June 2019 Meeting Notes:Let's Chat!

ALL STAR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS, INC. (ASAP)

Meeting Minutes- Bullet Points

June 6, 2019 

·        President Kim Boaz opened the June meeting.

·        Upcoming meetings/events:

o   June 10 the Portland Woodard Group is hosting a virtual meeting with Jennifer Dymond. The topic is “Bountiful Money Coach” and will take place from noon to 1 PM.  Email Kim if interested in joining.

o   Alicia Katz Pollock is hosting a Zoom Virtual Happy Hour and Zapier Meeting. 

o   June 13 at 4:30 PM is a Liseo meeting.  An evite went out with Zoom.  You need a camera and audio for the meeting.  Liseo is an alternative to email and similar to Sharefile.  It is an app on your phone that, among other things, notifies you a message came in.

o   Next All Star Accounting Meeting is July 11.  The presenters are Phyllis Shelton and Jackie Van Anda with The Bookkeeping Collaborative, LLC and the topic is non-profits.

o   Next quarterly social – September 17 from 5 – 7 PM at the Beaverton food carts near city hall.  It is a covered area with 30 food carts.  Spouses and partners welcome.

·        Kim Boaz asked each person to introduce themselves and mention one thing we struggle with in our business.  Items mentioned included firing clients, work/life balance, consistency, employee hiring, timing of work, efficiency and receiving information timely from clients.

·        Work/Life Balance:  one suggestion was to place limits on what hours and days you reply to emails.  Communicate with your clients when you can complete their task.  Most businesses have a policy on responding to client emails, such as a 24-hour response.  Subcontractors sometimes work different days and hours than others on the team, creating gaps in the workflow that can cause timing issues on delivering the end product.

·        Software/apps usage:  different clients have different comfort levels with software and apps.  Should you invest the time to learn them?  Renee’s business has procedures when they use apps for clients.  Most business problems are the result of not following the procedures.  Project management software is helpful for organization and saving emails.  We need to understand our desire for change versus stability.  When taking on a client with a software that is new to us, we often charge less per hour as we learn the software and invest significant time in the process. 

·        Words of wisdom:  being okay to fail and not being too hard on ourselves.  Charge what you are worth.  Raise prices when necessary.