Jody Grunden, Author at CPA Trendlines

It’s OK When Some Employees Quit

Everyone isn’t the right fit.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

There’s a common misnomer when it comes to retention and keeping people on the team. Retention doesn’t mean keeping every single person on your team forever.

MORE: Staffing: 10 Key Interview Questions | Why Remote Workers Need Retreats | Better Understanding = Better Communication | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients
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Not only do you want to get the right people on the bus, but you also want to get those people into the right seats. We want Summit CPA to be a great place to work, and we want great people to be working here. However, we realize it may not be the right place for every person.
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CHECKLIST

Staffing: 10 Key Interview Questions

To uncover potential fast and early.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Before our firm became a distributed company with a remote workforce, our hiring was naturally limited to a small geographical location – Fort Wayne, Indiana.

MORE: Why Remote Workers Need Retreats | Take the Pain Out of Online Meetings | Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter | Be More Efficient with Tech Stacks | Not All Employees Will Work Out
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When we really started to grow, we knew we needed to bring in more senior-level accountants to be able to handle the clients we were bringing in at such a rapid pace.
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MANAGEMENT

Why Remote Workers Need Retreats

Invest in face-to-face interaction.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

With a brick-and-mortar company, there are a number of standard costs that you would expect to have, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, building repairs, furniture, technology, etc. The total amount of these kinds of costs typically falls in the range of 3-4 percent of the company’s annualized revenue. That amount can be pretty significant for a lot of companies.

MORE: Take the Pain Out of Online Meetings | Leaders Need Time to Lead | Better Understanding = Better Communication | Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter | When Value Billing Eliminates Guesswork | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients | Be More Efficient with Tech Stacks
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Some business owners may think they can save the company all of that money by going remote, but I personally believe that’s a terrible idea. While it’s true that a distributed company doesn’t have the costs that come with having a physical space, the very nature of a remote work environment results in a completely different and unique set of needs that should be considered in the company’s annual budget.
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FEATURED

Take the Pain Out of Online Meetings

Weekly updates will keep you on track.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

If you’re the type of person who cringes at the thought of “another meeting,” I’m here to tell you, you’ve got to get over it. When you work with and for your clients remotely, you simply have to embrace meetings.

MORE: Try an Accountability Chart Instead | Give Your Leadership Team Time to Lead | Hate Billing? Use a Different Method | Use Bots to Your Advantage | How to Attract Clients Like a Magnet | 6 Steps for Sales and Conversion | The Right Way to Onboard New Clients
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Not only do meetings become the foundation of every relationship within your company, but they are the stimulus for where the work gets done.

FEATURED

You Have the Right People, But Are They in the Right Seats?

Try an accountability chart.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

MORE: Leaders Need Time to Lead | Better Understanding = Better Communication | Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter | When Value Billing Eliminates Guesswork | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients | Be More Efficient with Tech Stacks | Put Bots to Work for You | Not All Employees Want the Same Perks
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”
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FEATURED

Leaders Need Time to Lead

Once you have the right people, figure out where to go.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

As our team was growing and we reached over 30 team members, we recognized the need to establish a formal leadership team. When we were smaller, it worked fine for Adam and me to be the primary decision makers, but as our client base and workload grew, we realized we would become a bottleneck and slow things down.

MORE: Better Understanding = Better Communication | Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter | When Value Billing Eliminates Guesswork | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients | Be More Efficient with Tech Stacks | Put Bots to Work for You | Not All Employees Want the Same Perks | Not All Employees Will Work Out | Uncover Potential in 10 Interview Questions | What Running a Virtual CPA Firm Really Costs | Learning to Love Video Calls
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

At that point, we made a conscious effort to transition our daily tasks and client responsibilities to other team members so we could remove ourselves from the weeds and focus on the higher-level view of the company.
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FEATURED

Better Understanding = Better Communication

DiSC helps remote team work together effectively.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

Working in a remote environment can be great, and it can also have its challenges. Communication is one of the biggest hurdles distributed companies have to overcome. To tackle this issue head on, Summit CPA has implemented many initiatives.

MORE: Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter | When Value Billing Eliminates Guesswork | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients | Be More Efficient with Tech Stacks | Put Bots to Work for You | Not All Employees Want the Same Perks | Not All Employees Will Work Out | Uncover Potential in 10 Interview Questions | What Running a Virtual CPA Firm Really Costs | Learning to Love Video Calls
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

One of our favorites is the DiSC profiles. Let me start off by telling you a little bit of the background on the DiSC profiles.
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FEATURED

Why Your Firm’s Core Values Matter

You have to know your culture to know whether potential hires will fit.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

A company’s core values are the cornerstone of its culture, and people are the biggest asset a company can have.

MORE: When Value Billing Eliminates Guesswork | Make Tech Your Ally in Protecting Clients | Not All Employees Want the Same Perks | What Running a Virtual CPA Firm Really Costs | Give Your Leadership Team Time to Lead | Hate Billing? Use a Different Method
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Defining your core values and hiring the right people is essential for the success of your business.
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Jody Grunden

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

Jody Grunden is CEO & Co-Founder of Summit CPA Group—perhaps the first virtual CFO firm and the largest distributed-model accounting firm in the nation.

He is the author of Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud.

Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud, is available exclusively from CPA Trendlines here.

He started Summit CPA Group in 2002, bringing more than 23 years of public and corporate accounting leadership, tax expertise, and executive management experience to his role with the company. Grunden is a member of the Forbes Finance Council, American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA), and the Indiana CPA Society.

Click here for more by Jody Grunden

Direction and Strategy Grunden oversees the corporate direction and strategy of Summit CPA Group, focusing on leadership, innovation, and marketing. Jody takes great pride in helping business owners strive in all economic conditions. He says, "A well-run company will excel in both a good and bad economy.” Since starting the Summit CPA Group, Grunden has worked with clients and partners to share Summit CPA Group’s strategy and mission. Unlike many others in the business of accounting who focus on historic financial statements and tax returns, Summit CPA Group operates under the profit-focused model, using dynamic forecasting models and key performance indicators with their clients to help them transcend simply “being in the black” and to focus on longer-term financial health and wealth.

Career History Before joining Summit CPA Group Grunden served as a tax professional at the regional accounting firms Crowe, formerly Crowe Chizek and Company, and BKD formerly Geo S. Olive, where his focus was on small business taxation. Jody then worked as the tax manager Rea Magnet Wire Company, Inc-- a $250 million international, multi-state, manufacturing company --where he stood before the Taxation and Revenue Department of the State of New Mexico and won an appeal for a $300,000 investment credit that was earlier denied by the department. The appeal was a published decision.

Mission Summit CPA Group’s mission is to change the way people think about accounting. To achieve this, Jody regularly speaks and leads discussions with groups of creative service professionals including web development, design, marketing firms, and branding agencies. Jody helps his clients apply key metrics to their business. There are thousands of financial metrics that are important to the health of a business. Many times as an owner it can be overwhelming. Jody identifies the top four metrics—Money in the Bank, Production, Net Income, and Pipeline—and shows his customers how to use them in guiding their business. When he’s not meeting with clients or team members, he’s a nice guy who likes hockey, golf, and his family. Jody graduated from Indiana University and is writing his latest book. If you’d like to learn more about Jody, hear him speak, or understand how Summit CPA can change the way you think about accounting, contact Jody today:

Follow Jody Grunden on Twitter: @jgrunden
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