mondays marketing and then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, client work, Thursdays, Fridays, CPE.

  Do you, do you typically use more work block sort of approaches or how are you, how are you staying accountable with everything that you have to do in the week?

  So I use a couple of different things.

  So I do use work blocks on my calendar, but I try not to block up my calendar too much because I also use Calendly for clients to be able to book meetings with me.

  So I will put blocks in where I know it's absolutely necessary that I need this time, but I'm very like a checklist-oriented person, so I have tasks and I list them in order of priority, and that's part of my prior week Friday prep of looking out at my list.

  What does my week look like?

  How am I gonna structure it?

  And of course, there's gonna be stuff that pops up throughout the week, and sometimes it gets pushed up in terms of priority, but keeping that list and be like, okay, these are my urgent projects or tasks I need to get to, medium priority, and then non-urgent stuff.

  So I keep that checklist and each day, I go through, okay, this is what I have, what are we hitting?

  Do I have the time to complete all these?

  If not, what do I need to trade off to get there?

  And usually, I try to be very efficient with my time.

  So I'll look at my tasks and be like, okay, these are the tasks, how much time am I looking at?

  And this is where the accounting analytical brain comes in, and I'm like, how many hours do I have to allocate to this?

  And so just being efficient with it and not spending six hours trying to come up with like a marketing post, I know that I'm going to give myself an hour to create two posts, so I have them.

  And then when the hour is up, I need to move on, so it doesn't bleed into the rest of the day.

  So try to be as efficient as I can.

  And if I don't get to everything I wanted, that's okay, because there's other stuff that's waiting as well.

  So that's kind of a combination of things that keep me organized in my week.

  Yeah, no, that is such a good insight into your, I've just got a snapshot into your brain.

  And so, it's such a, and I think that you're so right.

  Doing, and I get caught up in this, and I think probably a lot of accountants do, we tend to be somewhat perfectionistic, because we like there to be just clean answers, everything wrapping up with a nice little bow.

  But it really is, if you can get those items off of your checklist in a manner where you're both putting enough time into them so that you're doing it well, but then maybe it doesn't need to be perfect in the sense that you don't need to revise it.

  You don't need to spend one hour making the post, then another hour revising it for just things that you wish were like getting it to that 100% level of perfection.

  And so that's something that I definitely get caught up on just in the moment.

  And looking back, sometimes I look at posts of mine and I think, okay, that's definitely not 100%.

  I don't know what I was thinking, spending an extra hour trying to do it.

  And it really, so I think that's so good that you have accountability that way and just getting yourself to move on to the next step.

  Yeah, yeah.

  I'm sure you just get through, you get through a lot in your day.

  And so when you're structuring your day, are you a handwritten notes person?

  Do you use an app?

  Like, how are you keeping track of your checklists?

  Yes, so I don't write notes except for in client meetings, because I don't want to be typing on a computer.

  I want to be present in a meeting, so I use those.

  For my own checklist, I use Excel.

  I just programmed it so that when a task is complete, it color changes, it lights up the brain, the dopamine goes, right?

  Like, ah, task complete.

  No fancy software yet.

  I eventually want to evaluate a way to keep organized with client tasks, right?

  And this is something my mind's already thinking about.

  I was thinking about this last week of, hey, I'm gonna have so many different tasks that are reoccurring and due for certain clients.

  How do I keep organized?

  So it's not just a checklist.

  Either I or the client are getting automated reminders.

  And this is where I also worked at Smartsheet.

  So I'm kind of familiar with automated checklist with reminders coming through, but I'm, okay, what about Zapier?

  You know, this is like the entrepreneur brain going, how do I make this more efficient?

  So right now we're in Excel, but that's not where I expect to be.

  Eventually, I want to scale out into a software that automates.

  I'm always looking to make my life a little bit easier.

  So what about you?

  No, yeah, I love that answer, because I think that with all, because I do kind of a hybrid approach.

  I must say, I try to get away from the handwritten version of things.

  I really did.

  I was trying to go full on, and I'm a Google Sheets user, and I am so happy that for the majority of the things that are like monthly closed checklists for my clients or like a cleanup tracker, I have those in Excel.

  And I think that we as accountants, because we get such dopamine hits from being able to make a nice little schedule in Excel or Google Sheets, and having it be color coded, and just having conditional formatting, it's all, you know, it's all, it's just, it's very, and so we're lucky because we can just really make it and create something for ourselves.

  That really is a lot of what I see a lot of these, like project manager software is out there and client management software is they really, we can do something and make something that replicates it enough at this point.

  And so I do that for like client work.

  I always use it on Excel or Google Sheets.

  I have my recurring monthly checklist for my clients.

  And so I can just at least have, keep track of it digitally there.

  So I always have it.

  But I must say, in terms of my day to day, week to week sort of things, I am obsessed with my planner because I have these.

  I have to just nerd out for a second.

  I have these gel pens, but they're erasable color gel pens.

  And so that accounting, it has its color category, it's in the right place.

  That part of my brain is just so happy.

  And so I do write stuff out, but I don't do it in every day necessarily sort of thing.

  I just have my weekly checklist of between my CPA studying, between client work, anything business related, any sort of extra stuff that comes up, I just have it on this list.

  And so by Friday, I just try and get it all done.

  And it also helps me because I probably could be more efficient, but it really just gives me that flexibility if I need to.

  And if I need to work more one day, and then not so much the next day, then I can just kind of have that flexible and work with how my week looks there.

  So that part of my life is very handwritten, but I do try and just keep it all as much as digital as possible, but it's just, it's hard.

  Yeah.

  Those pens sound amazing.

  I feel like I need to see them in action.

  Oh my gosh.

  Literally, I'm so obsessed with them.

  Okay, I'll tell you what they are.

  And for anyone who is listening, that is just a neat freak and loves stuff like this.

  It is a erasable, the brand is Pilot, and the specific product is Friction Ball Clicker Erasable.

  And they come in so many different colors, and I could not recommend to them enough, and I'm obsessed.

  I feel like I'm gonna have to try some.

  I love good pens.

  I have a whole question in my desk.

  As much as I say I don't write, I love colored pens.

  Yeah.

  I just needed...

  And I think that maybe this goes back to...

  And this is something I've noticed with my CPA studying.

  If something works so in school, I always had a written planner, and I was trying to make these fancy software checklist work, and it just wasn't making me as happy as using my planner.

  And so life's too short.

  I just wanted to use my planner.

  You gotta use what works, right?

  Yes, exactly.

  Exactly.

  I feel like this gave me such a good insight into what is going on in your brain on a given week, and it really is just fun to see how a fellow accounting firm owner is really structuring everything because I think that on a day-to-day, our own schedules are so separate from everybody else in the world, and so it's so fun to see what's working for you, what's not, and just how your approach is for running your business.

  It sounds like you're very organized and have everything planned out, and I love that for you.

  I want to be that way.

  Yeah.

  And I'm sure it'll change, it'll grow as I grow or the business grows, but this is where we're at now.

  Yes, exactly.

  Exactly.

  So thank you, everybody, for listening to this episode of The Accounting Edit podcast.

  We will be back soon with another mini episode that will continue on our series of A Small Business Owner Made in Bichelle and just explaining more about payroll and financial reporting in our next few episodes.

  So thank you so much for listening, and we will talk to you again soon.

  See you next time.

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

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

  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.

  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.

Welcome to Episode 5 of The Accounting Edit podcast!

In this conversation, Leah and Aminder discuss their experiences with work-life balance, the challenges of preparing for the CPA exam, and the growth of their businesses. They share insights on the importance of organization, delegation, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance while navigating the demands of being small business owners. The discussion also touches on vacations and how personal experiences can influence professional life.

Takeaways

• Aminder emphasizes the importance of balancing client work and business strategy.

• Leah shares her experience of easing into the week without a strict schedule.

• Both speakers highlight the significance of taking breaks and enjoying nature.

• They discuss the challenges of preparing for the CPA exam and the need for structured study time.

• Aminder mentions the importance of planning and organization in managing client work.

• Leah reflects on the flexibility of being a business owner compared to corporate life.

• They talk about the necessity of delegation as businesses grow.

• Aminder shares her approach to using work blocks and checklists for productivity.

• Leah expresses the joy of using a planner and colored pens for organization.

• Both agree on the subjective nature of business management and the importance of finding what works for them.

We can’t wait to hear what you think!! 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